Nixon, Colson & Haldeman on Watergate and White House press relations

Good.
That was great.
Whenever he's free, three days a month.
I mean, if he was on a call or something like that, three days a month.
But if it doesn't pour, it's all right.
Any time.
I called him up and got a great month of coverage.
He said, I've got to get a call.
I said, I'm going to go with you in August.
I said, well, I haven't bothered you in my entire life.
I haven't bothered you in your schedule.
I said, I've got to get a mission.
He said, all right, I understand.
Is that what he said?
He wants to come right on.
We don't need to go to the Kennedy Center right now.
We can still put 250, we can put 250 in that.
Maybe the cell won't.
We'll take a chance on the wood.
He wants to wait right there.
I'll tell you what, don't do it in my house.
I was just thrilled with the twist with Kennedy and Senator, you know, they were buddies.
Well, but he wants to win this.
And we've done it.
Well, he's been in the White House before.
like us, even not just with him.
That's all.
It's he.
We've done enough of him.
All the extra people that come in.
Do the same thing with me.
We probably should look at it quickly.
I don't know why.
I'm jealous of you very much.
Mr. President, I want to congratulate you on that.
I know the President has prayed that it would be possible to have you in the Senate if we have you back in Congress.
And this is all in Congress now, and we haven't had you
I don't even need really to tell him, you know, just say, you know, cut him out.
He doesn't even need to know that.
I don't trust his office.
So, you know...
No, I didn't call it a barrier working on this system.
I didn't call it a barrier.
And you know we have a problem with our water treatment.
And we're looking for a way to help the water.
We just got to get that done.
We can't count our losses on it tonight.
I'm afraid it's a very bad problem.
We need to stand up and try to slow it down.
We just can't get much out of this.
We just got to take responsibility for it.
We're a clever prosecutor.
We're more likely to
I think Hunt will
Well, I would say that I think that Hunt will not think that anything he did was wrong.
That's the problem.
That's the biggest weakness I have.
No, I mean, he doesn't think that to try to find communists or disruptors, yeah, he just thinks that's a little bit of an argument.
That's the only trouble we have.
He's such an ideal.
He's so committed to the country.
What would it say?
Well, if he's properly coached and he's got a good lawyer, I think he would...
He is one guy that I would think he would take for granted.
Take for me.
And when I speak... See, he came to us.
I've known him for a long time.
He came to us.
And he said, I just want to help.
So...
He was never interested in money.
I don't know if he has any.
He's written a lot of books about faith.
He's the kind of fellow who's a real believer.
A real believer.
Bill Buckley is the godfather of this children.
I went running school.
He wrote the greatest letter of Brown University, when he snuck his computer and was saying, I wrote my book on the ground.
And he just talked about the whimpering, simpering, weaklings that the university was marrying him on.
He's a man with very strong feelings.
I put a lot of emphasis on him.
The place where I was worried about him is that he would say, of course I'm going to try to psychoanalyze those people.
I don't think that's the only thing I would say.
That's irrelevant in the criminal case.
It clearly would be irrelevant in the civil case because it has nothing to do with the invasion of privacy.
I'm not sure in the criminal case whether it is
He knows it has nothing to do with .
Not a strong guy.
Oh, I don't have much knowledge of him, but I think he's... Yeah, but he's scared enough that he would... We're coming to the question.
The tragedy of this whole business, the real tragedy,
They didn't.
Well, yes, that was the first trip they got.
The second trip, it was a good one.
It was a good one.
It was a good one.
It was a good one.
It was a good one.
It was a good one.
It was a good one.
It was a good one.
It was a good one.
It was a good one.
It was a good one.
It was a good one.
It was a good one.
It was a good one.
It was a good one.
It was a good one.
It was a good one.
It was a good one.
with an attempt, not to steal, but an attempt to obtain information.
You know damn well that the industrial espionage case, they would go to jail.
They did.
They wouldn't even push the prosecution.
It's not like somebody breaking in to steal money.
That's clearly not the case.
Or they'd do any harm.
If they were unarmed, at least, you know,
It's not the kind of case where the average judge is not going to look at it, except for all the guys pulling it one way or the other.
But I think the basic judgment I've found is, on your part of cutting our lawsuit, is very absolutely correct.
