NIXON DISMISSED OFFICIAL'S INTOXICATION

When President Richard M. Nixon's ambassador to France got roaring drunk
and began groping the flight attendants on a trip home from Paris, Nixon
didn't see that much to get excited about.

"Look, people get drunk," the president said after a Jack Anderson column
regaled readers with a graphic account of Ambassador Arthur Watson's
behavior on a March 1972 flight to Washington. "People chase girls. And the
point is, it's a hell of a lot better for them to get drunk than to take
drugs. It's better to chase girls than boys."

"Now that's my position and let's stop this crap," Nixon declared at a
March 14, 1972, Oval Office meeting with his chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman.
"Understand?"

The episode, which prompted Democratic congressional demands for an
investigation and Watson's resignation, is one of thousands chronicled on
426 hours of White House tapes released Thursday, the biggest release to date.