The Family Stands Firm

For a glimpse inside a family under pressure, TIME Correspondent Bonnie Angela talked last week to irrepressible Julie Nixon Eisenhower about life in the White House during a week of crisis:

Julie is incensed at the idea that her father is a desperate man, harassed by the worst of all his crises. "I think sometimes he really likes a challenge," she says. "It's kind of a gauntlet thrown down--you've got to pick it up." That, asserts Julie, is exactly what the President has done. She says that her father has never discussed the possibility of impeachment with his family. On the contrary, she reports, the President is the family's strongest member these days. "He's the one who's always calling us and saying, 'Now don't read the papers tomorrow because it's going to be bad. This whole week is going to be bad, and I don't want you to worry about it. I know what I'm doing and I'm doing the right thing.' " She simply laughs off AFL-CIO President George Meany's charge that the President is suffering "dangerous emotional instability." Says she: "It's so absurd."

How did Nixon feel about his reversal on the Watergate tapes? "Disappointment," says Julie. "He was standing with a constitutional principle, and he wanted to preserve this for future Presidents [but] he thought it had reached the point where there was no public understanding for his position."

Busy Weekend. Of life in the White House during the tumultuous weekend that brought the firing of Archibald Cox, the resignation of Elliot Richardson and the dismissal of William Ruckelshaus, Julie understates: "Well, it was a busy weekend for my dad. But in the evening we did relax, and Friday night turned out to be a kind of party." Julie and David had invited another young couple, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Milligan (he works in the Commerce Department), to the White House. "My parents were up in the solarium and when they heard our voices, they came hurrying down and asked us to have dinner with them." Joined by Nixon Friend Bebe Rebozo, the young people dined with the Nixons, discussed the day's events and then put matters aside to watch the latest Paul Newman movie (The Sting). Most tantalizing of all the weekend's events is the picture Julie draws of the President on Saturday evening summoning the family to explain why Cox had been fired, an explanation Julie adroitly declined to pass along. "When he writes his memoirs, he will explain."

Sunday saw a visit by Rebozo and the Nixons to Julie and David's home in Bethesda, Md. "It's the best deal in the world," chuckles Julie. "My parents bring dinner. And they always bring so much--this time it was a Mexican dinner--that I freeze the other half."

Her mother Pat has been her usual equanimous self during the crisis, reports Julie. "She just has great inner strength. I don't know how she does it. She's an inspiration to the rest of us, and she's a great help to my dad. I don't think people realize how really great she is." In a week that for Pat Nixon included presentation of awards to Washington youngsters for beautifying the nation's capital, handshaking with surprised visitors to the White House Rose Garden, and greeting the six-year-old poster child for the muscular dystrophy and multiple sclerosis campaign, a friend found the First Lady's mood "ebullient and confident."

Julie saved her most heated reply for charges of improprieties raised in connection with Rebozo. "He's being attacked to get at my father," she bristles, "and I know it hurts my father deeply. He doesn't mind if his policies are under the gun, that's fair game. He just hates the idea that his family or his friends are being hurt. But we can all take it. It's a really silly situation because he's feeling sorry for us, and we're feeling sorry for him." Julie remains confident that her father will not be impeached--nor, she vows, will he resign. "The people wanted him in 1972. He got a tremendous mandate, and no matter how many columnists write it, that mandate cannot be taken away."

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