Nixon daughters in vigil as funeral preparations begin

THE LIFE of Richard Nixon was slipping away last night as the former president lay in a deep coma at the New York hospital where he had been since his massive stroke on Monday. His daughters, Julie Eisenhower and Tricia Cox, were at his bedside.

Officially, Mr Nixon's condition was described as critical but stable. But it had deteriorated steadily over the past 72 hours as a result of a brain swelling brought on by the stroke.

Even before he fell into the coma, Mr Nixon was unable to speak and his right side was largely paralysed. He is understood to have left instructions that his life not be artificially prolonged by the use of a respirator.

As the media and wellwishers continued their vigil outside the Cornell Medical Centre, backstage preparations began for his funeral. Two marine officers arrived at the hospital to make arrangements for a guard of honour for the 37th President.

The House Speaker, Thomas Foley, said the Rotunda of the US Capitol would be available for Mr Nixon to lie in state if his family so wished.

If that happened, it would be a final ironic twist to one of the most remarkable political careers of the 20th century. Mr Nixon's nemesis, the Watergate scandal, reached its climax because of Congress. Although the president did not plan the burglary of the Democratic party headquarters on 17 June 1972, he participated from the outset in the cover-up. The certainty of impeachment forced him to resign on

9 August 1974.

But thereafter he achieved, by the force of his will as much as anything, a remarkable rehabilitation. The hated 'Tricky Dicky' transformed himself into a globetrotting elder statesman.

Even President Bill Clinton sought his advice on foreign affairs. On the day of his stroke, Mr Nixon was preparing a speech to a fund-raising dinner of wealthy Republican donors at which he was to be the star attraction.

As Henry Kissinger, his Secretary of State, said yesterday: 'If this is something that can be licked by willpower, by tenacity, then he can lick it.'