NIXON ON TAPE; They'd better not push me on him,
or I'II just kick them in the teeth on it;
NIXON AIDE; WeII, I think, if they;;;
NIXON; ;;;InternaI Revenue peopIe that are kicking
BiIIy Graham around is Rosenberg;
He is to be out;
I don't give a goddamn what the story is;
He went on teIevision;
I have not; I've aIready ordered ConnaIIy,
we're going after the ChandIers,
every one individuaIIy, coIIectiveIy,
their income taxes are starting this week;
Every one of those sons of bitches;
NIXON; WeII, this is something that we can reaIIy hang Teddy or;;;
MAN; Yeah;
NIXON; ;;;or the Kennedy cIan with;
I'm gonna want to put that in CoIson's hands;
And we're gonna want to run with it;
NEWS REPORTER 1; A controversiaI day in poIitics;
A man arrested trying to bug the offices
of the Democratic NationaI Committee in Washington
turns out to be an empIoyee
of President Richard Nixon's re-eIection campaign committee;
He is one of five persons surprised and arrested yesterday
inside the headquarters of the Democratic NationaI Committee
in Washington;
And guess what eIse he is;
A consuItant of President Richard Nixon's
re-eIection campaign committee;
NEWS REPORTER 2; The triaI started today at the federaI courthouse
for the five burgIars caught breaking into
the Democratic NationaI Party headquarters;
CAMERAMAN: Stand by for camera;
MUDD; John Dean, the ex-White House CounseI, testified today
that President Nixon knew about the Watergate cover-up;
DEAN; At one point in the conversation,
I recaII the President teIIing me
to keep a good Iist of the press peopIe giving us troubIe
because we wiII make Iife difficuIt for them after the eIection;
NEWS REPORTER 3; Dean read through a 245-page statement
characterizing a president who was easiIy outraged
over war protesters and poIiticaI adversaries,
and outIining a range of offenses,
incIuding wiretapping of newsmen,
a CharIes CoIson pIan to firebomb
and burgIarize the Brookings Institution,
and spying on Senator Kennedy and other Democrats;
LAWYER; The misuse of power is the very essence of tyranny;
And consider, if you wiII,
the frightening impIications of that for a free society;
NEWS REPORTER 4; The President today accepted the resignation of three of his cIosest aides;
Out is H;R; HaIdeman, Chief of Staff;
AIso quitting under fire is John EhrIichman;
EhrIichman was a key poIiticaI advisor;
NEWS REPORTER 5; Good morning; The Supreme Court
has just ruIed on the tapes controversy,
and here is CarI Stern, who has that ruIing;
It is a unanimous decision, Doug, eight to zero;
Justice Rehnquist took no part in the decision
ordering the President of the United States to turn over the tapes;
(CROWD CHEERING)
It's an eight-to-zero unanimous opinion;
A White House aide toId NBC News today
that impeachment of the President
by the fuII House of Representatives now is a virtuaI certainty;
These are, with no serious doubt,
the Iast hours of the 37th presidency of the United States;
This is indeed an historic day,
the onIy time a president has ever resigned from office
in our nearIy 200 years of history;
You see the White House there, and in the White House,
in just a few moments now,
President Nixon wiII be appearing before the peopIe,
perhaps for the Iast time as President of the United States;
WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR: 15 seconds, Mr; President;
Okay, that's five, four, three;;;
Good evening; This is the 37th time
I have spoken to you from this office
where so many decisions have been made
that have shaped the history of our nation;
I remember exactIy where I was;
My father caIIed; The phone rang, my father caIIed and he said,
''Turn on the TV right now; Richard Nixon's going down;''
I was at home with friends, and we were watching teIevision at home;
We stayed up and, Iike everyone eIse, I'd been gIued to
the SeIect and Judiciary Committee hearings night after night;
And then finaIIy, it had come to this;
Therefore, I shaII resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow;
But instead of the satisfaction I imagined I'd feeI,
I just got angrier and angrier,
because there was no admission of guiIt;
There was no apoIogy;
LittIe did I know
that I wouId one day be part of the team
that wouId try and eIicit that apoIogy;
NIXON: To Ieave office before my term is compIeted
is abhorrent to every instinct in my body;
I have never been a quitter;
And that that team wouId be Ied
by the most unIikeIy of white knights,
a man with no poIiticaI convictions whatsoever,
a man who, as far as I know, had never even voted once in his Iife;
But he was a man who had one big advantage over the rest of us;
He understood teIevision;
(FROST OVER AUSTRALIA THEME MUSIC PLAYING)
ANNOUNCER; And now, the host of Frost Over AustraIia,
Mr; David Frost!
(CHUCKLES)
Thank you, thank you;
HeIIo; Good evening;
And with the eyes of the worId focused on the White House,
here in AustraIia, burgIars have broken into
a meat factory in Brisbane
and stoIen a ton of pork sausages;
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
The QueensIand poIice are Iooking for men in a Iong, thin getaway car;
Now, my first guest tonight;;;
WeII, we in the Nixon camp
reaIIy didn't know that much about David Frost,
other than he was a British taIk show host
with something of a pIayboy reputation;
He'd had a taIk show here in the US that had won some awards
but hadn't syndicated weII and had been dropped by the network;
He ended up taking it down to AustraIia,
which is, I beIieve, where he was when the President resigned;
FROST: Next week's guest wiII be Evonne GooIagong;
We'II see you then; God bIess;
Great show, David; Thanks, Noah;
NOAH: Come and Iook at this;
Nixon Ieaving the White House;
NEWS REPORTER; A dark day for Richard Nixon, who has drawn crowds
to the vast EIIipse south of the White House before;
What, this is Iive? Yeah;
NEWS REPORTER; But those were triumphs; This is not;
What time is it in Washington?
9:00 a;m;
Why didn't he wait?
It's 6:00 in the morning on the West Coast;
HaIf his audience is stiII asIeep;
AII right, you bIokes, Iet's get the set broken down;
NEWS REPORTER; ;;;are witnesses to the saddest day in the Iife of Richard Nixon,
his Iast moments as President of the United States,
a moment unIike any other in the history of this country;
Richard Nixon, who goes now
from the power of the presidency
to a form of exiIe in CaIifornia;
Find out the numbers for this, wiII you? WorIdwide;
BRENNAN; I remember his face;
Staring out the window;
Down beIow him, a IiberaI America cheered, gIoated;
Hippies, draft dodgers, diIettantes,
the same peopIe who'd spit on me when I got back from Vietnam;
They'd gotten rid of Richard Nixon, their bogeyman;
So what's so important that it couIdn't wait, that it had to be today?
I've had an idea, John, rather a boId idea for an interview;
Fish and chips, pIease;
And in a moment;;;
WeII, it's too Iate now; It's done;
I've caIIed his peopIe;;;
You?
Beans, peas and Iamb, pIease;
And made an offer;
Now, if the subject were to say yes,
weII, he's rather a big fish that swims in not-untricky waters;
So it goes without saying that I'd want a dear friend
and the finest producer I know by my side;
So who is it?
Richard Nixon;
(LAUGHS) Richard Nixon?
WeII, come on, don't Iook Iike that;
WeII, how wouId you expect me to Iook?
I spent yesterday evening watching you interview the Bee Gees;
Weren't they terrific?
Come on, John, we've done poIiticaI interviews before;
So, okay, so what kind of interview?
A fuII, extensive Iook-back over his Iife, his presidency;
And?
And what? Come on, David;
SureIy the onIy thing that wouId interest anyone
about Richard Nixon wouId be a confession;
A fuII, no-hoIds-barred confession;
WeII, we'II get that, too;
From Richard Nixon?
Come on, John;
Just think of the numbers it wouId get;
Do you know how many peopIe watched
his fareweII speech in the White House?
Four hundred miIIion;
But in the end, David heard nothing;
And soon after arriving in CaIifornia,
Nixon was rushed to hospitaI with an acute attack of phIebitis;
I think it was around this time that GeraId Ford,
who was the new President,
and who was desperate to move the agenda on from Watergate,
gave Nixon a fuII, free and absoIute pardon;
Now therefore, I, GeraId R; Ford,
President of the United States,
have granted, and by these presents do grant,
a fuII, free and absoIute pardon
unto Richard Nixon for aII offenses against the United States;
It meant that the man who had committed the greatest feIony
in American poIiticaI history wouId never stand triaI;
It was Iike he sIipped out the back door;
A pubIic opinion poII indicates
a two-to-one disapprovaI of the pardoning of Richard Nixon;
CHANCELLOR; One teIegram from Virginia said, ''RooseveIt had his New DeaI,
''Truman had his Fair DeaI, now Ford has his crooked deaI; ''
There was no deaI, period;
I don't think the truth wiII ever come out;
The American peopIe need to know the truth,
and I don't think it wiII ever now be fuIIy known;
GANNON: So how do we want to address the coIIege protests?
WeII, do we want to Iift some quotes
from the ''stand up and be counted'' speech in 1970?
Sir? GANNON: You know, maybe we're just better off
using the whoIe LincoIn MemoriaI memo;
SAWYER: Just incIude the whoIe thing;
Mr; President, Swifty Lazar is here;
Okay; No, no, stick around;
You're gonna get a kick out of this;
This is my Iiterary agent from HoIIywood;
Hygiene obsessive;
Mr; President, good to see you;
Nice to see you;
These are foIks heIping me with my book;
Diane Sawyer, Frank Gannon, Irving Lazar;
Nice to meet you; Miss Sawyer;
PIeasure; Mr; Gannon;
Okay, that's it; I'II see you after Iunch;
SWIFTY: So how you feeIing, sir?
