Nixon & Colson on Public Relations and Watergate

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Colson, please.

Hello?

You in your office?

I want to drop by.

Uh, did you get my memorandum with regard to that Washington Post article that made you some courage for somebody else to hit him?

Well, I never let him get away with a bullshit like that.

Who wrote the article?

George Wilson.

Why?

For Christ's sakes, he knows better than that.

He's a pretty sensible fellow, right?

What in the name of Christ's a matter with him?

I think it's the fact that the Washington Post and Newsweek have decided that they're going to beat us with everything they've got.

And if they can wrap the metal with

Eisenhower and the government, you'd get somebody to work on that piece.

No, I couldn't, no.

I read it when you called me yesterday, and I broke it through my mind, and I said, yeah, well, it's the worst thing I've ever seen.

It turns a dishonest piece, because, well, they hold that there are so many different themes,

Well, once you know your memo, you're done.

Yeah, excellent.

There are a number of points.

The others can be made, and Henry made two or three points this morning.

I'm sure he's probably just can't get at this sort of thing, but under time, he'll probably have it.

There's probably other questions that, I don't know if it's right here, but he,

It really leaves you with no foreign policy, whatever it does.

It means we have to break the commitments for all of our allies around the world.

Yeah.

It could be, as far as who could do it, one thought that occurs to somebody that, I don't know, it's difficult to work with.

Why don't you try John Eisenhardt?

That's what we thought we'd do.

I was thinking of that one, right?

What, Bryce Garland?

Bryce is gone, so you can't go, right?

But John Eisenhardt,

who would like to do something, he's, of course, he's different, but try it.

It's a matter of a great and enormous part to have the damn thing written that he can edit.

He writes all himself.

You'll know that this is all such wonderful shit.

Unbelievable bullshit.

The other one, very different, would be Al Renter.

I think it's so kind of disgusting.

You know what Bill was doing?

Oh, no, no.

He was,

He's all right.

He's more than good.

It's got to be somebody that told the military.

The military's got to be somebody.

The employee record was terminated by the Chief of Staff.

In the end, you know.

I don't know the person.

Jerry?

Yeah.

Well, I don't know.

He ought to.

He could be.

Let me see what I can do with John Eisenhower.

John Eisenhower is very good with these abilities.

I am shocked at this attempt.

My father came to the way of 180 degrees when he believed in the eternal regrade.

It had nothing to do with the exasperation of President Nixon.

It had to do with the fact that this is totally against what he believed in.

that this is a very dangerous president.

I slap that thing in there because this is really a parallel.

My sense is that the crisis would be a unilateral disarmament.

What we have to argue, I think it opens up a hell of a good time for us.

I hope that I will decide to stay on this issue because I think you can argue

It just scares the hell out of people.

That kind of a fallacy is going on.

But it's hostage to the whims of the police, and so we have to be hard on people.

As long as we're not only hostage to their whims, but subject to blackmail all over the world.

International blackmail.

The people themselves who live in the river, and also the river, that gets across the park to the second place in the world.

And that this basically, that Eisenhower never, always said we had to have superior portions.

He always said containment.

He says surrender.

He says, I've just practiced.

I think it's a, I hit it both ways.

I'd go on and I'd speech on it too.

Slice them up this time.

Somebody killed me this morning.

I didn't know it was Bussinger or Scali.

It was the businessmen who were just laughing at me around town.

It was such an obvious attempt to make the government look good.

It was so...

I asked her to compare it with the other nice man, the sophisticated, the one Chuck had showed you, the one they're up to.

Oh, boy.

That Washington Post edition, yes, because when he called me, I thought about that, and I said, if you haven't seen it, I'm going to let you relax on Sunday.

But the style of the lady sent you.

Bill came up as the glamour boy, the best-dressed man around town with a $15 neckhugger.

You go into the elbow section, and they're comparing him with Eisenhower.

You go into the nose section, and they talk about how he's playing, how he's ignoring the platform, and he's really letting the elements right there on the platform, which is really uncorrect.

