Conversation 376-026

TapeTape 376StartThursday, November 2, 1972 at 10:50 AMEndThursday, November 2, 1972 at 11:22 AMParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Colson, Charles W.;  White House operator;  Holm, Holly;  Howard, W. Rick;  [Unknown person(s)]Recording deviceOld Executive Office Building

On November 2, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, Charles W. Colson, White House operator, Holly Holm, W. Richard Howard, and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 10:50 am to 11:22 am. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 376-026 of the White House Tapes.

Conversation No. 376-26

Date: November 2, 1972
Time: 10:50 am - 11:22 am
Location: Executive Office Building

The President met with Charles W. Colson.

        Greetings

The President talked with the White House operator at an Unknown time between 10:50 am and
10:55 am.

[Conversation No. 376-26A]

[See Conversation No. 32-139]

[End of telephone conversation]

        News coverage of 1972 campaign practices
           -Demonstrations in Boston and San Diego
               -News summary
               -Vice President Spiro T. Agnew
                   -Frank Mankiewicz's charges
                      -Donald H. Segretti
                            -Hiring of unknown person
                      -Patrick J. Buchanan's analysis
                            -Agreement from Colson

                                        (rev. Nov-03)

                            -Columbia Broadcasting System [CBS], National Broadcasting
                            Corporation [NBC]
                            -Carl [last name unknown], George Meany
                        -Mankiewicz
                            -Archie Bunker type demonstrator
                                -Fight with George S. McGovern supporters

The White House operator talked with the President at 10:55 am.

[Conversation No. 376-26B]

[See Conversation No. 32-140]

[End of telephone conversation]

       1972 election
        -Demonstrators and McGovern tactics
               -Boston
                    -Police action
                    -Reaction by public
                          -Press coverage

                   -Administration charges
                       -Clark MacGregor's statement
                              -News summary
                              -Instructions from the President
                       -McGovern, R. Sargent Shriver
                              -Organization in cities
                                 -Miami
                                 -Moral responsibility
                   -Columnists
                       -Vermont C. Royster, Nicolas P. Thimmesch, John S. (“Jack”) Knight
                   -University of Texas Young Republican President John Boardman
                       -John Connally
                   -Name calling
                       -News summaries
                   -George C. Wallace
                   -Support for the President
                       -Connally’s statement
                   -News coverage
                       -News summaries
                            -Detroit News

                                        (rev. Nov-03)

                              -New York Daily News
                              -Dallas Morning News
                                    -Jim Wright
                              -Comparison of the President's, McGovern's campaigns
                                  -Kenneth Clawson, Al Abrahms
                                  -Surrogates
                 -Polls
                     -Minneapolis Tribune
                     -Analysis
                     -Questions
                          -Critique of campaign conduct
                          -The President's compared with McGovern's conduct
                               -Percentages
                     -New York Daily News
                 -Albert Sindlinger
                     -The President's standing

Colson talked with the White House operator at an unknown time between 10:55 am and 11:23
am.

                 -Watergate

Colson talked with Holly Holm at an unknown time between 10:55 am and 11:23 am.

Colson talked with W. Richard Howard at an unknown time between 10:55 am and 11:23 am.

[Conversation No. 376-26C; one item has been removed from the conversation]

[See Conversation No. 32-141]

[End of telephone conversation]

             -Polls
                 -Shifts
                     -History
                          -Dwight D. Eisenhower
                               -Comparisons
             -Last-minute strategy
                 -McGovern
                     -Demeanor
                 -Apathy
                 -Robert J. Dole

                                     (rev. Nov-03)

                   -Summary of abuses
                        -News summary
               -Agnew
                   -Scheduled press conference
                        -Los Angeles
               -Demonstrators
                   -Heckling
                   -Antics
                   -Rationale
               -Actions by the President’s supporters compared to those by McGovern’s
                   supporters
                        -Segretti
                        -Gabriel Hauge
                            -Peter M. Flanigan
                            -New York
                   -Wilbur D. Mills, J., William Fulbright
                        -Charges
                            -Republican campaign tactics
                                  -Response
                                      -Possible press conference

*****************************************************************

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 6m 20s ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

*****************************************************************

       Issues
           -Watergate
               -Staff concern
                    -Haig
           -Economy
               -Food prices
               -Taxes
               -1960 election

                                       (rev. Nov-03)

