30 Years Later, Watergate Memories Endure (Helen Thomas Alert)

WASHINGTON -- It happened 30 years ago, but the memory of the Watergate scandal lives on.

It all began on the night of June 17, 1972, when President Richard Nixon's Republican operatives broke into the Democratic national headquarters at the Watergate complex.

Their action led to one of the worst scandals in the American presidency, with Nixon lying and trying to use the FBI and CIA in his elaborate cover-up. It also led to his forced resignation, the first in U.S. history, and it changed forever the way the public views the White House and government generally.

It was a defining moment, a wake-up call, for journalists. Never again would they take a president's word at face value.

As a reporter at the White House, I am well aware that the overall trust in government that was largely evident in the pre-Watergate days has not been restored. There is much more skepticism today, not only from journalists but also from the American people, who still desperately want to believe in their leaders. That is the sad legacy of the Watergate scandal.

In 1977, three years after he was pardoned, Nixon gave a series of interviews to British broadcast journalist David Frost. They contained many revelations and many insights into the workings of Nixon's mind during the Watergate crisis.

Now Frost is back with highlights of the famous interviews and some never-before-seen outtakes -- scenes from the cutting-room floor. The footage will begin airing Monday on the Discovery Civilization Channel in its new series called "In Their Own Words: Nixon."

At a reception here Thursday night previewing the program, Frost recalled some of small talk that Nixon, not known for his ease and comfort in such situations, tried to make before the formal interviews 25 years ago.

As an example of Nixon's awkwardness, Frost said Nixon asked him if he was being paid well. When Frost assured him he was, Nixon, apparently referring to some tax problems he was having, cautioned: "Well, make sure you pay your taxes."

During their chat, Frost said he brought up an article in that day's paper about then Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, and Nixon said: "Oh, I wouldn't want to be a Russian leader. They never know when they are being taped." It was, of course, Nixon's taped conversations in the Oval Office that revealed his direct role in the cover-up.

Frost recalled that he introduced Nixon to his girlfriend and told him that she lived in Monte Carlo. "Marry that girl; she lives tax-free," Nixon said.

Frost noted that Nixon, who he said was trying to be "one of the boys" with me, asked at one point, "Did you do any fornicating this weekend?" Frost was surprised by Nixon's use of that word and politely declined to discuss his private life.

He described Nixon as a "sad man who wanted to be great and yet was destined never to be great."

The interviews and outtakes are powerful in bringing back the high drama as well as the nation's agony during that era.

In an opening scene, Nixon's press secretary, Ronald Ziegler, calls the break-in at the Democratic National Committee "a third-rate burglary."

But the burglary led the press and congressional investigators to uncover all sorts of illicit activities by the Nixon aides, including wiretapping, letter-opening and intimidation.

In the interviews Frost asked Nixon to go further than his admission of making "mistakes." The former president replied that he did not feel "I had consciously engaged in" or approved of the illegal activities. "I made mistakes, horrendous mistakes that were not worthy of a president," Nixon said. But he added that when he resigned, "people didn't think it was enough to admit mistakes . . . The people wanted more. They wanted me to get down and grovel on the floor. No, never. I don't believe I should."

Yet he added, "I don't go with the idea that what brought me down was a coup or a conspiracy. I brought myself down."

As for the journalists who led the charge in the Watergate investigation, Nixon acknowledged, "They stuck it in, and I guess if I had been in that position, I would have done the same thing."

In the 28 hours of interviews, Frost elicited Nixon's admission that he had "let the people down" and that it was a burden he would carry all his life.

As for the tapes of his Oval Office conversations, Nixon said he never thought they would "come out." He added if he had thought the tapes would reveal criminal behavior, "I sure as the dickens would have destroyed them."

Unanswered questions about the scandal remain to this day. First, no one has ever fully explained the reason for the break-in. Despite growing anxiety about the Vietnam War, Nixon's standing in 1972 showed he could easily have trounced his Democratic rival, George McGovern. So the Republicans didn't need the illegal activities.

Another question: Who is Deep Throat, the mysterious source who confirmed leads that the Washington Post's Bob Woodward developed? Woodward has said many times that only when the source dies will his name be revealed.

Certainly, there is no joy in watching a president fall from grace. I have always felt that Nixon was a tragic figure, someone who would fit into a Shakespearean or Greek tragedy even though he did not have the nobility that the epic figures had.

Nixon, because of his own excesses and his own demons of hatred, destroyed himself. His dark side always prevailed.

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