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Conversation 343-042

TapeTape 343StartMonday, June 26, 1972 at 2:25 PMEndMonday, June 26, 1972 at 3:00 PMTape start time03:37:41Tape end time04:12:15ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Colson, Charles W.Recording deviceOld Executive Office Building
AI Summary

President Richard Nixon and Charles W. Colson met to discuss strategies for countering negative press coverage, particularly articles in the Washington Post and Newsweek that compared the administration's policies unfavorably to those of Dwight D. Eisenhower. The pair strategized on placing rebuttals through friendly media surrogates, such as Patrick Buchanan, to challenge the legitimacy of these critiques. Additionally, they briefly touched upon the political implications of the Watergate break-in and reviewed campaign tactics to address economic concerns, such as meat prices, in anticipation of the 1972 election.

Public RelationsWatergate1972 Presidential CampaignMedia StrategyForeign PolicyEconomic Policy
AudioNARA Description

On June 26, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:25 pm to 3:00 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 343-042 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 343-42

Date: June 26, 1972
Time: 2:25-3:00 pm
Location: Old Executive Office Building

The President met with Charles W. Colson.

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 39s        ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

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     Public relations
          -The President's memorandum
                 -Washington Post article
                      -George W. Wilson
                           -Newsweek
                      -The President’s view
                      -Colson’s view
                      -Henry A. Kissinger's reaction
                      -Foreign policy
                           -Comparison of George S. McGovern and
                               Dwight D. Eisenhower
                      -Possible response
                          -Ken Barton [?]
                                  -Draft reply
                           -John S. D. Eisenhower

                                     (rev. Jan-02)

                          -H. R. Haldeman
                          -Arthur W. Radford
                          -Bryce N. Harlow
                          -John Eisenhower
                          -C. Douglas Dillon
                    -Article
                    -Military background
                          -Radford
                          -Wilton B. (“Jerry”) Persons
                    -John Eisenhower
                    -Article
                          -McGovern's proposals
                          -US world position
                    -Dwight Eisenhower's foreign policy
                    -Barry M. Goldwater
                    -McGovern's policy
                          -Kenneth W. Clawson
                          -John A. Scali
              -Washington Post
                    -Biases
                          -Kissinger
                                -Katharine L. Graham
                                -Stewart J. O. Alsop
              -Plan
              -Patrick J. Buchanan
                    -"Today" Show
                    -Instructions
                    -Washington Post article
                    -Newsweek article
                    -Appearance

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 4m 43s     ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2

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         -Washington Post

                                         (rev. Jan-02)

               -Henry Cabot Lodge
                    -Kissinger
                    -Possible appointment
               -John Eisenhower
                    -Letter about Dwight Eisenhower
                          -Distribution
               -Clawson
               -George W. Wilson
                    -Clawson
                    -Picture

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 3m 46s     ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3

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    Watergate break-in
        -Joseph C. Kraft
        -Howard K. Smith
        -Comparison with May Day arrests
              -Public reaction
        -Bugging
        -Pentagon Papers
        -Pulitzer Prize
        -Washington Post
              -Printing of classified documents
              -Break-in at Democratic National Committee
        -William F. Buckley, Jr.
        -James J. Kilpatrick, Jr.
        -Clawson
        -Buchanan
        -First Amendment
        -"Today" show

    1972 Campaign
         -Predictions
         -Supermarket tours
              -George P. Shultz
         -Albert E. Sindlinger polls

                                       (rev. Jan-02)

                -John B. Connally
                -Press
                -Antitrust violations
           -Meat prices
                -Military purchases
                -Shultz
           -John N. Mitchell
                -Problems
                -International Telephone and Telegraph [ITT]
                -Martha (Beall) Mitchell
                -Watergate
           -Democrats

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 4m 15s     ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4

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     The President's schedule
          -Meeting with veterans leaders

Colson left at 3:00 pm.
Transcript (AI-Generated)

This transcript was generated automatically by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite this transcript as authoritative. Consult the Finding Aid above for verified information.

