A Man Alone

AMERICAN NOTES

(Watergate Division)

If, as President Nixon argues, he did not know until late March how thoroughly Watergate had tainted his Administration, it was largely because he had deliberately kept himself so many removes from reality. Now, in spite of the lesson of Watergate, a year after the case broke Nixon remains unwilling to emerge from the cocoon of his own making. He never watches television news programs, let alone the Watergate hearings--though he could argue that he cannot afford the time. Press reports are still passed up to him in summaries prepared by the White House staff.

Moreover, aides who are openly critical continue to be unwelcome. John Connally is expected to resign largely because he feels he cannot be candid.

As he did the previous week, Nixon made a Friday foray out into carefully chosen country, this time Pekin, 111. He delivered another tub-thumping speech about America and his accomplishments, and was rewarded with warm smiles and applause. But then it was off to his Key Biscayne retreat and an encapsulated atmosphere where it is just possible that Nixon still knows, and understands less about Watergate than the average American television viewer.

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