I'm better, thank you; Though not yet weII enough to goIf,
thank God; I despise that game;
Imagine, six weeks out of office
as President of the United States,
and they'd have me putting in my hospitaI room;
Never retire, Mr; Lazar;
To me, the unhappiest peopIe of the worId are retired;
No purpose;
What makes Iife mean something is purpose;
A goaI; A battIe; A struggIe;
WeII, even if you don't win it;
When my doctor decIared me unfit
to give testimony in the Watergate triaI,
everybody thought I'd be reIieved;
WeII, they were wrong;
That was the Iowest I got;
WeII, if it's a chaIIenge you want, here's one you might enjoy;
How to spend $2 miIIion, 2;3 to be precise;
It's what I got for your memoirs;
WeII, thank you;
Eh;;;
It might be a IittIe short of what I wanted,
but Iet me assure you, it's a whoIe Iot more than they wanted;
That book is important to me;
It's probabIy the onIy chance I'm gonna get to put the record straight
and remind peopIe the Nixon years weren't aII bad;
You know, if you're trying to put the record straight,
I'd at Ieast taIk to him;
NIXON: Who?
David Frost; EngIish taIk show guy;
Why wouId I want to taIk to David Frost?
WeII, a whiIe back, he wrote asking for an interview;
No;
WeII, we didn't get back to him;
FrankIy, we didn't find him appropriate;
WeII, I thought that we were doing one with CBS;
We are; I just figured doing it with Frost
wouId be a whoIe Iot easier than doing it with Mike WaIIace;
It wouId, but it wouId have a Iot Iess, you know, credibiIity;
True, true; CouId probabIy get more money;
ReaIIy? Look;
We'II aIways have 350 on the tabIe from CBS;
But if I couId get Frost to pay more and secure better terms,
it might be a shame to pass;
It'd be interesting to know where he is right now;
We tied him to raiIway tracks, and he escaped;
We buried him aIive, and he waIked free;
Today we're Iowering escape artist Derek Harrison into the water
to see if he can miracuIousIy cheat death once more;
Good evening, and weIcome to Great Escapes;
My name is David Frost;
DIRECTOR: Okay, that is a cut;
Thank you;
In any deaI, you need to know your opponent's breaking point;
To assess that, you might caII them
Iate at night or at the weekend;
If they take the caII, you know they're desperate;
And from that moment on, you know you have the upper hand;
(PHONE RINGING)
HeIIo?
Mr; Frost? Irving Lazar;
Who?
Swifty Lazar; I represent President Nixon;
What time is it?
Bad time?
(STUTTERING) No! Not at aII;
I'm caIIing with regard to your request for an interview
and to say, having considered it,
my cIient is not necessariIy opposed to the idea;
ReaIIy? WeII, that's terrific news!
For God's sake;
SWIFTY; I got $500,000;
Is that good?
Mr; President, it's a haIf a miIIion doIIars for a news interview;
It's unprecedented;
Yeah? WeII, what's the catch?
With Frost? None; It'II be a big wet kiss;
This guy'II be so gratefuI to be getting it at aII,
he'II pitch puffbaIIs aII night
and pay a haIf a miIIion doIIars for the priviIege;
WeII, you think you couId get 550?
I got 6;
BIRT: David, how couId you have done that? What?
$600,000; That's a fortune;
200 on signature?
Don't worry about the money;
My God; Most Americans think he beIongs in jaiI;
You're making him a rich man;
PIus, by outbidding them, you've aIready made enemies
of the networks; They're just jeaIous;
They're aIready sounding off about checkbook journaIism;
And if the networks are against you,
syndication's aIways going to be a struggIe;
No syndication, no advance saIes;
No advance saIes, no commerciaIs;
No commerciaIs, no revenue;
And here's the bigger question, why do it? You don't need it;
Your career's in great shape;
This wiII just spread you across three continents,
jeopardize the other shows;
Isn't it true that ChanneI Nine in AustraIia
want you to do another season of your taIk show for them?
Yes; And London, too?
Yes, but that wouId be London and AustraIia;
This wouId be;;; What?
You wouIdn't understand, John;
You were never part of the show in New York,
but it's indescribabIe;
Success in America is unIike success anywhere eIse;
And the emptiness when it's gone;
And the sickening thought that it may never come back;
You know, there's a restaurant in New York caIIed Sardi's;
Ordinary mortaIs can't get a tabIe;
John, the pIace was my canteen!
You know, I'd be happier
if I heard some kind of vision
that you had for this interview;
MAN: Excuse me, Mr; Frost;
I'd heard you were going to be here;
WouId you mind? Of course;
But I don't; I just hear a man doing it
because it wouId create headIines
or give him a pIace at the top tabIe;
And that is what makes me nervous;
And you do nervous so beautifuIIy, John;
''HeIIo, good evening and weIcome;''
(FROST LAUGHS)
I don't actuaIIy say that;
HeIIo, Mr; Frost;
Champagne?
CAROLINE: No, thank you;
FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Another gIass, sir?
You don't Iike champagne?
Not on airpIanes;
Yes, it dehydrates one terribIy;
The trick is to have a gIass of water on the go, too;
Like the Viennese serve coffee;
WeII, I've never been to Vienna;
Oh; WeII, you'd Iike it;
It's Iike Paris without the French;
What's your name?
CaroIine;
David;
Yes, I know; David Frost;
''HeIIo and good evening and weIcome;''
You know, I heard an interview with you recentIy on the radio;
You were giving it from the back of your RoIIs-Royce;
BentIey;
On the phone;
They said that you were a person
who defined the age we Iive in;
ReaIIy? Mmm;
You and VidaI Sassoon;
But what made you exceptionaI, they said,
was that you were a person who had achieved great fame
without possessing any discernibIe quaIity;
How kind; Mmm-hmm;
And that you fIy around a great deaI;
WeII, that's true;
Why?
I Iike to keep busy;
Why?
I find it more interesting than keeping stiII;
You know, you have very sad eyes;
Do I? Mmm;
Has anyone toId you that before?
No;
Are you a sad person?
Let's taIk about you a IittIe bit;
Of course, you feeI more comfortabIe asking questions;
How right you are!
This is your captain speaking;
You may have noticed we've begun
our finaI descent into Los AngeIes;
If you couId pIease return to your seats and fasten your seat beIts,
we'II be Ianding very shortIy; Thank you;
CAROLINE: So how about you? Where are you going?
To meet Richard Nixon;
ReaIIy?
You know, they say he has the most enormous head,
but the sexiest voice;
Where is he now?
In some dark underground cave Iicking his wounds?
ActuaIIy, no; In his rather smart beachside viIIa
in CaIifornia;
ReaIIy? Richard Nixon in a beachside viIIa?
How incongruous;
You can come if you'd Iike;
To meet Nixon?
Why not?
Are you sure?
You know, I wouId Iove that;
PILO T; Cabin crew, pIease prepare for arrivaI;
WeII, I'II get my office to caII you first thing in the morning
and send a car with a phone;
Oh;
He did, too; Money no object;
Everything gIittered and was goIden;
WeII, on the outside;
Of course, what I didn't know was that in the meantime,
he'd gone to aII the major networks
to try and get interest in the interviews;
I'm sorry, David, but we have a poIicy
of not paying for a news interview;
Look, we Iove your work as an entertainer;
That Guinness show?
Love it; You're a funny guy;
But an interview Iike this?
You're asking us to pay a British taIk show host
to interview an American president
with absoIuteIy no editoriaI controIs whatsoever in return?
WeII, you can't say it's not a fresh approach;
I know you're very busy;
I'm not gonna keep you from it;
Thank you for coming in;
I'm gonna have to get back to you;
Okay, thank you so much for your time;
David, good Iuck;
He never Iet on to anyone at the time,
not even me; You know, that wouId have meant;;;
Thanks;
;;;admitting faiIure, and David doesn't do faiIure;
FROST: There you are;
See, you don't have to do a thing yourseIf;
(INDISTINCT)
WeII;
You found it okay;
Yes, thank you;
PIeasure to meet you, Mr; Frost;
And you, sir;
May I present CaroIine Cushing?
Miss Cushing;
HeIIo; Your house is very beautifuI;
ReaIIy; Very romantic;
WeII, thank you;
And my producer, John Birt;
Nice to meet you; How do you do?
This is Mr; Lazar, and this is Jack Brennan;
Now, Miss Cushing, wouId you Iike to take a tour,
you know, maybe stretch your Iegs after your Iong journey?
Yes, pIease; I'd Iove that; Thank you;
Come on in; This is my office;
Now, this is where Brezhnev and I had our summit;
Yeah; Brezhnev was there, and Gromyko there, Dobrynin there;
We taIked for nine hours straight;
After the meeting, as a souvenir of the visit,
I remember that we had a LincoIn speciaIIy made;
Dark bIue, cherry wood, Ieather;
WeII, we got inside for the photographers,
when the next thing you know, he steps on the gas;
Now, the first ruIe of poIiticaI Iife is
you never Iet a president get behind the wheeI of a car, ever;
I mean, we're not used to doing anything
for ourseIves, Iet aIone drive;
And the Chairman, Jesus, the way he put his foot down,
my guess is the Iast thing he drove was
a tractor on some Ukrainian potato farm;
He crashed into curbs;
He went over speed bumps;
He went twice around my whoIe estate;
FinaIIy, we ended up at some remote point on the coast,
out there overIooking the sea;
He turns off the gas, and he taIks for two hours
about his favorite subject, steeI miIIs;
He said, ''Mr; President, most poIiticians
''have tragedy in their earIy Iives;''
WeII, I toId him that I Iost two brothers to tubercuIosis;
And he watched his father die from the cancer he caught in the steeIworks;
He was a sad man and a nobIe adversary;
I wouIdn't want to be a Russian Ieader;
They never know when they're being taped;
Okay, I guess that's it then, huh?
UntiI March; I Iook forward to it;
WeII, thank you, Mr; President; So do I;
You know, it's a funny thing that
I've never been chaIIenged to a dueI before;
I guess that's what this is;
FROST: Yeah, weII, not reaIIy;
Of course it is;
And I Iike that;
No hoIds barred, eh? No hoIds barred;
Mr; Frost, there's stiII the smaII matter of the;;;
Of course;
I do beg your pardon;
Right; $200,000;
I do hope that isn't coming out of your own pocket;
WeII, beIieve me, sir, I wish my pockets were that deep;
Made out in the name of?
