249   1351pt 05-12
 VC-Watergate 400
    SAIGON (AP) - A boyish-looking Viet Cong interpreter sakcomrades were hardly surprised that the Watergate investigation
led to the White Hbiates of President Nixon.
    ''Maybe the Am)more surprised than we are,''
said Vu  7/8GLISH INTERPRETEong
delegation to the two-party Joint Military Commission.
    Dung, taking a break from translating chores at the Viet Cong's
weekly news conference for foreign journalists, said:
    ''I think Watergate is really a scandal because to win a
presidential campaign, President Nixon and his people had to take
this action.
    Asked what he thought of calls for Nixon's resignation, he smiled
and replied: ''That will be a good idea.'')man in Nixon resigned, Vice
President Spiro Agnew would become President, Dung said, ''We like
the American people. We dislike none of them - Nixon or Agnew.''
    Dung said he wasn't surprised that Watergate got entangled with
the Pentagoor that Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony
Russo were acquitted on espionage, theft and cor the Pentagon papers, he offered, were well known in Viet Cong
ad it and we took some paragraphs and translated
it into Vietnamese,'' he said.
    Dung, 26, born in the Communist-controlled northern province of
Quang Ngai, attended Viet Cong and North Vietnamese schools and went
to work in Paris during the peace talks in 1970. He said he learned
English from his Hanoi-born father, a ''liberation fighter'' who
learned it in a French school.
    During the intensive December bombing raids, Dung said he was in
Hanoi and saw many U.S. B52s crash in fiery balls. After the raids
ended, he said, he returned to Paris for the windup of the talks and
the signing of the cease-fire agreement.
    A-reed with the U.S. view that the December
bombing forced the North Vietnamese to sign the agreement,
he replied, ''I agree with the view that due to the massive failure
of the bombing, (U.S. adviser Henry) Kissinger came to Paris and
signed the agreement.''
    Dung noted 17 B52s and nearly two score fighter-bombers were lost
and more than 100 crewmen killed and captured.
    ''The U.S. may have more B52s but they will not have more
pilots -g members of the international crew. Most are in their 30s and
married, but no spouses are aboard the raft. Men and women share the
same sleeping quarters.
    Genoves, who made earlier ocean expeditions with Thor Heyderdahl
on his Ra boats, will serve as an observer and deck hand.
    The raft is captained by Maria Bjornstam of Gothenburg, Sweden.
    The only American members of the expedition are two California
women, both mothers of three children.
    Mary Gidley, 35, of San Rafael, Calif., will servevigator and Evangelina Seymour, 23, of San Francisco, will be
radio operator.
    Other crew members are:
    Rachida Masani, 23, of Algiers, single, ocean pollution study;
Servane Zanotti, 32, of Paris, mother of two, frogwoman; Edna Jonas,
32, of Tel Aviv, two daughters, divorced, doctor; Charles Antoni,
37, of Nicosia, Cyprus, two children, cook;
    Bernardo Bongo, 28, of Mozambique, Angola, single, a priest who
will do gemaria Montero, 30, of Montevideo, Uruguay, one
child, an anthropologist who will be a photographer.
    The expedition was organized on a $160,000 grant from a Mexican
television station.
    The raft, named for an Aztec word meaning ''house of water,''
will depend on sail and ocean currents to reach the Yucatan
peninsula.
    
1709pED 05-12


************************************************************


246   1347pt 05-12
Watergate at a Glance 100
    WASHINGTON (AP) - Here, at a glance, are the developments Saturday
in the Watergate case:
    REFORMS: White House sou$nt Nixon will ask Congress
next week to create a bipartisan commission that could recommend
major reforms in elecuct. meanwhile, the House
Republican Confhrs to a GOP task force to seek
ways to tighten federal campaign laws.
    SENATE: Investte's special Watergate committee
questioned Marine Corps. Gen. Robert E. Cushman Jr., former deputy
CIA director, for about an hour.
    KISSINGER: Presidential adviser Henry A. Kissinger said he ''noticed
no impact of Watergate on our foreign policy'' during his recent
k Union.
    
