Nixon, Colson & Hall on 1972 Presidential Campaign and Media Strategy

23:43Well, I think we'll wind up the first business on the last day.
23:47Well, I think we've got to let everybody out tomorrow.
23:50That's what I'm going to do at this point.
23:53It's a good idea.
23:54Everybody, I think, is never going to take an hour.
24:00It's all they want.
24:02Some of us will have to be relevant to kind of watch at the heart of things because it's likely to put a heavy heart into it.
24:13I think the judgment on that is right, because we try to be different when we run fast.
24:27We raise more questions than necessary.
24:30Actually, the caveat was in the computation warrant.
24:43You know, he can't hold any position higher than me.
24:44I think that's going to be a great deal of pressure for him.
24:47How are you working with him?
24:49I don't know.
24:50I've been very hard on him since before.
24:53You know, I called him and asked for advice.
24:55I told him that I'm going to go back to the department this year.
25:01I think he's got it on board.
25:03I wouldn't say he's indicated he wouldn't.
25:08Well, it's done.
25:09It's done.
25:10I think it's, you know where I put it, I don't know what you're going to say, but even though we're going to catch Steve, the person who's with him, I think it was simple.
25:35We won't catch him.
25:36I think the mood of the public would be that, well, he served his time, he was a son of a bitch, his wife was sick.
25:45There was a commotion.
25:46The public must have left murderers out.
25:49Vietnam, escapees, you know, and all that.
25:52What the hell?
25:53Make sure we don't let this guy.
25:55It was interesting.
25:56I just forgot it, but I went back and checked.
25:59When he was let out a few weeks early, the network coverage was very, very similar.
26:03They portrayed him as a model prisoner, as one who was banging his head.
26:11The society very quietly believed that his wife was very ill.
26:18Touching scenes on television.
26:20Going back to his home.
26:22Visiting his wife.
26:25He was 100,000 feet away.
26:26Well, she's still seriously ill. That's what we're finding out.
26:31We're getting that out very early.
26:35Christmas Day, I didn't know.
26:37On the other end of the scale, going to see what was in the last week.
26:45Whoever takes a load off me,
26:49very authoritative decision to do that.
26:53He now is totally satisfied that he can deliver anything that he wants to here and here.
26:58He's grateful to those who are helping him.
27:04A lot of these people are very enthusiastic, but also, probably this one man is some deliverance to the state, certainly to New York City, certainly to the city of New York.
27:19And he said there's just lots of people who can get more than 100%.
27:24I don't know, because he's basically off on that.
27:27Yeah, he's loyal to the Senate, but he feels about it in a bad way.
27:30And he said that he's the most powerful vice president in terms of political power.
27:35What it fits us to do is to get a gathering together at some point a few months from now, just to find a way to
27:47And some of us would meet with them to sort of find out what they can do in this quiet time.
27:56I don't know.
27:57Very quiet.
27:57And I think from the way he's gone, we're going to find a great deal of very enthusiastic work that will be done there if I can do that.
28:08That's a total craft.
28:10Incidentally, this is amnesty.
28:13It doesn't restore a civil right.
28:15It's not a part.
28:16It's not much.
28:18It is, come to think about it.
28:19Now, basically, what it is, is letting the person that is keeping all of us, they're all of us, there's all of the restrictions on us, we would then accept that he isn't confined.
28:32I think a good case would be that he's confined, is continued confinement, would not do it.
28:39Good, all right, done and out, whatever.
28:45So look back, no, so I think it was very .
28:47We're continuing to get a damn good reaction to the Tuesday night, Monday, Monday, Tuesday, Monday, Monday, Monday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday.
29:08He's in between someone who's close enough to hear, but also someone who's more compassionate, right?
29:15So what reaction do you have from West Coast?
29:18And I was just going to tell you, he's absolutely super nice.
29:23A number of people have come up to him.
29:27He's brought a lot of compassion.
29:30He's just, he probably did a home run all the way.
29:35You haven't gotten a single negative comment.
29:36You've gotten a lot of positive comments.
29:40Interesting that different people selected at different lengths that they liked it better.
29:43And everything had sort of a different impression.
29:48But very good.
29:49A close-up of the most revealing look at you as an individual that he's yet seen.
29:59Forcefulness, firmness, very decisive.
30:04He said it was the next thing I know it's a person.
30:12The thing that I think came through to most people was probably the hard work.
30:19They let some complain about the choppings.
30:23The average person would care no way about John C. He wouldn't care if he went to death or not.
30:30He can't be on the ground.
30:31I just thought he was trying to put a hell of a statement.
