Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 233-006
Date: Tuesday, December 5, 1972 at 10:05 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Colson, Charles W.
Recording device: Camp David Hard Wire
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/233-006

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:01] Hello.
[0:05] Are you home now?
[0:10] Yeah, well, you're quitting early, huh?
[0:14] Yeah.
[0:14] Well, I went over today and saw the Californians.
[0:20] Without saying it.
[0:20] They're a great bunch, though, I must say.
[0:24] You know, they raised $9 million in that state.
[0:29] You know, they're in trouble in California.
[0:30] It's all the young people.
[0:34] As a matter of fact, you know, when you think of this thing, I think probably, you know, 64 apart from the 49 states where it came from, it's quite over a meter.
[0:50] That's the right achievement.
[0:52] Oh, yeah.
[0:53] So, like, when I talk about that, I said, that's sure.
[0:54] I think that's how nice it is.
[0:55] He is really, he's really a suspect.
[0:55] Especially for me.
[0:57] The number out, it must be very, very small now.
[1:04] There's only five states.
[1:09] Slightly over 60 already, so... What was this?
[1:20] I'm doing some more thinking, and what are your...
[1:21] I can think of some more of your reactions to what we're doing.
[1:24] Of course, our sentiment is that you could make a pretty good little talk, but the point is that it simply has nothing to do with us.
[1:36] It just escalates the war issue and puts it right on the front line.
[1:44] Again, it gets everybody talking about it far more than it does.
[1:46] And the point is that if we needed to rally the country, that would be different.
[1:51] And we can do it later if we have to.
[1:55] It would be effective, but the problem with using a truck is that on all the previous occasions when I've done it, I've used it.
[2:14] I have done something.
[2:15] You know what I mean?
[2:15] I have either, I mean, I haven't just said, look, follow us above November 3rd.
[2:17] I said, but I said, no, I asked, I heard all these people march around the White House.
[2:20] I had to rally the country, and I said, I asked for your support.
[2:22] The silent majority, so they supported me.
[2:22] What do we talk about?
[2:23] You see, that's the point.
[2:23] We're saying now these negotiations, if you were also willing to see
[2:26] our impasse because the enemy has tricked us.
[2:36] It seems to me that he's in a position where we're looking at it from a standpoint where he's not going at all.
[2:48] It's like when he came back from Russia that time, not getting what we wanted.
[2:51] He says, well, we're going to break off the summit.
[2:52] And, uh, all right, then that would of course be the same to break off the summit when we did something.
[2:54] This time we're not going to do a damn thing.
[2:55] That's the point.
[2:56] I've got to do something, but I don't want to talk about it.
[3:05] The point is that they are testing us, and that the answer is for me to go on television and rally the American people, because that will call their bluff.
[3:18] But, you see, my argument there is that you can call their bluff by what you do and not by what you say.
[3:21] And also, my own point is if you rally our supporters, you also rally the opposition again.
[3:26] I know they cannot but think that we are innocent.
[3:45] And if they don't think that, they're out of their minds.
[3:47] Now, the real problem, I think, though, is that they're clever enough already to just hang on and don't settle down.
[3:49] The Congress cut off the water.
[3:50] Well, he called me and asked me about it.
[3:51] I said, well, I don't understand.
[3:51] I said, well, I don't understand.
[3:52] I think, I don't know, that's the real problem.
[4:22] And this comes off the way that what it means is that they're going to be meeting at me.
[4:47] I think they are too.
[4:48] I don't think people are going to be asking them, they're going to be meeting at me and say, well, they were there with me.
[4:51] You know, other times we've, uh, we've all been pursuing that for a certain amount of time.
[5:14] But, you know, I'll figure out, uh, you know, I'll take a, I'll take a meeting for a few days.
[5:16] But, you know, we can't, we can't, uh, deal with something because, uh, we're, we're not going to be, because we're not going to be able to.
[5:20] It, uh, goes so far as to say that I'm confident we're going to have an agreement
[5:22] ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
[5:49] The North Indian Marines aren't backing on.
[6:00] That we cannot go back to because we've gone and we went to Saigon.
[6:06] Saigon said no, we're going to Paris.
[6:08] And going back to Paris, he said no, we're going to put her back.
[6:10] No, no, we're going to Paris.
[6:11] He says no, we're going to Paris.
[6:14] I'm sorry.
[6:44] It feels a need to lock it back and get out there.
[6:50] Again, we can't do that.
[6:55] Those bastards off.
[6:57] That's the problem with rallying our own forces.
[7:01] You can stir it up again and get the idiots coming down again and saying, oh, boy, they're bombing all our...
[7:08] I had deliberately had all of them read it.
[7:09] I mean, let him look at it first.
[7:10] He first read his first reactions.
[7:16] Well, of course, I guess he's got a good reaction.
[7:20] So there's some more of that.
[7:21] That's exactly how he felt that way.
[7:23] That's the way the American people would feel if I went out and did it.
[7:32] We've got to run it through the end.
[7:33] We can come to it if we have to.
[7:35] People said the president should come out and explain all this and report on the war again.
[7:41] All right.