By George Lardner Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 17, 1997; Page A02

With the fallout from a White House-sponsored burglary in the Pentagon Papers case fresh in the headlines and his approval of a "clearly illegal" 1970 domestic intelligence plan about to become public, President Richard M. Nixon vigorously but elliptically defended such measures on May 23, 1973, at a Cabinet Room meeting with Republican congressional leaders.

Nixon had just given them a rundown on varying negotiations with China, the Soviet Union and North Vietnam and emphasized how important secrecy was to their success.

"That is why you have to take the strongest measures to see that the bureaucracy doesn't leak, and that the Congress doesn't leak," Nixon said. "That is why we have taken such measures in the past. And it is one thing you need not be a bit defensive about."

His remarks drew sustained applause. They were a brief snippet from 154 hours of Cabinet Room tapes from the Nixon presidency that were made public yesterday at the National Archives facility in College Park. They include 436 conversations and meetings on subjects from Africa to Yugoslavia and controversies from auto safety to the standoff at Wounded Knee, S.D.

The releases, delayed for decades by legal wrangling with the late president and his estate, are the first large batch of Nixon tape recordings to be made public since last year's disclosure of 201 hours of tapes reflecting "abuse of government power" during Nixon's tenure.

Two segments released yesterday, including Nixon's remarks about "the strongest measures" to prevent leaks, were labeled "abuse of power."

The Cabinet Room tapes are generally of good quality, but those whose chairs were farthest from the president and the microphones are often hard to hear. The tapes are available for listening, with the help of a meticulously detailed log. But except for a few instances involving subpoenaed material, listeners must make their own transcripts.

The May 23, 1973, meeting with GOP leaders in Congress came at a tumultuous time for Nixon, with Senate hearings on the Watergate scandal heating up, especially about an attempt to enlist the CIA in the coverup.

On May 20, special prosecutor-designate Archibald Cox vowed to pursue the case even if it implicated the president. Two days later, Nixon issued a long statement denying any complicity in the scandal but admitting for the first time that some persons in the White House had attempted to cover it up. Nixon also spoke of "the 1970 intelligence plan" and its authorization of burglaries in national security cases but said it had been rescinded five days later. He did not mention that the report recommending the break-ins had called the technique "clearly illegal."

The Pentagon Papers break-in at the offices of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist came in 1971 after Ellsberg had been identified as the one who leaked the papers to the New York Times. It was carried out by the same team caught in the 1972 Watergate burglary, led by Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy. Nixon in his May 22 statement claimed he had not learned of it until he began his own Watergate investigation in March 1973.

Defending his "strongest measures" without detailing them, Nixon concluded his meeting with GOP leaders by alluding to his forthcoming dinner at the White House May 24 with former Vietnam POWs.

"Without the secret negotiations that we had," the president said, "there would not have been a China initiative, there wouldn't have been a Soviet initiative, and there would not be a peace in Vietnam. And frankly, these fellows [the POWs], instead of eating the best dinner you can get in the world tomorrow in the White House, would be in that pigpen in Hanoi. And so, I say, let's keep the same game plan."

Nixon dealt with auto safety on several tapes, at one point calling the air bag a "really great" idea, but saying that if it were put in a car he wanted to buy, "I'm not gonna ride, I'll walk."

On Wounded Knee, a 70-day confrontation between militants of the American Indian Movement and federal agents that ended May 8, 1973, with the surrender of 120 remaining occupiers, Nixon said on May 10: "[I]t was very important to do it right, and it was done well. Unfortunately, we didn't get much credit because it was done at a time, that, uh, other things were happening that was bigger news."

Staff researcher Alice Crites contributed to this report.