Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 330-017
Date: Wednesday, April 5, 1972 at 11:45 AM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Colson, Charles W.; Sanchez, Manolo
Recording device: Old Executive Office Building
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/330-017

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[2:23:29] Call some police.
[2:23:59] Hello.
[2:24:02] Yeah, I've got a break about 13 minutes between crafts.
[2:24:05] Do you want to drop over for a minute?
[2:24:08] Thank you.
[2:24:26] I wondered if you could take a little note to the school chat.
[2:24:30] Just say, dear school, I am not going to encourage you, because I don't know how long you've got.
[2:24:38] However,
[2:26:17] Well, I told him what I said, and he said, tell the president for me that he has a choice between the two, or take the capital vision.
[2:26:28] He said it was outstanding.
[2:26:32] He's quite a president.
[2:26:33] He said it to me today.
[2:26:34] I didn't know that.
[2:26:35] He didn't indicate it when I was, when I had to call him, and also...
[2:26:38] He didn't say it to you?
[2:26:39] No, he was very nice.
[2:26:41] He didn't indicate it.
[2:26:43] He was very pleasant.
[2:26:44] That was all.
[2:26:44] Also, when he came to preach, he was very nice to me.
[2:26:47] If not, they ought to agree.
[2:26:49] They have them.
[2:26:49] They're all kind of terrible.
[2:26:50] Well, he said to me, well, he said today, he said, I cannot be involved in the price of violence in the church camp.
[2:26:55] But he said, I intend to the president when I introduce the president tomorrow, I ask him to be in the issue.
[2:27:00] And he said, I intend when I introduce the president tomorrow to make it clear that he came to me in 1968 and talked to me and gave my idea to the president
[2:27:17] as a candidate, and that he was the first candidate, the first candidate in history, with the courage to take a position on this, the most sensitive issue about the Catholic Church.
[2:27:31] And then he said, further with that, when he put it to work, I think I would say that he would take all of the issue in the direction that Catholics are most concerned with, as no other president in history has done.
[2:27:44] If he gives what he deserves to me, I would probably take that down.
[2:27:46] Yeah, right.
[2:27:49] I want to do it for other reasons.
[2:27:56] I know it's tough.
[2:27:59] I know that McConnell, of course, is for political reasons and against it for, frankly, reasons of prejudice.
[2:28:17] I believe in private education.
[2:28:22] I have damn little confidence in the present public school system.
[2:28:33] And also, I believe the country needs a little religion.
[2:28:41] And so, for God's sake, if I can keep the school open, they're going to get a little urge, and that's better than having none.
[2:28:48] Now, having said all that, it's tough, it's tough, it's tough, too.
[2:28:52] And it will raise hell in some of our fundamentalists, in our right.
[2:28:57] It will raise hell in the NDA and all the rest.
[2:28:59] But will they not screw up?
[2:29:00] They're not going to get the NDA.
[2:29:02] I told Crow, Mr. President, I said that you...
[2:29:04] I told him exactly what you had told me in your office on Thursday, that...
[2:29:10] We're concerned about this, and we believe in religious education.
[2:29:14] And he said that most of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, he said, Mr. Colson, we should remember that I'm not alone here in Philadelphia.
[2:29:26] This is not only my archdiocese, but he said I'm now the chairman of the Council of Bishops, of course.
[2:29:34] And he said, I know the people of the Catholic Church, and they understand that this is a matter of
[2:29:41] He said after all, in 1968, he was bidding for those in the Marbleville, and then he came out for Catholic education.
[2:29:49] And he knew he wasn't a very important president.
[2:29:51] So I think they're very hard-headed, and I think they know this, and I think they really respect the work.
[2:29:56] And it is the right position, really, that I'm on.
[2:29:59] We don't have this hellish fight within our own domestic councils.
[2:30:04] And the reason that it's being fought is that you've got to.
[2:30:08] those that are still disciples, as I have not at all, and have never been, John Dewey, public education, progressive education, and Frank D. L. A. believes in that, and so does Mark, and so does John Irvin, and of course, Nicole, the whole group, and I don't know what they feel, but my view is
[2:30:38] I have got that little bit of public education.
[2:30:40] Well, Connolly, Mr. President, Connolly, I think you should understand, I go to America, and Connolly does not oppose this, or doesn't want to hold the pack, or is not attached to it.
[2:30:59] His whole concern, he doesn't, he says, and oddly enough, the way Richard says,
[2:31:05] I believe that we have to make the right kind of tax credits for these people.