                -Inflation
                     -Thomas W. Dewey
            -Watergate
            -Crime
            -Negative advertisements
            -Dole

        President’s forthcoming speech

        Polls
            -The President's standing
                -Sindlinger
                    -Timing
            -Vietnam
                -Effect on voters
            -Prospects in 1972 election
            -Analysis
                -Favorable percentages

        Issues
            -Speech appeal to New American Majority
                 -Raymond K. Price, Jr.
                 -Richard M. Scammon
            -1924 election, [John] Calvin Coolidge
                 -Comparisons
            -Corruption, campaign practices
                 -Segretti
                 -Success of charges
                 -Practices
                      -The President’s view
                 -Dallas Morning News
                      Article in news summary compared to Detroit News
            -Agnew, Dole
            -Use of issues
            -Vietnam
                 -Melvin R. Laird’s press conference
                      -Milwaukee
                -William P. Rogers's appearance on Meet the Press, George Shultz
                -Settlement possibility
                      -Possible strategy

An unknown person talked with the President at an unknown time between 10:55 am and 11:22

                                        (rev. Nov-03)

am.

[Conversation No. 376-26D]

        Schedule

[End of telephone conversation]

        Issues
            -Last-minute strategy on McGovern campaign practices
                -Demonstrators
                -McGovern positions
                     -Welfare, increased taxes, Vietnam
                -Agnew
                -[Julie Nixon Eisenhower, Tricia Nixon Cox] Thelma C. “Pat” Nixon
                -Vietnam charges
                     -Sabotaging peace
                     -“Peace with surrender”

Colson left at 11:22 am.

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.

