Nixon to Hire Own Guards--Will Save U.S. $3 Million

Former President Richard M. Nixon is dropping his Secret Service protection, opting instead for private security agents in what he says is an effort to save the government about $3 million a year.

A note from Nixon, formally notifying the government, was hand-delivered to Treasury Secretary James A. Baker III last Friday.

“The decision was that he will no longer make use of Secret Service protection provided by the government,” John Taylor, Nixon’s assistant, said in New York.

“He’s commissioned a complete study of his security needs and once that’s done, he will decide how to proceed,” Taylor said. The changeover, he added, won’t come for a few months.

Nixon canceled government security for his wife, Pat, early last year, and the private security agents will protect her as well, the New York Daily News reported.

Nixon has had Secret Service protection--as do all former Presidents--since he left the White House in 1974. The bodyguards have a command post on his estate in Saddle River, N.J., which Taylor says was refurbished and is maintained at Nixon’s expense.

Taylor declined to quote from the letter but said “this is something he’s been thinking about for quite a while.” Nixon’s only reason, Taylor said, is to save the government the expense.

Secret Service protection for former Presidents Nixon, Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy Carter, and for Lady Bird Johnson, widow of Lyndon B. Johnson, costs the government more than $26 million a year.