T


************************************************************


240   1312pt 05-12
 Pentagon Papers Bjt 480
By LINDA DEUTSCH
Associated Prt Writer) - Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony Russo, exulting
in their triumph over espionage, conspiracy and theft charges, said
Saturday they plan to follow very different paths in their future
lives - Russo continuing to fight for causes, Ellsberg seeking
privacy and contemplation.
    ''I expect to continue what I did in the past - a fairly private
life of research, writing and reading,'' said the 42-year-old
Ellsberg, whose actions in copying the top-secret Pentagon papers
rushed him to the center of antiwar activities.
    But the balding Russo, 36, said he was taking an airplane
immediately to a Chicago conference to consider plans for
possible impeachment of President Nixon.
    Both Ellsberg and Russo have declared their intention to sue
government officials, possibly including Nixon, but Ellsberg said:
    ''I personally have thought enough about Richard Nixon for
my lifetime . . . I hope to never think of him again.''
    Russo said he would finish a book he has been writing throughout
the trial - ''Writing that book helped get me through the trial'' -
and would remain a political activist.
    Both men termed dismissal of charges against them a victory,
though Russo acknowledged the issues which brought them to
trial were never resolved.
    Chief among those issues was the question of whether the government
has the right to keep secrets from American citizens. In dismissing
the charges Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Matt Byrne harshly
condemned government misconduct in the case - including Watergate
and White House involvement - but he said nothing about the secrecy
issue.
    ''It was ambiguous,'' said Russo. ''It was not the kind of
clear-cut resolution we would have wanted. We were not able
to let the trial go to the jury . . . but I don't think this
one trial, this one case, could have resolved these issues.
    ''So there is a lot that goes unresolved,'' Russo added.
''The war still goes on. All of us who have opposed this war
still have a job to do.'' He referred specifically to U.S.
bombing of Cambodia.
    Ellsberg and Russo, both onetime researchers on government
projects, made the comments at a news conference in which their
attorneys supported the two men's declared intentions to sue
government officials. It was also revealed at the news conference
that the trial cost the defense nearly $1 million.
    Ellsberg's chief attorney, Leonard Boudin, said he will file
a civil suit in Washington against the government and seek
damage payments for the costs incurred during the trial.
    ''The evidence against the President is substantially
circumstantial so far,'' Boudin said. ''We will not name the
President (in a suit) until we think there is evidence to justify
his being named. That evidence is piling up day by day.''
    
1619pED 05-12


244   1337pt 05-12
 Pentagon Papers Bjt ADD
    LOS ANGELES Pentagon Papers Bjt a240 add: day.'' 320

    The man who directed the Ellsberg-Russo defense fund, economist
Stanley Scheinbaum, said the trial has cost the defendants $900,000.
    ''It's easy to say this is a high cost for two men to pay for their
freedom,'' said Schezhe feeling that I was just a grain of sand,'' he said. ''Now
I know we do not have to feel alienated and powerless, like
single grains of sand.''
    Both Ellsberg and Russo, addressing a throng of reporters who had
covered their trials from the inception, commended the news media
for fairly reporting the events of the last two years.
    Ellsberg drew laughter when he told the reporters, ''It's been
a good relationship we've had over the last several years,
but it's over now. I'm going back to my wife.''
    
1641pED 05-12


************************************************************


237   1256pt 05-12
Watergate Rndup Bjt NL 440 2 Takes 690
By MICHAEL PUTZEL
Associated Press Writer
    WASHINGTON (AP) - President Nixon, whose administration has been
rocked by the Watergate scandal, will ask Congress next week to
create a bipartisan commission that could recommend major reforms
in the conduct of election campaigns, White House sources said
Saturday.
    The sources said Nixon will urge approval of a joint resolution
authorizing the panel and clearing the way for financing and
staffing the commission.
    The panel would have a broad mandate to study past campaign abuses
and propose legislation or other means of preventing future
Watergates, the sources said.
    The White House reportedly envisions a panel of 16 to 20 members,
some of whom would be members of Congress named by the Democratic
and Republican leadership. Other commission members would be
appointed by the President.
    The sources said the proposal probably will be sent to Congress
late next week after the White House completes its paperwork
and lines up sponsors for the resolution in both the Senate and
House.
    The House Republican Conference, meanwhile, named 15 of its
members to a GOP task force that will seek ways to tighten federal
campaign laws. Rep. Bill Frenzel of Minnesota was named to head
the group.
    Rep. Barber B. Conable of New York, chairman of the House
Republican Research Committee and a member of the task force, said
he has asked the group ''to consider the entire range of
campaign-related activities in an effort to discourage abuses and
tighten present regulations and laws.''
    The Senate's special Watergate investigators continued their probe
Saturday with a one-hour questioning of Marine Corps Gen. Robert
E. Cushman Jr. Cushman, now commandant of the Marine Corps, was
deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency when the CIA
gave undercover assistance to convicted Watergate conspirator
E. Howard Hunt in 1971.
    Cushman has told congressional watchdog committees he permitted
the agency to give Hunt a hidden camera and tape recorder and a
wig after presidential adviser John D. Ehrlichman requested
assistance for Hunt. He assumed Ehrlichman was acting on behalf
of the President, Cushman said.
    The general presumably gave a similar account in the closed-door
session Saturday, but he refused to discuss the meeting, saying he
has not finished testifying before Congress and won't comment until
after his appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee
Monday.
    The Watergate committee staff is expected to interview several more
prospective witnesses before the committee opens formal hearings
Thursday.
    Another military man, Army Gen. Alexander M. Haig Jr., came under
fire Saturday from a congressman who said Nixon's appointment of Haig
as White House chief of staff violated ''elementary rules'' against
military involvement in civilian rule.
MORE
    
