Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 001-057
Date: Friday, April 9, 1971 at 10:28 AM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Colson, Charles W.; Nixon, Richard M. (President); Colson, Charles W.
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/001-057

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Hello?
[0:00] Yes, sir.
[0:01] Hello, Chuck?
[0:02] Yes, sir.
[0:03] I thought you would have probably enjoyed my little implied crack at Mr. Percy.
[0:11] Oh, I thought it was beautiful.
[0:13] It had to be done.
[0:14] I mean, I couldn't sit there with all of my friends and urge them to give money to him.
[0:18] That's right.
[0:19] And I didn't criticize him, but without saying, look here...
[0:23] on SST, and he said, I think this is the reason I have stood for it.
[0:26] What do you think?
[0:26] I debated in doing it, but I thought that these guys deserved that.
[0:31] You did it very well.
[0:32] You could have done it in a way that would have been a problem, but you did it in a beautiful way.
[0:36] You said, I understand there are differences, and that one's passed, and even some men in this room differed.
[0:41] Percy got up afterwards, by the way, and gave you just one hell of a speech.
[0:46] Did he?
[0:47] Yeah, he really did.
[0:48] He was speaking to our crowd.
[1:56] I thought your point on the SST, though, was one that you made it very gracefully, yet you made your own position very quick.
[2:04] And nobody took offense to that.
[2:06] It was interesting, Mr. President, in the discussion during the course of the evening with the people around me at the table and also beforehand, the number of very, very strong comments on the Wednesday night speech.
[2:21] Yes, several spooks to me.
[2:22] Just inherently that heartland.
[2:25] They react to it.
[2:26] You know, they're not cynical.
[2:27] That's right.
[2:29] But they felt very strong.
[2:30] They like a little movement, don't they?
[2:32] Yes, they do.
[2:33] Yes, they do.
[2:34] Well, they're great fellows.
[2:35] It's the old guard.
[2:37] It's the old money guard.
[2:38] Yeah.
[2:38] And that's why, too, another reason why on the SST and a little of that flag-waving I gave, I thought was important.
[2:44] That's more important than all this other stuff, you know.
[2:46] They've got to feel something about America has a role in the world.
[2:49] Don't you think so?
[2:49] I thought it was perfect.
[2:50] They believe that.
[2:51] They believe that.
[2:52] Your ending about you fellas have the guts for it.
[2:55] Yeah.
[2:55] They like that.
[2:56] Don't they?
[2:57] Because they don't think the Easterners have.
[2:58] That's exactly right.
[2:59] Okay.
[3:00] Thank you.
[3:00] Yes, sir.