WALTER SCOTT'S

Personality Parade

Want the facts? Opinion? Truth? Write Walter Scott, 140 N. Hamilton Dr., Beverly Hills, Calif. 90210, or phone (213) 651-3375. Full name will be used unless otherwise requested. Volume of mail makes personal replies impossible.

Warner Brothers

**Q.** Is Bob Hope's wife, Dolores, of Hispanic, Jewish, British or Italian extraction? I cannot tell from her maiden name, which was Reade. Would you by chance also know her age? She looks simply terrific.—Jo Anne Johnson, Bay City, Tex.

**A.** The maiden name of Dolores Hope, 77, is Dolores Kelly DiFina. She is of Italian-Irish extraction. Dolores Reade is the name she was using as a singer-dancer when she met Hope in 1933.

Hammerstein Bros.

Dolores and Bob Hope, who began dating back in 1933

**Q.** How much do Czech tennis stars like Lendl, Mandlíková, Sukova and Mecír have to kick back to the Czech Tennis Association from their prize-winnings?—Duane Hill, Wickenburg, Ariz.

**A.** Latest rules of the Czech Tennis Association reportedly require all Czech professional tennis players under 21 to donate 50% of their prize money to the association. After they reach age 21, they must contribute 20% of their prize money.

Little ABC-TV

**Q.** Some quick data, please, on Linda Ellerbee of TV's "Our World." Age? How many marriages? How many children? Where does she live in Texas?—Mack Williamson, Freeport, Tex.

**A.** Ellerbee, 42, is four times married, the mother of Vanessa, 17, and Josh, 16. Born in Bryan, Tex., she currently resides in New York City.

TV's Linda Ellerbee

**Q.** Is it true that there is bad blood between the Reagans and the Jimmy Carters and that the Reagans have not invited the Carters to a single White House social function or state dinner since Reagan took office?—M.F., Pendley Hills, Ga.

**A.** There surely was bad blood between Reagan and Carter, but they may have buried the hatchet on Oct. 1, when Reagan paid tribute to his predecessor in a complimentary speech at the opening of the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta. It was the first face-to-face meeting of the two since October 1981, when Carter and former Presidents Nixon and Ford all met in the White House, where Reagan asked them to represent him at the funeral of Anwar Sadat, assassinated president of Egypt. As of this writing, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter have not attended together any social or state function at the Reagan White House.

**Q.** Conspicuous by its absence from the obituaries on the producer Hal Wallis is the name Lizabeth Scott. Wasn't Scott, who comes from here, married to Wallis?—F.H., Scranton, Pa.

**A.** Hal Wallis—who produced such outstanding films as "Casablanca," with Humphrey Bogart, "Little Caesar," with Edward G. Robinson, and "True Grit," with John Wayne—was married to the late comedienne Louise Fazenda and to the actress Martha Hyer, his widow. Wallis never married Lizabeth Scott, though he and the actress were good and close friends for a considerable time.

UPH Beutman

Pictorial Parade

The late Hal Wallis and Lizabeth Scott: Just friends

Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons as priests in The Mission

**Q.** What is Robert De Niro up to these days? He has never, to my mind, equaled his marvelous performances in "The Godfather II," "The Deer Hunter" and "Raging Bull." Incidentally, is his wife, Diahne Abbott, black? Do they have children? De Niro has been mentioned in connection with a black singer, Helena Springs. Do they have children?—L.L., Florence, S.C.

**A.** Robert De Niro, 43, is working in "The Untouchables," as Al Capone. He currently can be seen in "The Mission," a film in which he plays a slave-trader who becomes a Jesuit priest in search of justice in 18th-century South America. Diahne Abbott is black and the mother of their son, Raphael, 10. In 1982, there were press reports that De Niro had fathered a girl, Nina, by Helena Springs, a former backup vocalist for Bob Dylan. Springs reportedly has acknowledged her friendship with De Niro but denied he is Nina's father.

**Q.** What, in your opinion, was the real reason Bernard Kalb resigned as chief press spokesman for the State Department under George Shultz?—Dan Siegel, Miami Beach, Fla.

**A.** Bernard Kalb, 64, resigned because he is a man of integrity, rectitude and principle who disagreed with the administration's reported disinformation policy (what the Soviets call dezinformatsiya) against Libya's Col. Muammar Qaddafi. Another possible reason is that Secretary of State Shultz, who obviously knew of the policy, did not tell Kalb of its existence or let him in on the play—a sin of omission that Kalb realized would lower his credibility with the media.