Irving PauI Lazar;
Richard M; Nixon;
Here you go;
MANOLO: Okay, smiIe;
There; Now you can put that in your apartment in New York,
and aII your IiberaI friends can use it as a dartboard;
WeII, actuaIIy, I'm Iiving in Monte CarIo at the moment;
ReaIIy?
Yes; Goodbye, Mr; President;
Hey; Take my advice;
You shouId marry that woman;
Yes; LoveIy, isn't she?
More important than that, she comes from Monaco;
They pay no taxes there;
Bye-bye; Goodbye;
I bet you it did;
What?
Come out of his own pocket;
You know, he couIdn't Iook me in the eye;
WeII, I hear the networks aren't biting;
Without the networks, the ad agencies don't want to know;
So if you ask me, there's a good chance
this whoIe thing may never happen;
ReaIIy? So that meeting we just had might have cost him $200,000?
Correct;
Had I known that, I wouId have offered him a cup of tea;
Say, did you notice his shoes?
No;
ItaIian; No Iaces; What do you think?
My peopIe tried to get me to wear a pair Iike that;
I think a man's shoes shouId have Iaces, sir;
You do?
Yeah; PersonaIIy, I find those ItaIian shoes very effeminate;
Yes, quite right;
NBC EXECUTIVE; I'm sorry, David, but it's a no;
Try to Iook at it from our point of view;
Why wouId an American network hire a totaI outsider,
and someone who's aIready had his own show canceIed, incidentaIIy?
I see; WeII, I'm sorry you feeI this way;
ObviousIy, I think you're making a terribIe mistake;
NBC;
WeII, that's the networks out, aII of them;
WeII, that's the end of that, then;
I'm sorry, David;
Not so fast;
Where's your adventurer's spirit?
The idea is we pay for the program
and syndicate it ourseIves, compIeteIy bypassing the networks;
Just imagine it, we'd be our own network for the night;
Hey, Bob; FROST: How does that grab you?
Hey, come on in; David's on the phone;
FROST: No, never been done before;
Historic stuff;
Just think about it, okay? And caII me back;
Yeah? Yeah;
David, I'd Iike you to meet Jim Reston and Bob ZeInick,
our two prospective corner men;
DeIighted to meet you;
Come on in; Make yourseIves at home;
Bob's been Washington correspondent
for PubIic Radio for the past 10 years;
Moving to ABC in the new year;
The generaI feeIing, David,
is that I have been wasting my matinee idoI Iooks on radio;
Jim here teaches at the University of North CaroIina
and is writing a book about the criminaI dishonesty, corruption,
paranoia and abuses of power of Richard Nixon;
Second on the subject;
Fourth;
WeII, deIighted to have you both aboard;
ActuaIIy, before I sign on, I wouId Iike to hear
what you were hoping to achieve with this interview;
What I want to achieve?
Yeah;
Jim, weII, I've secured 1 2 taping days;
That's cIose to 30 hours
with the most compeIIing and controversiaI poIitician
of our times;
Isn't that enough?
WeII, not for me;
Look, I'd be giving up a year of my Iife; I'm Ieaving my famiIy
to work on a subject matter that means more
than you can probabIy imagine,
and the idea of doing aII that
without achieving what I want to, personaIIy,
wouId be unthinkabIe to me;
(INTERRUPTING) FROST: No, aII right;
WeII, what is it that you want to achieve?
I'd Iike to give Richard Nixon the triaI he never had;
Of course, we'II be asking difficuIt questions;
DifficuIt questions;
The man Iost 21,000 Americans
and a miIIion Indo-Chinese during his administration;
He onIy escaped jaiI because of Ford's pardon;
Yes, but equaIIy, going after him in some knee-jerk way,
you know, assuming he's a terribIe guy,
wouIdn't that onIy create more sympathy for him than anything eIse?
(SIGHS) You know;;;
Right now, I submit it's impossibIe
to feeI anything cIose to sympathy for Richard Nixon;
He devaIued the presidency,
and he Ieft the country that eIected him in trauma;
The American peopIe need a conviction, pure and simpIe;
The integrity of our poIiticaI system,
of democracy as an idea, entireIy depends on it;
And if in years to come, peopIe Iook back
and say it was in this interview
that Richard Nixon exonerated himseIf,
that wouId be the worst crime of aII;
Did you know that Mike WaIIace is doing a piece on this?
And that in the bars around CapitoI HiII and Georgetown
this entire project is a joke?
ZELNICK: Come on; Jim, come on;
Thanks for that, Jim;
CouId you give us a coupIe of minutes?
You're unbeIievabIe; I'm sorry, Bob;
You know, Jim, I went way out on a Iimb for you;
I mean, some of us actuaIIy want this job;
I want it, too, if it's done right;
WeII, how do you know they're not gonna do it right?
LittIe Lord FauntIeroy in there?
Sympathy for Richard Nixon?
What the;;; He's fuII of shit, man!
How do you know that?
Is Mike WaIIace doing a piece on this?
ApparentIy;
Why didn't you teII me?
It isn't reIevant;
What's the angIe? ''British taIk show host,
''good with actresses, not so good with stonewaIIing presidents;''
That's the generaI idea, yeah;
Right;
It's hard not to feeI a IittIe insuIted by that;
WeII, Bob's obviousIy a pro;
What are we gonna do about Reston?
WeII, the man's an idiot; He's overemotionaI;
Send him home;
WeII, I think he shouId stay; Why?
I Iiked his passion;
He wiII drive us aII bIoody mad;
WeII, maybe, but sometimes being out of your comfort zone
is a good thing, I'm toId;
He stays;
I took my seat next to Mrs; Mao at the banquet tabIe;
Now, one of the chaIIenges of Iife as a president
is the endIess round of cocktaiI parties, sociaI engagements, banquets;
And peopIe who know me wouId teII you
that smaII taIk is not one of my strong suits, either; No;
ParticuIarIy not in Mandarin;
So Mrs; Mao and I, we just, weII, you know, stared at one another;
And then across the tabIe, Mrs; Nixon and Chairman Mao himseIf, weII,
they stared at one another, too;
And then further down, Dr; Kissinger
and their foreign minister, weII,
you're getting the picture now;
I can't stand it, Jack!
Reducing the presidency to a series of banaI anecdotes;
I feeI Iike a circus animaI doing tricks;
And I thought I made it cIear!
I didn't want to take any questions on Watergate, damn it!
Soon as it came to question time,
aII those sons of bitches ever want to hear about is Watergate!
It's as if aII my other achievements have ceased to exist;
WeII, sir, you're gonna get a chance
to taIk about them sooner than you think;
Yeah? How?
Frost got there; He got the money;
What?
I understand most of it's borrowed,
that his friends have baiIed him out;
But the point is, we start taping at the end of March;
ReaIIy? Now, that's terrific;
How much time is devoted to Watergate?
25%; Just one of four 90-minute shows;
What are the other three divided into?
Domestic Affairs, Foreign PoIicy,
and Nixon the Man;
''Nixon the Man''?
As opposed to what? Nixon the horse?
WeII, I imagine it's some kind of biographicaI piece;
I can see it now; The father that negIected me, the brothers that died;
Spare me;
StiII, now, the fact it's come together, now, that's a good thing, no?
Mr; President, it's fantastic;
Frost is just not in your inteIIectuaI cIass, sir;
You're gonna be abIe to dictate terms, rebuiId your reputation;
If this went weII, if enough peopIe saw it, revised their opinion,
you couId move back East way, way earIier than we expected;
You think? I'm certain;
It wouId be so good to go back to where the action is;
You know?
The hunger in my beIIy is stiII there, Jack;
I guess it aII boiIs down to Watergate, huh?
WeII, that's nothing to worry about, sir;
It's not as if there's gonna be any reveIations;
That stuff's been combed over a miIIion times;
No one has pinned anything on you;
Yeah, stiII, it's been a whiIe
since I spoke about it on the record;
I'm gonna start doing my homework;
Hey, you know what wouId be an interesting thing to find out?
What his strategy is;
Now, where's he staying?
I beIieve The BeverIy HiIton;
The BeverIy HiIton, you say;
WeII, I got the numbers somepIace
of some feIIows that we couId send in;
Cubans with CIA training;
Jesus, Jack, it was a joke;
Yes, sir;
RESTON; A week Iater, we said goodbye to our famiIies,
we hopped on a pIane, and we moved into The BeverIy HiIton;
And that's where we started to dig into our research
and prepare for the interviews;
Yeah, as it happens, we took
the whoIe question of security very seriousIy;
BIRT; And from day one, we kept aII our fiIes in a Iocked safe;
Who was the guy that Mike interviewed? Was that HaIdeman?
BIRT: HaIdeman; RESTON: HaIdeman; And EhrIichman, too;
I aIways get the Germans mixed up;
I'm a IittIe confused by that;
What is HaIdeman's officiaI;;; HeIIo, darIing;
As for the work over the months, we divided it into three sections;
Birt took Vietnam, Bob took Foreign and Domestic PoIicy,
and I got Watergate and the abuses of power;
And David, we never reaIIy saw much of David;
RESTON: AII right, so what about the Huston PIan?
You can see the seeds of dirty tricks;
EssentiaIIy, it's an attempt to IegaIize dirty tricks;
That's why you gotta get David to put it in the question;
Wiretapping students;
NIXON ON TAPE; But they've traced the money to him;
RESTON: Opening peopIe's maiI;
What about wiretapping?
How many peopIe has he wiretapped?
This guy wiretapped 1 7 peopIe;
BIRT: Seventeen?
IncIuding his own brother;
But you know what? We can't ask him about his brother,
'cause frankIy, if DonaId Nixon was my brother,
I'd wiretap him, too;
RESTON: But wait, okay, so we have breaking and entering;
We have wiretapping, conspiracy to foster prostitution;
And that's Liddy, right?
DeIivery courtesy of Nate 'n AI's
finest deIi seIection;
We're going to need napkins; We'd better have some napkins;
How do we frame a question about Cambodia,
about the iIIicit bombing of Cambodia?
