Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 219 › Conversation 219-016
Nixon phone call with Colson on 1972 Presidential Election and Vietnam War
Tuesday, October 10, 1972 · 9:44 PM–9:53 PM ET · Camp David Hard Wire · 7 min
AI Summary
President Nixon and Charles Colson discuss strategies to publicly discredit a political opponent, specifically by framing his positions on Vietnam as naive, fraudulent, and indicative of an unfitness for the presidency. The two strategize on using John Connally to counter the opponent's messaging and discuss the necessity of securing prime-time television coverage regardless of cost. Nixon emphasizes the importance of highlighting the opponent’s perceived support for the enemy and his failure to condemn communist aggression during sensitive negotiations.
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Transcript (AI-generated)
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So, one thing I want to be sure he worked into the layered thing is this, you mentioned it pretty much, I want to be sure he's not going to decide he has a peasant guerrilla, you know, that's such a fraud.
You talk about the 18 fully armed divisions, the most modern tanks, guns, and so forth and so on, you know, and coming from the north, you know, and the massive invasions, you know, it's communist and so forth, and I.T.
today, and this sort of thing.
Yeah, I think that's very important.
And then I, uh, was he on two networks?
If he did that, uh, we ought to be sure Connelly gets on two next week.
I think it's really irrelevant what the cost is.
Whatever, whatever we need to get the, uh, coverage we need for Connelly, we should buy it.
We don't go up to it on the basis of buying a network, because if you buy it, it's full.
Just get out to the, you know, if this is an effective thing of buying, all those people would get off their ass and find out how to do it.
How many times do you get a hell of a ride when you go to D.C.?
Because that's the first off-time we're going to have.
Excuse me for a second.
You're pretty good, but not if you've got some manned car seat either.
He may, I mean, as Dr. Christian, he thinks it's an effective format.
He says, you know, it's well presented and all that sort of thing.
And, you know, but we've got to protect that.
I mean, hell, they can do it.
But on the other hand, he's a pretty goddamn poor actor.
That's the point.
The point that we want to make is not to let our little boys get excited about it.
but just got cracked a little bit, you just thought of him on the POWs, on the amnesty, and on the imposition of a communist government.
And then, of course, the total fraudulence of this idea that we're going to have to throw up.
Yeah.
There were, as Larry just pointed out, there were 50,000 RPAs in 10 million.
There were 70,000 clowns.
Yeah.
And just slides them up.
But I would get that in there.
I would keep that hammer in.
I think, incidentally, Rogers could take that on, too.
He doesn't need to talk about it.
But he should do it in a speech, and he doesn't have to talk about negotiations.
Totally for pieces.
And not just talk about negotiations.
I mean, I'm not sure that it's too good of a, that it's a pretty good opinion to go off, not to talk about negotiations, but talk about, now let's look here, what about the, what about answers?
the communist government, and that, uh, here he says that this is a peaceful country, can't believe it.
The facts are here.
The models are a peaceful country.
The facts are here.
Yeah.
That's why we went in.
We didn't go in there.
We didn't go in there.
David, we went in there to save American lives.
The people were shooting at us from across the border.
The, the, the communists.
Yeah, you've got all the points tonight.
I'd get all those put down into a simple stuff, and I'd get it out, and I'd, oh, I'd just, I'd knock the little cheese out of them.
The idea that this speech was disqualified to be President of the United States of America, I'd choose that term.
The night of the day, and the basic support of the enemy, or the basic failure to condemn the enemy,
It ought to be a pretty good exercise to fight a little on this issue.
There's this incompetence to be President of the United States at that perspective to speak.
Because it's fraudulent.
Well, I don't know what he's going on to say because it's an accurate thing.
Because it's naive to say it's ever, you know.
Go ahead.
I'm inclined to think myself that's the way we gotta handle it.
But my own view is that we have on our hands here a guy that just honestly is a total, total sell-out artist.
That's right.
That's right, you mean.
Good answer.
It's the double standard, too.
You're gonna fight fascism but not communists.
That's the other thing.
He'll stand up for his own country, running down America with those eyes.
We'll have to listen a little more tomorrow night and so forth.
So far, yeah.
The quick bounces are interesting for us to know.
And the thing that I anticipate myself is that our own people tend, because of their Washington influence, are looking at all that include, that they're called in the sense that the whole nation is
looking at the damn thing and being turned on.
And it isn't, it isn't, it isn't saying on this forum, I'll speak to this, they will a little more.
On the other hand, you might remember that it's not prime time until 7.30.
Too far.
That's what Pepsi just called too far.
The presidential candidate, at the time we're negotiating, he said, throw in the towel.
He tells me that we throw in the towel.
That's all he said.
We caught him at the time we were negotiating with the enemy.
He said, I will surrender if I am elected.
NARA Description
On October 10, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David from 9:44 pm to 9:53 pm. The Camp David Hard Wire taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 219-016 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 219-16 Date: October 10, 1972 Time: 9:44 pm - 9:53 pm Location: Camp David Hard Wire The President talked with Charles W. Colson. [See Conversation No. 148-14; one item has been withdrawn]
Also recorded on October 11, 1972
- 148-010 8:52 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John W. Byrnes talked on the telephone at Camp David from 8:52 pm to 8:55 pm.
- 148-011 9:04 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator talked on the telephone at Camp David at an unknown time between 9:04 pm and 9:34 pm.
- 219-013 9:04 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at an unknown time between 9:04 pm and 9:34 pm.
- 148-012 9:34 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Tricia Nixon Cox talked on the telephone at Camp David from 9:34 pm to 9:41 pm.
- 219-014 9:34 PM · 14 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Tricia Nixon Cox met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David from 9:34 pm to 9:41 pm.
- 148-013 9:41 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator talked on the telephone at Camp David at an unknown time between 9:41 pm and 9:44 pm.
- 219-015 9:41 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at an unknown time between 9:41 pm and 9:44 pm.
- 148-014 9:44 PM · 9 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson talked on the telephone at Camp David from 9:44 pm to 9:53 pm.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 219-016, October 11, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/219-016 (accessed October 12, 2026).