©WALTER SCOTT 1986

PARADE®

THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPER MAGAZINE

NOVEMBER 30, 1986

Address editorial contributions to: Articles, Parade, 750 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017. Although reasonable care will be taken, Parade is not responsible for unsolicited material.

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© 1986, Parade Publications, Inc., 750 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part of any article without permission is prohibited. "PARADE" is a registered trademark of Parade Publications, Inc., "Walter Scott's Personality Parade," 'Personality Parade," 'Keeping Up With Youth," 'My Favorite Jokes' and 'Intelligence Report' are trademarks of Lloyd Shearer."

PAGE 2 • NOVEMBER 30, 1986 • PARADE MAGAZINE

# Should Richard Nixon's Papers Be Public?

TOMORROW, AFTER 12 years of controversy, the Archivist of the United States intends to permit the public to see some of Richard Nixon's Presidential papers. While the contents of these selected documents may not make blockbuster news, this is the first real crack in Mr. Nixon's stone wall of resistance to public access. Still to come are millions of pages relating to the ex-President's use of his executive power and the thousands of hours of tape recordings of his conversations in his offices with his staff and visitors. Then, for the first time, historians, the press and the man on the street will have a chance to read and hear what was really going on in Richard Nixon's White House from 1969 to 1974.

Such unrestricted public access to his documents is not at all what Richard Nixon had in mind.

Fifteen years ago—during a long, rambling conversation about his need for a new will—Richard Nixon explained to me how he intended to dispose of the many boxes of letters, memoranda and other documents he'd accumulated in 25 years of public life as a Congressman, Senator, Vice President and as 37th President of the United States. He was deliberating upon what his last will and testament should say. He considered leaving all his papers as his legacy to his two daughters, or in trust for their children, or perhaps to the Presidential library to be established on a hill overlooking his home in San Clemente, Calif. “Of course, no one will see all of it,” he said. “When I retire, I’m going to spend my evenings by the fireplace going through those boxes. There are things in there that ought to be burned. No one needs to see those things.” But, as a result of Watergate, the resigned Presi-

Tipperires-Sipos Special Features

Left: Richard Nixon in 1986.
Below: John Ehrlichman in the listening room at the National Archives.

Eddie Adams

dent has lost control of his huge archive.

The volume of the Nixon collection is greater than that of any other former President. There are 20,000 boxes of Nixon's Presidential papers, containing about 40 million sheets of paper. Perhaps the former President is slightly grateful that he has been relieved of the need to spend his evenings burning papers. He should be grateful. If Mr. Nixon looked at two pieces of paper a minute for four hours every evening of the week, he would need about 20 years to get through it all. And after that, he'd still have about 4000 hours of White House tapes to listen to—another 20 years of listening.

Instead, all that reading and listening is being done by a large staff of trained archivists and historians who work for the Archivist of the United States in a big brick building in an obscure area of the warehouse district of Alexandria, Va. There they are surrounded by boxes of papers, racks of film and videotape and, of course, the thousands of boxes of audio tape that comprise the famous— and fatal—Nixon White House Tapes.

**Nixon vs. the archivists.** The relationship between Richard Nixon and the government's archivists has been the worst in history. The man in charge of all the Presidential libraries, James E. O'Neill, says: "This is the first time we've had a confrontation with a former President. We have tried to negotiate—always with Mr. Nixon's lawyers; we are told he will only deal with us through lawyers. The problem from the

1986: For 12 years, the former President has fought to block unrestricted public access to his files. His ex-Assistant for Domestic Affairs tells the story and gives an opinion.

BY JOHN EHRLICHMAN

COVER PHOTOGRAPH BY COSTA MANOS/MAGNUM

PAGE 4 • NOVEMBER 30, 1986 • PARADE MAGAZINE

beginning has been the question of access. But, in this case, Congress has set the rules for access. We must give top priority to giving the public access to material relating to 'abuse of power,' as the statute describes it. That's not what President Nixon wants us to do."

What *does* Mr. Nixon want the Archivist to do? Does he seek to obscure or somehow alter the historic record of his administration? Or is he merely buying time, hoping for a fairer perspective in five or more years? Richard Nixon refuses to talk about any aspect of the subject of his archive, either in person or on the telephone. Through an aide he declined to discuss the subject with me.