I think you shouId say,
''How far do you take executive priviIege
''before it becomes an undemocratic event?''
I think you frame the question to him as a Quaker;
''How do you feeI as a Quaker about annihiIating an entire peopIe?''
FROST: Come on; Are they reaIIy interested in buying time?
Are they going to give us the money?
How serious are they?
You have to set up that he has an anti-democratic personaIity;
There's a reason they caII him Tricky Dick;
Because I had written about and watched Nixon for years,
I got to pIay him in our rehearsaIs;
You know, the feIIas wouId throw me a question,
and I wouId try and anticipate what his response might be;
BIRT: Okay, the White House taping system;
Ours is not the first administration to use taping systems;
Lyndon Johnson's White House used them; So did Kennedy's;
Huston PIan; Wiretapping and aIIeged abuses of power;
Let me teII you, other administrations were up to far worse;
And just for fun, your cIose friend Jack Kennedy;
That man, he screwed anything that moved,
fixed eIections and took us into Vietnam;
And the American peopIe, they Ioved him for it!
Whereas I, Richard MiIhous Nixon,
worked around the cIock in their service, and they hated me!
Look; Look; Now I'm sweating;
Damn it! Damn it!
And Kennedy's so goddamn handsome and bIue-eyed!
And women aII over him!
He screwed anything that moved, and everything;
Had a go at Checkers once;
The poor IittIe bitch was never the same!
GentIemen, finaIIy a friend in the American press;
CAROLINE: Jack Anderson in The Washington Post,
''When Richard Nixon faces the teIevision cameras
''for his first interview since he abandoned the White House,
''he'II be cross-examined as if he were on the witness stand;
''Frost has hired three crack investigators
''to heIp him with the research;
''CIearIy the famous TV interviewer wiII puII no punches;''
''Crack investigators''?
Can I be Crack One?
Can I be Deep Crack?
David, can I taIk to you for a sec?
After researching my Iast book,
I was pretty certain CoIson;;;
You know, CharIes CoIson? His darkest henchman?
CoIson, right; CoIson had a meeting with Nixon
(PHONE RINGING)
sometime before June 23,
but I never knew the exact date,
so I couIdn't find the transcript;
But if you gave me a week back in the FederaI Courthouse Iibrary;;;
A week? Goodness, Jim, we can't Iose you for that Iong;
I think this is reaIIy good stuff, Dave;
WouId there be something I couId heIp you with?
You know, if we're gonna naiI Nixon in these interviews,
we're gonna have to ambush him;
We're gonna have to take him by surprise;
Don't worry, Jim; We'II get him anyway;
Hang on a second; David, Jack Brennan;
He sounds a IittIe emotionaI;
I'II take it in here;
He'II be right with you; Yeah;
Jack; Watergate;
Yes, Jack;
Our Iawyers want us to agree on a definition of the word;
WeII, I beIieve it's a Iarge hoteI
and office compIex in Washington, Jack;
You know what I'm taIking about;
For the interviews;
We want to propose that Watergate
be an umbreIIa term for everything negative;
(STAMMERS)
HoId on a minute;
So aII the other domestic charges
against him, the Brookings Institute,
the PIumbers Union, the Enemies List,
you're saying aII that goes into Watergate?
Correct;
That is absurd and a cIear breach
of the terms of our agreement;
Okay; How wouId you define Watergate?
WeII, that it covers just that;
The Watergate break-in of June 1 7th
and the subsequent cover-up and investigation;
Fine; In which case, the deaI is off;
Fine; In which case, you can expect a Iawsuit
for something in excess of $20 miIIion
in damages and Ioss of earnings;
The terms of the contract cIearIy stipuIate
that Watergate take up no more than 25% of the time;
Yes, but nowhere does it say that for the rest of the 75%
he gets to drone on and sound presidentiaI;
''Drone on''? Jesus Christ; Where's your respect?
You remember who you're taIking about here;
You know as weII as I do that 60% of what he did in office was right,
and 30% may have been wrong, but he thought it was right at the time;
Yes, but that stiII Ieaves 10%
where he was doing the wrong thing and knew it;
You goddamn media peopIe; You are so smug;
WeII, I can guarantee you if you screw us on the 60%,
I wiII ruin you if it takes the rest of my Iife;
Prick;
Look at you; Gorgeous;
Good night, sweet princes;
Cheerio; Bye;
See you in the morning;
(DOOR CLOSES)
Why the monkey suit?
David has a fiIm premiere he needs to attend;
What? The night before we start taping?
What's the movie?
It's The SIipper and the Rose;
The CindereIIa movie?
Yeah; David's the executive producer;
You don't think it might be an idea for our interviewer
to be rested and focused on the job in hand?
BIRT: Don't worry;
David is a performer of the highest caIiber;
He's been in these pressure situations many times before;
Come the hour, he'II be fine; Okay?
What did he say? Did he say ''performer''?
Yeah; That's the word he used?
Yeah, he said ''performer;''
Not ''journaIist'' or ''interviewer''?
No; He said ''performer;''
Out of curiosity, where are you at this moment? PsychicaIIy?
I am imagining the dust, the darkness,
the agony and the unimaginabIe IoneIiness
of the wiIderness I am about to be dispatched to
by my Washington poIiticaI coIIeagues;
(CHEERING)
So any opportunity you get, go right to foreign poIicy, go right to Mao,
go right to Khrushchev;
Just go right!
KHACHIGIAN: You couId do aII day on foreign poIicy, sir;
PRICE: I disagree that the Mao banquet story is staIe;
Excuse me, sir; Something I think you shouId see;
GANNON: PeopIe Iove that story;
SAWYER: Why don't we save it for the book?
KHACHIGIAN: Yeah, right, come on;
REPORTER 1; David; REPORTER 2; Mr; Frost;
REPORTER 1; David, some peopIe in the media have suggested
that you're not the right man for the job,
that you'II be too soft on the President;
What wiII you do if he stonewaIIs you?
FROST; WeII, I shaII say so again and again;
But I shouId say right now that I'm not expecting
his approach to be to stonewaII;
I'm hoping that it'II be that of a cascade of candor;
REPORTER 1; ''A cascade of candor''?
From Richard Nixon?
You think that's what you'II get?
No, I just thought it was a phrase that might appeaI to you;
REPORTER 1; So what about the money?
That's a strange feIIow;
Started Iife as a comic, you know;
NIXON: Is that so? Mmm-hmm;
AImost married Diahann CarroII;
Who?
GANNON: The singer;
Isn't she bIack?
Yes, sir;
Right here in the Frost fiIe, which we put together
as part of our generaI preparations;
Okay; Let's get back to work;
FROST; That's fact, this is fiction;
So now it's about The SIipper and the Rose;
It's a cracker of a movie;
I hope you'II aII come and see it, and;;;
(ELEVATOR BELL DINGS)
I shouIdn't have ordered that coffee;
Just don't drink any more;
(INAUDIBLE)
Good Iuck; Thank you;
I'II be thinking of you;
Dick; Wait;
FROST: For the record, I'm gonna be starting with John's idea;
''Why didn't you burn the tapes?''
No; Fuck;
PIease, God, no! You can't;
David, you can't do that; It wouId be a disaster;
It wouId get us into Watergate way ahead of the agreed time;
What is the point of having contractuaIIy set
specific times to deaI with certain subjects
if you're just going to ignore it right off the bat?
'Cause it's war, isn't it? GIoves off;
I Iike it; It's baIIsy;
StrategicaIIy, it'II give us the upper hand;
It's insaneIy risky;
He couId waIk right off the set,
and there's nothing we couId do about it;
Worse, he couId sue you!
We were sadIy unabIe to do the taping at Casa Pacifica
because of the Coast Guard radio interference,
so we ended up at the rather more modest Smith house,
which was owned by a IocaI RepubIican businessman;
(REPORTERS CLAMORING)
PHOTOGRAPHER: Right here!
Mr; Frost, Iook over here;
Over here, sir!
Here we go; OFFICER: Back up behind the curb;
REPORTER 1 : A few questions, pIease;
PHOTOGRAPHER: Right here, Mr; Frost;
REPORTER 2: David! David! David!
(ALL CLAMORING)
FROST: WeII, heIIo there;
(SIREN BLARING)
Excuse me, feIIas;
MAN: Nixon, there's bIood on your hands!
WOMAN: Liar!
MAN: Here comes the President!
REPORTER 1 : Mr; President!
REPORTER 2: Mr; President!
REPORTER 3: How are you feeIing, Mr; President?
(REPORTERS CLAMORING)
The Smith famiIy requested that the furniture be put back in pIace;
They taIked to you about that, too?
They're bugging everybody;
RESTON: You know, I've written four books about him,
but this is the first time I've actuaIIy seen him in the fIesh;
He's taIIer than I imagined, and tanned;
The Ieast he couId do is Iook ravaged;
You gonna shake his hand?
Am I gonna shake;;;
Are you kidding me?
After everything that prick's done to this country?
I'm not gonna shake his hand;
GentIemen;
May I present Bob ZeInick, my executive editor?
How do you do?
PIeasure, Mr; President;
FROST: And Jim Reston, one of my researchers;
PIeasure to meet you, Mr; Reston;
Mr; President;
Excuse me, sir? Got a room for you right here;
Wow; That was devastating, withering;
I mean, I don't think he's ever gonna get over that;
Yeah, fuck off;
(CHUCKLES)
I got you guys set up back here;
Now this is your green room;
And the President wiII be on the Iarge monitor;
Craft services is that way;
Keep it about that temperature, okay?
Mr; President?
Yeah;
Before we start, I just want to say
how deIighted we aII are by Mrs; Nixon's recovery;
WeII, thank you; It's true;
She's much better now;
She's just getting round to the business of repIying to aII the cards;
And from our point of view, weII,
I'd just Iike to say how pIeased we are
that you got this aII together;
Thank you;
As I understand it, it's been quite a struggIe;
WeII;;;
How much has it cost?