Just whatever it is, slice it up, get it over with.
Because there's going to be no other time.
Of course, the way the Democrats are playing with this terrible whip and spy, which is going to lie down in conflict with a lot of nice and good work for the White House, and including a good work for the White House, getting the highest position in any department.
They're working hard.
Most of the great events this year have been
He's got to carry that around.
That's right.
Wow.
I'm sure they have some of those guys.
The charge is still hanging on after the election.
See, this morning, they're grassing.
Huh?
They're grassing this morning.
So, they keep themselves alive.
And if others arise, they will be destructions again.
Provided there's some on the other side.
It's just our side.
The heat of a political campaign.
Both sides.
Both sides.
to wash the slate clean for you.
I don't think there'd be a lot of need for that.
The only place where we have any vulnerability is the court.
There's no corruption in this administration.
Nobody has personal data on that.
But you begin to get just a little bit of flavor of the, you know, these folks.
The overworld of the table, that's the kind of thing
that we didn't want to report.
That's something that the government can deal with.
One of the only areas you can deal with, the rest of the country, is to be so left out in a barrier to this.
Well, how will that affect us?
I don't know.
But we're done.
I mean, I guess I don't know.
I'm done.
I have plenty of them.
I don't know how much I have plenty of them.
Well, there are some people who think that being here is, there are some people who think that the Cubans did this on their own.
I know, so that's, I'm not here to say it, because that story in New York is kind of like, God, it's not good.
It's part of their desperate desire to keep the government out of the way.
They should continue to have that part of this in America.
It's not a big issue.
It's not a big issue.
Well, that'll turn into a big issue for the committee.
But that's it.
I think I've brought Greg's step away now.
I mean, there'll be this.
I'll have to get back to him on an office press conference next week.
And I'll just say, this is kind of a problem.
It's probably kind of so important.
And that's why I directed him for a presentation about it.
That gets rid of it.
Anybody connected with a gift?
It's proven to be a gift.
And whatever one of them tried, that's not so wrong.
That's a gift.
That's right.
That's a gift.
That's a gift.
It's not this case.
This isn't.
That isn't.
I have no concern in this case, as such.
It is accumulation of the NRG and ITT and bugging.
That's the kind of thing that's occurred.
And the offset for that is the union.
See, all those charges lead to us being sort of sinister and cozy with big business, with money.
I can tell you how bad it is, but it really knocks down that special privilege.
And these other folks, these other Democrats, I think they're a little close.
Is it?
Yeah, it's not good enough yet.
They're doing a lot more.
Anybody reading it up there?
Well, the thing they haven't done yet is to get it to the administrative system.
They haven't gotten it up there early enough.
They're getting it up there in the meantime.
Right now, they've got to hire additional staff and get it up there.
It's a pretty difficult thing.
The first couple of issues have been not bad.
In fact, they had some stuff that we missed in our new center.
But we haven't needed that sort of problem where they go and leak domestic stories.
And then front page in four or 14 papers say that NBC, CBS, ABC front cover.
And then lead foreign.
And then other.
And they cover the same papers we cover.
And they cover the networks.
And it's coming along.
It's maybe a third as good as ours.
That's all they do.
But it'll get better.
And the key that they
The thing they have to do is to print it at midnight and then send a message and say, well, why don't we just, frankly, give Alan a stand for that?
I don't know.
They've been working together.
They want Alan, actually.
They look at him and go, well, how about it?
I haven't said I want to go, but it makes some sense.
We'll have to get Alan to go to that and then we can service all of them.
Why not plant and cook?
That's the best solution.
I'll explore it.
Like a new summer, it just comes from, we get it from that.
There's that, they are gonna summer.
Ours is, ours is a little bit of, it's a problem.
I'll work it out.
And it's coming along, the reaction was pretty good.
We get it up there now.
at 8 o'clock in the morning, which I feel we're going to have to do, regardless of the expense, people will start leaving it ahead of the post.
I think we'll get a lot of people beginning to vote, and they just really screw that post, and sure will.
There's one thing that you asked me about the free lunch in California, and how this is a possibility.
I suppose it's working.
The possibility that maybe
I was scared for the reason that Bill, he's very powerful, and you'd have to cut him in on it.
Everybody up there is just scared to death.
