Nixon, Haldeman & Walters on Soviet Union Summit and Press Relations

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I might, uh, I thought I might go to camp tonight.

We're free to do so, in other words, until tomorrow.

We don't have to do it tomorrow.

We decided not to.

Oh, uh, no, I'm wrong, sir.

Oh, we are.

We give other leaders a chance.

The principal good idea about it is it gets you out of having to play it next week and the next week.

I don't intend to have leaders being too often up here in the line.

I mean, they're just in for the birds.

So we have to have something to have to pass.

Okay, the leader's meeting is tomorrow at 8 o'clock.

What is the situation now?

Let's schedule tomorrow.

What about Thursday then?

We've got it pretty much out there.

Thursday is Scott Metzfield still.

Because they couldn't shift.

They can't come tomorrow.

Over to today.

We probably could shift it to tomorrow if you want to.

Do it after the leadership meeting.

Yeah.

No, Scott's got to make his pitch.

But why not have him, why not have him first thing in the afternoon?

Do you want to do that?

What else do you have the next day?

I'm just thinking, I might go to Camp David.

The other thing...

Tomorrow night, see you then.

We can do, if you want to, we can do Scott and Matt Steele League this afternoon.

Which might be better for them anyway.

If they show this idea, let's get it done by 5 o'clock this afternoon.

How's that?

That was a possibility at one point, so I would assume it's still at 5 o'clock this afternoon over at the EOP.

We could have done that this morning, but Henry's tied up.

See if Henry could be with us tomorrow at 5 o'clock.

All right.

And today, if you want a picture of that, we'll meet in the theater.

Is there any other room where we could meet them, where we could let people take pictures?

I wonder if we would like it that they take a picture in the math room.

That's not a bad idea.

The math room can have the map pulled down.

That's more comfortable than the library would be.

Well, the library's not comfortable.

The EOB is more comfortable than either, but, uh...

The macro's not bad.

The macro, no, we're safe.

Why don't we tell them I have a picture in the macro, and let the people take it there, and we'll have the map go down.

There won't be much of a physical picture there.

Well, that's right.

Because the map is on the side.

That describes the map, huh?

But do you think it's a good idea to have one in the background?

Yeah.

Fine.

It takes care of that.

Then, this is today, you see.

Then that would clear tomorrow morning.

No, tomorrow morning.

No.

But it would clear Thursday morning.

Why don't we have Thursday for the rest of the day then?

Until 5 o'clock.

Is it clear until noon?

Yeah.

That's good.

That's all I need.

And then in the afternoon, we start... What do we have in the afternoon, clearly?

Something that's... All you have is... Those are changed now.

All you have is a couple shots at noon.

We can change that if you want to.

Instead, you've got to sign your tax returns and...

And we've run through that with DeMarco and the White House conference on you people that present their report, which is, we were going to do it then, and we were going to just run DeMarco in just before them, so you have only the thing in there.

Why don't you raincoat those in?

Why don't you raincoat those in tomorrow and we can do that?

We can try.

Well, the White House conference.

Well, unless you want to say you can't do it.

You have to leave at 5 on Thursday for Canada.

That's right.

We could move it until later.

You could do it just before you leave for Canada.

We could do it at 4.

Why don't you do that?

Just in case, you know, I wanted to...

I'll do that.

Why don't you redo that, Bob?

No.

present that and go off to Canada.

The tax would only take me one minute.

I'm not asking you any questions.

The other people just did a few minutes.

We can do it, get it out of the way.

They don't want to have a long conference.

You can do it and then sign.

If there's any signing stuff, clean that up and then leave for Canada.

That way you could be gone from, you could leave here any time Wednesday after 10 o'clock.

And not go back until 3, 3 or 4.

Yeah, you'll be cleared then after the leaders' meeting.

I think it's a good idea for me to do that.

I've got some, I'm doing some sort of writing things off right now.

Sure.

Yeah, we've got Rylan coming Wednesday afternoon.

We can have him come up to Camp David and we'll cancel him if you don't want.

Well, I think this is, this will get canceled.

If I go up, I'll cancel him.

I'll let him come to the other people anyway.

It's better to talk.

It's better to know.

You know, I mean, that's just what I'm saying.

You haven't canceled him at the last minute.

Well, just let it come and then say, gee, you left it on the table.

Yeah.

Well, that's good.

It's a good idea.

As far as anybody who goes up there with me this time, just have the usual one secretary.

Okay.

I wouldn't bother with a way of...

No, I think we'll finish that damn speech tonight.

I think Henry's getting his coffee set by two o'clock today.

The Canadian speech.

And, uh, but take one of your girls up there, you know.

That was very useful in Florida.

And if you go around, just say that one of them, if you've given this one girl a chance, make, uh, make sure that one of them

All right.

Yeah.

Now, maybe it isn't well mixed up.

Maybe she's very good.

She may take her whole time.

Does that pose a problem?

That doesn't pose a problem, but I think it's good to mix them up amongst the ones that you're comfortable with.

Fine.

Well, you found one that we have.

The more we can get that you feel you can now use, the better off we are.

I found this one, and I found Yates.

Do you want to try the other young one?

Or is she that terribly good one?

I've got to find out.

I don't think she is.

She's very good with people.

I'm not sure she's really good with this gal.

It's just a damn machine.

Maybe that's not.

We've got this one.

We've got Yates.

And Acker and Rose.

You'll never get an Acker.

A Rose without Acker.

You'll never get an Acker.

You can get without Rose sometimes.

Now you can take two.

And this would be one .

Well, let me see if I can finish the speech.

And I think we should, okay.

But we found one.

This is good.

This old girl is all right.

Incidentally, let me ask you something about their backgrounds and so forth.

How old is this girl?

What's your experience?

I'd have to check.

I want to know who the hell she's working for.

Is she married?

She's not married.

She is.

Is she?

I don't know.

I assume that you've made the thorough check on the loyalties and all that sort of thing.

Yes, sir.

Then we'd run some...

And we know Yates is all right.

Yates is basically for, works for anybody.

She's worked for Johnson, Kennedy, Eisenhower, everybody.

She came here in Eisenhower.

I know.

She's worked for all of them.

That's right.

But I don't have any questions to, in my mind, as to where Yates...

Her integrity.

Well, her integrity, but also her personal.

I'm sure she was totally honest and straightforward with Eisenhower and Johnson, I mean with Kennedy and Johnson, that she didn't like him.

And I think she likes you.

She likes us.

Definitely.

I think she's... Would you check this girl on that score?

Yep.

I think they've all been checked.

I think she's, I think she's very, very, could be just totally a machine.

But you never know.

Look at that goddamn Lin-Manuel.

And he got, you know, a little Jew girl.

Probably smart.

Yeah.

You see?

Yeah.

Well, we kind of ground on through pretty well.

You see, I think that's enough for us.

And this girl turns out, she's quicker, faster than me.

This one has, is she?

Oh, yeah, I'm sure she touched us, too.

Oh, yeah, she touched us.

Oh, yeah, she touched us, too.

She's not as, the age is not as fast as Rose, and this girl is faster, probably, than either.

That's right.

I think she is.

She's the fastest one, I think, in this youth, that I've ever seen.

Both Rose and Yates are 50 years old.

And this one is unflappable, very...

Very calm.

Yeah.

Very good.

That's about enough.

Under pressure.

I'm glad we got around to this, though, because...

you know we've been uh we've been sort of living at the end of the precipice haven't we in terms of what can happen with me although always have in mind march is totally totally you have to act with whatever you want i i jesus jesus

Well, Arch has the advantage of some of the things that she can do, but this one can't because she just doesn't know the flares, so Arch knows all of them.

And Margie's got a couple other gals in there working with her.

They're typical Rose Lewis help.

She's a basic loyalist, but Rose does not get a compliment from people.

She won't do it.

It's funny though, because Rose is so confident, she's so head and shoulders, she doesn't have to worry about competition.

She shouldn't have to worry about all that.

And also, she'd be better off if she had somebody to push her home.

And she'll always do a little better if she's got a smart person around.

Well, give me a quick run-by on the other problems that we've got.

We're going to get Peterson out of the way today, and Blanigan out of the way.

I mean, and Kahn, Kahn, Kahn and Vargas.

Yeah.

Good.

Have a meeting with Kahn.

Have Dave see if he can schedule Scott Mansfield with Kissinger at 5 o'clock today.

He's coming out of the way today.

He's going to check with Kissinger first.

Then what we'll do is do it for cocktails in the bathroom.

That's Scott Mansfield should be invited on that basis.

You should check first and be sure Henry can make amends.

And urge him to try and work it out.

Okay.

How did, did Henry do hard with the staff?

Yes, he did.

Good idea, wasn't it?

He did it hard.

on the, he gave, you know, a little fill, and he moved into the, a little fill on the, you know, sort of reading what was going on and how it was going, and then moved into the sample article, you know, that somebody in the White House had.

Yeah.

Then I started interrupting Ron.

I said, as a matter of fact, that's one where it would be worth finding out who the stupid guy was that would say something like that, because we ought to move in on some of those.

So just, you know, it's a lot down there.

Yeah.

But I'm worried about it.

But go ahead, then Henry.

The trouble is, Finch wasn't there.

Oh, boy.

Klein wasn't there.

Yeah, Klein needs it.

Well, I've got the talking points.

Henry, did Henry tell you that we've dictated some talking points to get everybody?

No, but that's good.

I've got talking points.

I put it on two pages, and Henry's elaborated a little bit, and that goes to everybody.

And Klein needs it, too, if you know what I'm saying.

The client isn't saying the other thing.

The client is not to say, gee, we think this is endangering the generation of thieves.

The play on the war business is good today.

The public impression that you get, because you've got the South Vietnamese commander saying we've stopped the drive.

Our senior official saying that we sound as good anyway.

There's the ones where you have a tank column that can't get out of the road or something.

That also isn't true.

So that's in good position.

IT&T thing.

It just goes on and on.

It's, it's, uh, I heard it was, uh, I read the book, it was a, a moment ago, such a, a hell of a time ago.

Well, because there, this chart hearing, Miriam kind of, uh, stood around one way or the other.

He must be a clown.

Well, he, he, he, it just created all the more confusion.

And, and that's really the way it got, got played.

And he concluded, they said, how many people do you have in your office?

And he says, I have 23 people in my office and 28 women.

Broke the road up.

So he laughed and said, well, at least that's the bill.

It's awful.

How did Wilson do?

All right, I guess.

Didn't he?

He, uh...

Does anybody, does any one of our folks follow up on it and say, I told you I wouldn't do this, but they follow it in the questioning to ask Marion, could you provide a list of senators and congressmen?

Provide a transportation and that sort of thing.

It didn't in there.

Actually by the time he was on, only Bernie was there.

We were going to the floor watch thing.

We asked no questions yesterday.

And they're laying the groundwork.

Now today we get a favorable witness.

