Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Book: Nixon beat wife, took drugs Assocrated Press WASHINGTON —A new biography asserts that Richard Nixon over many years took a mood-al tering drug without a prescription and that he beat his wife at times of personal crisis — a claim a Nixon intimate calls “inconceivable.” “The Arrogance of Power” by Anthony Summers will be published Monday. It chiefly con cerns the aspects of Nixon’s life “that he and his supporters have preferred to conceal,” writes Sum mers, a BBC journalist and author of biographies of J. Edgar Hoover and Marilyn Monroe. The author named his sources for most of the book’s assertions. But many of those he quotes got their information second-hand. Some of the book’s claims have been made in the past but in less de tail. The book said that in 1968 Nixon was given 1,000 capsules of the drug Dilantin, an anti-con vulsant used to counter epileptic seizures, by Jack Dreyfus, founder of an investment firm and an enthusiastic promoter of the drug. Dreyfus later supplied another 1,000, it said. White House physician Dr. Walter Tkach, “a compliant doctor who would do exactly as a pa tient asked,” was also a user of the drug himself, the book said, citing Nixon aide John D. Ehrlich man as its source. When asked later if Nixon was still taking the drug, Tkach replied, “I don’t know, but the amount of pills in the bottle in his bathroom is reducing in size, so I suppose he is,” according to Summers. “The Physicians’ Desk Reference” lists a num ber of adverse reactions to Dilantin, including slurred speech, decreased coordination and mental con fusion. Summers wrote that the relationship of Nixon and his wife was one of “prolonged marital difficulty, of physical abuse, of threatened divorce.” But that view was contested by John Taylor, Nixon’s chief aide in his retirement years, now director of the Richard M. Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda, Calif. Summers’ claims that Nixon abused his wife came from secondary sources. Among others, he cited journalist Seymour Hersh, who said he learned of three instances of Nixon wife beatings but did not identify his sources; retired Washington lawyer John Sears, who was a campaign consultant to Nixon; and the late Bill Van Petten, a Los Angeles area re porter, who years later told a friend, not identified by Summers, that just before or after his 1962 loss to Brown Nixon beat Mrs. Nixon “so badly she could not go out the next day.” Summers said Sears told him that he had been told “that Nixon had hit her (Pat Nixon) in 1962 and that she had threatened to leave him over it. ... I’m not talking about a smack. He blackened her eye.” Sears said he had been told of the beating by two lawyers, both now dead, Whiter Taylor and Pat Hillings. Twenty-two years later, after he resigned in dis grace over the Watergate scandal, Nixon “attacked” his wife at their home in San Clemente, Calif., and she had to be treated at a hospital, Summers wrote, citing Hersh as his secondary source. The New York Times, which carried a story about the book Sunday, quoted Taylor, the former Nixon retirement aide, as responding on behalf of Nixon’s daughter, Julie Nixon Eisenhower. “It cannot possibly be true,” Taylor told the Times. “It is utterly inconceivable. Anyone who knows and worked with President Nixon knows first of all that he could not have done it, second of all that he would not have done it and third of all that had he done it there are innumerable people who would not have spoken to him and yet remained active in his life and in Mrs. Nixon’s life until their deaths and beyond.” Clinton urges Africans to break the silence on AIDS by Anne Gearan Associated Press ABUJA, NIGERIA — Africans must “break the silence” about AIDS or risk losing hard-fought democratic and eco nomic gains, President Clinton said Sun day as the White House announced more than $20 million in U.S. aid to light AIDS, malaria and other diseases devastating Africa. “In every country, in any culture, it is difficult, painful, at the very least em barrassing, to talk about the issues in volved with AIDS,” Clinton said after touring health centersworldwide last year, AIDS is now the leading cause of death in Africa. In sub-Saharan Africa, 13 million children have lost a parent to AIDS, and the disease is reducing life ex pectancies and dimming development hopes across the continent. “Is it harder to talk about these things than to watch a child die of AIDS? ” Clin ton asked. “We have to break the silence about how this disease spreads and how to prevent it.” AIDS, which is primarily transmit ted sexually in Africa, is entirely pre ventable, Clinton reminded his audience. About 2.6 million Nigerians, 