The year 1972 seemed fateful to those who cherish the commitment of American democracy to the tradition of checks and balances. Indeed, as the year ended, the realization was beginning to dawn that the nation was on the edge of a full-scale constitutional crisis.

Nineteen seventy-two was the year when President Nixon reopened the door to China, then mined Haiphong harbor and bombed the city of Hanoi; when he visited Moscow, concluded a treaty limiting strategic arms and directed Henry Kissinger to announce that peace was "at hand," then suddenly renewed and intensified the bombing, suspended it for thirtysix hours at Christmas, renewed it, then stopped it again—all without explanation to the people on whose behalf he was acting.