All right, sir.
Well, I'm sure I've got Tom Peppers now.
See, we didn't make much yardage.
We got the tax in Boston.
Oh, I think so.
I just, we've got a national news service this summer.
They're surprised they just can't break through.
The only thing that broke through, I don't think the thing, the demonstrations,
The reason that Matthew got it is because somebody told him, because they had some story of this crazy Socrates hiring somebody to go down there.
Oh, shit.
That's unbelievable.
Well, it is, but the reason Michael would react to the sheriff is that all three of them would say, man, that this is incredible.
I think that man...
And I was believing, and even writing it down, I was stirred, but I read it wrong.
And I completely agree with the canon analysis, which everybody else in our political group is trying to agree with.
That footage is enormously helpful because it really vividly demonstrates, as CBS said, and as you can see, these are probably demonstrating this equity in the vice president.
And the vice president got mad at him.
shot him down.
He looked, he looked very, he looked indignant.
And then, one of these, how many were there?
Two men?
They got mad at two people.
Well, they were blowing the whistle, and they were saying, they were down close, and they were wanting somebody to go in and knock them down.
Because one day, I mean, oh, God, it was incredible footage of the same.
It was an Archie Bunker.
He was wearing kind of, yeah, he had a cold shirt.
He was standing right next to these two bomb heads around him, even described as no government support.
And he looked askance at them, just a look like this once, and then he looked back at the rest of them.
And then he opened the gap, as they were shutting themselves in and waving their hands.
And the very time he put his hands on his head, he turned, and just went, wham!
And the camera was very close, and he started to catch the guy right in the face, brawling.
And of course, the crowd cheered.
And the reason I was invited here this morning is that that is exactly what probably he may have been waiting to have done with those sons of bitches.
They were crying.
Yeah.
How about Boston?
Have you gotten any further?
Well, yes, sir.
The police started to bring this fellow up there because of the police.
The one thing I would say that I would hope, and of course maybe with McGregor you can't get him to do it, is don't chuck the last page of the campaign.
I don't blame them.
You don't have to put in a thingy with a driver, a driver, a driver to approve of this sort of thing.
But I asked them to bring it up.
I would say, I charge that.
You see my point?
And then you get a shortage.
Well, the reason we didn't just was we don't want to bring it in.
Because they've been doing that to us now.
When we charged it, what we did is we organized this.
The media did not bring it in.
When we ever say, we don't church in the Lord, but they have a moral responsibility to the community.
Disgusting things that people are doing.
How about getting out a little more?
I was concerned when we were talking today about the way I wrote the column on
I saw it and I saw some asshole, Texas, young Republican, second president, you know, he was, uh, he got on the boat and, well, of course, it's not like I'm the right one, you're right on the left, but I couldn't tell.
Well, you remember how advised the University of Texas was to them?
Yeah.
That I know very well who's going to do it, but nevertheless, I don't know what would happen to me if it hadn't happened on Sunday.
My point is, Chuck, I just don't feel that our mistakes on their name-calling, on their dirty campaigns, on their demonstrations against the crowd,
I know it's not your fault.
I know that everybody's tried, but God damn it, he's got to be gotten across by every possible road.
I don't know.
We'll do what we're doing, but let's go.
You agree that it really isn't good.
I agree that it's not good.
I just don't get it.
I mean, the main goal in the very end, Jesus Christ, he was talking about how we're creating these people to kick balls.
I only agree in part with these people because I've had to know this for three days.
It's begun to come true.
I think that the best thing that we had to do was go and sit down and talk to them.
People saw that.
John Brown said, you don't have to do it.
He said, the people that are against you, they're for their work.
He said, yeah.
I agree with him.
On a new summary, he said,
there's begun to be now a rash of editorials we've seen trying to overstate private sector.
But I think the Detroit News, I just got the next one, the New York News did the, I don't know if it speaks to the community, but they have that.
There's one that I always find is, they're beginning to come out with the one rather wild platform by the government, and it probably affects the campaign, the shot, the model of the strength of the media.
The government said in the beginning that they didn't invite a shorthand campaign.
That's the fact that there's a name going straight.
What we've done is we've lost the patrons, all the people that we're talking to.
And we've been signing all the material.
And I'm sorry to say, I honestly believe it's beginning to seep up.
But the polls, the Mayhem poll, I thought was the most interesting analysis in the world.
I don't know if you saw that.
People were asked of their approval, and this is in December, in the town of Longwood, recently.
Oh, yes, sir, just now.
In this area, 26% of the 1,000 and 1,000 questions that were favorably put in press at the time of the campaign, 57% were highly critical, and 17% were upset.
On the other hand, 23% were favorably...
I don't go along with the government's attacking President Nixon and the government handing him promises he made so that he could work for the NDR.
All of the criticisms were provided.
Among the 50%, among the 57% were very well regarded.
31% accused him of love-slinging or making unjustified attacks in prison.
Even 10% of the DFOs were hurtful about his love-slinging attack.
It's getting across the coast.
In Minnesota, that's the way they're reacting to this kind of thing.
And it is...
I thought I was going to hear you.
I thought I was going to hear you.
I thought I was going to hear you.
I thought I was going to hear you.
I thought I was going to hear you.
He certainly has been pounding the old wire.
He's done so much.
What he has, he's gotten through.
Just incredible.
And our people, I must say.
I can't help but think that four days left are going to be a hell of a year.
I mean, they're tightening it up, but I mean, you're not going to have a massive shift.
I don't think you'll see, but I don't think you'll see what I'm doing.
I think it's a discussion I'm going to have to get out.
First, I must say, 4,000 have gone that far.
Eisenhower had 500,000.
It really isn't.
He would have had it.
I can watch him go through the campaign.
You can see him on this one.
You can see him.
He's tired.
He's whipped.
