THE ADMINISTRATION: Of Memory and National Security

Ever since the Watergate scandal broke wide open, it had seemed probable that Nixon's former closest aides, John D.

Ehrlichman and H.R. Haldeman, knew as many of the secrets of the sordid affair as anyone else. Last week both men stepped forward for the first time to define their own roles in a small but crucial aspect of the case. Testifying before a Senate appropriations subcommittee on their dealings with the CIA, Haldeman and Ehrlichman proved short on memory but very long on devotion to national security as a justification for their actions—clearly taking their cue from the President's own curious and unsettling manifesto of the week before.

Ehrlichman had been accused in previous Senate testimony of ordering CIA assistance for E. Howard Hunt Jr., a White House "plumber" who, after receiving such aid, helped engineer the burglary of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office. Both Ehrlichman and Haldeman had also been accused by former CIA officials of obstructing the FBI's investigation of Watergate. Specifically, they were said to have asked the CIA officials to get in touch with FBI Acting Director L. Patrick Gray III and tell him to go easy in his investigation on the ground that his agency's probe might expose CIA operations.

In a courtly, low-keyed soliloquy, Ehrlichman tried his best to brush away both accusations. He claimed he had no idea who had requested CIA assistance for Hunt, but said he was sure it had not been himself. Or rather, he was almost sure. "The best I can say to help the committee," said Ehrlichman, "is that I do not recall doing so, and the particular circumstances of the matter do not argue that I did." Even in making that defense, he seemed to be preparing a fall-back position in case his memory was later refreshed. Hypothetically entertaining the notion that he might have called the CIA on Hunt's behalf but forgotten about it. Ehrlichman said, "It must have been the first and only time I did so without presidential direction, and apparently at the request of someone else who phoned me or came to see me in California [San Clemente] to ask me to do so."

The following day, Marine Corps Commandant General Robert E. Cushman Jr., the former deputy director of the CIA and the man who had implicated Ehrlichman originally, reaffirmed his recollection that Ehrlichman had instructed him to help Hunt. Daily CIA staff notes proving his contention, Cushman said, had been turned over to the "necessary congressional committees."

Both Ehrlichman and Haldeman responded to the second allegation being investigated by the subcommittee — the attempt to use the CIA in the Watergate cover-up — by insisting that that had not been their intention. They readily admitted that they did instruct CIA Deputy Director Vernon Walters to warn Gray that his agency's Watergate investigation might blow the cover of CIA operatives. But they claimed they did so at the specific request of President Nixon, and for legitimate reasons. Picking up the President's national-security theme, Ehrlichman said that "such questions had to be asked and answered, in the national interest."