Nixon, Haldeman & Bull on Public Relations and Congressional Relations

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I think, though, I have this thing up here that I'm spinning here.

I feel that I'm going to be back in a whole situation.

And so forth, you know, we are already in, perhaps, our own protagonist.

I think you see some, uh, presence, right?

Weaknesses in that respect.

I feel it, perhaps, though.

We've got a little bit, you know, depression and all our other activities.

Good idea.

We've got to pull it together on Monday and Tuesday, which I thought this week would be a very good time to take a chance.

We've got this stuff out in California, and some of those things.

You know what I mean?

If somebody else doesn't do it, I think I'm going to have to do it.

I'm working on what I'm going to do.

Well, I've got to be here.

I mean, I've got to see them.

That's the point.

They've got to see the man.

I know these guys.

And I, uh... What I'm referring to is the... Don't ever assume you're going to be telling Bobby.

It's only been going on two and a half years and nothing really has been done.

That's the first step, you know, sporadically.

Sporadically, you know, they pop off.

Now I really feel they kind of need to... You need a little group of battalions.

You need a little group of battalions and a staff.

We need some in the Congress.

The House has some.

We need some on the guns.

We might point it down.

And they really got a spirit and a feeling, you know.

I can't intersect with them.

I guess if they don't, I don't think people understand what I'm talking about.

They'll never understand it, I guess.

A few brief weeks and they haven't heard anything.

But it's something that is continuing to happen to me.

It's a battle in this place.

In your cabinet group, Collin ever says, I mean, hell, he's just dissing Glenn.

The staff, hell, yeah, yeah, yeah, I can do nothing.

I don't know what the hell to do there.

I think we're

On your staff side, you've got to check for yourself.

You've got to be as insane as Colson.

Because he's an enthusiastic politician.

Yeah, there's a pragmatic guy who'd do a hell of a wonderful job running the government, but don't do much something.

You know, they can't.

It's just great.

It's not their way.

And yet we, I think we need to forgive him better than Colson.

No, no, no.

He's much better than the way you know him.

He just loves not cutting.

Well, and he's put together, and it's going to be him.

I think he is.

You see what I mean?

What my concern is, I just don't want him to draw to the law.

I just don't feel it's there.

It's a question of follow-up.

I was really quite concerned about that Board of Dominators coming here and whining for 45 minutes.

I think we really need to work on that.

Peter's meeting over pretty good, you know, on SST and everything else.

I don't know if anybody caught anything.

Well, I hope.

Nobody speaks on you.

Yeah, I think...

You know, I haven't put this, and I don't think you have, as specifically as this to McGregor.

And I think, as a politician, people see

i should tell me you should have done it before you know i've got to do it and i haven't in this many terms i have any other terms but i think i've been the dominant thing and what i'd like to do is play right off of that just as you're doing the key here a little start because it was there this is garrett you'll see the point of that

I think Frank would probably like somebody.

Whether they like her or not, there were some who do like the presentation.

Not that you've spoken of, whoever they are.

Right.

And we know a lot of them.

You know, those who didn't were basically against it.

Don't you agree?

And when we come down here, I lose my patience.

And I was one of the guys who said, I don't know.

The people who opposed didn't get any mileage either, though.

It's one where, from a public viewpoint, you've got no strong plus other than your own.

No, that's right.

That's something.

In the record, there's more plus than there is minus.

In that meeting, there may have been more minus, but in those meetings, it's all there ever is is minus.

How do you turn that around?

That's the point.

What are you using Rumsfeld for?

Are we going to get him to work for something?

I don't know.

Condemn it, you know.

He had things run off the earth for seven weeks and everything, which is fine.

Condemn it.

You've got to get it.

That creator of the tent, get him busy, please.

He's one.

You know, it's good advice on a certain thing.

So he knows the Congress doesn't need a creator.

It's good advice, but he won't get up to it.

Ha, ha.

Well, let me say another follow-up that I haven't done.

Give credit to our good friend Bob.

Bob mentioned it's a lot of bullshit he gives to these people all the time.

Well, he understands the importance of it.

That's it.

Of course, they're right.

They've got something to do to do a good job.

Well, and that is, you've got to do that too.

I know.

But that isn't enough.

That's where they've got to, of course, Finch has the advantage of not having to do much to do, so he can do the other.

And that's important.

But Russell has that same advantage.

And yes, McGregor does, because Finch does the work.

And McGregor should do the charging.

If the boy takes in a real tough guy, two guys, two guys up there that will charge for you.

What you need to do is meet with them about three times.

He needs you to meet with some servants.

He needs the next servants.

But if I could get some, if I know who they are, I'll charge them.

That's great.

I'd love to meet with guys.

She says they're going to come down.

Let me go this way, quite candidly.