Oh, boy, that ocean coast is really, it's just only designed.

Well, I wouldn't buy it for much, except that Tom and I stick to it, and I feel very proud of it.

We've got a few of them.

They primarily irritated us.

Remember, remember, they were violent against us in 68 and in 62.

I heard Kissinger's story, and that was taken very seriously.

I hate it when you have issues.

Believe that.

Oh, wait a minute.

Wait a minute.

What I'm going to do is, don't panic.

Kissinger said she sold over the storehouse.

What I'm going to do is do a conference to a leading Washington conference.

What I thought I was going to do is, if today's show wants to be canned, we can come back on it.

And we did that.

All right.

He did a very effective job up until that 1.3.

Just because he's not a lawyer doesn't mean he's untrustworthy at all.

They want him back on.

I can't wait to put him back on.

Sure.

And let him say that he's now seen two bits of evidence that persuade him to be close to his new job.

He's writing a new campaign letter.

He wrote this article about comparing Eisenhower and his new government chair, Elbright.

And on the one news we did three weeks ago, which he said is bringing together a radical in which they have the conclusion that he's no more a radical in which he thinks he is.

You throw those two things out into the public, and they're both implausible.

Neither one is going to sell.

Nobody thinks the government is anything like Eisenhower.

Nobody makes you a radical.

A lot of people make you go.

I think Pat must take it on head-on.

Put him on.

If they want him, put him on.

I think he's good.

I don't slice him up.

Pat, he's sincere.

He's smart.

He likes to shit on them.

I like good, honest Irish-based journalism background.

He's effective.

I watched Pat.

I had to read him twice to get that true shit in.

And he really hooked me.

He did a very, very good job, except for one of the burdens.

He was going to fall back.

He had to go out of his way.

— 4 min 45 s with no transcribed speech —

He's going to ask, I bet he's going to ask Henry for a job.

I already know that Spain promised.

I didn't want to say it, but if we could use him, I hope so.

If he'll be used, he has a chance to write this letter, but he never takes on the tough one.

But we know after we come out of the city, he's going to write it.

Because, well, he didn't sign that piece.

He was lucky.

All right.

Instead of John Eisenman.

He'd be a good one.

Yeah, I think he would, because he's Nick.

Yeah, he's kept it.

He's kept this for a long time.

But I want that letter, I want that to go.

I want it to be tough.

Easy to understand.

And then I'd mail it to him.

But that paper in the country was to strike at the post.

So that's...

I've asked George Wilson is it good?

military in there, I can't imagine it or anything.

What cost them anything?

I call them until we do get in touch with most of the men who were there and even ask them if they voted.

Yeah, they voted on it.

That was the picture with Professor Wilson.

The picture with the bust of life.

Right.

My first thought, I thought it was kind of cheap.

I thought they were cartoony.

So ill-informed, the strategic situation was so different.

You could rely on everyone else, but that's an invasion of your population.

You rely on today, and it's just a question of whether you're willing to sacrifice a hundred million people.

Well, I'll try to concede, though, but the post is kind of a second-line post.

It's more of a...

to go along with the government and get it over with.

— 3 min 47 s with no transcribed speech —

Oh, boy.

That was one who wasn't a victim of the... Crap.

Crap.

I don't believe it either.

I mean, you're wrong.

I believe that there are a lot of them here, just like they paid attention to the time of the arrest of 15,000 kids and that sort of thing.

Well, I'm kind of going to get a little distressed here.

I know that my point is, you can hear about this pretty much.

My point is that in the country, the people are on the bugging that I'm concerned.

I'm sort of curious about that.

I want to know what everybody thinks.

And then criticize it.

say what is different from the Democratic National Committee.

That's wrong.

What's wrong about it?

Both are wrong.

We've got Buckley.

Bill Buckley.

The First Amendment.

There was a First Amendment.

Oh, he spoke about it.

Well, I remember he never, he wouldn't really kind of do anything about it.

But I'll check that.