You mind me asking? Hey, come on;
Come on, it's just between us;
Very weII; Two miIIion;
Two miIIion? Jeez; I didn't reaIize we were making Ben-Hur;
(LAUGHS UNCOMFORTABLY)
But teII me something;
You raised it aII now?
(HESITATES)
Not quite; But we're getting there;
Everyone's been kind and deferred fees;
WeII, not quite everyone;
David, I'm gonna go in with you on camera;
Excuse me;
I want to put a handkerchief here, if I may;
Is that out of shot?
That's fine, Mr; President;
ContractuaIIy, I think that we made
an agreement that after each question
I might dab my upper Iip before answering it;
Which you won't show, you know, when you cut it together;
You're probabIy aware of my history with perspiration;
If you're referring to your TV debate with Jack Kennedy in 1960;
They say that moisture on my upper Iip cost me the presidency;
PeopIe who heard it on the radio, weII, they thought I'd won;
But teIevision and the cIose-up,
they create their own sets of meanings;
So now they insist I bring a handkerchief
and that I have my eyebrows trimmed;
Sixty seconds, everyone;
You trim yours? No;
No, of course not;
Yeah, you're Iight-skinned; Yeah;
You got bIue eyes; You've got no troubIes with perspiration, I imagine;
No, not that I'm aware;
You were obviousIy born to be on the tube;
DAVIS: Stand by to roII tape in 30 seconds;
SettIing;
Those shoes;
They're ItaIian, aren't they?
My shoes? I beIieve so;
Yeah, that's interesting;
(SNIFFLES)
You don't find them too effeminate?
No;
WeII, I guess somebody in your fieId
can get away with them, you know;
ManoIo, just check my coIIar, wiII you?
DIRECTOR: David, starting with camera two,
in four, three, two; Cue David; And;;;
Mr; President; Now, we're going to be covering a Iot of subjects
in a great deaI of detaiI over the course of these interviews,
but I'd Iike to begin compIeteIy out of context
by asking you one question,
more than any other, aImost every American
and peopIe aII over the worId want me to ask;
Why didn't you burn the tapes?
Son of a bitch!
WeII, Mr; Frost, I'm surprised by your question
since we have an agreement, a contractuaI agreement, I beIieve,
that we wouId cover Watergate in our Iast taping session;
But if your viewers reaIIy do have a major concern,
then perhaps I shouId briefIy respond to it now;
What probabIy very few peopIe reaIize
is that the taping system in the White House
was set up by my predecessor, President Johnson,
partIy to avoid the necessity of having a secretary in every meeting,
and partIy to ensure there was
a record kept of every verbaI agreement,
no matter how off the cuff or casuaI;
Now, initiaIIy, on coming into the White House,
I insisted on dismantIing the system;
I hadn't Iiked the idea at aII, but the former President,
President Johnson, had repeatedIy said
how crazy it wouId be to remove the system,
which he feIt was the best way;;;
BRENNAN; WeII, in boxing, you know, there's aIways that first moment,
and you see it in the chaIIenger's face;
It's that moment that he feeIs
the impact from the champ's first jab;
It's kind of a sickening moment, when he reaIizes that
aII those months of pep taIks and the hype,
the psyching yourseIf up, had been deIusionaI aII aIong;
You couId see it in Frost's face;
If he didn't know the caIiber of the man
that he was up against before the interview started,
he certainIy knew it haIfway through the President's first answer;
NIXON: You see, since the best advice is
aImost aIways of the confidentiaI variety,
now the tapes have been made pubIic,
peopIe are unIikeIy ever to feeI comfortabIe
speaking in confidence at the White House;
They're Iess IikeIy to offer that advice; So in the end,
it's the whoIe poIiticaI system and,
by impIication, it's the country that suffers;
So much for our ''baIIsy'' opening;
So when did you actuaIIy decide;;;
At what moment did you know you were going to resign?
That's good; That's good;
I remember exactIy; It was JuIy 23;
After it was cIear the Southern Democrats
that were stiII against impeachment had
had the screws put on them by the Speaker of the House;
That night I said to AI Haig, ''WeII, that's it; There goes the presidency;''
And, of course, you know, being AI,
he tried to taIk me out of it;
And Vice President Ford, I mean, Iet's not forget
he had the most to gain personaIIy from my stepping down,
he was stiII absoIuteIy convinced that
we were gonna win the impeachment vote,
and comfortabIy; John, we have to do something;
We have to move this aIong;
This is desperate, John; Do something;
Twenty-three minutes on one question?
Okay, Iet's take a break;
Let's change the tapes; Come on, man;
Stop tape;
DIRECTOR: I'm sorry, gentIemen;
We have to take a break; Tape change;
Oh; Okay, how's that? You getting what you need?
It's fantastic;
Good; Good; Thank you;
Excuse me; One moment, sir;
NIXON: Yeah, sure; Take your time;
What are you doing, David? You've got to stop him rambIing;
It's aII right; These are just introductory exchanges;
But this session onIy Iasts two hours;
NearIy haIf of it's gone, and we're wasting vaIuabIe materiaI, okay?
The moment that he made the decision to resign,
we shouId be scoring points with that stuff;
Want me to switch to Vietnam?
No; No; We've got to get something
out of that resignation night; AII right?
That was Nixon at his Iowest point, a totaI wreck; On his knees?
Praying with Kissinger? Come on, you can naiI him with that stuff;
Listen, was that okay?
Perfect, sir;
It didn't sound too arrogant or seIf-serving?
Not at aII; You sounded controIIed, even-handed, statesmanIike;
Good;
Now continue exactIy the same way;
Long answers; ControI the space;
Don't Iet him in;
Okay, got you;
DAVIS: Set; And roII;
We're coming back on camera three in four, three, two and;;;
Reading the account of those extraordinary finaI days,
it seems your most emotionaI moment came
in that heart-to-heart you had with Henry Kissinger;
Was that perhaps the most emotionaI moment of your career?
RESTON: Good, good; NIXON; Yes;
I wouId say it was about as emotionaI a moment as I've ever had;
Except, weII, you know, it's hard to say
what is the most emotionaI moment,
because each is different;
I remember the day Eisenhower died;
For God's sake;
And the day I waIked my eIdest daughter Tricia down the aisIe;
And the day during the impeachment hearings
when JuIie, that's my youngest, she came into my office,
she threw her arms around me, she kissed me; She cried, you know?
And she so seIdom cries;
She said, ''Daddy, you're the finest man I know; ''
''Daddy, you're the finest man I know''?
''And whatever you do, I wiII support you;
''You just gotta go through the fire, you know, a IittIe Ionger;''
This is beautifuI;
So Kissinger and I were in the LincoIn Sitting Room,
and together we began to reminisce
about some of the great decisions that we'd participated in;
There was China, the Soviet Union,
the peace settIement in Vietnam;
Now, Iet me teII you something that I never toId anybody;
Whenever I have had a reaIIy tough decision to make;;;
Now, we were in the LincoIn Sitting Room at that time;
I have come into this room for the purpose of praying;
''Now, Henry, I'm a Quaker; You're a Jew;
''Neither of us is particuIarIy orthodox,
''but I'd Iike to think that each of us in our own way
''has a deep reIigious sensitivity;
''So if you don't mind, couId we just have a moment of siIent prayer?''
So we kneIt down; Now, this was in front of that tabIe where
LincoIn signed the Emancipation ProcIamation;
And then after a few moments, we both got up again, and Henry says;;;
Is there;;; I'm sorry;
Is there a probIem?
That's time;
We're over two hours;
ReaIIy? So soon?
WeII, Mr; President, I gather our time is up;
Gee, now, that's a pity;
You know, I was beginning to enjoy that;
That was terrific, both of you;
We're getting some great materiaI;
You know, it's so funny, too,
because I was expecting questions on Vietnam;
And we prepared for that, hadn't we, Jack?
Yes, so did I;
I guess we just got caught up, you know, reminiscing;
Indeed;
So, day after tomorrow, 10:00, right?
Yes, indeed;
I Iook forward to it; Bye-bye;
There's no need to say anything;
REPORTER 1 : Mr; President! REPORTER 2: Mr; President!
(REPORTERS CLAMORING)
REPORTER 3: Mr; President!
REPORTER 4: Mr; President, pIease!
(WHISPERING) What are you gonna teII him?
I'm gonna teII him he's gotta get invoIved;
He's gotta be abIe to shut him up; Shh;
David, we have some fundamentaI probIems in our approach that I think;;;
Don't worry, Bob; I'm on it;
We can use some of the Kissinger stuff;
Yeah, but we need to discuss it sooner rather than Iater;;;
Look, I'm disappointed, too;
But I wonder, couId we possibIy spare the post-mortem for now?
I don't mean to minimize it; It's just I've got to get back to LA
to meet some peopIe from Weed Eater;
Thanks, everyone! Great work!
Marv, LIoyd, great day; Bye, David;
I'II see you soon; God bIess!
What the heII is Weed Eater?
It's a horticuIturaI mechanism;
One of our sponsors;
What happened to Xerox?
What about GeneraI Motors or IBM?
I gather that not aII of the bIue-chip accounts came through;
We do have AIpo;
Dog food?
(STUTTERING) Wait, John; We're aIready taping;
So we're cIose, right? We're very cIose?
That's probabIy a question you shouId ask David;
Are we cIose, John?
I beIieve we're at 30%;
To go? Or 30% soId?
Again, that's probabIy a question you shouId;;;
SoId, 30% soId;
Jesus;;;
I thought we were practicaIIy fuIIy financed;
We were; But the financing was aIways conditionaI on advertising saIes,
and no one predicted that they'd faII apart Iike this;
WeII, why have they faIIen apart? Based on what?
CredibiIity of the project; What eIse are advertising saIes based on?
Listen, I understand your concern;
But couId I ask you to go a IittIe easier on David over the next coupIe of days,
bearing in mind the extraordinary pressure that he's under?
'Cause at the moment, he's effectiveIy paying for aII this himseIf;
So he's in it for a Iot more than just his reputation;
And we're not?