This is one of those
You've got to have some sleep in the summer.
You can't have it all the other day, I suppose, and everything.
And I got one technical thing.
You're having a problem with that one.
I THINK THE BREAKFAST IS A GOOD IDEA.
WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO SLEEP THAT LONG.
IT'S ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA.
I'LL TAKE IT.
I'LL TAKE IT.
I'LL TAKE IT.
I'LL TAKE IT.
I'LL TAKE IT.
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I think that's probably the best thing to do is move the cabin over to the cabin.
Right.
And then set up a short cabin and you can take about 20 minutes to get it covered.
I mean, I have to tell you, I think that goddamn son of a bitch hammer is stocking up from 11 at 18 today before they close trading.
I never could afford to be a little generous with an executive vice president for a few months.
What particular government would take away the capital gains here?
I'm not sure that's what happens if they're on this spot.
Of course, incidentally, there was the idea that the capital gains thing was going to make you money.
It was ridiculous.
It was anybody who knows what will happen.
The people in the capital gains, that's all that will happen.
They'll just buy their stocks, keep their stocks, borrow money on their stocks, invest the money to get a girl.
That's a must-do.
Which is a valid thing.
I heard that they turned around and gave back to the economy.
There was a whole ferry that went over there.
Well, the government does nothing this way.
They might lose money.
They did with their stuff.
We should have done something.
Instead of selling stuff, have a tax-free exchange.
We should have done it in the post office.
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I think it seems to me that it's disgusting.
Probably Chuck ought to go and do what he's doing.
But I don't think we want to do it.
At this point, I don't think we really want to do it.
It's going to be years from now.
Okay.
We're going to show this in Hudson, I think, about every bridge.
Timsters are taking over this, but we're trying to figure that out.
We're going to divide up the international presence.
That's the only post that we have in the state.
We're going to get, instead of the people, we're going to get a full set of projects.
We're going to have a lot of projects.
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We'll do our best, of course, to get the cost of the market to the right person.
I don't know how we can do it.
I heard a post this morning.
He said, it will never happen.
I said, if you want to know what's going to happen, I haven't told you so.
I said, I don't know.
He said, well, you know that I'm going to do it.
He said, it's all gone.
It's all busted.
I said, okay.
He talked to him and said, I'm sure he's going to make it through.
I didn't think they, he didn't, the crunch, the delay, he didn't, he kind of, he said, we're never getting old.
He said, never get old.
We're never getting old.
And he knows most of the labor.
And Rizel, Rizel will be writing on this for three months.
So, good.
Nothing but, I gave him some color on here, getting the gold gold, and he was just carrying away with that.
And he told me, he said, Bill, you know, don't expect much on Winston.
Bill's still on Winston.
I mean, he'll never, he'll never.
Rizel.
Yeah.
He said he could never cross the river.
You can't go that far.
So don't get your hopes up.
This was, and I'd be sure if you talked to her yourself, I'd say that it all happened.
There's only one good name for the dog.
I don't know.
Could we not agree?
No, we've got to agree.
It got closer to the hole than I did.
We didn't want to take it closer.
It wasn't close.
Oh, yeah.
I think maybe it was closer.
No, no, it was closer.
I'm just saying.
David Hewitt said that to the president.
The president said, no, sir, it's not true.
It was closer to the moon.
It wasn't that.
Well, that was closer to the moon.
And also, in a 265-yard drive, she proved that it was not true.
But she mentioned only about 40 yards.
She said 50 yards for the president.
Which is true.
I don't know if that's true or not.
I'm holding my mind.
on a regulation course .
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analyzing American League participants.
Except then what they want to do is do a similar interview with Frank Mankiewicz, analyzing the National League participants.
And I put the two on a problem people's choice baseball policy.
So Mankiewicz, I guess, is the government's best baseball analyst.
David versus Mankiewicz, we come out about 3,000 points ahead.
So I think it's a pretty good idea, and it's not political.
That's right.
It's not political.
That's a baseball game.
I guess I can't discuss politics, but I guess what goes forward is right.
Yeah.
That's great.
Allegiant speech, or somebody would say.
I've heard that, without mention.
Anybody else have a chance to repeat a speech in English?
That's awkward, possibly.
Fifteen, you know, two thousand words.