We get Peterson, the criminal division guy.

And our guys will work on him.

Then they don't know what they're going to do after that.

But we're supposed to finish next Thursday, the week of Thursday.

Oh, they agreed to go for two more weeks, so they go to the 20th.

But we're set to follow the tactic after today of walking out if it's not, if they don't get to remain.

The problem is, Eastland, you know, the Harris has started a thing to strip Eastland of its seniority because of this

disloyalty to the Democratic cause or something.

Yeah.

That's nice.

And so they're having a caucus on the end this morning.

So Eastland took the afternoon off to get ready for that and turned the gavel over to Irvin to screw things up.

Yeah.

Well, could they get a start, some sort of barrage of letters to Eastland?

Yeah.

And the rest is, you're making asses of yourselves.

Colson's on, well, don't get Colson on quick.

But one of your young folks saw him and that's what he does.

He's got one of his on as he has a young kid.

I marked it in the news summary and it just started to hurt.

It went out there and we have a business on food prices and that's destroying the life of a man.

Yeah.

And to follow up, I did a conference in Atlanta.

It's not a good one.

I noticed again that this time Scott picked up the idea, so I don't know the reason why Plantinga couldn't make a statement.

I just want to know, are we not going to have statements made?

They're not, as of now.

There's a reason why I spoke out.

Plantinga, John Dean is filing a letter today.

It's gone up.

declining the invitation to testify and stating that Plannigan on the substance would have nothing to say that in any way varied from the testimony by Judge McLaren regarding Plannigan's involvement in this matter.

It would corroborate completely.

And Plannigan had absolutely no involvement in the report of

the guy who got in, and further that Flanagan has in no way been involved at any time in the arrangements for financing of the Republican National Convention.

They want to do it once, get it removed, yeah.

That's, they all, I've pushed it the other way, and they just go back and reconsider it, and it comes back that this is what it's got to be.

He wants to make a statement.

And they had the statement there.

They went round again and then thought this was the right route.

Good.

One decision that we've got to make is to stop off a place on the way to Canada.

Oh, I read it recently.

If you don't get the poll unannounced next Monday, I said fine.

Okay?

Questioner, stop off the place.

If you rule out Ireland, which Henry says, we must rule out.

Oh, it's a racist setting.

Holy hell with the race.

I thought, well, yes.

Henry says we cannot stop it.

Why did he say that?

See that more than, let me, I don't know.

But he did.

I raced with you, but, you know, I raced with Henry.

Who, you did not.

Yeah, I said, there's an Ireland problem.

I don't see you talking about Ireland.

Then Henry came back and said, remember I said Switzerland last year?

Well, we're now back to Switzerland.

And Henry buys Switzerland now.

Good.

Henry was pushing very hard for the Azores.

But I talked him out of that on logistical grounds because... How far?

Well, it's six hours flying time from the Azores to Moscow, plus a four-hour time differential, which means you have to get to Moscow at 4 in the afternoon.

You'd have to leave at 6 in the morning, which means leaving at 5 a.m. No.

From the Azores...

which is 2 a.m. Washington time.

Will the Swiss do it?

He thinks so.

He's back, you know, he gave all those objections about the Swiss before.

Now he's turned around and says that's where it's going.

So the choice in Switzerland is Zurich or Geneva, and on that basis it sure should be Zurich, not Geneva.

I think that's because of airport facilities.

I've never been to Zurich.

I'd rather go there.

I don't think you want to go to Geneva because you've got too many of the horse taxis all over the world.

But it's all over there because they have position tax there.

Where's Zurich?

Geneva has also a bad economy for you.

Well, the UN, the United Offline, the League of Nations, the Geneva Conference, the Spirit of Geneva.

I just don't kind of like Geneva, if you could.

How about Mallorca?

Well, the other possibilities are Spain.

But that gets you into the protocol in Mallorca.

I'm not sure that Spain is all that problem.

Is there a Spanish base you could show you?

Portugal, which is... How about New York that I respectfully suggest?

One of those, yeah, but I don't want to go there.

Sounds better.

All right, consider New York.

The Rivendell?

No.

I know it's just beautiful.

Mallorca, I know we stopped, I know it'll take a big plane, but if we'd have stopped in Mallorca, I don't mind the Spanish border, unless you're coming over.

That's a hell of a lot.

I don't think it's a problem.

Mallorca, I don't think it poses much of a problem.

That's an hour further from Moscow than Switzerland.

Mallorca makes a little difference.

It's not that far.

Spain is, but I don't think we are.

I think we are, but it's not certain.

It could be closer.

That's Madrid.

This is four hours down.

Madrid, I think we are, is about a half.

I think it's four, but that's not that much further.

Zurich is only three hours.

Well, maybe Zurich is better.

I wish we could stop at some base.

Just to sleep.

Do we have any bases?

Some basic metaphor here, if you realize.

Check those.

Get Bernie Walters.

So, uh, Ms. Holliman, did you get Vernon Walters, General Walters, for me on the count?

Another thing I want to do before I go to Spain, I have to speak a little bit French up there.

I'm going to have Walters say the words so I can get my...

All right, what do you want to do?

I might have to go to Camp David, if you know what I mean.

I don't know if my mind is clear.

All right.

I had to get the speech ready.

Maybe have it come up Thursday?

You got it confirmed?

Yes.

I was afraid it didn't turn out.

No, and they got a lot of good... Did he handle himself well?

Apparently so.

I don't think he had any trouble in the hearings.

He got a lot of good, a lot of praise.

Did he?

Yeah, they made a lot of good positive statements about, you know, that he was a fine example of the skill of the professional soldier-diplomat or something.

They didn't get into this, I don't know why.

I'm going to use him on some conversations into that way.

Conversations, even though they don't involve translation.

Where I'm really private, because he's a guy that can sit there and listen to the conversation and make them know what happens.

What do you think?

No question.

We talked about that.

We have it anyway.

But he won't mind that.

So he's the translator.

He'll make that place home.

You know, you've got to hand one thing to Henry Kissinger, it's a similar kind of thing, because he drives us nuts sometimes, but he is a willing worker, he's been like last night, he came over and spent 20 minutes reading Pound Runner, seeing the Superman the other day, and he just did it with great skill after I talked to him.

He spent a lot of time on this Russian thing.

Then he went over and spent an hour over those PWIs.

Then he rushed over to the Kennedy Center to take his band to another performance there.

Tom Fitch is up there.

He's in here this morning.

I'm interested.

You know, that's a remarkable energy.

But he has to do it.

OK. Yeah.

OK. Hi.

Congratulations.

You're legitimate now, huh?

Oh, well, I think you'll pass that one all right, if you can get your hand up.

We've got a logistic problem.

Let me get your advice on the trip to Moscow.

We've got to stop someplace on the way to spend the night and then to make the flight into Moscow.

I'm trying to think of whether there was a US base somewhere in the Mediterranean or in the European area there that would be a suitable place to do that.

Rota?

Where is that?

What part of Spain?

There it is.

Is there anything in Majorca?

No base in Majorca.

Sicily would be a problem.

with a base, I mean, with, you know, housing facilities.

Yeah.

But Rota would be the best, yeah.

Yeah.

Oh.

It doesn't make it, other than just adequate flying weather, it doesn't matter because we get in there in the evening, spend the night, leave the next morning, so.

Naples is a problem on housing.

And I'll see you at the Italian screw-up, yeah.

Yeah.

be down or else going into Switzerland or someplace and staying, you know, in commercial facilities.

Which, yeah.

Iceland's too far away.

Just too long a flight into Moscow and then you've got all the time going against you.

We've got to get into Moscow at 4 o'clock.

So we've got to be

Germany's a problem, too.

Yeah.

Well, the Azores is too far, too.

That's the same problem.

You're six hours out.

That's only two hours from staying, huh?

That's only two.

Yeah.

All of Europe is apparently only two hours off of Moscow.

France, Switzerland, Austria.

It'd be, what, about four hours flying time, huh?

One of the Spanish bases.

Okay.

Well, except that you have to meet with Maputo, and then you're meeting with one of your allies on the way in.

And then you're in the middle of the NATO problem.

Okay.

Thanks, Dick.

What about better tried Syracuse, I guess?

He says Rota and Spain is the best bet.

Yeah.

Saragossa, there are three bases in Spain, Rota, Saragossa, and Seville.

So there's something to be said for not stopping at a base, in a sense, because it's rather allergic, you know, and those bases are going to hurt us.

but I think the Swiss thing feels to me the most if you could get it.

You didn't, Lucerne won't work.

I just think it might be better to say the market's a beautiful place, it's a lousy goddamn city, but that doesn't make any difference either.

Well, let me try that.

How will it be explored in Switzerland?

I don't think the Swiss will mind at all, and he thinks they will.

He doesn't think they'll mind.

He thinks that they are very fussy about all, he says, you'll have to get clearance for everything you do.

Well, Christ, we have to get clearance for everything we do in Toledo, Ohio.

So what the hell are we going to do?

No, but I mean, to put in a telephone or to land an airplane or to drive a car down the street or anything like that.

We can, I'm sure that can be worked out.

Now, Switzerland is, they deal with international... Switzerland already, and I think we ought to go in.

It's a neutral country, which I think is a good feeling before going to Moscow.

And that's right.

I knew the Irishman wouldn't go out.

On the way back, oh, we're all set.

On the way back was Poland.

And you go right ahead from Warsaw, you go with the Irishman.

But we should try to turn it on.

But Lucerne, if we can do it.

Otherwise... Well, I just know Lucerne.

I don't know Lucerne.

Maybe that's the reason.

I don't care.

Well, Lucerne is pretty unlike that.

Of course, you won't get there at night and you'll leave early, early in the morning.

So it doesn't really make you home, does it?

You aren't going to know where you are.

Tell me where it is.

Unless you want to go a day earlier and spend a day there.

You've got a rough ton of things going against you out here that you may want to consider.

Spend a day working in Switzerland, and then a second night before you leave for Moscow.

Well, how would you do it later?

You'd leave here Saturday morning and arrive.

You'd leave D.C. at, say, 9 o'clock in the morning.

You'd arrive in Switzerland at 9, 30 at night.

All right.

You won't be able to go to bed very early because it'll last a five-hour time difference.

Then spend Sunday there and Sunday night, and then you leave Monday morning.

From Switzerland, you'd have to leave at about 11, which means leaving the hotel at 10.30.

See, if you do it the other way, you're not going to get very much sleep.

since it's over a weekend i don't know maybe it's all right maybe maybe one day i don't like the news of the news moment in that period but better we have not we'll be prepared and everybody we're saying we're going over this battery and i don't want them to think i'm sitting you know i don't like the idea that once we start we're sitting around resting we didn't have any of that impression why no i don't think you would hear i think you'll see you say what the hell i'm doing there

We made the point that you've got to adjust to the time change.

Yeah, to the time change.

And that you've got work to do.

