Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 017-156
Date: Sunday, January 2, 1972 at 11:13 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob")
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/017-156

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:02] Hello.
[0:04] What are your messages?
[0:06] Well, we've got a pretty good range of some of our regulars, you know, that we get a reading on.
[0:21] It's interesting, Knopfiger was very pleased on the basis of the... Well, no, we thought too, but that you'd gotten a dig in in such a good way that it wasn't malicious at all, but you made your point.
[0:29] And then he said, you made some excellent conservative points, especially the Aggie thing.
[0:46] Brady Black made the point that the answers, that the whole thing required a lot of confidence.
[0:48] And Oettinger made the confidence point, too.
[0:49] And that's the one that needs to come up in this one.
[0:50] Black said that it was a very good thing on the POWs and especially good on China, the Chinese-China thing.
[0:58] Keith Wilson at the Omaha World Herald said it was very wise to clear up the Agnew's questions and the explanation of the bombing thing was very clear and satisfactory.
[1:13] And that you were very good on the question of charisma and performance.
[1:16] And... Did any of them get across the point that Rather was very antagonistic?
[1:21] Yeah, that's what I was just getting to.
[1:23] That really came true with the...
[1:25] I mean, I've talked about half of this already.
[1:26] I don't appreciate it too much.
[1:27] They thought it was horrible.
[1:42] Now we've got a couple of these others.
[1:46] Les Aaron said it was a great show.
[1:50] The president was totally frank and told everything he could tell.
[1:51] Shows clearly that he's president first, party leader second.
[1:53] Gordon Allen said it was exceedingly well done, especially in the face of the competition from Rather and his attempt to play down every positive aspect.
[1:57] He said it was great on everything except the farm issue.
[2:11] And he said the political reaction is going to be that you said Agnew will be on the ticket.
[2:17] Oh, sure.
[2:17] Sure.
[2:17] Griffin, Bobby Griffin, said overall it was outstanding.
[2:19] He said it's one of the toughest ordeals the president's ever had with a newsman.
[2:21] He said Rather was obviously well-prepared, but very nasty.
[2:22] Martin Hayden said the president did very well, but Rather got awfully mean at times.
[2:28] And he was very pleased with the statement on amnesty and POWs.
[2:37] And Reg Murphy said that was the most offhand announcement of the selection of a vice president I've ever heard.
[2:42] So it was a very good presentation that you should do more of it.
[2:46] And from several of the business people...
[2:47] One of them should have done more on the economy.
[3:07] There was too much on Vietnam.
[3:07] Well, I wasn't sure.
[3:08] Well, what the hell is my fault?
[3:08] He's got that business.
[3:09] I don't know.
[3:09] I don't know.
[3:09] Oh, they know.
[3:10] But, you know, they're just analyzing what was on the shelf.
[3:11] Surprisingly, Frank, on the vice president, on the POWs, on Taiwan, and on the summit, you weren't political at all, which was good, and didn't even mention the fact that you don't have a majority in Congress.
[3:16] Another one says it was highly informative.
[3:34] You should do more of them.
[3:35] Most relaxed he's ever seen you.
[3:39] The best ever on television.
[3:39] Excellent on the summit timing.
[3:40] Excellent explanation on the summit timing.
[3:41] Uh... That's a favorite.
[3:41] Then, uh... One of them said, I was very impressed with the president and my view of Dan Rather was confirmed.
[3:45] Ha ha ha!
[3:46] Then a very interesting one is Lou Harris, who says the president was superb.
[4:01] He personally sensed that Rather took two poll questions out of context, and they were old poll results.
[4:07] And he said he thought the president was treated in very bad taste.
[4:08] He was shocked that there were no ground rules, and thought it was the most hostile that he had ever seen a president go through.
[4:11] I hope he says that.
[4:12] Get that out.
[4:12] Yeah, well, I'm going to get him to get it out.
[4:14] Good.
[4:14] But the President seems to do his best when he's challenged.
[4:25] He does very well.
[4:26] But, uh, yeah, George Tyson.
[4:26] Now put that as a... Move back on the Harris one.
[4:28] And we'll get some more... Top priority.
[4:29] But don't let, don't leave it to Harris, Bob.
[4:30] Got a few of our people to say that Harris said that.
[4:36] Right.
[4:36] But that's, uh... You think it's worth doing?
[4:40] Sure.
[4:42] I absolutely do.
[4:44] All the work we do.
[4:45] Yep.
[6:00] Well, it is.
[6:06] I think it is.
[6:08] It certainly doesn't hurt us.
[6:14] We've answered 31 questions, which is not really too many.
[6:18] 31 in an hour is not as many as we should have had, but we asked such questions that required long answers.
[6:21] Well, some of them you had to, and some of them had to.
[6:24] And also, I wanted to make my points, and I kept getting in about our economy, and everything was moving pretty well.
[6:29] Yeah, and saying, in effect, oh, I probably will be a candidate, but hold it until I look at the situation then.
[6:50] Yeah.
[6:51] on the political motivation and things.
[7:11] That's the thing that they try to get into.
[7:12] I think, in a way, it was good for you to have the chance to hit it there.
[7:15] We hit it with a guy who was really hitting it all the time.
[7:16] Yeah.
[7:16] Everything was political.
[7:17] But I got up, finding out what the hell probably what the Chinese and the Russians would be interested in meeting.
[7:19] Them saying it was not an amendment that, uh,
[7:21] Well, even if they were, that I would make no decision that would be, you know, in the bad interest of the country for the purpose of the election.
[7:43] Yeah.
[7:43] That come true?
[7:43] Oh, absolutely.
[7:44] I mean, he made it, you know, he made the point that no president would, you know, he would never, but, I don't know, he's a...
[7:50] But we ought to really do a job on raster on this.
[8:06] I really think that you can get ahold of Colson and tell him to really get a raft of, uh, letters, well, wires, and other really racing hell about it.
[8:14] So he comes tagging us each other.
[8:15] This is a good idea.
[8:15] He already, I've talked to Jay Howard in his office a few times about it.
[8:17] I've already told him to get started on it.
[8:18] Good.
[8:18] We're going to get started on that.
[8:19] The real question we have to ask, you know, consider is whether we ought to do more of this sort of thing, you know.
[8:49] It's probably a good idea.
[8:50] Yep.
[8:53] Uh, uh, ladies, give Bill Rogers a call and ask him what he thought.
[8:57] Call me back, will ya?
[8:58] Sure.