Conversation 478-002

Transcript (AI-Generated)

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 Do not cite this transcript as authoritative.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.

That's, of course, a civil war.

It's perfectly adequate enough to get somebody exposed for leading an interesting subject.

I'm inclined to think, though, that, uh, that this structured meeting, despite the benching,

That's the structured meeting.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think Bill's thought about an unstructured meeting to let the boys, you know, tell their, I just, you know, we're gone or some damn thing is just too ridiculous.

And also, if you just have an unstructured meeting, sure, they'd like to sort of, you know, get into other subjects.

What are our things going?

We're really worried about the fires.

What the hell are we going to do?

They'd like to do that, but what you're doing about it, I don't know.

They get into stuff that, I agree, you don't want to get into.

We haven't.

Well, we do get into it.

I agree with the name you've thought through already.

We ought to.

Or we ought to.

Well, not really.

Well, let's put it this way.

It's the old story that we had a cabinet debate, and he trusted the top people, like Conley, like all of them really knew what was going on.

Conley eventually, and none of them had brought up anything else.

That would be one thing, but where you've got, let's face it, where you've got people like Opie and Romney and...

They're just bound to bring up things that they, they just haven't got the wisdom to bring up, not bring up things that are unimportant.

And also, you can't make a conference to talk about them.

Yeah.

Pretty much what I was saying.

I think you got it pretty good.

But allow some time for...

Oh, questions, yeah, they raise questions, but I think sometimes about the subject itself, it's much better than getting into saying, well, now let's have a discussion.

You've got anybody else have anything they want to say about what you mean in the end?

No.

That's what I meant by unstructured.

No, I wouldn't get into that.

I think you've got to have a subject to discuss and let anybody, oh, let them talk about it, and then let them on.

Like we had this reader, I didn't press you to let everybody talk about it.

I'm careful.

Did some of them talk about it?

Sure.

Okay.

That's fine.

That's perfectly all right.

The cabinet meeting basically is to happen.

We must not kid ourselves, although the purpose of the cabinet meeting is to supervise the president.

It is no longer that.

Yeah, which really kind of defeats the purpose of even having, no, having the police at the file.

They really don't serve your purpose.

They don't serve the purpose of getting, they don't serve the purpose of the cabin officers either.

Thank you, Mr. Brown.

Well, no, don't then, like I said, does it mean he goes back and calls the department?

Well, yeah, it serves that purpose, but it doesn't serve his purpose of wanting to give you his little pitch on what his department's been doing and what the problems of business are and all that.

No, because otherwise you just have to meet him every day.

First and foremost, he has a bigger problem than anybody because he just doesn't, there's no real reason for his department.

Mobile, I don't know.

This is my first experience.

Well, transportation is... Yeah, they haven't had the programs that they're doing somewhere.

Stands for the business around us.

Stands for those two, but not really.

Yeah, it's really true.

He's got a minority enterprise.

Talking to the business community.

They're in the right.

The census.

He doesn't really even have as much as I could focus on.

Well, actually, he's got a lot.

He's got a lot going on.

He's got a lot of all these generally big programs in the freshman.

Well, actually, we've got a drama about the day.

So how did he do?

He did very well.

I think he went into the...

I noted in the news summary that... You mentioned that he should be on, and I agree.

That's why I'm...

He's quick.

Different.

It's not bad.

Sir, I'm not calling you Jewish, but...

It's nice.

It's very nice.

Actually, having these congressmen was an excellent idea.

They... You hear a congressman talk and you realize... You know, like Baker.

Baker was good.

Hollywood was good.

Best story.

And just all talking.

very convincingly and very well.

They're really much able to handle people.

Well, there's a very interesting one, one little area.

You get a connection between nose and feet with people.

Well, he's, well, becomes a pro.

They're really kind of able about it there.

I think even presenting their running area, the academy officers, and I think they, I don't know what the reason is, since they've been in person, they're in the relevant league, they're in an actual league to begin with.

You know, in the House of the Senate, you've got to stand up there and people in that form.

So probably then they had to run for office.

They had this sort of running vote.

Yeah.

But the difference is that Governess, I think, are just a different breed.

It's Governess are just not much.

Isn't that it?

Some of them, you're right.

That's right.

O'Regan and Hokey are both really bad, isn't he?