I've got work to do.

Conferring with the secretary, Henry.

If we're going to have the day, Lucerne, I even say Geneva.

Because Geneva's also beautiful.

You know what I mean?

That sort of place is pretty.

I wouldn't mind showing it up.

Leave it to the Swifts.

Henry said that he can't do Austria.

Yeah, he's bad with Austria.

Well, Salzburg would be where I'd love to go.

God damn, that'd be great.

Well, the point they make is it would be almost impossible not to meet the Chancellor of Christ's team.

Right.

On the other hand, there is a substantive argument to visit Austria, which would look like a substantive visit.

You've never been to Austria.

That would defeat your rest stop idea.

I mean, you'd be there for a visit to Austria.

And that's really not so bad.

Then you'd have covered another country on the way, Switzerland.

Especially since you're doing... And I'd like to see a Swiss pastor change.

Of course, Henry will argue that he should do another country, but... Austria.

There ain't nothing to talk to the Austrians about.

I can see Kresge for a...

The Austrian ambassador is a great friend of ours.

Yeah, he sure is.

You've got, I guess, he's in a meeting.

I just wanted to step out for a minute for a phone call.

I've got to give a talk to you.

I remember I suggested that to John.

Have you ever been there?

No, I've never been to any part of Salisbury.

Oh, I could not be enough to say I want to go there.

But if you could go there, you'd be standing in Salisbury.

Salisbury is a lovely part.

I'm going to see you.

It's closer.

It's a non-NATO country, which is just right.

It is not.

They're so slim, especially now.

They haven't got a base with us, but it's a non-ally.

We have no alliance with Russia, with Austria.

It's a neutral country, just like Switzerland.

I just feel that I'd like to do Salisbury.

This is about President .

We were talking about the stopping point on the way to Russia.

And he's raising the question of whether Austria is a possibility.

which would destroy the idea of a rest stop.

In other words, it would just be a stop with a non-aligned nation on the way in.

He's just wondering if that isn't better than trying to go into Switzerland.

Just a second.

Hello.

I don't know if I, let me tell you what I have in mind, just take a second.

I don't like the feeling of a Spanish face, you know, and that's the problem with any place in Spain.

I don't like the feeling of a face or any face kind of a thing.

Switzerland is supposed to be the problem, and you're aware of that.

I already thought of the question.

Let me just make the case for us here.

I have always had a very close relationship with the audience from a personal standpoint.

The ambassador here is a great friend of mine.

And also, it is a country which is not a lie to us ordinary Russians.

And the Russians aren't going to be put out.

And rather than going to Vienna, go to Salzburg, which is a lovely town.

And you've been there, of course.

Well, we landed there in Constellation last time, so I don't know if they can take this, but, oh, well, the Salzburg Festival all the way around, they've got to move that interview.

But if they haven't, but if it's, and I wouldn't mind seeing the Austrian thing, you know what I mean?

What's an hour's conversation during the day?

That's all, you know, have a little meat with it.

Yeah, oh, there you go.

Well, it means that they're all making their brokering money off of whatever they can reserve.

Right.

And they won't help you.

And the options would.

That's right.

Right.

You don't mind our exploring of it?

I'd like to, uh, the, the, uh, this ambassador here is, uh, you know, he's a hell of a nice guy, you know.

He was the ambassador to Washington in the Eisenhower period.

I know him extremely well, and where I got to know him so well was in the Hungarian refugee period, you see.

And I was there, and I spent over, over ten days in Austria.

that they have the facilities, and their government would break their back, and the people would be friendly.

The people will be friendly.

That's another thing, you know.

We have no problem there with friendly people, you know what I mean?

The Austrians, they love Americans in Austria.

They really do.

Okay.

Yeah, of course, I think we should see them, but just say we can only have an hour's meeting, you know.

courtesy calls sure that is no problem because that gives us a chance to spend the day we do need the two nights for you to get ready for moscow yeah yeah yeah because i'll press myself too hard twice and we want to be really up good when we get in there and austria is very close to moscow it's the other advantage well i'll have i'll check that out then yeah yeah with and i don't really think the way to check it is to rather than putting it let's just why don't we just have a check with gruber what's his name

How would be the way to do it?

And, well, if you put it in the state channels, it gets publicized right away, I suppose.

Yeah, well, that's what I, and there's no problem with the reference on that.

No, they do this internationally.

All right.

Well, let's go forward.

If you go forward, Rupert.

Fine.

Well, that's Rupert.

He says it's fine.

No problem.

I know.

It's been an hour of the Chancellor.

I should tell you.

It's been an hour of the Chancellor.

The Chancellor buys it in time.

It's easier to do that than spend an hour with Mulcahy in Ireland and have to dodge him all the rest of the time.

Well, I have an hour with Mulcahy, and then you have the Irishman.

You'd have to see the Prime Minister there.

The Prime Minister would insist on an hour.

If you go to Switzerland, you're going to have to see somebody.

Austria means something in the world.

Not as much as it used to, but it still means something.

It's there, and the Austrians are friendly to us.

But Salzburg is a good stopover from the viewpoint of the people and the party and all that.

It's a great place to be for a day.

They give us a good welcome there.

It's not bad, too.

Scotland place, I'm pretty sure, is a very good welcome.

See, that's a matter of disadvantage.

Remember I told you about Ireland?

I don't think we realize in this country what a hell of a stint that Northern Ireland thing has raised.

You know, the Irish are a violent race.

They always have been, it's obvious.

And, well, how rough they were on them.

That was the first time I remember that one guy that came up and threw himself in the car, dang it, broke my arm.

Well, I can say that he really cracked.

Those guys were terrible.

We just have to lay it out very clearly that it's not an official visit.

It's a layover.

You'll see the chancellor.

No lunch.

No dinner.

That's the problem.

That's the tragic boy then.

No social events.

And then once you go to the opera or something like that.

It's a working stop.

Of course you'll see the Chancellor on Sunday after church.

You have to go to church if you're an Austrian.

Hell no.

You want to go to church in Russia?

No.

That's one thing that came up is that going to a Baptist church there and going to a synagogue.

And going to a synagogue.

No, no, no.

And no service.

No.

Well, that Baptist church is the point.

That's what I thought.

And my view, Billy Graham and others will say not, but just a lot of old men.

It's just sort of a symbol for the people to show that Russia is not all that unfree.

I just don't believe that.

Or you go in there and find the church.

Well, that's something that may be disappointing.

The people of the United States isn't great.

The President of the United States goes to church.

He goes to the Christian church and grows his Christian even land.

And even land.

Well, they won't mind, possibly.

I'll tell you what you do.

Call Willie Graham.

Don't ask, don't so much ask for his advice and say, maybe we will not be in Moscow at that time.

There's a feeling about it.

He'll be more, because he was pushing for you to go into, there are a couple of churches in China, and he was pushing for you to go to church in China, which was not that decent at the time.

He thought that would be a good symbol.

Yeah, it's on the list of things that he suggested as a possibility.

The other thing which I think we ought to do is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier type thing, which is a way for you to get out into the city without having to make a speech to the Russians.

Unknown soldier.

Yeah, and without sightseeing.

In other words, it's a formal ceremonial event, but it gets you into the streets, which it seems to me is a desirable thing to do.

If something develops out of it, it's good.

If it doesn't, it doesn't matter.

You're doing it proper in the Russian spot with us, so it's proper for you to have it, provided they will have Russian veterans there in World War II.

And not to say they should be in modern art, so I can sit down and speak to them and so forth.

The chairman's going to be asking this, right?

uh that i agree with i think uh i think the church is a good possibility if we lean toward it

Why don't you just call Billy for Monday and say, I don't know whether we'll be in Moscow or not, but what about this church, Billy?

What do you fear?

And do it very intelligently.

We have to have the most discreet thing so that if we do do it, we can play it up.

I think going to church could have great symbolism in the United States.

We're doing everything for that purpose anyway.

And they do everything for their purposes here.

With regard to the Russian schedule,

I will have to, of course, look over the events before you freeze them in, actually.

I don't know.

I'm not going to stop the President of the United States.

The events party is going Monday.

Oh, fine.

And we're not locking anything until they get back.

Well, they can lock the flyer in various places.

Well, it works out pretty easily.

If you run into Moscow,

Monday afternoon, we have the banquet that night.

The Russian banquet.

Tuesday morning, you do the ceremonial calls.

And then, uh, Tuesday afternoon, the first meeting.

Tuesday night, probably the ballet.

Wednesday morning is queer for official business.

Wednesday afternoon is another meeting.

Wednesday evening is open as a working evening.

That'll be the night you have dinner with the crowd.

Thursday morning you leave for Leningrad.

Thursday afternoon is sightseeing in Leningrad.

Thursday night you'll have to do either a banquet or a cultural thing in Leningrad of some kind.

Then Friday morning, we return to Moscow.

Friday afternoon, another meeting.

Friday night, we keep open.

No scheduled event.

Saturday morning, meeting.

Saturday afternoon, maybe a communique or a meeting or something.

And Saturday evening would be our reciprocal banquet.

What have you done regarding the considerations on making the speech on Russian television coming?

Sunday morning, you will go to turn to the Baptist Church if you go.

And Sunday evening at 8 o'clock, you address the Russian nation.

Do they agree to that?

No.

This is our .

The advantage of that is 8 o'clock is the time they're going to lock for it.

It's 1 o'clock.

U.S. time.

Sunday.

Eastern.

Now, you have a problem in that it's 11 o'clock Mountain Time, which is church time, but I don't think that matters at all.

It's 10 o'clock Pacific Coast, which is before church.

You think you'll get a good audience?

Yes, sir.

I think you'll get a hell of an audience.

The problem is it's the only time you're going to get a TV audience in the States is on Sunday.

Are they going to have you there to translate a sentence for a sentence?

Let's wait until the end of time.

There won't be much television in the United States.

I would wonder if they would want to try doing it simultaneous.

Of course, then they can't hear you, and that's bad.

They've got to hear my voice.

They've got to go sentence by sentence.

I just want to do this until I can show them.

The idea is done.

I think it is.

I think it's fascinating as hell to America.

If you, if anybody in the PR shop bothered to go back and read about my visit to Moscow.

Yes, sir.

Have they read Six Crises?

Yes.

The State Department accounts are totally inadequate, as you understand.

Totally, totally, totally inadequate.

So go back and read Six Crises and look at all the nuances and feel and so forth and so on.

Could you do that?

Sure.

Have them read it.

But anyway, the idea, that would be your, you leave last, see Sunday night is your last night.

How about going on a press thing over there?

Well, we thought about that possibly on Friday night, which is the other opening, open evening.

Was it possible press thing?

We ought to do it.

I think it would be good if we got a press thing done over there.

Then Monday morning you leave for Baku, Monday afternoon you're, and evening you're in Baku, and then Tuesday you leave for Tehran.

We get back here, right?

