Nixon phone call with Haldeman on Speechwriting and Rotary Club

4:18:47Yeah.
4:18:49Because he could do everything about it.
4:18:51One thing about Peterson would be well prepared.
4:18:56He'll do a good job.
4:18:58Incidentally, I was interested in your reaction to that speech thing.
4:19:01I don't know whether Bob told you, but I had told him, or I had read it, and I did my part.
4:19:07And I said, Bob, I just read this thing, and it's just too damn euphoric, I think.
4:19:11But I said, see what Henry's reaction is without telling you what mine is.
4:19:15And yours is exactly the same.
4:19:18I said it before.
4:19:21And the point that I'm concerned about is that why is it our speechwriters, after they have worked on speeches with me, you know, every one that I've made, and I keep thinking about it, why do they always come up with the same stuff, Henry?
4:19:36I don't know, you know.
4:19:42Yeah.
4:19:47In other words, if I were just to follow it, I could go off and read this.
4:19:52That's what most people would do.
4:19:55It'll sound nice to the Rotarians.
4:19:59And it'll say, gee, things have all changed and the world was different.
4:20:03For example, I would have thought that any speechwriter would have put in when they said how much the world had changed.
4:20:09Let's also remember, however, that the Third World has not changed in certain respects.
4:20:13Our philosophies are very different.
4:20:15We have very great differences.
4:20:17You know, I mean, you've got to put that in.
4:20:19And there are realistic people on both sides who have a different view of the world.
4:20:24And just getting to know each other isn't going to settle these agreements, isn't going to assure it.
4:20:30Well, you know, I mean, it's just one of those things that it's...
4:20:37It just shows you too, Henry, that on all this stuff we've just got, in the foreign policy, we've just got to watch every word.
4:20:44Because all of a sudden it'll slip by and some jackass statement will be made that we shouldn't or don't want to make.
4:20:51As you say, this speech is practically one that we never could make.
4:20:55Huh?
4:20:57Oh yeah, yeah.
4:23:03I'm not sure what the four vote was.
4:23:16There was 19 against.
4:23:17They were thinking 20 to 25.
4:23:18I thought they were going to have 40 against at one point.
4:23:25No, 19.
4:23:26And no Republicans.
4:23:31Oh, that's good.
4:23:33If Hersey said he was going to vote against you, then he must not have voted.
4:23:36That's right.
4:23:37He may not have been there.
4:23:38He may not have felt they wanted to vote against him.
4:23:42Osiris was there and voted.
4:23:42Hersey may just have felt that he didn't want to come out and vote against the president at this point.
4:23:50There could be a little risk at this time.
4:23:52It could very well be.
4:23:54When will Schultz come out?
4:23:56Right now.
4:23:57Today?
4:23:58Right afterwards.
4:24:02I just got it.
4:24:03The higher education thing passed, but I don't know any details on it.
4:24:08Whether it was in the snow or it was the conference.
4:24:14The water down.
4:24:17Bussing, yeah.
4:24:28But I don't know.
4:24:29That's a tough one.
4:24:31Yeah, they're both tough ones.
4:24:32That one is my welfare.
4:24:34It's not, God damn it, we've got to cut someplace.
4:24:35What the hell are we going to do?
4:24:36It's, uh...
4:24:36I don't know what my name is currently.
4:24:38I forget what my name is.
4:25:03Sure.
4:25:05I thought Henry's feeling, of course, is exactly the same as mine.
4:25:09What I can understand is that after they...
4:25:12speech writers or who have seen what we've done with the others and told them why they don't work it in.
4:25:20I talked to Ray.
4:25:21I hadn't read that.
4:25:22I didn't get a copy.
4:25:22It's not bad.
4:25:23That's what it sent me.
4:25:24I talked to Ray afterwards and said, how do you feel about it?
4:25:27He said, I think it's pretty good.
4:25:28It needs some work.
4:25:30It's a good basic speech.
4:25:32I said, well, on balance, do you think you ought to give it?
4:25:34Do you think it's worth doing?
