Nixon, Haldeman & Malek on Personnel Appointments and Public Relations

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I've seen it.

I don't know.

If they ever see you again, it's a victory of love.

It gives you an opportunity to reaffirm your commitment to the age-reduce, launch Peter's detector in the best way possible.

I'm talking about the remarks that people know no longer.

It's the same thing.

I don't know what I'm saying.

This credential says, I'm on both, I'm on both for about a month, a month or two.

We've got it too, we've got it in.

What's this?

and forget why there's one of them that has to be done.

So they were doing the other two, and then we are not getting one through.

I just said, they're all such a pain in the ass.

I just threw them all out every three months, Bob.

Bob, I don't like to be next to a nine to ten.

You guys are probably stacking, you know, a guy in town unaccredited.

I'm not sure, right?

And also the iron.

We have to do those again.

Yeah, we've got a back bug, so...

We're going too far.

Don't think we've done everything.

Do us a favor on this.

Want to start shifting some back to the beginning?

We've done that.

We can do this one.

We've got another batch of them.

Let's do this one.

Let's do this.

Let's do those.

Okay.

Let's do this one.

I do not want to, I don't want to impress her.

You understand?

Live or otherwise, okay?

Just keep it, make it a private circle.

Exactly.

It's not a particularly good thing to be on the press.

I don't want to be talking about it.

Just tell them it's a private circle.

Clear.

I may not want to mind doing it.

Thank you.

At least he just wants to run.

That's all.

I don't have any confidence in anybody in committees, but he just wants to run.

What does Al think?

He's just pissed off that he isn't running.

And I said, Roger's just gonna run this.

He doesn't really know how to cope with it himself.

Did they get any questions, Steve?

And I asked all the questions and got answers.

And Henry said, why?

Because basically it didn't bear out as well.

And he said, well, you could call and do this and that.

And I called him and he asked me a few questions.

I said,

Henry wasn't...

He was concerned about the way Henry was reacting to the track.

He didn't want to do anything to waste his time.

And he said he'd give you questions.

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

It was not a black kid.

It wasn't like... No, no, no, no.

There was a kid.

We don't know.

There was a Kevin who saluted with his left hand.

Now, not them.

There were at least eight staff people in that room.

Everybody laughed when he said it.

And then his brother said it.

He said that I was the one.

And this one, by God, they're going to find out.

He was saluted with his left hand.

And second, he said, he said, this is mine.

He's relegated his name in a quiet voice.

And the little boy spoke up real loud and said, no, his name is Skinner.

Now tell somebody to search his memory.

It's on the right side off the third down as they went down on the left side.

It was a white kid.

Was he about that age, six or eight years young?

The incident was so amusing.

That's the whole point.

If anybody didn't get in there, all I think was the third guy in the building.

Now, I didn't know if there was a security in any of the eight.

Now, if I didn't see anybody with a PR system, it wouldn't matter.

It was a very amusing incident.

I don't remember the guy that's in the center.

And we've got to get somebody else in there to cover.

I'm sure they will.

I didn't do the math because I didn't know.

I want to thank you for your work, Dick Perry, who's been recruiting me.

I don't think I can catch this one on the top.

Yes, how are you?

Good to see you, sir.

Good to see you.

After all your work, we ought to at least say hello to you.

I understand you're going to leave.

Yes, I am.

I'm actually on a full-time base.

I was going to say we're going to work on a full-time base.

Well, this all needs help.

He's a meanest man.

I know.

Well, listen, you've done a terrific job.

You have, too.

You've got some excellent reports on the whole thing.

I just wanted you to know that I'm very grateful.

Well, thank you very much.

Get this thing cleaned up.

We've got enough time.

I'll be back to work with you.

Yes.

Good.

All right.

Good.

I'm most grateful and we will appreciate your help this time of the month.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you for your help.

You have a great report, sir.

Thank you.

You might have to log out.

And he's great at getting these guys, you know, I think it's something like 60,000 a year or something like that.

I don't know.

That damn job.

I think that Hoffman job put down a good deal.

I just want to put a good friend of mine in the damn job.

It's an asshole job.

I mean, you know, they give away a half-billion dollars a year.

We just always come up with the same old establishment names of people that are never particularly our friends.

And, uh, Pete and I know...

It's hard to relate that area to any money.

Could he do it?