Thursday.

Thursday, Wednesday.

The 7th.

First again.

Good.

I'm willing to do a press thing over there.

I think there is a time to sort of, you know, make our points with a few press people.

Let me put it this way.

We can't

You can't just have a situation where it'll tear Henry out of bed, but where always on these foreign visits, someone else is bespoke.

Well, yes.

Well, basically where Henry is, or Roger is, or Conway.

And I ought to go out and answer the questions.

I know, frankly, it's more than much about it.

But at least I know the nuances better than some of the rest of them.

And you're talking about a U.S. all the

I think it should be that way.

We can find the time to prepare it.

We want to remember, we want to make as much as we can.

to come back on the first, what day of the week, Thursday.

Let it ride through Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday.

I think we ought to, have we explored the networks of 103?

Yes.

Do they want it or not?

We haven't had a confirmation.

They're very interested.

Well, they raised the point.

It's very interesting.

They raised the point that they might have to grant equal, that equal time might apply.

And Ron said, you're absolutely right.

And if John Ashbrook goes to Moscow and meets with the Soviet leaders, I think you should give them equal time to report on it.

This will be after the call morning, right?

No, it'll be before.

No.

Just, well, it'd be right, I see.

No, no, it's going to be right after.

Yeah.

So that's the problem.

So that appeals to me.

No, no, it still can't be a civil convention.

The equal time doesn't apply to the Democrats.

It applies only to John Ashbrook.

And McCroskey, yes.

But Ron, I thought Ron put it right away.

That's fine.

I want to do this as quickly as I can after we return so that it's still fresh in their minds.

And I don't need to worry too much about it.

I'll find out.

So I've got Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Do it on Monday night?

Uh, I think Tuesday night is better.

Tuesday night.

Just the California primary?

I don't think you want to do it on... No, no, no.

That's too big of news.

Well... You don't... That looks bad.

It's Monday night before the California primary.

That's bad, too, I think.

About Wednesday, I can call.

Wednesday's fine.

California primary could be big news for the Democrats, you see.

That's alright.

and we come on you're not going for news thinking on that you're going for the people seeing no i don't that's right what's on people's minds on people's minds i don't think the primaries are that much on people's minds california even california i think wednesday night's a good time they come on everybody that's the way to turn the thing away

Turn it back to you running the world again instead of the Democrats.

Well, he's in Colorado.

We've got Knoll.

We've got his freezer.

Wednesday's the time I'll go.

It'll be 3-0-1 on foreign policy in Canada.

However, it must be foreign policy.

He understands that.

Absolutely.

Or I'm not going to go into domestic policy.

No, no.

He's putting it as part of the coverage of the Soviet job.

It's the wrap-up to the summit meeting.

That's right.

And he will not, except for a brief statement when he arrives at the airport,

No, no, I had a brief statement.

We all come out there.

We all agree.

Just like we did coming home from China.

That was a good one.

Don't you think?

To make that statement.

Absolutely.

We'll try to do that same thing.

But then, I think you've got to do that.

Yeah.

You've got to write up the trip to the American audience and then we'll sit there and say, what does it all mean?

It's not just the Soviet trip, but it can be the foreign policy general.

Quite correct.

Or do you think we should have the Soviet trip?

Not too narrow?

No.

See, you may have the .

That's all right.

We'll have .

Well, it's the wrap-up of the summit tree, and that's the interest that's going to be in the summits.

It's going to be in this related to China and the whole concept of the...

Right.

I think this, in this case, we ought to go to this room.

Yeah.

We've got to screw around with the library and all that.

Are you ready?

Yeah.

That being announced, you know, so it takes the place of the press conference very effectively.

That's the press conference in June.

That's exactly why I had one.

Well, good.

I think you're in good shape on that.

That's the boys.

Go ahead and work them out.

Pat said that one thing I was going to ask you, that she said she would talk to Rob, because I put her up for Rob.

Connie, of course, wants him on the trip.

Let me say that I see no objection to not taking, you know, you're taking Klein, and it might be just as well to have

See if Connie will bother him.

She won't bother him.

Well, I want him to control the news, see.

He's better than Connie.

And he does it.

And Pat has great confidence in Ron.

You know, he's like a confidence, and that's good.

What are you working on?

That's what, now incidentally, uh, despite Ron's concern about wanting five or seven, six or seven hundred, the Russians have said that they want a hundred.

Not really.

That's Henry's game.

The Russians have said that the working period they were using was 100 because it was a little more than the China trip, but that they have no concern about that.

They have asked Vorontsov and their press attache, have asked Ron and Chapin to meet with them tomorrow to discuss that whole thing.

I think we can keep it that way.

Why not make a few points with our own people?

I know what he says.

Well, we didn't let them ride the, you know, they got on the pools.

Yeah, it doesn't work.

But we'll figure it out.

We'll figure it out.

All right.

He'll do that.

All right.

From now until the campaign, for Christ's sakes, we're conscious and concerned about it.

All right.

Friends.

Freedom.

Absolutely.

Indeed.

— 1 min 14 s with no transcribed speech —

You're going to meet with the Russians tomorrow and press them in?

Yes, sir.

I know your view that it's all right to have four or five hundred people.

No, I don't think so.

But I feel very strongly that you can handle all of it.

I feel very strongly that I should not press the Russians too much on this.

I'd rather have now.

I am currently leading for, you know, we're going to have to see this yourself, but I'm currently leading, for example, to have a press conference in Russia.

If I had a press conference in Russia, I could do it a whole lot easier with two to three hundred.

That would not just be for the Americans.

I have all the Russian international press that I do, which I did before.

Now, you talk about my vice presidential year, apparently the boys and none of them have gone back.

We had six crises.

We didn't have five hundred American press.

We had about a hundred.

I was vice president.

And a hundred was just running.

They all got a feeling of belonging to the thing, they all got a feeling of participation in the thing, and so forth and so on.

My own view is that I'd like to have a leader, and the other thing is that I feel very very strongly, and this is the one thing I, I think two best things you've done on a China trip where you got out of the Boston Globe at the end of the day, they are going to get out this time.

They are not going to go on the trip to the St. Louis Post Office back home.

But the Globe never ran off.

put the Buffalo Evening News on, put the Dallas Morning News on.

Well, we've got to have some of our friends really know, and I don't need to do it, but just say, well, you can come in and follow us and watch the president have a full opportunity.

You see what I'm getting at is that I think being a little bit more obvious in supporting our friends may be in our interest looking at the campaign.

I understand.

I'm dividing different people.

I'm dividing the rising president going on to a shift from the television different people.

Wire service, it's the communist government, he's got to go.

The same true of the networks.

In other words, no argument about that.

The wire service, the networks, the radio, tell us what do you need and take the maximum on there so that we get out of it.

But when you get down to the individual columnists, for example, I'm not going to invite John Osborne on this trip.

I don't like this son of a bitch.

He is not going to go.

That's what I think about.

I find, for example, that Henry and Ray Lillard spent more time, I marked it in the news summary, John Osborne, he was cited, and that whole list that you prepared, that's why you prepared the list, all of them were together.

Did you realize that?

More time was spent with those two men.

all of our friends ended up together and you know that's true about it it was just true it's true everybody in this shot now that's a mistake it's the mistake haggardy made with eisenhardt and now we're repeating it thank god you're not doing it the way he did he was always kissing the ass a few different times but i think what i want you to know is if i want to really i want to be very obnoxious to our enemies i want to be obnoxious to them

And I don't think we gain a point by letting them, you know, saying, all right, fellas, you can kick us and slap us on one side and you can slap us on the other.

And this will give you a golden opportunity.

The Russians don't want more than 100.

They really don't.

Now, they'll take 200.

They'll take 1,000 if we call them.

But they ain't gonna want that.

So why don't we keep one and say, fine, fellas, we'll take another.

That gives you 25 more.

Then if you have, I'd have a leeway.

Well, look, if we have a leeway of 25 more in case we get asked to pressure them.

Mr. President, I assure you, I think you are aware of that on how to deal with the enemies.

And granted, the allowing in pools and special attention to our friends, and we will do that, is not as good as if you do have a limited list, picking over your friends.

But if you look at the entire situation in terms of our benefit and from the benefit of the whole trip in this point of time, and compare it with the previous trips that we have taken to Romania, Yugoslavia, Italy, France, and so forth, I think we lose substantially by attempting to limit and create the impression that the list is limited.

We gain nothing.

And I don't think the Soviets will have the guts, and this was implied to me last night by Joe Freeman, they will back off all the way back to Connecticut Avenue once they know that they have to put the limitations on wheat.

I don't believe that wheat is- The Chinese have the guts.

But the Chinese situation is different because we did not have relations with the Chinese for 22 years.

I agree, too, that we should not take 500 or 600 or, indeed, even 300 reporters long.

But having an open list, we really don't have that.

I think we're not working on it now.

I think we've probably come out with probably somewhere, this is not the foreign press, about probably 70 reporters.

That includes television, broadcast, and the religious people and everyone else.

Because there aren't that many major publications in the United States anymore that can afford to go on a trip.

I would like to eliminate news today, and indeed we did on the China trip.

I'd like to eliminate the Boston Globe, and we did on the China trip.

But I just think that from our interest this year, at this time, overall attitude amongst the press corps, not in the attitude of the Boston Globe, but the press corps,

that we are going to be able to deal with them more firmly and from a position of strength by not weakening our hand, by giving them the ammunition to attack us on this.

And as I said to Dobrynin last night, who was extremely concerned about this, Dobrynin, he picked this point up.

He wanted to know

He wanted to know about Romain.

He wanted to know about Yugoslavia.

He wanted to have some feeling from us as to how many would go along.

That's my view, and I've expressed that to Bob, and I've written a memo on it.

And that's the way I intended to pursue it with the Soviets tomorrow, in a realistic way, in a firm way.

You see, I have no ability to do that.

I mean, God that can't be people used to be ruthless with their critics.

Roosevelt was ruthless with his press secretary.

And all we do, when we have no friends in the press, or a damn few, we kiss our critics' ass.

I just don't, it doesn't make sense to me.

I don't see why, for example, when Bing, Quine, Hurley,

Kissinger and the rest spend hours with an Oscar, or with a study.

When they've got something out there, Evanderlyn, he's got more votes than either of those sons of bitches.

Even that goddamn little Nashville paper.

That's Tennessee.

The same crew that, I mean, he's not very bright, but he's a nice guy.

Give him the time.

Victor Lasky's coverage is much, but it's a hell of a lot more than John Osborne, but he influences others.

Bullshit.

I'm just tired of this crap.

I learned talking to these guys that you don't influence.

You talk to them, you talk to them.

What do you do?

And then the news summary takes a hey every week on what John Osborne says.

I don't care what they say.

I'm not interested.

See, we're paying attention to our enemies and not to our friends.

And some of our friends are complaining.

They're goddamn right complaining.