Reagan and Rockefeller.

Reagan and Rockefeller are both good.

Particularly Reagan.

He's better than Rockefeller, isn't he?

Rockefeller began some of the task force.

I thought this was all right.

I had an interesting comment, Bob, that Hartke had taken huge amounts from business.

What the hell were those business people doing?

Not getting Hartke forced on something, no.

Did you notice in the news summary where he, well, not the news summary, it was in the paper.

It wasn't in the news summary.

Yeah, I mean, those contractors, those associations, yeah.

Let's see what the follow-up on that had.

Perfectly spelled.

Not seeing old friends, the reason is that I cannot see anything that might give any comfort to anyone.

Well, that's the point.

But on this point I won't.

General Landon, please.

Well, anyway.

Hello.

Yeah.

I was going to ask about the Texas disaster thing.

Did we get something done on that, or are we going to do something?

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Well, let me ask you to do this.

I know this is the governor here to do it.

Why don't you have a heart and give the governor a call?

And I think the main thing is swiftness, so if they don't build it up, you can give the governor a call in the long term.

Do you hear me?

Okay.

And I get that done.

And so that we get that much off, say, we were doing this emergency, so forth and so on.

And then the other thing, and I know this is a small business type of thing, I just want to be sure that Texas is very

It does.

Well, if you could, would you have, would you see that Hardin or you or somebody get to the governor on it?

And the other one that I would inform would be Tarr.

Be sure Tarr knows.

Well, what I mean, so that he can, I'd tell Tarr first, so that, and then let the governor know.

See what I mean?

All right, it might be better, as a matter of fact, just to give it the proper buildup, is to tell Tower and let him pass the word back.

See what I mean?

Let's make a little politics out of this.

Tell John Tower.

See what I mean?

And have Harden give Tower a call and tell him what's available, and then Tower can make the release from here.

It's a political problem.

It's a disaster.

Will you do that, please?

Well...

Right, I understand that, but at least you, yeah, all right, they don't have, they don't need some rain, but anyway, you tell them that you would have Hardin call TAR so that TAR could then say what we're going to do, right?

And get that done today.

All right, thanks.

Oh, now we're going to get another phone call in there.

Yeah, I don't know.

I'm trying to find the connection, yeah.

Hell with the governor.

Well, Connelly's instinct is to visit the governor, and that's the right way to do it.

He didn't tell me to do the governor's part.

That's the right way to do it.

I saw the governor in the press.

It shouldn't be done through the governor, but it should be done through the governor.

Because he's all there is there.

I'm curious about the...

This was on November 5th, 69, 68, I mean, and January 20th.

I did both of the elections on January 5th, 68, and January 20th, 69.

I made shares, totaled, and purchased since the 6-30 vote, 6-31 vote.

I mean, Bob has made a hell of a lot of money.

You see, this is in spite of, in spite of the financial writers writing, and people like Arthur Burns and others pissing on this thing, you know, being boony about confidence and all that sort of thing.

Now some of it gets paid a hell of a lot of money.

That's a 50% increase in the market.

It's the best bull market in the history of the market.

50% in eight months, Bob.

Jesus Christ, do you know what that is?

That's never happened before.

Now, the other thing is, I don't know, again, I don't think we're making enough out of it.

I mean, now I, you know, you've got to separate what do you do, get something in periscope again, or what's he trying to work on?

But I was thinking, other than me, you're a Wall Street journalist, so, you know, I did see, what I had in mind was that he had a problem when the market goes to, you know, the six, I mean, I guess there's a 300, there's a 300 points, and, uh,

Maybe some of the, some of the market guys like Monty Lasker, they all came down here squealing when it was down.

Now they ought to come down and say, hey, this is great, you know, we appreciate the leadership, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

There is a way to do this.

I mean, you know, where this could be done.

I remember I suggested that maybe we have a meeting with the same people again for a dinner a year later.

Sapphire had one idea here.

He's been working on the Chamber of Commerce speech, and that will be two days from the day a year ago when you told people to invest in the market.

And April 26th is the Chamber of Commerce, from the media on April 28th.

Well, actually, the market was not at its low.

No, no, it wasn't at its low, but that was at the time, which would be one year from the time you said you'd bought it.