Of course, if you can't afford it, you can't get it.

Well, I don't know.

I think that you have a person to mention that it is.

Well, no.

Well, you can't.

But he's the publishing officer.

Then he's going to put these in the bucket, too.

You know, you get down to it.

The question is, is stealing documents right?

The answer is no.

Not right this way, but it's also not right when you're stealing from the government.

Well, yes.

Yes, of course.

Yeah, I think we have something.

I just think we have something.

We're not just sitting there waiting for something to drop.

We need something to drop.

I think the facts will look better in September, but I don't think it will look better in September.

I think we're going to end up delaying it.

and criticized and said it wasn't different from what they tried to do with the Democratic National Committee.

That's wrong.

It wasn't wrong.

It wasn't the other way around.

Both are wrong.

Sure, they're not.

They're all the same.

Well, then we had Buckley, Bill Buckley, and Joe Patrick Wood.

The first amendment said there was a...

Well, remember, he never, he wouldn't really come to our defense.

But I'll check that.

Of course, if you can't award him, you can't.

Well, I don't know.

I didn't think he had the first amendment that I made.

Well, you can't.

He's for publishing also.

Then he's for the book.

He's for the book, too.

You know, you get down to it.

The question is, is Stephen Goffin's right?

The answer is no.

It's not right this way, but it's also not right...

Yeah, I think we have some.

Well, you know, we're not just sitting there waiting for it to drop.

I mean, it's not going to drop.

You're on top of the issue of testing for what would seem to be doing something.

I think we're on a nod.

I just wonder what we're going to do next.

That's the real problem.

When we get to that figure, well, we will know where we'll be.

So, you think it'll begin to look better in the future?

Yeah, I'm embarrassed, but I think the facts will look better in September, but I don't think the public evidence has to be there.

I think we're going to end up the last two months of this campaign in a brief.

That's not all there.

The supermarket screen has a housewife cheering.

I think that they will love it.

They may have to do it.

They're not going to do it.

Go ahead.

I don't think they're going to do it.

Chilts and I talked about it at some length and said, it's the idea that you might want to do it.

Yep, and eventually we'll be into the video later this century.

Next week we'll go about it.

That will have an effect.

Even though we want to recover from it.

It has an effect on that.

And similarly, Chilts, you're very introspective about it.

So that has an effect on that.

And then he said, well, I'm kind of looking at the news, and I don't look like I'm kind of looking at the news.

And I was on television.

But they looked right at me and ordered all of their big-time ads.

He said, that was on Wednesday, Wednesday.

I don't know, they were saying, big ads.

We are holding the price on it.

We're holding the price on it, period.

And he said, that gets grossed.

But the ads, they are so goddamn sensitive to any gross preference.

I think some of the things we're going to do, we've all worked on the military side.

That will help them if there's any questions.

How do you take pressure off the military?

If the military is in hell on the market, they quit buying.

They get out of Chicago.

They get out of those feedlots.

Right.

Exactly.

You see, the August video will be what happens two weeks from now on the market for the Saturday event.

Well, if Schultz sees them next week, which is what we're talking about, this

Here's my theory, is that we, Wednesday after the Fourth of July, we see them in the night after Price's death, or even the whole, on that week, that the July to June increase, the June to July increase might not be due there.

And hopefully for another month, then there's pretty well another campaign season, in terms of looking to see the judge, if they ever have any, get the result, what the latest accuracy, whatever, is going to be on the report.

I haven't, but I listen to you, darling.

I should go.

I have a little debate with you.

I don't know what to say.

Let's put it back in about there.

Wait now.

Okay.

Sure.

It's working out pretty well, Tom.

I know.

And that's the first month of his name.

Yeah.

Nixon & Colson on Public Relations and Watergate

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Transcript (AI-generated)

Also recorded on June 26, 1972

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Nixon & Colson on Public Relations and Watergate

AI Summary

Audio

NARA Description

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Transcript (AI-generated)

Also recorded on June 26, 1972

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Cite this conversation