Vandenheim does pretty well here.

I agree that we don't.

He does well.

You do well.

Let me say this.

What about Nick Timmish?

Nick Timmish, I see him.

I know you do well.

What about these other clowns on our side?

Well, we move them around as much as we can.

Yeah, Timmish, I think we do pretty well.

We do better by Timmish than we do by Vandenheim.

Because nobody's ever heard of that.

But we do have a syndrome in this town, and no question about it.

Well, I haven't seen it.

Just for Christ's sake.

Your problem.

I talk about it.

The problem is with our stars.

The problem is with Kessinger, Schultz, all those guys, because they want to talk to the important people.

The bright people.

I don't consider important bright people.

God damn it, did you ever read a Churchill biography?

They just kicked their enemies in the ass.

You get more respect for them.

And I don't think that our press people, I mean, I think the way Eggman does it is wrong.

Because he gives the impression that all the press are against Stahler.

I don't give the impression that some are our friends.

That is the only quarrel I have with Keogh's book, the way at least it's been played, is that when the whole press is against Stahler, Keogh didn't say that.

About one-third or four.

That's the press again distorting, they're proving Keogh's point.

Nevertheless, I was glad that they paid attention to his book.

I don't say this in defense, Mr. President, but we do.

And I don't come in here and tell you about it, and I don't tell Bob about it, but we do treat people ruthlessly out there.

And we hurt them where it really hurts them.

When you get a Marty Schramm who doesn't even get close to my office for six months after that Mimosa thing, when Simple gets cut off and it's hurting when we talk to him.

When the networks get cut off the way they do from time to time, it has to happen.

I guess one thing you've got to do is to get Henry to play the game.

He never will.

Henry has to be very passionately desirous to talk to Joe Kraft and these others.

Because he can't tolerate fools.

I guess most of our friends are fools.

Rowley Evans.

Jeff Hargreeves.

Rowley Evans.

Charles Roberts.

He's dead.

He died.

Who?

Robinson?

No, he retired.

He retired.

He's still writing.

He retired.

You have the factor, but I'm mentioning any personality.

You always have the factor, and this I assume will always exist, of an individual who is loyal and so forth, but cannot suppress his own personal ego and desire.

Or desire, it's not the desire, the fear of being disliked

by the press.

Well, he likes to read himself in Roley Evans' column because he knows everybody else in town reads it.

It's the same type of personality quirk that makes people go to lunch at Sans Souci, read Goshen, and stand around and have their cocktail, eat their veal all oiled up, and act like they know what's going on and therefore create leaks.

It's a syndrome that I will never be able to understand.

except it's a matter of selfishness.

That's why, you know, you talk about the so-called Nixon court.

I've always thought I'd worry about that damn court until we get two more.

And the reason is that out of our four, you can be sure at least one, and maybe two,

will be wired to dine by these sun-bitching hostesses around here, and they'll be sloppy enough.

Look what happened to Potter Stewart.

Potter Stewart, when he first came into the court, was a good, strong, Ohio conservative.

He's now become a sloppy and sometimes drunk liberal.

And he's a social one.

And this catches at a depth.

And Warren Burger is in danger of the same thing.

Warren Burger loves attention.

What they do to Warren Burger is false.

They lose perspective of the country by getting wallowed up in this town.

Nancy went home.

Yes, we got to go home and grow up a little more in the country.

Well, I don't see it now.

Nancy went home to Kentucky and her wife.

Your wife?

Yes.

No, she was in Kentucky at a wedding.

Okay.

Her sister's husband, who was a telephone supervisor, and her father, and he was all right there.

She said that she arrived at their home, and their interest was not on escalating the war or anything.

Their interest was on the firm handling of it, and not, as you said before, and that's what people were concerned about.

Thank God we're not just sitting there letting them chew us up again.

That's exactly right.

The best thing.

they probably don't even know there's a clunky steering wheel but i don't know how you tell you one of these all right we've been around you've got the message handle it any way you can and i i think that the week changes my arm my arm and i still like my plan if it could work if the soviet would take the heat then i limit to 100 and i pick our 100 they will not take the feet i can see that they want to be friends with the press and all the rest okay but

Just do your very best to be sure that not one friend of ours is going to go on this trip.

Not one friend.

And do the best we can to find ways to get them on.

Subsidize them if you can.

Everything you can.

We'll do that.

Yes, sir.

Matter of fact, absolutely.

We can do it by Reader's Digest and things like that.

Matter of fact, I'll tell you.

I'd like to do that.

There are a couple out there I'd like to do.

Some of the smaller papers you can't afford?

Somebody, well, like Bill White, they wouldn't send it to China.

We can do it very easily.

Well, have Bill White get that book to publish, not a book they ought to do.

Get White in on that and make a little money.

Get the television networks to do it.

Ways you can do it.

I control the press airplane.

And the way you can do it, if anybody does, if anybody decides to do a book at this time, of course, they're...

It's probably their job to sell them because kites don't ever sell anything unless we help them or something.

That's a philosophy.

I think that's a philosophy.

It'll sell the rest of the year.

Is that what your plan is?

What's your plan?

The plan is they want to do it.

I'll add a forward floor at this time.

We're not going to do the U.S.

Goose.

That's going to be the U.S.

Goose.

We've got to get the Sunday Goose.

And that's what people were concerned about.

Thank God we're not just sitting there letting them chew us up again.

That's exactly right.

You know, the best thing, they probably don't even know there's a clunky steering wheel.

But I don't know how to get to it.

All right.

We've been around.

You've got the message.

Handle it any way you can.

And I think that we've changed my arm, and I still like my plan.

If it could work.

If the Soviet would take the heat, then I limit it to 100 and I pick our 100.

They will not take the heat.

I can see that.

They want to be friends with the press and all the rest.

Okay.

But just do your very best to be sure that not one friend of ours is going to go on this trip.

Not one friend.

And do the best we can to find ways to get them on.

Subsidize them if you can.

Everything you can.

We'll do that.

We'll subsidize civil servants.

matter of fact i'll tell you i'd like to you know do that what there are a couple out there i'd like to do

Some of the smaller papers you can't afford.

Somebody, well, like Bill White, they wouldn't send it to China.

We can do it very easily.

We can get that book to publish, which they ought to do.

Get White in on that and make a little money.

The way you can do it, I control the press airplane.

The way you can do it, if anybody does, if anybody decides to do a book, of course, they're

And Bob says it's their job to sell them those kites on Arizona, you know, so we help them with some of that.

That's a flop.

I think it's a flop.

It'll sell the rest of the year.

Is that what your plan is to try to push it?

The point is, they want to do it.

I'll add a forward for it this time.

See, we're not going to go to the U.S. because that's the U.S. who's got to get the Sunday before we get back.

After we get back, that's it.

Sunday after we get back before the three-on-one out, Ron.

We had definitely had to go for it on Wednesday.

I wanted it as soon as we get back on Thursday night.

And the three-on-one should go on Wednesday.

That's the day after the California primary.

And I want you to tell that person this will be basically a report to the nation.

And it will be covered by many in the field of foreign policy, many.

They said, is this a request?

I said, we just choose this communication form.

They said, well, there'd be a press conference.

No, this would be the way to your channel.

Why give them an interview to the New York Times or something else?

They said, well, what about the 315 thing?

We may have to give it to Ashbrook.

I said, well, fine.

If you can get Ashbrook to report to the American people on the summit conference he's had over in the Soviet Union, fine.

Go ahead and do it.

But this is the course.

So they're back considering it again.

And I think they're going to have to come through.

What about doing it with, and this is a bad idea, but maybe it's not, doing it with three writing press instead of three handwritten people?

Then you'd really have, they wouldn't care with that question.

I wonder.

They only carry it with their own stars, Your Honor.

See, we've approached them with this before.

They will have nothing to do with it.

We tried having to even televise a conference with the writing press.

We'll have a chance.

And if they decided not to do it, that's fine.

We'll just do a press conference.

But limited to foreign policy.

This time, yeah, this time, we'll say an hour's press conference on Florida policy on Wednesday.

That's going to be our, if they say we'll find policy, we're just going to have an hour's press conference.

Prime time.

Don't you agree?

Yes, sir.

On Florida policy.

That's 9 o'clock.

Don't come back.

9 o'clock.

Don't come back.

Absolutely.

Don't come back with it on this time on domestic policy and all the rest.

This will be on Florida policy, the summits and so forth.

Press conference.

9 o'clock.

One hour.

Fair enough.

i think but this time you see that's as soon as i can get ready we'll be back thursday night there i need a couple of days off so i'll take off friday saturday and sunday we can't do it monday night because for the government in the primary we don't want to do it tuesday night because we'll all be talking about it let's be just about running fair enough

Would it be better?

No, we don't want to go before the California primary.

I was going to say, we could really pour the coal and probably do it Sunday night.

That'd be the better thing to do.

We should get back Thursday night.

And then on, I could just, I mean, I'm in the swim things anyway.

I'm not concerned.

If you're better off, then what happens is you do that, that ends the Russian trip.

And then you get the California primary intentions back to your loss.

Let it swing to the California primary over that weekend, which is our advantage.

Then get it back on Wednesday night, your report to the state government.

All right.

You can do it any way you want.

I understand.

And I think your arguments are well made.

You know, to show you, though, that, remember, I wrote with Cameron about when hard news meant weak.

But to show you what you can do with making a hard news event, using that nothing for an event yesterday and for making a little signal about the Russians.

That may all free networks, isn't it?

Yes, sir.

Absolutely.

Did they use that part?

Did they use any of the biological weapons?

Just the part about the threat.

Indirect or direct assistance.

It looked all right.

As a matter of fact, it looked good.

You looked very good sitting there.

I don't suggest you do this, but in that setting, they had the overall flags and this very dramatic, real strong diplomatic setting.

You were sitting there.

And in a very low-key, poised, but yet strong way, not, you know, high-pitched, made the point.

And they sure didn't pick it.

Every one of them used the same quote.

The wires missed it on the first run.

The wires picked it back up earlier, but the network used exactly, exactly those words.

And then they pan over to the brains.

But it was good.

Perfect.

I'm telling you, those Soviet sure did slobber last night.

Did they?

Oh.

Correct.

I didn't even write that.

What was this?

Well, it was the Soviet wife, the editor of Soviet Wife.

Oh, good.

Is lately going to do with this company.

Good.

Well, the Soviet, they'll work with Tom very hard.

Oh, I'm sure they'll get that.

Now, I was fed up with Henry House back.

I was fairly late.

Sure.

Hold on, hold on, hold on.

Well, Mrs. Nixon, I should be put up.

Did you know she was beating Henry?

Yes.

The word was just, uh...

ask henry but i think well it's going to get out the russians put it out so i think you better you know this confuses our enemies you see you've got this you've got the you've got the rowley others and the joe crafts in a very machiavellian way trying to say that uh nixon has not been soft on the russians

Which, of course, is ridiculous.

