Nixon, Haldeman & Woods on Military service and Political rivals

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They also told me, they also told me, they said, do you realize, did you ever see my son, Kennedy's son?

And I said, I didn't even know he had a son.

And they said, well, this is a problem.

And I said, Kennedy didn't serve the World War I.

But none of his three sons have been in service.

Not on day one.

Not even in service row.

Not even.

These libs find a way to do it.

You know, David here is putting in three-four.

How do I get the kids out of the night?

Someone ought to check up on them.

Okay, what?

One of those damn Bobby Kennedy kids.

We ought to check for how they get out of the barn.

Being dragged.

David Eisenhardt was in the service.

Eddie Nixon was in the damn service.

Putting his whole thing into it.

What about Bobby Kennedy?

Is there some reason he's not in the service?

His number wasn't drawn.

That's easy to do, isn't it?

That's very easy.

but also in other countries.

And how many of the McGovern kids have been in the service?

McGovern kids?

Twenty-one.

Twenty-one kids.

That's fine.

How many of your grandkids?

If you could let me put them on this one that you're asking, how many of them come to me?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Send a note to, uh, send a note over to Paul.

And we are showing our kids off.

I just heard his car came out a few months ago.

Some of them are saying, I guess I'll hang.

And he came in just to say hello and introduce himself.

Might be the nice man.

Might sound too like him.

Yes, I would think so.

He's the... Now he's in a state.

Yeah, he moved into a...

You remind me.

I know he's on our list.

He is certainly listed.

We're watching him.

Who's the one that's sitting down?

Dan Davis.

I know the police don't want him to die.

Somebody brought his name up.

Somebody holds him up.

You know, Larry wanted him to go to the cemetery.

Mason defense, remember?

No, no, he's a state, and... No, Larry wanted him.

He wouldn't let him go.

I think it's a new job.

I read that when I came.

You like him, huh?

Yes, because he is smart, and he is...

He's very loyal to you, and...

he, just the way he said things even, then he was talking about, oh it was like the Asia Committee, I don't know how he got to P.G.

Debbie, oh hang on, he mentioned how people speak like Richardson and still do, right?

Then he was talking about, he was talking a minute about P.G.

Debbie and so forth, and he had his own, he said, well, I'll tell you what I think about these, you know, well, I thought it was quite cute, just, he was only there a few minutes.

This would be the secretary of EGW.

This would be his deputy.

These would be his advisors, you know, one on his budget and this, that, and the other.

This would be a secretary of health, secretary of education, and welfare.

And this man wouldn't get involved in any of these problems.

He would just say to this guy, you work that out.

I don't want to see you come back in with it.

Then the only person who would come to a cabinet meeting would be this man with all the information.

But he said that he thinks

He thinks it's bad when you go into a tavern meeting and there's a whole room full of people because there's no way it could be a good give and take because you never know who in there is going to have to feel big and go out and talk.

It was so perceptive.

He was only there maybe five, I don't know, seven.

He was a good man, he felt that.

General Walters stopped in yesterday for a couple of empty things.

I just said, you know, whenever you want, they're certainly ready.

They've been having it for three, four years.

Be very quiet and as small as you want, you know.

This commander in the Navy says, by the way, to Franklin Lincoln's report on naval forces in the Mediterranean, he does a terrible work that you, I think, read the letter.

He sent copies to Secretary Warner and everyone in the room.

Roll.

you should go to Hague.

Hague is the one I went to, and Hague wrote a belief, never do the thing I'm doing.

But I can't get to things that are bad technical if I ever start to myself.

I know, well that's why I just thought I'd ask if that's true or not.

Well, I know, I agree with you, probably feel exactly the same way.

Just put on a note and say, Al, I agree with this.

Al, Al, don't tell Al that I think this is absurd, very, very absurd.

But a lot of people do not realize that God, here at the USC shop, we fight like a son of a bitch for all those things.

There's a problem in the animal rights, and the problem in medicine, and so on and so forth.

And all of a sudden, it's the goddamn Congress.

Well, he says in here, you know, there's many reasons why they're taking him out.

Oh, that Curtis Howard, I don't want to say any of these people who sent the guy, he's just a runner, but he's got to work as hard as he can possibly because he's just, that man is, he's going to hold himself up for the second coming and be a preacher, and we all know we have to keep going, fight hard, because people don't read the papers.

They don't know what he did last week.

They just listened to him once, and he's been staring at people and says,

Good.

Work hard at it.

Put it off.

I should talk.

Make a note that he has every right to do what I think he should be doing.

No, no, no, no, no.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

I heard people have a

Bill Rogers would go out and speak for us.

Herb would not.

Laird would go out and speak for us.

Tom Cates would come around the world.

George Shultz goes out and works his tail off all over with labor, with labor and treasuring and arresting.

And Bob Madison would come around the world.

And, frankly, at the Attorney General's level, we have plaintiffs for using a rioter.

The rioters were good, except the plaintiff never made a speech for us.

He came with us on the trip.

No, he didn't.

He didn't go out with us.

Well, he didn't make a speech.

You know what I mean.

He thought he could.

The plaintiffs will.

So we've got a little bit more political than we used to have.

Down in the Eisenhardt cabin, the only ones to remember who did it were Seaton and the department money.

And, uh...

Yeah, he just didn't have it.

Right.

Well, of course, he didn't pick people who would be, because he wouldn't let him go along himself until after he got out of office.

So except that, he came up with different stuff.

Very understandable.

And they did too.

Herbert was a wonderful fellow.

Chris Herbert and Spade did a tough job.

And I think the worst part was the defense people being out of town because they should have been there to counteract that business of the Mississippi.

One of Spade's brigades could have killed them because it was a damn line.

Because that was one of the biggest events ever perpetuated on the American people.

Because we had a 10 to 1 advantage over the rest of the country.

And this is so colorful.

It's red, white, blue, just like a carousel.

It's wonderful.

That's great.

Or you could even design it with something else on it.

Oh, I don't mean to put that on it.

But what I meant is you could put on their national symbol or an eagle, you know what I mean?

Whatever the heck.

You see what I mean?

That's it, then, yeah?

A beauty box made in America.

You'd never think of anything made in America.

These people are artists.

I think it would be great.

And that's the name of it, though.

A beauty box.

A Christian box.

Yeah, I'll take it.

The Italian brings his wife.

And I think we don't need a...

Instead of just giving me her alone.

Yeah, I think you get to be too much of a...

But, you know, they'll put that box out and show it to people.

Yeah.

Hello?

Uh, will this be available?

Okay, you can call now.

Fine.

We're, uh, we're going to buy some of these, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,

I don't think you can do this every morning if you want to be here.

I don't think you can.

You don't want to be here, do you?

That could be.

You just want to be out here.

All right.

You started expecting Camp David.

I didn't mean to go through with it.

Nixon, Haldeman & Woods on Military service and Political rivals

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on July 20, 1972

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