R. Stan Mortenson, Mr. Nixon's lawyer, is reluctant to convey his client's reason for his determined opposition, except to say that Nixon "wants to be treated the same as other ex-Presidents." But his arguments imply that his client seeks delay as an end in itself. Mortenson explains that Dwight Eisenhower's sensitive files were kept away from the archivists for 15 years and that Harry Truman took his files to Independence, Mo., and no one had access to them "for a lengthy time."

"But the Archivist treats Richard Nixon differently," Mortenson says. "The Watergate stuff? We say, 'Process it and get it out. Do it first.' That's okay with us. The last thing Nixon would do is cover up Watergate. It's old hat, anyway. There won't be anything new in what they release."

An archivist's coup. Most former Presidents have deeded or willed their papers (and tapes) to the federal government. Some have made their transfers conditional, delaying—by agreement with the government—the release date of various documents or tapes for years, even decades. But the agreement Richard Nixon made with the government was nullified by Congress.

That chain of events began on the August day in 1974 when President Nixon resigned. His staff tearfully waved goodbye to him on the south lawn of the White House, then returned to their offices to discover that their records and files were under the control of the Archivist of the United States and 30 assistants.

Nor was that capture entirely without protest. Several weeks later, an assistant archivist telephoned his boss to report that Gen. Alexander Haig, Nixon's chief of staff, insisted on carrying away a large box of papers that he claimed as his private property. Haig was ordered to surrender the box and its contents; eventually, reluctantly, he did.

Soon it was announced that the Archivist's boss, the Administrator of the General Services Administration, had entered into a written agreement with the departed President. It provided that Mr. Nixon should have access to the entire archive, with the continuing right to withdraw or destroy materials as he saw fit. Finally, in 10 years (or sooner if the ex-President

died), all of the Nixon tapes were to be destroyed by the GSA.

But in December 1974, that contract was frustrated by an Act of Congress called the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act of 1974. The new law gave the Archivist custody of the Nixon materials and directed him to prepare the documents and tapes for the public's access, beginning with the materials relating to "abuse of power." The GSA was to draft regulations governing what the public would and would not be allowed to see. Any regulations could be vetoed by either house of Congress.

Richard Nixon immediately sued, challenging the validity of the 1974 act. Three years later, the Supreme Court ruled the law constitutional.

The regulations. Meanwhile, the GSA began

drafting regulations, without notable success. Between 1975 and 1983, three different drafts were rejected as too restrictive of the public's access, and two more were invalidated via lawsuits (see chronology box at end of article).

Does Nixon still have executive privilege? In 1985, the Archivist of the United States, now independent of the GSA, put together a sixth draft of regulations. These were subjected to a Congressional hearing and an unprecedented review by President Reagan's Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice. Eventually, the OMB approved the regulations, as interpreted by the OLC. That highly controversial written opinion says, in effect, that if Richard Nixon invokes executive privilege as to any part of the archive, the Archivist must remove that part from public access.

Some of the archivists bridle at the

notion that they must blindly accept any assertion of a privilege by Mr. Nixon. "He'll lock up the whole warehouse," one predicted.

The Justice Department's memorandum seems to say that Richard Nixon's claim of executive privilege is as strong today as it was when he was the incumbent President.

"As a practical matter, the OLC opinion binds the Archivist," says Gary Brooks, acting director of the Legal Services Staff of the National Archives. "It's an open legal question that will probably be decided by a court."

The Nixon tapes. In the 12 years since Richard Nixon resigned, as many as 25 archivists at a time have worked on the vast collection of papers, audio tapes, records, films, photographs, gifts and videotapes.

The government's historians have

continued

## 1974: Nixon resigned in August. In December, Congress gave the U.S. Archivist custody of his papers and tapes, with instructions to prepare them for public scrutiny.

James Hastings, current deputy director of the Nixon Presidential Materials Project at the National Archives.

Aug. 9, 1974. President Nixon bids tearful farewell to his White House staff. (At right, his daughter, Tricia Nixon Cox.)

PARADE MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER 30, 1986 • PAGE 5

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AP/Wide World

Aug. 9, 1974. Vice President Gerald Ford and wife, Betty, bid goodbye to departing Nixon family.

"Richard Nixon is being treated differently from every other President...All we seek is equal and fair treatment."

—R. Stan Mortenson, Nixon's attorney.

NIXON'S PAPERS /continued

listened to every minute of every tape, and a "subject log" of some 25,000 pages has been prepared to describe who is talking on a given segment and what subjects are being discussed.

While tape copies have been electronically "enhanced" to make them more understandable, in many passages it will be impossible for most listeners to tell what is being said. "The quality of the sound is often poor," says James Hastings, deputy director of the Nixon Presidential Materials Project Staff. "The conversations are continually interrupted by sounds in the Oval Office; often you can't understand what is being said well enough to write it down."

