Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 472-017
Date: Tuesday, March 23, 1971 at 2:50 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob"); Bull, Stephen B.; Nixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob"); Bull, Stephen B.
Recording device: Oval Office
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/472-017

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:02] I hope that you're going to get a uniform answer to the fact that different people like different things.
[0:20] Some like a fight, some like a thoughtful program.
[0:23] It's like, well, here we have really an iron hole in the side.
[0:26] Buchanan, I'm sure, likes the press conference.
[0:27] He likes to kick them in the ass.
[0:28] I hope Buchanan, on the other hand, tries.
[0:29] He goes, well, this kind of horrible.
[0:31] Buchanan's reading on this.
[0:32] He said, this is the best one we've done.
[0:37] Buchanan, we kind of like this.
[0:39] It was very strong for this one.
[0:40] Of course, he likes Howard Smith.
[0:40] Now, Len Garman, on the other hand, thought this was lousy, which is surprising.
[0:44] Why didn't he look?
[0:45] His main reason was, he said, an hour of Howard K. Smith is too much to have to sit through.
[0:51] Well, he doesn't agree with me.
[0:52] He doesn't like Smith.
[0:54] I think I'm very confused.
[1:13] There's another issue.
[1:13] You thought Garland was tough.
[1:14] I thought Garland was tough.
[1:15] That's what he's always advocated.
[1:15] That is what came out.
[1:16] Garland was the least, of all the staff people, Garland was the least enthusiastic, the least in his response last night.
[1:18] I thought it was his problem.
[1:19] Because he submitted too many questions.
[1:20] He didn't like the questions.
[1:20] It was too long.
[1:20] And now we're watching the war.
[1:21] It was too much.
[1:21] And I think too much in the war.
[1:22] He doesn't like the war.
[1:23] How's the domestic staff?
[1:25] be the same kind of thing as the Blacks?
[1:32] Oh, I think so.
[1:35] I don't think Price would react to it.
[1:37] Price is a thoughtful man, don't you understand?
[1:40] That's what he said.
[1:41] He's a thoughtful man, and that's, you know, that's the one point.
[1:43] Is that what he told you?
[1:45] Yep.
[1:45] Price said it was very thoughtful and relaxed and, you know, cool, poised.
[1:52] Yeah.
[1:52] I mean, I try to get that, you cannot like, reassure it.
[2:08] That's the thing, you can't like to do that.
[2:09] That's a funny thing, you can when it's quite enthusiastic.
[2:11] I don't know why the hell you do it.
[2:11] I mean, like, you know, your group of things may make a difference.
[2:15] You know, you can't want to like it.
[2:16] Now, if you do want to sever it, you can't want to like it, because he won't, he doesn't want to sever it.
[2:18] So it's like, hey, I just want to go bitch.
[2:19] That's right.
[2:19] Right, I just, like, you did it.
[2:20] I'm going to go bitch.
[2:20] I'm going to go bitch.
[2:21] The president keeps going for an hour and they can say that those were not easy questions.
[2:38] Any honest person knows what they were going to make and they weren't ones anybody could prepare you for.
[2:41] And they know who they'd like to open up to and who to help.
[2:42] Who to tell us, who to help with their suggestions and such questions.
[2:44] On that one little exchange where it was great, there was one that you could refuse to answer.
[2:46] And he did it very nicely and said, you know, explain why.
[3:01] And Sidney won't answer.
[3:01] And then he laughed and he said, I didn't expect you to answer that.
[3:03] Because what I brought was wrong.
[3:04] He is, I think that's a reaction he has because he's self-abusing himself.
[3:06] But my point is there, from what I have heard, that you have the kind of thing that's probably hard and very like the best.
[3:10] You've got to, and it is, I don't see a smile.
[3:13] You want to see the man smile?
[3:16] It shows it, because it bothers people.
[3:18] It bothers, I know people give me a bad time, like at a party or something.
[3:21] You don't smile.
[3:22] Yeah.
[3:22] You say, well, what's the matter with you?
[3:24] You never smile.