They don't know what we've been doing.

And second, that the craft find that maybe we really ought to postpone the Russian summit.

He's hoping for Christ that we don't have it.

On the other hand, what they don't know is that the Russians want the summit for other reasons, and either the craft or early evidence will never understand.

They don't want the summit because they like us, and they want the summit because they fear the hell out of us.

what we can do to them with regard to China, what we can do with them with regard to the Asian, and also that we can turn off the German treaty, which is the big thing.

And that's the whole being here.

It's a game we're drafting today, I think.

I mean, Bill Breeden, I'll tell you, sure did want that summit last night.

I mean, just as I did.

I want that there.

I think if the Reuters from Moscow are there, they'll turn right around.

But nevertheless, he knew what I was saying.

And incidentally, those diplomats, Bill Jenner, had come marching to the meetings back in 1947, 48, and he had shown up at the march, and I said, well, here comes the red line.

That's good.

Well, we'll have a Russian trip.

except for the mystery of it, will be a hell of a lot better trip than the China trip.

For the reason that they know how to handle it more, and the Russians will break their butts to get you out of it, and you'll see people.

We didn't see any Chinese people.

Yeah, you'll see Russian people.

Don't worry.

They'll let you go to those big department stores and those damn Ruskies to be out, and they have some more feeling as to who the hell we are.

So it's going to be interesting.

We incidentally, your private information in case it breaks, we're going to discuss it with the Austrians.

The bus will stop in Salzburg on the way in.

That has distinguished from the Irish.

That will be a hell of a good stop.

I will now have a substantive meeting of the Austrian chancellor right there.

And then we'll have

Oh, another way you can handle this, which you might mention, I'm hungry, but I wanted to express appreciation to the Austrian government for the way that they have hosted, have helped host the SALT conferences, you see what I mean?

So even the SALT conferences in Vienna, which we, of course, will be discussing, and coming back, you're going to have the situation, you see,

If you go to Leningrad, which is very different from Moscow, Baku, which is totally different from Peter, and then you go to Tehran, where you have a great crowd and the splendor of majesty, and then to Poland, where, if Poland pulls, we won't know next.

I mean, we think of Poland, but if the Polish thing goes on, they'll have hell of a time controlling their people, knowing the polls.

And so, I mean, the crowd line here, particularly at this point, will have a much more dramatic effect.

Because we didn't have any crowds in China.

It was just right.

It was marvelous.

You know, the China thing had the mystery and all of the drama.

But this has an equal amount of drama to it.

Sure does.

In a totally different way.

I don't know, but I must say...

The world may be talking about the Soviet trip in the same terms as they'll be talking about... ...triangles, bipolar world changes, because... Be sure that any of our own people, people in the press who really want to know in order to get the background, read the sex crisis description of my 1959 trip, because...

He describes everything and what it was like then and the rest.

Also, it has my speech to the Russian people that I've been told that he was receiving the powers.

Some of the staff that looked at it, because they told you about that, they had films.

I was looking at the film.

Yeah, the Kitchener made something.

He said it was really perverse.

I was standing back at the...

As a matter of fact, I didn't see it at home, so I couldn't look at it, but some of them said it might be good to reshow some of the questions that are going into the kitchen debate.

Anyway, you can take a look at what I can see.

All right.

He's probably right.

We have no way of fighting for us, in my opinion.

No way.

Man, except the way he's doing it.

Except for the one, and I'll keep grinding on that one, that there is no, that they're just dead wrong on us, John Osborne.

We're breaking fines to waste time with John Osborne.

Can you get that across?

Ron did not say anything.

react to that.

I don't even want a scientist to be saying that.

Why Osborne at all?

I agree with the scientist.

There is at least a valid argument for seeing him in that he does have some relationship, but Osborne doesn't even have that.

Do you get a chance to take a look at that?

That was there.

Oh, you were there.

I heard it.

You might read it.

You might get a speech test or something like that.

Well, they all agree.

They don't worry about that.

Of course, the greatest problem is that you'll be making another extinction.

I wonder what Ken and Kevin might soon say.

Has somebody talked to Crowell, or should I write him a little note?

Cashin has talked to him.

There's been a guy dealing with him.

So he's totally out of control, and that's why we can't contact him?

I don't think he should write a note.

I think it's better not to.

Well, no, I can write a note.

Thank you, Bruce.

We'll send a presidential message to the governor.

Yeah, I can thank you, Bruce.

Great, good thing.

I'm sorry I can't be present at each dinner.

I wish I could be their honor and I look forward to seeing them before I leave for my trip to Russia.

Why don't you have some teeth that have been burned up like that for a trillion?

How much do you appreciate the energy production?

I think I should always remember that.

wonderful reception we've received, and my understanding that Dean's kind of .

I regret that I'm unable to come to Philadelphia on Sunday.

Is that an appropriate message for you to give?

I look forward to having a visit with you before I go to Russia.

Do you want to say that?

You don't want to say it again?

Yes, I do.

Oh, really?

Hell yes.

If I go to Poland, I'm going to.

Oh, I see.

Sure.

Good job.

Before I go to Russia, and particularly to discuss the...

the final agreement has not yet been reached for the end of the year.

It seems this, that at this time, it seems very likely, it seems quite likely that, that a week, uh, public health may be hitting.

Okay.

Seems pretty good.

You know, it's quite true, Bob, that the media is ignoring it, or is trying to accept the trip that Campbell, or Campbell, which they thought was going to hurt him.

Well, they didn't give the CRE when you were playing.

Oh, yeah, they did.

Because he didn't...

I didn't see it.

I'm sorry.

I was surprised they gave him more of a play than I thought they would.

It was not a front-page play.

It wasn't a front-page short.

It was a big, insufficient play.

Well, I don't know, because there was only one network on Saturday night.

They did carry it.

Right.

It was CBS.

It was on, and they had it.

Right, right, right.

Okay, good.

I take it back.

Well, I...

It was a fairly major Sunday paper story.

last night she was going to do the Mike Douglas show, go to the tennis matches, go to the space shop, it's good.

Space shop is good because it's a, that's a big television show.

And it's about one o'clock on Sunday afternoon, so there'll be a hell of an audience.

She's running, she's, I got her into tennis ping pong actually, ping pong, yes.

I told her I wasn't so sure about that because it's, but it's basically the tennis crowd here, you know, left and right.

And for the most part, sort of a gay crowd.

They never read French.

She said that the worst time that she and Julie ever had was when she and Julie, they all were in some goddamn tennis match.

The crowd was cold as ice.

You gotta expect that.

Isn't that interesting that the tennis crowd generally is left wing, tends to be homosexual,

Or do they go back to the total days or ?

Well, it's kind of like the opera.

It's sort of like operas enter to theater.

It's the social sport to go to.

It's not the masses.

Tennis stadiums are small stadiums.

You buy boxes, and you buy the season box for the tournament.

And everybody goes to be seen there, like they go to the opera.

That would be a problem.

Yeah, they wore fancy hats.

I think it's all right for her.

She was like, I don't care about the factory.

It's a television show anyway.

We'll just be there watching matches.

What do you think?

I don't know.

I just worked out what's back there.

She didn't want to go to the goddamn thing.

It's a...

It may not be.

It's good television.

That's the only reason to do it.

It's a way to hit it.

It's the TV.

They're coming in here to the office.

Is that the way it's going to be here?

That's fair enough.

No, I could pick on one of them.

I don't know.

We can't do it out on the court, but I think they're going to do one inside or something.

And they're so funny with me doing it on the court.

I'm going to find out.

I'm trying to work it out with them, too.

Well, I think we've just got to see this Vietnam thing through now, as we said yesterday, to the end.

In three or four weeks, we'll see what happens.

The political ones are having, I think, they're going to have a hell of a time jumping on this one with infectious, I mean, they're going to be leery of it, for fear that it might work, for fear.

Other than Terry, who follows the strategy always of going all out and way beyond anybody else.

Nobody really, they're very cautious.

See the media too, I refer to them.

They're having their problems with this.

Yeah, and you've got the, oddly enough, because it's a strange place for it to have come from, but Oberdorfer's book on Tet, which is the definitive work among the intelligentsia, which, it makes the point that Tet was a massive victory for us.

gives them all applause, because they don't know what, you know, they're, they keep talking, they keep talking about the past, they didn't, the enemy failed.

That's right.

Enormous losses.

And now they're starting to point out the differences between this and Tepp, where this is, in Tepp, the enemy was largely South Vietnamese.

B.C.

is in South Vietnamese defectors, where now the enemy is all North Vietnamese.

Virtually there's damn few South Vietnamese involved on the other side.

And now you've got this thing which they're playing, which is amazing, that the Buddhists are supporting the Thieu government, which is kind of a switch.

People are sort of rallying to the National College.

I saw some of them.

It's at least kind of cautious.

They're not quite sure that they can go running, running out and say this is a terrible disaster because they're not sure whether it is or not.

And sure, they'll jump on any indication they've got that it is.

And they will come every day, every day, every day, every day, every day.

So you're writing through that score.

You've written your other things, so we'll write this.

So right now, you're writing through?

It's still at that point.

Oh, you haven't updated it yet?

Well, that may not matter.

You know what I mean?

The thing is,

Not everybody's got to understand that in this, there are battles won and battles lost.

When the battle's lost, you don't figure the war's lost.

You figure, well, what's tomorrow going to be?

Maybe tomorrow we win one.

The other side scores a touchdown, then you score one.

That's the way the game goes.

But when a battle's won, you can't just heed the sign and say, thank God that took care of the war.

It is true.

They've just got to be ready for it.

Keep hitting them.

Sorry, we took the orders today to follow up on the I-card.

The goddamn weather is still in the way of that.

Yeah.

One day, it's just, you know, just like this weather here.

It's just as unusual this time of year, but it just hangs in.

One day it breaks.

You've got the symbolism, at least, to put the B-52s up there.

Don't you think that's good?

Damn right.

and those uh the navy out there i think that's having some effect must be having an enormous effect on them and it's having some effect in the well certainly the thing here to the extent that i mean it gives them enormous heart but they've got to have material and uh it's positive and doesn't know what the hell is going to happen

The middle is always playing winners.

That's the way it works.

So he laid them all.

That's the way it's going to do.

And we're sticking to them.

We're certainly not reacting weakly.

That's the whole point.

I think that's getting through in everything we're saying.

I'll then talk to both.

Again, it's very minor in folk.

Each other wasn't weak.

clearly very much intended in Minnesota and UCLA.

I talked to both of them.

I said, we talked for quite a while.

I just waited to see whether they were going to raise something.

And they didn't.

So then I said, well, what about war?

Is everybody upset about that?

No.

I said, well, aren't they starting to organize marches and things?

No.

Well, doesn't everybody think China's going to come in against us or some horrible catastrophe is going to happen?

No.

Aren't they upset that we're bombing the North?

