THE CRISIS: The President Performs Under Pressure

It was a unique and poignant fragment for history. A President who stands in clear and imminent danger of impeachment faced the members of the House who may within weeks become his inquisitors and the Senators who may then have to decide whether he has been guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors and must therefore be removed from office. Once again, drawing upon a resilient inner reserve of stamina, an embattled Richard Nixon rose to the challenge. Although his formal text was unremarkable, his manner was controlled, his delivery forceful, and his attitude unyielding. He looked healthier than he has in months. If many in his audience sensed that this might well be Nixon's final State of the Union address, the President gave not the slightest sign that he shared their view.

Partly out of its traditional respect for the office of the presidency, perhaps also out of genuine empathy for him in his lonely predicament, however self-inflicted, the Congress gave Nixon a more than perfunctory welcome. As he extolled the accomplishments of his five years in office with campaign-style hyperbole and drew an unrealistically cheery sketch of the current state of the union, he was applauded 36 times.

Yet the sights and sounds were deceptive. For both Nixon and his most ardent defenders, the occasion was, properly enough, a performance. After the initial ceremonial greeting, the applause came almost entirely from the Republican side of the House chamber. It was repeatedly led by a shouting group of cheerleaders at the rear of the G.O.P. ranks, while the Democrats generally listened in silence. Twice, standing ovations were precipitated by a justifiably partisan gallery observer: Pat Nixon.—She rose, was followed by other members of the First Family and close aides, and the movement then spread to the Republican side of the floor.

While Nixon looked trim and vigorous, considering his long year of personal ordeal, the pancake makeup did not conceal recently acquired facial lines. He perspired more freely than ever. In a classic slip of the tongue, he read a line about the need to replace "the discredited present welfare program" as the need to replace the "dis credited President," then corrected himself.

The speech was studded with applause-catching lines, well tested in past Nixon appearances. In urging welfare reform, Nixon deplored any program "which makes it more profitable to go on welfare than to go to work." Taking credit for the U.S. disengagement from Viet Nam, he said that American prisoners of war "came home with their heads high, on their feet and not on their knees." Using the word peace no fewer than 27 times in 43 minutes, he was applauded six times for references to the nation's strength, honor or freedom, and nine times for optimistic predictions about the economy, including the ringing declaration: "There will be no recession in the United States of America."