Nixon phone call with Colson on Vietnam War and Public Relations

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Yes, please.

Admiral Moore, please.

Hello.

Admiral Moore, Mr. President.

Yeah, you have some...

I have Mr. Colson.

Yeah, I'll take him first.

Take him first and Admiral Moore.

After that, please.

Fine, sir.

Thank you.

The President's on the line, sir.

Yes, sir.

Sort of between dress up.

I don't know whether you noticed Cardinal Crowe put his statement out this weekend supporting you, and he's under heavy attack from... Is he?

Well, from liberals within the church.

Some should congratulate him.

Oh, we've called him this morning, and we've had a number of people call him and praise him.

He condemned the North Vietnamese aggression and supported what you were doing to respond.

And he's under heavy attack, what, from Father Hesburgh and that type?

That type.

Some of the wild liberal Jesuits in the church here.

They were blasting him in the...

press today, but we've called him... On what ground?

Well, that he had no business injecting the church into... Well, what the hell have they been doing?

Well, that's right.

And they say he's on the wrong side of the issue.

It's the same argument, but I was just delighted that as president of the Council of Bishops, he stepped forward and really stepped up for us.

He should have a little note that I greatly want to know how much I admired his great courage in making this statement and

We'll get it.

I trust he doesn't take too much flack as a result.

He's with us.

And then go on to say that before my Russian trip, we will be in touch with you because I want to have a talk with you with regard to my...

visit to Poland.

He mentioned that this morning.

He's very excited about that.

Tell him that I want to have a talk with him about that visit to Poland.

We'll work it out.

A little note like that would be fine.

All right.

We'll get that out today, sir.

I was delighted he stepped up to it.

On the other hand, you've got to go.

I've just talked to Haldeman, and over this weekend, after my speech, I want everybody working 24 hours a day, following up, kicking, supporting, calling the networks, every device we can use now.

We have a nut-cutter for the Vice President.

When's he going to make it?

He'll do it Friday up in Maine, which is a marvelous spot.

And I got him the material that you marked off of the Buchanan memo.

Isn't that good, though?

Oh, that's great stuff.

That's marvelous.

Will he use it?

Yes, sir.

He's disposed to do it.

Get that out in advance now.

Oh, yes.

And also get Goldwater's speech second ride somewhat by having somebody attack it or I don't know.

Well, what we're doing with that, Mr. President, I've given it to the vice president with a suggestion that he might want to quote portions of it because he can attribute it to Goldwater.

It's not him.

Secondly, Bob Dole is mailing it to friendly editors and columnists, a list of about 500 that we have with it.

very good cover letter in an attack on those Democrats who won't disavow Madam Bin.

That'll get some press because...

The Madam Bin thing should be a major project this week.

Keep hitting it, hitting it, hitting it.

Remember, they won't disassociate themselves from the communists.

The communist Madam Bin.

Don't say the Vietnamese.

The communist Madam Bin.

The communist enemy.

I gave that to the Vice President to work into his speech also.

And I have two fellows...

up on the hill, and I've said, just don't come back until you break me to the statements of everybody just kicking this one.

We'll keep this alive, and I think we're going to get some help on it, because some of the columnists, I'm told, well, Evans and Novak column this morning was a good example.

What'd they say?

Well, they said the doves got out.

Too early, too far up front, and the American people aren't with them.

The American people are with the president.

They built a whole column out of the Sendlinger Poll.

Oh, the Sendlinger Poll.

Of course, that helped us because, you know, and then Gallup followed with not a good one, not as good.

But not a bad one.

on our side.

That's right.

Not a bad one.

And we know Gallup loaded the questions.

When you look at that as a loaded question and realize that you still get a majority of the people saying they agree with the bombing, that's very impressive considering they didn't agree with Johnson's bombing.

No, that's right.

So it's a very different situation.

The Sindlinger thing is finished tonight.

I think it's going to be stronger, too.

Well, I'm sure it will be.

The Sindlinger pull, I've never seen anything get the...

attention to the media the way that is.

Of course, he did a good job at his press conference last week.

