Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 023-081
Date: Wednesday, April 26, 1972 at 1:45 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); White House operator; Colson, Charles W.
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/023-081

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:02] Yes, please.
[0:03] Admiral Moore, please.
[0:06] Hello.
[0:06] Admiral Moore, Mr. President.
[0:07] Yeah, you have some...
[0:08] I have Mr. Colson.
[0:09] Yeah, I'll take him first.
[0:10] Take him first and Admiral Moore.
[0:11] After that, please.
[0:12] Fine, sir.
[0:12] Thank you.
[0:15] The President's on the line, sir.
[0:17] Yes, sir.
[0:17] Sort of between dress up.
[6:18] 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?
[6:26] Well, from liberals within the church.
[6:27] Some should congratulate him.
[6:28] Oh, we've called him this morning, and we've had a number of people call him and praise him.
[6:33] He condemned the North Vietnamese aggression and supported what you were doing to respond.
[6:38] And he's under heavy attack, what, from Father Hesburgh and that type?
[6:42] That type.
[6:42] Some of the wild liberal Jesuits in the church here.
[6:46] They were blasting him in the...
[6:48] press today, but we've called him... On what ground?
[6:51] Well, that he had no business injecting the church into... Well, what the hell have they been doing?
[6:55] Well, that's right.
[6:56] And they say he's on the wrong side of the issue.
[6:59] 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.
[7:09] He should have a little note that I greatly want to know how much I admired his great courage in making this statement and
[7:19] We'll get it.
[7:20] I trust he doesn't take too much flack as a result.
[7:26] He's with us.
[7:27] 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...
[7:41] visit to Poland.
[7:43] He mentioned that this morning.
[7:44] He's very excited about that.
[7:45] Tell him that I want to have a talk with him about that visit to Poland.
[7:48] We'll work it out.
[7:51] A little note like that would be fine.
[7:52] All right.
[7:54] We'll get that out today, sir.
[7:55] I was delighted he stepped up to it.
[12:30] On the other hand, you've got to go.
[12:32] 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.
[12:43] We have a nut-cutter for the Vice President.
[12:45] When's he going to make it?
[12:46] He'll do it Friday up in Maine, which is a marvelous spot.
[12:50] And I got him the material that you marked off of the Buchanan memo.
[12:54] Isn't that good, though?
[12:55] Oh, that's great stuff.
[12:56] That's marvelous.
[12:57] Will he use it?
[12:57] Yes, sir.
[12:58] Yes, sir.
[12:59] He's disposed to do it.
[13:02] Get that out in advance now.
[13:03] Oh, yes.
[13:04] And also get Goldwater's speech second ride somewhat by having somebody attack it or I don't know.
[13:10] 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.
[13:17] It's not him.
[13:19] Secondly, Bob Dole is mailing it to friendly editors and columnists, a list of about 500 that we have with it.
[13:25] very good cover letter in an attack on those Democrats who won't disavow Madam Bin.
[13:30] That'll get some press because...
[13:32] The Madam Bin thing should be a major project this week.
[13:34] Keep hitting it, hitting it, hitting it.
[13:36] Remember, they won't disassociate themselves from the communists.
[13:40] The communist Madam Bin.
[13:42] Don't say the Vietnamese.
[13:44] The communist Madam Bin.
[13:45] The communist enemy.
[13:47] I gave that to the Vice President to work into his speech also.
[13:51] And I have two fellows...
[13:53] 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.
[14:02] 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.
[14:13] What'd they say?
[14:14] Well, they said the doves got out.
[14:15] Too early, too far up front, and the American people aren't with them.
[14:18] The American people are with the president.
[14:20] They built a whole column out of the Sendlinger Poll.
[14:23] Oh, the Sendlinger Poll.
[14:24] Of course, that helped us because, you know, and then Gallup followed with not a good one, not as good.
[14:31] But not a bad one.
[14:31] on our side.
[14:32] That's right.
[14:33] Not a bad one.
[14:33] And we know Gallup loaded the questions.
[14:35] 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.
[14:45] No, that's right.
[14:47] So it's a very different situation.
[14:48] The Sindlinger thing is finished tonight.
[14:50] I think it's going to be stronger, too.
[14:52] Well, I'm sure it will be.
[14:55] The Sindlinger pull, I've never seen anything get the...
[14:58] attention to the media the way that is.
[15:00] Of course, he did a good job at his press conference last week.
[15:03] Right.
[15:03] But they're all talking about it, of course.
[15:05] See, the thing is, it's going to make him a big man that way.
[15:07] That's right.
[15:08] Oh, and he's...
