WASHINGTON -- Richard Nixon, pressuring his successor for a Watergate pardon, threatened to claim President Ford had agreed to grant the pardon in exchange for the presidency, according to an article in the Atlantic Monthly.
The article also claimed that, in the last days of Nixon's presidency, Defense Secretary James Schlesinger feared Nixon might use military force to stay in office. And after Nixon resigned, his aides stayed at the White House, destroying some papers and carting away others, the article said.
Former New York Times reporter Seymour Hersh, on the basis of talks with unidentified former aides to Ford and Alexander Haig, writes that Nixon called Ford Sept. 7, 1974, the day before Nixon's pardon.
Hersh writes: 'Nixon's message was blunt, according to those few White House aides who knew of the private call: if Ford did not grant him a full pardon, he, Nixon, was going to go public and claim that Ford had promised the pardon in exchange for the presidency, because Ford was so eager to get it.'
Hersh quoted Ford aides as saying Ford already had decided to grant the pardon and was 'very, very irritated' by Nixon's call.
Nixon aides, reached at the former president's home in New Jersey, refused comment on the article and said Nixon is on vacation.
'The president is not going to have any comment on it,' said Kathy O'Connor, an aide to Nixon.
Ford spokesman Robert Barrett, reached in Vail, Colo., said there would be no comment until Ford and his aides read the article.
The 20,000-word article in The Atlantic's August issue stops short of asserting that Ford, as vice president, struck a deal on the pardon before Nixon resigned Aug. 9, 1974. But, Hersh writes, 'Many of the former aides who worked with Haig and Ford still assume there was a deal of some kind.'
Ford repeatedly has denied any such bargain and told a House subcommittee, under oath, he had no conversations with Nixon about a pardon.
Hersh also asserts Nixon reneged on a promise to pardon his chief aides -- to 'put the special prosecutor out of business by leaving nothing unpardoned.' He said one plan was for Nixon to pardon all his aides and himself before resigning.
In the last weeks of Nixon's administration, Hersh reports, Schlesinger began to fear Nixon might move to use the military, particularly the Marines, to stay in power and that the military might support Nixon against the courts or Congress.
Hersch said Schlesinger telephoned Air Force Gen. George Brown, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and asked for a commitment that neither Brown nor any other member of the Joint Chiefs would respond to any White House order without first informing Schlesinger.
When Brown passed on the instruction, one chief told Hersh, the consensus among the top military commanders was that 'Schlesinger was coming unglued.'
Schlesinger, however, believed the Marine commandant, Gen. Robert Cushman Jr., would be loyal to the White House in a showdown.
And, Hersh noted, several officials investigating Watergate also feared a confrontation could lead to involvement of the military.
After Nixon resigned, Hersh reported, Nixon aides continued to work at the White House and in the executive offices.
Hersh said Benton Becker, an attorney who helped in Ford's transition, told him: 'The Nixon people were burning crap like crazy.'
Becker said he ordered an Air Force officer to unload one truck filled with files and papers, but the officer told him he would take orders only from Haig. Becker said he took the officer to Haig's office to have the order confirmed, then want out and watched the truck unloaded.
Hersh is the author of the recent book on former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, 'The Price of Power,' and other books and articles generally critical of Nixon and Kissinger.
Hersh originally gained public recognition with his New York Times articles revealing the My Lai massacres during the Vietnam War.