Nixon, Haldeman & Mitchell on Economic Policy and Public Relations

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Johnson and Bowden heard that whole damn thing on the radio.

They thought it was great.

They said, you came over and did the radio.

It's good, quite good.

It probably did.

For our people, for an intelligent guy who's looking to get the story across and all that, not looking at it in terms of its impact on the slot,

And, you know, that's sort of Marion's kind of people, the people who are asking those questions.

He'd feel right at home sitting in the Detroit Economic Club.

Was he here, too?

Did he come in with Marion?

That's pretty good to be able to say.

Yeah, I've got the, I don't have the people reports that show any kind of, well, that's, I, I have a large number of people reports.

The new stuff was very big.

They ran ten minutes on one.

Sure, I checked it out.

Yes, the charge station, they concluded with interviews for people in the audience who were very favorable, highlighted by Lynn Townsend, who thought that

and produced a song with excellent answers.

A loss, that's for damn sure.

You got to stay down.

Just a hell of a lot of work.

That's the only thing I can bitch about.

It's all right, Chief.

Okay.

Down and out again.

Pat, do you want any further input from Pat tomorrow morning?

Yeah, I just tell him I don't want him rewriting anything we've done, but just say, based on that, what would he expect to be?

Just briefly, questions that might be asked.

Just give me a few brief pages.

I don't know, is it the inevitable?

The police will always have a way of comparing with another.

So we do a pretty big audience in Detroit, but we compare with getting $50 million in prime time.

And we compare press conference prime time or interview and so forth with sophisticated, good questions, tough or not, as you want, with a group of people that ask dull questions.

I've often said, and I've never done that, but I've often said that the way these trusts matter, they really want to see how they can get action.

The way they can really get action is to ask no questions.

They don't know what to ask.

It's not free to get at you, but it also hurts them.

That's not fair.

It's not free to not tell you what to do.

Hold on.

Walker's sister says the performance was exceptional in every way, marks a high point in the President's contact with the nation, but in a clear position of believing in the free enterprise system, showed his desire to return the nation totally to that system in proper safeguards as soon as possible.

Union reaction will be favorable.

It would be most helpful if a similar format were done elsewhere in the nation, whereby the President speaks extemporaneously on the vital issues.

It was all just wonderful.

This was the way we wanted it, and it was the way it turned out.

It was particularly important that it be done in Michigan.

There is no better platform for such a topic than the Economic Club, and the President added to his statement.

The appearance demonstrated that the nation is incapable and it's minute.

Sweeney, the President, said the positive response to Detroit is overwhelming.

The publicity is playing down the protest, and it's positive on substance as well as performance.

The format helped a great deal.

There should be much ink just because of the way it was done.

Steel Man on the panel just loved it.

Ha!

I knew he did.

Milliken was unusually pleased.

He characterized the event as a tremendous performance and commented he thought the president both enhanced acceptance of his economic policies and improved himself politically.

On the way out of the hall, the comments directed to the governor concerning the president were uniformly favorable.

Senator Griffin's staff say the event was very well received.

The president gave a significant boost to the senator and he was very grateful, which is good.

The papers haven't had time to report it fully yet.

Detroit Free Press, out of state edition, carried a headline, No Timeline on Contracts, Nixon Tells Detroit Crowd.

Front page picture, Nixon and Pat at Air Force.

No edition commentary, very good.

Attorney General, please.

Sister's quite a guy.

Yeah, he is.

He's still, you know, he must be 75.

Yeah, I heard, I heard.

When did we get there before?

58?

56?

You know, I listened to this hearing and said that they gave me a bad time.

Yeah, they did.

But all of our prices, nobody's like us who said that.

It was like falling off a wall.

I didn't say that.

I heard the witnesses heard that.

Yeah.

I was thinking I might step out for two, three hours a second.

Are you free by any chance?

Could you play golf?

Three.

What time?

Well, you know, I think maybe we could ask her.

No, it's not what it is.

I'll tell you, I'll get a hold of John.

Could you do it tomorrow?

Fine, all right.

Well, I'll tell you frankly, everybody knows I've got to talk to you about this traditional thing.

We'll just have to put that off.

Okay, shall we?

I'll tell you what we'll do.

Do you have your sunburn trigger here or where?

Yeah.

You've got clubs.

Fine.

Well, I think the best thing is for us to go separately, then.

Fine.

When could you leave, or when would you like to go?

Fine.

Well, let's see.

It's now 1.10, and you could...

Why don't we say that we'll be there at 2.30.

That gives you time to get some clothes.

I'm going to dress here, and I'm going to watch you dress up there, and I'll come back.

I'll be at 2.30, and I'll meet you there.

Please go ahead.

No, you don't.

I think it's our business.

Uh... Might be a good idea.

We've got a long weekend, man.

I'm not moving out of Staten Island.

It's just a turn around.

It's almost going to be a long, stuffy day.

I know that I take the road sign here, but it's not going to happen.

Yes, sir.

What do you want to say, sir?

You said it's open.

We wasn't waiting for you to never book.

I know.

Well, open up.

We checked.

They didn't send those two.

We checked.

They, uh...

Yes, sir.

I mean, they...

I can't tell.

I can't tell me.

They sent the... the two... number two books.

Up here, I think, just to be sure, upstairs here, in the new, in the new that are not in the back, there is one two-foot.

I want to get it.

Yes, sir.

You know what I mean?

In the third floor, get the two-foot, and I'll take it with me out there.

