Nixon: 'instant ageing'

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34119, 3 April 1976, Page 15

Nixon: 'instant ageing'

(N.Z. Press Assn —Copyright) , PHOENIX (Arizona), April 2. I The former United States President, Mr (Richard Nixon, was not! (drinking heavily during (his last days in office/ ■and looked remarkably: fresh until two days before he resigned. Mr Dean Burch, a former counsellor to Mr Nixon, said today. I i Mr Burch, now chairman j of the national advisory; committee for the President Ford Committee, disputed accounts in “Final Davs,” a book written by the "Washington Post” reporters. Carl Bernstein and Bob Wood ward. "1 saw the president every . day — not at 11 at night or 4 in the morning, but he. was not drinking heavily,”: Mr Burch said. “My God, I wondered, how does he look so fresh.” Mr Burch said that he saw ■ a distinct change come over Mr Nixon on August 7, 1974. two days before Mr Nixon resigned. “I bumped into him in the hall, and almost knocked the I President down,” Mr Burch said. “He looked 50 years older than he had the day before. He knew it was over, j (It was an instant ageing ( process. If he was drinking, ! it was after hours.”