Very good, that speech is getting noticed, getting noticed.
Thank you.
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The grossest situation now...
What are your thoughts?
They started on that path now .
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I'm not sure if that's what the leader thought about, or if it was these other guys who thought about it.
That's better.
But the leader thought it was a good idea, but other institutions didn't really do a lot to protect the kids, to protect their dementia, et cetera, et cetera.
Oh, it has to be.
They just have so much stuff, and there's no way anything can get it here at all.
It's the worst.
Oh, absolutely.
And so the House and I are trying to cut it off from the board.
It's essential that everybody agrees with me.
It's very important.
Cut it off from the gooder level and not from what's on our own.
I'm a good doer.
That's a, you know, that's a setting of if there's some questions, whatever you can.
He's a problem we've got.
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Are the mafia types just flatly saying yes or no?
Never a bad time.
What is the type?
Of course, the best.
The job scheme is that we ought to get the things done as quickly as we can, give us an excellent amount of time to get .
An excellent amount of time to get it well.
We don't know how long we can string it out.
We can have some effect in accelerating and it's probably better to get it done in this period and get it over with.
It's good not to have had it before the next graduate convention.
I called, uh, I thought I was checking on the synopsis.
Oh, there he is.
There he is.
So I called Sinatra.
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We're not stuck on it.
We're not stuck on it.
We can still do it.
We don't need to know this.
What I was thinking of was something like accomplishment.
Why not do it?
Well, in any event, I've got to show you a reason.
He did agree to do it.
Oh, sure.
If the 10th of August works out, which is what we're talking about, you have to fly over and plan it out.
That Kennedy Center is available.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Did you say we were talking about a dinner at the White House first?
Yes.
Would you still be an honored guest at the White House dinner?
I'd like to go over to the center.
Either way, it would be great.
Frankly, I think we don't .
But we could even at least discuss it with him, as he thinks about it, in case he .
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There's something in here, isn't there?
You've heard of me?
This is as epic as it gets.
I have already talked to Dave Bob about this, and this came out in the case of Desmond.
I said, but not that Desmond comes here.
Desmond comes here.
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How did you do it?
I tried.
I just leave it alone.
I made it clear to Dr. Kissinger.
I gave him the briefs to establish reading.
When did you get the first reading?
I said, when I get this in here.
I hate to call it, but that's a fine upgrade, so I'll appreciate that.
We'll get back to it.
I don't think we have any further allocation.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, I'm sure it will save a significant amount of resources for the unions to not vote for President Nixon.
That's what I'm saying.
Well, could he say the same thing that you say?
After the fund, he had no effect on any of the unions.
The person in charge of the union, obviously, will not support President Nixon.
He also said that the unions can vote for whoever they want.
But he didn't probably vote for him.
He didn't support the election or anything.
I'll be sure as we crack this issue with the others.
The others know it.
Is it my head?
No.
It's got to be.
It's got to be.
It's got to be.
It's got to be.
It's got to be.
It's got to be.
It's got to be.
Today?
What month?
That is actually a long back and forth.
That was number three.
I think this was number one.
And then also number two.
We'll have to give you an introduction, sir.
No, a reaction.
No, I'm not going to give you a reaction.
I'm very, very glad to be here.
I'm curious.
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It's a subtle way to suggest there might be a movement that wants to ensure that the city will be announced as a hill.
It's subtly suggestible.
It's a subtle way to suggest there might be a movement
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There's five great presidents.
Do you see the picture, Dave?
Yeah, I don't understand.
Sure.
You got, you know, about one, two, three.
Well, I wasn't in the Georgetown government.
Sure.
Yeah, sure.
Yeah.
with regard to this
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Well, first of all, there's a question about the fact that, you know, there is press bias there, and we'll get into my suggestion, that is there, and it's a fact, and it exists.
However, I don't think, and I'm talking about this actually, and I'll say it, but I don't think, my sister did, that many newsrooms today
I don't know if they were unsure of him in the same way that they're unsure of the governor.
I think they're more skeptical of the governor on the national defense thing.
I think many of them have a
I think some of them are concerned about the Democratic Party itself.
What is happening to the Democratic Party and what will happen to the Democratic Party in the future is a combination of all of these.