ag-sr404ped may 12


238   1305pt 05-12
WASHINGTON Take 2 Watergate Bjt NL A237: rule.
    Rep. John E. Moss, D-Calif., said he has asked Comptroller Gen.
Elmer B. Staats for a ruling on whether the naming of an active-duty
general ''to serve in such a sensitive political position''
violated long-established rules of conduct or any laws.
    Staats heads the General Accounting Office, which conducts
investigations, audits and other research for members of Congress.
    Haig, a close Nixon associate for many years who was recently
appointed Army vice chief of staff, was brought into the White
House to replace H.R. Haldeman, who resigned after press reports linked
him to the Watergate scandal.
    George Busch, chairman of the Republican National Committee, told a
GOP heritage-group convention here that ''the party is separate from
Watergate.''
    ''Because of Watergate,'' Bush said, ''some individuals have lost,
but the party is winning.''
    ''No short-term blitz of headlines can obscure'' that the GOP ''is
unquestionably alive, thriving and moving forward in some very
concrete and positive ways,'' Bush said.
    Henry A. Kissinger, President Nixon's foreign-policy adviser,
told reporters he ''noticed no impact of Watergate on our foreign
policy'' during his recent trip to the Soviet Union. The White
House emissary was questioned at a briefing following the
announcement that Communist Party Chief Leonid Brezhnev of the Soviet
Union will visit the United States for summit talks with Nixon next
month.
    
sr410ped may 12


************************************************************


230   1215pt 05-12
 kgue, n.y. )ap) - A new apartment complex has opened
across from the boyhood home of former Atty. Gen. John N. Mitchell
here.
    The name?
    ''Watergate Apartments.''
    
1514pED 05-12


************************************************************


218   1104pt 05-12
 GOP Governors Bjt 380 Two Takes 580
AP News Analysis
By CARL P. LEUBSDORF
AP Political Writer

    NEW YORK (AP) - Republican governors remain less influential within
their party than their more numerous Democratic counterparts
despite assurances from Nixon administration and GOP officials
that their voices will be heard.
    The standing of the GOP governors, who met here this week, was
symbolized perhaps by their exclusion from the party's big 1974
fund-raising dinner in Washington the night the governors opened
the New York sessions.
    Democrats, on the other hand, recently chose a governor - Jimmy
Carter of Georgia - to head a unified 1974 campaign committee.
    A veteran of the GOP Senate campaign committee, Eddie Mahe, was
named to head the Republican National Committee's 1974 ''New
Majority'' campaign. The campaign is clearly aimed at House
and Senate races rather than gubernatorial contests.
    Yet, as the governors repeatedly point out, the contests for 35
state governorships in 1974 could be the year's clearest indicator
of the nation's political climate in advance of the 1976
presidential race.
    All of the largest states, except Illinois, will be choosing
governors in 1974. The situation was the same in 1958, when a
Democratic sweep preceeded John F. Kennedy's 1960 victory, and in
1966, when a GOP comeback foreshadowed Richard Nixon's 1968 triumph.
    A political fallout from the Watergate scandal could prove
especially disastrous to Republican governors, who have already
dropped in five years from a 32-18 majority of state houses
to a 31-19 deficit.
    A strong Democratic tide in 1974 could endanger GOP governors who
have won elections in normally Democratic states, such as William G.
Milliken of Michigan, Francis W. Sargent of Massachusetts
and Thomas J. Meskill of Connecticut. That would leave the GOP
with barely enough governors to fill a small meeting room.
    Though Republican governors have been more independent of the Nixon
administration than most of the senators and congressmen running
next year, they clearly fear the political impact of Watergate
despite their statements that it won't hurt them.
    Publicly, the governors declared trust in Nixon. They expressed the
assumption that the full Watergate story would come out and that
Nixon was indeed free of any involvement in or awareness of the
scandal.
    Privately, they expressed some uncertainty, however.
MORE
    
