THE ADMINISTRATION: Can Public Confidence Be Restored?

Under the solemn oak trees of Camp David, a profoundly troubled man spent much of the weekend walking on quiet paths, looking out over the Catoctin Mountains, and thinking about what to say to a disturbed nation. Observed an aide: "I don't know what he's going to say, or how he is going to say it, soft or hard, pleadingly or abrasively."

For nearly three months, Richard M. Nixon had been battered by the Watergate testimony, charging his Administration with a dismal assortment of misdeeds. He had...