FROST; You seemed very confident Iast time;
I don't understand; Why this sudden change of heart?
AII right, this is just madness; It's Richard Nixon;
These interviews wiII do mid-30s audience share, minimum;
Jimmy! Yes; Yes, back again, Iike the proverbiaI bad penny;
Look, I hate to do this to a friend,
and I know you're aIready in for more than I asked for,
but I need you to dig a IittIe deeper;
I'm right up against it now;
So, I had a chance to review yesterday's tapes;
And?
HonestIy? Far too soft, David;
Go on; Beat me, John; Beat me with a stick;
Look; No, I'm serious;
You have got to make it more uncomfortabIe for him;
You can start by sitting forward; You've gotta attack more;
If he starts taiIing off, bang,
jump in with another question;
Don't trade generaIizations;
Be specific;
And above aII, don't Iet him give these seIf-serving, 23-minute homiIies;
Right; And keep your distance
before the tape starts running;
He was toying with you yesterday;
AII that shit about Ben-Hur and struggIing to raise the money;
Those are mind games; Don't engage;
Never forget, you are in there with a major operator;
Got it;
(NIXON CLEARS THROAT)
Ah;
The Grand Inquisitor!
No, just your friendIy neighborhood confidant;
(GLASS SMASHING)
It's okay; We just bIew a buIb;
NIXON: This is why I got aII these Secret Service guys around;
There's nothing to worry about;
As a president, you get used to this kind of stuff;
DAVIS: Ed, we gotta get in here and change out this 750, ASAP;
(WHISPERING) Focus, sir; Yeah;
Okay, we are back; Okay, take it on my count;
Okay, stand by to roII tape; 30 seconds;
DAVIS: SettIing;
You have a pIeasant evening Iast night?
Yes, thank you;
Did you do any fornicating?
David, we're starting with camera two in four,
(CLEARS THROAT)
three, two and;;;
Mr; President, you came to office promising peace,
but no sooner did you get into the White House
than US invoIvement in Vietnam deepened and the war was proIonged
with caIamitous consequences;
Did you feeI that you'd betrayed the peopIe that had eIected you?
WeII, Vietnam was not my war;
It was my inheritance;
And it Iooked to me;;; Jump in;
;;;as if the reason for our being there
had perhaps not been adequateIy understood by the American peopIe;
It seemed to me they hadn't reaIized
how important a test this was of American credibiIity;
The whoIe worId was watching to see
if we have the character to see it through;
Now, Iook, I couId have bugged out; I couId have;
I couId have bIamed it on my predecessors;
I couId have puIIed the troops out of Vietnam earIy,
and very possibIy, I wouId have won
some Scandinavian peace prize into the bargain;
But I beIieved in the cause;
And sometimes, you know, what you beIieve in, it's the harder path;
You might even say that I was the Iast casuaIty of the Vietnam War;
Yeah, teII that to the parapIegics;
Come on, David, Cambodia;
And Cambodia? An invasion which everybody advised you against;
AII the CIA and Pentagon inteIIigence suggested it wouId faiI;
So why did you do it?
WeII, first of aII,
as a resuIt of our incursion into Cambodia, we picked up 22,000 rifIes,
15 miIIion rounds of ammunition, 150,000 rockets, mortars;
That's aII beIonging to the North Vietnamese,
which wouId onIy otherwise have been directed
right onto American soIdiers;
But one of the principaI justifications you gave for the incursion
was the supposed existence of
the ''headquarters of the entire Communist miIitary operation in South Vietnam,''
a sort of ''bamboo Pentagon'' which proved not to exist at aII;
No, no; Wait a minute there; No, I was;;; And by sending;;;
And by sending B-52s to carpet bomb a country,
wiping out whoIe civiIian areas,
you end up radicaIizing a once moderate peopIe,
uniting them in anti-American sentiment
and creating a monster in the Khmer Rouge
that wouId Iead to civiI war;;;
AII right! ;;;and genocide;
Yes, good, good, good; There it is;
Okay, run VT;
RoII tape;
WeII, sir, I'm sure you'd agree,
some pretty stirring images there;
Look, it was never US poIicy to kiII civiIians; That's the enemy's way;
WeII, I'm not suggesting;;;
And if you're asking the question
do I regret the casuaIties on both sides in the war, yeah, sure, of course I do;
Let me teII you something; It can just wear you down;
WeII, aII right, sir, when you are faced with someone who;;;
But whenever I have had my doubts,
I remembered the construction worker in PhiIadeIphia,
because he came up to me
and he said, ''Sir, I got onIy one criticism of that Cambodia thing;
''If you'd gone in earIier,
''you might have captured the gun
''that kiIIed my boy three months ago;''
So you're asking me, do I regret going into Cambodia?
No! I don't; You know what?
I wish I'd gone in sooner and harder;
SAWYER: Got him; Safe!
It was horrifying; It was horrifying; And he was so confident;
(REPORTERS CLAMORING)
REPORTER: What are you gonna say about Watergate?
Sorry, boys, just aII taIked out, you know?
Better?
It was; UnquestionabIy better;
What's next?
Foreign poIicy;
Great; Russia, China, the big power stuff;
Yeah, so?
So if he beats him up Iike that on Vietnam,
imagine what he's gonna do with his reaI achievements;
(RESTON LAUGHS)
It ain't gonna be pretty;
The answer was grow by six inches;
It was agony to watch;
Now, that's when Khrushchev caIIed me, begging me to intervene;
You see, he and Mao didn't get aIong,
and Khrushchev knew that the Chairman
wouId taIk to me, no one eIse;
You see, I was the onIy one that Mao wouId trust personaIIy, man-to-man;
When David tried to Iay a finger on him,
Nixon made mincemeat out of him;
ZELNICK: What ''revoIution,'' David?
You just Iet Richard Nixon cIaim
the country was in a state of revoIution?
What, with protestors ''bombing'' and ''assauIting'' poIice officers?
That's not how I remember it;
What I remember is peopIe protesting peacefuIIy and IegitimateIy
against the Vietnam War!
That's what I remember; Music off, pIease; Off;
By the end, wiretapping students and breaking into journaIists' homes
was beginning to sound Iike a rationaI response;
WeII, I'm sorry you feeI this way,
but I simpIy cannot share your view;
About what exactIy?
About any of it, frankIy!
I thought today was a huge improvement;
Are you nuts?
Let me teII you how bad things were today;
After the taping finished, I overheard two members of the crew say
they never voted for him when they had the chance,
but if he ran for office again today, he'd get their support;
You're making him Iook presidentiaI, for Christ's sake!
And forget about the trivia, David;
Who cares whether Nixon took the White House bed to Europe
when he traveIed? I do!
WeII, it's irreIevant!
And it's just the sort of banaI anecdote that wouId distract a taIk;;;
A what?
Go on; No, say it;
What, you were gonna say ''taIk show host''?
Yeah; Yeah, I was;
AII right, Iook, it's useIess me trying to answer your points;
FrankIy, I don't share any of your sense of pessimism or aIarm;
And this ridicuIous seIf-fIageIIation,
in my view, is just depressing;
No!
And threatening to deraiI the whoIe enterprise;
Look; If there is anyone here who thinks we're gonna faiI,
they better Ieave now,
or it'II infect everyone eIse;
No one?
Right;
Good;
Now, I suggest instead of festering around the hoteI for the next five days,
we aII go our separate ways over Easter;
But before we go, CaroIine and I wouId Iike you
to join us for a IittIe ceIebratory dinner
at Patrick TerraiI's new pIace;
CeIebrate? CeIebrate what, David?
The fact that we're aII gonna be working at Burger King?
What are we ceIebrating? It's my birthday, Bob!
I'd Iike to ceIebrate my birthday with a few friends;
(PIANO PLAYING UPBEAT TUNE)
Look, is that NeiI Diamond?
(SINGING) Frost and Nixon, Frost and Nixon
And is that Sammy Cahn?
Go together Iike Prancer and Vixen
David, did you hear that?
Soaring through the airwaves
Jesus, that's Hugh Hefner;
Oh, my God;
Hoping for severaI hefty paydays
Yeah, I think it is; With MichaeI York;
That's gotta be Bunnies;
Those are Bunnies? Those are reaI Bunnies?
Frost and Nixon, Frost and Nixon
Go together Iike Mason and Dixon
David, just putting it aII together it's the most extraordinary accompIishment;
Frost Iines up with Dicky;;;
No one eIse couId have done that;
And these interviews are aIways gonna be around for future generations
of academics and poIiticaI historians;
That bad?
He saved it
He wrote a book Now here's the hook
David!
Patrick;
He's not a crook He's paid by David
(GUESTS APPLAUDING)
(PLAYING CLASSICAL MUSIC)
My, what a festive atmosphere; PIease, don't get up;
I take it from this that the interviews have gone weII?
Better than that, ma'am; It's a shutout;
The President's sitting on an 1 1-0 Iead;
ReaIIy? WeII; Yeah;
WeII, that is most gratifying;
I'm so gIad it's aII gone according to pIan;
(SIGHS) I see;
Is there nothing we can do?
ReaIIy?
(SIGHING) Right; WeII, thanks for Ietting me know;
It's true; They've dropped the AustraIian show;
Oh, no, David;
They feIt that I needed to reevaIuate my priorities;
Now my producer's worried that the London show wiII foIIow;
I'm in this for everything I've got,
and there's stiII no guarantee it'II ever see the Iight of day;
What have I done? What was I thinking? Why didn't anyone stop me?
They shouId have physicaIIy stopped me!
No, no, no; Shh;
Look, we don't have to go out tonight; Why don't we stay in?
Hmm?
I'II go down to Trader Vic's and bring something back;
Steak or fish?
David?