    
1409pED 05-12


219   1111pt 05-12
 NEW YORK GOP Governors Bjt take 2: however. 200
    The governors had planned to concentrate at Friday's political
discussion on ways to increase their role in party affairs, a
perennial question at all governors' conferences. But they
put off any specific action.
    Gov. Linwood Holton of Virginia, their chairman, said he would talk
with Republican National Chairman George Bush about the possibility
of the national party giving the governors greater financial support
in the future. He deferred any decision on an independent fund-
raising or campaign organization.
    This leaves the GOP governors still talking about steps already
achieved by the Democrats.
    Relatively powerless in the 1972 presidential maneuvering, the
Democratic governors helped make Robert S. Strauss party chairman
and have been given a major role for the 1974 campaign.
    Perhaps only the re-emergence of a governor, presumably New York's
Nelson R. Rockefeller, as a major presidential contender, or even
the 1976 nominee, could do this for the GOP governors.
    Yet, a recent Gallup Poll showed the long-time New York governor in
fourth place as the choice of Republicans for the 1976nomination.
    
1413pED 05-12


************************************************************


072   0613pt 05-12
Nixon Campaigns 300
    WASHINGTON (AP) - President Nixon plans to create a bipartisan
commission with a broad mandate to recommend ways to prevent political
scandals such as the Watergate from recurring, the Washington Star-News
said today.
    In his speech April 30 on the Watergate scandal, Nixon contended
that both parties have used ''shady tactics'' in the past.
    Since then, it is understood acting White House Counsel Leonard
Garment has been developing a method for drawing up standards and
rules for future elections to assure an abuse-free system, the
Star-News said.
    Nixon is expected to announce definite plans toward the end of next
week, the newspaper said.
    The story continued:
    Associates familiar with the President's thinking indicate he hopes
the commission would go beyond possible new laws to consider the
feasibility of voluntary agreements to guard against election
campaign abuses of all kinds.
    The tentative plans are for a commission of possibly 16 to 20 members,
including members of Congress named by Democratic and Republican
leaders. Others appointed by the President would include people of
national stature concerned with political standards.
    The commission probably would be asked to finish its work in time for
Congress to enact any needed legislation before the 1974 congressional
elections.
    The commisssion would be studying abuses but not investigating
them in competition with the Senate Watergate committee or others,
sources said.
    Officials suggested these practices might be probed:
    -Threats, intimidation, vote frauds, false and misleading campaign
charges, bribery in the form of campaign contributions and other
''dirt6 tricas.''
    -The cost and length of election campaigns.
    -Possible further restrictions on campaign advertising, by
legislation or agreement or both.
    -Possible need for a new institution, with teeth, to replace the
largely impotent Fair Campaign Practices Committee.
    -The interrelationship of federal, state and local campaigns and the
electoral college system itself.
    -The feasibility of voluntary agreements to limit the kind or amount
of campaigning sanctioned, with standards against which abuses could
be measured.
    
sr920aed may 12


210   1023pt 05-12
Nixon-Campaign Lead A072
    WASHINGTON (AP) - President Nixon will ask Congress next week to
create a bipartisan commission that would recommend major
reforms in the conduct of presidential election campaigns,
White House sources said today.
    Nixon will urge approval of a joint resolution to authorize the
panel. Such a move would not only clear the way for financing
and staffing of the commission but would involve Congress,
from the outset, in the search for ways to avoid campaign abuses
such as the Watergate scandal in the future.
    The sources said Nixon's request probably would not go to
Congress until the end of next week because the White House
still must do considerable paperwork on the matter and line
up sponsors for the resolution.
    The Washington Star-News said acting White House counsel Leonard
Garment had been developing the plan.
    The story: 5th graf.
    
jc126ped may 12


************************************************************


039   0217pt 05-12
CURRENT QUOTES
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    
    ''If the will of the Congress is not adhered to, the nation will
face a true constitutional crisis.'' - Senate Democratic leader Mike
Mansfield's prediction if the Senate follows the House lead in
cutting off funds for Cambodian bombing and President Nixon fails
to stop the bombing.
    