It's a greater two-foot.

Yes, sir.

I think it's good to go back there.

You have to learn to work hard and get away from harm in that way.

And I guess that's probably what we better guard against, too, because as we go on, you know, what time things are going to happen, but we just can't expect that everything we do is going to be, is to reach optimum.

Uh, things, you know.

So I suppose we've got to do some things to sort of crack it.

Well, but I didn't crack all this stuff.

And this wasn't.

I don't know.

We've still got to work to, you know, optimize and send it to you.

Like, it's, you know, as, get as much out of the pilot now as we can.

Do it.

We don't have to sell it.

At least, uh,

Montana is going to be a really lost cause, and just, to be a crowded Kalispell at the airport, and then to get in a goddamn helicopter and go to Libby Dan, as far as I know now, you can't land even at Libby Dan, so it's just a matter of taking a look at it, doing, Manchester doesn't have anything to do there.

And what he's like, you know, I think instead of having to come out and spend a long weekend, come out on a Thursday night or Sunday, go around, look at the park, and sort of question how to build a helicopter site and see that's what it'll be.

That's it.

That's what it is.

And he gets to show you a little of his space and understand that it's a big deal.

And he's really proud of the airport.

When the airport stopped, he said,

helicopter tour on top of it, and that's about it.

And it's done.

It's a big thing for him, and he's done it.

And you don't owe him a horrible lot anymore than you owe him.

Except for the fact that in many of his public statements, he's much more muted than he would otherwise be.

You know, like he's...

He's still running out of day.

He said the President's forward policy on balance is a plus, but no.

I just see Jutes staring me in the ear on some of what he said.

He said something startles the hell out of us, and then something startles the hell out of his own people.

That's why it's good to keep, yeah, keep him on balance at least.

Well, it'll not be too much of a problem.

Unfortunately, you know, you're through fairly early without the airport, aren't we?

Airport, and then that's an airport job, you know.

or you know how you're going to miss.

You're stuck in town there, but you do the crowd thing at the airport.

The people.

Part of it.

And I was hoping you could do the whole thing.

Tell us.

Instead of just any good there, apparently, they couldn't.

I will.

It's going to be a very long day, isn't it?

What are we doing in Alaska?

I mean, bold receptions?

Probably not, because it runs into competition.

If you do the publisher's reception, it will be unannounced and then last-minute drop by.

In other words, we've told them no.

They're not expecting you there.

No.

And, uh...

Probably just as well not to.

Well, I think it probably is just as well not to.

Yeah.

But at the last minute, you want to just drop by it without saying anything.

And you can do it.

It's in the same general area as Hickle's place.

It works that way, but...

I'm giving Alaska quite a shot.

I suppose maybe that...

It's not bad.

We haven't reached too hard for it.

I mean, you had to do so much of it anyway that it was only reaching for a couple.

And doing West Virginia is a good thing to do anyway.

The queen of the festival there.

Which explains part of the reason for the pressure is sorry I got her, Stagger's daughter.

Turns out Stagger's the one that's given hell to the Higgins Network.

Pretty good.

That's right, Ed.

He's...

I'll get Tiny and the birds.

Did you see where that caught?

who was dead and short.

And I was thinking, oh yeah, we should start a network that does that.

I'm claiming that that was seriously infectious, correct?

What are you, sir?

Just completely, because that was a campaign speech.

It was way beyond anything that has any analytical digits in it.

It's more of a personal attack.

It's fine.

It's just that much more ammunition.

I mean, it shows the true colors.

I guess it's hard to use it.

It's not to be used in any speech.

As an example, it's being mindful of...

This is also, though, it's not to be used internally in the CBS.

That's right.

Oh yeah, Colson.

Colson.

I see.

Hmm.

Thank you.

I'm sure they thought that I sent a note on it because it's just so blatant.

It was a mistake.

I mean, it was just plain stupid for any commentator to go that far on hitting the President of the United States.

It's just, you know.

We've made some speech in his.

Yeah.

It is a speech of me.

Or of him.

Well, we know he's a vicious son of a bitch, you know.

He's been cutting us for a long time, and then comes in and coaxes out a man, and he denies it.

He may have thought he wouldn't get caught.

But, you know, if it was picked up in the water, sure, it was started.

But it is wrong.

I'm sure that it is wrong as a commentator.

Now, he has a right to abuse, but...

Don't you think that he reaches his position completely by, uh, his position as a commentator?

I mean, he suggests that Colson should send out the CBS affiliates around.

He says, uh, this man's supposed to...

I said, yeah, I didn't have that.

How will that be?

That this was an idea of a man with his house on... Well, Glenn has, Glenn has got to do that on that, uh, you know that, there you are, project that they've got going on the affiliates.

That's a damaging quote.

That hurt, it seems to me, the more you get that out, the more it hurts the guy.

I mean, he's, we know he's bad.

Well, but he, you know, the thing that I, he could, he could, he could legitimately reject the programs.

But when he went into Moniz, yeah, it says he has no, you know, what was it, no commitment.

There's two, there's two very bad quotes that he had.

One was,

and that you don't, that you don't care about where, you don't care about people who are delirious.

But another was that you have no... Actually, I'm crying.

I pulled it out of the news story, read that, which had more stuff in it than it had in the news story.

It was bad enough.

Part of it is, part of what I said isn't too bad, but there were two just really juicy, and they were in quotes.

Nixon, Haldeman & Mitchell on Economic Policy and Public Relations

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on September 24, 1971

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