Hello?
Are you in your office?
Do you want to drop by?
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 matter with
Eisenhower and the government probably did something.
Would you 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,
It really leaves you with no foreign policy whatsoever.
Because it means we have to break the commitments for all of our allies around the world.
It means that...
It could be a... As far as who could do it, one thought that occurs is somebody would...
I don't know, it's difficult to work with.
Why not try John Eisenhardt?
That's what we'd go over to do.
I was thinking of Edmund Reiss as the Lord Reiss' hero.
Reiss is gone, so he can't go back.
But John Eisenhardt,
would like to do something, he's, of course, he's different, but try it.
I find it's a matter of a great and enormous part to have the damn thing written that he can edit.
He writes well himself.
You'll know that this is also funny bullshit.
Unbelievable bullshit.
The other one, very different, would be our record.
I think it's so heavy.
That was Dylan.
Oh, no.
He would
It's got to be somebody that told the military.
It's got to be somebody.
It's got to be somebody.
It's got to be somebody.
It's got to be somebody.
Jerry?
Well, I don't know.
He ought to.
He could.
Let me see what I can do with John Eisenhower.
John Eisenhower is very good with these abilities, and I am shocked at this attempt.
My father came to the way of 180 degrees, and when he believed him, he turned over his grave.
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.
and that this is a very dangerous president.
I slap that thing in there, because this is really a terrible thing.
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, and 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.
Everybody is hostage to the whims of the police, and so we have to be hard on people.
As long as you'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 said surrender.
He says, I've just practiced.
I think it's a...
I did it both ways.
I didn't go along with the speech on it, too.
Slice them up this time.
Somebody killed me this morning.
I don't know if it was Buss or Scali.
It was the businessmen who were just laughing at me.
It was such an obvious attempt to make the government look good.
It was so...
If you go into the elbow section, and they're comparing him with Eisenhower, you go into the nose section, and they talk about how it's like how he's ignoring the platform, and he's really letting the other parents write to them on the platform, which is not correct.
Oh, boy, that Washington Post is really, it's just wanting to sign it.
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 irritate us.
Remember, remember, they were violent against us in 68 and in 68.
I heard Kissinger's story in the...
I hate it.
Believe that.
Oh, 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... What I thought I was going to do is...
It's an issue that wants to be canceled.
We'll come back on it.
We'll do 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.
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 will.
He's right in the original campaign, but
He wrote this article about comparing Eisenhower and his new government chair.
And on the one news we did three weeks ago, which he said his new government is radical, in which they had the conclusion that he's no more radical, he's next.
You throw those two things out to 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 won't take him on.
Put him on.
If they want him, put him on.
Let him slice him up.
Pat, he's sincere.
He's smart.
He'll just slice the shit up.
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 he did.
And he really thought he did a very, very good job.
Except for one of the birds.
He got caught by other people.
I hope so.
He had a chance to write this letter, but he never takes on the tough ones.
But we know after we come out of Jefferson City, he's going to write it.
I've asked George Wilson, is it good?
My first thought, I thought it was kind of cheap.
I thought they were cartooning for a long time.
You know, I'm more of a, you know, it's good for me.
It's so ill-informed, this strategic situation is so different.
You can rely on it, you can rely on it.
It doesn't endanger any population.
You rely on it 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, you know,
to go along with the government, and maybe a little bit more.
Oh boy, that was one who wasn't a victim of the crap.
Crap?
Crap, yeah.
I don't believe it either.
I don't believe it.
I don't believe it.
I don't believe it.
I don't believe it.
I don't believe it.
Just like they paid attention to the time of the arrest of 15,000 kids.
And that sort of thing.
Well, that, and other kinds of levels, especially the 50s.
I know that my point is, if you can hear, that was pretty... My point is that the country didn't go on the buggy thing.
I'm just sort of curious, kind of, looking over the money.
This is a little bit bizarre.
This is a little bit of a joke, but...
That's wrong.
What's wrong with that?
Both are wrong.
Sure, they're wrong.
We can't wait to talk to him.
We'll talk to him and he'll say, go back to work.
It's the First Amendment.
The devil said it.
It's the First Amendment.
All of these four problems.
Remember, he never, he wouldn't really come to our defense.
But I'll check that.
Of course, if you can't, we'll work it out.
Well, I don't know.
I didn't think it was the First Amendment that it is.
Well, you can't.
It needs the publishing also.
It needs the bookies and the bookies too.
You know, you get down to it.
The question is, is stealing a document wrong?
The answer is no.
It's not right this way, but it's also not right when you're stealing from the government.
Well, it is.
It is, of course.
Well, remember, he never, he wouldn't really come to recognize me.
But, I'll check that closely, but you can't avoid him, can you?
Well, I don't know.
I think that the First Amendment said it was.
Oh, no, no, no, you can't.
But 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 drunk?
The answer is no.
It's not right this way, but it's also not right...
Yeah, I think we have something.
We're not just sitting there waiting for something to drop.
We're not waiting for something to drop.
You're uncovering 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, we will know where we'll be.
We'll begin to look back at what we did.
Yeah, I'm embarrassed, but I don't think, 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 free.
That's not all there is.
The supermarket screen, that's very, that's very pure.
I think that they will love it.
They may have to do it.
They're not going to do it.
No, they're not going to do it.
I don't think they're going to do it, but it's going to happen.
And then he said, I don't know what the company had to do, and that was on television.
But they went right at them, and ordered all of their big ads.
He said that was on a Wednesday, on Saturday.
All of the same big ads.
We are holding the price line.
We are holding the price line.
He said that gets the first couple of the ads.
They are so goddamn sensitive to any first preference.
I think some of the things we're going to do, we're all working on the military side.
Never mind.
We'll help them if there's any questions.
How do you take pressure off?
If the military is held on the market, and if they quit buying, they get out of Chicago, they get out of those feedlots.
Right.
Exactly.
You see, your SPU will be what happens two weeks from now in the market for the Saturday event.
Well, if Schultz sees them next week, which is what we're talking about, this
It's working out pretty well now.
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