Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 137 › Conversation 137-020
Nixon phone call with Colson on Public Relations and Disaster Relief
Sunday, August 13, 1972 · 10:45 AM–11:23 AM ET · Camp David Study Table · 7 min
AI Summary
President Nixon and Charles W. Colson discussed the need to improve public relations support for Frank C. Carlucci regarding disaster relief efforts in Pennsylvania. The conversation shifted to political strategy, specifically managing Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird’s public comments on the all-volunteer army and Vietnam policy to avoid credibility issues. Nixon directed Colson to control the timing of these announcements, favoring a mid-September rollout, while also coordinating a response to political attacks from George McGovern and Democratic figures like W. Averell Harriman and Cyrus R. Vance.
- Public Relations
- Disaster Relief
- All-Volunteer Army
- Vietnamization
- Campaign Strategy
- Frank C. Carlucci
- Melvin R. Laird
Audio
Transcript (AI-generated)
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Hello.
Good morning, Mr. President.
Well, how's your morale today?
Well, my morale is fine.
I'm just scrambling, trying to get some additional people up to Pennsylvania to handle the Carlucci PR, I guess.
We've had some fellows up there that apparently are... Yeah, I told them to do that.
...a little bit.
Well, I don't know.
I think the problem is more the case that you have the ordinary PIO fellow from Lincoln's office and the rest, and they just aren't up to a job.
They're just getting out press releases.
Well, we had a team up there for a while, but I think what happened was when things began to settle back down, I think we pulled them out, but I'm trying to find that out right now because I know we did have a... Oh, we did have a team?
Yes, sir.
what's become of it then i don't know i'm trying to find that out right now but we did have who was in charge well des barker uh in my office was kind of running it out of the white house yeah and for several weeks we were getting pretty good results but i think it did and then what happened i don't know that's what i'm trying to find out well with carlucci there uh we just we have to give him the backup on the pr side he'll do a hell of a job but somebody's got to be there to uh to give him the backup on the pr side well i'm
and I'm going to find out what's happened to it.
And if we need someone else, I'll send someone from my own office up.
There's one fellow up there that I have who can handle that very, very effectively.
Good, good.
We'll get it done.
Well, it'll be done well, I'm sure.
We just have to get the team up there.
I had a long talk with Matt Laird yesterday, and Mel is going to tee off on him on Tuesday down in Miami.
He said, if you just want the right questions at the press conference, he said, I'll mail them on the Ramsey-Clark thing.
He said, I'll mail Shriver, because he said I briefed him during 1969, and he said he just thought our Vietnamization program was great.
He said, I'd love to take these fellows up.
Right, good.
Mel also, I talked to him about the note.
to have a major press conference the week after the convention and talk about the end of the draft and zero draft calls and all volunteer army and then kind of make that a major theme along with the necessity for a strong defense to keep us number one.
That isn't going to get the, well, we aren't going to tell him this, but it will not get the credibility if he does it, because he has danced around it so often before committees.
If we decide to do that, and I'm going to have to make an announcement on it, and then he'll have to follow up on it.
I see.
That's the way it's going to be, so don't encourage him too much to say anything, you know what I mean?
Mel will take it and run with it, and it'll spoil it before we get to it.
Okay, well, I can tell you, but...
It's just one of the main things, you just keep it right where it belongs, where it is.
I can do that.
He shouldn't do it.
You see, he's testified before Hebert and the rest that he has doubts about the All-Volunteer Army, and then he said, well, the draft's going to end.
That isn't going to end.
So his record's a little mixed.
In other words, he'll do the right thing, but he isn't going to be believed right at this point.
But he can follow up on it grammatically after we nail it down.
But it's not my plan to do anything.
Just say that, well, let's see what we can do, and then we'll get a PR plan, which we can do it, but don't leak it out.
Let's hit it.
hard after Labor Day, save it until about the 15th of September.
I thought about saying that to him because the timing actually in the last week in August is not very good.
No, the 15th of September is the time we have to be after Labor Day.
We want to see what can be a good issue that can go then.
That's what we want to do.
That was interesting.
I didn't think
It's too early.
It's too early.
He knew something I didn't.
No.
He sounds like he's campaigning himself.
He's great.
And Rogers, too.
Rogers is doing great.
Oh, Bill is, because he's walking on the clouds after his show on Freight.
Well, and then, of course, I think it's perfectly right for McGovern to take him on.
I noticed he took a little slap out of him.