5.4 per cent of the population, are afflicted with AIDS. That puts the country on better footing than many of its neighbors with higher infection rates, but in danger of letting the disease gain ground, Clinton said. “AIDS can rob a country of its fu ture,” Clinton said. “I know you are not going to let that happen to Nigeria.” Clinton’s two-day stay in Nigeria is intended to underscore U.S. approval of the 15-month-old democratic govern ment in Africa’s most populous nation, with 123 million people. He promised continued U.S. help, but did not, as Nigerian President Oluse gun Obasanjo had hoped, agree to can cel or cut the nearly $1 billion U.S. por tion of Nigeria’s $32 billion foreign debt, a move that would require congression al approval. Speaking to business executives lat er Sunday, however, Clinton said he sup ports reducing the debt, but only if Nige da spends the extra money on improv ing lives and diversifying the economy. “There must be a dividend to democ racy for the people of Nigeria,” Clinton said. Clinton, accompanied by daughter Chelsea, began his day with services at a Baptist church in Abuja, and then ven tured outside the capital to get a first hand look Sunday at both the pageantry and poverty of life in Ushafa, a pot tery-making center, “I came to Nigeria to express the support of the people of the United States,” Clinton told villagers from a makeshift platform. “We support your democracy.” Khairat Abdulrazaq Gwadabe, who represents the village in the Nigerian Senate, said she explained Clinton’s vis it to villagers ahead of time. “I had to translate it as the king of the world himself is coming. The presi dent of the world is coming to their chief,” Gwadabe said. ini.__! J _1_1 /"'•l' *_ viiuigda Muu 11 uptu v--iiii».wii j visit would translate into a new school, a factory or some other investment, al though they were unclear on how that might happen. Hajiya Haunwa Mohammad, 42, said if Clinton could help ease Nigeria’s debt, she might earn more money selling sug ar and other products. Her four daugh ters, ages 8 to 23, might also go to school, she said. “Now, my children don’t go to school because I have no money for their school fees,” she said. Clinton’s brief African tour will al so take him to Tanzania on Monday. For mer South African President Nelson Man dela invited Clinton there to help preside over a planned peace ceremony to end seven years of civil war in neighboring Burundi. Hopes for a cease-fire agree ment faded this week and-negotiators be gan work Sunday on a less ambitious pact. Clinton still plans to go out of respect for Mandela’s efforts so far, the White House said. Three Israeli soldiers dead after failed raid on hide-out by Mark Lavie Associated Press ASSIRA ASHMAUA, West Bank — A botched raid on an Islamic militant hide-out in this West Bank vil lage ended Sunday with three Israeli soldiers dead — all possibly by friendly fire — and Palestinian officials angry at how Israel handles tlireats to peace between the two peoples. The target of the nighttime raid was Mahmoud Abu Hanoud, a fugitive at the top of Israel's most-wanted list, blamed for two 1997 bombings that killed at least 21 Israelis. Abu Hanoud, known as the leader of the militant Hamas group’s military wing, was wounded and fled the shoot-out into Nablus, a nearby town under total Pales tinian control. There, he gave himself up to Palestinian security forces to receive medical attention, said Pales tinian officials, who were keeping him under heavy guard. The raid comes a month after Israeli and Palestin ian negotiators broke new ground at the Camp David summit. The sides still hope to agree on a permanent peace soon, a prospect that has spurred Hamas — im placably opposed to any deal with the Jewish state —- to increase its efforts to scuttle the peace. *. .« /* * i . . ... .. At... Tt ... J L'C5{J1U/ LltCli UWU lauuic luipiuit auu xuuivuu, for whom they’d been searching for years, Israeli offi cials praised Palestinian security forces and said his de tention proved the effectiveness of Palestinian-Israeli se curity cooperation. “It doesn’t matter under whose custody he is,’’ Car mi Gillon, a former head of the Shin Bet security ser vice, told Israel radio. “He’s out of commission.” “His arrest prevents the Hamas from carrying out spectacular terrorist operations,” said Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh. But the Palestinians were hardly as sanguine, and did their best to distance themselves from the operation. “What the Israelis have done is a mistake, that they committed on their own initiative, and it has nothing to do with the Palestinian Authority,” said Col. Jibril Ra joub, the top Palestinian security official in the Wfest