Conversation 332-048

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I'll tell that Andrew just did a hell of a good job.

Much better than where he would have gone if he got beaten.

He made some additions that were excellent.

He worked them hard.

He did a hell of a good job.

I'm going to have to read him the whole thing.

He's got to be able to do it.

If he feels badly about it, he can put it down a little bit.

I personally think that the question is good, you know.

The thing that Andrew Gray said, well, it's disappointing.

There have been many critics who said that we can't vote his speech.

I'm talking about the one from the president.

That's altogether different.

I mean, that was not an election year.

Right now, the critics have all made the point that I risked the election for this thing, haven't they?

And so I think we face it.

Also, that's a terrible message to the Russians.

See, but I don't give a shit about the election.

Don't you think it's stronger that way?

Hey, there you go.

All right.

Okay.

Secretary, please.

Mr. Secretary?

How about the jackasses out there?

Good.

Where are you? .

Oh, geez.

What do you think?

I mean, don't worry about the hawks.

When I go on my speech tomorrow morning, I'm going to say we're going to continue the bombing until they get the hell out of South Vietnam.

That's all that matters.

What do you think of the whole thing?

But you have to understand, of course, just bamboozled.

Goddamn Washington Post had an editorial this morning indicating the sum of jeopardizes and arrests for all this shit.

I described it to Holden this morning as a classic draw play.

Draw?

A draw play.

Yeah.

Because what we did, what you did, commonly gave the background around Friday.

Well, how'd that go?

Yes, sir.

Next, it was banner headlines.

You know what I mean?

But at least they carried it.

Oh, yes.

And time and newsweek was good.

Valeriani had two minutes of it on Saturday night.

What it did was to set up a perfect economy.

He said that you felt that whether you were re-elected or not was less important than whether the country had any foreign policy with which it could survive for future generations.

That's good, don't you think?

All right, let's talk that way.

Oh, and that you were perfectly prepared about re-election.

I want the country to win.

Perfectly prepared to risk

prepared to risk the summit, prepared to risk anything for yourself personally because the country that would have a viable, credible foreign policy or the office would not be where anyone hoped.

A body would want to talk to the President of the United States and be bucked out of Vietnam.

And he did it so good that it set out the tone.

The letter he had on his report was marvelous, setting out, set out the tone.

of you being tough, courageous, not caring about the consequences for yourself.

But then, today, the reveal that this Jew is a Muslim, and then the reveal tonight, of course, that, in fact, going back to it, but the invasion of Oman, the invasion of Oman, the bombing of India, just absolutely sucks these guys in to where they're in an untenable position.

I don't know what the hell Denison said.

And Lahore, Sir Hatch, I've talked to a lawyer, having what he said.

Well, he said anything you do, he's with it.

He said, I bet you went out to the bank and paid for the bond.

No, Sir, I don't say that.

I don't want to do that until 5.30 in the week of it, because I don't want to have him wake up.

I don't want him to copper his speech.

He won't.

I want him to be tough.

Well, he's out there this afternoon saying that the Democrats who have refused to pronounce Madam Bim's letter

are simply a collusion with the Northeo Police.

In other cases, they put them, basically, we get back to Lettner's, oh, generous thing, which I didn't agree with, but, you know, the party of cretins, God damn, that's the position these bastards are in, Chuck.

We're putting them in a beautiful, that's what I mean about the drug police.

Yeah.

But weren't you ever pleased that we pulled a little trick on it?

Oh, I understand.

I think we've got, I don't know what I was saying.

Even that son of a bitch Gallup, who is totally against Vietnam, he comes out with 47% approving the bombing and 545% against it.

And 48 to 44% on Vietnam.

That's great.

I wouldn't care if it were 15% for it.

But Gallup must have really been his time when he had to put this one out.

What about Harris?

Harris says you're right.

He said that he's got a railing impact.

I did tell you that yesterday.

I can't wait to talk to you today because he said the impact of this is more like Cambodia, that people are railing to your side.

This is kind of a... Do you know what time it was again?

Bill and Harris say, you know, we're going to, incidentally, for your confidential information, I ordered for all of them to make a poll.