[15:08] He loves that.
[15:09] Oh, sure, and he's...
[15:10] He's now become one of the big three.
[15:12] I talked to him yesterday, and he said, I think I'll start doing this with regularity.
[15:15] I'll come down there every few weeks for press conferences, so we'll make good use of him later.
[15:21] He's saying Klassen, huh?
[15:24] Klassen tells me that the press have been, all of them, talking about the Sendlinger Pole.
[15:28] They were astonished that so many of the people are supporting you.
[15:35] I think the media may realize they'll get their neck out a little bit far.
[15:39] And also this whole thing about the Kissinger trip and the rest confuses the living bejesus out of these bastards.
[15:44] Oh, God, they climb the walls over it.
[15:46] They don't know what to do, do they?
[15:47] No, and they get caught.
[15:49] And the TV commentators made more of the secrecy than the written press.
[15:53] The written press, I think, more professional about it.
[15:59] They downplayed it, of course.
[16:02] Our networks last night gave us a jab, but to me it doesn't hurt.
[16:06] About secrecy?
[16:07] Yes.
[16:07] Oh, it doesn't make a difference.
[16:08] That's a pure in-house thing.
[16:10] Well, that's exactly right.
[16:11] As I was saying this morning to John Ehrlichman, the... Oh, yeah, Ehrlichman's always worried about credibility.
[16:18] Yeah, I said, hell, the public still watch spy movies and love them and read spy novels.
[16:23] That's right.
[16:24] Kissinger's sole business, I mean, everybody around the world is always worried about credibility.
[16:29] That's a phony issue.
[16:30] It doesn't mean anything.
[16:31] Totally phony.
[16:32] Because in our case, there's no question.
[16:34] We put it out.
[16:36] And I know John's always worried about, are we telling the truth?
[16:39] To hell with it.
[16:41] Do what's necessary.
[16:42] Well, and the people care about the results, really.
[16:45] In the foreign policy area, I think it's a little... No, domestically.
[16:48] Domestically, tell them everything.
[16:49] Because it doesn't matter.
[16:50] That's right.
[16:51] In foreign policy, you do anything to get peace.
[16:53] That's right.
[16:54] 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.
[17:08] They like Kissinger going to Moscow to negotiate peace.
[17:12] Now, let's face it.
[17:13] That's exactly right.
[17:14] Yeah, nobody should get disturbed about it, and nobody should pay any attention to our local politics.
[17:19] you know, the editor, I mean, not the editors, but these goddamn reporters and the TV people.
[17:25] 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.
[17:35] Are you doing that?
[17:36] Yes, sir.
[17:36] Well, we aren't...
[17:38] We aren't yet as geared up as much as we will be in another month.
[17:41] TechScape has taken on a very...
[17:43] I understand.
[17:44] I want that done, though, particularly after this broadcast tomorrow, tonight.
[17:47] Well, if they give us any hell of a night, we'll go all out on that.
[17:51] But I mean all out, vicious calls, you know.
[17:53] Right.
[17:54] And...
[17:55] Well, you remember we did that after the Rather performance, and we know we were hurting him because he was squealed.
[18:04] He was very, very upset about it, and for a few weeks you could tell it had an impact on him.
[18:10] We have the mechanism to do that.
[18:12] What we're doing with SCAFE is building up a network nationwide where we can...
[18:17] really call in all the cities because then the network knows it isn't an organized thing.
[18:24] Right.
[18:24] Incidentally, affecting the local stations is more important than the network.
[18:29] That's right.
[18:30] And so get out there and have them hit Los Angeles, hit Miami.
[18:34] Chicago.
[18:34] Hit just Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, Miami, Cleveland, Miami.
[18:40] Pick the, and Philadelphia.
[18:43] Have them call.
[18:43] Now set that up, Chuck, so that there are calls made at the stations, the major TV stations.
[18:50] network stations in those areas.
[18:52] That will kill these people.
[18:53] Oh, it does.
[18:54] It'll flow right back.
[18:55] 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.
[19:03] I've got all my people in town.
[19:05] That's much more effective than calling the network.
[19:07] That's right.
[19:07] I wouldn't agree more.
[19:08] So will you work on that?
[19:09] Oh, that's a high priority.
[19:11] We have it about 50% in place.
[19:14] We'll have it finished this month, but SCAPE is...
[19:18] putting a hell of a good apparatus in place for us.
[19:22] And we have it, but we're just improving it.
[19:25] But that's where we put the leverage on them, and they can have a hell of an effect.
[19:33] Okay, well, have fun.
[19:34] Yes, sir.
[19:35] Thank you, Mr. President.