Did you see that post?
I did.
What do you call it?
Fear mongers.
Freight mongers.
Freight mongers, well.
That ought to irritate him a little.
Well, Bill's got another crack at him tomorrow.
Bill is going to be in Miami testifying, and then there's a press conference on Tuesday, so the two of them can respond once more.
I talked to Kissinger last night.
He feels that perhaps at that point, after that's done, that Ziegler should simply step forward and say, well, we're just not going to allow these fellows to use furious...
statements of rewriting of history to to drag out a ridiculous debate like this maybe maybe we should step in and just say stop swapping charges and counter charges after we've nailed them very hard by tuesday yeah yeah could make sense well the point is that if they if they continue to to debate it too much then
creates a doubt in the public mind, you know, the charge and countercharge.
I understand that.
The only point is you couldn't let it lie there without hitting it.
And otherwise, then the charge is never answered.
Now the charge has been answered, and that's it.
I think we've very effectively answered it.
Imagine dragging out Harriman and Vance like that.
They really are desperate to pick up the... Well, I don't think they have all that much stroke in the country.
I don't either.
And it's
night but he uh got on up to calling dial hey he was on the radio or television late show last night or something yes we got a statement out of him last night that's good and uh when i talked to him he got he got very angry over it now he's told me today that he will allow the two networks to come up to his house in beverly farms and interview them and uh so we may get to good have him do it just just just nailing it that's all and then we'll uh we'll leave her go a lot will say that when i took up
anything like this and any oh and he's got a marvelous line he said i used to occasionally brief sarge but he said i i wouldn't obviously i couldn't tell him any more than i would tell a newspaper man yeah it kind of yeah yeah yeah yeah kind of puts them down a bit yeah yeah that's good
NARA Description
On August 13, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson talked on the telephone at Camp David from 10:45 am to 11:23 am. The Camp David Study Table taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 137-020 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 137-20
Date: August 13, 1972
Time: 10:45 am - 11:23 am
Location: Camp David Study Table
The President talked with Charles W. Colson.
[See Conversation No. 199-15]
Government disaster relief
-Pennsylvania
-Frank C. Carlucci
-Public relations
-Problems
-Staff
-Gen. George A. Lincoln
-Press Information Officers [PIOs]
-Press releases
-Desmond J. Barker, Jr.
-Colson's conversation with H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman
*****************************************************************
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 2m 20s ]
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
*****************************************************************
Administration public relations
-Colson's conversation with Melvin R. Laird, August 12, 1972
-Laird’s forthcoming efforts in Miami
-Press conference
-W. Ramsey Clark
-R. Sargent Shriver
-Laird’s previous briefing of Shriver
-Vietnamization
-Draft announcement
-Report
-Possible press conference
-Timing
-Republican National Convention
-All-volunteer army
-Defense program
-Strategy
-The President’s view
-Laird’s credibility
-F. Edward Hebert
-Timing for announcement
-September 15, 1972
-William P. Rogers
-Actions
-George S. McGovern
-Washington Post article
-Schedule
-Miami
-Testimony
-Press conference
-Colson's conversation with Henry A. Kissinger, August 12, 1972
-Ronald L. Ziegler
-Democratic tactics
-W[illiam] Averell Harriman, Cyrus R. Vance
-Henry Cabot Lodge
-Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
-Television appearance, August 12, 1972
-Possible interview
-Beverly Farms
-Vietnam negotiations
-Previous briefing of Shriver
*****************************************************************
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 28m 10s ]
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2
*****************************************************************Also recorded on August 13, 1972
- 137-015 10:15 AM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator talked on the telephone at Camp David at 10:15 am.
- 137-016 10:15 AM · 19 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator talked on the telephone at Camp David at 10:15 am.
- 137-018 10:19 AM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. talked on the telephone at Camp David from 10:19 am to 10:22 am.
- 199-012 10:19 AM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David from 10:19 am to 10:22 am.
- 137-019 10:22 AM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator talked on the telephone at Camp David at an unknown time between 10:22 am and 10:45 am.
- 199-013 10:22 AM · 14 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Tricia Nixon Cox met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at an unknown time between 10:22 am and 10:45 am.
- 199-014 10:22 AM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at an unknown time between 10:22 am and 10:45 am.
- 199-015 10:45 AM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David from 10:45 am to 11:23 am.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 137-020, August 13, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/137-020 (accessed October 12, 2026).