I think also some of them were a little bit disingenuous, maybe too harsh of a word by the way they were telling people and pushing them around in the early days, if you've ever been in the early days, and they did not effectively cover it, cover it, kind of give it a press.
I know particularly in relation to language, what they put out there, it sounded to us that they were taking advantage of it.
So you had this type of attitude in existence
Some of the press, some of them.
But that's an interesting point.
You've got the Kennedy press people, and that's the way it's going to sound here.
Even the McGovern press, if you can't treat the press on behalf of McGovern, you can treat them on behalf of Kennedy.
Which they don't need a lot of.
They can kick the shit out of the press.
And they love Kennedy so much that it's okay.
Boy, I can't do it now.
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yeah yeah
So, with that in mind, something's going on now.
How about the argument?
We're alienated from the press.
By the end of the campaign, we could have avoided that.
That's the argument that's being made.
I guess to make it up, I mean, again, how it was mediated by non-avidable relief, staff hostility, right, and an adult campaign for coming to the board.
I would, I think that there is something that will happen to the press board.
I don't think it's exaggerated.
in the campaign, but I do think that there was some, in very definite terms, in the campaign, there was a kind of, I'm not sure, but the race was getting closer.
There was a chance for the other side.
However, they were rooting for Hunter.
Well, of course, it's hard to parable 68% of the students.
We face a situation today, I think,
that there is not in existence, amongst the press, an attitude in the press line of recognizing that there are, which is blatantly in, I guess, quite a lot.
It is very difficult, I've already reported to you, on the fashion issue, I guess you could say, because of the three-and-a-half years, what you've done for the three-and-a-half years.
No question.
That's right, Coach.
But it is very hard for a oppressed man to be just, at the gut, anti-Mexican.
They respect you.
There's no question about that.
They respect what you've done.
They, over the years, have disliked what they respect you.
This, of course, is a different posture.
Not that they disrespected you totally in 1968.
I think right now, however, there is not a level of respect.
I think many of them are looking to see whether or not he has assumptions and many question whether he does.
And so I think that we have a situation where, I think, as of this moment, we have an impulsive relationship with the press following the series of those conferences.
And we have, I think, the proper level between the presidency and the press that has been struck.
I think we were poaching the, you know, the carting of the frequency of those conferences and so forth by the last two or
I don't sense that.
In terms of our overall posture, I think we have every right to
project the attitude of confidence, and a positive attitude, and a relaxed attitude in our dealing with the press.
And I wish, if we don't move in that direction now, and I agree with John Scalvis, I feel that we should eliminate, overall, generalized attack on the press.
But still hold, still hold right-of-shot approach on accuracy.
And when there is an accuracy,
then get a moderate, but not on their motives, and not always, don't always move to the public forum to do that.
Only, when necessary, move to the public forum to do it.
Because I think that what has been said up to this point, whatever we have been able to do to condition the American mind without the advice of the press, has already been done.
Anything further that's already permeated the White House, to a great extent,
I think anything we do beyond this, at all levels, and I'm referring to Monday, because that would reflect it absolutely.
I'm talking about every level.
I think that is counterproductive because it shows us, for what we're not, it shows us to be negative and defensive and lacking in confidence.
I agree.
I agree with that.
You know, what should we do in terms of our overall strategy?
There are about really seven basic ways to have contact with the rest of the population.
Contacts are included by the Air Force One crew at the airport.
There's the individual interview, like the first interview in the Wall Street Journal.
There's the individual interview.
There's a small group that you can have in your office on a background basis or a work basis to see individuals alone on the background or on the regular basis.
And of course, there's a social group.
I'm inclined to think that we should pursue a strategy that is not a strategy for abrupt change.
I don't think that we should abruptly move to starting to have groups and a group that
I think rather we should pursue a strategy with the press of increasing our activity within the existing framework, which is the press conference in various formats, which is the contact on the move, which you've done from time to time.
But you have to, in other words,
I think it's this type of thing that we should do.
In addition to that, I think that key members of the Senate should be more readily available to the press, both by phone and in individual contacts.
Because I think this, again, permeates the attitude of the press.
And I think it makes sense that we have one
Yes, and I respect McGregor.
He's a very good friend.
He's actually going to do a hell of a lot for them.
He should be socializing with them because he has no pattern.
He doesn't have to worry about it.