No.

He isn't really smart about it.

I talked to Roy Ash about some of the things, and I raised a question.

I said, you talked to me a couple years ago about Thornton.

Would he be interested in taking it down?

I looked around, and he said this person said he was a small ship.

Yeah.

He's confirmed that he did it.

He said, what he'd really love to do is be an ambassador.

And he said, you know where he'd really love to go?

Australia.

Is Australia or Mexico.

And I said, well, that's very interesting.

Just love it at that.

Or what an ambassador could do.

You know, why not marry up to Australia?

If Bill wants an ambassador, why not?

So can he do that?

Australia or Mexico.

He could do any of them.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

How about that?

or should we try to get together in the morning in a smaller group?

Should we say 10 o'clock?

Fine.

All right, I, yeah, and look, men all, men all, I guess all would be good to have him with you.

Yeah, they have any questions?

He said it so often before.

All right, I'll pass the mic.

Yeah, 10 o'clock.

Henry, later.

Rogers, Helms.

Listen here.

What I don't know is about Israel.

But I think it's true.

That's great.

I said a little bit about that.

Obviously, being an investor, it bothered me to put his talent, not to get him into a, you know, some kind of job.

Well, there might be a hell of a time for that.

We don't own anything, do we?

No, we don't own any of that.

But it would be a very... That's why his message should just be this.

He wanted to be a very talented guy for the job.

He put his name on the list for the doctor's job, the doctor's job.

I think I'd put him on the top of the list.

I think he's an exciting man.

And he would have, if it had been under Secretary of State, I think, you know, that, you know, if we had the Irwin job, it would be very... And Roy, oh, I know, another reason, Roy said, what he, the reason he left an ambassador job is because of not having to sell his stock.

He took a, the Hoffman job, he wouldn't have to sell his stock either.

But if he came into a post in here, he'd have to sell, and that would cost him...

Well, I don't think he has to sell his office.

No, he works there.

Because he's not making, you know, awarding contracts to the company and things like that, I don't think.

That doesn't, they don't work.

I just don't think we have the kinds of people that enjoy that kind of stuff.

Let it just come naturally.

I don't think the other three.

The others are doing it because of talking about it.

It doesn't come back until they're there.

It's uncomfortable.

But it doesn't come naturally.

They're getting a few of them.

You can't take a guy and make him do it, but I think you can.

point out to them.

They've been afraid to do it, to, you know, talk, tell the stories about Nixon instead of outlining programs.

And if we just, each guy can push him over to do it once, he finds out that he gets a better speech than the substantive one, gets a better reception, makes him look better.

If you look at it now, the entire thing, all that comes out of that is process.

And it's all working hours and hours of backgrounding.

Nothing in terms of the presentation work.

Yeah.

Maybe it isn't worth it.

I just wonder if we could really try to make him go ahead and live away from the natural forest, you know?

And we sort of went this way because coffee has raised the point, actually, where it all started.

Yep, and he's absolutely right.

We shouldn't just do this naturally.

We should work the other way, and I think we can make a lot of headway.

One thing that you might do, and I do quite a bit of this stuff,

And it's always interesting, it's never dull, like even introducing George Bush by bringing in something.

You don't think about overmiddles and the rest and going all the way back and doing this other stuff.

Has anybody thought about trying to make a little something out of those things?

Pretty far as natural as they have.

Yeah.

You've got to make something of that collectively.

You create, if you've got to work this thing, you've got to say, well, you've got to place an awful amount of orthodoxy in our decoration.

And then a skillful man has to do some of the introductions.

Now, who does that in charge of that?

As we'll go on now, it's this whole new ever closer thing to get started.

stacking up the board, getting, you know, reorganized for it on the individual basis, and shifting some, yeah.

Yeah, we'll do it.

But we're gonna, we're gonna cross that.

It's an individual license of getting other people to do it.

He's not doing it on his own.

He just started discovering his own license, okay?

Maybe that's true.

Oh, that's what he's planning, though.

That's, and part of it is you gotta get it into somebody's hands before it gets into other people's.

You have to figure out he's a tiger.

into some articles and start building the, or the idea that we can get, then get it played off on the TV.

The records, please.

That's all I need.

I think the thing that they want to get across sometimes is that I just don't get up and read something or try something.

The staff does.

We've mentioned that on several occasions.

