Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 374 › Conversation 374-020
Nixon, Colson & Bull on 1972 Presidential Campaign and Public Opinion Polling
Friday, October 27, 1972 · 2:40 PM–2:50 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 5 min
AI Summary
President Nixon met with Charles W. Colson to analyze 1972 presidential campaign strategy in light of favorable polling data and the political implications of Vietnam negotiations. The discussion focused on framing the election as a clear choice between the administration's foreign policy achievements and George McGovern's perceived radicalism. The pair discussed coordinating media messaging, including potential television advertisements and the use of favorable polling trends, to solidify the President's landslide lead before concluding the meeting with a brief scheduling update from Stephen B. Bull.
Audio
Transcript (AI-generated)
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He's kind of right-of-way with this sign.
This sign shows one day impact on the defense.
But he has shown some very significant changes in the underlying data.
For example, you're reading a negotiating settlement with the amount of $109,354.
In this poll, it turns around a complete baseline of $239,500.
on the government being too negative to look at, too radical to look at.
That's up to 66%.
Make so many mistakes and reflect on these judgments.
That's up to 61% to 66%.
In analyzing the economy, our positive rating has gone up.
I don't have all the basic data.
How could that be with the negative average?
I don't know.
Maybe I...
When he said the 7th and 14th League would have a negotiation with the Russians and the Chinese, now, as people look at this in terms of the finance side of the negotiations with the Russians and the Chinese, I had this idea of how we had him go out to Paris.
And he said, go ahead and hang yourself for a couple of days.
And I'm out of heaven.
But then, and we kind of worked this out together.
He said, then someone from a very high level has to say, and this is basically what we wanted to do, that we now had to ban this election.
The clearest possible choice.
We thought the choice was clear before, but it's even more clear now than it was.
President Nixon is ending the world war.
He's bringing home the real world.
He's going to give a free subcommittee, the non-capitalists, you know, the co-partners, free elections.
What a tragedy it would be if the American people would have shoes, whatever.
The man who would throw away 10 years of blood, sweat and tears.
He said right there, put all that down.
I said, well, that's the speech for somebody to make.
It really is.
We kind of worked with him.
He said, in the game, what was the plan?
In the game, we decided to do what was necessary for perhaps a year to ensure that the election machine didn't place itself behind.
To ensure that there aren't re-elections.
To ensure that the ceasefire didn't happen.
How about that?
Roger said this.
Brunches would be great.
If you have too many eggs, you could do this too.
But you wait until the magazine is out.
Then you say, let's put it all in this thing.
If we do, then we ought to buy television, right?
This is it, because maybe buy television, right?
Because you see, what all the other artists say, or you could buy television for comedy.
But the point is that all the other arguments are, could we have done this four years ago?
You can argue that's sort of equivalent to the history of that, but people don't like that.
And the rest is all part of the argument, but I think if you really put this thing into
proper context, what this is, is a decision by the emergency department, whether they want to implement it, or do you have some skillful innovation in question?
You know, two and a half may have already been supported, we didn't some of these days.
Or do you want just to let someone who was already sick, and then you want to let them just surrender to the bank?
Right.
When you laid our field up, it was for the emergency person, and the department seemed to have got an issue with us.
You have to make that time period when we had a lot of... Sir, you told us that we're outside your officer.
NARA Description
On October 27, 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 2:40 pm to 2:50 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 374-020 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 374-20
Date: October 27, 1972
Time: 2:40 pm - 2:50 pm
Location: Executive Office Building
The President met with Charles W. Colson.
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[Previous PRMPA Personal Returnable (G) withdrawal reviewed under deed of gift 10/16/2019.
Segment cleared for release.]