But Harris, got Harris, call Harris and say, look, we're doing this.

Okay.

Yes, sir.

And John, he ought to go right now.

He's going on a field trip this week, immediately.

What he did was he samples his pollsters.

He goes to the people that take his polls for the various, all 11.

And he goes to the questioners, and they're all out.

But he's good at sensing the mood of the country.

What does he think of the mood of the country?

He's very strong behind you.

He was fighting Gallup in 1947, 1944.

They always got a load of the goddamn questions.

My question, asking those questions in the abstract doesn't tell you anything.

They've got to say, do you support the president's bombing of North Vietnam after the massive invasion?

Or to defend against the invasion?

To protect people, I can always withdraw.

No, I don't know.

If you ask the government, you're going to get 80% yes.

If you ask the FBI, I don't know.

Nobody figures it out.

you know, the battles are going to be won and lost in Vietnam.

That's irrelevant, because Vietnam is not going to lose.

That's what Abrams told me then.

So he's basically a hell of a spotter.

The average American, yeah.

Tell me about some other issues.

Are we getting across the fact that, by God, you know, the bus living didn't go up?

Yes.

The economic...

We've only got one bad twist on that, and that is that Grayson is starting now to kind of cover the crowd.

Of course, that brings the market down a little bit.

It's six points yesterday and four by the end of the day.

It's ten points today.

I don't mind.

No, he'll come back.

He's on the good side of the consumer issue.

We're on the side of the folks that have got that market doesn't matter.

Right.

He'll come back.

I think I'm a little bit scared off.

I agree.

Come on, I made my speech.

I don't know.

I think it will.

I mean, I would suspect that Kissinger could bring the market back up and say, you know, this will... Well, the market should, they react to...

As you know, chapter 2, about the holidays, I mean, Vietnam, all that, that's bullshit.

All that really matters is how it all comes out.

These people don't understand.

Only the results that we'll get.

The bottom line is that, you know, they're basically Jewish, and I have great respect for them, but guys like Justin and Sapphire, you know, I don't understand.

I love them at the time.

Marvels.

Wonderful.

But...

They owe me in support.

What's that?

Oh, do an A.

Well, I can do an A on that.

Should I go and share my nap?

Yes, sir.

Mr. Coulson is a dove, you know.

He thinks we ought to stop the bombing.

What do you think?

He's a dove.

He's got it.

No, I don't stop.

What do you think we should do about Vietnam?

As far as they're still making courses inside of South Vietnam, I don't stop.

I leave it at that.

All right.

All right, well, fine.

Give me a moment.

Manolo, go over to the press corps and get your truck.

Your machine cannot shoot a few of those goddamn guys.

Sir, this is a crime.

I paid a lot of good guys.

I got a lot of rewards.

When you do something good on the right, if you give you kind of these guys, hell, you are really in trouble for nothing.

Because they have no who is going to pay for what we do.

Better react than any of the assholes.

Arsene McCrae was so way up, way up, way up.

I saw him all the time, you know.

The attitudes, I think, are just great.

Hello?

Clark?

I'm sorry I didn't, sitting here with Chuck Colson, I couldn't inform you, all of you, about what was going on, but I'm sure you realize that this is a hell of a, a, a fun, uh, particular segment, uh,

The wall back here.

We're going to tell them we're going to continue to bomb North Vietnam.

Will that satisfy them?

Oh, well, we're going to.

As a matter of fact, I ordered a couple of B-52 attacks on a major installation in North Vietnam five minutes ago.

Is that clear?

All right.

Church tomorrow night.

Not going on tomorrow night.

I'll play it in.

It's better.

I thought it was Thursday.

See you tomorrow.

That'll be good.

Fine.

Now don't you let your devilish friends get you out of line, okay?

He knows all the liberals in the press, but Clark basically is a decent man, trying to do the decent thing.

Personally, he's more of a conservative, but you must call Harris and tell him that if he's smart, he ought to go right away after my president's speech.

It's very important.

We ought to get the staff involved, and this is very important to us.

Okay?

Yes, sir.

You saw the play that we got on the cinema here.

Yeah.

Oh, the cinema came last week.

Yeah.

Over the weekend.