Right.

But they're all talking about it, of course.

See, the thing is, it's going to make him a big man that way.

That's right.

Oh, and he's...

He loves that.

Oh, sure, and he's...

He's now become one of the big three.

I talked to him yesterday, and he said, I think I'll start doing this with regularity.

I'll come down there every few weeks for press conferences, so we'll make good use of him later.

He's saying Klassen, huh?

Klassen tells me that the press have been, all of them, talking about the Sendlinger Pole.

They were astonished that so many of the people are supporting you.

I think the media may realize they'll get their neck out a little bit far.

And also this whole thing about the Kissinger trip and the rest confuses the living bejesus out of these bastards.

Oh, God, they climb the walls over it.

They don't know what to do, do they?

No, and they get caught.

And the TV commentators made more of the secrecy than the written press.

The written press, I think, more professional about it.

They downplayed it, of course.

Our networks last night gave us a jab, but to me it doesn't hurt.

About secrecy?

Yes.

Oh, it doesn't make a difference.

That's a pure in-house thing.

Well, that's exactly right.

As I was saying this morning to John Ehrlichman, the... Oh, yeah, Ehrlichman's always worried about credibility.

Yeah, I said, hell, the public still watch spy movies and love them and read spy novels.

That's right.

Kissinger's sole business, I mean, everybody around the world is always worried about credibility.

That's a phony issue.

It doesn't mean anything.

Totally phony.

Because in our case, there's no question.

We put it out.

And I know John's always worried about, are we telling the truth?

To hell with it.

Do what's necessary.

Well, and the people care about the results, really.

In the foreign policy area, I think it's a little... No, domestically.

Domestically, tell them everything.

Because it doesn't matter.

That's right.

In foreign policy, you do anything to get peace.

That's right.

Well, the credibility issue to me is not a serious issue, except when you get into things like busing, where people say, well, goddammit, all those politicians are talking against busing, but it's going on in my community.

They like Kissinger going to Moscow to negotiate peace.

Now, let's face it.

That's exactly right.

Yeah, nobody should get disturbed about it, and nobody should pay any attention to our local politics.

you know, the editor, I mean, not the editors, but these goddamn reporters and the TV people.

And be sure, the only thing that I think Haldeman's operation is weak on in yours is in really calling the network and local stations and kicking the shit out of them.

Are you doing that?

Yes, sir.

Well, we aren't...

We aren't yet as geared up as much as we will be in another month.

TechScape has taken on a very...

I understand.

I want that done, though, particularly after this broadcast tomorrow, tonight.

Well, if they give us any hell of a night, we'll go all out on that.

But I mean all out, vicious calls, you know.

Right.

And...

Well, you remember we did that after the Rather performance, and we know we were hurting him because he was squealed.

He was very, very upset about it, and for a few weeks you could tell it had an impact on him.

We have the mechanism to do that.

What we're doing with SCAFE is building up a network nationwide where we can...

really call in all the cities because then the network knows it isn't an organized thing.

Right.

Incidentally, affecting the local stations is more important than the network.

That's right.

And so get out there and have them hit Los Angeles, hit Miami.

Chicago.

Hit just Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, Miami, Cleveland, Miami.

Pick the, and Philadelphia.

Have them call.

Now set that up, Chuck, so that there are calls made at the stations, the major TV stations.

network stations in those areas.

That will kill these people.

Oh, it does.

It'll flow right back.

Well, what it does, Mr. President, is the local station owner operator calls the network and says, Jesus Christ, don't put that jackass on there with the statements like that.

I've got all my people in town.

That's much more effective than calling the network.

That's right.

I wouldn't agree more.

So will you work on that?

Oh, that's a high priority.

We have it about 50% in place.

We'll have it finished this month, but SCAPE is...

putting a hell of a good apparatus in place for us.

And we have it, but we're just improving it.

But that's where we put the leverage on them, and they can have a hell of an effect.

Okay, well, have fun.

Yes, sir.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Nixon phone call with Colson on Vietnam War and Public Relations

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on April 26, 1972

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