NIXON KNEW

BY JOHN SPENCER AND ALEX MITCHELL PRESIDENT NIXON knew about the Watergate cover-up operation, John Dean III, the former White House counsel, told the Senate inquiry yesterday.

In a 150-page testimony to the committee, Dean said he was certain Nixon had received information on the cover-up from H. R. (Bob) Haldeman, his former chief of staff.

Dean's dramatic evidence exposes the lies that Nixon has told about Watergate over the past few weeks and threatens to topple him and his corrupt administration.

Only hours before Dean took the stand, Soviet Communist Party leader Leonid Brezhnev left Washington for Paris after week of gladhanding and banqueting with Nixon.

As the Dean testimony was being given, the White House strategically released the text of the final communiqué of the Brezhnev-Nixon talks. It was the most blatant attempt to divert attention from Watergate.

The communiqué expresses "mutual satisfaction' with the 'substantial advance in the strengthening of peaceful relations between the USA and the USSR.

"The process of reshaping relations betwen the USA and the USSR on the basis of peaceful co-existence and equal security ... is progressing in an encouraging manner,' the communiqué says.

Thanks to Brezhnev, Dean's testimony has been postponed for a week while Nixon's cronies subjected Dean to systematic abuse.

In his opening statement to the Senate hearing, Dean also said that former AttorneyGeneral John Mitchell and Commerce Secretary Maurice Stans both asked him to see if the White House could do anything to prevent 'unnecessary embarrassment' concerning funds found on the Watergate burglars.

BUILDING FUND When the burglars were caught redhanded in the Democratic headquarters at the Watergate Hotel, their pockets were stuffed with hundred dollar bills which were traced back to Stans' safe.

Shortly after the June 17, 1972, break-in Mr L. Patrick Gray, act. ng head of the FBl, asked him for an assurance that intormatior on the case was being reportud to the President, Dean said.

I assured him that it was being reported to the President. Even though I was not directly reporting to the President at that time, I was aware of the fact that Ehrlichman or Haldeman had daily discussions with the President, and 1 felt certain, because Haldeman often made notes about the information I was bringing to their attention, that this information was being given to the President.

In the past few days Nixon is reported to have decided to abandon Haldeman and Ehrlichman, whom he once described as