Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 206-015
Date: Sunday, August 20, 1972 at 4:00 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob")
Recording device: Camp David Hard Wire
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/206-015

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:11] Take a look.
[0:45] back to your other work and the
[1:18] I got it.
[1:20] It doesn't say anything about children.
[1:39] I don't think so.
[1:40] I think it's right in the way that McGovern could say it.
[1:42] McGovern wouldn't say it.
[1:46] I guess.
[1:47] Because it's central.
[1:49] I don't know.
[1:50] Which one have you read?
[1:55] The One Child.
[1:57] Oh, that one.
[2:04] That one.
[2:30] To me at least, it just doesn't say anything.
[3:12] I mean, no, I don't mean, I don't mean to blame him, but he knows the speeches about foreign policy and domestic policy.
[3:20] I don't, but anyway, I think you're better off closing on the Tanya thing and just closing.
[3:26] Well, Henry wouldn't like that.
[3:29] No, he doesn't like the, I didn't mention Tanya to him because I don't want to, and he's been reacting unfairly because he wants, he wants a strong close.
[3:40] You know what I mean?
[3:40] I told Ray and John, they called him the best thing
[3:42] about Tanya as one possible thing or something.
[3:46] You know, you've been looking at other alternatives, like, didn't rule Tanya out.
[3:50] Oh, sure, they have to rule her out.
[3:52] Or something that would either pay off the Tanya thing or replace it.
[3:59] Every argument against Ray's child thing probably runs for the Tanya thing.
[4:08] The government couldn't say the Tanya thing.
[4:10] No, because it wasn't there.
[4:17] but a different kind of thing.
[4:24] Yeah.
[4:25] Do you want a ringing challenge for an artist to be strong?
[4:29] Well, basically, yes.
[4:32] I'm working on that, too.
[4:34] I mean, the idea that this is a time when, I mean, of course, you've got to turn away from greatness, not to turn inward.
[4:51] accept the exciting challenges of leadership in the world.
[4:57] This is what I have written.
[4:59] Not by dividing Americans, but by uniting them with confidence in the future.
[5:07] Not playing on our fears,
[5:20] A governor can't say that.
[5:23] That would meet Henry's... that criterion.
[5:29] Where does that lead to?
[5:33] Oh.
[5:35] There will be no emotion in the speech without the timing.
[5:38] We just don't have anybody that can write this kind of stuff.
[5:41] That's all.
[5:41] And there's no emotion in this.
[5:42] That's the point I was going to say.
[5:44] You're totally right.
[5:53] uplift and with emotional impact.
[6:00] And they're working together, not just for victory in this election, but this election would be the only meaning for people's health, and there's nothing in that.
[6:13] You know, this is not a bad line that I had on one of my earlier conclusions.
[6:16] The chance America now has to lead the way to building the last
[6:23] That's all it is.
[6:25] Yeah.
[6:25] And there again, the government can't do that.
[6:53] I'll run the damn thing off.
[7:58] the way i have this now it's pretty on the beast thing i try to get i i talked about all the about the peace you know about rebuilding our cities i mean if we can get peace and move forward on our promising initiatives to restore our natural environment
[8:30] got it all in there.
[8:32] Then I go on to say, and here's the real critical thing, the beast dividend is too often described solely in monetary terms.
[8:46] How much money we could take out of the arms budget to supply to our domestic needs.
[8:50] By far the biggest dividend, however, is achieving our goal and achieving our goal.
[8:55] Achieving our goal.
[8:56] By far the biggest dividend, however, is that achieving our goal but truly
[9:05] Whatever mistakes our nation has made in the field of foreign policy have been mistakes of the head, not the heart.
[9:19] Speaking on behalf of all the American people, I was proud to be able to say in my television address to the Russian people in Maine, we covet no one else's heritage.
[9:27] We seek no dominion over any other people.
[9:28] We seek the right to live in peace not only for ourselves but for all the nations in the world.
[9:30] When we talk about peace, let us never forget
[10:03] That says a lot about peace, which, you know,
[10:32] Chance America now has to leave the way that those last pieces of the world may never come again.
[10:51] We must seize them all, and meet the challenge before it slips away.
[10:52] My trip to the Soviet Union, and my visit to the cemetery, was worth $300,000.
[10:54] I saw the picture.
[10:56] The only time it was sold.
[10:56] As we worked toward a more peaceful world, the list that took time ended the other times.
[10:58] Their brothers and sisters, everyone.
[10:59] China, Russia.
[11:20] I think that is better than what you read just before.
[11:51] Do you use that?
[11:52] Does one lead to the other?
[11:55] I think what we said just before.
[11:56] In other words, to the other, there's what you didn't like about the one before, which probably would have added a price to that.
[12:06] There's some of it that's kind of, it doesn't really, it sounds like it's just talking for the sake of talking.
[12:14] It doesn't.
[12:32] We're talking about one of the most important elements in each person's life, both for a better life and suffering as children.
[12:42] I'm just talking about spending less on iron.
[12:44] We're talking about an end to the haunting fear that has hung over every generation.
[12:46] That's pretty good.
[12:47] You like that?
[12:48] Yeah, for some reason.
[12:50] But I don't understand that stuff about in each person.
[12:54] No.
[13:15] I don't think so.
[13:21] No, because it's specific.
[13:27] Price of stuff is generality.
[13:34] It's a concrete philosophy where time is a real, discernible thing.
[13:59] We're going to have peace.
[14:10] America has the challenge.
[14:11] In other words, the idea of the time and we must let it slip away.
[14:13] And this is not a time to turn away from greatness.
[14:15] This is not a time to complain.
[14:16] I'm going to use the word whine about our frustrations.
[14:18] Don't you like that?
[14:19] I do.
[14:19] I like that.
[14:31] Without saying, I don't want to say come home.
[14:35] Would you like that?
[14:37] Yep.
[14:42] Not by dividing America, by uniting America.
[14:44] I think you can do that after you're done.
[14:47] Yes, Tanya.
[14:48] I will use the whiteboard.
[14:55] Sure.
[14:55] I guess we're the only ones.
[14:55] I don't think so.
[15:02] They have a film...
[15:05] Forget about the thing.
[15:05] They have a testing device, which we use in advertising all the time, to test the reaction to films and commercials and stuff.
[15:12] And the people that are watching in the theater have buttons that they push that indicate their reaction.
[15:17] They keep pushing them all the time as they're watching it so that you can measure every...
[15:22] They don't say anything.
[15:26] They move the dial to the place where it indicates their response.
[15:31] It's a
[15:32] How do you tell a person how to respond?
[16:19] Thank you.