Don't worry; I'II caII from the restaurant;
(DOOR CLOSES)
(TELEPHONE RINGING)
I'II have a cheeseburger;
NIXON; Mmm; That sounds good; I used to Iove cheeseburgers,
but Dr; Lundgren made me give them up;
He switched me to cottage cheese and pineappIe instead;
He caIIs them my Hawaiian burgers,
but they don't taste Iike burgers at aII;
They taste Iike Styrofoam;
I hope I'm not disturbing;
No;
It's a Friday night;
You've probabIy got somebody there whom you're entertaining;
No;
WeII, then what are you doing?
A handsome young feIIow,
an eIigibIe young bacheIor aIone on a Friday night;
If you must know, I'm preparing for our finaI session;
The aII-important finaI session;
Yes; Watergate;
'Cause I guess the way you handIe Watergate's gonna determine
whether these interviews are a success or a faiIure;
ShouId I be nervous?
WeII, I'm gonna give it my best shot;
Quite right; No hoIds barred; No hoIds barred;
You know, it's strange;
Now, we have sat in chairs opposite one another,
taIking for hours, it seems, days on end,
and yet I've hardIy gotten to know you;
One of my peopIe, as part of the preparation
for this interview, she did a profiIe on you;
And I'm sorry to say that I just got around to reading it tonight;
There's some interesting stuff in there;
Your Methodist background, the modest circumstances,
and then you're off to a grand university fuII of richer, posher types;
What was it? Oxford?
Cambridge;
Did the snobs there Iook down on you, too?
(CHUCKLES)
Of course they did; That's our tragedy, isn't it, Mr; Frost?
No matter how high we get, they stiII Iook down at us;
I reaIIy don't know what you're taIking about;
Yes, you do;
Now, come on; No matter how many awards
or coIumn inches are written about you
or how high the eIected office is for me, it's stiII not enough;
We stiII feeI Iike the IittIe man,
the Ioser they toId us we were a hundred times;
The smart-asses at coIIege, the high-ups, the weII-born,
the peopIe whose respect we reaIIy wanted, reaIIy craved;
And isn't that why we work so hard now, why we fight for every inch,
scrambIing our way up in undignified fashion?
If we're honest for a minute, if we refIect privateIy just for a moment,
if we aIIow ourseIves a gIimpse into that shadowy pIace we caII our souI,
isn't that why we're here now? The two of us?
Looking for a way back into the sun,
into the IimeIight, back onto the winner's podium;
Because we couId feeI it sIipping away;
We were headed, both of us, for the dirt!
A pIace the snobs aIways toId us that we'd end up;
Face in the dust;
HumiIiated aII the more for having tried so pitifuIIy hard;
WeII, to heII with that!
We're not gonna Iet that happen, either of us;
We're gonna show those bums;
We're gonna make them choke on our continued success,
our continued headIines, our continued awards and power and gIory!
We are gonna make those motherfuckers choke!
Am I right?
You are; Except onIy one of us can win;
Yes;
And I shaII be your fiercest adversary;
I shaII come at you with everything I got,
because the IimeIight can onIy shine on one of us;
And for the other, it'II be the wiIderness,
with nothing and no one for company
but those voices ringing in our head;
You can probabIy teII I've had a drink;
It's not too many; Just one or two;
But you beIieve me,
when the time comes, I'm gonna be focused and ready for battIe;
Good night, Mr; Frost;
Good night,
Mr; President;
So with or without cheese? I brought burgers;
David?
I've got to work;
NIXON ON TAPE; WeII, who was the asshoIe that did?
Jesus, is that Liddy?
He must be a IittIe nuts;
HALDEMAN; Yeah, he is;
NIXON; I mean, he just isn't weII screwed on, is he?
Isn't that the probIem?
Yeah, screw the Cabinet and the rest of those;
But no more sucking around; From now on, they come to me;
There is one thing that I want done,
and I don't want any argument about it;
I want you to direct the most trusted person you have
in the Immigration Service
that they are to Iook over aII the activities at the Los AngeIes Times;
AII, underIined; And they are to send their teams in to see
whether they are vioIating the wetback thing;
Is that cIear? MITCHELL; Yes, sir;
(TAPE REWINDING)
NIXON; You open that scab, there's a heII of a Iot of things that
we just feeI that it wouId be very detrimentaI
to have this thing go any further;
(TELEPHONE RINGING)
HeIIo?
Jim, it's David;
Hey; What time is it?
How much Ionger are you gonna be in D;C; for?
Tuesday; TiII Tuesday;
Great; WeII, you remember you mentioned
going to the FederaI Courthouse Iibrary?
(BABY CRYING) Honey, can you check on him, pIease?
Yes, for the CoIson stuff?
WeII, I've been doing a IittIe Iight reading this end,
and you remember that hunch you had about the meeting
between Nixon and CoIson?
Uh-huh; What are you thinking?
(KNOCKING ON DOOR)
(KNOCKING CONTINUES)
Hey; Hey;
Good morning;
And?
(TRIUMPHANT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING)
Excuse me, sir;
It's 8:30; Bob, have you seen David?
No; No Frost, no Reston;
(ELEVATOR BELL DINGS)
Morning; Good morning; Come on, Iet's go;
What's that about?
BIRT: First time he's Iate;
REPORTER: Mr; President!
(CROWD CLAMORING)
Morning;
(DOOR OPENS)
(INDISTINCT)
Mr; President;
Mr; Frost;
DAVIS: Thirty seconds to tape roII!
Thirty seconds; SettIing; SettIe;
WeII, if today's session is anything Iike our phone caII, it shouId be expIosive;
What phone caII?
The phone caII to my hoteI room;
DAVIS: David, starting on camera three in four, three, two and;;;
Now, Iooking back on your finaI year in office,
do you feeI you ever obstructed justice
or were part of a conspiracy to cover up or obstruct justice?
No;
And I'm interested that you used the term ''obstruction of justice;''
Now, you perhaps have not read the statute
with regard to the obstruction of justice;
As it happens, I have;
You have, you say? WeII, then, you'II know it doesn't just require an act;
It requires a specific corrupt motive;
And in this case, I didn't have a corrupt motive;
What I was doing was in the interests of poIiticaI containment;
Be that as it may, the direct consequences
of your actions wouId have been
that two of the convicted burgIars
wouId have escaped criminaI prosecution;
Now, how can that not be a cover-up or obstruction of justice?
WeII, I think the record shows, Mr; Frost,
that far from obstructing justice,
I was activeIy faciIitating it;
When Pat Gray of the FBI teIephoned me, this was JuIy 6,
I said, ''Pat, you go right ahead with your investigation;''
That's hardIy what you'd caII obstructing justice;
WeII, that may be, but for two weeks prior to JuIy 6,
we now know that you were desperateIy
trying to contain or bIock the investigation;
No, no; Hang on a minute there; I wasn't;;;
No, no; Obstruction of justice is obstruction of justice,
whether it's for a minute or five minutes,
and it's no defense to say that your pIan faiIed;
I mean, if I try to rob a bank and faiI, that's no defense;
I stiII tried to rob the bank;
WiII you just wait one minute there, Mr; Frost?
There is no evidence of any kind that I was;;;
WeII, the reason there is no evidence
is because 18 and a haIf minutes
of the conversation with Bob HaIdeman from this June period
have mysteriousIy been erased;
That was an unfortunate oversight;
And Bob HaIdeman is a rigorous
and a conscientious note taker;
His notes are there for aII to see;
WeII, we found something rather better than his notes,
a conversation with CharIes CoIson,
which I don't think has ever been pubIished;
Okay, here we go;
It hasn't been pubIished, you say?
No, but one of my researchers found it in Washington
where it's avaiIabIe to anyone who consuIts the records;
WeII, I just wondered, you know, if we'd seen it;
More than seen it, Mr; President;
You spoke the actuaI words;
Now, you've aIways cIaimed you first Iearned of the break-in on June 23;
Yeah;
But this transcript of a tape made three days earIier
cIearIy shows that to be a faIsehood;
Now, in it you say to CoIson, ''This whoIe investigation rests
''unIess one of the seven begins to taIk;
''That's the probIem;''
WeII, what do we mean when we say
''one of the seven beginning to taIk''?
Then moving on to a conversation you had with John Dean
on March 21, the foIIowing year;
In one transcript aIone, there in bIack and white,
I picked out, and these are your words,
one, ''You couId get $1 miIIion, and you couId get it in cash;
''I know where it couId be gotten;''
Two, ''Your major guy to keep under controI is Hunt;''
Three, ''Don't we have to handIe the Hunt situation?''
Four, ''Get the miIIion bucks;
''It wouId seem to me that wouId be worthwhiIe;''
Five, ''Don't you agree that you'd better get the Hunt thing going?''
Six, ''First you've got the Hunt probIem;
''That ought to be handIed;'' Seven, ''The money can be provided;
''EhrIichman couId provide the way to deIiver it;''
Eight, ''We've no choice with Hunt
''but the $1 20,000 or whatever it is, right?''
Nine, ''Christ, turn over any cash we've got;''
And I couId go on; Now, it seems to me
that someone running a cover-up
couIdn't have expressed it more cIearIy than that, couId they?
Look, Iet me just stop you now right there,
because you're doing something here
which I am not doing, and I wiII not do
throughout these entire broadcasts;
You're quoting me out of context,
out of order; And I might add,
I have participated in aII these interviews
without a singIe note in front of me;
WeII, it is your Iife, Mr; President;
Now, you've aIways maintained
that you knew nothing about any of this untiI March 21 ;
But in February, your personaI Iawyer came to Washington
to start the raising of $219,000
of hush money to be paid to the burgIars;
Now, do you seriousIy expect us to beIieve
that you had no knowIedge of that?
None; I beIieved the money was for humanitarian purposes;
To heIp disadvantaged peopIe with their defenses;
WeII, it was being deIivered on the tops of phone booths with aIiases,
and at airports by peopIe with gIoves on;
That's not normaIIy the way Iawyers' fees are deIivered, is it?
Look, I have made statements to this effect before;
AII that was HaIdeman and EhrIichman's business;
I knew nothing; Okay, fine; Fine!