4:25:35He said, yeah, I think it is.
4:25:36It's a good...
4:25:39Rotary International is a good place to appear.
4:25:41You have people from all over the world.
4:25:45The idea of the big crowd and the Astrodome and all that appeals to me.
4:25:49Now, Coulson's argument is exactly the opposite and basically coincides with Henry's.
4:25:54First of all, that you're at a point... You can't top what you've done.
4:25:59On the other speeches.
4:26:00You can't...
4:26:01The Russian speech and the Congress speech...
4:26:05We're both pretty good speakers.
4:26:07And he says, on the soft side, you said everything that you wanted to say the way you wanted to say it in Russian.
4:26:12On the hard side, you said everything you wanted to say the way you wanted to say it in conference.
4:26:16You're not going to do better than either in this.
4:26:21So all you can do, Henry's argument is, all you can do is come out even.
4:26:24The best you can do is come out even.
4:26:26You may lose some by this, others by that.
4:26:30Coulson's argument is, that's being the national audience.
4:26:33Coulson's is a more pragmatic argument, in a sense, which is, what the hell is the use?
4:26:38You go down there on a Sunday night,
4:26:41So 60,000 people all clapped.
4:26:43So there'd be two lines in the paper on Monday morning saying 60,000 people clapped for the president, which won't mean anything more than saying 600 cheered him when he arrived to keep his game.
4:26:54And if you go through all the work of it, as far as those individuals are concerned, Rogers really, as far as the individuals are concerned, what difference does it make?
4:27:06Sure, Rotary's influential, the people are influential and all that, but those people, I would assume, Rotary-type people are going to be pretty heavily pro-Mixon anyway.
4:27:17They're not going to win many.
4:27:19Have you got Rogers tentatively scheduled on it?
4:27:26I'm inclined to think they're right.
4:27:29Also, as I mentioned earlier, I have some concern about the Astrodome.
4:27:37Especially something like this that's not under our control.
4:27:41It's like the DFW when we went and did their thing and they didn't fill the hall.
4:27:44We can't force these people to fill the hall.
4:27:48We don't control it.
4:27:50They say they have 55,000 to 60,000 people.
4:27:52Well, that just barely fills the Astrodome.
4:27:56If they come short, which they easily could, you could end up with a not-filled place.
4:28:01And even if they fill it, you've got that huge football field that's empty.
4:28:08And for a political rally that we staged, I can see using the Astrodome, because then I'd block it off with a band and a 5,000-voice glee club up there.
4:28:18Now, they have great ideas.
4:28:22If they got back, they're going to make a hell of a thing out of it.
4:28:25If you come, they're going to have mass bands and, you know, all the pageantry and so forth.
4:28:33Make a big deal out of it.
4:28:41Colson's argument is so what?
4:28:43It won't get on TV.
4:28:44Maybe a tiny blip on the Monday night news, but not likely.
4:28:47Nothing on Sunday night.
4:28:48Being Sunday night, it won't even make the Monday morning papers to any major extent.
4:28:59The only thing Colson's overlooking is the fact that it's a good way to look at it.
4:29:09But I just wonder if it won't do you any more good as far as Texas is concerned, really, than the VFW did when you went to Dallas.
4:29:17This is not really a Texas appearance.
4:29:27We ought to try for the Astrodome.
4:29:29I think we ought to do a Texas thing in the Astrodome this fall.
4:29:32Oh, yeah.
4:29:32I agree with that.
4:29:32I think it ought to be a Nixon.
4:29:33It ought to be one of our big rallies.
4:29:34It ought to be Connelly's Texans for Nixon rally.
4:29:39And it ought to be done up in just maybe even our finale.
4:29:43Instead of doing it in Madison Square Garden, you do it in the Astrodome or something.
4:29:51Something like that.
4:29:59Well, I'll tell you what my feeling is.
4:30:02I kind of lean against the speech for the reason that I don't really have anything to say.
4:30:07You know, and I've always said...
4:30:09In a campaign, you've got to do it.
4:30:11You've got something to say, you've got to do it anyway.
