SEQUELS: Not Even Earplugs Could Help

"When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal. "

As Richard Nixon and a tenacious David Frost revived memories of the Viet Nam War and the domestic dissension that it sowed, that was the startling defense of the former President for some of the actions of his Administration against the antiwar movement.

The exchange, part of the third of the televised Nixon-Frost interviews, was fascinating. Nixon insisted that when "a threat to internal peace and order of significant magnitude" was involved, a President could readily use otherwise illegal acts, including burglaries (he preferred the euphemism "warrantless entries"),...