THE
Summer Daily
Vol. LXXXIII, No. 66-S Ann Arbor, Michigan-Tuesday, August 21, 1973 Ten Cents Eight Pages
Nixon attacks critics;
assassin plot reported
NEW ORLEANS, La. M-- President Nixon lash-
ed out at critics of his Indochina policies yester-
day and acknowledged for the first time that he
had ordered secret bombing of Cambodia in 1969.
The President spoke before the national conven-
tion of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) after
a planned motorcade through the city was called
off because of reports of a possible assassination
plot.
IN ADDITION to the reported conspiracy, details of
which were not disclosed, a federal warrant was issued
during the day for a former policeman who allegedly
spoke of killing the President.
Nixon arrived at the Rivergate Convention Center with-
out incident, however, and shook hands with members
of a friendly crowd awaiting him outside. Inside, his ring-
ing defense of his Indochina and national security policies
drew cheers from the auddience of about 4,500.
At about the time Nixon departed the city for the
Western White House in California, a federal warrant
was issued for Edwin Gaudet, a onetime policeman ar-
rested three years earlier during Nixon's last visit to the
city.
THE WARRANT charged that Gaudet "knowingly, will-
fully, unlawfully, made a threat to take the life of the
President."
The warrant said that Gaudet, arrested in 1970 for
throwing a burning American flag on Nixon's car, "stated
that if he had a gun, he would kill President Nixon and
made specific references to doing this during President
Nixon's visit to New Orleans on Aug. 20."
The motorcade through downtown New Orleans was
called off at the advice of the Secret Service, which said
it had uncovered a "possible conspiracy to assassinate the
President."
AT A NEWS conference later in the day, police said they
had been investigating the possibility of a plot for about
a week. They said Gaudet was not part of the alleged
conspiracy.
"For about a week we have been working on a report
of an attempt to assassinate the President," said Police
Supt. Clarence Giarrusso. "As of now, we do not have
sufficient evidence to put this in perspective."
Consideration was given to calling off the entire appear-
ance, the White House said. But the Secret Service did
not say it was necessary. The speech to the VFW was
Nixon's first public appearance since early July. It fol--
lowed by four days his televised Watergate address in
which he urged Americans to join him in moving ahead
with the "urgent business of the nation."
IN THE VFW ADDRESS, Nixon criticized "unilateral
disarmers" in Congress, defended his Vietnam policies and
said he would press ahead in the search for lasting
world peace.
The President said he ordered the secret 1969 air attacks
after 40,000 North Vietnamese regulars overran a ten mile
wide strip on the Cambodian-South Vietnamese border.
"The Communists had made a mockery of the neu-
trality of those border regions," he said. "The United
States was under no moral obligation to respect the sham."
"THERE IS TODAY great anguish and loud protest from
the usual critics that this was an attack against tiny Cam-
bodia. That is absurd," he said.
Nixon said the Cambodian government "did not object
See NIXON, Page 5
AP Photos
President Nixon barks vehemently at his Indochina policy
critics in a New Orleans speech yesterday as nearby
demonstrators suggest imprisonment for Nixon and
friends.