Conversation 408-007

TapeTape 408StartMonday, February 5, 1973 at 4:10 PMEndMonday, February 5, 1973 at 4:46 PMParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Colson, Charles W.;  Sanchez, ManoloRecording deviceOld Executive Office Building

On February 5, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, Charles W. Colson, and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 4:10 pm to 4:46 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 408-007 of the White House Tapes.

Conversation No. 408-7

Date: February 5, 1973
Time: 4:10 pm - 4:46 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President met with Charles W. Colson.

       Schedule
             -Colson
                    -Trip to the Union of Soviet Republics [USSR]

Manolo Sanchez entered at an unknown time after 4:10 pm.


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                                                12

                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                       Tape Subject Log
                                         (rev. Aug.-09)
                                                                Conversation No. 408-7 (cont’d)


[Begin segment reviewed under deed of gift]

       Schedule
             -Julie Nixon Eisenhower and [Dwight] David Eisenhower, II
                     -Evening plans

[End segment reviewed under deed of gift]
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Sanchez left at an unknown time before 4:46 pm.

       Colson's trip to the USSR
              -Patricia Colson
              -Hobart D. (“Hobe”) Lewis
                       -Possible article by Colson about trip
                       -Speech material

Sanchez entered at an unknown time before 4:10 pm.


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[Begin segment reviewed under deed of gift]

       Schedule
             -Julie Nixon Eisenhower

[End segment reviewed under deed of gift]
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Sanchez left at an unknown time before 4:46 pm.

       Colson’s trip to USSR
             -Speech material
             -USSR
                       -People
                                              13

                 NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                      Tape Subject Log
                                        (rev. Aug.-09)
                                                                 Conversation No. 408-7 (cont’d)


                      -Government
                      -Negotiations
                              -Trade
                      -Briefing
                      -Steven Lazarus
                              -Commerce Department
                                     -East-West Trade Center
                              -Ralph Lazarus
                              -Navy Captain
                              -East-West Trade Center
                                     -Vienna, Austria
                                     -Facilities
                                             -State Department
            -Israel
                      -Duration of visit
                      -The President’s opinion
                      -1968 trip to Europe by Colson
                             -Berlin
                                     -East Berlin
                                     -Berlin Wall
                                     -Colson’s son

      The President and Colson’s meeting with Albert E. Sindlinger
             -Herbert C. Hoover story
             -Sindlinger’s attitude
                     -Helpfulness
                     -Prompt inflation
                     -Bias
             -Polling techniques
                     -Reflection of public opinion
                            -Shooting of John C. Stennis
                            -Comparison with White House correspondence analysis
                            -Telephone polling
                            -Vietnam War


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                                              14

                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                     Tape Subject Log
                                       (rev. Aug.-09)
                                                             Conversation No. 408-7 (cont’d)


[Begin segment reviewed under deed of gift]

       Sindlinger
              -1972 election outcome
                     -The President’s margin of victory
                     -George S. McGovern
                     -1964 election comparison
                             -Barry M. Goldwater, Sr.
                     -McGovern’s supporters
                             -Loyalty
                                    -Bumper stickers
                             -Minority
                                    -Fanaticism
                     -Voter turnout
                     -Sindlinger’s certainty of the President’s margin of victory
                             -Comparison with George H. Gallup and Louis P. Harris

[End segment reviewed under deed of gift]
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       Vietnam War
             -Settlement
             -Sindlinger's analysis
                     -Desire for end of war
                            -Hawks
                     -Type of settlement
                            -The President’s critics
                            -The President as “national hero”
                                    -Effect
             -The President as a strong leader
                     -Image
                            -H.R. (“Bob”) Haldeman, other White House staff members

       The President’s Schedule
              -Meetings with Sindlinger
                     -Frequency
                                            15

                  NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                    Tape Subject Log
                                      (rev. Aug.-09)
                                                             Conversation No. 408-7 (cont’d)


                    -Reflection of public opinion
                           -Comparison with Harris, Gallup
                                   -Currency of reports
                                   -Depth
                           -Issues
                                   -Busing
                                   -Budget
                                           -Recommendation of the President's television [TV]
appearence
                                                   -Timing
                                                         -Vietnam settlement
                                  -Spending and economic issues
                                          -Domestic Council
                                          -Sub-standard housing
                                          -Food stamps
                                  -Congress
                                          -Access to interviews in districts
                                          -Change emphasis [?]
                                          -Public reaction
                                          -Standard polls
                                                  -Harris’s reporting of domestic issues
                                  -Vietnam
                                          -Joseph W. Alsop
                                                  -Domestic issues
                                  -Congress
                                          -Washington Post
                                          -New York Times
                                          -Networks
                                          -Pressure groups
                                  -Call to the President
                                  -Article
                                          -Currency

