An Illustrious Kaffeeklatsch

By HUGH SIDNEY

There was the comfortably familiar rattle of cups and saucers and the gurgle of hot coffee in Senate Minority Leader Howard Baker's office. Betty Ford nibbled a doughnut and declared it "delicious." Lynda Bird Johnson Robb told Richard Nixon she missed seeing his daughter Julie. "Henry, are you as mean as ever?" Nixon asked his former Secretary of State. "Yes," replied Kissinger, who had arrived with Nelson Rockefeller. "But I don't have as much opportunity as before."

Ford and Nixon compared golf games, Kissinger and Nixon compared books. Jimmy Carter asked Nixon when he had arrived in town and how long he planned to stay. Lady Bird Johnson was especially sympathetic when she saw Nixon, and held his hand warmly. So did Majority Leader Robert Byrd. Almost with eagerness, Carter, Ford and Nixon followed Baker into an anteroom for a historic picture of the three. In a few minutes it was time for these people to take their places beneath the Capitol dome to honor Hubert Humphrey.

Not since Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy came together in Bonham, Texas, at the funeral of Sam Rayburn in 1961 has such a gathering occurred. The love of Hubert Humphrey was the force. Howard Baker was the arranger. When he learned that Nixon and Ford planned to attend the Humphrey services, Baker invited both to gather in his office. Then he called Rocky and urged him to join them. Kissinger was going to be with the former Vice President, so he was included. Lady Bird Johnson was attending the service, so she too was invited. She asked to bring her daughter and son-in-law, Charles Robb, the new Lieutenant Governor of Virginia. With such an expected assemblage, Baker sent word to the White House that President Carter was welcome. He and Rosalynn accepted.

What would Nixon be like, what would he act like? Almost everyone wondered. Nixon was hesitant about being there at all. Sunday morning a Nixon aide telephoned Baker's office and said that if it was awkward, Nixon would not go to the minority leader's office for coffee. He would instead go straight to the Capitol entrance at the last second so that he would not encounter anyone important. Forget it, Nixon's aide was told. Nixon was welcome.

Rockefeller, Kissinger and their wives arrived first. Then came Jerry and Betty Ford. Nixon was next, with his daughter Tricia. For a fleeting second there was tension. Nixon looked unsure, older than the group remembered him. He did not seem to be the man of impeccable tailoring they recalled. His trousers were even a shade too short. Then Ford and Kissinger went up to Nixon to shake hands. The unease vanished, talk began.

Rockefeller was the person who first noted the great ironies in the sunlit room, how history has been shaped by these people, how often their fates have been determined by the thinnest chance and circumstance. He looked across the room and spoke of the strange tides that had swept them all along, and now had brought them together again. Indeed, the sequence of power, the flow of events, fascinated everyone. Mrs. Johnson was there because of John Kennedy's assassination, Nixon because Lyndon Johnson had been President, Ford because of Nixon, Rockefeller because of Ford. And maybe Carter was in the room because Ford had not kept Rockefeller as his vice-presidential candidate. Of course, they were all there to honor a man who, many felt, should have been President before any of those others.

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