    ''Justice is served far better and differences are settled more
rationally within the system than on the street. Now is the time
to make legal services an integral part of our judicial system.'' -
President Nixon, proposing a new system of free legal aid for the
poor.
    
    ''How will they ever know what a mountain is, if they've never
seen or been on one?'' - Byron Berhow, superintendent of the
Washington State School for the Blind, explaining why six blind
youngsters plan to climb Oregon's highest peak on Sunday.
    
    ''We have confidence in the future of our country. We deplore
Watergate. We support the President. We believe the President.
We feel he has achieved major accomplishments for our country.
We will do whatever we can to help meet the vital needs of our
country.'' - The nation's Republican governors, in a joint
statement.
    
0519aED 05-12


************************************************************


037   0209pt 05-12
Scali-Watergate 140
    BOSTON (AP) - John A. Scali, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations,
says the Watergate affair ''has not slowed down our foreign
policy.''
    Scali told newsmen during ceremonies celebrating the 25th
anniversary of the Boston University School of Public Communication
on Friday that foreign leaders ''recognize that this is the same
Richard Nixon'' who has achieved international breakthroughs with
summits in Moscow and Peking.
    Scali, a former newspaperman who attended Boston University, said
he believes foreign leaders ''still have tremendous respect
for Richard Nixon, the foreign policy negotiator.''
    He said that, when foreign diplomats mention Watergate to him, ''I
say to them, 'I seem to recall a problem or two your country has
had.' Regardless of the country, it applies.''
    
0510aED 05-12


************************************************************


026   0119pt 05-12
 Council-Economy 260
By BILL NEIKIRK
Associated Press Writer
    HOT SPRINGS, Va. (AP) - The chairman of Mobil Oil Corp., has told a
group of the nation's leading economists that the energy issue
should remain a commercial matter, not a political one.
    Rawleigh Warner Jr., spoke Friday at a panel discussion at the
semiannual meeting of economists who advise the Business Council,
an organization of about 100 of the nation's top corporate
leaders.
    Warner said he felt it would be counterproductive for the nations
that rely on oil from the Middle East to band together ''and
confront the producing countries with a monolithic bloc.''
    This sort of action, he said, would pit the consuming nations
against the producing nations and ''would inevitably inject politics
into the issue of energy, which should remain essentially a
commercial issue.''
    Warner also said price controls are having an adverse effect on
the oil industry.
    The panelist suggested that President Nixon should end wage-price
controls as soon as possible.
    ''There was strong agreement that the small amount of help in
temporarily controlling inflation, provided by price controls, is
more than offset by the harm they do in disrupting the economic
system,'' the economists said in a report.
    Howard Morgens, an economist who wrote the report said, it was the
consensus of the panel that the controls should be abandoned as
rapidly as feasible.''
    However, the economists observed that the White House may not be
able to abandon controls now for political reasons.
    White House Advisor Ann Armstrong spoke to a closed session of the
group Friday and reportedly said the Republican party is not
to blame for the Watergate scandal, which she termed the work of
a few individuals.
    