      Polls
              -Sindlinger
              -Use of Harris for polling
                      -Department of Health, Education and Welfare [HEW]
                                       16

           NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                               Tape Subject Log
                                 (rev. Aug.-09)
                                                        Conversation No. 408-7 (cont’d)


              -Vietnam War
                     -Polling techniques
                              -Cease-fire
                              -October 8, 1972 agreement
       -Vietnam War
              -Public relations strategy
                     -Administration accomplishments
                              -“Peace with honor”
                              -Change in world relations
                                      -The Nixon Doctrine
                                             -Post-war period outlook
                                                     -Generation of peace
                     -Compared with Dwight D. Eisenhower
                              -Korean War
                                      -1956 election
                     -Foreign relations
                              -People’s Republic of China [PRC]
                                      -Communication
                                      -Respect

Domestic Issues
      -Role of government
              -Taxes
              -Concentration of power
              -Social programs
                      -School lunch programs
              -Bureaucrats
              -Government waste
      -Social issues
              -Shooting of Stennis
                      -Sindlinger
      -Blacks
      -Whites
              -Middle class
              -Support for the President
              -West
              -Irish-Americans
                                      17

           NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                              Tape Subject Log
                                (rev. Aug.-09)
                                                        Conversation No. 408-7 (cont’d)


               -Italian-Americans
       -Social issues
               -Amnesty for draft dodgers
                       -Law and order
               -Busing
               -Pornography
                       -Marlon Brando
                              -Newsweek, Time articles
                              -Family magazines
                              -Patricia Colson
               -Robert H. Abplanalp's conversation with the President
                       -Public service program
                              -Blacks
                                      -Language
                                      -Robert J. Brown
               -Permissiveness
       -Role of government

Vietnam settlement
      -Antiwar critics
              -Reaction
      -The President's press conference
              -News coverage
                     -Time
                     -Dan Rather
                             -Balance
              -The President's tone, voice
                     -Comparison with Lyndon B. Johnson

Press relations
        -Reporting standards
                -Censorship
                -Double standard
        -White House public relations
                -H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman
                -Richard A. Moore
                -Agreement
                                       18

            NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                               Tape Subject Log
                                 (rev. Aug.-09)
                                                        Conversation No. 408-7 (cont’d)


               -Implementation of policy
       -TV networks
               -Influence
               -CBS affiliate
       -Coverage
               -Watergate issue
               -Vietnam settlement
                       -Antiwar critics
                       -Prisoners of War [POWs] guests
                       -CBS V
                               -New York
       -Strategy
       -John O. Pastore
       -Donald R. Larrabee’s initiation at the National Press Club
               -Democratic Congressmen
               -New York Times piece
                       -Unknown man’s comment
                               -[Unintelligible name]
                       -Fighting back

The President’s supporters
       -William Proxmire
       -Demagogues [?]
       -Proxmire
              -Skills

1972 election
       -“49 state landslide”
               -Mandate
       -Comparison with 1968 election
               -Democrats
                      -Students
       -Post-election plans
               -The President’s opponents

The President’s schedule
                                             19

                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                      Tape Subject Log
                                        (rev. Aug.-09)
                                                         Conversation No. 408-7 (cont’d)


Colson left at 4:46 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.

