The Nation: Operator Calling

The phone rang one evening last week in the Governor's mansion in Richmond, Va. "Hello, Governor," said the caller. "This is Ron Ziegler speaking from Air Force One." Republican Governor Linwood Holton, a longtime friend and supporter of Nixon, had trouble hearing because of the electronic noises in the background. But he recognized Ziegler's voice and the message was clear: the President wanted to see Holton at the White House at 10 a.m. the next day. Holton quickly canceled his other appointments and flew off to see the President.

Holton had a private talk with Nixon and left with a warm presidential handshake. With the White House and Holton refusing to discuss the urgent summons, politicians and reporters back in Richmond speculated that they had talked about the 1972 campaign in the South, even that Nixon might have offered Holton the vice-presidential nomination, replacing Spiro Agnew.

Actually, the President and Holton performed rather smoothly, considering that their meeting was an elaborate hoax. It was not Press Secretary Ziegler who phoned Holton but a mysterious practical joker who sounded like Ziegler and was ingenious enough to fake the electronic background sounds. Nixon may have been startled to see the unbidden Holton, but the two men handled the situation like pros, spending 30 minutes together. They thus denied the joker the satisfaction of causing any embarrassment or even publicity about the incident.