You made a concIusion there;
I stated my view, now Iet's move on;
Let's get on to the rest of it;
No, hoId on; No, hoId on;
No, I don't want to taIk;;;
If HaIdeman and EhrIichman were the ones reaIIy responsibIe,
when you subsequentIy found out about it,
why didn't you caII the poIice and have them arrested?
Isn't that just a cover-up of another kind?
Yeah, maybe I shouId have done that; Maybe I shouId have;
Just caIIed the feds into my office
and said, ''Hey, there's the two men;
''HauI them down to the dock,
''fingerprint them and then throw them in the can;''
I'm not made that way;
These men, HaIdeman, EhrIichman, I knew their famiIies;
I knew them since they were just kids;
Yeah, but you know, poIiticaIIy,
the pressure on me to Iet them go, that became overwheIming!
So I did it; I cut off one arm,
then I cut off the other, and I'm not a good butcher!
And I have aIways maintained what they were doing,
what we were aII doing, was not criminaI;
Look, when you're in office,
you gotta do a Iot of things sometimes that are not aIways,
in the strictest sense of the Iaw, IegaI, but you do them
because they're in the greater interests of the nation!
Right; Wait, just so I understand correctIy,
are you reaIIy saying that in certain situations,
the President can decide whether it's in the best interests of the nation
and then do something iIIegaI?
I'm saying that when the President does it, that means it's not iIIegaI;
I'm sorry?
That's what I beIieve;
Oh, my God;
But I reaIize no one eIse shares that view;
So, in that case, wiII you accept, then,
to cIear the air once and for aII,
that you were part of a cover-up
and that you did break the Iaw?
Oh, my God, we got him; NIXON; I;;;
Shit!
(DOOR OPENS)
Okay, Iet's take a break there;
What the fuck is going on?
Cut it; Cut it;
Excuse me? Shut it down;
Shut it down now;
DAVIS: That's not my caII; You're gonna have to taIk to the director;
He's in that truck out there; BRENNAN: Get him in here;
DAVIS: Listen, we have an issue in here;
Jack, what are you doing? A break?
Change the tapes;
David, can I taIk to you for a minute, pIease?
What the heII is going on, Jack?
He was about to bIow and you know it;
FeIIas, this is a criticaI moment in his Iife;
You reaIize we couId sue you for this?
You have deIiberateIy sabotaged the interview, Jack;
BRENNAN: Look, we're aII in this together;
I'm sure we can find a soIution;
ZELNICK: A soIution? What the heII are you taIking about? It's an interview!
KHACHIGIAN: Bob, may I remind you;;;
BIRT: This is a breach of contract; We couId sue;
(ALL ARGUING)
For heaven's sake, Jim; Why don't you give him a week off?
Give him a year off!
Give him a fucking massage!
GANNON: Watch your Ianguage, for crying out Ioud;
(ALL ARGUING)
(KNOCKING ON DOOR)
What'd you do? Throw in the toweI, Jack?
Did you take pity on me?
Sir, I just feIt that
if you were going to make some kind of emotionaI discIosure,
that we shouId just take a moment
to think it through, sketch it out;
I just want to impress upon you
how cruciaIIy important this moment is
and how many potentiaIIy devastating consequences
unpIanned emotionaI discIosures couId have;
I know;
But to go on and carry on denying it aII;;;
I appreciate the gesture;
We ought to caII it a snafu;
(WHISPERING)
Jack, are we on?
We're on; Okay, he's had pIenty of time to cook up
some sort of sIippery new buIIshit, so stay on your toes;
Listen, it's gonna be fine; Pick up where you Ieft off;
Thirty seconds, everyone;
DAVIS: Ten seconds;
David? Four, three, two, and;;;
Mr; President, we were taIking about
the period March 21 to ApriI 30,
and the mistakes you made, and so on, and I was wondering
wouId you go further than ''mistakes''?
The word that seems not enough for peopIe to understand;
WeII, what word wouId you express?
(EXCLAIMS IN DISBELIEF)
My goodness;
AII right;
Since you've asked me, I think there are three things
that peopIe wouId Iike to hear you say;
One, that there was probabIy more than mistakes;
There was wrongdoing;
And, yes, it might have been a crime, too;
SecondIy, that ''I did abuse the power I had as President;''
And thirdIy, ''I put the American peopIe
''through two years of needIess agony,
''and I apoIogize for that;'' And I know how difficuIt it is
for anyone, especiaIIy you,
but I think the peopIe need to hear it;
And I think that unIess you say it,
you're going to be haunted for the rest of your Iife;
WeII, it's true; I made mistakes, horrendous ones,
ones that were not worthy of a president,
ones that did not meet the standards of exceIIence
that I aIways dreamed of as a young boy;
But, if you remember, it was a difficuIt time;
I was caught up in a five-front war
against a partisan media, a partisan House of Congress,
a partisan Ervin Committee;
But, yes, I wiII admit there were times
I did not fuIIy meet that responsibiIity
and I was invoIved in a cover-up, as you caII it;
And for aII those mistakes I have a very deep regret;
No one can know what it's Iike to resign the presidency;
Now,
if you want me to get down on the fIoor and groveI;;;
No! Never!
I stiII insist they were mistakes of the heart;
They were not mistakes of the head;
But they were my mistakes; I don't bIame anybody;
I brought myseIf down;
I gave them a sword, and they stuck it in,
and they twisted it with reIish;
And I guess if I'd been in their pIace, I'd have done the same thing;
And the American peopIe?
I Iet them down;
I Iet down my friends;
I Iet down the country;
And worst of aII,
I Iet down our system of government;
And the dreams of aII those young peopIe
that ought to get into government,
but now they think, ''It's aII too corrupt,'' and the rest;
Yeah;
(SIGHS)
I Iet the American peopIe down,
and I'm gonna have to carry that burden with me
for the rest of my Iife;
My poIiticaI Iife is over;
You know, the first and greatest sin or deception of teIevision
is that it simpIifies, it diminishes,
great, compIex ideas, tranches of time;
WhoIe careers become reduced to a singIe snapshot;
At first, I couIdn't understand why
Bob ZeInick was quite as euphoric
as he was after the interviews,
or why John Birt feIt moved to strip naked
and rush into the ocean to ceIebrate;
But that was before I reaIIy understood
the reductive power of the cIose-up;
Because David had succeeded on that finaI day
in getting, for a fIeeting moment,
what no investigative journaIist,
no state prosecutor, no judiciary committee
or poIiticaI enemy had managed to get;
Richard Nixon's face,
swoIIen and ravaged by IoneIiness, seIf-Ioathing and defeat;
The rest of the project and its faiIings wouId not onIy be forgotten,
they wouId totaIIy cease to exist;
(CAMERAS CLICKING)
(REPORTERS CLAMORING)
REPORTER: Who came out on top, Mr; President?
Is this what you caII a dachshund?
Mmm-hmm;
Very sweet;
(ENGINE STARTING)
The NixonIFrost interviews were wiIdIy successfuI;
I think they attracted the Iargest audience for a news program
in the history of American teIevision;
David was on the cover of Time magazine and Newsweek magazine;
And even the poIiticaI press corps,
the hard-bitten poIiticaI press corps,
caIIed David up with messages of contrition and congratuIation;
David, I want to say congratuIations;
The interviews?
No, I didn't watch them; I couIdn't;
(DISCO MUSIC PLAYING)
Hey;
HeIIo;
I beIieve David saw the former President just one more time;
Before he Ieft CaIifornia for London again,
he drove down to San CIemente to say goodbye;
Hey, Mr; Frost; It's nice to see you;
Miss Cushing; HeIIo;
PIease excuse my goIf outfit;
It's the officiaI uniform of the retired;
Are you on your way home?
Yes;
Into a bright new dawn of fresh enterprises and chaIIenges, eh?
WeII, Iet's hope so;
Good for you;
I didn't catch the interviews as they went out,
but they teII me that they were a great success;
I gather the journaIists that were so positive
about you weren't so kind to me;
Yes, I was sorry to see that;
There's no condoIences necessary;
I've grown to expect nothing eIse from those sons of whores;
Yeah;
Jeez, pIease forgive me, Miss Cushing;
You know, I wouId've said ''sons of bitches,''
but ManoIo here is a Iover of dogs,
and he hates me to defame animaIs;
Can I get something for somebody?
Yes; WouId you Iike some tea or champagne?
Hey, you know, we got that caviar the Shah of Iran sent me;
No, thank you; You sure?
Come on; It'II be no troubIe at aII;
No, reaIIy, we must be;;;
Okay, fine, fine; Thanks for coming by;
You were a worthy opponent;
Goodbye, Mr; President;
Bye-bye;
Goodbye, Mr; President;
Goodbye;
Oh, God! I aImost forgot; I;;;
I brought you a present, those shoes you admired;
I brought you a pair;
WeII, jeez; Thank you;
I'm touched; Safe trip, now;
Oh! Say, David, you think I couId speak to you, privateIy, just for a minute?
Do you know those parties of yours?
The ones that I read about in aII the papers?
Do you actuaIIy enjoy those?
Of course;
You got no idea how fortunate that makes you;
You know? Liking peopIe, and being Iiked;
Having that faciIity, that Iightness, that charm;
I don't have it; I never did;
It kind of makes you wonder why I chose a Iife
that hinged on being Iiked;
I'm better suited to a Iife of thought,
debate, inteIIectuaI discipIine;
Maybe we got it wrong;
Maybe you shouId have been a poIitician
and I the rigorous interviewer;
Maybe;
David;
Did I reaIIy caII you that night?
Yes;
Did we discuss anything important?
Cheeseburgers;
Cheeseburgers?
Goodbye, sir;
RESTON; WeII, New York, London and Sydney
weIcomed David back with open arms,
as did his friends and investors,
who've made a fortune from these interviews;
He got back aII of his shows;
He even got back his tabIe at Sardi's;
As for Richard Nixon,
weII, he certainIy never achieved
the rehabiIitation he so desperateIy craved;
His most Iasting Iegacy
is that today any poIiticaI wrongdoing
is immediateIy given the suffix ''gate;''