4:30:13But when you're not campaigning, I don't believe that you should go down if you don't have something to say.
4:30:19Now, I have a hell of a time going, and I just don't have a... That's right.
4:30:25And you can't...
4:30:25There isn't anything you can say.
4:30:27There's nothing you can... Now, you're not saying anything...
4:30:33It'd be great for you, and it'd be great for the few others that go along with you, and it'd be great for the crowd that's in the auditorium to be, no question, it'd be an exciting event.
4:30:46But nobody would know it except that little bunch that was there.
4:30:52We don't need it to prove to the press what your claim is.
4:30:58There have been times when we needed to get out to people just to prove that you weren't... As a matter of fact, the JCC thing was served that purpose.
4:31:05That's right, we did it, you know.
4:31:07Jardim Loops.
4:31:08But you don't need Jardim Loops now.
4:31:10I don't think we need a public plaudits at the moment.
4:40:54My feeling is that you're in serious doubt about an event that should do it.
4:40:59I agree.
4:40:59I just feel it.
4:41:00I mean, particularly when we're...
4:41:04I think it could be a...
4:41:06I think it would be a damn good speech.
4:41:08Plus, it could be good, but...
4:41:11It's also a big area of work.
4:41:15And it will take that, as it were, three or four hours of my time tomorrow to try to get the goddamn speech in the shape that I'm comfortable with in general.
4:41:23i don't think it is that's the point if you have ever sitting around here i think his people don't know we don't have anybody from the nfc staff you know to get the soft stuff out of there well even if it were
4:41:44It's not going to make any news.
4:41:46No.
4:41:47Well, there's no news in it at all.
4:41:48That's the problem.
4:41:49And you can't make any news.
4:41:50You really can't be in a position to.
4:41:51You don't want to make any news on track that you have right now.
4:41:56You want to go just the other way.
4:42:05But they have been told, Rogers, anyway, so they are not going to be terribly disappointed, are they?
4:42:10They'll be disappointed.
4:42:10They're hoping you'll come.
4:42:13They understand that.
4:42:16Probability that you will not.
4:42:17He's good enough to give to Rogers.
4:42:32Or is it too euphoric for him?
4:42:38Well... Yeah, I give a...
4:42:46Except that he talks about Kissinger's trip in the speech.
4:42:50He doesn't talk about Riker's speech.
4:42:53So that paragraph would have to be, you know what I mean?
4:42:57Take out the fact that Kissinger is going to Japan.
4:42:59It just hasn't been mentioned because he's going.
4:43:12I don't know.
4:43:14I think Bill is likely to do better.
4:43:15Better to do it on his own?
4:43:17Yeah.
4:43:17I'm just a little think better.
4:43:19He'll do better himself.
4:43:21He's got to be trying to do better, you know.
4:43:23Oh, yeah.
4:43:29All right.
4:43:30That's decided.
4:43:30That's it.
4:43:31Good.
4:43:31Colson's fight is really...
4:43:38But he doesn't think it's worth the effort or he thinks it's a risk.
4:43:43No.
4:43:44First of all, he thinks it's not good.
4:43:46There's no plus that he sees for me because he thinks you're in a position now where anything you do in the shark hole here is going to erode the position rather than enhance it.
4:43:59And that you don't need anything.
4:44:01Henry basically coincides with that in the point that
4:44:05You're already at a point of supremacy, don't put it to a test.
4:44:11And Chuck's other argument is just a practical one, what's the use?
4:44:18Even if you could gain something, there isn't that much to be gained, because you don't get coverage, and nobody's going to know you were there anyway.
4:44:32Really Bob, the point is we don't need a speech now.
4:44:35And we shouldn't make speeches unless we need them.
4:44:40Especially not now.
4:44:41And this goes back to the Connelly thing too, although he said sure, a couple things like this would be good.
4:44:48His argument was don't get into the thing where you look like the other people or look like you're programming like the other people.
4:44:55Chuck doesn't want you in a crowd for that reason.
