Ron Ziegler, 63, press secretary for Nixon, dies

SAN DIEGO — Ron Ziegler, the combative former press secretary to President Nixon who famously called the Watergate break-in a "third-rate burglary," died yesterday of a heart attack, his wife said. He was 63.

Ziegler died at his home in Coronado, a suburb of San Diego, said his wife, Nancy.

Ziegler functioned as the point man for an administration under fire, the president's strident defender until the public release of the Watergate tapes made it clear that Nixon and his top aides had engaged in a vast cover-up.

As Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein tied the scandal to top officials in the Nixon administration, Ziegler routinely dismissed their reports as inaccurate.

The first denials came two days after the break-in.

"Certain elements may try to stretch this beyond what it is," Ziegler said of the June 17, 1972, burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters that would lead to Nixon's resignation.

The press secretary publicly apologized to Woodward, Bernstein and their newspaper the day after the April 30, 1973, resignations of White House counsel John Dean and Nixon aides John Ehrlichman and H.R. Haldeman.

"I would apologize to the Post, and I would apologize to Mr. Woodward and Mr. Bernstein. ... We would all have to say that mistakes were made in terms of comments. I was overenthusiastic in my comments about the Post, particularly if you look at them in the context of developments that have taken place," he said at the time. "When we are wrong, we are wrong, as we were in that case."

In a Nov. 12, 1973, news conference, it was Ziegler who announced that Nixon would give up unsubpoenaed White House recordings and portions of his diary.

Dean, who helped expose the scandal, said in an electronic book published last year on Salon.com that Ziegler, despite his complaints about Woodward and Bernstein, was one of four people who may have been Deep Throat, the mysterious, chain-smoking source who gave Woodward crucial information in secret late-night meetings.

Woodward has said he will not reveal Deep Throat's identity until that person's death. As recently as last year, he said Deep Throat was still alive.

As spokesman for a much-maligned administration, Ziegler was unpopular with the public and the press in the early 1970s. His friends said he was tarnished unfairly because of his loyalty to Nixon.

"Deep down he was a wonderful person," Gerald Warren, a former deputy press secretary under Presidents Nixon and Ford, said last night. "I think he was placed in an awkward position as a young man. ... It wasn't easy for him, but he did his best and he was very loyal."

Ziegler, who first worked with Nixon as a press aide on his unsuccessful campaign for California governor in 1962, stayed with the president even after Nixon's fall from grace.

"I was the only one on that plane to San Clemente with Nixon when power changed hands," he said. "I was there with Nixon in exile. ... I'm proud of what I did as press secretary. I don't feel the need to apologize."

Ziegler said in a 1981 Post interview that he had never lied about Watergate: "It's necessary to fudge sometimes. You have to give political answers. You have to give non-answers. But I never walked out on that podium and lied."

Ronald Louis Ziegler was born May 12, 1939, in Covington, Ky. He grew up in Cincinnati, then moved to California and enrolled at the University of Southern California.

After leaving the government, he worked in the private sector, most recently as chief executive of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores. He retired in 1998.