Bank “They paid the price.” This prosperous village, tucked into a dry riverbed, is designated in interim agreements as a ‘B’ area — joint ly controlled by Israel and the Palestinians, with ultimate security control in Israel’s hands. Rajoub suggested that, with the sides approaching an agreement that would transfer most ‘B’ areas to a sov ereign Palestinian state, it was time for Israeli forces to move out for good. “It would have been more appropriate to have giv en the information to the (Palestinian) police to tackle the issue peacefully and without bloodshed,” he said. Israel was not about to cede its West Bank opera tions, said Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz, the military chief of staff. Still, with three young men dead, all possibly by friendly fire, hard questions needed to be asked. “It is possible that the lower-level officers made erroneous decisions about the place, the people, the firing. All these issues will be investigated,” he said. Prime Minister Ehud Barak, expressing sorrow over the deaths, acknowledged that “maybe they were killed as a result of our own friendly fire” — a result of mis communication among the troops. The troops entered the village, a Hamas strong hold, on Saturday night looking for Abu Hanoud. He has been a fugitive since the 1997 bombings at the crowded Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem and the Ben Yehu da pedestrian mall. He is also suspected in other attempted attacks, and Israel radio said he was suspected of involvement in the operation of a bomb factory uncovered earlier this month in Nablus by Palestinian police. Abu Hanoud was walking through the village when an Israeli soldier told him to halt, said his mother, Fat ma, who visited him in the hospital. He fired at the sol diers, who were on a nearby rooftop. Un nuv< kit In tkn rk<MiI/I/sr knt tkrAiirrk oliwn groves to a Palestinian police checkpoint, Fatma Abu Hanoud said. “Thank God he defeats the Jews,” she said, encir cled by cheering villagers after she visited her son. “We are very proud of Mahmoud Abu Hanoud be cause he acts against the Zionists, the occupiers, to get our rights,” said Bashar Yassin, 34, an economist with the Palestinian Authority, standing next to the pile of rub ble that had been the house where the armed clash took place. Israel demolished the house after the raid. The owner of the home, Nidal Daglas, who witnesses say also shot at the soldiers, was arrested by Israeli troops and was being questioned. It was the second fiasco in two weeks for Duvdevan, an elite unit charged with rooting out terrorism in the Wfest Bank. On Aug. 16, Duvdevan troops shot and killed Mahmoud Abdullah, 70, the mayor of another area ‘B’ village during a night exercise. Abdullah had fired at the troops when they entered his property because he believed they were buiglars. The army expressed regret at the incident. Spotlight turns to U.S. behavior in Nazi era by Pauline Jelinek Associated Press WASHINGTON — The international reckon ing over evils of the Holocaust is about to come home to America. The country that would prefer to be known more for its Wbrld Whr II heroism will take its turn in examining how some in corporate America and official Washington also failed Hitler’s victims. “There are things that have to be faced up to,” said Elan Steinberg, World Jewish Congress exec utive director. In four years of lawsuits, soul-searching, rev elations and arm-twisting, the United States has led in promoting Holocaust truth-telling. And it has helped Jewish groups wrest billions of dollars from European governments and companies and institu tions that profited from Nazi Germany. That includes Swiss banks that hid Holocaust victims’ money, European insurers with unpaid poli cies held by victims and German companies that used slave labor. In the coming weeks, Jewish organizations plan to push for payments from dozens of America’s old est and best-known corporations — some stiil not named publicly — who they accuse of using forced labor. They also want to see company archives. “It’s their turn,” said Steinberg. “American companies were collaborating with Nazi Germany at a time when we were at war, because there was an ethos that demanded huge profits at the expense of everything else.” At the same time, a presidential panel will re port on what the government did with jewelry, art and other valuables that were stolen from Holo caust victims and came under U.S. control before, during or after the war. Separate inquiries of American business and government have been long planned. It’s just co incidence they are coming together now. The presidential panel has collected informa tion on government handling of assets for two years and promised its report in mid-October. Govern ment officials have held talks in recent months with some companies on how to meet forced-labor claims. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced May 1 that it would oiganize a Holocaust fund. But it hasn’t received a single pledge, and officials say the effort is stalled on individual companies’ legal and public image concerns. “We’re trying to do the right thing,” said the chamber’s Stephen Jordan. With 1,000 aging survivors dying each month, Jewish oiganizations say they’ll appeal di rectly to corporations. “We are looking at this as an issue to bring up with these companies in September, and we intend to bring it up very firmly and very decisively,” said Gideon Taylor of the Conference on Jewish Ma terial Claims Against Germany. “The issue is really whether America compa nies will face up to their historical responsibility in a way that is moral and proper,” Taylor said. The turn to American companies comes as officials try to tally the financial losses in Nazi per secution. The regime killed about 6 million Jews and 5 million others, including communists, ho mosexuals, gypsies and the mentally retarded. All the while, it was looting gold, art and bank accounts across occupied Europe. There have been extensive compensation pro grams, but they left gaps in who received money and for what wrongs. This new round of payment-seeking began af ter the fall of the Berlin Wkll and declassification of government documents. The 50th anniversary of the end of the war in 1995 started a new push to Holocaust stcrages ‘The issue is really whether America companies will face up to their historical responsibility in a way that is moral and proper.' Gideon Taylor Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany News Briefs , ■ Bush, Gore debate tax cuts WASHINGTON (AP) - Republi can presidential nominee George W. Bush and Democratic candidate A1 Gore are fiercely debating which tax cut proposal is best for the average American. Who’s right? As usual in matters of the federal tax code, it de pends — on how much taxpayers earn, whether they have a house or children and what they’re doing in life. ■ Conference to ' look at Caribbean PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of people are living desperate, isolated lives in a region that has done little to stem the AIDS epidemic — out of ignorance, lack of funds and, some say, fear of scaring tourists away. That is slowly changing, and there are hopes that an AIDS conference Sept. 11-12 will put the Caribbean’s epidemic of the dis- • ease — second only to Africa’s — on the global agenda. -I ■ Clinton begins 3-day African visit ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — President Clinton seeks to strengthen the fragile democracy in Africa’s most populous country in an address to the newly in stalled parliament of oil-rich, but pover ty-stricken, Nigeria. Starting a three-day African visit, he and daughter Chelsea are welcomed by whirling dancers ih flowing, red and black African dress. ■ Two men saved from Erie after 14 hours SANDUSKY, Ohio (AP) — Point ing his binoculars just below where Lake Erie meets the horizon, Matt Cetin spot ted what looked like two white flags in the water. “It took me about five seo t onds to realize what I was looking at,'’ he said. He had spotted Nick Sostaric and Matt Stookey — two men who survived a terrifying 14 hours floating in Lake Erie and fighting doubt, depression and hj» pothemiia. r! ■ Profiling, brutal ity on agenda for civil rights event . WASHINGTON (AP) — Racial pro filing and police brutality are among die issues to be addressed at a civil rights event held Saturday on the spot where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave the movement its defining theme nearly fix , decades ago. '•>4 ■ Algerian Cabinet resigns ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) —Wrestling to end a civil insurgency that has killed thousands of people, Algerian Presi dent Abdelaziz Bouteflika faced a new challenge Saturday when his 8-month old government resigned. The president accepted the collec tive resignation of his Cabinet after meeting with Prime Minister Ahmed Benbitour in the morning. He immeo. / ately charged close aide Ali Benflis, ^ who served as justice minister in the w early 1990s, with forming a new gov ernment. JtU ■ Clinton uses Internet to help schools, teachers WASHINGTON (AP) — Trying to use the Internet to fill a teacher shortage. President Clinton launched a one-stop clearinghouse Saturday to help schools find qualified teachers. “By logging on to www.recruif. ingteachers.oig, school districts can fi* 1 qualified teachers, andjeachers can fit*/ out where the jobs are,” Clinton said.