Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 472-002
Date: Tuesday, March 23, 1971 at 7:53 AM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Butterfield, Alexander P.; Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob"); Bull, Stephen B.
Recording device: Oval Office
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/472-002

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] So, uh, I mean, I could hear it coming.
[0:56] There's some possibility one of the leaders or some of the
[1:24] raised the point that they have a case against the Capitol Bombers and wanted to do something on Mitchell.
[1:31] wants you to just oppose anything like that.
[1:51] Uber is pushing you to go ahead.
[1:52] They do have a case on.
[1:52] They have an informant.
[1:53] They know who they are.
[1:53] Who are they?
[1:54] But the point is, are they blacks?
[1:54] I'll call the police here.
[1:55] Are they blacks?
[1:55] I don't know that.
[1:56] To inform us that what John, John wants, they have plans for more activities.
[1:57] They're not under surveillance now, and John wants to let them leave them loose for a while.
[1:59] Keep out of it, get them to do something else and catch them out.
[2:14] So they've got a brief case instead of an informant's case.
[2:19] And Hoover was gonna talk to you and start to put pressure on you to go ahead and arrest him.
[2:21] And he is now programmed to.
[2:23] play well to the point, which is the game John must play.
[2:46] Some of the congressmen may know about that.
[2:47] That's exactly what I'd like to know, sir.
[2:48] Good, then I suppose, sir.
[2:49] I'll just go upstairs and John makes those hands if you don't mind.
[3:23] Here we go.
[3:53] Yeah.
[4:04] Yeah.
[4:06] Yeah.
[4:19] Yeah.
[4:19] Yeah.
[4:19] Yeah.
[4:19] Yeah.
[4:19] Yeah.
[4:19] Yeah.
[4:19] Yeah.
[4:20] Yeah.
[4:20] Yeah.
[4:20] Yeah.
[4:38] They're sidelined, and they've already put a discount on the rules, and everybody's ears are down, so what the hell?
[5:00] We've been all day, and we've been questioning this very quickly, and it's absolutely justified.
[5:02] Of course, it isn't just the approval poll.
[5:03] That's what's going to get the record going, because that holds us to credibility in the approval claim in the war.
[5:05] That's right.
[5:05] That's right.
[5:06] You've got a coppered in a number of different directions.
[5:07] That's right.
[5:08] The crack that's at the top today facing the thesis that until it follows every move, every major move by a president, either you or Johnson, on the war, caused at least a momentary upsurge in the polls, whether it was an escalation or a de-escalation.
[5:28] Josh went up when he started bombing, he went up when he quit bombing, he went up, you know.
[5:51] And then it takes you on the, uh, November 3rd, and you go to Cambodia.
[5:52] And, uh, when the fist goes down to Red Lobster, it's the first time it's gone down.
[5:54] There's a reason for that.
[5:54] First of all, he missed a picture of my house with Jeff.
[5:57] Well, I need to take that for what it is, you know.
[6:05] I was thinking of yours, in terms of this question, people are tired of this.
[6:09] Well, the question is tired of the question of the loop that was set out before.
[6:12] The loop was that of an escalating walk.
[6:13] Vietnam, you know, people, the war always was escalating, and every step of the statement was in relation to an escalating war.
[6:35] And a step now, it was a clearly de-escalating war.
[6:37] I can't believe it was so important.
[6:37] Yeah, but I don't think people really had anything to do with what they did after the Vietnam War.
[6:39] And also, we went all out to... Yeah, I think they're...
[6:40] I don't know if you remember, sir.
[6:41] Oh, okay.
[6:42] The number 13 wasn't a step up to the water, it was purely an exercise in... All the measures on these things are not going to happen.
[7:04] You see, squirt comes out.
[7:05] As long as they can get it down, they show up to run with everything they can get up.
[7:15] Everybody has his own choice, doesn't he?
[7:30] Well, it may very well be.
[7:31] For a given time and subject, one thing's better than another time and another thing's better.
[7:39] It may be that it is the best format.
[7:40] I sure don't think you can use it very often, though.
[7:51] I think it's worth the work.
[7:55] The only questionable thing about that is that it doesn't reach as many people.
[8:03] That's the disadvantage.
[8:07] That's a real disadvantage to all our people who saw it and anybody who saw it.
[8:26] Okay.
[8:57] you