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TIME has learned, meanwhile, that the White House has begun responding to pressure from Jaworski by turning over some documents requested long ago by Cox. That at least delays any court action by Jaworski against the President, though this remains a possibility if there is further stalling.
While all the new doubts about the integrity of Nixon's tapes set back the progress of Nixon's Watergate counterattack, he plunged on with it.
He addressed the convention of the Seafarers' International Union, whose President Paul Hall is under investigation by Prosecutor Jaworski's staff for a $100,000 secret contribution to Nixon's campaign. The President inspired an ovation by declaring in a nautical note: "I can assure you that you don't need to worry about my getting seasick or jumping ship. It is the captain's job to bring that ship into port. I am going to stay at the helm until we bring it into port."
One night the President talked to six Senators in the third-floor solarium of the White House. His listeners reported that he had promised to make his tax returns public within a few days. Next day, however, Operation Candor hit another snag when Deputy Press Secretary Warren said that Nixon had not yet decided whether to release the full returns or only "information" from the returns.
A dinner in the State Dining Room with 25 Democratic Congressmen, mostly from the South, was no smashing success either. One listener described Nixon as "taut and extremely tense, gesturing wildly." North Carolina's Ike Andrews found Nixon relaxed and jovial but the situation awkward. Said he: "We were guests in his home—it makes it difficult to ask him questions. The first question was about the Middle East, and he took 21 minutes to answer it. There were a couple more innocuous questions, then somebody said politely, 'Thank you for this pleasant evening, but most of us thought we'd hear you make some explanation of Watergate.' "
Continued Andrews: "He said absolutely nothing revealing. After about five questions, Tiger Teague [Olin Teague of Texas] stood up and said we'd agreed to break it up at 9 o'clock. About half of us had our hands up, and the President agreed to one final question. It was all so pat. And as he left me there in the State Dining Room with my hand up, I thought, 'Good show.' "
Pressure rose from congressional Republicans for a far faster and fuller disclosure of all the Watergate facts. There is dismay among some of them that Nixon seems to be withdrawing into an ever-tighter circle of advisers, mainly Haig and Ziegler. Melvin Laird, popular on Capitol Hill, said that he will leave Nixon's staff as soon as Gerald Ford is confirmed as Vice President; Ford will assume Laird's advisory duties. Veteran politicians consider both Haig and Ziegler too inexperienced to handle what they see as essentially a political crisis for the President.
As the tapes debacle shows, however, Nixon's dilemma is more than political. The processes of law are still crowding him, especially in Judge Sirica's courtroom. While the White House staff predicts that Nixon will