cr424aed may 12


************************************************************


018   0030pt 05-12
Thailand's Watergate 390
By PETER O'LOUGHLIN
Associated Press Writer
    BANGKOK (AP) - Thailand has its own Watergate scandal brewing,
but there's one big difference-this one involves animals.
    For the first time since taking power 10 years ago, Premier Thanom
Kittikachorn and his military junta are ducking for cover under
criticism from the usually docile Thai press and public.
    The controversy began April 29 in the jungle near Burma's border
when a Thai army helicopter crashed near Thung Yai game park,
killing six military and police officers and injuring four others.
    Journalists and university students emerged from the jungle the
next day and claimed the helicopter had been flying into the game
park daily to pick up deer and other animals shot during an illegal
hunting trip by businessmen and senior police officers.
    They asserted that more than 50 people, including women, children
and a movie star, were on the four-day safari.
    The government quickly tried to squelch the story, since the
chopper belonged to the infantry division commanded by premier's
son, Col. Narong Kittikachorn. The premier claimed the helicopter
was on a secret mission when it crashed.
    Then came a series of anonymous death threats to officials in the
conservation division of the Forestry Department. Six of the eight
officials in the department went into hiding, leaving only a clerk
and a typist in the office.
    The Thai press, which the government controls tightly, received a
letter from the police department warning it to stop playing up the
story. But the papers refused and published the letter. The colonel
who wrote it was transferred.
    The traditionally nonpolitical royal family even spoke out.
Princess Sirindhorn, 18-year-old daughter of King Bhumibol, told a
press conference that she was against hunting and helicopters could
be put to better use evacuating soldiers wounded by Communist
terrorists.
    Through it all, the government remained outwardly unperturbed and
stuck to the ''secret mission'' story, although it obviously was
unhappy with the growing press campaign.
    One result of the scandal has been that stewed brush-tail
porcupine, tiger's claw and elephant knuckles, among other Thai
delicacies, are off the menu in Bangkok's bootleg game restaurants.
Officials of the wildlife protection unit of the Forestry Department
have raided a dozen such spots.
    
0335aED 05-12


************************************************************


016   0019pt 05-12
Ellsberg-Russo Bjt 430 Two Takes 660
By LEE MARGULIES
Associated Press Writer
    LOS ANGELES (AP) - Pentagon papers defendants Daniel Ellsberg and
Anthony Russo say they will continue their efforts to expose
government secrecy.
    ''This trial isn't over until that bombing (over Cambodia) is
over,'' Ellsberg said Friday after a federal judge dismissed all
charges against the two men.
    They had been accused of espionage, conspiracy and theft for
copying the Pentagon papers, a secret study of the Vietnam war.
    ''I'm relieved that all this stuff is over, but the work is not
finished,'' said Russo as he and Ellsberg emerged from U.S. District
Court.
    ''I don't feel we can take any vacation. It's only a partial
victory,'' Russo told reporters and supporters who crushed in
outside the courthouse building.
    Both men say they hope to expose wrongdoings in high places by
suing President Nixon.
    ''The President has led a conspiracy to deprive us of our civil
liberties,'' said Ellsberg.
    ''We will bring suit against all the conspirators, of which the
President appears to be the ringleader.''
    He and Russo said the manner in which the government conducted
itself in the case, with a special White House unit that burglarized
the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist, showed what the papers
had shown-that the government is willing to deceive the public.
    The charges against Ellsberg and Russo were dismissed because of
what the judge called government misconduct. Some of the trial
revelations included the burglary of the office of Ellsberg's
psychiatrist and White House knowledge of it, and wiretapped
conversations of Ellsberg dating back to 1969.
    ''This trial has been enlightening to the American public, as Tony
and I hoped it would be,'' said Ellsberg. ''It's enlightened them to
how we're ruled. Now it's up to the Congress, the courts, the press,
the people, to see that it doesn't happen anymore.''
    Cheered as he moved from interview to interview, Ellsberg said, ''I
hope the people will go back now to the Pentagon papers and realize
that deception and lying about our country's polcies . . . did not
start with Nixon and will not end unless we make Watergate a
watershed for our country.''
    That is why they plan to sue Nixon and other administration
officials for damages and court costs, Ellsberg and Russo said.
    ''We plan to allege that the President and others were engaged
in a conspiracy that ran throughout the government and private
institutions . . . to violate our civil rights,'' Russo said.
MORE
    
0325aED 05-12


017   0026pt 05-12
LOS ANGELES Take 2 Ellsberg-Russo Bjt: said. 230
    Ellsberg said he does not think there is enough evidence yet to
prove the President is guilty of any criminal act. But he charged
enough evidence has been produced to indict Nixon and more
revelations would follow such an action.
    ''I believe the President is innocent until proven guilty and
deserves his day in court, just as we did,'' Ellsberg said.
    As U.S. District Court Judge Matt Byrne finished delivering his
dismissal statement, the crowded courtroom erupted in applause and
cheering, with some members of the audience jumping up on their
seats.
    Ellsberg and Russo embraced their wives and then a succession of
attorneys, friends and well-wishers who swarmed to the defense
table.
    ''Thank God,'' said one woman as she hugged a smiling, crying
Patricia Ellsberg. ''Thank God is right,'' was the reply.
    Though both men had repeatedly expressed the desire for vindication
by a jury, they said they were in no way disappointed with the
outcome.
    ''We feel this trial should have never been brought,'' Ellsberg
said. ''We feel we didn't need vindication for telling the truth to
the American people. Tony and I did something right in our lives.''
    Would they do it again?
    ''We'd do it tomorrow.''
    