[2:31:13] Well, Elliot is a very decent man who will try to see what a drug he can stand up for.
[2:31:21] Well, there are a lot of prejudiced people, though.
[2:31:23] There are prejudiced Catholics, and there's a hell of a lot of prejudiced Protestants, frankly.
[2:31:29] And also, there are prejudiced public school men, the NDA crowd.
[2:31:33] Well, that's the pressure, Elliot.
[2:31:35] Elliot said, personally, he said we've got to do this part of the whole thing.
[2:31:41] We are, we are.
[2:31:42] That's what the speech said.
[2:31:44] But anyway, I'm going to say it.
[2:31:47] I'd like to say I believe it.
[2:31:52] Whatever damage Mr. President has done, I've got to say it's amazing.
[2:32:02] Thank you.
[2:32:32] We've already taken whatever losses are there.
[2:32:34] He said, look out for your games in the other side.
[2:32:37] He said, go for it.
[2:32:40] Anyway, it's gone now.
[2:32:42] I think it'll be very good.
[2:32:44] We will build absolutely the most greats out of the rest of the country.
[2:32:52] We'll have to be careful with this thing.
[2:32:55] And it comes in a hard way because they're very, very upset with the population
[2:33:02] My wife is skeptical.
[2:33:05] I am against abortion.
[2:33:07] That's what I am.
[2:33:08] Because they've only divorced me.
[2:33:11] And when I see the little black kids, quartering and being barred, it shouldn't be.
[2:33:17] It's got to be what I have.
[2:33:19] I agree with you.
[2:33:20] Yeah.
[2:33:21] What the hell are you doing?
[2:33:23] Where are you going?
[2:33:26] You know what I'm saying?
[2:33:28] The Japanese are doing the abortion.
[2:33:32] I go to church once a year.
[2:33:33] I went with my wife this Easter.
[2:33:36] And boy, all over the literature, the Catholic churches, the building is fighting against the population.
[2:33:43] They think that is a hard-line position.
[2:33:46] Yes, abortion also against the legalization of marijuana.
[2:33:49] Well, I think we've got to stick higher on that.
[2:33:52] Absolutely.
[2:33:52] Absolutely.
[2:37:44] I will say that one of the felonies dies over the sea.
[2:37:52] One of them tells us,
[2:38:12] One of the roommates that did it was like a portion of his organizational record.
[2:38:18] And Doug keeps working for the customer.
[2:38:21] In fact, he does stuff for us in Manhattan.
[2:38:24] And he is now a superior guy for the organization in Manhattan.
[2:49:02] That it's discriminatory to apply for an office that includes students with discretionary lands and networks in some areas of the fourth party campus.
[2:49:06] And I think a couple of these are bad for us.
[2:49:07] The press will say we did a good job today.
[2:49:08] So, it's a bad deal.
[2:49:08] Actually, if you haven't borrowed us,
[2:49:25] Where is it not comprehensive?
[2:49:53] No service in the house.
[2:49:54] No sense to have her.
[2:49:54] I don't know.
[2:49:54] I don't know.
[2:49:55] I don't know.
[2:49:55] I don't know.
[2:49:55] I don't know.
[2:49:56] I don't know.
[2:49:56] I don't know.
[2:49:56] I don't know.
[2:49:57] I don't know.
[2:53:13] Well, if Mr. Vickers is in an action that he's going out to Oregon, and he's going to the right, and he's going to an issue of press release, and he's going to have to do it in front of his family's assistance, they could have been depressed, but we've got to do it together in the house.
[2:53:19] We can create a party of cities.
[2:53:20] Yeah.
[2:59:44] Let me ask one last thing.
[2:59:49] What is the situation?
[2:59:54] On Thursday, there's nothing.
[2:59:55] The troops over there aren't good.
[2:59:57] They have their game plan.
[3:00:01] They have their game plan.
[3:00:03] They have their game plan.
[3:00:06] They have their game plan.
[3:00:10] They have their game plan.
[3:00:14] He said they may be able to hold over until Friday.
[3:00:17] The problem is that the other people here will not come back.
[3:00:22] The Germans have to leave tomorrow at 3.
[3:00:27] The Germans will be here at 5.
[3:00:30] They'll have trouble with the form of the parade.
[3:00:33] If they have to go over to East U.S., then Eastland just has to hold the parade and not cover it.