Conversation 358-012

TapeTape 358StartMonday, September 18, 1972 at 2:30 PMEndMonday, September 18, 1972 at 3:15 PMParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Colson, Charles W.;  Bull, Stephen B.Recording deviceOld Executive Office Building

On September 18, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, Charles W. Colson, and Stephen B. Bull met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:30 pm to 3:15 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 358-012 of the White House Tapes.

Conversation No. 358-12

Date: September 18, 1972
Time: 2:30 pm - 3:15 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President met with Charles W. Colson.

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 6m 52s     ]

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            Public relations
                -Earl L. Butz
                     -The President's conversation with H.R. (“Bob”) Haldeman
                     -Public statements
                          -Selling grain to various foreign countries
                               -People's Republic of China [PRC]
                               -Japan

                                    (rev. Oct-06)

                            -Soviet Union
                   -The President's policies
                   -Exporting grain
                        -Butz’s statements
                        -Effect on farmers
                            -George S. McGovern's position
                                 -Administration policy
                        -Peter G. Peterson
              -Statistics
                   -Cambodia
                        -Henry A. Kissinger
                   -Defense Department

          1972 campaign
              -The President's campaign compared with McGovern's campaign
                  -Issues
                       -Food prices
                  -Albert E. Sindlinger
              -Wage and price controls
                  -William Proxmire
                       -Public statement
                  -McGovern
                  -Hugh Scott
                  -European compared with Pacific theatre
                  -Proxmire
                  -George P. Shultz
                  -Scott’s press conference
                  -John Sherman Cooper
                  -George H. Gallup polls
                       -Effect
                  -Donald H. Rumsfeld
                  -Arthur F. Burns
                  -William L. Safire
              -Jewish vote
                  -Question of Jewish holidays

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2
[Personal returnable]

                                         (rev. Oct-06)

[Duration: 6m 37s     ]

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             US foreign policies
                 -The President's conversation with Henry M. ("Scoop")
                 Jackson
                     -Arms control
                     -1972 election

             Campaign strategy on domestic issues
                -Milton Friedman’s view
                    -Cabinet officers’ role
                    -McGovern welfare plan
                    -Wage and price controls
                    -Campaign financing

The President talked with an unknown person at an unknown time between 2:30 pm and 3:15
pm.

[Conversation No. 358-12B]

             Request for a call to Stephen B. Bull

[End of telephone conversation]

             1972 campaign
                 -Friedman
                 -Television coverage of campaign
                      -Grain deal
                      -Opposing policies of McGovern
                          -Columbia Broadcasting System [CBS] coverage

Bull talked with the President at an unknown time between 2:30 pm and 3:15 pm.

[Conversation No. 358-12A]

                                       (rev. Oct-06)

             The President’s schedule
                 -Forthcoming meeting

[End of telephone conversation]

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 7m 54s     ]

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             Labor unions
                -Colson's conversation with Frank E. Fitzsimmons and   George Meany
                     -Future relations between labor and White House
                          -Ambassadorial appointments
                     -Labor expertise
                          -Maurice A. Hutcheson

             Prisoners of war [POWs]
                 -Release of three on September 17, 1972
                      -Political exploitation
                          -Bombing in Hanoi
                          -Effect on election
                                -Colson’s view
                      -Comparison to Korean War
                 -McGovern's position
                      -Communism
                      -Meany's support
                          -Speech for the President
                                -Inclusion of topics
                                -North Vietnam

             1972 campaign
                 -Meany

                                        (rev. Oct-06)

                      -Forthcoming steelworkers speech in Las Vegas
                      -Brochure
                          -Topic
                               -McGovern’s 1948 letter about Henry A. Wallace
                                  -Northwestern University
                                  -Mitchell [Daily Republic]
                                  -Soviet Union
                      -John B. Connally
                      -Communism

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 4m 43s     ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5

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             Watergate
                -Washington, DC area press reactions
                     -Colson’s view
                         -Washington Post
                         -Washington Evening Star
                         -New York Times
                     -Cover-up
                     -Grand jury
                     -Public perception
                -Indictments
                -Alfred C. Baldwin, III
                -Public reactions to the question of the President's involvement
                     -Daniel Yankelovich's poll
                         -Time
                -Committee to Re-elect the President
                     -Robert J. Dole

The President and Colson left at 3:15 pm.

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.

