Nixon phone call with Colson on 1972 Presidential Campaign and Media Strategy

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Hello.

Good morning, Mr. President.

Have you been to church today?

No, sir.

I drove up last night to Princeton, New Jersey to see my son.

It's his first weekend in school.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

We're just visiting.

Up there at the Ivy Leaguers, huh?

Well, I must say, it's not as bad as I thought.

My son, who's a freshman, said that they have 120 freshmen signed up to work for the president and about 100 for my government.

So I think that's not bad for him.

eastern ivy league yeah yeah yeah it's really good i've been amazed i just we just got here last night coming back this afternoon but just walking around the campus the the kids even look different do they really good yes sir there's really quite a different atmosphere i'm amazed even from a year ago when i was taking him around to schools i now see a difference but

Maybe the polls are right, like Gallup this morning, which I find almost hard to believe.

Did you see that poll on the breakdown on the Gallup youth?

Yeah, yeah.

I'm really, I'm not so sure that that is a big enough sample to really... That's right.

You can't tell much about it, but it means something.

Oh, it's a good, yeah.

Sure, it'll mean something to people that read it.

That's right.

To the politicians, of course.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, I'm glad to hear that they do look a little different, a little bit cleaner.

They look cleaner, and they seem to be more interested in studying and writing on a Saturday night than I'd be interested in changing the world or blowing up buildings anymore.

It doesn't seem that way.

Yeah, yeah.

It's not that bad as it was, really, let's face it.

The only really sour note we have with the kids at the moment are the way those damn black athletes are handling themselves.

Incidentally, I think they're turning off millions of Americans.

What do you think?

Oh, God, I think it's the greatest thing in the world.

I think that that... What do you run into?

Just a minute, Chuck.

I want to get some coffee.

He's just opening the door.

Go ahead, that way.

Well, I was just going to say, I think that Ben Harris said commentary Friday night.

Mr. President, I think that... What did he say?

Well, he said that it was a sad day at the Olympics and how these fellows had conducted themselves so badly and reflected on the country.

And then last night there was an interview with one of the black athletes who had been suspended.

And he was an obnoxious-looking son of a bitch, and he talked down on the country.

And that's just not the mood today, Mr. President.

Well, particularly they don't want to hear it from the blacks, because they know the blacks have had a better break than the whites.

You know, the poor whites.

Of course, thank God the kid that won yesterday behaved himself.

Well, this happened four years ago, as you remember.

New Mexico City, yeah.

Yeah, and I remember the people being just mad about it.

It's the kind of thing that doesn't hurt us when that happens because you don't stand for that.

That's the kind of thing the government stands for, but you don't.

Yeah.

We've seen their problems in getting...

Did they ever get out that thing on the Newsweek Europe thing yet?

That's in, I'm told, I haven't seen it, Mr. President, but it was in today's New York Daily News, plus the Jerry Greens column, plus LSAP has it.

And LSAP told Lou Harris on Friday that he intended to use it.

So I think we'll see it both in LSAP and... You may have to go, you may have to take the offensive on that and hit it...

in order to really put it up center, get him talking about it, get him defending.

I was thinking one thing that could be done is to get somebody who's one of the NATO European jackasses.

You know, there are many of them.

Oh, sure.

Have him mail it to the whole group of all the NATO people.

Well, I can get Leo Chern to do that in a minute.

Would you give it to Leo Chern and give him a huge mailing list and say, this is shocking and I just can't support him and so forth?

That would be very good.

Would you follow up on that?

Yes, sir.

I certainly will.

I think we'll get play out of that, Mr. President.

What we were doing, we... You wanted to come naturally, but... We didn't want to use the cables as such.

We wanted to show them, but that made it a little bit tough.

If Kern will follow up, that would be really great.

Kern will do that.

Right.

But I was going to say one other thing when you were talking to the Cabinet Tuesday, and I'm sure, of course, you'll hit this point that...

the point of the attack is so necessary.

I noticed that both the Times and the Post, where they both carried the stories and headlines, in fact, Butts defends

and grain deal and so forth.

Well, I imagine that he attacked, but I don't, you know what I mean?

I just, I think probably you've got to take all of the fence out and just attack the hell out of the other side.

He was superb, Mr. President.

I saw him on the network news last night.

They carried it all right, huh?

They carried it fine.

