Musical Chairs

PRESIDENT NIXON refuses to believe that his administration is on trial. He obscures that reality by contending that the Watergate affair does not prove the "bankruptcy of the American system," and he insists the scandal will reaffirm the system's ability to bring out the truth.

In a very real sense, the president is correct. But the Nixon administration, not the American system, is on trial for the Watergate crimes. It is the Nixon administration that is bankrupt, and it is the Nixon administration that must answer to the charges of organizing, approving and then -- incredible as it may seem -- operating the largest political espionage network in the country outside of the Central Intelligence Agency.

And this powerful political machine, built up during the president's first administration, run by aides trained during those first four years, did not gear itself for a single break-in at the Watergate complex last June. Evidence exists indicating the espionage team broke into Democratic National Headquarters a number of times before it was apprehended June 17.

At the time of the break-in, White House officials dismissed the burglary as a "third-rate" operation. In comparison to the past jobs of the G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt "vigilante team," the June 17 job was indeed third-rate. When Hunt and Liddy, under supervision of White House aide Egil Krogh, burglarized the psychiatric files of Daniel Ellsberg '52, no one caught the "vigilantes" inside the doctor's office. When Hunt and Liddy placed illegal wiretaps on the telephones of two New York Times reporters, no one surprised the two men with the electronic equipment in their hands.

Ten months ago, no one suspected that Watergate was anything but an isolated incident, albeit an incident as despicable as any in the history of partisan politics. But as bits and pieces of the Watergate jigsaw puzzle fell into place, it became increasingly apparent that Watergate was actually the denouement of a highly successful campaign espionage team.

Although the President has accepted responsibility for the Watergate affair, a scandal that has eaten away at the very roots of his administration, he asks the American people to ignore the espionage so he can quietly return to his Oval Office in pursuit of the "greater goals" to which he has dedicated his term in office. But Nixon's questionable efforts to secure peace at home and abroad must pale in the light of his efforts to secure re-election. To delegate responsibility, as Nixon says he did during the campaign, without supplying guidance is negligent; to "seek peace" while covering up corruption is morally indefensible.

If Nixon knew of the coverup attempt -- as John W. Dean III, his former legal counsel, is prepared to testify -- the President must be denounced for his two-faced attitude toward obtaining the truth about the bugging operation. He says the system will bring out the truth, yet he obstructs the system by reinvoking executive privilege.

The President showed himself willing to clean out his administration last week, but his refusal to frankly and forthrightly pursue justice indicates that the espionage ranges far beyond the third-rate burglary at the Watergate. The men who broke into that office have been convicted, White House aides Ehrlichman and Haldeman have resigned: Nixon can no longer placate the American people by playing administration musical chairs. His secrecy betrays a presidential fear that some deeper involvement will come out. In that case, the American people have nothing to fear but a frightened President Nixon.