Sir, I... You're Lincoln Wesley, don't you?
Uh, wait for this one.
This one.
Oh, excellent.
Excellent.
Well, that's good to get off, isn't it?
But actually... Yeah?
Let's say... Well, Lincoln Reach doesn't give it time to be here, so... Well, I would have gone with the stack as a draw.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Alright, let me know.
Well, you have a great friend.
You could make your wife.
Yes, sir.
How long are you going to be gone?
I'll be three weeks until I get back.
I'm going to places that I've always wanted to go and never been able to.
I know I've always wanted to go.
Once I get my loggerheads on a blue travel jet.
You probably will find ways, if I were you, you could go look for suggestions.
You might talk to Hope Lewis or somebody.
Or write an article or something.
Excellent speech material, excellent articles.
Okay.
It really fascinates me.
I'm not very good at relaxing.
I can't go to the beach or a resort or a hotel.
I don't do a center.
I don't take the time to do that.
I'm going to the center for a minute.
It was very impressive.
I think the rest of it was rushed in by the entire crew.
Don't be concerned about the same government people the rest of the day.
Unless they've got something specific to negotiate.
We haven't been to three states.
We haven't been recently.
What is this?
He's Ralph Lazarus.
There are also new facilities that we're planning for in the background.
These will be great facilities in schools and areas.
Actually, the state board was very pleased
He won't find him.
People are old.
People are old.
Don't plan to rest there much longer.
It's just a good place for tourists to come around.
If you were to get off, I'm sure there are a lot of people there to get off.
I spent a day just walking through Eastman.
So I was like, just to get a feel and looking at that world.
And I changed that.
Yeah, I had to do one day.
Yeah, but I wanted my son to see the character.
Because he did.
Before he got exposed to all that.
But he had some talent.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I had a, I was really, I was glad we had a son there, you know.
He has been very helpful in the future in terms of getting information, getting it fast.
He's got obviously some biases in one direction or another, you know what I mean, in terms of his emphasis on...
But I think very close to the mark on most everything.
He sure picks stuff up, though, that you don't see, for example, I mean, in the news summary or in the television arrest, in countries out of which you're not sentenced, you know, you pick stuff up pretty high and high.
That's the kind of thing that he does judge if you don't get it.
Right?
He's really the best wing, Mr. Whitman, to what you do in the name.
Like I said with our mail, mail is basically sold and affected by pressure groups.
And he's out there, it's like going out and walking up and down the street and talking to people.
So he did cover 300.
And also he may cover even better than the one that I'm talking about.
Because Donald Trump is so impersonal, impersonal.
But he is a great guy and he does what he wants.
His theory isn't as bad as Andrew Miller's because he is.
If people want to hurt him, they will.
It's interesting how he felt that the war ceased to be an issue, according to what he says.
So he called me for that.
Yeah.
For all these people.
And he also felt that we could have won 68%.
That's right.
And they both come out.
I think he tried.
But he didn't know what else.
You know, his point to the first three hours of his three months in the government, is actually, that was my theory, was not, you know, the fanatics always told me.
That's right.
I bet you in 1964, in the first three hours, it was over.
That's right.
I bet it was very close.
Because the people who are going to go out and vote for the government, they knew they were going to vote for this.
Right.
But they wanted to register that vote because that, I mean that, it's interesting.
They're going to stick this in still out there for us.
People who are going to go.
Sure.
They're, they're proud to be, uh, fanatic minorities.
That's what it's really about.
It's, it's that, that's, that's their sign, exactly.
And our people voted, the biggest thing we did was to get them voted in to turn out a vote.
As someone here said, if we had, if we had yet to dig through about 80% of those, the additional, the additional six minutes, how would we have the supplements?
Okay, my advice is to say, if we had had the, if we had had the, maybe even 90 minutes, we would have gone up to 68%.
He was confessing it.
He was the only one who was calling it right.
He was the only one who was calling it right.
I think he's done an excellent job.
or I couldn't quite prove it, that at least, that proving, that ending the war, proving basically I was right in ending the war, here's a plus.
Now, he does feel that.
What he thinks having a go is good, because I love a lot of people who didn't want to end it.
Well, everybody did want to end it.
God, you know, I think.
A lot of our, it's true, the hawks are selfish.
They just said, well, if you're asked, the other way around.
But how do you deal with that?
Some of us, I don't know, I was weak, but in the war, the way we did, which was to, you know, let them stutter down the coast and prove that you could do what they said you couldn't.
Thank you, the National Bureau of the City of San Diego.
A little bit of time for all the sentient beings.
I would think that would have an effect.
I don't know.
I don't think it does.
Every indication that we get, any indication that we get, is a further strength of your own.
As a strong leader, that's what I'm reading.
I think that's the real point, the strong, courageous thing.
That's the fight I'm always trying to get across to, I don't have to get across to all of them, but to the other people, I'm sitting in this connection with them.
I'm talking to them.
I'm talking to the man.
Is he strong?
Is he courageous?
Don't give a damn about this.
Do what's right.
That's what they want.
They really do.
They want to support.
They eventually will support that.
