Transcripts show Nixon 'too drunk'

Five days into the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, with the superpowers on the brink of confrontation, US President Richard Nixon was too drunk to discuss the crisis with British Prime Minister Edward Heath, according to transcripts of tape recordings released yesterday.

Henry Kissinger's assessment of the President's condition on the night of October 11, 1973, is contained in more than 20,000 pages of transcripts of Kissinger's phone calls as National Security Adviser and Secretary of State.