Nixon Says Bork Will Name Special Prosecutor Next Week

President Nixon said last night a new special Watergate prosecutor will be named next week who will have "independence and total cooperation from the executive branch."

However, Nixon stated in a 40-minute news conference that he will not hand over presidential documents to the new prosecutor and does not expect the prosecutor "will consider it necessary to take the president to court."

Next week, Acting Atty. Gen. Robert H. Bork will appoint the successor to Archibald Cox '34, the special Watergate prosecutor fired by Nixon last Saturday.

A Justice Dept. spokesman said last night Nixon will consult in the selection of the new prosecutor, the Associated Press reported. Bork said before the news conference yesterday that he had recommended the naming of a prosecutor and had submitted five or six names for White House consideration.

Democratic congressmen last night denounced Nixon's plan to appoint a new prosecutor, charging that the President was giving no assurance the prosecutor will have a free hand.

Nixon opened the nationally broadcast conference by stating that Thursday's Soviet-American confrontation over a Middle East peace-keeping force has made "the outlook for a permanent peace the best it has been for 20 years." He also said the world-wide alert of U.S. forces ordered early yesterday has been relaxed.

Will Send Observers

Nixon said the United States will send observers to help oversee the Middle East cease-fire in response to a request by U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim. The Soviet Union has already announced it will send observers.

Nixon said his own foreign policy of detente, his firmness in past international crises and his personal acquaintance with Soviet leader Leonid I. Brezhnev played a role Thursday in avoiding a more serious-confrontation.

"When I have to face an international crisis, I have what it takes," he said. "The tougher it gets, the cooler I get."

After his comments on the Middle East, Nixon turned to his "efforts to get a cease-fire on the domestic front" and defended his firing of Cox, his ability to rule and the handling of campaign funds by his friend, C.G. "Bebe" Rebozo.

Nixon said he can legally fire an executive branch employee such as Cox at any time. In reference to court rulings on disclosure of the Watergate-related White House tapes the President said he is "in compliance with the law."

Nixon said he had no choice but to dismiss Cox after the special prosecutor rejected Nixon's compromise, which would have allowed Sen. John C. Stennis (D-Miss.) to hear the tapes and authenticate a White House summary of their contents.

Several hours before the news conference, 52 senators joined in introducing legislation requiring the appointment of a special, independent prosecutor by Chief Judge John J. Sirica. Just over 100 congressmen introduced a similar resolution in the House.

Nixon called television of the Watergate scandal the "most outrageous, vicious and distorted reporting" he had seen in 27 years of public life.

Later, when asked why he was angry at television news coverage, Nixon snapped he was not angry. "One can only get angry at those one respects."