I don't need people to come in and say, gee, this is without any other thing.

The business of praising the president, that is what I'm looking for.

I just want people to be a little bit upbeat, you know what I mean?

To come in with enthusiasm and balls and not like a bunch of goddamn units.

See my point?

Well, I guess it's my job.

That's why I really think a California trip should be awesome.

I really think I ought to be around here to call in a few people, you know, just to take some fairly unstructured time and charge them up a little bit.

I don't think that things are... Well, in the argument that you can do that in a much more effective way, in much more flexibility than after the...

Announcement.

Well, we have known that subject yesterday.

This is the first part.

Yeah, but that's a little bit of a question then.

He's going to be a very strong man in doing this, but we are trying to get him to be honest.

Just got to get a hold of Henry.

We wasted a hell of an asset there.

It took two years.

We're wasting it now.

It's been hours and hours of one man.

Yeah.

Today I think it's Stuart Allison.

Well, that's fine.

That's fine.

Every week.

Well, Stuart, I'll stop it.

That's one of them.

I'll get more.

I'll get a hell of one of mine that's had it happen.

But Kenneth Gopra, he was with yesterday.

Yeah, well, I really should ask for it to Gopra.

He hasn't gone home, but just one more to Kenneth Gopra.

Think about, you know, the simple, like talking to my student vice president, there's a point in Vince talking to him because he works with him substantively in terms of the background.

There's a point in you taking five minutes with him just to make it for customers.

There's no point in him spending two hours with him explaining to me a dumb woman that she's doing that.

Yeah, he's, he's, he's met, he's with this group, he's met with all the time, he meets, he's met with something like 28 different student groups or something over this last year or something.

Could I ask you to do this, sir?

And now I think I have the handshake to our president, who is the president of the city and so forth.

We do it in a very devilish, calculated, Machiavellian way, definitely to all members of the cabinet.

senior staff and so forth, the real story about my schedule, you know?

who we see how many can you do that you know and sort of the kind of things you try to get across in your u.s news interview but i i really wanted to have on a sheet you know that just a view of the you know sort of like view of the soul of all this this i mean one of the myths may make the little story about the accessibility and so forth first the hardest journey i just make the point so that they get second the longest hour hours

in terms of schedules.

Third, do most people sing?

Do most groups sing?

You know what I mean?

Could you do that?

What do you think about that?

Do you think that's a good idea?

I think that's the best answer to a lot of people that, you know, just so they know.

So whether an early one gets a venture or this fall,

It's like a congressional group.

Get in that number thing, Bob.

That has never gotten...

I've been talking the wrong way trying to get it out in the press.

That isn't what we want to do.

What we have to do is our own people have got to know.

So that Timmons knows, and McGregor knows, and Irwin knows, and Schultz knows, and Finch knows, and Brandon has the members.

But you need to watch your truck.

Who could do that?

Who could write that sort of thing for you?

I don't know, or do they have, I think maybe they've got, that's an interesting thing.

I'm going to take a test on the questionnaire we were meeting with the statistician.

And the one thing that is the strongest, there are two strongest single factors in the Nixon personality, that's a lot of people, how they rank each other.

is number two, and hard working is number one, and the hard working is just, you're just piled way up on the, this is, this is, we're doing different kinds of questioning, it sounds cold, but in sporting, people, this is, I've worked with these person here, these are people, these are people, these are people, yes, these are people, they do separate small groups,

And they pull them through the administrative questionnaire, and they go back on the people and find out who's going to church.

No, Morrissey.

Oh, good luck.

Underdirt is your other guy.

They go into depth with the people after they've questioned them to find out whether the question really brought out the answer that the person really thinks.

This is all part of it.

This is a technical process to get a questionnaire designed right before they go and deal with it.

So the numbers on this are not significant at the point.

The 40, 41 that they talk to, just hard-working, comes over way high.

I don't mean it doesn't come over high, that's strong.

It's strong, comes over pretty high.

Politician comes high, as you would expect.

And incidentally, it's considered desirable, because we're going in the characteristics of the ideal president, as well as President Nixon.

And then we have the playback of Kennedy.

Now, interestingly enough, you come through more strongly as a family man than Kennedy does.

And that was one of his strong points.

In fact, that was his strongest point, that it's stronger for you.

And I wasn't buzzing.

I was surprised that I said to your children,

Yeah, but it's apparently getting through, at least in the simple as it is.

Now, that doesn't mean anything.

You can't, don't draw any conclusions from it.

Because we have to do the, what about the, what about the, what about the courage?

Courage comes through reasonably well.

It's always going to come through.

It's always going to come through well.

Yeah.

Nixon, Haldeman & Bull on Public Relations and Congressional Relations

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on March 25, 1971

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