Those Old Tapes Never Fade

Suddenly it was like the old days. Turn on the tube or open a newspaper, and there was yet another "new" Nixon tape. David Frost used three unpublished transcripts to surprise the ex-President. The New York Times and Washington Post played their newly uncovered transcripts under big headlines. Was some new Deep Throat reeling off tapes in the night whenever a Watergate researcher or reporter thought he needed one?

No. But there are transcripts of at least 28 Nixon tapes not previously part of the public record scattered across the U.S. They are from the 73 tapes subpoenaed by the Watergate special prosecutor for the conspiracy trial of Nixon's top aides. Although only 30 were introduced in evidence, additional transcripts were given to the lawyers and witnesses involved. The number of people holding transcripts, multiplied by the copying machines available, gives an idea of what might be accessible to enterprising newsmen.

The prominently headlined Washington Post entry in the tapes derby was questionable. It was a transcript of a Jan. 8, 1973 conversation between Nixon and Aide Charles Colson in which the ex-President purportedly mentioned "goddamn hush money," possibly for the Watergate burglars. But the transcript printed by the Post was an early version that bore a warning of "reduced audibility" on its cover. Later, after publishing its scoop, the Post obtained transcripts of the Jan. 8 tape that had been prepared by experts on the special prosecutor's staff; they had deleted the hush money reference, deeming that section of the tape to be impossibly indistinct--a problem common to most of the tapes. Colson said he was "absolutely certain" that hush money had not been discussed, and Nixon demanded a retraction from the Post.

The lode of still-unpublished Nixon tapes covers not only his Watergate conversations but his Oval Office musings over more than two years. They include some 900 reels--perhaps 519 miles of tapes. Many are stored with the Nixon papers at the National Records Center in Suitland, Md. The most sensitive tapes and papers are still in the Executive Office Building, now under the custody of President Carter's White House counsel, Robert Lipshutz. The original 64 Watergate tapes are in a safe in the office of Federal Judge John J. Sirica.

The ownership of all the Nixon tapes and papers may be decided this summer. Overturning an arrangement with Gerald Ford under which the material would have been shipped to Nixon, Congress passed a law declaring it to be Government property. Nixon's legal challenge to this is now before the Supreme Court. Another suit, brought by Warner Communications Inc., owner of several record companies, claims that those tapes played in court are public property and should be made available for copying and commercial sale --raising the prospect of Nixon's Oval Office ramblings vying for the Top 40.

Even if the Supreme Court rules against Nixon, it will still be up to the General Services Administration to determine who can have access to the papers and tapes and under what conditions. Settling that, after other court challenges, could take months. It is not likely that Nixon's Smoking Pistol Blues, with lyrics by John Ehrlichman and arrangement by Bob Haldeman, will soon reach the disc jockey hit lists.

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