Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 204-009
Date: Thursday, August 17, 1972 at 11:04 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Woods, Rose Mary; Camp David Operator; Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob")
Recording device: Camp David Hard Wire
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/204-009

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:02] Where I set the record.
[0:20] Great progress in the past four years.
[0:31] And cutting inflation.
[0:33] And providing the biggest tax cut in America's history.
[0:50] And stopping the rise in crime.
[0:52] And building a new structure of permanent peace in the world.
[0:53] Here's what can truly be said.
[0:58] And change the world.
[1:05] The post-war world has been substantially reduced.
[1:28] I'm proud of the record.
[1:39] Stand on something to build it.
[2:25] This is only part of the way.
[2:32] This is added to it.
[2:37] This is the insert that goes in the third tape.
[2:43] Now, these are to be done.
[2:44] These are to be done.
[2:44] Not with a one-two tree, just a paragraph form.
[2:49] And they're to be done without any copy.
[3:06] I don't want to give one to anyone.
[3:23] I don't want to give one to anyone.
[3:23] I don't want to give one to anyone.
[3:25] Certainly, and they can be changed.
[3:31] When you're ready.
[3:31] When you're ready.
[3:34] Do you want us to just leave it with the files out here in a folder?
[3:57] Or you might have the other half done?
[4:13] I thought you might like to know as long as you're stuck.
[4:33] I talked with Elmer about some other things today and he said he knew you were going to give a great speech.
[4:38] And he just said that your 1968
[4:44] people who are both beautiful and both warm.
[4:49] And he said, remember, people vote from the heart.
[4:55] Well, I'm going to use... Do you have time to think of this speech?
[5:08] Sure.
[5:09] It's still somewhere.
[5:10] I don't like it.
[5:11] I don't like it.
[5:11] I don't like it.
[5:17] They don't get the personal warmth or something.
[5:48] uh... uh...
[6:23] I know.
[6:51] Jesus Christ.
[6:51] I may get caught up here.
[6:52] I don't know whether you'd want any of them.
[7:19] I know, that's why Tony called, you know, wanted to get him down.
[7:41] Well, I'm serious.
[7:41] He was going to, I told him
[7:52] I can call today just again to say how much it meant to her.
[7:57] She did four or five television shows and had a chance to mention you in every one of them.
[8:03] She also told me that General James, Chappy James, the Negro General, was on television, that she watched a program he was on ahead of her and that he couldn't have been better.
[8:14] So he was just absolutely marvelous that you were at the visit.
[8:18] A great president.
[8:19] This was a great country.
[8:21] There was no reason why the blacks couldn't live in it.
[8:23] All they had to do was do their share.
[8:24] The government was doing theirs.
[8:27] She said he was just really outstanding.
[8:32] Did you ever think, because I've written, I think I've done a hundred letters today.
[8:36] Marge has typed them off.
[8:37] We've gotten a lot done.
[8:39] Did you ever think Mamie or John for their statement about Montgomery?
[8:44] I don't know.
[8:47] So I don't need to write down anything.
[8:51] I thanked John, and I don't think anything needs to be done.
[8:56] I told him when he came in.
[8:57] I talked to him about it, and I said it was a lot of good.
[9:02] Okay, that's fun.
[9:02] It made me have gotten a big play, and I thought it was good.
[9:03] Truly, thank you.
[9:04] I think it's...
[9:04] Okay, take care.
[9:05] I don't think you should get a letter.
[9:06] Okay, now Colton called me night and all of a sudden it's a letter off his name.
[9:07] It's okay.
[9:09] I guess you tried to get George Meany last night and didn't get it.
[9:12] I did get it.
[9:12] Oh, you did get it?
[9:14] I did.
[9:14] Oh, okay.
[9:15] He got no one.
[9:44] Who did the, was it Ray Price or did someone give him the idea for the, that mushroom rain, you know, mushroom rain or something?
[10:03] That was Ray.
[10:06] Ray worked on that speech.
[10:08] But what made that speech?
[10:11] it was sort of getting closer to what you have to do but it wasn't it wasn't
[10:59] to the written word rather than the spoken word, don't they?
[11:06] Let me say this.
[11:08] I have the greatest admiration for them.
[11:09] They work their heads off.
[11:11] Yes, they do.
[11:12] They do.
[11:12] I don't even know all of them.
[11:15] The only, the major problem, probably one exception, is that one real problem is that the mechanic is too far right for me.
[11:27] All of them are too far left.
[11:30] He knows it.
[12:02] He was a tremendous fellow.
[12:05] He was a tremendous guy at the Q&A because he's an armistice fast.
[12:12] Price's problem, I mean, I even had him do this tomorrow.
[12:15] I'm bringing him in just for a reason.
[12:21] Because Price is so goddamn slow.
[12:24] You know, he is perfecting so slow.
[12:25] He just never gets it done.
[12:28] I had no way to wait anymore.
[12:30] He did pretty well in Russia at hurrying.
[12:33] Why don't you bring them both up?
[12:59] Hmm?
[12:59] Hmm?