Didn't know you were bombing the North.

They both said that just there isn't even a ripple on either campus.

That's a ripple.

Now, that's stirred up.

See, there was a March scheduled, as you probably know.

There was an anti-war March scheduled for, I think it was April 22nd, somewhere, in the next couple weeks.

It's been scheduled for a couple months.

And I'm not at all sure that that timing wasn't.

Could have been.

Totally coordinated with the North Vietnam Navy.

Could have been.

And I would guess that it was, because they are always very much involved.

At this time, maybe we better say that.

I mean, maybe we better... We did this.

We did November 3rd, and we're starting to say it on this one.

I think that's... Well, I want to be careful, because as of now, the march isn't getting any steam up, and I don't want to build it up.

Yeah, I see.

We've got to be ready.

This is the 11th.

It's got 11 days to go.

Yeah, but they aren't...

It's a national march.

They're having big signs out about, you know, they're supposed to march from all different places, but there has been, they had a preliminary thing only for something like 25 people showed up for, and they were expecting 5,000.

And we're here.

No, it was someplace else.

Chicago or someplace where they were getting a mobilization meeting or something.

And it didn't work out.

Well, certainly you would think the war actually would sure enough...

I'm not so sure.

I don't know.

Why would there actually be any different holiday than anything before?

I mean, leaving out the invasion, right?

But the war is, in my book of mine, it's eight to ten minutes every night in every network.

It's a definite.

I'm sure you realize.

I'd rather have the war eight to ten minutes a night than TNT every ten minutes, wouldn't you?

Yeah.

No, I would.

I think the war is buying us some time now.

First place, you don't have any option.

Second place, it's not all bad by any means.

Third place, there aren't enough Americans.

Somebody raised that question at the POW, which is a stupid thing for one of our people to say, but you would have one hell of a problem if the South Vietnamese announced that

Every day that you sent bombers across the DMZ to shoot a POW in the square, you'd have to come up with a deal with them.

You know what I'd do?

Blockade the command place.

That would then be all over.

Move tighter, yeah.

I'd go for the blockade.

In my ignorance, that's the one thing I don't understand is why we don't go for the blockade anyway.

It just seems to be a confrontation with the Russians.

Well, you know what I mean.

That puts it to the Russians in a way that what the hell do they do?

They've got to say, well, you're going to stop Russian ships.

That's really what it is.

All they're doing is destroy them.

But you said yes.

Yeah, well, you might blow the spot.

They might go for mining instead of mining.

Same for Russian ships.

You blow up Russians, sure.

But anyway, they do it by their act.

Mining, it's their... We may hold bird action on it.

We have a very good option.

It may come the next week.

Well, that's the thing, you've got the Russians in a crunch on it, because it puts, you know, as long as they think you're going to do it, they've got to have a way about it.

We are going to be whatever...

And we're just, to the extent that we can do it without short on the one side, and on the other side, American ground forces, everything is necessary.

Well, your thing yesterday was, I think, a super big step in putting that in focus, too, in the Russian.

But it was made a warning without being belligerent, which was very important.

You used a marvelous form for doing that.

Biological, of course.

Security form, sort of thing.

After everybody at Crocker, they're very gushed about peace.

I did a little... What?

They're very gushed about you, which is... That's good.

When will John be able to be here?

I said, right away.

He's ready to move the middle foot.

Step into it.

Put the food prices.

Cry.

Anytime you see anything like that, shoot a note to him, just as you did.

You know, just cry.

In other words, I do it to him.

That's right.

And then he gets to work on...

And we'll work with him on the backup.

Like you said, you apparently now wanted to work on playing with other people.

Gee, I just don't know.

how good i am at that so you didn't have in mind deciding whether some undersecretary should give the speech or not what you had in mind was the overall guidance of what they were saying in the relationship they go i will work on the schedule he doesn't have to get into it so oh yeah they're not bad marketing and then getting them together and charging them up and saying lucky ball about speeches

having the conference of not 300, but maybe 25, 30 of our best speakers, and they come over here and say... Mitchell did that this morning.

He said, you have a great being here of getting your service, Mitchell.

We've got a lot of good service, a lot of good speakers out, but they need to be charged.

They need to know what, they need to be told what to say and be, you know, it isn't just giving them speech material on one piece of paper.

And I think that's .

He could do that.

He could have a weekly meeting where he calls in the 20 on the .

And fires them up.

And takes the four big issues.

Let's hit these .

OK. And what about Henry's thing?

Now, Henry will do that, of course.

Henry can go in and hit him on his thing, too.

But he doesn't need to do it once a week.

He can go in and do it.

every couple weeks maybe at the same meeting.

But the domestic issue is really, but he's not gonna take the initiative on it.

They don't have a section because you've got to do that personally.

And Mitchell says they need that, do they?

They won't.

We don't have any leaders, no self-strikers, no guys who will go out smart enough, and they're not sure enough of themselves.

See, that's the advantage of Ehrlichman.

Ehrlichman has the inner assurance that he knows what to say.

He knows what things to attack on, what things to avoid.

The other people are a little unsure of themselves, and so they tend to be safe.

Ehrlichman doesn't worry about being safe.

And what we've got to do is encourage these people to make some mistakes.

Let them make a, say it, go too far on a few things.

And make moves.

That's right.

Now, I don't, I want them all to know that we're not going to hold them responsible for anything like that.

Get out there and slug a little.

Yes, sir, we may have to back away from some of the things that have been said.

Yeah, that's right.

But we've got to wish we had a few things to back away from.

Good.

Well, you go ahead.

Yeah.

That's what I had in mind as leadership.

I'd get a man and I'd say, but...

We've got a good story to tell right now.

Wholesale prices are down, so that means prices are going to get better.

Stores are beginning to come down.

And the President is taking leadership on this thing.

And the Price Board and Conway are taking leadership on it.

But where is the follow-through?

Isn't that the problem with our food prices?

Has anybody said anything since economy pot problem?

You haven't done none.

That's my problem.

You ought to have a real symphony there.

Maybe that's it.

Drugs, can we follow up?

Are we going to follow up on the hotline?

Give that another shot.

There I realize.

They want me to make that speech.

You still think that's an ordinary issue?

Yeah.

They're working on a speech now, aren't they?

Yeah.

Well, John can help work on that.

Yeah.

We're going to be up in ten minutes.

Ten minutes.

That'll be in line.

Again.

Yeah.

That's drugs and crime.

And prices.

Bussing.

Right.

Drugs.

Right.

Bussing.

What?

Drugs.

Drugs and crime.

Bussing is another issue.

Bussing.

Prices, inflation.

Right.

Labor readers, the whole pie in there.

Right.

So then you're men of peace.

On the other side, the positive leadership in foreign affairs, the man of peace thing, which, personally, you don't need to worry about.

Just don't.

They're going to have to change their script.

Just stand by the President for his strong leadership, the strong leader thing.

There's going to be, I think, one thing that this show of strength does do.

It tends, at least, to undermine that, if we say it.

Don't you agree?

And if others say it, which they are.

I'm talking about others.

Like you mean the media are saying?

Yeah.

We don't have a problem.

I'm sure the media think they're hurting you, but they make the point of the B-52 strikes, which were personally ordered by President Nixon.

They probably think they're hanging that around your neck.

That's exactly what you want.

If you're going to do it yourself, better get the credit for it.

That's right.

And yet you're not in that sort of absurd posture that Johnson got in of running down in the room, picking out the targets, and just telling them his oil oil would roll out.

Never.

Not an experience in that respect, but I think the idea of personally ordering the fleet out there, too, the fleet, right?

I don't know if they'll manage to start another 20 B-52s around their way out.

It's good, isn't it?

Shale gas.

I mean, no doubt it's true, but at least it's starting to be the last one.

Maybe you always get right about the second one, but, well, they think we're just not so right.

But all that's good on the basis that if it comes out right, you get a hell of a lot of credit for it coming out right.

Because just as in Cambodia, when it finally came out right, they had to give you credit.

There was no... Because they gave you so much blame.

They couldn't just separate it from you after it became a success.

This they won't be able to either, if it's a success.

It's a failure.

You know goddamn well they're going to hang you with it.

Either way.

You should try.

Okay.

But another thing, too, is this.

The fact that I'm doing it somewhat alone is good.

You know, the fact that Laird made a statement, but only after I had taken the initiative, and the fact that Rogerson said a word, it would be all right.

I agree with Henry.

I don't think Bill would be convincing enough.

He wouldn't say anything at this point.

Bill would be convincing.

When the actor's done, it's all right.

He thinks it's going to come out.

But I don't really think Bill will shake his neck out.

I think that's right.

Therefore, I think that we were going to talk.

I mean, we thought, as I said, that I think we'd better just let him talk to everybody.

He's probably right that you don't want to press Bill to do something until he...

I mean, he's good when the letters, the sun is shining.

Bill is very good with the train.

You know, unless he has no other place to go.

And here he figures he's got another place to go.

He fears he can wait, and that's what he's going to do.

Wait?

Well, and he also justifies it by saying, well, this is the time to say anything concerning things are going all right.

Let's just wait and see how it comes out.

But I must say, it couldn't be more wrong for him to say it.

It couldn't.

If he had any sense.

I understand.

Bill would help us if he would do it with prayer.

He really could.

And he would also help himself.

He looked like he was leaving.

He got a damn thing.

I wonder if maybe you shouldn't have talked with him just to put him to the test.

Well, except if you do and he doesn't, I think Henry's right.

I don't think he will do it with the right kind of scale.

He won't attest too much that we are still seeking negotiations.

That is not, you see Bob, that's the reason I couldn't make the speech.

Because there was no way, and Henry said he brought the sapphire cake and screamed as it was from what he had written, but nevertheless,

That's what everybody wants me to do.

They see this generation of peace floating off into the upper atmosphere, and they want me to protest that we're still for peace.

Well, I am not going to do that.

God damn it, we proved we were for peace.

We proved we were going to do it.

You can't say it now, because that jeopardizes your chances for it.

We've also got our say.

We've got a quarter position to make a good statement in Paris.

It will go.

On the other hand, what we say is, let me say, before we go back, we're going back.

We've got to make a statement Thursday.

And I'm going to put in another little crack at the Russians, which is a Canadian speech, which is a good way to do it.

And there's a group back.

We have two.

I'll mention them.

But they'll be Friday.

And so we'll keep that thing alive a bit.

Let me tell you, you know, going to Canada and having demonstrators up there, it doesn't bother me.

I just think it'll reflect life in a lot of Canadians.

You apparently aren't going to have any.

They've apparently put a, put a security thing on that road.

How do they do it?

Okay.

Um, the last report I saw was that the Mounties had finally decided they're not going to allow demonstrators.

And they, they put out the word to the radicals that they're not, not to come to Ottawa at all.

They have to come in the city.

Apparently they do have some control.