30:33Well, liberals are up for war.
30:34The reason that he...
30:37The reason that he got hit...
30:37If we got very good reviews, I wouldn't be mad.
30:40Huge bullshit.
30:41Because we never get good reviews.
30:43I know.
30:45We got grudging reviews.
30:50That's one good thing, boy, we didn't have to think.
34:05Thank you.
34:40You know, I had Teddy write back to me today.
34:42I had him stand right back at me when I signed that paper.
34:46I heard about it.
34:47You pulled a political coup, and I was quite sure, and I showed Teddy.
34:50We should have, because I couldn't have 15 members of the House of Representatives sitting there at 130.
34:54They had to stand around for me some of the day.
34:57But the fact that you started the sign for that, and then said, we're the House of Representatives, brought the man, and then said, you can go about it, all I want to get is a picture of you.
35:11That point will not be missed by the president.
35:32No.
35:32That was very, very well done.
35:33Particularly with Teddy.
35:35Yeah, well, sure.
35:35He stood directly back in there.
35:37He's smart as hell.
35:39He never misses a beat.
35:40He plants his feet in there and nobody's going to move him.
35:46That other project is now pretty well completed.
35:48What do you mean?
35:54American?
35:54Yes, sir.
35:57It came out quite well.
35:58It came out as a really newspaper reprint.
36:04But any reactions to, oh, where did those reactions come from?
36:11You know, or they'll forget about it.
36:16Oh, it's a good thing.
36:18Others like this have served.
36:20Somebody gets to have a word about people.
36:23People go through it.
36:24It's kind of people.
36:26Oh, well, I've had those people.
36:29I've seen it just in the last few weeks.
36:31It's starting to work.
36:33I don't know.
36:34I don't know what happens.
38:06You know, this is one of Agnew's problems.
38:08It isn't that he's lazy, but he's just weak.
38:12Agnew, I put it back to you, Agnew is a good old dog.
38:15He does extremely well.
38:16He's never, you know, I don't mean that he's, he is not rocked, but in the matter, he's a rocker, but he just can't hold himself.
38:27That's why.
38:28He's not a very strong man.
38:34But Agnew,
38:36I mean, Adam looks better now than he did last year.
38:41In the last, just by being two months, well, he's being more careful, first of all.
38:51Yeah.
38:51His attitude is 100% better.
38:53Just 100%.
38:54I thought it was nice you gave him that Christmas thing.
38:57Yes, sir.
38:58Because that's really getting him a presidential assignment.
39:01Well, yesterday we had a mini-captain meeting.
39:05Gunning heads of the interment agencies who were not even going to be when we gave them a local fish from under your funeral.
39:16Yeah.
39:17I was there the whole time.
39:18At one point, Scali had another group of guys.
45:32Is there, should something be done to finance one of those Democratic candidates?
45:41Why don't we do one today?
45:44I think there'll be some scattered blades, there'll be some Kennedy records.
45:51Why not at least put this down?
45:55I would say a postcard and mail-in with all the Democrats.
46:01We'll have a ship right in the head of Canada.
46:10So, man, here we go.
46:11Let's do it again.
46:13Hit every Democrat in the studio.
46:16Now, that doesn't cost me much.
46:18See?
46:19There's an old postcard.
46:20You just got a contrast.
46:22That's right.
46:23And we go to all of them.
46:24Okay.
46:25Yes, sir.
46:26I'll break it down.
1:01:44But it went to a list that we keep for about nine days.
1:02:14I like that.
1:02:15I like that.
1:02:18I like that.
1:02:18I like that.
1:02:38It's proved something that many of us have known all along.
1:02:40You know, all these candidates have worked and trusted you, and you'll always stick with our leaders.
1:02:50What do people in various communities have?
1:02:53I kind of love that.
1:02:55All of these things over here, they're just, they're all around.
1:03:01Rock and roll.
1:03:02You know, even in this day, instant communication, word of mouth is,
1:03:06Sure is.
1:03:08Well, they use it on us all the time.
1:03:11That's what they do.
1:03:12They knock the presidency down.
1:03:19That's why it's the main condition behind the question.
1:03:22We, on the other hand, we've been doing some other remarkable things, and we've been in the wrong places.
1:03:27We've gone from the Chinese and the Soviets and the Nazis, going from the Nazis to the... beyond that, to the... the other side of the... well, I mean, the big story, the big story.
1:03:41And then another big story is the one, of course, the... the many summits that they did.
1:03:50Yeah, exactly.
1:03:52For what year is the product ?
1:04:00I agree with that this is generally the local .