That's what people appreciate.

Yet sometimes you just have an idea of your own.

Like a little reference to it.

See my point?

It could well have happened, wasn't it?

Here.

Yeah.

I wondered if you could send over a copy of that so that I could take a study of it tonight and take a look.

Fine.

I know everything.

If you could just send it over here.

Yeah.

Crap.

Yeah.

And then let's try it out.

Then we'll just sort of think what our options are.

Okay.

You know that Henry said he got a call from the press today.

He said he's been trying to work on it.

He said, you know, there's howling about the way we're persecuting this.

And he said, and to show you how Henry is totally on his death, that they're not on something.

He said, for example, he says, why is it that Ehrlichman agrees to Republican senators and is refused to testify before the committees in regard to Republican chair?

And I said, Henry, didn't you tell him that Ehrlichman agrees to all the Democratic congressmen and senators and has agreed to go up and answer questions by the total Democratic Congress?

No, I'm not going to do that.

See, he doesn't know.

He has no hope.

He isn't the best man to talk to people about.

Well, if he does, when he gets something like that, he should say, well, let me check.

He should get to John right away, not to you.

Why don't you go to John?

John, get Preston to call.

Say, I understand.

Let Preston squeal at him.

I think he's got nails on the bench, right, for a very good source of work.

I'm sure it is.

Yeah.

Yes, I'm sure, Dr. Kissinger, you raised this point.

I think you should know, not only have we done this, but I have offered, there's a standing offer.

We've made it to Mansfield.

We've made it to Dalbert.

We've made it to the committees and all the rest.

Obviously, the testimony has to be given to the White House staff members, you know.

What if you were to shoot her off as if Henry went on television and said something substitute about laws or something, and I could do the same with Henry.

Don't get in an uproar about it, please.

We're just working on television.

Would you agree?

And we will.

Go for it.

Call on me today, and I'll be calling you tomorrow.

Yeah, Kevin was caught.

That could be a lie.

First time in two years he's caught in these.

Maybe he wants to get out and see if he's fine.

Some of those guys want to see you.

They call them checkers.

Oh yeah, yeah.

It seems to have a secret meaning, I think.

We'll have a little photograph talk or have a secret talk tomorrow.

It's all over the phone.

It probably goes far beyond that, you know what I mean?

It's basically a question of running into the fighting irons and pages of space and all the rest of goddamn time.

I think at the present time,

They want to get along.

They want to keep this city.

They see a wish.

And my health, they really do.

You agree or not?

Yes.

Right.

This is what Henry doesn't understand.

And God damn it, I've got to work with him on that sort of thing.

You've got to recognize, you know, he's still running business in control of the State Department.

That's who he is.

Nobody has it before.

If it's too bad he doesn't, it'd be nice if he did.

The State Department people didn't leak stories and bitch about Henry, but they do.

And they always have, bitch about the White House.

He got here when he had it, and then he started it.

I think it's a mistake I should have for, he said, Ziegler approval for him to go on television.

You remember, I thought I had to understand that Henry was not the role model.

And I'm surprised Ziegler approved it.

Because Henry's talked to me, usually,

And he had, you know, this one thing where he was going to go on on this background thing about the President and the type of decisions he made and all that.

And then he came in and told me they wanted to expand it to make it a more lengthy thing to go into substance.

And I said, no, sir, don't get trapped in that.

And Henry said they asked only one substance.

He questioned him.

It was Bernard Call, of all people.

He should have gone, should not have gone.

I think, I want you to check this, Senator, and see what happened.

I think Senators better understand, Henry Kissinger is not to go on television, period.

I don't think he should go on at all.

Yes, I do.

I just think it's too dangerous.

They're always going to ask you substantive questions, and Henry will not refuse to answer a substantive question.

Why?

Because that's what he told me in this case.

That's why I interviewed the questioner.

He got into trouble.

It's a tough, tough one to settle, but I don't think Henry or John, either one should go and tell me.

Either one.

I don't think a guy at all.

Either one.

George Feltz can.

Because he is subject to congressional questioning.

Also, he's a cabinet officer, and he's a cabinet officer.

I don't think your staff people belong.

No, staff, I think you should go on television.

I don't think planning it should go on.

I don't think that McGregor should go on.

He might be the one.

No, I don't think he should go on.

I think you just have to, except when you do the human interest thing.