Well, what they did, no, they didn't carry it completely well, and it was Butts' fault.

He read a statement that Buchanan wrote for him that was just a nut-cutter that said, all George McGovern is trying to do is kill this deal because he knows that this deal is helping the administration.

And he's a negativist.

And then he answered the question, is that right?

He answered the question.

I suppose you can't blame him for that.

It's awful hard because these fellows, this is the whole thrust of what I want to tell them Tuesday morning.

I've talked to Mel Laird.

He's going to

give some illustrations of this.

Yeah, good.

But the whole thrust of what I want to tell him is that it doesn't do any good to defend because then you're just letting his, you're giving another day to his issues.

That's right.

The only thing that does any good is to attack him.

That's right.

An attack upon us is not an

occasion to defend and attack upon us is an excuse to counterattack.

To attack, that's right.

If you defend, believe me, it just talks about their issue.

That's right.

And that's a tendency.

Our people are so goddamn responsible.

They're always defending and explaining and you know what I mean.

And they've just got to realize that doesn't matter.

Well, I think we have to suck them with that point on Tuesday.

The

Now, Butts of all fellows understands this.

Oh, I'll say.

I talked to him Friday night.

I talked to him several times.

And he had it down absolutely pat.

And his statement was first rate.

And then, of course, the reporters start the questions.

And the natural inclination of somebody is to want to protect themselves when they've been attacked.

And that's it.

But we have a way around this also.

We're going to have Butts do it again on Monday and then just ignore the attacks this time.

I mean, just ignore the questions.

Just go out and read a statement to the cameras.

attack again.

Sure, just say that it's pretty obvious from what he said again over this weekend that he's trying to scuttle a deal, period.

Yeah, I'd known what he was planning and then I couldn't find it in the New York Times at all.

Well, the Times would have counted it was awful.

Well, I can't worry.

He's a real son of a bitch.

I've known him for years.

The TV last night was all right, but the Philadelphia Inquirer, which I'm reading up here, was...

didn't give it much play, but it said that he charged him with trying to... Yeah.

Well, anyway, just so they all get the point, I know that we have the point, and I... Incidentally, one thing I noticed here is a call suggested to Mark Spitz, and his coach said it was in my only man call.

I'm just not sure that that's...

That's something I ought to do.

We could really get a turn down there.

And I just don't know whether it's worth it.

I think you could invite him to the White House.

That's for damn sure.

You think we should?

Oh, hell yes.

But if I call him and then he decides to go out for the other side, that is bad as hell.

You see my point?

Yes, sir.

I just don't think it's worth it.

My feeling was that you should not call him if he was going to be invited into the White House.

But if he was not invited into the White House, then I would call him.

In other words, I think I put on their call only if he's not going to be invited.

Yeah, well, my own feeling is that, of course, he's in California, isn't he?

I think that's where he's from, yeah.

I think he is, yes.

But I just don't know about his coach, apparently.

He's a

wants us to call, and he's a friend.

Well, I don't know.

I watched him on television the other night, Mr. President.

I don't know whether he's a mixed-up kid in the sense that his comments were all over the place.

I mean, he was not talking very coherently.

Almost looked a little bit like he was on dope, except I know he isn't.

He couldn't run in the races, but he couldn't swim, if you were.

But he's a bit of a folk hero with some people, and...

Yeah.

Well... Well, I think if you have some of the medal winners in, then that's safe, because providing he checks out...

I don't know if you have to even do that, but nevertheless, we'll see.

We'll see.

You know, we can... Well, Bobby Fisher, I think, maybe has more.

Maybe there's more.

Well, we know he's with us.

Yeah, and there's almost more payoff on it.

My God, he was...

He's become so well-known for that.

Yeah.

It lasted so long.

That gets the Jews

Well, hell, we've got as much of that as we're going to get, and it'll slough off now.

But anyway.

I think that's right.

We are getting probably just as much.

Right.

I'll think about it.

Well, anyway, you enjoy that nice day up in Princeton.

Well, we'll be coming back this afternoon and back at it.

Good.

Well, anyway, you deserve a few hours off.

Well, I just had to be sure my son wasn't...

Right.

...in the hands of the radicals and he isn't... Not yet.

Okay.

...good and conservative.

Thank you.

Nixon phone call with Colson on 1972 Presidential Campaign and Media Strategy

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on September 10, 1972

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