The Quiet-Stall Survival Strategy

Pronounced physically fit and free from any signs of emotional strain after a long-delayed medical checkup, Richard Nixon quickened the tempo of his Watergate survival strategy with a burst of public appearances. At the same time he curtly cut off cooperation with Special Watergate Prosecutor Leon Jaworski, once more reneging on his previous claims that he wanted "all the facts" about the scandal exposed.

The President's dual strategy of stonewalling investigators while diverting attention from Watergate could not, however, obscure two imminent and immensely significant developments:

>The House Judiciary Committee is about to define what it considers to be "impeachable offenses." Almost certainly, its definitions will be broad and will not require evidence of criminal activity by Nixon. As the first step, the committee's Chief Counsel John M. Doar and Minority Counsel Albert Jenner this week will submit a report outlining just what kinds of acts the committee's staff of legal specialists deem to be impeachable. The report is expected to say that betrayals of public trust and gross neglect of official duties fall into the category of the "high crimes and misdemeanors" that are cited in the Constitution as a basis for impeachment (see TIME ESSAY, page 23). The committee will then debate the proposal, possibly along partisan lines.

>Detailed indictments will be issued by one or more of the three Watergate grand juries, almost certainly within a week, charging some of Nixon's closest former aides with illegal acts. Among those likely to be indicted are men on whose testimony the President's own professions of Watergate innocence heavily rest. The first indictments are expected to involve the Watergate wiretapping and its coverup.

Prosecutor Jaworski last week reported the President's intransigence on Watergate evidence to the Senate Judiciary Committee but pledged that failure to get the evidence now will not hold up indictments. The committee will meet this week and may discuss what action, if any, it should take on the Jaworski letter. The committee can do little more than join his protest. It had supported the confirmation of Attorney General William Saxbe only after extracting promises from both the White House and Saxbe that no restrictions would be placed upon Jaworski's pursuit of evidence. The President clearly has now defaulted on that promise.

In his letter to Mississippi Senator James O. Eastland, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Jaworski complained that his request for 27 tapes of specific presidential meetings and telephone calls had been denied by Nixon even though "there was no indication that any requested recording is either irrelevant to our inquiries or subject to some particularized (presidential) privilege." While grand juries can proceed without these tapes, Jaworski wrote, "the material is important to a complete and thorough investigation and may contain evidence necessary for any future trials." Jaworski reported that he had promised Nixon's chief Watergate counsel, James St. Clair, that these unfulfilled requests completed his list of documents wanted in his pretrial investigation, but he was nevertheless rebuffed by the White House.

Unless Nixon reverses himself, the impasse apparently can be broken only by court order. Jaworski plans to proceed with the Watergate cover-up indictments, then subpoena the Nixon tapes before the trials begin. If Nixon ignores the subpoenas or challenges them in court, another legal battle would follow--a fight similar to two that former Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox had won before Nixon fired him. Some of the White House evidence sought by Jaworski also relates to Nixon's former team of secret investigators ("the plumbers") and his dealings with milk producers, who contributed large sums to his re-election campaign. Jaworski is expected to subpoena this evidence before seeking indictments in those fields.

Missing Papers. In his letter Jaworski hinted at another problem in gaining White House evidence. He noted that "we have reason to believe that there are additional documents somewhere in the White House files"--papers that Nixon's attorneys claim never existed. TIME has learned that some Watergate witnesses have described such documents and that they have disappeared from a vault in the Executive Office Building where they were stored.

Believed to be missing are official White House memos--some related to activities of the plumbers--written by former Presidential Aides John Ehrlichman, H.R. Haldeman and Charles Colson. The vault in which the files were kept is guarded by Secret Service agents, but they do not search the White House aides and lawyers as they leave the vault after inspecting documents.

The still-gathering clouds of Watergate seemed to be never too far from the President's mind even as he plunged into a round of activities. He astonished a small crowd assembled at the Lincoln Memorial to commemorate Lincoln's 165th birthday by appearing there without notice to speak (see The Presidency/Hugh Sidey, page 14).

The President was in a lively mood at a party celebrating the 90th birthday of Alice Roosevelt Longworth. When his wife Pat gave the tart-tongued daughter of Theodore Roosevelt two jars of Iranian caviar, Nixon indiscreetly confided that it was a gift "from the Shah to Pat and from Pat to you." Advised by the President to "eat it with a spoon," the irrepressible Mrs. Longworth replied: "I'll wallow in it"--an allusion to Nixon's celebrated comment: "Let others wallow in Watergate." Asked later about the party, Nixon's Watergate resentments surfaced in an attack on the press.

"Mrs. Longworth has kept young by not being obsessed by the Washington scene," he said. "You know, if she spent all her time reading the Washington Post she would have been dead by now."

The Post, Nixon complained, rarely writes about the "great issues that will affect the future of the world in a responsible way." Mrs. Longworth, in fact, reads the Post every day.

No Strain. Next day, Nixon was driven to Bethesda National Naval Medical Center for a 2 1/2-hour physical examination, after which his doctor, Walter Tkach, declared that the President was in "excellent" condition. All of his tests showed results "within normal limits" and "there was no evidence whatsoever of any emotional strain."

Tkach said Nixon "never overeats" and "he never overdrinks." He exercises by jogging in place some 400 steps daily but could use "more sunshine."

As if on his physician's cue, Nixon flew off to Florida in Air Force One--his first trip in the big 707 since the energy crisis became acute. On a sunny afternoon in Miami, he helped dedicate a health-care center at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital. The carefully watched audience (at least 30 security men could be counted on nearby rooftops) of 4,000 was preponderantly friendly, although a battle of signs between critics and partisans broke out. Some banners proclaimed: KEEP NIXON. HANG IN THERE.

At the rear of the crowd, protesters carried signs that read: IMPEACH AND IMPRISON. EXORCISE NIXON. Throughout Nixon's speech, hecklers were highly vocal. When he vowed that "no American will ever be denied health care because of lack of ability to pay," someone shouted: "Pay your taxes."

Later, apparently concerned about Jaworski's complaint, the White House tried to blur the fact that the President and the Special Prosecutor were on a collision course over Watergate evidence.

Presidential Counsel St. Clair issued a statement arguing that to give more materials to Jaworski would result in "delaying grand jury deliberations many months." St. Clair did not explain how additional evidence would slow, rather than speed indictments. The statement did, however, fit the current presidential defense strategy, which is to push publicly for a fast end to the many Watergate investigations, while acting privately to stall and delay any quick resolution of Nixon's own fate. The President's hope apparently is that a Watergate-weary public will lose all interest in the sorry affair as the matter drags on--and will neither notice, nor care, who is prolonging the proceedings.

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