[3:25] You know, the other thing I was going to say, though, we, are you sure that we have enough
[3:30] And we were playing strong enough line with the TV with regard to the how those things are set up.
[3:40] Now, if we give ABC the right to do a program, we ought to be able to put that goddamn camera where we want it.
[3:45] And if we get Michael Walker's program, we ought to be able to say, I'm not going to be sitting on the goddamn couch.
[3:50] Now, some of you there have dropped a biscuit.
[3:51] It wasn't my fault.
[4:08] Believe me, I sat straight in the chair last night.
[4:09] I did everything I was supposed to.
[4:09] I held my head up and wanted to go.
[4:10] The picture was red.
[4:10] I never was looking in the camera, except two or three times.
[4:12] And that's what Harden's, it was his greatest thought, that he can't see when you look in the camera.
[4:14] And I'm like, well, it looks bad.
[4:14] Well, it looks bad.
[4:15] Because, you know, you're drunk.
[4:16] You just don't know what your mind is.
[4:16] But Harden's point is, gee, if you could just do that, he said, I've never seen you look.
[4:18] Well, the point is that, God, that camera's never there.
[4:19] Now, what is the situation?
[4:29] Can it be really controlled?
[4:30] We've got, what does the writer say?
[4:32] We've got to set the camera right in line with the other guy.
[4:35] Why would they do it?
[4:35] Well, because then when they take the shot of him, there's a camera in the way.
[4:37] They have to move it off.
[4:40] Some, they can set an angle, a separate, so they get in at an angle.
[4:44] They don't do it with their head on top of each other.
[4:45] It can be done.
[4:46] And it's got to be.
[4:46] It's not bad.
[4:47] It wasn't bad at all.
[4:47] It was a sensationally good picture.
[4:49] But I think you would strengthen, when you're on a long answer particularly, it would strengthen the answer if you were looking right at the guy, instead of looking over at somebody over there.
[5:06] It's the same thing as in the room.
[5:07] If I'm sitting here and Erland is sitting over there, and you're talking to Erland, then I don't have the same kind of communication that you're talking to me.
[5:12] I'm still getting the pitch, particularly when I'm making that strong impression.
[5:15] Maybe they heard some of those portables that you're trying to get out of the conversation.
[6:26] What would you think on the way out?
[6:31] We may, incidentally, we may have, as I've told you, the construction thing, we may have a hell of a breakthrough that we could use.
[6:41] Well, they're all cranked up about it, where you can reinstate it, because you'll have your agreement or whatever it is.
[6:49] But if they do, they might want to make that as a big thing here on Friday, because if they don't,
[6:55] There's a suggestion of a possibility of a stop at a prison in Oklahoma, a way out, which is they were going to dedicate a new, it's a new education program that they have that leads to a high school.
[7:12] And it's a new, the dedication was scheduled for Thursday and we can get it moved to Friday.
[7:18] This is right out of Oklahoma City, and you go into Oklahoma City Airport and shop for this.
[7:35] It's a federal reformatory.
[7:36] and that would be the President's federal prison.
[7:49] You'd attend the dedication of this new building that they've renovated to house this regional training center and present certificates to the 30 graduates of the first class of it.
[7:56] They have a little graduation ceremony.
[7:58] That would be the plan.
[7:58] You would deliver brief remarks, not an address, but just brief remarks about the philosophy of reform, rehabilitation, etc.
[8:03] Then you'd visit some of the training facilities in vocational classes.
[8:06] Things like that, it would be a, is the president ever done the prison before?
[8:21] I don't know.
[8:21] We should have talked about this.
[8:23] The building that they're dedicating is right outside the prison compound with the joints.
[8:25] But then you would go in and, I don't want to go outside, I don't want to dedicate the building to not see the prisoners, so.
[8:29] You understand?
[8:29] Yeah.
[8:30] Not the building, the prisoners, right?
[8:42] As much as I would say that they should not be physically the size of the money center, that kind of company.
[9:02] That is the point that I was just saying.
[9:03] I wonder if we...
[9:05] Thank you.
[9:12] Thank you.
[9:17] Thank you.