He does his stuff.
He's a top student.
He builds a lot of stuff.
McGregor used Conley.
Yeah, Conley's another one.
He was just with Conley.
I don't know what to do with Conley.
So, McGregor and Conley.
Now, just to continue, I don't think that you should have groups in.
I don't think you should have groups in.
I don't think that you should have groups in.
I don't think that you should have groups in.
Let me tell you what concerns me and what I would like to
Let's get, if we can perhaps get off the first of the things that we know we're going to do.
First, I think that we've started immediately, we should have started to be, well, let's take Henry.
Henry is very good in the group.
He's also very good personally.
He's not a girl, but he's a person.
He's a lot more fun to us than he is.
He thinks he can do a lot of good things, probably like John Hart.
That's good.
Anybody else?
Now, the question is, you see, everybody will see the columns.
I think what we have to do, I think Henry ought to have a one-on-one with Cronkite.
I think Henry ought to have a one-on-one with Chancellor and or no Chancellor.
Chancellor.
Yes.
I think Henry should have a one-on-one, probably with Severide.
I think Cronkite would be better.
Well, can he do both?
Is that not the other way?
Severide.
Severide is more vulnerable.
Severide is so vulnerable, Jim, that even if he's done, he comes back out of it.
Now, in ABC, in ABC, I think he should do two also.
He should be reasonable.
Now, the question is, should Henry do people down the line?
Should he do a Gerald Malone?
Or, and the other one is, should Henry do a group of CPS?
group to make the decision.
That's clearly what happened.
What else do you have to do?
The others alone.
See, what happens if you don't do a deal with the hero, then you have resentment.
What should he do?
Should he do it?
Should he do the group first?
I would think that.
Well, I can, like, hey, I should do Cronkite before he does the group.
No, no, sir.
Do the group and then have him do it.
Tell Cronkite that he wants to do it.
Let Cronkite host it.
Then he can do Cronkite at a later time.
Let's see if he can do it.
Well, he should.
All right, no, we shouldn't hurry into the groups.
We should all go to the groups.
We should keep it going.
I think we're talking more about this contact with the individual guy who just wants to get a feel of what's going on.
He's really not pursuing the story, but he's looking more for a tone and type.
Right.
Bob, you spent 15 minutes with a guy, and the guy feels confident.
but nothing slid them by.
I can do that on that, but I can't do it.
I'm no good on that.
No, everything's off the record.
Every one of these pages is off the record.
Let's begin with that.
Nothing's off the record.
Whenever we put Kissinger, for example, on the record, and then put him on the record big, I'm going to crack around to something that's just deep and dark.
Off the record, backgrounds.
Okay, now, shall we, have we overlooked it again?
We've got all these, you ought to sit down and figure out a program about common interest.
A program about, well, the ones that we want you to see.
And I think, I'm quite a bit, probably is better off, you know, you ought to do a group too.
I teach you more, I think, yeah.
We don't want to start a pattern.
It's better to do peace than make news.
And it's better off to make news than just to have the inside story.
He's got the outside story.
What we ought to do is we ought to do some press conferences with real discovery, where he talks about what Democrats are doing and that kind of stuff.
He can do a lot, very effectively, of picking up the phone, calling, contacting, saying, Walker, I just wanted you to know what this is, or that was a bunch of shit that you poured out last night, and here's why, and he wants you to sign it.
See, the group time is like that.
The group time and the individual contact, right?
But it won't make a difference.
In other words, it's probably, well, it is less important than the increase in general contact equipment, right?
In other words, in terms of Kissinger's time, the individual group contact was good, but in terms of overall press relations, the long run, elimination of frustrations, and all the rest of it, the general availability of Henry, I would take it over to the individual group contact.
The thing about Henry is to be sure that his time is not sucked up
So much for the Colts and Tom and Robert.
Tom and Robert's a very hard-earned son of a gun.
Joe Grant.
Joe Grant.
You know, that's the thing.
You've got to get Henry and Tom.
It's millions.
I don't know.
It goes to hundreds.
At most, I don't know.
Let's go where the ducks are.
So he's got to have confidence.
We're just spending a little time sometimes with the columnist that will pick up what he says and play it straight.
Like Joe Balsam.
Like Steve Balsam.
Like Raleigh Evans.
