On September 16, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 1:45 pm to 2:10 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 278-066 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 Do not cite this transcript as authoritative.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.
The situation now is Cranston got on the floor and he's going to hold the two o'clock and then move the table.
And they think that's good.
They'd rather have Cranston make the motion than Allard.
And Allard is still debating with himself as to whether he can change his position.
And his condition has been that if Ahrens and Hebert
We'll guarantee him the house support of his thing that he'll then go with us.
Aaron's neighbor told him they can't guarantee it until they see it.
They haven't seen it.
So now he's consulting with himself as to whether he goes on your assurance or not.
I think before they just got the word out.
I think before that was, if Alan made the motion to table, we would, if we carried it, we would lose.
If he didn't, then we would be able to defeat the motion to table.
Then we'd go right back to the filibuster.
What else do you think we want to hear?
We want to hear about what you think we want to hear and these other assholes speaking up.
Oh, they're getting whacked and they're turning around and talking about the flag of America and not something that has more to do with them.
It's now hard to get anybody to speak to them.
I know the problem is that our staff is too easy to run along too hard.
And I say, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
They don't prefer the block down there, in fact.
I'll say one thing.
I couldn't tell them about it.
We agreed to go there.
The next time that I had them, they were going to come up to me and ask me if they were going to be true.
A few of them brought him to the Henry Institute.
Two of them?
Yeah.
Two?
Two for Henry alone?
I'm getting on that.
I'm incredibly honored to be calling out all my fans for three minutes.
And it's something that's remembering them where they were wrong.
I guess it's natural to try in on something.
But generally speaking, the use of the president in a way, when the president fails, should be very, very careful to watch.
And it's one of the good things about going the long way on this journey.
Strike out.
Strike out.
Strike out.
Let's see what I've proved to try.
I guess we can say that about her, too.
Yes.
Hold her on.
Yes.
Hold her on.
I can tell her.
You probably don't understand.
Never say that publicly.
Aarons and Hebert would go up the wall.
But obviously it's got to be understood that that's for his personal knowledge only.
If he says anything about it, that'll be important.
He's a leader.
He's one of the leaders, not the leader.
You can expect it of that asshole Miller.
He's a leader.
I'm just saying to you, if you think somewhere, with all these groups and presidents and all that, I'm not going to be the first, but somewhere, one of these guys would say, geez, you know, I don't think he's doing it exactly the way I would go, but he sure as hell takes something done, so I guess I better go along with it.
They don't do that.
And we get this across to everybody.
There's no talking along those lines.
And I guess we've tried every which way.
There's some way we're failing them.
I don't know what it is.
I know it isn't to have me call a man, sir.
Is it?
No.
We've done it with the leaders.
We've tried with our so-called friends.
They go out and kick us in the ass.
They don't.
We've cracked it.
It's so in the way.
I think that's what Cotton would say.
And Price is always saying, forget about it.
You're never going to do it.
It isn't going to happen.
There's no point in frustrating yourself trying.
That's true.
Part of my folks, they won't make speeches.
I see your point.
Even on boats, they just go, I'm going to move away and trade in wine.
I've heard a deal like Cotton did with Rocky.
Maybe that's the best you can do.
My idea is that a helicopter would get up at 6.30, 7.00.
This company came to Alaska at 8.00.
830 the dinner will be over and the children will rejoin you.
You then go into the Oval Room for a nap.
Copy.
Children join you at 845 and you walk down and say goodbye to them.
Good.
Now take off.
Great.
Children are going to eat separately, aren't they?
Oh, yes, third floor, that's right.
Yeah, great.
You don't have anybody in your office to call a cop and get all those things to do with you.
You have to be distracted all the time.
They actually have no idea what ought to be done.
I want the same.
Second, I want to read his book.
Second, I want to read his book.
I want to read his book.
I want to buy the hand shop.
I want to buy the hand shop.
I want to buy the hand shop.
I want to buy the hand shop.
I want to buy the hand shop.
I want to buy the hand shop.
But I don't want to be involved with you in school, so I'm going to come back to my life.
So I don't need you personally to do it.
I don't want to be charged.
I don't have it.
I'm not going to do it.