1:04:06I think he brought balls there, didn't he?
1:04:11Yes, sir.
1:04:14I don't recall.
1:04:16In fact, it's 28 or 30, May 31.
1:04:17I don't know.
1:04:18It was sold out right around.
1:04:20But in May of 1948, he was a good citizen.
1:04:22He was beginning to come up.
1:04:28But this was his local home.
1:21:12And we have a program laid out now over the next six weeks, which is really beginning to take hold, I must say.
1:21:16And since that cabinet meeting, as you know, since the cabinet meeting, when we really kind of laid it out at the cabinet meeting, there are responses.
1:21:26We have a schedule now where every cabinet officer is holding press conferences there, doing just what we asked them to do.
1:21:35We don't see it in the Washington papers, but out in the country,
1:21:39And Morton has a nice place big in the west.
1:21:43And they're stepping up to it every day.
1:21:45Three of them are doing press conferences today.
1:21:48And then we checked the out of state, out of the city.
1:21:52And they tend to play a couple of areas where that agency has an interest.
1:21:58We've developed another technique which so far we haven't been taught that.
1:22:09on the Spotmaster radio set up, and now we're getting a television set up in each department.
1:22:14So the local radio stations can call in and take one night's recording until we get all of them.
1:22:22Kevin Austin speaking here, he put some pretty cool stuff out there that he's yet to play, but we are getting an average on each department of about 300 radio stations, three productions a day.
1:22:35Radio station, 300 calls coming in.
1:22:37They had taken it down, playing it up.
1:22:40So they were really doing a hell of a lot better job
1:23:54That's true.
1:23:55We can't continue with that.
1:23:56I've looked over the next couple of months.
1:23:58We've got enough things going.
1:24:01And now, using these departments properly, we can get you a lot of that.
1:24:05The second one would be to listen to a radio and pick up three cabinet members on a radio program.
1:24:13This program now, which we used to have, commenting on newsreels, commenting on CPL, and that's right.
1:24:24This, this helps keep, keep out chronic issues in here, and it does prevent the illness in the middle, and certainly in the middle.
1:24:30So, you know, all of them, particularly the place that's the worst on our new hospital team, we believe, and obviously the question is strong.
1:24:37Yes, sir.
1:24:38That headline was really, I think, sort of unbelievable.
1:24:42Yes, sir.
1:24:44It's been a steady phenomenon.
1:24:46I wonder what the hell's the reason for that.
1:24:50It must be Lee Combs or Edith Ryder.
1:24:52They get by at the end of the line.
1:24:54So, you know, the tone of what you've been writing is sort of like the headline.
1:24:59Yeah, the headline writers, yes, they have to do that.
1:25:03Yeah, you'd read that Washington article and you'd say, well, I'll show you.
1:25:07You'd read the New York Times this morning and you'd say, well, they are a very straight piece, sir.
1:25:14Of course, they're pretty moderate.
1:25:18What is moderate?
1:25:19Well, it goes on and on.
1:25:20It's never as high as it was.
1:25:26No, it actually was remarkable very briefly.
1:25:30So it didn't go up.
1:25:33How do they figure their Christmas sales are coming?
1:25:42I would think they'd be doing pretty well.
1:25:46They've been 11.5% ahead of the year.
1:25:51But the weather's good for Chapman.
1:25:52I didn't think this would come.
1:25:54And you're going to be all right.
1:25:55The total sale was last week, the weekend of December.
1:25:59It came for almost $10 billion, which shows that for the four most recent weeks, the average is just about 11%.
1:26:13Is that good?
1:26:13Yes, sir.
1:26:15Interestingly, the durable goods are up 23%.
1:26:17It shows that the people are buying.
1:26:21more expensive items.
1:26:22Which is also a good sign, because that gets into the, that creates a little bit of a, that creates a little bit of a hurdle that you care about.
1:26:37That's something that just creates a little, a little bit of hope for the bank.
1:26:43Well, I think that's, like, things are moving, they're, you know, moving forward.
1:26:46I don't know if I can correctly sense the mood, Mr. Williams, but the people are now beginning to feel the economy is improving.
1:26:54They feel better about it.
1:26:55It's financially too much, and as that begins to seep in, and, you know, it's a self-fulfilling premise.
1:27:03If you're okay with that, then of course.
1:27:05If you're okay with that, then of course.
1:27:09Well, have a good weekend.
1:27:10Thank you, Mr. President.
1:27:12Merry Christmas, and don't have any more to worry about.

Nixon, Colson & Hall on 1972 Presidential Campaign and Media Strategy

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on December 23, 1971

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