Well, they had a terrible experience, you know, with the secret.

That's right.

They're afraid of getting that again.

And that they do.

Sorry.

We don't want it to be.

Of course, we want a few friendly Canadians out.

There must be some.

Oh, and I don't give a damn.

I wouldn't worry about it one more year.

I don't give one damn what they have out.

I mean, it's up to them.

It matters.

One thing for sure, we've got a good reception in the parlor.

I mean, because it's just the fact you went to this on the bench.

We're doing enough for the Canadians, believe me.

going to the Parliament, going to his show, going to the Governor General's thing, and leaving, I mean, and having a meeting the second morning, huh?

Absolutely.

Rodgers, don't try, don't try.

Let me say, if we see a crew, Bob, so, I really believe in this instance that

Only then, as he said, then if Rodgers says anything, which of course he will, he's got to do it in terms of only embracing the president.

We've just got to get our guys then get lined up if it comes through.

If it doesn't, that's another game.

But who knows?

And Miller's just got to handle it.

Look, he'll do, the only time he's ever done anything that was greatly to his benefit

When he was shaving like a leaf, it was in the muskie bag.

Sure.

But the best thing he's done this year, wasn't it?

Sure.

It's the only move that made him any positive points, really.

That's right.

I'm curious, because he's not a solid man.

No.

He's just obsessed with himself.

A good, good press.

Is that it?

Because he didn't like it.

And each day is good, but that's not the long term.

See, if you can see ahead, the best price he could get is if he'd come out now all out for this Vietnam thing.

Then he could turn around in a couple of weeks and say, I told you something.

And he'd get the attention.

You got me speaking.

I had the feeling that the economic news

is certainly much more strongly on the positive side of that.

And on the downside, food supply, I think you have, I think the major grievance we have are two, one, the price issue.

I don't think the unemployment thing is all that big.

They're not, as in the price thing, food price, food price, and everybody, the ability to be talking about this, I'm sure that's what makes people mad.

People are all affectionate about prices of the groceries that you cost them money.

The other thing is,

Of course, the big business pie, right?

That was the way in.

You see?

For something dramatic, you can do a full crush.

I mean, about just before the election, I mean, about two months before, I'd say, you've got to live in another freeze.

And maybe on the other hand, my question would be better.

What's your view?

What do you understand?

Well, let's see.

I've been exploring all these things.

But the problem is actually the action.

And there being that it's better to wait.

Waiting if it isn't much of a problem.

I mean, not now.

I don't know what now.

But right now, if you want to get out of the problem and say things are going to be better, well, there's some advantage.

You could argue.

Well, it's not the problem in the sense that it's pretty good to get over the stir about food prices now.

because for one thing the circuit is causing them to come down to a certain extent prices down i i would argue that james wouldn't have reduced meat prices even when the wholesale prices went down if they thought they could get away with it because of all this sir and uh

There's this heat on the middle man and all this stuff there.

They feel that heat.

They know that they're holding on.

And I think you'll see a continuing, that they'll do a hell of a, this pressure, the jaw-boning type thing may work a hell of a lot better than controls, in fact.

And if you get them down some, in fact, then, and as the things get stimulating, of course, you're never gonna stop the inflation.

The more you get the inflation,

That's the difficulty with Tuskegee.

He said, we ought to do this, we ought to do this.

But he's totally insistent.

He can't, on the one hand, say what we have to do is to fight the horizon, but on the other hand, on the second, we also have to stimulate the economy out here.

Don't kid ourselves how the hell you can't do both of those things, and he knows it.

He knows it.

Well, he's trying to say it.

It's nice to have kind of an interesting idea, which is to issue a mid-year economic report, which would be written as a campaign document, and talk forward, and talk and take rebuttal.

Let's have it in the speakers right after the Democratic convention.

Let's step in July 1st, okay, and go forward on that.

It's a very good one.

Mr. Conlon agrees with doing it.

He hasn't discussed it with Conlon.

You might raise a comment when we talk to him today.

That could be damn effective.

Give him an official government document that the press would have to give some play to and that our speakers could then refer to.

That's the mid-year economic report.

I think that's it.

I'll talk to Conley about that.

You mentioned doing physical.

I want to talk about that a little bit.

And about what I called this morning.

I think we have to realize that we are maybe setting targets in terms of public approval and so forth that in the present day are not possible because of the massive

disenchantment that has been planted in the minds of people and also a great number of young people about government in China and people around China.

And that's a cycle you just... Maybe those are the people who are just doing it.

If you would think, actually, that our people would have done a better job on the China state elections and things like that, but maybe there wasn't anything they could have done.

Maybe now, after rushing, we'll turn that.

That would seem to me have quite a bit of an appeal to people.

I don't think so, but I think it has had some.

We run into people where it seems to have had some.

It's had some of it.

But it's all a question of deciding whether to do this or that.

And maybe, maybe nothing to do with it.

Just stay the hell with it.

Do the best you can.

And also recognize the fact, too, that we have a massive media problem.

We just get through.

I was very interested in another Times Review Appeals book where they said that actually Nixon's press hadn't been all that bad.

Now, for Christ's sakes, that was an unbelievably shit-ass thing to say.

My press has been terrible, and they know it, considering what I've done.

That's the point.

You've had a lot of good press.

But your good press has been forced by, and it hasn't been as good as it should be.

Look, for Christ's sake, if I go to a good press conference, you get a half-assed treatment.

But generally speaking, we've only had a good press to the extent we've been pretty god-damned hard to handle.

That's right.

And we look at what he said going over the heads of the press, right?

The biological war thing, if Matt Kennedy had done that, they'd have been giving him a second start with his crown.

Well, Kennedy did most everything wrong and done almost all good for us even so.

You've done most everything wrong and done mostly bad for us.

I think it is more, it is when Oscar is closer to the mark where he says, most of the person doesn't like Nixon or trust him.

That's true.

Let's face it, we know that.

And I think that's one good piece of advice that we're asking.

Is it that we ever get that hand thing done for the China thing?

Should we do it?

If we're going to do it, I think...

I think it's getting around the lake.

I think it still isn't an idea to do, don't you?

Yeah.

It isn't, Nelson.

Oh, no, I don't really care.

Oh, no, we've got to do it.

But I think it's a good idea.

Let's get it out right now, pretty soon.

Without any letter or anything.

And let, uh, let, let Zigger handle that.

That might be an idea.

Zigger.

And, uh, mail it to him.

And we give it to the staff and all the rest of the team and so on.

We give it up and down the lines.

This time, everybody that was there, including the Secret Service, the airplane crews, you know, down the street, so that they all have a feeling that we have won a medal for them.

I think you should have said, won a medal for them.

And now the other thing is,

But what I was addressing, the thing about Zegers is that he's absolutely right.

You know, I'm tempted to go on a guerrilla and see some, I mean, have something for the press, socially, or some other goddamn thing.

And Zegers says no, except for the one time we had a good chance.

But I think he's absolutely right.

I think it would be nice for some of those that are our friends, but for the most, they are not our friends.

And therefore, don't lower yourself to get .

Do you agree with that?

I sure do, and it doesn't do any good.

People will argue with you on that.

I don't think they respect you for that.

What I'm getting at is this, that I think my socializing with the press, our friends would love it.

And I'd like to do it with the Vanderlands and the others.

You know, they're really nice guys and they want to be home.

But particularly the only 20% basically are friends or not enemies.

The 8% who are the other way around.

We've only used it as a saying on the summit of which he's trying to mutter something so cruel.

So the way that our friends understand that they are members of a group that is against us, and they have accepted it.

And as far as our enemies are concerned, all that they deserve and what we should give them is frankly a very courteous but cool contempt of Jewry.

And I think that's the way we've been handling them, and that's the way we should handle them.

Is that the argument?

Yeah.

And Zacher feels that way, doesn't he?

Always.

He doesn't want any goddamn socializing.

I think he's delighted to do any of these events this year.

I said, sure, go.

But didn't they ask for White House Correspondents after last year?

I will never go back to them.

I don't know.

It's just too damn bad timing that Poe, you know, is President of Correspondents this year also.

He's President of both.

He's President of both, but we're never had a Correspondents.

First time in history, one that's been President of both.

Don't worry.

No, you shouldn't.

But it's too bad, because he's such a nice guy, but he's also, you know, so alive.

And he can't control it.

He can't control it.

And I don't think there's, I did a long talk with him at the Grid Army.

I don't think it was the least bit disturbing that you weren't there.

I mean, I was relying.

Well, he knew why you weren't there.

Did he?

Yeah, he didn't say it, but he knew it.

He said, I just love that man that you work for.

I said, well, he knows that.

He knows.

He appreciates.

Can we do one thing for him?

Can we be sure that Ziegler finds a way to get him subsidized for this trip?

OK?

And you know what I mean?

Is get him to, so that he gets something special.

and through his talking to his editor and the rest of it.

That's the least we can do.

If there's any way we can do that, then probably he's the head of the two correspondents.

Maybe we can share the words.

What kind of things can you work on?

What Ron was just saying, you shouldn't even know about it.

We can work it out.

We just won't charge for the airfare.

See, we prorate the airplane costs.

We can just not build some of them.

That's the big cost.

That's the big air cost.

That's the hotel cost.

That's nothing the communist country does for China.

For China, what I think we could do, and I suggest something, one thing that I'd like to do for him, it would be an awfully nice thing.

Why don't you invite him to go on our plane, on the pool plane, since he is the president and the president of the White House Correspondents.

He goes, he said, that'd be very easy.

And then he's not charging for it.

Get my mind.

I just let him ride the whole damn thing all the way.

The rest of the two of them see him run.

He gets around to his number eight.

They manage to follow me there, but that's a good way to go so you don't have to charge.

And he'll come around.

I don't understand how you could do it.

You can bet they wouldn't.

They wouldn't get around.

Why?

They won't charge.

They won't.

The only guy you tell you're not charged is the guy you tell me about.

I didn't know we ever did that.

We don't.

We have not.

We have not charged you before.

Yeah, but... Sir.

Yeah.

And they were about to send people to go down to South Carolina.

I'm not sure.

Well, it's a great thing, Charlie.

I'm sure it has.

But you see, that's the nice thing for gold.

But getting on that, or I'm sure getting into it, you want to be sure you go.

If you go, the president will not go on his plane.

All the way.

I thought if I said the one thing that really disturbed you the most about Anthony Miskiger and Anthony Scheer was the fact that he was president.

I was a little disappointed to be here for a year and see all the changes in that one year.

I doubt that there's a problem with being a spring-related district in Washington, D.C. Do you think so?

Nixon, Haldeman & Walters on Soviet Union Summit and Press Relations

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Also recorded on April 11, 1972

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Nixon, Haldeman & Walters on Soviet Union Summit and Press Relations

AI Summary

Audio

NARA Description

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Transcript (AI-generated)

Also recorded on April 11, 1972

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Cite this conversation