Word: frosts
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Throughout Frost's Watergate assault, the old Nixon mannerisms inject an uneasy déja vu. The most discomforting is his reflexive, contrived smile, flashed?when he is under harsh attack. Sometimes his face freezes impassively, his eyelids fluttering. He stutters a bit under stress, and his syntax breaks down. At certain moments his lips shut tight, his mouth seems to shrink...
...Frost moves ahead to the renowned tape of March 21, 1973, in which Nixon discusses with Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and John Dean the demands by the convicted Hunt for cash so the burglars could meet legal fees and support their families. If not satisfied, Hunt threatened, he would tell all of "the seamy things" he had done for the White House. As he always has, despite the contrary evidence, Nixon now tells Frost that "March 21 was the date in which the full import, the full impact of the cover-up came...
...Frost's staff has uncovered two other tapes of conversations in the White House between Nixon and Colson. TIME has secured full transcripts of both tapes, dated Feb. 13 and 14, 1973. On the Feb. 14 tape, Nixon says: "The cover-up is, is the main ingredient... That's where we gotta cut our losses. My losses are to be cut. The President's losses got to be cut on the cover-up deal...
...Frost's citing of this tape stuns Nixon, who seems hardly to believe he said such things. Frost then starts to unreel a bit of the Feb. 13 tape. Nixon interrupts, asking apprehensively: "It hasn't been published yet, you say?" Replies Frost: "No, I think it's available to anybody who consults the records." A smile breaks onto Nixon's face, but vanishes suddenly. "Oh, I just wondered if we'd seen it," he says...
Moments later, Frost has Nixon in full retreat in a sharp exchange over Frost's repeated assertion that the tapes do, indeed, show Nixon knew a cover-up was under way more than a month before he has always claimed he learned of it. This round ends tartly. "You could state your conclusion and I've stated my view." Nixon says. "So now we go on to the rest...