Nixon phone call with Waggonner on Watergate scandal and Cambodia

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Well, I'll tell you, my boy, don't you worry about me.

We're...

We're going to fight this damn battle, you know, we're not going to allow a picayune.

You hang tight, Mr. President.

Well, look, you know, as you well know, all this crap, you know, is so disgusting, all these leaks and everything that have occurred, that all we've been trying to do is to fight for what's best for this country.

You know, it's all right for Ellsberg to steal government information and secrets.

But it's against the damn law for anybody to check up on him.

Just try to find out.

That's right.

You know, we turned over what we had on him and it's pretty bad.

Well, it has to be, Mr. Pratt.

Well, he's a bad man.

It has to be.

But we turned it over to the judge, you know, and the judge had already dismissed the case, which I thought was a little stupid.

Well, it was wrong.

But for him to dismiss the charge and to foot no prosecution forever on a character like this is unconstitutional.

Well, I'll tell you, I've appreciated the way you rallied our troops, and we missed that vote last week.

We should never have put the boys to the sword on that damn boat on Cambodia right now because—but we'll win the next one.

Well, we did a little better on our side, actually, in keeping the people in line.

than some of the boys on the other side.

Oh, the Republicans are bad.

They thought they had a minimum of 153 votes and close to 160 at the time we started voting.

And if they had, we'd won it.

I know.

Well, after we've won so many, you lose one for what the hell.

The main thing is when you stop to think of what we've got done and what we've got ahead of us.

My God, we've turned around the crime rate at home and we've got the—

We've had Russia and China and Vietnam and the war ended and the POWs back.

So people are going to squeal about Watergate for God's sakes.

Mr. President, it's been a long time before I've tried to disturb you this morning.

I've just got to say to him that I'm with him and I hope you'll just keep your chin up and see it through.

Don't you worry.

You've done a great job.

You know, it comes to the point where you just, you know, I haven't said too much because I always believe in waiting and striking at the right time.

I did that one TV last week, but I just hated to do it, but I had to let

i hope they're vindicated and i think they will be but nevertheless you can't have anybody that there's any charge you know around them no sir uh i don't you had no other choice mr president on the circumstance but boy i'll tell you we're uh when i start to fight these boys don't know they're in a fight let me tell you that's the way i like to hear you talk crack them on television and every other way there is well uh i don't understand why uh why these uh people who are

these grand juries, these judges who charge these grand juries.

I don't understand how they'll just continually let these people keep talking.

Let them leak.

That's right.

And also, I don't understand, Joe, how the Senate in good conscience could possibly let a hearing go forward and bring before the committee people that are going to condemn Mitchell and others.

Hell, if Mitchell doesn't get a mistrial, I'll almost bet on it right now.

Yes, sir.

the same with all of them.

How can you as a lawyer get a fair trial for a man if the damn thing's been all blurted out on television all week long, you know, and hearsay?

Well, of course, they'll turn Ellsberg loose for this sort of thing, but they won't turn one of ours loose.

We'll see.

We're going to fight them right down and tell all of our, what we call that thin gray line that I've appreciated their support, and we're going to

We're going to win.

We've got great things to do for this country, and we're damn well going to do them, Joe.

I'll do it, and I hope you'll forgive me for bothering you.

No, I appreciate it.

I was thinking about you.

That's good.

And certainly old John will be a big help to us up here, John Connery.

Oh, yes, sir.

He can't spend full time because, you know, he can't cut off his loan, although he has, I guess, given up his cut away from his loan.

Well, he's got to cut away from everything from the time being president.

And he's running.

He's willing, and boy, he'll be a big help, big help.

Well, let me tell you something, Mr. President.

Any man under circumstances like this to walk across party lines for the good of the country is too little to hold elective office.

Well, I appreciate that.

Matter of fact, out in the country, there's a hell of a lot of concern and this and that.

Well, it's not everywhere like it is here, Mr. Branson.

That's what I mean.

It's not that way, and if the media would ever go a week or two days without blowing it through the ceiling, this thing would be dead most everywhere.

It really would.

Well, hell, when I was down in Meridian, Mississippi, my God, they never even heard of it down there.

I mean, they'd heard of it, but they didn't care.

They cared about other things.

Well, there are other things bigger, Mr. President.

That's the point.

There's the peace of the world and of our country and so forth.

I think with regard back to Cambodia a minute, I think what we've got to do is we've got to get big nationwide on the scene of telling the story, look, we've gone too far down the road of sowing the seeds for that third big war.

Let's don't do that.

That's right.

Having made all these sacrifices, are we going to let these clowns break the agreement?

and do nothing about it.

Do you see my point?

Yes, sir.

That's what we're trying to do.

We're just trying to avoid that.

And it's coming along out there, you know, day by day.

I mean, let's face it.

There's no Americans being killed.

There's no—none in combat.

You know what I mean?

And we're using our— Well, I'm—I'm convinced that everything we've done—everything we've done from a position of strength is—is redounded to our benefit in negotiations.

Right.

Well, then we would never be here, Joe, without that.

If our critics had had their way, we would have been out of Vietnam with our television in our legs and those prisoners would still be in those damn cells.

Well, in retrospect, and I'll try to think where we filed up, what we could have done, we missed one bet.

Of course, Cambodia was the only issue in this transfer process.

Yeah, I know.

But we missed a bet.

We missed a bet when we didn't

We didn't play the MIA issue in Indochina.

Yeah, because basically, you see, the MIA issue is part of the agreement that they're breaking.

That's right.

By golly.

We didn't play that issue.

We should have appealed to all those who are still concerned about MIAs that we once placed emphasis on POWs.

That's right.

Now we've got to find out, get an accounting for those MIAs, which we haven't yet got, Joe.

I think those people killed all our famed and crippled boys, and they took prison.

I agree.

I think that's what they did.

Well, good of you to talk, Joe.

Good to have a friend like Wagner.

And let me say, there'll be one day when, uh, when, uh,

when we'll look back and we will have fought the good fight because we're not going to, you know, they'll keep throwing this crap around for the next two or three months.

And then, boy, believe me, they, of course, you haven't followed my career perhaps too closely over the years, but they push me too far.

They're just so far that they can't.

And then I start going, but I don't strike until I'm ready.

That's the way I like to hear you talk.

Don't you agree?

Yes, sir.

The

You never show your whole card until you get full effect from it.

Right.

Okay, John.

Forgive me for calling, Mr. President.

I wanted you to know I'm with you, and I just said, well, I'm going to pose on him.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Call me back out.

Bye.

Nixon phone call with Waggonner on Watergate scandal and Cambodia

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on May 13, 1973

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