It was on TV.

Right.

Radio.

Let me say, and the Gallup thing was pretty, not bad.

Yeah.

Considering how loaded, well, loaded, but it showed more on our side than the other side.

But similarly, the news magazines picked up back this weekend and picked up the line of you having more public support today in the country than any president since Lake in 1953.

He said that?

Yes, sir.

He said that you have a stronger, more solid public support today.

that any president has said since I was mayor in 1953, oh boy, that must kill this son of a bitch.

Well, of course, the kind of news we use then, because it's a hell of a lot.

And the radio had it on Sunday.

Oh, close to the number.

And telling them about the Kissinger bill, about the fact that we're going to move forward with the other things.

You know, he is... Oh, we're building this fellow up.

He's getting more president.

And you say the president is so pleased, you know, you've got to play it exactly, you know, not as well as this and that.

But there are more things to come without you and hang out.

He'll be good.

See, he can come out in two days.

We'll see.

Tell Harris the same thing, but tell Harris that I put Harris in position.

You understand?

Gallup's going to pull right after the president's speech.

And maybe he ought to pull.

That's a good idea.

I guess I'll do it.

You know, to lose to a Muskie, I, Christ, if there's any way McGovern could win Pennsylvania, it'd be a horrible little thing.

Yeah, uh, Pennsylvania.

No, no, no.

Muskie.

Muskie has got to win Pennsylvania.

Muskie.

He's got to keep Muskie alive.

He's over there if he doesn't.

And I don't think he's at all.

Well, do what you can.

Give Rizzo a call or anybody else.

Muskie's the only one making supporters.

Okay?

It would be fun to keep these bastards off voluntarily.

You know, let the children do the power of the weapons.

Because there needs to be something of interest.

I thought I was sitting up at Camp David, you know, worrying about all this stuff.

I got to hear Kissinger and Monaco talking to the president.

The president was stopping around.

The guy in the marching corps does an editorial this morning saying we need something of the summit.

And Kissinger's just been there.

That's what's up.

Well, they have to take a lot of gas out of them.

And that's given our people a hell of a life.

This news today is flat.

Yes, sir.

I talked to Matt Dole.

He said, Jesus, isn't that great?

And I said, what do you mean?

He said, well, it's encouraging.

It's encouraging.

We think we're going to get the goddamn world over.

That's right.

It's encouraging.

That's right.

That's what we're playing for.

It's a big game.

Now, if the North Vietnamese play a hard line in the second, you should know that three, six days away, I'm going to bomb.

Not that I'm from the U.S., but I'm going to bomb those bastards into a bookend.

It's all the way from there.

And the people will back you.

Absolutely.

I think the thing that is so important, Mr. President, is that your support has changed

since January 25th.

When you told the Argentine people all the things you've been doing to try to get peace, all the things you've been trying to do through negotiations, your credibility went very high.

Because people said, you've been trying.

The only option is to leave all the other things happening and all the rest.

That's all right.

But given this border crisis, you see, this...

They'll know I've gone the extra mile, huh?

Everything passes with a stick of peace.

And that...

That gives them the kind of confidence to finally stand behind you when you bomb, because they know this man isn't bombing because he's angry, which is like a jackass Scotty resting on a sheet.

He's bombing because it's intestinal.

You're never going to see bombing like you've seen.

I mean, wait until the case handouts.

Those sons of bitches don't agree to something bad.

We're going to get a talk.

As I said to Kissinger last week, I'm glad that I'm the domestic carrier and not the national security, because I would go hard to lie to him.

It was very hard on him.

Kissinger really gave me the impression that I had all the quarter on him.

It was great.

Tell me about the other things.

How's finding each other?

I think we're going to get him out on the floor.

And there'll be a hell of a thought, Mr. President.

It looks like he's going to tell us to keep him turned.

I know, Mr. President, it's a little less than 50-50.

I think he's a professional.

Well, it's been doing this, you know, we've attacked, and we want to get Percy out of law.

We've got some real heat on Percy.

Well, I don't know whether we'll turn him around, but it would be a funny impression.

The problem is that Kennedy has decided to make this a personal crusade, and he will leave possibly enough senators to be able to just keep the debate going.