4:44:58He doesn't want you standing on a platform with a lot of people cheering.
4:45:03I'm not so sure he's right about that, but there's an easy point.
4:45:07I think you get enough of that, actually.
4:45:09I think you're absolutely right.
4:45:10In fact, there's a few people out to meet you when you go to Jesus King.
4:45:13It's the same story.
4:45:15Or at the church.
4:45:16See?
4:45:20I don't think the president is going to say that the president isn't popular at this moment.
4:45:24Oh, hell no.
4:45:25They're not going to say it at this moment.
4:45:27All that crap that they've written for so long, they're not saying right at the moment, are they?
4:45:31They're just the opposite.
4:45:36And there's something to be argued that it looks like a cheap shot in a way, that you made this thing and now you're running out to get the applause for it.
4:45:43And you haven't done that.
4:45:46You've stayed on a pinnacle.
4:45:49Maybe you could, too, stay there.
4:45:55There's something to be said, too, for sort of the feeling of mystery and withdrawal, in a sense, because, you know, that damn Moscow thing was a hell of a lot of mystery and withdrawal.
4:46:10I just don't think that, I just don't feel myself that...
4:46:13Being so available, that's why I didn't want to do those hand cutters.
4:46:18I really just didn't want to do them right now.
4:46:22You're running out to the county officials.
4:46:25You're just huffing and puffing.
4:46:29I'm working in a different league than these other guys.
4:46:31That's what candidates do.
4:46:32That's why the county officials especially line up everybody and parade them by.
4:46:36Why should you put yourself in the catalogs?
4:46:45He's got money to talk about.
4:47:17Well, you let them know then.
4:47:19Yeah.
4:47:19It is disappointing not to get, you know, any kind of total, but... We disappoint people all the time, don't we?
4:47:25Yes.
4:47:27And that's not the way to look at it.
4:47:28The way to look at it is that we please some people by going to some things.
4:47:32But you can't...
4:47:34There's no way you could even begin to do all the stuff they want you to do.
4:47:38Bring in all kinds.
4:47:40Life is a big group.
4:47:41Life is a big group.
4:47:43Exactly.
4:47:45Well, you've got to look at that you've done that over so many years and that somewhere that equity has got to, you're going to be able to cash it in rather than having to keep on putting more of it in the bank.
4:48:02You're totally right.
4:48:04I have done every day of the day.
4:48:21I kind of think so after so I just drove
4:48:57You've really got to have the bass man on because they're likely to put it in that McCormick place and have one during the full, you know, any allegiance.
4:49:05I'm sorry, it's just like the VFW, you know, loud and proud.
4:49:07Yeah.
4:49:07You agree?
4:49:08Yep.
4:49:08Yeah.
4:49:12What you're doing here is distinguished guests in here rather than going in there.
4:49:24We've tried that.
4:49:26No, I mean down there.
4:49:27They have a distinguished guest in there at the convention.
4:49:30Oh, at the convention?
4:49:34Yeah.
4:49:34You see?
4:49:35Well, let's try that.
4:49:36That's the leadership system.
4:49:37Just say, I've got to be a true Republican.
4:49:40I think they have that the first night, too, rather than the open session.
4:49:52See, the beauty of that kind of thing is that first you get all the leaders to begin with.
4:49:56The second thing is that there aren't any empty seats.
4:50:06You don't have to worry about them.
4:50:09I think they have a good reason to be here.
4:50:10Yeah, we really do.
4:50:12The Republican convention, they get an awfully good basis for this.
4:50:15But I don't see how they can... Oh, gosh, maybe I'm afraid that... No.
4:50:19Then it always takes place at the first of the convention.
4:50:25Well, if over Monday night, before the Super Public Convention opens, then you...
4:50:31I just don't believe I should do something right before the convention.
4:50:36Well, you can't compete with the Republican Convention.
4:50:39You shouldn't be doing a big public thing like that when they're on television trying to...
4:50:47I will take a look at it soon.

Nixon phone call with Haldeman on Speechwriting and Rotary Club

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on June 8, 1972

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