I suppose the only issue that you could really pick this week, and it wasn't everybody's fault, but we got a whole bunch of people going along, and as a result of that, building something.
I don't think it's going to make them a goddamn boat.
I think butts should go haul this money.
You've got to make them trip up that fire and talk about the millions, the hundreds of millions we're selling to China, the hundreds of millions we're selling to Japan.
hundreds of millions or something, gets it all together through Russia, exports it all to the United States.
That speech has got to be made by somebody.
Well, that's the speech you made.
I told you about it this morning.
That's the speech you made.
You've got it all added up to a huge number.
You see the Russians.
When you put the Russians in line and say, $2,000,000, we'll increase the next portion, whatever it is, pick up Japan.
A lot of that they're going to buy anyway.
But just add as if they didn't let the opposition say anything.
What the hell do we care, John?
The other thing is that I would certainly like to keep them
You know, my theory is never have people thinking of the issues that hurt you.
Always have people thinking of the issues that hurt the other one.
That's the thing.
I really want to be sure we watch every goddamn attack.
Well, that's part of the point, Mr. President.
I would make that agreement.
There aren't many of those issues that hurt us.
There are more issues that are coming.
He wants to talk about grain exports.
All he's doing is reminding people
that we are now exporting a hell of a lot of grain, and the proof of the pudding is that the price of the wheat is up sky high.
The farmer is getting a better wheat than he's ever gotten.
He knows it's because of the grain.
So Montgomery charges that we then, we gave inside of the nation's someday trade as well.
Is that more important to the farmer or the fact that his food price is up?
I don't, you know, I'm not saying it was very bad, but you did just the reverse of what I told you.
I go into a charge that
He did, but then he went on to ask a question.
But even so, even for all of them, and he blew that one.
The girl got to blow it because he might have heard it and he was supposed to kill her.
But he's a fighter.
But he went to kill her.
But even so, what you would have done, while I was at the farm, is to elevate the brain people as the subject of their belief.
And I'm not sure that's a conclusion.
Tell Peterson to talk about that.
I don't know the world that has kept telling us about it, but basically what he does is put it in terms of whatever sounds the biggest, like we did in Cambodia.
how many rounds of ammunition, rather than how many tons, because I don't usually have to hit everybody with a heavy mine, but how many rounds of ammunition.
Currently, eight tons of ammunition sounds like nothing.
A million rounds sounds like a horrible thing.
That's a million people who do not have those, and those have bad, bad times.
A month, well, not a month.
Every week, we get them to change.
I remember that time.
I remember when we wrote this stuff.
But, well, the thing is, I'd like to get him talking and get him on his heels and get him on his stern, unless there's an issue.
You think the food price issue can hurt you?
You do.
I've done it.
Some of you have said it on the weekend.
You've done it a lot of times.
And then, God being a fool, the head of the story comes up in the Senate, and then you think, you know, you can price my estate, but, you know.
So where I'm striking out of the Senate, really, is a little bit below me.
I always had bologna.
Yeah, bologna.
I was always waiting for bologna sandwiches instead of my teeny bunch of shit.
And Scott had bologna.
Scott just wanted to cut him up.
You know, the people of Europe, they are getting equal.
They eat pretty good.
The people of the Pacific, they are eating the goddamn crust.
It's the worst.
Well, Proxmire, what Proxmire did was to elevate the debate, as I said, and Schultz put a statement out, and he spoke with the cameras on these levels and stuff.
Yeah.
And then Scott went up to that press conference, and John Sherwin, who had helped him and talked to him and fixed things, got pushed down, and the government took over the office and moved the vote.
So they're keeping the issue alive for us today, which I just think is, I just think it's superb.
It's attacking and he's going to, they're going to take the lid off, he's going to remove the controls.
Right.
Even Gallup, what they did there, people object, they don't think controls are working that good, but they want them tougher.
They want them tougher.
We should say we want them harder because we need more controls now than the last.
Right, right.
The fact that they crushed that all the same.
That's just what, when we get back, that's just what he will say.
He did say that, right.
Yeah.
I want to get them to have some less confidence in them.
They probably have something to tell the president.
Everybody has a role to play for Barron.
It won't be my fault.
I have not told the president.
I've said it, and it's a little sad when I put it to Barron.
It's not Barron's fault.
It's the Jews' fault.
The Jews never come to help them.
They never come to help them.
They have more than I have ever seen.
God almighty.
And they celebrate ours, too.
They can't vote, but...
This is very high.
Is this Hanukkah or Rosh Hashanah?
I had a good talk with Scoot when I went there.
They couldn't have been nicer, I think, for what he did with that.
Because of the iron control and so forth.
And he just called me and said, well, listen, we've got nothing to worry about.
I said, I wasn't going to be able to come to Washington.
He said, what do you want?
I said, we're not going to be able to come to Washington.
He said, I wasn't there.
He said, that's the election.
He said, that's the election.
He said, that's the election.
He said, that's the election.
But we have 50 days left.
If I don't know, I just feel we want to be sure to be answering all these issues.
But I would have to say this.
The best of all the world will be, and here he is, we could get him, somebody could get him, not you,
The treatment point would be valid if you would do it.