[12:59] Hmm?
[12:59] Hmm?
[13:10] He and Ray worked together on that very well.
[13:13] That's why I thought they could work together.
[13:15] I watched them on that one.
[13:18] They really did.
[13:19] They worked beautifully together.
[13:21] At the hotel and on the plane.
[13:24] Everywhere.
[13:24] They worked on that one together.
[13:27] They don't hate it.
[13:28] I just think it's great.
[13:31] I say what the rest of me would have tried.
[13:34] And Trevor, they get worse every day.
[13:46] He feels for them.
[13:53] Is that said again, Tiger?
[14:00] Go to the domestic counselor.
[14:04] It's the whole area.
[14:10] They fought him so much.
[14:10] And usually they've been right.
[14:11] They've been wrong.
[14:11] He says, he's probably wrong in the right direction.
[14:15] Wrong.
[14:15] He worries.
[14:23] Yeah, and he would be, if we think about disasters.
[14:49] Right.
[14:50] And that's who they want, and that's who they would want today, somebody like that.
[14:55] Because Percy is the biggest jackass ever walked.
[15:00] And I tell you, I don't get it.
[15:02] Domestic Council and a lot of those others are not all that bright.
[15:08] I'm not a great Agnes person.
[15:10] I think he's, you know, I think he's done as well as could be expected.
[15:15] He's got some done.
[15:26] We did it with poor old Cushman.
[15:38] Yeah, look at the number of people he's got.
[15:39] We had two people, two people, you know, and Agnes Waldron, remember, Agnes Waldron and Cushman, who was the other one?
[15:49] Cushman did the national security and Agnes
[16:04] Jesus Christ well Agnes you're about like that I mean really I don't say it but he has he doesn't pick good people I don't know why he does I mean he's got he's got I think he's got probably had a space and there's he didn't have any doing but they try what the hell what the hell you have to give him a play you have to mention it
[16:34] Agnew?
[16:35] Oh, I'd answer that very well.
[16:38] I'm sure you do.
[16:40] You always do.
[16:41] Oh, yes, I'm going to.
[16:42] Actually, I'm going to make an answer that I have to.
[16:43] Yes.
[16:45] You can't back away from me, Mr. David.
[16:48] Well, of course, these people are crazy.
[17:12] Yeah, well, that's what I meant.
[17:20] They worked together well.
[17:21] John would, I mean, John would...
[17:27] Which one is it that you said that he did so well?
[17:29] He worked together on your speech that you gave when you came back from Russia.
[17:36] Yeah.
[17:38] I was sitting there talking to Rose, you know,
[17:44] She made a point that may be worth considering.
[17:48] One of my judgments on the Andrews thing, of course, is the thing on the way back from Russia, which was a hell of a pressure for the deal.
[17:58] But she says that Ray worked, well, really did an enormous amount of work with Andrews on that.
[18:04] They worked very well together.
[18:08] Now, my view is, I mean, I don't know what
[18:18] I have a philosophical problem with Ray.
[18:46] It's not her right to do that.
[19:01] It's in the stage at this point.
[19:05] I guess she was in for this verdict tomorrow.
[19:09] I don't know.
[19:20] they do work well together they seem to sit around
[19:50] I think the best thing to do is to let Ray come up the next step.
[20:26] I'm sure Ray is an optimal approach, but you can have a little talk to him about it.
[20:51] I think that's not a bad idea.
[20:52] And when he comes up, as we read, there's a weakness around the bush where everybody wants to talk to Conley.
[20:54] You can't get any other judgments at this point as to which way to go.
[21:10] I think that's good.
[21:15] Yeah, I think that's good, because they do work well together.
[21:19] It's a matter to a feeling.
[21:23] Ray is headed this way.
[21:38] He has to be there.
[21:39] He's not a writer, but he's got good ideas.
[21:40] I don't know.
[21:41] Harlow.
[22:10] Jim Shepard.
[22:13] That was the disaster.
[22:17] Arthur Fleming.
[22:21] Gabe Hauge.
[22:24] He worked away and worked away.
[22:26] He didn't drive most people.
[22:41] He just married her, remember?
[22:44] And all those other poor guys were...
[22:47] He was a disaster.
[22:49] There's no other way to look at it.
[22:51] Nobody could have known that.
[22:55] He didn't have the capacity to write speeches.
[22:59] He didn't have that capacity.
[23:00] He didn't have the capacity to work with the other men either.
[23:05] That was the other thing that was difficult.
[23:08] We should have enough people in here.
[23:11] good, and so forth, and that kind of helped.
[23:17] Oh, incidentally, Rogers was a dad.
[23:18] Rogers, and Fleming, and I remember the last two weeks, Rogers came along, and he had a zest for some of those things that the others never had.
[23:25] And Rogers, I think, before the platform committee, and answering these people has been really excellent.
[23:33] I talked to him a couple months today on something.
[23:36] I told him that I thought he was done with that kind of stuff.
[23:40] Okay, we'll have this ready whenever you want it.
[23:45] Hope you can get some rest now.