Conversation 299-015

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Now we're just, we're just, and listen, if we don't get arms control, I guess we just walked in, let me tell you, we're going to start going.

I can prove you that, I can tell you that.

Right?

Okay.

Well, it sounds like a great success yesterday, I thought.

I thought what you said about the mags, for example, was very helpful.

And it's more than any video shows give to the mags.

Thank you.

The Chitka thing in Chicago was very nice.

They used to come on the wheel for vendors to come here and have the environment.

But the Chitka thing, I think, is very designed.

It's a good thing.

I saw Henry Grunewald some time yesterday that he had an oligarch reception here for the Iron Maiden.

I went there for him.

He took me aside.

He said he wanted to know if I'd met you again this year.

Unless you don't.

All of you said there's just no choice.

And I wondered whether you'd give them an interview.

I said, no, look, I can't go to the president and say it's a condition.

He said, no, he's managed it in that sense.

He probably wants to give an interview on that issue.

He thinks it would do him some good, but I don't think he's going to receive it.

What I wanted to talk to you is layered in our strategy on it.

Now, I think we should treat him

tend to love and care, but you and I will know what the skeletal treatment is.

Now, second, of course, he has pissed away everything we've got here, and we're really, we're really got this damn announcement, so it's real tough for me to go out and make it.

But, in other words, he's already indicated we ought to increase it, and I'm afraid whatever we say, he'll reach out and get out and get it more, apart from that.

The other thing is, I noticed that outside on an 18-stroke, where he said that the

that the president would probably announce the end of ground combat.

Well, for Christ's sakes, he's already announced the end of ground combat.

And I think that would be the question.

It's already been done.

He's made that decision.

If anybody asks me about ground combat, it's a question.

It's not just a big, I'm just saying, look, I don't know if you can tell from our casualties, our forces now are simply in defensive positions.

We're not engaged.

That would not make a difference.

No, there's nothing there now.

Now, let me come to this.

I've been trying to make it a way of surprising a little.

Spiring pollution, haven't we?

Assuming that our number is not too high.

I don't mean a big number, but more so if it's only too much.

It may compel a lot of differences.

whether, does one month overall make one difference?

Let me put it this way.

The announcement for two months, I've decided that we will have to just, and that does affect the bargaining, I understand that comment.

I'm talking about the projection of the figure now goes to the first of September.

Suppose the projection of the figure goes to the first of August.

I understand we're still talking, we're still having a whole card,

residuals and all the rest and so forth.

So I don't know what to do with that.

I would like to frankly want to vote Laird and Rogers on this.

And, incidentally, the Congress.

You see, the Congress has already, you said they're already looking at like $20,000.

I was thinking of announcing, thinking that we might announce $45,000.

So who am I?

Jefferson.

But that means if you project it, you're out by the 1st of August rather than the 1st of September.

So what difference does $5,000 more make with what you've come down to?

I don't want to breathe into any of these fellows.

I want to get Laird here in position so that he recommends $20,000.

Is that my point?

If we want to do this, then you and I, just between us, will tell both of them a half hour before I decide to do the $40,000.

I don't think it bothered your grain plan to deal with the fact that 45, we still have our 145, and we make the next announcement.

The rest, I don't think the difference between 40 and 45 is all that big.

And the difference between the verge of August and the verge of September, I don't think is that big.

No, no, I'm not going to say that tomorrow.

Oh, yes, yes, yes.

If we wanted to, or we could say, no, we could say that by the 1st of May or whatever it is, we've got $40,000 and keep that there.

My point is, I think that the $45,000 might give a, it just frankly shows that we are taking the initiative.

I have control of this damn shop.

And then we'll do what we please.

I mean, the residual force is what, you know, you realize now, all we've really got is residual force right now.

I'm not concerned, frankly, I don't know, I'm not concerned with having to get to the meetings with you who do try to come and stay for four days.

Uh, the interest, the, uh, the assembly I had, this has been arranged for four weeks, Gabby arranged it, I had dinner last night with the Corps of Editors of New Jersey.

They all came down.

I frankly think, you said 30, I'm not recommending now, you are in great shape with the announcement.

You're not mistaking the expense

They didn't raise me now until two hours into the conference.

Well, we have the problem that as far as the country is concerned, we may have seen a Harris poll, which we think is accurate because we're now unaligned.

But that shows that, well, it's just one of those damn things that the support for what we're doing, that doesn't affect me one whit.

It doesn't affect Congress.

That's my point.

Now, if we go to 45, it will be

This is one of the few times the number will be a real surprise.

Everybody, you know, when Ford and others talk of 20, that's certainly, Ford wouldn't do that unless Larry was put him up to it.

And just between us, if it's all right with you, let's go for 45.

But you put it up, you would say the price would be about 45, but for only two months.

You already told him only two months.

We're going to go to 45 in two months.

And then it leads to this bigger running rope at the other end of the pipeline.

And there, McGregor is almost impossible to move in.

McGregor has, the Newsweek people told me that McGregor has been going on, say, after November 15th, Congress took the order back from the Presbyterian Church.

That was, of course, that's for the Congress to try to... Well, McGregor was there when I talked to Ford, when I said...

Huh?

I think Leggett and McGregor could be in line.

McGregor up now.

Oh, yeah.

Hello.

Yeah.

His secretary is on the line.

I can talk to his secretary.

Yeah.

I figured it out.

It's a first law.

Rather than the purchase of bankruptcy, $2,500 more per month actually gets up to the youth.

so that all horses would be out if you continued at the rate of 22,500 for the balance of the period.

It figured out exactly that in the first one month early.

And also, frankly, another thing is, it's a month before the campaign, which is another one.

It's right at the, right at the saying end of the Democratic Convention.

