The Nation: The President as Taxpayer: The Accounting

For months, reports have circulated that Richard Nixon's net worth has increased dramatically during his years in the White House, and that in two of those years he paid virtually no federal income taxes. In his own defense, the President last week ordered the release of a mass of information on his private finances. What it revealed was hardly reassuring to his remaining supporters.

While he may have fulfilled the letter of the tax law—and not even that is certain—his deals and deductions raised disturbing questions about propriety.

Release of the material followed an extensive audit by White House officials and outside advisers,...