He's whipped.
He's tired and uninspired.
That's kind of what it is.
And you could tell that the man was going through the motions.
And this is coming through, and all of a sudden, he's a beaten man.
And he only got on top of the curtain, or whatever.
The only way to put it, and what he has to do in the last four days, is to really rouse and fire the enthusiasm on his people.
And he's going to be able to do it, and he's going to be able to do it himself.
And he had a couple of footage, and he has people who said, well,
But I really, to answer your question of what we're doing today is great.
Dougal has put in a whole final campaign summary of all the abuses of our campaign, as well as what we're doing.
He's filing a complaint yesterday, filing a complaint with our campaign representative.
And he's listening to the whole, I've just been charged, and the president's not
I guess it was because of his name.
He made a name.
It was because of the cover he used.
It was because of the word he had there.
Uh, and it was done in the press conference at 11 o'clock.
So I, which I've already rehearsed a lot.
He's going to say, I can take all of this everything.
And he's going to say, yeah, you can do it.
And I'm going to be a little bit angry at him, but I'm going to just go with it.
But what I, what I think is totally, excuse me,
The government supported him and conserved him, and he minded the harass, the misdemeanors, the misdemeanors, the misdemeanors.
He's got all that down with that.
I mean, the network's going to, I think, will have their vote on that.
Because last night's heckling was last night.
And the guys were, I mean, they were so, this was, I mean, it was so crumbling, but the invasion today, you see it, you got it out of this, but.
They're arguing that our own supporters will not be that nice.
And that's correct.
That's in a mighty way true.
But they're reporting it.
Let's get down to work.
Let's take all of the sort of socratic livery that's been going on for 30 years.
It didn't involve burning cars, smashing windows, slashing tires.
What in the name of God are we talking about here?
It doesn't really mean anything.
And I got a letter from an old friend
I think some of the other footprints that have been in gay hobbies have been in the New York crowd.
I'm going to hold their notes and vote for this.
I didn't go out.
I didn't go out.
Here.
I wouldn't be over the sentiment that I was the one who imagined this.
Well, you couldn't be.
I understand.
I'm not.
I'm just saying, you know, our old people were having a really good life in this theater.
If it weren't for that, hey, how are you, Sarah?
If it weren't for that, there wouldn't be those prices.
If it weren't for those prices,
I got to say something about taxation.
It's whatever would be the issue with what we're going to send to the U.S.
I never know, I can't think of what's going to happen with some of these.
I remember back in Sydney, when we were in the U.S. And Billy wanted to talk about inflation.
And that's the only thing.
So it's going, and I think that's going to tell a lot of us what's going to sound the best of this.
We have not an issue with crime.
There's negative ads.
He is really, that's smart.
Uh, we, we just got dollars off of this.
We just want to do the schedule with that.
We've got to find a way to do this.
Uh, I don't know.
I don't know what we're going to see.
I don't know what we're going to do.
I don't know what we're going to do.
I don't know what we're going to do.
I don't know what we're going to do.
I don't know what we're going to do.
Well, let's get back to my speech.
If I get anything, let me just say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Oh, you've got this problem.
Uncertainty over the war, and that's going to hang out with me for a long time.
I'm going to just keep it right there tonight.
Uncertainty, but tough.
Just hopeful that the... Oh, yeah.
Hopeful that the... That's the case.
The accumulative lying average is going to be the lowest, but...
You still want us to make the plea for the use of our new American majority?
I quite didn't have the speech, I'm sure.
I'm really asking for the confidence of the people to be a part of the American story so that you can remember the scammer from that one tonight.
It's been a good day.
It's been nice to work with this weekend.
You know, a lot of people are comparing us to 1924.
There is a feeling that the rules have improved.
Well, yeah, there's a feeling that things are pretty good right now.
But your confidence is present.
They can't prove their confidence.
But I can only scourge you for Christ's sake, and the name God, and just get every damn editor around that iconoclast.
I get that shit up in the back of people in the campaign.
That's what we're talking about.
What the hell are they talking about?
It's a great interruption.
The best thing that I would say is that of all the charters they've made against us, they've all failed.
What in the name of God has been accomplished?
What has the radio accomplished?
What in the name of these burglars accomplished?
Nothing.
They've all failed.
They've all failed.
I think that's where paper is very much for our direction.
You know, we try to make things more important.
Yeah.
But they've overplayed it.
I'll be just as sure at one point.
We have the Vice President all set for his first campaign.
So I'm going to take this point out.
We have Joe in the place of the very campaign president.
We have all of our vice presidents.
And we have our press people.
We're looking to get this done.
He only had a head up on the dirty campaign.
Now on the other hand, we don't want that.
So now I think, or of course you're kind of blunt there.
What else are we going to be getting on?
We're going to be getting on there.
The first time was at 6 o'clock in the morning.
And it's a very tough one.
And Roger's not dead.
He's depressed.
I wasn't happy with the Ruddians being the Red Army, but I'm happy then because by Sunday, what my government's going to say, I'm positive, is that you accept the Reds' release, that there won't be a settlement, and for the four million people who are Ruddians, it's a great kind of answer, not answer, but a counter-effect, and it's part of the response.
What we want in the last few days, I think, is to put some of these two men on our phones, attacking him for his coup tyranny, for harassing our campaign, and to attack Cruz for his hustling.
And we want to remind people through our attack ads of welfare, high taxes.
Right.
And we want to be able to have a private
We have people in place to do that.
We have time for it.
We have a surrogate's crime.
So I think that if we are attacking him for dirty campaigning and harassing him, I think especially with this, you know, I think that's the most important thing.
But really, I mean, I can't even think about it now.
But also, he's kicking people around, so I'm sure.
But the girl is in the face, and this is expensive.
We get that.
Thank you for watching.