And everybody will, you know what I mean, my point is, it removes the issue.

It removes it so totally.

I just like, I just think we, we're now, we've never played, we've never played with these figures politically before.

But I think now we can afford a little playing politically.

Just a little from our standpoint.

I mean, we've, you know, we've put a bill on, but we've been goddamn responsible.

Not to try to figure out what day we're fixing to do it.

I mean, one of the two

We will although I'm not going to tell the president.

I'm not going to tell him yes or no or baby.

I'm going to say we're going to have another announcement in January.

But everybody assumes a residual force.

And you and I know we're damn well we're gonna have residual force.

Unless we get an agreement.

Assuming we get an agreement, and the agreement, of course, means the POWs all of them, then we didn't have, we didn't fish them.

We have to be careful that we say more than that, that we can't make it just the POWs.

Oh, no, no, no, I thought the press conference has to be

I'm not even going to say that POWs are not going to say, well, it will depend on the fundamental criteria.

I've always laid down that we've been on the level of violence, the level of oppression, the safety of our remaining forces, the POWs and their negotiations.

You know, I'll post about that, and they're not going to always know.

Otherwise, if I say POWs were prisoners, we're playing the Congress' hand, too.

They'd never agree to that anyway.

I'm going to nail that one again.

No, I have no problem with that.

No, I plan to be very, very, very, you see, I'm going to be, with an announcement of that type, it's going to be extremely hard.

It's going to be goddamn hard for our critics then.

So they'll say, well, you look pretty well here.

You breathe pretty well.

What are they going to scream about then?

I frankly think you're going to breathe with us enough, no matter what you say, Tom.

I want to do it all so that this is from Larry.

And I said, I'm not going to tell Larry.

I'm not going to tell Borden.

I'm not going to tell Rocking.

Anybody with a half hour of a board.

Get back channel this out there.

Say to the president, I'll tell you what you do.

Tell him, hang on to Christmas.

Get back with the Jews and the president, one of them, and actually buy a house for Christmas.

We're making another house for Christmas.

That's the way I did it on the 10th.

But on your newsweek, I think you were pleased with everything.

I didn't think it was going to be good.

I handled, I thought, my remarks, I was very careful that I was bland.

But I handled the Chinese and Russians, and I thought it was great.

I'm a creep, but still, I don't know what you heard when I said that.

I didn't see the text.

I don't know about what I said.

I said, Verizon, we have an honor for you.

We're speaking of our goal of regeneration.

We've taken the first step.

We're on our way to the future.

We're going to do that.

Maybe a little bit, essentially, rather than simply now.

And I said that the leaders of Moscow, the generation of Moscow, and

are not generally emphasized in some very profound ways between our nation and theirs, because we have a different view about the national policy, the foreign policy, and not necessarily that of the United States.

We are faced with this choice.

We can have a policy, a policy of continued confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union on the one hand, and the United States and the United States Republic on the other hand.

would rather have an acceptable risk of war or some kind in the future.

Negotiation provides a chance for peace.

We have, we owe it to future generations to take, to seize that chance, just like it was back then.

I think that Bill and I will appreciate that.

He knows that's what it is.

That's the game, isn't it?

But I keep emphasizing the profound difference that we have.

We do have a

I had told Nelson I was going to have dinner with him tonight.

He was going to send me to Japan.

Of course, I didn't know anything.

But then I was like, if you need time to be here, I'll go to you.

So maybe they should get in touch with you.

I had hope.

Hope to go to Japan.

Yeah.

I'm pretty much proud of that.

I hate him, too.

Sure, Mike.

You know, I'll just make a plan for you about having Cesar find us out as fast as we can.

You did.

I made so many plans.

You should.

Well, on Monday, about that China, about that kind of thing, you know.

I mean, you had her up the wall.

Oh.

I just want you to know about it.

Well, I hope so, you see, Mike.

You understand.

Well, at least I've been honest about it.

Of course, I've been confused about it.

The, uh, uh, I think the state ambassador called and asked about it.

They heard about it.

The New Street people, incidentally, interviewed with this guy.

He changed their position about it.

Yeah.

Hello?

Mr. Mayor, I didn't want to bother you, but to tell you that I did appreciate the, uh, getting the fine and bonus next night.

We knew this was a political trip, and we didn't expect that nice sign out there saying, welcome, President Ms. Nixon.

I said, well, you don't know the mayor.

He treats us real nice.

Right.

But incidentally, let me ask you, what you do notice, I was very nonpartisan.

You could have agreed with everything I said about, you know, strong national defense.

Let me ask you, is your son getting married, one of them?

When is that?

Very soon.

Oh, I see.

I see.

Well, I wish him well.

And, uh, when we get the date, we'll send him over.

So, well, Mr. Riley's awful good, and that big, uh, that big chief, that big tall fellow, he was great.

All right, thank you.

I'd better get over and get this, uh, we have to send the case here to you.

The one thing I must say in fairness is, if our people start pushing out the idea that we're gonna be out by August 3rd,

Colson, the company, are going to do that.

Colson is going to push anything?

I don't.

They're going to be in trouble.

They'll push.

It's not a damn thing.

As long as the idea that there'll be a residual force is dominant, it doesn't make a hell of a lot of difference whether we get a residual force.

But the residual force is your only weapon to get a negotiation.

It's the only thing.

Without that...

about Iga Viva's now two weeks of headlines.

I'll play with that.

That is my one concern.

But I frankly do not think it's going to trouble the press.

Well, Henry, with regard to that, I'm now impressed with regard to that.

And 40,000.

They were out the first September.

What's the difference between one month and another?

I don't know.

I'll take you to the manor by myself, and then we'll catch the telegram before it goes down.

And I'll be right over.