Nixon Pondered AntiWar Protests

By Mike Feinsilber
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) War protesters had just swarmed through Washington and a
new bunch ``tough, hardcore radicals'' in the eyes of President Nixon
was heading for the capital. He gathered his inner circle to ponder how
to react, and a newly released tape captures their anxiety.

For an hour and a half on April 27, 1971, Nixon, his Cabinet and his
closest advisers pondered whether to ignore the demonstrators or arrest them.

On the one hand, said Nixon, he didn't want to convey a soft message of
`Come on, you kiddies, you know, don't tear up the joint and so forth.''

``If on the other hand, they come in and start breaking up the mimeograph
machines, then that's a problem,'' he said. ``Then they should be arrested
no ifs, ands, buts or maybes.''

The stress comes through, 26 years later, in a tape recording made
available to the public this week by the National Archives, one of
thousands secretly recorded by Nixon.

Domestic policy adviser John D. Ehrlichman counseled a strategy of seeming
indifference.

`The press is going to be looking for some sort of angle to play, that the
government is all upset, it's wringing its hands, that it's putting
mattresses in its halls, letting people sleep in, and this kind of thing,''
Ehrlichman said. ``I think that a calm, deliberate sort of steady course is
obviously the one to pursue.''

But Attorney General John Mitchell took a hard line: ``I know they want to
be arrested but, Mr. President, I don't think that's any reason for not
arresting them.''

He said authorities ought to ``destroy these

cadres.''

Even as the team pondered, thousands of protesters raced through the capital.

Chanting, ``The whole world is watching,'' they occupied government
buildings and threatened to close all the bridges leading to the city.

On the day before, they splattered themselves with red paint, wailing and
sobbing and begging for peace. Some liberal lawmakers addressed their rally.

The demonstrations had started a week earlier on a softer note and with a
different crowd: veterans of the war held a rally attended by 250,000
people and addressed by former Navy Lt. John F. Kerry, a decorated war
hero, now a Democratic senator from Massachusetts.

Nixon said the veterans ``gave us a very difficult problem and particularly
because they were veterans.''

But now, he said, ``You're dealing here with tough, hardcore radicals.''

``They not only want a confrontation but they want to raise hell if they
can get away with it.''

Mitchell shared Nixon's assessment: ``If they can find any way to tear up
this place, they're going to do it.''

Mitchell noted that in a park the demonstrators had burned benches. He said
he had seen a picture in the evening paper ``of a whole line of benches
where they had torn the seats out and burned them all.''

Someone in the room, his voice indistinguishable, said, ``It's the kind of
thing they ought to be arrested for.''

Someone else said he had gone to the Capitol to see what was happening
``and they're a bunch of silly kids ... just looking around for that
television camera.''

The following week, Nixon's fears were realized.

In a demonstration led by the ``Mayday Tribe,'' protesters forced the
closing of the Capitol. Police evicted 30,000 from West Potomac Park.

More than 2,000 were arrested after they lay down on the bridges. All told,
7,000 were detained, held in a football practice field.

Between 500 and 1,000 federal workers gathered across the street from the
White House to protest the war.

© Copyright 1997 The Associated Press