Nixon White House Tapes ›Tape 219 › Conversation 219-008

Nixon phone call with Colson on Legislative strategy and Sargent Shriver

Tuesday, October 10, 1972 · 8:24 PM–8:44 PM ET · Camp David Hard Wire ·13 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Colson, Charles W.Conversation219-008 onTape 219StartTuesday, October 10, 1972 at 8:24 PMEndTuesday, October 10, 1972 at 8:44 PMRecording deviceCamp David Hard WireSourceNixon Library record for 219-008 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Charles Colson discuss legislative strategy regarding tax and spending bills, focusing on framing the issue as a fight against high taxes to secure necessary votes. The conversation shifts significantly to a political attack on Sargent Shriver, whom Nixon criticizes for his stance on Vietnam, POWs, and amnesty. Nixon instructs Colson to aggressively challenge Shriver's credibility, aiming to frame his positions as a betrayal of American service members and a surrender to communist interests.

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Transcript (AI-generated)

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So, I was trying to get Wilbur Mills, but I, uh, you heard we got the vote in the House.
Oh, it was 221 to 163, and he's not on the victory.
So, that's what you see.
That's what the Spurs have done.
I'm going to speak to the Spurs on Thursday morning to get them on the ass again.
They won't pass it, but nevertheless, we still have a chance.
But we'll try to put it in terms of fighting to keep taxes down and spending down and prices down and so forth.
Not at all.
We've got to put it in terms of this is a vote against high taxes.
That's what we're doing.
If you call a few people and want to comment, this is a vote against high taxes.
The Senate should now vote against high taxes.
The whole life, John.
And then when you talked to me earlier, I had...
I heard you one little flippin' and then you kind of said that asshole Shriver dude.
Dude, dude, dude.
And I... Oh, for Christ's sake!
That's enough to piss the whole thing right off.
It doesn't make it... Not that many thoughts.
But the main point is that...
Our people should really mind that you want to pull a communist government.
That's the German study.
He's not talking about it.
He wants to have nothing to do with it.
He's to beg for the release of our people.
He's no alternative.
And it's a complete surrender, defeat.
If I remember correctly, what about those four hundred, four million and a half poor bachelors who didn't have any great parents and the rest who didn't go to college and didn't bug out?
What about the 50,000 who lost their poor lives?
Oh, I think, I just hope we get, I think somebody's going to get, how about getting six minutes to take them off?
Here it is.
All right.
Well, basically, here, this fallen animal has crossed the crossroad.
Here's the picture of it.
He knows he's not there, you know, looking to incite the terror.
And this really is a saboteur of the negotiations.
I mean, if I were the enemy, I'd just fold up the whole thing in the long distance, right?
I'll give you a little play.
Sure, that doesn't make a difference much, does it?
I just think this, though, and don't let the domestic counsel crowd drive off this.
I want to slaughter him on this one.
They really have to go after him as being, you know, this job.
It'll help solidify the labor support.
And don't get the view that this is going to raise the Vietnam issue.
Harris would disagree on this, but Harris is wrong.
It has to be wrong.
Yes, but I mean, but Harris basically, his constituency is wrong in this issue.
You know what I mean?
The Jew is right.
But God damn it, we really ought to hit this.
Right?
We hit this.
God damn it, we have to make some business.
Mendez-France, who was the cellar artist of the first watercolor culture.
We didn't say Mendez-France was a disaster for France.
Well, I can understand.
Don't let anybody drive you up there.
I know that you'll get to eat in the morning.
I don't know who from, but just say, I decided, as a matter of moral principle, we've got to make this an issue.
And he went right out of it.
That's the most important.
He was told as a communist, surrender to the communists, raising the white flag, and also, how you're going to abuse
All you have as a POW is to have these withdrawal forces quit the bombing.
All you've got is to go pay the back.
And there are still 15,000 French enemies that have never been accounted for.
Hopefully.
Oh, and make sure that Mel knows that a Frenchman like a Filipino is an American, right?
So is it South Vietnamese or an Argentinian American?
I mean a Frenchman.
In amnesty, in POWs, that he would abandon our POWs.
He would have, I mean, when they enjoyed any concerns, POWs, after exploiting the tree that they have in a shameful way, how does that leave that, the future of our POWs, these barbarians?
And then he goes on, amnesty, POWs, and imposing a communist government in South Vietnam, and defeat.
Well, I must say that the, uh, the whole thing is, uh, now that it's, uh, he's just dead wrong in this thing.
And he's just, for that whole reason, it's hard to go on about one section of the end of it because it's unbelievable.
I didn't write that deliberately.
I just think he may say mine.
You put a few people on hand, and they all come up, alerting the DFW people to go on there.
Let's burn his ass on that.
450.
4,500,000 Americans served during the Vietnam War.
Their country.
And he wants to take a few hundred that ran to Canada and let them come home and do what they can, please.
Well, they're not going to come back.
I would think that on this, I could get a whole lot more money.
Me and you on it, right?
You think you might?
You really should.
Okay.
What else is there that ain't out there tonight?
Make sure to do that.
We are, we are continuing to sing with another leader.
Thank you.

NARA Description

On October 10, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David from 8:24 pm to 8:44 pm. The Camp David Hard Wire taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 219-008 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 219-8

Date: October 10, 1972
Time: 8:24 pm - 8:44 pm
Location: Camp David Hard Wire

                                        (rev. Oct-06)

The President talked with Charles W. Colson.

[See Conversation No. 148-6; two items have been withdrawn]

Also recorded on October 11, 1972

  • 148-001 8:15 PM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator talked on the telephone at Camp David at 8:15 pm.
  • 148-003 8:16 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone at Camp David from 8:16 pm to 8:20 pm.
  • 219-005 8:16 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David from 8:16 pm to 8:20 pm.
  • 148-004 8:20 PM · 20 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator talked on the telephone at Camp David at 8:20 pm.
  • 148-005 8:20 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator talked on the telephone at Camp David at an unknown time between 8:20 pm and 8:24 pm.
  • 219-006 8:20 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at 8:20 pm.
  • 219-007 8:20 PM · 26 sec — President Richard M. Nixon, Manolo Sanchez, and Camp David operator met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at an unknown time between 8:20 pm and 8:24 pm.
  • 148-006 8:24 PM · 14 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson talked on the telephone at Camp David from 8:24 pm to 8:44 pm.

All 48 conversations from October 11, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 219-008, 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/219-008 (accessed September 18, 2026).