I think, too, that is perhaps more reconciled now than it was in the past.
That's correct.
We, I think, understand that they, uh, think that would be a good idea.
You know, for a girl, like, you know, one of our guys, yeah, go to NREL, because we can go, supposedly handle crowd building and things like that, and secure it with people, yeah, our girl, you know, about, you know, and they can, you know, just bring the, uh, assets there, and do some technical work.
It may be that we ought to keep it open, that we really can't do this thing, and keep it warm.
It may be that we'll have to make other arrangements, and that I might want to do it here, rather than, you know, having fun.
I will play with some of them, even on the square at the moment.
So I'm trying to figure out what to do about some of them.
That's actually cool.
He gets back to check the first thing off, the way he wants it, regardless of what part he has to eat.
Or what they eat.
I don't think I want Sapphire.
What I meant is
And if Sapphire is all right, then it's all right if you're sitting in something where everybody locked up.
I'm afraid, I'm a little bit afraid that we're going through all this stuff.
Would you not agree?
Yeah.
So, but just not have the PR guy until you're going to end up with that blue signal too.
Do you think that we ought to consider ?
Do you live in a press room?
You mean in an all-out film country?
Do you live in a press room without a country?
Oh, hell no.
I would never live in a press room without a country.
The best place is an open office, you know.
On purpose, I'm going to the press room.
Of course I am.
You guys are a lot of fun.
Why?
Because I don't think they're set up for film unless you're telling them how to do it.
Um, what do you call it when you're throwing out the board?
Rock-free.
You just don't know how to do it.
He doesn't give me a board.
I just say, you know, I think there's a way he does it, but he just alerts me that I have to be ready for film.
Uh, if you do that, you know, he...
I think it's better to let them this time.
They don't need to see my face every time.
But it's better to let them this time.
Who would understand that?
And when we do, however, if there's something we can't do, then we should go out there and do it on that day.
Go right out there and do it.
So that it does, so that they have a chance to go out there and do it.
Right.
I'm more likely to do it today.
I don't think anything is going to be an announcement.
I hadn't realized you were part of the Air Force.
They did a hell of a ton of things going on.
Especially Bill at that point.
They really got a whack.
And the problem is, that's a long film.
They're a 40-minute film, so they're not going to try it.
And they don't know what they have to do.
This is just one that just as well.
I prefer to go to the conference.
I think it's better to do it in terms of just giving them a chance to do what you want them to do.
A chance to make money at the same point as you want to do.
And that's what we'll find out next week.
We'll find out what we're going to do next week, what we're going to do next week, what we're going to do next week.
We're not going to spend the night here.
It's got a good hotel right at the airport.
That's what I meant.
Something that's very close.
So you avoid the downtown.
That's a good idea.
I don't know.
That may be what they have in the house, where it avoids the demonstrator kind of thing, but I don't know.
It's got a grub in there.
It's got a musket on this.
No man has the right to remain in any state of the population for the whole time of his life.
And we all saw the same thing.
We all saw the same thing.
We all saw the same thing.
We all saw the same thing.
We all saw the same thing.
We all saw the same thing.
Oh, yeah.
Because a lot of the reaction to this is criminal.
We scratch the person's teeth.
And what you're going to do is what you're going to do.
And who do you want to be?
And I think that I used to be a guy, and I used to take the shit out of everybody.
And I said, well, I'm a person.
I didn't do that.
It was a shame.
Well, I'm a brother now.
It's not another issue.
But it's a question.
The secret to the problem is that he has not, that's not what he does, by the way, from the president.
He doesn't know that he's going to be punished for what he's done.
And he has, he's been on this, he's been on that.
And I don't know whether they're ever going to be shot at him, and so forth.
But that's the thing.
He doesn't.
But he's putting it in the right context for what he's doing.
So he doesn't, they don't pay any attention to him unless he, unless he, if he had this, if he had, well, no, I think if he came out with the, you know, then he started to serve the country, the department of instructions, and got fairly heavy on it, you know, on the, what are we going to put the next election ahead of the security of the country?
Okay, well, we'll go on.
All right.
You want me to call you on that boat?
Oh, yes, I'll have to know.
All right.