If you've got them on, you know, if they ain't got to work, well, they don't care.

But the blood flows went on, you know, it did repent, I suppose, but don't have him go on.

They don't ask him to do an intercession, so he's not even an interceder guy.

That's where McGregor, I think, could go on, because he's not a substantive man.

He's an operational guy.

If he goes on, then the human stuff, not the other.

Oh, you're doing right, but I just didn't see how that profits.

You know, I've been trying to be so careful about it this week.

He asked me.

That's what I asked him.

He asked about a long time ago.

I said, no.

You can only guess on one.

That was the one he, at least I think that's the one he did.

Because that's the one he was trying to get me to do.

He asked me again.

He asked again last week whether or not he could go on college.

No.

What are you asking about what's going on with that fall that was here at the White House?

And I said, no.

I thought that covered it all for him.

I said, no, Henry, I just don't think you should go on college.

That's what I said.

Well, shall we stop for a few seconds?

I think the staff is a hell of a lot stronger and safer if they work in the side, but their advice is for you, not the world.

Okay, but enough to get it galloped up yet?

Oh, yeah.

That's not very good.

It's, uh...

And they're not, they're not the final pick, but it'll be either 52 or 53.

I'm sorry, 45, this or that.

And, Dwight said, what do you, see, their last one was 56, the one they didn't release the car.

No, but it ended at 56.

56-33.

And they didn't release it.

And Dwight asked him what he thought the reason for the drop was.

He said, immediately he said, locks.

And he said, but then he said he wasn't certain.

Which of course he is, he can't be.

They've got a poll coming out this Sunday.

This one will not come out until next Thursday or Sunday.

They've got a poll coming out this Sunday that they found that two to one people think the invasion of Laos will lengthen the war.

It should be sixty-six.

If it's 52, that would be the same as the December.

The one they last printed.

I'm sorry.

So, no change.

I don't think it's, I don't, that surprises me.

Our own, though, they had, well, particularly one of those.

You see, they never did reflect the output here.

They had 56, we had 60.

We had 66.

We took the two together.

Yeah, we took the two together.

Yeah, 16 and 59.

That's right.

I'm sorry.

Our 66 was January.

I think that

pretty junky with the models and all that sort of thing.

We were taking the heat.

On the other hand, uh, we were taking it down here in Cambodia.

Cambodia was a very different thing.

It sure was.

Well, getting into yourself.

Well, there was something else, too.

They can talk all they want about going on the air in Cambodia.

That did it.

You see, we didn't do it on us.

This is a very different thing.

This whole key business and so forth may be not so much, but it is definitely given their opportunity to come on.

That's why we didn't get the attorney thing out of the way.

They answered questions on us, on colleges, families.

Thank you, sir.

We're moving forward.

Now he never rented the 56, did he?

Anyway, that's not a significant change.

You were 54 before Cambodia, then you did an April poll, it was 56, and a May poll, it was 57, which wasn't released.

And then the later May poll was 59, which was released.

And then June went down to 55.

And July up to 61.

That was actually a conversation.

And that had been after you were out in Cambodia?

Well, I'm sure that had been.

I don't think that all this money is going to make a lot of difference.

We've been through this before.

It's our economic thing now that we need to look a little better.

What was the negative on the other 15th of December?

34, so this is about the same as 35.

This is 52, 35, and this is 52, 34.

This may be 52.

Yeah.

There's doubts, they always come out in the low center.

I've seen a really versatile view.

I don't think so.

It has nothing to do with it.

It doesn't measure anything specific, which is what we've tried to do with our police.

I think we ought to maybe call out to the press conference.

If you have one last week or if there's any event along the way.

I'm not sure.

We ought to keep polling fairly regularly.

I don't think we should.

I think you're right.

I don't think we should.

Because you need to keep the trend.

Why don't we do this?

Why don't we have a poll now?

And then what happens to the press conference?

Do the same, but split it again.

Should we do that before and after and see what happens?

Yeah, we could do one over the weekend now.

Sure.

Friday night is children.

or this job, because they can't get people.

Yeah, we can do it the first year.

Yeah, do it Monday and Tuesday.

Should we do that?

So we are still, we don't do it over the weekends.

Good.

Nixon, Haldeman & Malek on Personnel Appointments and Public Relations

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on February 26, 1971

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