No written transcripts of the tapes are being made by the archivists. "That would take us about 75 years to do," Mr. Hastings explains, "and then surely there would be serious question about our interpretations."

The original tapes, carefully preserved, rest in a vault within a vault. Richard Nixon's lawyers have demanded that all parts of the originals that are personal be cut out of the tapes and handed back to Mr. Nixon as his property. But, thus far, the archivists have held the original tapes intact. The enhanced copies have been cut wherever private, privileged or classified conversation occurred, and at each cut a 10-second silence has

been inserted. The subject log tells a listener the length of any segment withdrawn and the regulatory reason for the cut.

Fred Graboske, the archivist in charge of the tapes, says: "We aren't ready to give public access to the tapes yet. I have another year's work to do, editing and getting the log into the word processor."

Stan Mortenson contends that the law and regulations applied to the Nixon tapes will expose them to public scrutiny much sooner than other Presidents' tapes. "The issue of the release of the tapes is where the battle really is," Nixon's lawyer says. "It will be 30 years before Kennedy's tapes come out. They've only released about one percent of them. There is a 50-year ban on releasing Lyndon Johnson's tapes. The archivists can't even touch them until then. Richard Nixon is being treated differently from every other President—because the people don't care about those others. All we seek is equal and fair treatment; we get closer and closer to fair treatment with the passage of time."

Access to the papers. Technically, the new regulations that apply to Nixon's papers and tapes went into effect in late June 1986. But little material has yet been seen or heard by the public. First, the Archivist was required to give notice to Mr. Nixon and a list of his former staff people

continued

The White House

> "There is no question that it will be uncomfortable and embarrassing for me, as well as others who worked in the Nixon White House, when all those bats come flying out of the Archivist's cave."

April 1970. President Nixon and inner-circle staffer John Ehrlichman stroll on White House grounds.

NIXON'S PAPERS/continued

that their files would be made available to the public on Dec. 1, 1986. Those notified have had a period of 90 days to inspect the material and file any objections they may have. The regulations require the Archivist to deny public access to any material that is classified secret or restricted by law (IRS reports, for example). Mr. Nixon and the others are entitled to have their strictly personal papers returned to them (one fellow's files included all his divorce papers; he got them back), and papers defined as "private political" won't be made public.

We have yet to see whether Mr. Nixon can successfully claim executive privilege to bar access to some material, as the Department of Justice now says he can. That question must finally be settled by the courts.

**Nixon claims compensation.** Not all Nixon's lawsuits have sought to prevent access to the archives. One suit seeks compensation from the government for taking what he alleges to be his private property.

Mortenson contends that Nixon's claim for compensation rests upon a demand for equal treatment. "For 200 years," the lawyer says, "there was an unbroken, mutual understanding that a President's files and records were his property. Every predecessor took them with him, and often the Congress paid to retrieve them for the archives. We are simply claiming Mr. Nixon's private property rights."

Back in 1971, President Nixon estimated that his personal papers would have an average value of about $1 per page. "Some may be worth more," I remember him musing, "but even my old laundry lists and grocery bills will be worth that much."

**The Special Files.** The 1974 Congressional Act directed the Archivist to give priority to the processing of the segment of the Nixon materials that would be most instructive on the "abuse of power" during the Nixon years. So James Hastings and his staff have devoted their primary attention to the "Special Files," a collection of 683 cubic feet of papers assembled by Nixon's chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman, in Nixon's first term.

Within the Nixon White House, access to these sensitive personal files of the President and his senior staff was very limited. It was in the Special Files that the special Watergate prosecutor searched for evidence against Nixon and his staff.

Nixon's lawyers argue that Hastings has gone too fast in processing the Special Files. "They are the most sensitive materials," Stan Mortenson says, "and archivists have spent the first 10 years sorting them. They've never processed sensitive materials that quickly with other Presidents' archives."

**Heavy costs.** Richard Nixon's battle with the archivists has been expensive for both sides. Nixon's lawyers and their researchers have looked at every paper in the Special Files—some 1.5 million pages—during the last two and a half years, at a cost to Mr. Nixon estimated at more than $250,000. No one knows what he has spent in lawyers' fees and other expenses to carry his unsuccessful litigation to the Supreme Court and to press his two other cases, and his attorney will not say.