0328aED 05-12


************************************************************


011   2326pt 05-11
Republican Governors 330
By CARL P. LEUBSDORF
AP Political Writer
    NEW YORK (AP) - The nation's Republican governors have declared
support for President Nixon after Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller of New
York told them the severity of attacks on the President's handling
of the Watergate affair may produce a political backlash in his
favor.
    Rockfeller was host of a day-long meeting of the governors Friday
at his Pocantico Hills estate in Westchester County north of New
York City. The session was closed to newsmen.
    The six-sentence statement by the GOP governors said:
    -''We have confidence in the future of our country.
    -''We deplore Watergate.
    -''We support the President.
    -''We believe the President.
    -''We feel he has achieved major accomplishments for our country.
    -''We will do whatever we can to help meet the vital needs of our
country.''
    Briefing reporters on the meeting, Gov. Linwood Holton of Virginia,
chairman of the GOP governors, and Rockefeller gave no reason for
the decision to issue the statement.
    However, aides to some of the governors said they apparently
decided that they couldn't conclude the semiannual meeting without
some statement on Watergate.
    In other action, the governors named a committee headed by Gov.
Stanley Hathaway of Wyoming to study the energy crisis and make
recommendations to next month's National Governors Conference on
steps states can take ''to cut consumption and waste of fuel and to
develop and expand domestic energy sources.''
    Asked why the governors had issued a more specific statement on the
energy crisis than on Watergate, Holton replied it was because
''that is something we can still influence in the future.''
    The three-day conference ended Friday night with a steak dinner
around a pool in a Roman-style courtyard at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art.
    
0230aED 05-12


************************************************************


608   2041pt 05-11
  $ADV 13
    ADV AMS SUN MAY 13
    An AP Newsfeatures Special
    The Mood of the President 280 Three Takes 1,210
By SAUL PETT
AP Special Correspondent
    WASHINGTON (AP) - Coolness in crisis, he once wrote, comes after a
''necessary period of indecision, doubt and soul-searching.''
    In the image the White House sought to project, that period
of painful introspection was ending for Richard Nixon this
week, although Watergate wasn't. His mood, aides said, was
once more on the way up. It had a long way to go.
    The bottom came two weeks ago. He was returning from the splendid
isolation of the mountaintop at Camp David, where he spent the
weekend facing up to the fact that his two most trusted assistants,
H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, would have to go.
    Now, walking over the south lawn behind the White House,
on the way to the television cameras waiting in his office,
the President of the United States said to an aide:
    ''Walk with me - - -''
    He noticed several reporters.
    '' - - - Unless you feel it'll hurt you.''
    In his office, Nixon ended his Watergate speech with difficulty,
and rose from his desk as a television technician said, ''Good
job, Mr. President.'' Richard Nixon, who prides himself on
his self-control, lost it then. He wept.
    The next morning, on the way to the cabinet room, the President
noticed an FBI agent stationed outside of Haldeman's office.
''That,'' says a man who was there, ''was the bottom for the
President.''
    Nixon vented his anger before the cabinet. He said it was
''reprehensible'' to have FBI men placed outside the offices
of Haldeman and Ehrlichman, two men, he said, ''who are not
criminals and are basically decent and honest.''
    MORE
    
2344pED 05-11


609   2049pt 05-11
  $ADV 13
    ADV AMs Sun May 13
    An AP Newsfeatures Special
    WASHINGTON Take 2 The Mood of The President: honest.'' 490.

