Nixon phone call with Colson on PRC trip and Public relations

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Yeah, hello.

Mitch Colson, sir.

Yeah.

Hello.

Yes, sir.

Yeah, I'm finished now.

Thanks.

Well, I think just to sum it up, Mr. President, it would take me a long time to explain to you all the reactions I think people had.

But I think I'd sum it up by saying that there were a lot of skeptics and a lot of Democrats who...

just said this made their mind up for them, and even though, of course, you've been doing this for many years.

What was it, because of the substance?

No.

If it's the substance, we're in trouble, because that isn't what really matters.

No, it wasn't the substance, Mr. President.

I would say it was the confidence and the poise.

Did that get through?

Yes, sir.

Oh, very definitely.

Have you talked to Sindlinger or anybody on that?

I've talked to Sindlinger.

I've talked to Harris, who was just... What did he think?

He thought it was absolutely spectacular.

He thought it was beautiful.

I talked to him Monday morning when I was... Are you going to be pulling again?

He'll go into the field in about 10 days, yes, sir.

That's a little late to get there.

Boom.

Sindlinger's probably pulling now.

Sindlinger is pulling now, and I think, I haven't checked with Rumsfeld, but I think Gallup was planning to go in right after you came back.

He should.

I think he will.

I think Gallup goes a lot faster than Harris.

The point that you make is that

you think that the personal image thing finally got through a little.

That's the thing we've needed, you know, which we deserved and never gotten because of the hostile press.

Well, the picture, the photograph of you and Joe and I toasting was just absolutely magnificent.

That showed strength and warmth and poise and confidence.

A lot of people, I think a lot of people felt very proud that they could identify their president in a very

the sense of... You don't think they could do that before?

Well, they could, but it was a different environment, Mr. President.

I mean, because I've been told...

I've talked about De Gaulle and Harold Wilson and...

But those are scenes that people have seen before and expected before.

This was the uncharted course, and it was the unknown.

And I take a lot of courage.

I think, as a matter of fact, coming down that ramp when you landed in...

in Peking showed a great deal of courage and poise the way you handled it in an unknown, totally unknown situation.

And one that a lot of people were sort of holding their breath, wondering what was going to happen.

And I just, I don't trust my own reactions to this because I'm too subjective, but I did an awful lot of talking and had an awful lot of people talk to me and the reactions were just great.

Even yesterday morning when I was worried about the Taiwan reaction.

Yeah, I know.

Yeah, we got your point.

And I understood that because, my God, when I saw that Washington Post headline when it came back, which was the most disgraceful headline I've ever seen.

Terrible report.

And it was wrong.

Terrible report.

Totally wrong.

And they were doing it deliberately.

Because, Christ, they want to flush Taiwan in any event.

Oh, sure.

I told the leaders that.

I said it was the most disgraceful business that I'd ever seen.

Well, it was a good bit of it.

Rather's report on the radio on Sunday was just snide.

That was the only sour note in otherwise superb reporting, actually.

Right.

Reporters, I gave them a good shot at the airport, you know.

You sure did.

But Rather is just a son of a bitch, don't you think?

He's going to always be a son of a bitch.

There'll be no way to touch that fellow.

He's...

He's just a bastard, period.

Right.

But, no, it's...

I think it's because there was so much attention focused on this trip as compared with others.

Incidentally, he sure rather gets a few nasty notes on his reporting.

I don't know whether it helps or not.

Yes, it does.

He's very sensitive to that.

Well, have you arranged that?

Yes, sir.

I'd hit him hard.

Calls and everything.

He said, God, do you know what I mean?

Lou Harris was going to call him.

Lou was so upset at one of his radio reports, he thought he was just...

being utterly irresponsible in the way he handled the Taiwan thing.

But I think the only concern I had on the whole trip, as a matter of fact, was that you come off the plane last night being the serious

world leader, and you did just that.

You did it just perfectly.

I knew you would, but that was the only...

I think it was good to read the speech, too, don't you?

Yes, sir.

Of course, I wrote the damn thing on the plane, but it wasn't too long, and it was the report to the nation, and there's more people listening last night than will listen if I did it next week.

That's exactly right, and it put it in focus, and it was a dramatic scene, and coming off the plane, I watched the tapes of it.

It was beautifully handled, beautifully done.

It was just...

It was just the right tone.

I thought it was just the image you had to project, not of someone who was in awe of new sights, but of someone who had really gone there for a purpose and accomplished that purpose and came home firm.

But, of course, the ending of Your Feeling About America, that just was exactly the right note.

Hit it perfectly.

That kind of thing, the thing about the man, can help us because the substance goes up and down.

But if it helps with regard to the man, then that's sort of the thing that you had with Eisenhower that sort of kept him, even when everything else went down, he stayed up.

If we can get a little of that feeling in shape.

Well, let me say this.

I didn't hear a single comment from anyone, and I may have talked to 50 people.

a lot of it unsolicited, that mentioned the substance, or that mentioned, isn't it good that we have a dialogue with China, or isn't it good that... Ah, right.

But every comment was, my God, I'm proud of the way our president is handling himself, or my God, did you see the way he walked up with his hand out, or did you see the way he's in total command?

There was a feeling of confidence that you gave in the way

in your personal bearing that had me so impressed.

That was the reason I passed that comment up yesterday, because I just wanted to keep that.

I felt that you had done that so beautifully in China, and the coverage.

I mean, they saw it even at the wall in the Forbidden City, and the toasting, and all that business.

Yeah, I think the toasting had a hell of an impact.

It was interesting.

I think I got more

people remembering that when they would talk.

Of course, the toast was eloquent on the opening banquet.

That was a superb toast, and TV played that over and over, so it'd be pretty hard for anybody to have missed it.

I haven't gotten all the ratings from last week, but I think we'll find it was a spectacular performance.

A fellow like Howard Smith, you know, who's an old pro, he called me Sunday.

I didn't call him.

Sunday before we arrived?

No, sir.

This past Sunday.

to say that day before yesterday, when you were on your way back.

And he said, I just want to call you, and he said, I want to tell you two things.

He said, first of all, he said, I've never been more impressed with anyone than the way in which the president has handled this.

He said, you must be very proud.

And he said he's just done superbly.

Of course, his commentary last night was a classic.

He said that you had... Oh, I didn't see it.

No, I'm not reading the news summaries for a couple of weeks because I need a little rest.

Well, you do, but I have to tell you, the one thing he said was there isn't anything to this Taiwan thing.

The president was just doing exactly what had been our plan all along, but he said...

I think he used the phrase, the genius of what...

this president has done is to reduce our military presence but increase our influence in asia and very beautifully one of the most one of the most growing commentaries i've seen

Nixon phone call with Colson on PRC trip and Public relations

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on February 29, 1972

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