And why not all that?

No, he may overplay his hand.

He won't let him play his hand.

He'll overplay it.

The line needs to be a marker at that point.

He's got a couple of sharp, sharp dudes.

And they're now probing around for some finals, which is part of what they have.

They're up for the finals there at the SEC in this case.

Oh, no.

I've got him set up.

He's great.

He's tough.

He's not going to be pushed around.

American people like secrecy to have accomplished the result.

Kissinger hailed that as his briefing today, beautifully.

He said, I was at Camp David yesterday, referring to the president.

It was agreed by both governments that we could do much more if we did it in secrecy.

And that's how we did it.

And people expected us to break.

In fact, they wanted to hear the briefing.

Kissinger, going off the musket, a juror person, we said, hold that.

I couldn't tell him.

But we had to do it.

These bastards in the press, these lazy bastards, they should have thought it over, huh?

Yeah.

I figured that somebody had, you know, I didn't think it was Moscow, I'm sure you have.

I mean, all those parents are, it's fine.

Anybody else?

I'm sure he was in Paris, you know, he obviously didn't agree to work there.

I can't imagine, you know, one of these presidents, and I'm speculating, his history with the campaign, because it was a long period.

Well, of course.

He was there, but only on Monday.

But it was so... kind of thing that I would have expected Cal to say.

Washington Post is in a bad position.

I can just be close to Moscow.

All of them.

They must die.

You know, that paper is, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that,

The whole front page, the Nixon's resolve to cooperate with Bush told me.

That's good.

The official says the president is ready to risk Russian grip and own the rest of the country.

That's the company.

The Washington Post.

The Washington Post had the same article that he used.

The LA Times carried it right up the back.

You don't give a shit that the Washington Post doesn't carry a great deal of power.

Well, this one over on the country's history.

That's right.

Uh, did you talk to Kate Gray?

Yeah, she wasn't there.

Fine, fine.

Let's see about 315, okay.

Was it?

Right.

Fine, fine, right, right.

Right.

And you feel like the thing that you're seeing is okay, but what is your opinion?

Yeah, I know, a little too heavy, but you couldn't abort that, could you?

You couldn't do a damn thing.

As a matter of fact, the president did.

And we tried to press a speculation.

Put this on the basis of a press speculation.

Okay.

They must be out of their goddamn minds.

Yeah, three o'clock.

I said I got a speech.

Okay.

I'm gonna let you get some rest.

Okay, now.

I thought it was about a half, and then I'll go on.

Nobody will know, you know, the enormous importance over the weekend of this King Henry and the Republican Depression and all of it.

Nobody ever knows how important it is.

He made, he made, Henry made a very good point of the reason that he was asked whether

He had been in touch with you over the weekend.

Oh.

And he said continuous communication with you.

Absolutely.

With dry ice and wire.

Did he say the press was really trying to get Ed to pull the story out?

Oh, yes.

I've been calling all day.

They are going out of their minds.

Oh, the bastards missed one again.

They're out of their minds.

But they missed such a big one.

Such a big one.

Is impressed.

May the inevitable be saved.

He really is.

Screw him.

Tell your friend Crosby.

How does he feel?

What did he think when you told him about the Kissing Train?

Well, he just, he got a great sense of elation.

But the President missed it, first of all.

And his second mistake was, Jesus, one of those Democrats in the Senate, I'd like to be watching him wriggle around the Senate.

He said, why don't you read it on the book?

I laid out the information.

Because he believed, as I did, that you have an uncanny sense of timing, because this whole Vietnam thing has gone through two cycles.

One cycle was the attack, which we carefully built along with his invasion.

And that got him to do this incredible miscalculation by sending a... You made a mistake.

Oh, geez.

What?

Did you hear what Bob Burt said a minute ago?

No.

No, no, no.

Bob Burt said that he had intended to vote for an end-of-war resolution, but if you had not admitted this statement, he wasn't going to.

Now, he said this privately to a group of senators this morning, and I assume he'll say it publicly.

But if you had not admitted this statement, he now would not go to support an end-of-war resolution.

Perfect.

And now you put the court in a formal position.