Yeah.
They play exactly what he tells them.
Pick the guys.
Geograph, geograph.
Statue with his own words.
Pick the guys like that.
Wrong question.
One question.
Two questions.
These are the most important press to us.
That's what I'd like to do.
Well, you've got the word on those.
You've got the same on her, on the schedule of both of them.
Those things are fine.
You can do that.
Now, in terms of, let's now talk in terms of what I do with the press.
This is going to be a very important point.
What do I do individually in the starting point?
Well, I think between now and the convention, it seems to me I should probably not be undertaking it.
You know, I do a couple of press conferences.
You know what I mean?
One in the office, which is basically individual contact with APA.
They like that.
One on college.
And I have to get to work through it.
Very important.
If you have another view, I think that maybe I should see a contact first.
No, I don't think so.
As I said before, we should increase the activity .
I don't think we should see the others for another reason.
It's going to be looked upon as my changing my pattern of not playing politics .
Therefore, let's just decide that now.
I don't see any precedent .
Let's just lay that right out, shall we?
Now, after the convention, when I'm in California, for example, I think then I'm not concerned with citizens and individuals.
And I don't care what it is, what particular it is, but I should do crime, kind of something like that.
And I should not do a group.
I'm not going to do a group of people.
But I should do individuals off the record in the office.
I agree.
I don't think we should concentrate on that.
I think that in terms of the pattern, I agree with the two press conferences before the convention.
I think we should have the press conference after the convention.
Yeah, shortly after the convention.
Also, in terms of California, people have a big press corps within California because of the focus on the nation.
Of course, you don't
I think some of this would be good.
I don't think it's essential.
I think it should be done on a more spontaneous basis.
Planned spontaneity.
For example, someone could go on to the front guy, I'd be out on the front guy, and I'd be asking him this question or something, and I'd say, or, you know, if you've got time, I'd be interested in hearing what you had to say on that subject.
And then have it move from that, on that basis.
Or a fellow in the office, like Gene Grisham, or another, Frank Cormier, someone else, we'd be sitting in my office talking, in three ranges, according to the schedule.
And I could say, yeah, why don't you make that move?
It's all out of the convention.
That's right.
We're then to have you develop a process of individual content, but it is not an abrupt change, where we just begin to schedule our eyes in.
We'll do it.
But off the bat, on the ground, whether it's all off the record, sure.
That's why you don't want to do it on a pump, for example.
I don't know how to do it off the record.
I don't know how to do it on a pump.
Well, there are other ways.
Well, thank you for that procedure.
The Western White House actually got you to for a while there.
So if someone is out seeing
They're a very good job.
They're in service to the greater good.
Although McGregor, too, is on the record.
McGregor, I think, is on the record.
I don't think he should.
basically the war
All right.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
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.
.
There's no choice, I guess.
There's no choice about it.
How would that work?
I guess it's inevitable.
That's right.
I'm afraid.
That's what I was hoping for.
Well, I mean, from his standpoint, sure.
So that we do not have to let it go over and say, well, it's not being investigated.
I just want to be embarrassed.
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
Well, he's a very able guy.
I wish it was just about today, so it's hard for me.
.
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.
.
It's a big name.
It's a big name.
It's a big name.
It's a big name.
That's the only place where it has to be.
They have a cult.
.
.
.
whether they apparently or not, they may be in need of it.
It's just a matter of time.
It's a matter of people who are cooperating.
But his advice is that it's probably going to make sense that if you can only cooperate so far, then it'll hurt as if you cooperate too long.
True.
Because also he should expect people to care about him.
And with advice, he could turn my mind.
We're watching them closely.
We're on service.
We're on service.
They said they're watching back way, but we've got to use cover when they're watching.
We're trying to catch them at the end of the day.
Appreciate it.
We've got a lot of great companies.
We've got a lot of great employers.
The advantage is that whether it's just because he doesn't want to or whether it's just that he doesn't, but he or something can't make it.
Yes, there are people who are leaders in the U.S. and don't believe there's a war going on.
And that helps.
I think they're studying what's going on.
That's a reason.
They probably may believe it, but it's not that important.
That's a reason.
Thank you.

Nixon, Colson & Haldeman on Watergate and White House press relations

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on July 19, 1972

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