Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 189-025
Date: Wednesday, May 17, 1972 at 3:02 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Mitchell, John N.
Recording device: Camp David Hard Wire
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/189-025

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:01] So, how would you like to be the Democratic National Chairman these days?
[0:10] That vote in Michigan, John, is almost unbelievable.
[0:15] And it certainly knocks down the idea that some of our people, I mean, not any of our top, but some of the little boys down in Woodwork,
[0:24] The domestic counsel arrested.
[0:26] They have that, well, busing really cuts both ways and all that, and we shouldn't really make a donation.
[0:34] Good God, I mean, he gets 51%, and busing was the issue, wasn't it?
[0:44] It certainly presents a different ballgame for us.
[0:48] Well, frankly, it's not a damn thing we can do about it, so that's that.
[0:56] So McGuire wins that.
[1:01] He gets California that he just, his own people, not just he, but his people would not want to go and leave him, you know.
[1:13] And he's picking up the delegates like we did in 68, isn't he?
[1:22] I thought this thing, Wallace's, would really nominate Gilbert.
[1:26] That was my feeling yesterday, and I guess I just did wrong.
[1:30] Speaking of one thing, it's Tobon Bliss.
[1:33] Is that all set now?
[1:35] Yeah.
[1:39] Incidentally, on that committee, you know, we have to sort of give them lip service there, but the best thing to do with the committee is to apologize.
[1:47] God, it's... Ray, that's got to be...
[1:53] I know.
[1:55] That's right.
[1:56] Promise me anything.
[2:01] Okay.
[2:04] Yeah, yeah.
[2:06] How old?
[2:07] Typically, you get those young guys working.
[2:12] Sure, sure.
[2:14] Now, one thing, just putting your ear against you, you're talking to me.
[2:21] But this malarkey, to the extent, to the effect that we live in an age of violence and so forth, which they first blamed on the Lord, it had, I suppose, your memories long enough.
[2:32] Just, we have to go back to T.R.
[2:34] Kinlan.
[2:36] But you remember when they shot Roosevelt, and shot at him, and killed him, and killed, yeah, Cermak, remember that one?
[2:43] Harry Truman, and shot up the House of Representatives.
[2:47] And so that's just malarkey.
[2:51] There are none, period, and that's the cause for a free country.
[2:58] While Wallace brought some of this on himself, by God, these irrational attacks on him by the likes of Humphrey and Muskie and McGovern didn't help a bit, did they?
[3:11] He was a Wallace man.
[3:12] That's suspicious.
[3:13] It just doesn't sound like it.
[3:17] He was just wearing those buttons and those little tics.
[3:22] Assuming that we still get off Saturday and the eventual crew ride on us.
[3:27] Remember, in Minnesota, Connie, you know, when just eight, nine days ago when we made this decision, you said that you didn't think they would cancel the summit.
[3:42] Well, I'll tell you, I was very relaxed about it in the sense that I knew there was nothing else to do.
[3:50] And I said, well, it's, I said, it's very interesting to talk about this.
[3:54] But I said, we've got, the way I got to it was that I said, I am making a decision on the assumption that they will.
[4:01] So don't tell me whether they will, they may or they may not.
[4:04] I don't give a damn.
[4:05] Because I've got to make it, because I said, assuming that they will, above everything else, we cannot lose in Vietnam.
[4:12] I said, Vietnam is more important than going to Moscow.
[4:16] So let's just understand that once and for all.
[4:18] So that was, you see, the thing that was the overriding issue with me.
[4:26] It was a, I knew, I knew the heat we'd take, but I knew it had to be done.
[4:31] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
[4:36] But it was, we could have done that long ago.
[4:46] As a matter of fact, John, the most important things that have happened is, in my view, is that it's had a, well, first, it's had a damn good effect on the morale of this country.
[4:56] You know, we really, our people, I don't know what your people tell you, but the speakers and other things say that they're getting a very, very good reception.
[5:05] Yeah.
[5:09] The other thing is that it's had, and this has been critical,
[5:12] It's turned around the morale of the South Vietnamese forces and their people.
[5:18] They were really on the skids at the time we moved.
[5:23] The North Vietnamese were given a shock.
[5:26] They didn't expect even the bombing.
[5:28] We burst in around Hanoi.
[5:30] And this just has unbelievably struck terror into their hearts.
[5:34] They know that this means we've crossed the line and that they've got no choice.
[5:38] They've got to deal with this venture.
[5:43] Yeah, they're just petrified that we might, that the United States might come out of riot, aren't they?
[5:52] Yeah.
[5:53] Some of the bitches are just that bad.
[5:58] Also, they know they got us into the trouble, too.
[6:01] They're concerned.
[6:02] They're just petrified that we bring it on.
[6:09] The battlefield situation out there has been
[6:11] pretty good in the next three or four days.
[6:14] We expect they'll take another crack at Khantung.
[6:17] But as I told Henry, I thought I'd take Khantung.
[6:19] I'm not concerned.
[6:20] I think the American people are going to worry about whether they take some.
[6:25] Because particularly in light of the fact that the South Vietnamese have been making smoothies themselves, don't you think that balances out a bit?
[6:40] It also held an amok, which is really the place that matters.
[6:49] Of course, the real thing, John, is that the whole blockade thing is working.
[6:55] By reason of the fact that China's built and Cambodia's cut off, which was not the case in 1968, by reason of the fact that we're
[7:04] We've totally cut off the stuff from sea and finally got some airplanes and bombs that can knock out bridges.
[7:10] By golly, they're in trouble.
[7:12] Now it'll pay off.
[7:13] It'll take two or three months, but in two or three months, they are going to have to be looking places for oil.
[7:27] They don't want it because they recommend it against it and
[7:30] CIA is a saint, those bastards, you know, said, oh, it wouldn't work.
[7:33] Well, the point is, it might not have worked before.
[7:34] It was a different kind of a war.
[7:36] This is a mechanized war, not a guerrilla war now.
[7:40] And let's face it, if we hadn't done it in Cambodia, this wouldn't work either.
[7:45] Saints.
[7:47] I'm not concerned so much that the military squeal around, let the columns be written.
[7:51] They're going to be red-faced as hell.
[7:53] That's the main thing.
[7:56] If it comes out, which it will.
[7:59] It will in the end.
[7:59] I mean, it's just a question of time.
[8:01] That's all.
[8:03] It's a question of time.
[8:05] We have to level the place.
[8:06] We're going to see that this one comes out all right.
[8:11] Well, okay, John.
[8:12] We'll watch the... Well, we keep up the good work.
[8:22] We appreciate it.
[8:23] Give my best to all the people on staff over there.
[8:26] Bye-bye.