Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 137-008
Date: Saturday, August 12, 1972 at 10:35 AM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Colson, Charles W.
Recording device: Camp David Study Table
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/137-008

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:01] Hello.
[0:02] Good morning, sir.
[0:03] Well, how are things going today?
[0:05] Well, I think very well, Mr. President.
[0:07] I'm just delighted with the play that Bill Rogers got last night and again this morning.
[0:13] Papers gave him a spectacularly good play, and the TV was just excellent.
[0:19] Bill was in great, great form.
[0:22] That's fine.
[0:23] I firmly believe, I'm going to talk to Mel Laird, who's testifying before the platform committee in Miami on Tuesday, and we can get a lot of coverage.
[0:31] I think we ought to keep this thing alive, where Mel says, well, I briefed Shriver in 1969 on Vietnamization, and hell, he was entirely for it.
[0:41] You know, he thought it was a great thing.
[0:42] And just keep hitting this fellow, because it...
[0:44] In other words, attack his credibility.
[0:46] Exactly.
[0:47] If you build him up some this way, it gets him into...
[0:50] And he's got to respond.
[0:52] Has he responded yet?
[0:54] No, sir.
[0:55] An aide said that he stood by his original statement.
[0:58] That's pretty weak.
[1:00] He'll have to respond on TV tomorrow.
[1:02] I think he will.
[1:03] But I don't know how the hell he, I don't know how, Mr. President, he gets out of that one.
[1:07] We've checked the files, I think.
[1:09] I told Kistney to check it, and there isn't a goddamn smidgen of a memo or anything.
[1:13] John, I talked to Rogers last night, and he said everything is just the other way.
[1:30] 1701 story in the lawsuit, but it isn't even in the New York Times, and it is not on the wires.
[1:37] The Washington press are just sopping that up, but I don't think... Oh, sure, they will continue to, and Bennett Williams is making publicity for himself.
[1:50] But that's all right.
[1:51] That's all right.
[1:51] We'll keep right at it.
[2:03] There are attack lines that Laird is going to be there Tuesday, and we'll take the Shriver thing on, and we'll take on the war issue from our standpoint.
[2:09] In other words, our positive side and the government's weakness on it.
[2:15] And so we can keep a...
[2:16] Particularly hit, he ought to particularly hit, instead of defense expenditures, how much we've cut them, no draft.
[2:24] Right.
[2:24] The no draft line has not been getting it through too much.
[2:27] We've got so many men out of the armed services.
[2:31] We've got five in Vietnam.
[2:33] We're not drafting any, no draftees in Vietnam, and the number of draftees are only so many a month, and it'll soon be zero.
[2:39] And that's a tremendous accomplishment.
[2:41] Yes, it is.
[2:42] That's up to campaign pledge, volunteer army.
[2:44] That's right.
[2:45] No draft.
[2:45] That's damn good with these young voters.