    The President then flayed Sen. Charles Percy, the Illinois
Republican, for pushing a Senate resolution for an independent
outside investigation of Watergate.
    ''Percy,'' said the man now in the job, ''will become President
over my dead body.''
    The tears, the flashing anger, were the only moments, aides report,
in which Richard Nixon lost his control in a fortnight of convulsive
shocks that seemed, at times, to be unravelling a government.
    Scattered talk of impeachment has brought no response, even
in private, from the man who won the second largest landslide
in history a few months ago, say the people around him. ''I
doubt,'' said one assistant, ''that he takes it at all seriously;
he'd expect some people to use the word just to make headlines.''
    With the spreading scandal and ''the crisis of confidence'' in his
administration, does the President worry about his ability to
govern?
    ''I think he feels there will be problems,'' said an assistant,
''and that he's going to have to work hard on them, that he
has to convince people the captain of the ship is alive and
well, on the bridge.
    ''He knows he has to prove that he can come back, and, knowing
him, I think he'll turn it into a challenge. He almost relishes
challenges.''
    Until ten days ago, aides report, Watergate had ''drained
the President physically and emotionally.'' He was sleeping
much less, and looked it. Then a weekend in Florida - a moonlight
cruise, the comfort of friends such as Charles ''Bebe'' Rebozo,
the Florida financier and real estate operator, and Paul Keyes,
former producer of ''Laugh-In'' - appeared to revive him.
    The picture now offered of the President is that of a once
more dynamic captain, back up from the lonely, painful reflection
in his cabin, firmly again at the helm, issuing rapid, incisive
orders to patch up the sails, plug the holes in the hull and
put the ship back on course, though the storm still rages.
    ''The President is now devoting very little of his time'' to
Watergate, press secretary Ron Ziegler told reporters this week.
''. . . The President is governing, he is leading and he
intends to do so.''
    ''He is definitely coming back in mood,'' said another presidential
assistant. ''He is returning to his move aggressive self,
and that's a good sign.''
    The President, who has called himself the ''coach and quarterback''
of his team, is also pictured in a week of tumultous events
and mixed metaphors as the man running up and down behind
the tattered line, trying to revive the old fighting spirit.
    He popped in on a staff meeting this week, talked of the
goals of his second term that call for ''extra effort,'' reminded
them that they had been through bad periods before and said,
''We'll come out of this, too.''
    MORE
    
2355pED 05-11


610   2057pt 05-11
  $ADV 13
    ADV AMs Sun May 13
    An AP Newsfeatures Special
    WASHINGTON Take 3 The Mood of the President: too.'' 440.

    He told his changing Cabinet, reshuffled this week in a frantic
version of musical chairs, that they must not be ''deflected''
or ''consumed'' by the distractions of Watergate, that they
all must still work toward peace in the world, reorganization
of government and solutions to energy problems.
    ''I have the responsibility,'' he said, ''and so does every
person in this room, not to let these opportunities be lost.''
    But now and then the suggestion of a somewhat chastened President
slipped through.
    ''He is determined to learn whatever lessons can be learned
from Watergate,'' said an assistant.
    And so the President told both staff and Cabinet, in effect, that
the ''Berlin wall'' built up between him and much of the rest of
government by Haldeman and Ehrlichman is coming down, that
henceforth he will seek to avoid the creation of sub-empires under
him.
    Henceforth, in the White House staff, there will be ''lower
profiles'' and less ''domination of personality.'' He said he now
seeks ''more openness'' with both Congress and the press, and direct
communications with every member of his Cabinet.
    The President is now said to be reading newspapers more. Until
recently, said a high administration source, he was relying on the
news digests prepared for him for outside information on Watergate.
    ''Those digests,'' said the source, ''were far from
objective, and disparaged the mounting evidence and press
accounts alleging White House wrongdoing.''
    In his one public appearance outside the White House since
Watergate became a tidal wave two weeks ago, the President came
before a Republican fund-raising dinner in a Washington hotel. He
was introduced by Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, who hailed him as a
man who has ''returned reason and civility to public discourse.''
    The President rose. ''I didn't get where I am by ducking
the tough ones,'' he said. Also: ''I do not stand here tonight
as a loser . . . We're going to make the next four years our best
four years.'' He also suggested the troubles of his administration
could be equated with the sins of past administrations and
campaigns.
    The audience applauded. In words and gestures, it seemed
to be vintage Richard Nixon - the pumping right arm, the body
English, the nervous flutter of eyelids.
    But in both speaker and audience, there appeared to be something
missing - a crescendo that wouldn't soar, a fire slow to kindle.
    The fund-raising evening produced half the funds expected.
    End ADV AMs Sun May 13 sent May 11
    
0003aED 05-12


************************************************************