Frost\Nixon Page #4

and someone who's already had his

own show canceled, incidentally?

I see. Well, I'm sorry

you feel this way.

Obviously, I think you're

making a terrible mistake.

NBC.

Well, that's the

networks out, all of them.

Well, 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 ourselves,

completely bypassing the networks.

Just imagine it, we'd be our

own network for the night.

Hey, Bob. How does that grab you?

Hey, come on in. David's on the phone.

No, never been done before.

Historic stuff.

Just think about it,

okay? And call me back.

Yeah? Yeah.

David, I'd like you to meet

Jim Reston and Bob Zelnick,

our two prospective corner men.

Delighted to meet you.

Come on in. Make yourselves at home.

Bob's been Washington correspondent

for Public Radio for the past 10 years.

Moving to ABC in the new year.

The general feeling, David,

is that I have been wasting

my matinee idol looks on radio.

Jim here teaches at the

University of North Carolina

and is writing a book about the

criminal dishonesty, corruption,

paranoia and abuses of

power of Richard Nixon.

Second on the subject.

Fourth.

Well, delighted to have you both aboard.

Actually, before I sign

on, I would like to hear

what you were hoping to

achieve with this interview.

What I want to achieve?

Yeah.

Jim, well, I've secured 12 taping days.

That's close to 30 hours

with the most compelling

and controversial politician

of our times.

Isn't that enough?

Well, not for me.

Look, I'd be giving up a year

of my life. I'm leaving my family

to work on a subject

matter that means more

than you can probably imagine,

and the idea of doing all that

without achieving what

I want to, personally,

would be unthinkable to me.

No, all right.

Well, what is it that

you want to achieve?

I'd like to give Richard

Nixon the trial he never had.

Of course, we'll be

asking difficult questions.

Difficult questions.

The man lost 21,000 Americans

and a million Indo-Chinese

during his administration.

He only escaped jail

because of Ford's pardon.

Yes, but equally, going after

him in some knee-jerk way,

you know, assuming he's a terrible guy,

wouldn't that only create more

sympathy for him than anything else?

You know...

Right now, I submit it's impossible

to feel anything close to

sympathy for Richard Nixon.

He devalued the presidency,

and he left the country

that elected him in trauma.

The American people need a

conviction, pure and simple.

The integrity of our political system,

of democracy as an idea,

entirely depends on it.

And if in years to

come, people look back

and say it was in this interview

that Richard Nixon exonerated himself,

that would be the worst crime of all.

Did you know that Mike Wallace

is doing a piece on this?

And that in the bars around

Capitol Hill and Georgetown

this entire project is a joke?

Come on. Jim, come on.

Thanks for that, Jim.

Could you give us a couple of minutes?

You're unbelievable. I'm sorry, Bob.

You know, Jim, I went

way out on a limb for you.

I mean, some of us

actually want this job.

I want it, too, if it's done right.

Well, how do you know

they're not gonna do it right?

Little Lord Fauntleroy in there?

Sympathy for Richard Nixon?

What the... He's full of sh*t, man!

How do you know that?

Is Mike Wallace doing a piece on this?

Apparently.

Why didn't you tell me?

It isn't relevant.

What's the angle?

"British talk show host,

"good with actresses, not so good

with stonewalling presidents."

That's the general idea, yeah.

Right.

It's hard not to feel a

little insulted by that.

Well, Bob's obviously a pro.

What are we gonna do about Reston?

Well, the man's an

idiot. He's overemotional.

Send him home.

Well, I think he should stay. Why?

I liked his passion.

He will drive us all bloody mad.

Well, maybe, but sometimes

being out of your comfort zone

is a good thing, I'm told.

He stays.

I took my seat next to Mrs.

Mao at the banquet table.

Now, one of the challenges

of life as a president

is the endless round of cocktail

parties, social engagements, banquets.

And people who know me would tell you

that small talk is not one of

my strong suits, either. No.

Particularly not in Mandarin.

So Mrs. Mao and I, we just, well,

you know, stared at one another.

And then across the table, Mrs.

Nixon and Chairman Mao himself, well,

they stared at one another, too.

And then further down, Dr. Kissinger

and their foreign minister, well,

you're getting the picture now.

I can't stand it, Jack!

Reducing the presidency to

a series of banal anecdotes.

I feel like a circus

animal doing tricks.

And I thought I made it clear!

I didn't want to take any

questions on Watergate, damn it!

Soon as it came to question time,

all those sons of b*tches ever

want to hear about is Watergate!

It's as if all my other

achievements have ceased to exist.

Well, sir, you're gonna get a chance

to talk 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 bailed him out.

But the point is, we start

taping at the end of March.

Really? Now, that's terrific.

How much time is devoted to Watergate?

What are the other three divided into?

Domestic Affairs, Foreign Policy,

and Nixon the Man.

"Nixon the Man"?

As opposed to what? Nixon the horse?

Well, I imagine it's some

kind of biographical piece.

I can see it now. The father that

neglected me, the brothers that died.

Spare me.

Still, 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

intellectual class, sir.

You're gonna be able to dictate

terms, rebuild your reputation.

If this went well, if enough people

saw it, revised their opinion,

you could move back East way,

way earlier than we expected.

You think? I'm certain.

It would be so good to go

back to where the action is.

You know?

The hunger in my belly

is still there, Jack.

I guess it all boils

down to Watergate, huh?

Well, that's nothing

to worry about, sir.

It's not as if there's

gonna be any revelations.

That stuff's been combed

over a million times.

No one has pinned anything on you.

Yeah, still, it's been a while

since I spoke about it on the record.

I'm gonna start doing my homework.

Hey, you know what would be an

interesting thing to find out?

What his strategy is.

Now, where's he staying?

I believe The Beverly Hilton.

The Beverly Hilton, you say.

Well, I got the numbers someplace

of some fellows that we could send in.

Cubans with CIA training.

Jesus, Jack, it was a joke.

Yes, sir.

A week later, we said

goodbye to our families,

we hopped on a plane, and we

moved into The Beverly Hilton.

And that's where we started

to dig into our research

and prepare for the interviews.

Yeah, as it happens, we took

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