But as long as it is cannabis, it's a secondary thing.
If every day we could have him responding to the church that he favors the best of us, honestly, that would be the best of all of us.
You can't get that.
To keep him responding and other defenses, you have to be kidding about anything that you can make through the Senate.
All these issues, all these issues keep weakening, but you can't always select what they're going to be.
We wouldn't have done it if we hadn't put away price control issues.
And we just have to get rid of that and lose it because it's there.
On this campaign finance, do you want to take on that this week?
We've got it.
Well, I don't think so.
Not for the people in this setting, but I think it's enough of a business to make the name.
The only point I would make is that he can get on the defense of the answer insurance, please.
So it's to me the most important thing in the world because it's keeping him from going to any land in the area.
And Friedman's point is right.
We agree that we appear to be too sensitive.
We have this in the CPS.
Saturday night's a system for this.
It's a policy that the Texas administration would not let a judge go unanswered.
And that gave Clark Manson and his judge an award.
Yeah.
As soon as they get there for that case and take them to the office, I may fire some slaves and sit them around.
I'll be there.
All right.
When I say laborer, I think I want you to tell Fitz, I want you to tell Meany, I want you to tell every one of these guys, I want you to talk to the president about it.
He wants to know, he just wants to remember.
In other words, you want to remember that when he went in without any labor support, he was fair.
That's right.
They want to remember that with labor support, he's going to be more fair.
Let's put it that way.
That's cold turkey.
Meany understands that kind of thought.
Oh, totally.
Totally.
And also that I want some suggestions on that.
They're coming forward with this, you know.
I'm going to find a couple of ambassadors.
I'm going to find a couple of lawyers out there.
I'm going to find out.
You know, with their expertise and value.
I think the truth is,
What do you think about the deal with Jack Ashford?
Well, it depends on how it plays out.
They come around and they're bombing out of the parking lot and acting as if they were raiding the goddamn place.
No, they're pretty long.
This is actually a very, very negative.
I don't use things like this.
This is one after they get out of Vietnam.
There have been five EOWs that have been put under EO and other original people in this country.
They're both from the government.
These three are going to be the same event.
And I think there could be one, not by you or by us or the latest, but one hell of a backlash.
Well, you remember how people felt about the Koreans, that they're better off going over and carrying the tax on the street.
They don't like it.
People are carrying the tax around the country.
No, they don't.
I don't know how people don't remember military veterans.
But I know this kind of thing, and I've heard it in the competition, but it is what it is.
And it is, unfortunately, a long piece, and it is sitting there dry through the sun on beneficiary risk.
It's at that point that I think our people should just cut those things out.
I think we should.
Thank you.
What else then?
He's exploiting the mirror.
He's exploiting human misery.
He's allowing us to have this type of life.
Well, we know.
We know he's allowing himself to be a tool of the cognizant.
I wish to believe he would include that in his speech.
Well, he's about to peel that up.
He does not have that depth.
He's allowing himself to be a tool of the cognizant.
He should repudiate it.
this place that has the Tartheon comments to interfere with American life.
So, the Tartheon comments.
He told us, he told us that he knew that he doesn't care about what he said, he was ready to do it.
The thing is, the speech that he has today
He goes back and reads his 1928 letter from Northwestern University, an initial self-degraded history, in which he talks about what a great man Henry Wallace is, and how we should be worried about the civilians, and how they're really our friends.
It's devastating, but it means that we're all going to lose it.
Because if they're negative, this is going to change the system.
I think we're going to lose it.
And because that's fixing it, we're going to lose it.
Yeah, and he talked about the condom challenge.
Well, if he died, he was going to have another one of them.
Yeah.
Well...
Washington is the one area that I'm a little concerned about.
I've been in Washington for the last few years.
I've been in Washington for the last few years.
I've been in Washington for the last few years.
They're the stars, they're the sun, they're the light, they're the good, the bad, the bad, the bad.
But, so what?
There's always nothing else to do except respond.
If they try to do anything else, I'm going to do it.
If you were going to cover me, I'm serious.
I mean, that's not the house.
I've got nothing else to do.
Well, I leave it.
I'm saying, in the grand jury, it's both.
Yeah, I think the public, these items play a role.
They've got this co-op that's going to do it, and the fellow that's going to do it is going to be involved.
I think the approach to that would be to invite us to move, so that we can disarm and lead to the rest of the movement.
I think a little bit should be studied for time.
I think it's a good idea.
No one believes you're involved.
Interesting reactions they have from a lot of others.
You know, they do that bad 200 person serial killer.
Kind of interesting comments.
Fixes the swine to be involved in that.
He would be involved in that.
It would give you much more credit than he would.
Instead of something else he would do.
So, I mean, Bob, I answered that one.
He's a very good photographer.
Well, yes, it is, although the people that I have been studying, it doesn't apply in any way, but I'm glad you want to say that.
We're trying at the moment to ensure all of our students and our fellows in the system that we have to do
I know you are not sure.
I'd like to see it.
I'd like to see it.
Just go ahead.
I think his raises a lot of questions.
Well, he's the...
I think we're going to...