But I think the interesting point is that he's a, he mourns the loss of his father because he feels so wronged and horrible in a great sense because he's gone out to the Civil War.
He actually, you know, said a lot of good stuff to him.
And I think possibly playing around once a month is a good idea.
Well, you know, living around here is definitely good.
Maybe once every six weeks at least he'd be ready to get too much.
But just that you tell Howard and you come in with him.
In other words, you're certain that when you come back from your trip, you've got to come in.
It's worth a good half hour any time for me.
So it's a way for me to sort of see what the hell's going on out in that world.
It's quite true that the Harris and Gallops is soon outdated.
I mean, they're three or four weeks late, but, you know, they are.
There's a lot of their stuff right away, but they're
You know, they do work in depth, yeah, work with motivation and all that sort of thing.
We don't see Harris in particular.
Harris in particular, similarly, just skims over the top.
We're going to turn very fast, find out what y'all do, and think, oh, today, yeah, there's only one issue.
So, you know, that's, that is so important, because we tend to think, like you felt, like, busting was the only issue.
There's no other issue, so we get it.
You know, and that's the reason I opposed your...
on the budget for the sales of Vietnam.
We can't ask people to be thinking about a two-minute or three-minute disaster.
We just do this.
He does think we're on the right side of the country, but the reason my investment counsel is here is because I actually thought about what a meeting I did about four of those substandard houses, and what a meeting I did about food stamps, and that kind of thing.
That was a little defense Congress.
It was probably the other stuff.
And if we could set up this thing where people in Congress would listen to the interviews that happened in the district, we may change the interviews that happened.
Because it was our only committee.
The two churches I made up the Senate.
It was only the Senate that listened to the public reactions.
And I think it would be the Congress.
And Harris puts on investigations, Harris slowly puts on investigations.
He does, that's right, he does.
He's a, he's a, as the general said, he's a rock up, he's a rock up, he's a rock up, he's a rock up, he's a rock up, he's a rock up, he's a rock up, he's a rock up, he's a rock up, he's a rock up, he's a rock up, he's a rock up, he's a rock up, he's a rock up, he's a rock up,
and instead of going out to the people and asking them to do 60% of the budget for us in the elections, he was impressed by that.
He made it sound very current.
You're going to continue to give those carrots, though, for some time.
Harris' acceptance to want to be part of the rule of the relations with the other side.
Yeah.
Now Harris was talking against the rules and the issue of the actions.
He was doing his part for us.
He kept that in mind.
Part of the conviction of the rule was that
Do you mean he pulled by telephone?
No, no, he had pulled before, but he used the same permission.
Oh, guessing what they might be, I'm sure.
Stats, lawsuits, whatever.
For the October 8th agreement?
Yes, sir.
Right.
Well, we'll do it tomorrow.
Tomorrow, yes.
i think it discusses down the side of the other side and it's a way to build
That's why I'm going to ask you for the link that we can have it very hardly for a little while.
Have it very hardly for the next four months.
Right.
One is that you brought about peace without it.
That you really changed the relations in the world.
The mix of that.
And that this post-war era, unlike other post-war eras, really now is an opportunity.
remember how we used to talk about eisenhardt at the end of the war in korea right we we brokered that clear through clear through 56 four years later three and a half years later so we ought to be able to broker this for a couple years and what broke of this would also surprise
The other issue is that you are changing the role of government and you're not going to have higher taxes.
You're not going to have more power in the hands of bureaucrats in Washington.
We're getting power back to the people and we're getting government to walk their backs
Those are two central themes that I think we're just playing over.
And I think whenever somebody makes a case for a school that was first going to tell about it, they'll write a text that's getting the government all over the place.
That's less government proportion.
Less power in the hands of the people.
Less waste.
It's a damn good issue.
That's what I had to do at the time.
Plenty.
that is going to remain very much more.
That's what Stettis is about, for sure.
He's being down.
Senator didn't say that.
It's because of the blacks.
He said a lot of the blacks got his most violent reactions against what the middle class was doing.
Well, he said the middle class was becoming very violent.
I don't think this makes sure that the Blacks and the Irish and the Italians can do it.
But I think the social issues that are being hit are pulling away from each other really hard.
How can I go harder than you can?
Can you think of what I'll do?
In fact, Chuck's position on the atmosphere is being very hard on the audience.
That's a lawful opinion.
That's a lawful opinion.
But it also, that is a, you know, it's a social issue.
It's a social issue.
It's saying that we're not going to let people do the bad in their country.
We're not going to let them do the bad in their country.
We're not going to let them do the bad in their country.
We're not going to let them do the bad in their country.
We're not going to let them do the bad in their country.
I think it's the cover.
I think it's the cover.
And then inside is the sent picture.
And then the rest of it, it's like a .
I've already got it.
Because it's a self-magazine.
So I'm not going to read this magazine and chuck it in the pornography club.
I'm sure because those are abandoned magazines.
People in a doctor's office, they're just sitting there waiting for the table.
