How to Keep a Secret

In the complex world of Washington press relations, politicians have three unofficial ways of talking to newsmen. Statements are classified as "off the record" (nothing may be reported), "not for attribution" (everything may be reported and the source generally described but not named) and "for background only" (no source may be referred to at all).

Last week in a "not-for-attribution" speech before a Washington meeting of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Vice President Richard M. Nixon fell afoul of these journalistic niceties. As soon as he finished his speech, reporters crowded around, asked Nixon if they could pin his words on a "high Government official." Nixon agreed, and newspapers all over the U.S. played up two Page One news stories, both from a "high Administration official." One story reported that he said the U.S. may throw troops into Indo-China if the French pull out, while the other quoted the anonymous official's opinion that Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer "is a loyal American" and should not be barred from Government work if he is not a security risk (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS).

So far as newspaper readers could tell, the stories came from two different sources. But even newspaper editors who were not at the lunch knew the truth. In a rare "Confidential note to editors--not for publication," the Associated Press teletyped its clients that the "high Administration official ... is Vice President Nixon." The secret was not kept for long. The London Times Washington Correspondent John Miller saw the stories quoting a "high Administration official" and decided that Nixon was the only man in Washington who both fitted the description and had made a "not-for-attribution" speech that day. Since he was not at the lunch and thus did not feel bound to honor the rule under which Nixon spoke, Correspondent Miller cabled the London Times a story that virtually pinned down the source. Michigan's Republican Congressman Clare Hoffman also helped break the ban by telling the Niles (Mich.) Daily Star that Nixon was the source. After that every story mentioned Nixon by name.

Some newsmen viewed Nixon's statement on Indo-China as a "trial balloon," but others persuasively pointed out that he made the statements in reply to a question put to him by one of the editors, rather than in his prepared speech. They also argued that if it actually was a "trial balloon," it was floated in such a clumsy fashion that Nixon's cautious statement was confused in the uproar over who made it. Whatever Nixon's reasons, he successfully proved that it is impossible to speak before an audience of 600 and keep the speech either "not for attribution" or "off the record."

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