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MORI DocID: 1451843

The Washington Merry-Go-Round

THE WASHINGTON POST Wednesday, Feb. 16, 1972                D7

Nixon Puts Out Eye on His Brother

By Jack Anderson

President Nixon has given aide John Ehrlichman a delicate personal assignment to keep the President's brother, Donald, one of the wealthiest.

Donald Nixon has a weakness for get-rich-quick schemes. He tried to satisfy both appetites in the 1960s by borrowing $205,000 from financier Howard Hughes to operate a restaurant chain, the Nixonburger, in Southern California.

Two months after the loan was made, some of Hughes' men whisked out down with Donald to survey the chaos of the franchise. Those who then directed the day-to-day operations at Hughes one complained that Donald was slow in paying off important creditors.

But it was too late. Donald's restaurant scheme had ballooned, and the Nixonburgers was lost in the shuffle.

The $205,000 loan leaked out during Hughes' campaign for the presidency, causing him political grief.

At one time, Donald incorporated himself and began selling shares to citizens who might have an interest in his blood line. Ehrlichman cautioned Donald such ventures could embarrass his brother and thus, for his brother's sake, he should [text continues]

avid deals that might reflect unfavorably on the President. Not long afterward, Donald began dickering with John Hills, a well-known manipulator of corporate equipment, who wanted the promotional rights to Donald's prowess in urban riot rescue. Hills told me Donald agreed to be the company's West Coast representative, and didn't want to put in the fix for federal money. But when the President's brother wrote to Hill saying he was no longer interested in the company.

No Longer Adviser

Donald also made contact with Elmer Stone a lawyer for the Boom Aeronautical Company. But in deference to his brother, Donald took Stone through the roundabout White House gates to see Ehrlichman. Afterward, a spokesman from Aeronautical ex-plained that the pair had just dropped by to left he liaison that Stone was no longer acting as Donald's legal adviser.

When Donald finally joined the Doral Corporation in January, 1970, Ehrlichman summoned Orville Barrett, the White House for an audience with the President. Barrett had been chairman of the Nixon inaugural and is trusted by the President.

Delicately, the President asked the Marriotts to keep [text continues]

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avid deals that might reflect unfavorably on the President. I want to be sure that Don is on the level with the government," said the President. "I want to be sure that Don is never asked to do anything that would embarrass this office."

The President added at an afternoon "Don is the best small man in the Nixon family."

The Cliffords, apparently, watch over Donald, and they have scrupulously kept him away from Washington. There has been only one awkward incident. Donald flew to Greece as one of the three-man team that offered Marriott airline-catering service to Aristotle Onassis' Olympic Airlines.

Greeks Bearing Gifts

The Greeks, though their military government is unpopular in the U.S., rolled out the red carpet for the President's brother, Tom Pappas, a big Republican money raiser in Greece, threw a lavish dinner for Donald in Athens and invited members of the Greek military Junta. And Onassis, the husband of the widow of the man who defeated Richard Nixon for President in 1960, sent long-stemmed roses to Donald's hotel room.

Washington whispers that Donald used his White House influence to get exporting contracts for Marriott with American Airlines and TWA, well [text continues]

are, strictly untrue.

Ehrlichman also gave Don-ald's son, Donald, Jr., a private brief the boy went to Switzerland last summer to work for International Controls. The company has now transferred young Nixon to the Bahamas.

The Cliffords, talking to a few visitors, including my associate George Cliffords Jr., was something of a disappointment. He had run off in the mountains associated with hippies. A job was arranged.

The boy said he was going to work for Investors Overseas Services. It was been in financial difficulty.

"I told him not to say that," said Donald, a note of exasperation in his voice. "If that gets around, he's going to be in a lot of trouble. I told him it was to say he was going to work for International Controls. IOS and International Controls are affiliated companies, but he's not supposed to say he works for IOS. You know what would happen if that got around.

"That dumb so-and-so," Don-ald said of his son. "John Ehrlichman talked to him for a couple of hours and told him to cleave himself over there. You know, he told me he was the President's nephew and couldn't do anything to embarrass the President."

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