Those are magazines in general, especially if you're a white person.
She's a Catholic, and she doesn't like to do it.
She won't listen to it.
She's very intentional.
But she throws it in the bag.
She just takes things in with her.
They might have mentioned it before.
Bob Attenborough.
and they were having one of these solo sessions or something so that they could express their opinions among the bunch of neighbors.
And they were saying, they were just calling each other, you're a motherfucker.
And they said, he just sat there petrified.
And that actually is the way the MC went on too well, even more than Chris May.
You know, one of those things.
They expressed themselves as a social worker.
You know, when you put yourself in that position, you're wondering about that Bob Brown.
He must be part of my family.
I mean, that is what it is to be sitting there and using such words.
What do you think?
I don't know what to do with it, but I think
I think the pendulum has gone.
I'm glad it did.
I'm glad the pendulum is going.
It's working today.
Because like everything else in our society, we're not going to count what we have.
We are going to count what we have.
And it's good that we are.
It's good that it went as far as it did.
I think it's welcome.
I think the whole permissive giver, the candidate that I would use, when you talk about great goals,
You bring the country back to its senses.
Redefine the local government.
You can't ask to be important, not to be great.
There again, I think the world is turning.
I think, in other words, it makes them look bad.
That's why the whole thing, that's why I rely on that little question.
to do is try and take the rather view that I was angry and all that sort of thing where they take a more balanced view.
You know, it was more balanced.
It was kind of a thing so I don't think the rather view is terrible.
It's pretty hard to hold people to see.
Basically, there's another advantage I have with that sort of thing, that I'm always kind of very, you know, soft-voiced and pretty, you know, Johnson, Grant, Raby Garstow, whatever
It had to be done, didn't it?
Absolutely.
That's great.
But that said, it helps.
It affects our people.
It's just, our people just
Well, they need to hear it.
They're supposed to worry about it.
They'll never get it out of their center.
They didn't hear it.
They're suppressing this for a while.
It's a horrible sound.
It's the easiest to hear right now.
We can't get a solo.
Well, basically, I don't like to be in the position of any sense of censorship.
That is what it's about.
We're only talking about the parents.
They know what you can't hear.
That's what it's about, for sure.
I was very good at being that way.
I don't want to have a situation where we go up the hill and they're back down again.
very enthusiastic.
What we're doing is right on the targets, both in the cable area and the area of the local station response.
It's the only solution.
And it's just going wrong, and that's what's going to happen.
Over 60% of the R&D is going to be product-sourced.
It really doesn't look like it's really what's, you know, just wrong.
The only way you're going to get this kind of check is at the local stations.
You've got to give them the tools.
I don't think anybody would fight back when that happens.
Some of our people didn't fight back.
But most of them are angry.
If they had the right tools to do it, then I think you'd find a change.
Maybe all the little people back there just sit up and jump the wave and fly.
I don't think they're making money.
That was a sense.
because the CPS is going to end you're going to make several hundred thousand dollars more per year after that so let's take some guts that they want but at least this exercise, this process even if you lose it even if you lose it it is absolutely discernible
made this kind of like a coverage of purpose.
We didn't do a lot of testing.
Well, I must say, of course, we gave them an awful lot, but the coverage of everything that they started was predictable.
The prayer breakfast, of course, was not predictable.
But there are other things like what do you mean coverage of purpose, which is way out of both the terms of time and position of the leaders.
And to compare that to one of those
They have not been putting on coverings.
They haven't been putting on any of the grids.
The POWs have been put on, and the moral support is very strong today.
Now we've got a damn good coverage for us.
We're going to have to make sure that we're going to use as much insurance as we can.
We're going to get crammed by CPSL in New York, and they still won't
You simply have to go through this pressure to suppress it.
I think the breakdowns later on is the progression of a big battery with an amp and a phone.
It's too sophisticated an issue to go around having to be average since they just don't really think about how to destroy these things.
So when they accuse us of progression, it really doesn't hurt us at all.
I sure wouldn't give up on that story I want you to work on.
The way you suggested pushing it was incorrect.
It was interesting, I went to John Laird's
He may consume it alone.
He's right.
He's right.
He's right.
He's right.
He's right.
He's right.
A lot of the people on both sides of the bill are afraid to fight back.
I think there's more support than defense.
But we do have a lot of friends out there who, frankly, are archivists of race and stuff.
They get flubbed and so on.
You know, these are outspires, but I don't know.
Well, they're better than I guess, as I said, across the nation.
You know what to say and how to say it.
How to get through.
I don't exploit any argument.
I know what the rest of the argument is.
Part of the argument.
And you know, Mr. President, if you had played it the other way, going back and forth, you would have tried to placate the students.
You would have tried to placate them and win a little bit.
If you had played it, tried to win a lot, you never would have pulled that one.
So, of course, the fight is, in some ways,
They know that they're on the outside of it.
It's very lonely and cold for three years.
We're sorry.
So that's the whole question.