The Nixon archives project now costs the taxpayers about $1.1 million a year. Some $22 million in private donations will finance a Richard Nixon Presidential Library in San Clemente, to be built soon. But, unlike all the other Presidential libraries, this one may not house an original archive or be administered by the Archivist of the United States unless Mr. Nixon and the Archivist agree on who gets access to what documents and records.

**Recent access.** There is some public access to the Nixon archive now. Recently, a set of tape recordings of public events and records prepared by the White House Communications Agency was opened up. And for six years a collection of 500,000 still photographs and a million feet of motion picture film has been available for public viewing.

**The battle goes on.** But the rest of the Nixon archive remains embattled. It seems probable that there will be more litigation over the tapes and Special Files. Each side holds that it is defending the public interest. "Not just Richard Nixon's rights are involved here, says the archivist James O'Neill. "The matter of public access to these records is fundamental

to the Presidency. The wrong kind of claim of executive privilege can affect the whole institution of the Presidency."

Says Stan Mortenson, the ex-President's lawyer: "In all but the Watergate materials, Richard Nixon's papers are identical in kind to the materials of other Presidents. Therefore—except for the Watergate stuff—they should be treated exactly the same. But they haven't been. We're only getting equality by fighting for it. We are the ones who are protecting the institution of the Presidency."

**It's time for access.** Henry Kissinger, Nixon's national security affairs adviser and Secretary of State, through his lawyers, has lodged a seven-page objection to the public-access process. "You know," Kissinger once said to me, "the public will not understand. They will be very critical of you and me when they listen to the tapes of our conversations with Richard Nixon. We will often appear to be agreeing with him at times when you and I know that we did not."

There is no question that it will be uncomfortable and embarrassing for me, as well as others who worked in the Nixon White House, when all those bats come flying out of the Archivist's cave. But, all of that notwithstanding, it seems to me that it is time to open the doors and let the public into that warehouse in Virginia to see the documents and hear the tapes that the law and regulations will make available to them.

I believe there are lessons to be remembered and mistakes to be condemned and avoided. It has been said that a people who are heedless of the lessons of history are doomed to relive them. It is time to let the professional historians set out the events of the Nixon era with a clear, unbiased perspective that should be possible now, after a dozen years have passed.

I take some comfort in the belief that a balanced look at that troubled time will reveal much genuine, positive accomplishment along with the scandal that has loomed in the foreground for so long.

John Ehrlichman was President Nixon's Assistant for Domestic Affairs, 1969-73. An author, his most recent novel is "The China Card."

Nixon vs.
The Archivists—
A Chronology

**Aug. 9, 1974**—Richard Nixon resigns, and the U.S. Archivist takes control of the Nixon files.

**Sept. 9, 1974**—GSA Administrator Arthur Sampson contracts with Nixon to give the former President control of the files.

**Dec. 19, 1974**—Congress enacts the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act, canceling the Sampson-Nixon contract.

**Dec. 20, 1974**—Nixon sues, challenging the constitutionality of the 1974 act.

**March 19, 1975**—Sampson proposes the first set of regulations under the new act, governing what the public would and would not be allowed to see and hear. Subsequently disproved by the U.S. Senate.

**Oct. 15, 1975**—A second set of access regulations is submitted.

**April 8, 1976**—Senate disapproves second set of regulations.

**April 13, 1976**—GSA proposes third set of regulations, subsequently vetoed by the House of Representatives because public access to the archives was too restricted.

**June 2, 1977**—GSA proposes fourth set of regulations.

**June 28, 1977**—Supreme Court decides 1974 act is constitutional.

**Dec. 16, 1977**—Fourth set of regulations becomes effective.

**Jan. 31, 1978**—Nixon files suit attacking regulations.

**Feb. 14, 1979**—Pending Nixon lawsuit is settled; fifth set of regulations is proposed to replace fourth set.

**March 7, 1980**—Fifth set of regulations becomes effective.

**Dec. 17, 1980**—Nixon sues, demanding compensation for loss of "private property" (case still pending).

**Oct. 20, 1983**—29 former Nixon staffers sue, attacking regulations.

**Dec. 30, 1983**—Staffers' suit upheld; regulations nullified.

**March 29, 1985**—Sixth set of regulations proposed by the U.S. Archivist.

**Dec. 18, 1985**—"Public interest" groups sue Archivist to compel public access.

**June 26, 1986**—Sixth set of regulations becomes effective.

**Sept. 15, 1986**—Archivist gives notice that limited public access will be provided on Dec. 1, 1986.

PARADE MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER 30, 1986 • PAGE 9