NIXON AND WALTERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404580018-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 19, 2010
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: May 9, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/19: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404580018-3
ON PAG 3_
Nixon an
zlt~
opined, "I think that can and should
be avoided."
Nixon "never" felt he might be-
come emotionally unhinged during
Watergate, he said, because "that's
just part of my makeup," which is
only funny if you think about it. And
on the topic of why he and wife Pat
don't go to cocktail parties anymore,
Nixon said,. "having done the top,
we don't want to do any other." .
When Walters got into the coldness
and remoteness'that supposedly mark
Nixon's personality, his first response
was to ask her, "Why are you inter-
viewing me, then?" Nixon seemed
uncomfortable with the personal
questions Walters asked during-the
middle third of the interview, so final-
ly she reached ' down under her chair
and took out a pack of foreign-policy
questions to ask Nixon. He appeared
to love being asked foreign-policy
questions.
Indeed, the first part of the inter-
view- was a generous plug for "The.
Real. War," Nixon's new book on_.for-
eign.policy. Walters quoted from it
more than once. But she also asked
early in the program about Water-
gate and said, "Watergate, Mr. Nix-
on, was you. Don't you feel responsi-
ble?"
Nixon said' he thought that "the
country is coming out of what I call
the Watergate syndrome" and sai
there h a been "overreaction" o
Aatergate in the watering down o
the CIA and in the American military.!
`Oui.-Show ::Tapes, --
Russia and - Old . Pole
By Tom Shales
Not-a cobra and, a.- mongoose, no. no
no. More like, a butterfly and an ig-
uana. .Barbara Walters fluttered and
jabbered and punched the night air
and Richard M. Nixon sat there Iook
ingr-contemplative, unflappable ..and
older .than-the last time we saw him;
And in the-closing minute of ABC's
live interview- with Nixon on, "20/20"
last night, . the; former- president. ad-
mitted that if' he had it to. do all over
again.-and, he won't-he .would burn.
the, Watergate tapes -that. brought
down his administration six years ago,,
"They were- private conversations,;,
subject ta misinterpretation,` as we_
have '"keen,"'said Nixon after;-Walters,
made the .tape-burning question , the.
last-one to be. popped.
Nixon's upper lip began- to perspire
aboutl8 minutes into the program, and
there were the old tricks and Nixonian
phrases like "Now let's understand one_-
thing:'`and. "Let ,me? say this." But he,.
looked.a little less scrappy and seemed'.`
a little-lessImocking than usual. It was
a scaled-down, mellowed-out Nixon who
at one- point paraphrased"Douglas'Mac-
Arthui=by telling Walters, 'old politi
clans-Itsually. die, but_they.never fade
away:' -
Stilt,, it was a terrific hour of - live,
TV, -brightened, when.: Walters :. and.-,
Nixon-occasionally stopped for a pro-
cedura tangle,_or ii- volley of asides.
THE WASHINGTON POST
9 May 1980
"Yes, go ahead, it's your show," said
Nixon during the interview, as if to dis-
pel advance reports that Nixon aides
tried to control the content of the
program.
"Our show," corrected Walters. "You
give the answers." Later Nixon re-
peated the "it's your snow" assurance
after implying he would 'not answer
political questions and told Walters,
"You' can ask-political- questions if
you want."
A small tussle evolved out ofWal-
ters quoting Henry Kissinger's assess-
ment; of Nixon as cold and remote.
Nixon's reply was an amusingly cold
and remote, "I like Henry very
much. - Then he said to Walters
"Why don't we get serious?"
"We have a different idea of,what
serious is," countered Walters.
"Oh, I don't object to the ques-
tions," Nixon rushed to reassure her.
The exchange had something of the
flavor of a spat in the breakfast nook.
Nixon tried his old gambit of dis-
arming interrogators by co-opting
them. He recalled to Walters how
she'd made herself so omnipresent on
Nixon's trip ' to China that some
people thought she was part of the
group. Barbara said quickly that this
was' the only one of Nixon's trips she'
went on. Then Nixon, sensing her re-
sentment, allowed as how "it was de-
lightful" having her along.
T`Other. remarks were Nixonian in a
rather classic sense. On the delicate
balance between detente and contain-
ment of the Russians during his ad-
ministration, Nixon declared, "Because
we stood up to them, we vvere able to
sit down with them."
Without oil from the Mideast, Nixon
said, the United States would be
plunged into a greater depression than
that of the '30s and would soon fall
under'the control of a right-wing or
left-wing dictatorship, -"and,"-. Nixon
beginning of. the program to swear,
though not under.oath, that "Mr.- Nix-'
on is not being paid for this interview,
and he has no control over the ques-
tions." Curiously enough, the last
question Walters asked, about.. the
burning of the tapes, was the very
question that "60 Minutes" producer
Don Hewitt said Nixon's people used
as an example of questions not to ask
when they proposed that Nixon. be
interviewed on Hewitt's show. Hewitt
turned them down flat.
Was Nixon sorry he. didn't bum the
tapes?. "I probably should have," he
said. "I shouldn't have even installed {
them." That was that, and the inter-
view was over. Walters had been hyper-
active, solicitous, coaxing, a bit jittery,
and quite wonderful. Nixon had-been
Nixon had been Nixon-.It was all
anyone could. ask.. :: . ~.~.
t.',- 1 ,7X7'1:
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/19: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404580018-3