On November 14, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David from 2:40 pm to 3:08 pm. The Camp David Hard Wire taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 224-026 of the White House Tapes.
Transcript (AI-Generated)This transcript was generated automatically by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite this transcript as authoritative. Consult the Finding Aid above for verified information.
Hello.
Hi, I'm John Sinlinger and he was having a hell of a flood in New York today.
Well, big rains and so I caught him in a train stationer and took this for him to go into the bankers but he was really ecstatic and I said that we've been in very close touch and hopefully it's not going to end.
He spoke very highly of you.
He said you're one of four people, three of whom are now dead, you're one of them alive that he
So you're probably, you're probably next on the list to die.
Yeah.
Anyway, uh, I told him to Chuck, I said, now I haven't, I hope that, uh, in addition to your, I don't know, your various natural business plans, all that.
That's my idea.
We'll just, we'll just leave it to you.
Yeah.
Why, sure.
Well, the BLS always turns out wrong.
Maybe we should put in a charge at BLS.
And convinced that if it were higher, we'd have won by his two-to-one margin, wouldn't we?
No.
It's not those.
I thought that's what the McGregor thing was all about.
We did, I guess we did, yeah.
But in the south, we probably didn't have as big a motor turnout as we should have had.
Who also got Penny Gleason and he was
He just elated and he said, he said, he said, I, you know, I've always been with, he said, but you've got guts.
And I said, I don't have no guts.
And he said, that's why I was for you.
You know, that really is heartening that I hear him talk that way.
It's very hard business, guys.
Incidentally, I'm working on, there's many other things, a couple of letters, four letters.
I was thinking of sending one to
all of the labor leaders, both Tom and Matt, all the people who are on our labor, their next committees, and that's getting the regional guys, too.
I wondered if, now, what I will do is to develop a form that I think you and Rogers, Don Rogers, could take it and
add personalized to the extent that uh you know like with paul you'll say well uh particularly your current coverage in san francisco etc now now and the other thing also you would know which one's the first name and what's not because i can't get into that i don't want to first name anybody else i'm pretty sure i mean i don't like being familiar with people
clerk up a form, and it'll get down there in the next three days, and then you take them, Chuck, and use the, and use your, uh, use Roger's address to, in fact, you ought to begin preparing the list now with the first names.
But it's, I'm going to, of course, write a list to all the Democrats for Nixon, unless it's something, you know, I think each one of them should have a personal letter from me.
People who you suggest a commission for.
Nice.
Let's just let them, let's not treat them separately.
Incidentally, what in the hell would you do with a government statement on the election?
Wouldn't that be a separate race crap again?
If that's a smaller percentage, then Barry Goldmutter would try, which I hope Barry would point out sometimes.
That's a thing that I don't know about.
Federation.
God.
Oh, Christ.
A virtue.
A virtue.
A virtue.
A virtue.
A virtue.
A virtue.
I think that the way he's talking, he'll fight like hell in that party.
He and Westwood's a whole bunch when they fight hard.
I'm going to sell those.
I've irritated a lot of people like Meany and even O'Brien.
Certainly the Southern Democrats will go up the wall.
And good Democrats like Delaney will go up the wall.
Won't Teddy seize it now?
Or can he?
He's got it.
He's got the government.
Right, isn't he?
They're incapable in the past of having love feasts.
I don't know whether they could do it this time or not.
Great mistake.
Six months.
Or I just wouldn't say it.
In fact, it's not six, it's four months.
It's the spring before I said word.
And then I made a speech in Chicago.
I think he's got a compulsive mood because I heard it.
Do you think I would send Beanie right up the wall?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sure.
That's the neighborhood now.
We're glad to know that what's left, that's the main thing.
Missouri would help, but things left there would gain.
Michigan would not help.
One percent more will go to there.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, now that five percent is ours.
That'll put us up.
Alaska is over 60.
It's a state over 60s.
I mean, we are running at what pace in Alaska are we running?
And, well, that won't help us.
Well, the ones that are left behind, we don't have.
So, well, those will help us.
If they are absentees.
They will have a final picture.
They always do have one.
They did last time.
They're waiting on the total vote.
From what we checked, maybe a little bit better.
So you have out on balance, two degrees, you'll be able to get down.
On balance, like I said, like Georgia, South Carolina.
Just below 61.
I said it doesn't, it's all right, but if it does, that'll be really a nice weather to handle.
If we can get 61, plus one,
uh, what's your latest, what's your total vote figure?
I mean, uh, uh, our, uh, 46, uh, uh, our total voter is going to be, what, 46, uh, those, uh, those numbers up, uh, the end of those, uh, that list, uh, whatever, uh,
get the form, send it down, and then you can have the letters typed off and vary them a bit, depending on if they need to be.
I don't think that people would mind getting a letter, which is fine.
They'd find that it would be done in a very sensitive way, so it would be highly personalized.
I think it's a good thing.
That's why I want local people that follow up in Pittsburgh, you know.
Having those several thousand, if they are names on the list that we know are accurate, I would like to get in touch.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
inauguration and also work up lists for the church services for the uh for the uh i am inclined to think that's going to the extent that the church services in the future will be
In order to get more in, I'm just going to limit it to adults from now on.
They love to bring their kids in their isolation objective.
By the time you get through some of those families around six, eight people, it just isn't fair.
Because the adults are what really matter.
What does that mean?
Man and wife.
Man and wife.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Exactly.
That's right.
We've got to make that thing go.
We'll figure out various things.
Oh, another thing, you know, that we have available for weekly trainings is for these labor leaders and so forth.
You know, we've got those three boxes at the Kennedy Center.
You've used those from time to time, haven't you?
Well, I'm glad those boxes can be used for Kendall's businessmen, for these labor people, rather than just for administration people.
Don't you agree?
If you would watch that, get busy on that, so the boxing just doesn't end up, of course, certainly a cabinet officer wants some time to, but they get other purposes.
Don't you agree?
And for a person out of town, it means so much to say, well, I'm going to sit in the president's box for this or that.
I gave up on yours a few months ago.
Okay, Chuck.