Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 278-022
Date: Sunday, September 12, 1971 at 3:51 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Colson, Charles W.
Recording device: Old Executive Office Building
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/278-022

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:04] Hello.
[0:05] Yeah.
[0:07] Hope I didn't get you out of anything.
[0:08] I was just sitting here in the office, and I saw it was raining.
[0:13] Oh, I see.
[0:14] Oh, it was not important, not important.
[0:17] I was in Camp David, and I'm just going over some things.
[0:24] How are the temperatures in Boston?
[0:28] Kevin Lager now says, do you think we're doing better in Massachusetts than we think?
[0:31] Of course, he's self-serving.
[0:32] He wants me to come here to speak at the Auspice, didn't he?
[0:39] Who the hell are they busting Boston?
[0:44] In my understanding, there's not enough Negroes in Boston to put them in the temple.
[0:49] There's enough, huh?
[0:53] That has nothing to do with us, you know.
[0:55] Because we haven't, the de facto buses have not been rolled onto the courts and there's no HEW plans.
[0:59] I hope everybody understands that.
[1:00] I personally think the court has burglared, of course, I'm trying to put it in some other perspective, we're going to rule the day and run that bar.
[1:13] We may have to rule the Constitutional Constitution.
[1:16] The blacks that are affected by it are blacks.
[1:19] The only blacks that want it are the professional blacks.
[1:24] it's a it's a radical it's basically a radical black and a radical white and radical black issue and and frankly editors in boston for that matter it's over
[1:49] But it really ought to go, I'd say, in an area like San Francisco, up in Michigan, it ought to hit the hell out of us.
[1:55] I'll tell you what, obviously, the place to really get it there is among its Polish, which, you know, that's the only Catholic where he's got a leg up.
[2:04] I think the Polish Catholics are the ones that would just be firing at us.
[2:14] It may come naturally.
[2:22] Basically, yes, they've stuck with River College.
[2:34] I haven't had a chance, I'm not going to be able to do something like this.
[2:38] Chuck, of course, will, any staff has to shake down a bit, but he's been on the big time long enough, and I've been around him so often, Christ, I travel every place in the country that anybody can understand what I'm talking about.
[2:53] I think he knows damn well, and I would be fair about it, but I wouldn't make it to January, and I think he's one of the best leaders in the world.
[3:02] would never make such a mistake.
[3:06] What are we doing on the other side?
[3:10] There was a good follow-up on the speech.
[3:12] I don't know if any of the people saw it.
[3:17] They have pretty good mail-in now.
[3:23] in that situation where you take, for example, and they were ready to count something.
[3:32] So that promise thing came off well, too.
[3:39] We tried it to him, and he was the one that he carried on the networks.
[3:42] I thought he would be washing papers in the Congress.
[3:48] That, it seems to me, lays the rest of the idea that we don't have a program coming down.
[4:21] But there are lots of reports that seem to be tripling in.
[4:24] I just don't know what the numbers are going to show, but I have a feeling that people cannot be feeling better without doing something more about it pretty soon.
[4:38] He was at lunch with Greg the day before his speech.
[4:44] That's what got to them.
[4:45] I think that they just don't want any of these good things.
[4:49] I want to hear, not just the times, but they don't like to hear, well, this is a good country.
[4:55] This is the kind of talk that we've got our members and senators.
[5:02] Well, apparently so.
[5:03] Let's suppose that we can hold them where they are.
[5:05] We may not.
[5:06] We may not move up.
[5:07] I mean, I'm not sure if we will move up.
[5:13] That's a very progressive and effective investment banker, I know him well.
[5:36] In the foreign policy area, China has that feel, reminding them that people can forget quickly, and they don't stick.
[5:48] The November 3rd thing did that, didn't last, didn't last.
[5:52] In a sense, they're bigger than Peter.
[5:58] That's good.
[6:33] The first time down.
[6:36] Approval and disapproval.
[6:38] And balancing the budget for kids on dope and their own.
[6:43] You know, this and that.
[6:47] There's a very, you know, interesting thing.
[6:50] Now, early in our people, it's about best of men.
[6:53] Who do they consider playing in Congress?
[6:55] They see only 28% playing in Congress.
[6:58] 25% playing in the court.
[6:58] 15% playing in Congress.
[7:00] You know, you just wonder.
[7:04] I don't think we're that weak, but the last thing it has to do is be a great company.
[7:13] If there's somebody you're calling for, for that matter, and there's somebody who's strongly felt
[7:24] the idea that we're here, that we would go like that.
[7:29] Suppose we were a candidate, and we followed the idea that we must keep it.
[7:35] It's the moral crisis I'm concerned about.
[7:39] It's the crisis among the liberal proxies.
[7:43] And the real problem is whether we inquire the same.
[7:47] We say to our experiment quite as much.
[7:49] We can't do so much good either.
[7:50] We can't do too much good.
[7:54] There are more friendly people in the space.
[8:02] Right.