[Personal Returnable]
[374-020-w001]
[Duration: 5m 28s]
1972 campaign
-First Monday insert
-Brochure about George S. McGovern
-Literature distribution
-Republicans
-Press
-Bias
-Editorial support for the President
-Strategy after election
-Press
-Other newspapers compared with Washington Post
-George S. McGovern
-Polls
-The President's lead
-Landslide
-Gallup poll
-Matthew Bailey’s [?] opinion
-Methods
-Vietnam
-Support
-Harris poll and Sindlinger poll
-Percentages
-Editorial release of election prediction by Louis Harris
-October 30, 1972 release
-Syndicate rules
-Hawk
-Theodore H. (“Teddy”) White
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1972 campaign
-Poll results
-Vietnam peace settlement
-George S. McGovern
-Negativism
-Economy
-Foreign relations with Soviet Union and the People's
Republic of China [PRC]
-Election strategy
-Louis P. Harris‘s report
-Prospects
-Vietnam and prisoners of war [POWs]
-South Vietnam elections
-The President compared with McGovern
-Speech potential
-South Vietnam elections
-William P. Rogers, Spiro T. Agnew, John B. Connally
-Possible television advertisement
-McGovern’s Vietnam position
-Compared with the President’s position
-Surrender
-POWs
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[Previous PRMPA Personal Returnable (G) withdrawal reviewed under deed of gift 10/16/2019.
Segment cleared for release.]
[Personal Returnable]
[374-020-w002]
[Duration: 2m 10s]
1972 campaign
-Shift in polls
-Reason
-George S. McGovern’s strategy
-The President's strategy
-George P. Shultz
-Louis Harris
-The President’s attacks
-Perception of George S. McGovern
-John B. Connally [?]
-Harris poll
-Catholics
-Gallup poll, Lubell poll
-Shift in polls
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Stephen B. Bull entered at an unknown time after 2:40 pm.
The President's schedule
-Forthcoming Oval Office meeting with Robert J. Dole
Bull left at an unknown time before 2:50 pm.
*****************************************************************
[Previous PRMPA Personal Returnable (G) withdrawal reviewed under deed of gift 10/16/2019.
Segment cleared for release.]
[Personal Returnable]
[374-020-w003]
[Duration: 58s]
1972 campaign
-Robert J. Dole’s forthcoming television appearances
-Three networks
-Louis Harris
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The President and Colson left at 2:50 pm.Also recorded on October 27, 1972
- 374-019 2:30 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 2:30 pm and 2:40 pm.
- 808-010 2:54 PM · 14 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Charles W. Colson, Robert J. Dole, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 2:54 pm to 3:16 pm.
- 109-001 3:18 PM · 25 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Spanish-speaking campaign surrogates, including Dr. Henry M. Ramirez, Phillip V. Sanchez, Romana A. Banuelos, Carlos C. Villarreal, Joseph J. Jova, Raymond L. Telles, Jr., Rodolfo Montejano, Antonio F. Rodriguez, Carlos D. Conde, Bert A. Gallegos, Louis Nunez, Jorge L. Cordova, Edward Hidalgo, Alejandro ("Alex") Armendariz, William H. Marumoto, Kenneth W. Clawson, Rayburn D. Hanzlik, Charles W. Colson, Robert J. Dole, the White House photographer, and members of the press, met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 3:18 pm and 3:45 pm.
- 110-001 3:43 PM — Unknown person(s) met in the Cabinet Room of the White House on an unknown date, sometime between 3:43 pm on October 27, 1972 and 11:08 am on November 8, 1972.
- 110-002 3:43 PM — Unknown person(s) met in the Cabinet Room of the White House on an unknown date, sometime between 3:43 pm on October 27, 1972 and 11:08 am on November 8, 1972.
- 808-011 3:43 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Phillip V. Sanchez, Josefina Sanchez, White House photographer, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 3:43 pm to 3:44 pm.
- 808-012 3:44 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the Oval Office of the White House from 3:44 pm to 3:45 pm.
- 808-013 3:45 PM · 52 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, Souvanna Phouma, Pheng Norindr, William H. Sullivan, Alex G. Toumayan, the White House photographer, and members of the press met in the Oval Office of the White House from 3:45 pm to 4:40 pm.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 374-020, October 27, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/374-020 (accessed October 9, 2026).