And he's suggesting a 2,000-word, which is exactly what you said, thing, building on that, the...

first quarter figures, which would be pretty good, and a confident vote in consumer sentiment, which is picking up.

So he's suggesting the first third of the speech an assessment of where we now stand in glazed-under-control unemployment, talking out the economy quick, and cautionary note about wage demands, responsibility.

Body of speech on the theme that America must remain preeminent in the field of technology, only through advanced technology can we solve our problems, be the center of brain power, increase our productivity.

and tying it to the five-point program that McCracken's working on to enhance American technology and media employment and so on.

That preparation addresses itself to the feeling held by businessmen that they're becoming the villains of American society and a targeted consumer and so on.

Your philosophy of turning back power and responsibility, not only in foreign policy, the next government, but in everything you share.

The whole trust should be one at the last of, you know, goddamned, crazy musicians, man.

And the system, you know, something about the system, get back to that.

And Sapphire just can't bring himself to repeat anything.

It's a hell of a system.

Pick up the NAM and say, yeah, we just have confidence in this system.

And then just pick up the NAM and then get practically the same conclusion.

I'll probably add a little bit of anything.

But I better do it.

I'll get a little something to read it.

Let's hear some of the good things about America and a little things like that.

Everybody agrees that that's the kind of thing we thought the editors ought to hear, some of the good things.

Let me say, the trouble is our whole Continental Administration problem is too negative.

I mean, we're defensive about everything.

We're doing a good job on a lot of things.

But we're whining around here, you know.

I say we are.

We appear to be.

Did you read that Tim McGregor report on our record, which is goddamn good, and you look at that thing in total, it was pretty spectacular, considering...

Even forgetting the circumstances, if you're considering the circumstances, there's a story to go there.

Maybe as you get out of this story, I think you're right.

I mean, they're going to know.

Maybe when you get more, you get a guy who knows how to put on some show.

I think Sapphire's good on a single shot kind of lead or something like that.

I agree, I agree that it's goddamn difficult because we don't have a press that wants to put it out.

But Bob, we've got some good stories to tell.

It's not a good story, it's a hell of a story now.

You know what I mean?

You remember the hell we caught.

I heard what Tom Dewey was talking about.

He said, you know, I thought it sounded like Hoover, you know, and I said, bye, Scott.

Yeah.

And frankly, it was a hell of a risk.

I stepped up to him, though.

I said, look, bye, Scott, right?

Well, not what the Grants do.

That was it.

But that was showing confidence in this economy.

And it was deserved.

And everybody else didn't have any confidence.

Right.

That's right.

Now, what the hell?

If I'm our guy, stand up, Maury stands.

You know, I could really tell by the, except for Connelly, the lack of color of our cap, compared to those congressmen and senators.

Oh, I must say, forget it.

I haven't said it wrong, because both we and Romney actually were very successful politicians.

But we've got a couple of the clowns, and I really think, they're not really clowns, but they're just, I'm not sorry, they're churchy, churchy in trying to get anything true.

All I think, too, is that their problem is that they're, they both feel that they've reached the top, and they're sort of scrambling to hang on.

That tennis record was god damn good.

You bet your life.

But it doesn't mean anything to me, you understand?

Yeah, I know it's good, but did they just make it for me?

Was that the person?

They didn't.

They were just, you know, assessing the good.

Why don't you tell them?

No, I'm not bringing you to get a story to get around.

But don't you agree with me that there is a need now for everybody to talk constantly about it?

That's foreign policy.

That's domestic policy.

And they are.

It just aren't.

Yeah.

And I think...

It just doesn't get through.

No, they feel like it's coming through.

It's that same thing.

You know, they're stressed.

They're stressed and they get bad, and so they can't understand why we're happy or optimistic.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, still playing that line.

Well, I must say, either we're stupid or we know something they don't know.

You know, the real problem is the press is on a hell of a limb here.

Sure.

And they predict that all hell is going to go to... First they run it down another one, you can't go again.

It hasn't happened yet, at least.

Now they thought that Vietnam was going to go down after Laos.

It hasn't happened yet.

They are scrambling around about to go down.

To show you how they could restrain for a story, when ten people were killed, ten in one day.

They said the biggest casualty was in two weeks.

Now for Christ's sake.

I mean, isn't that stretching out?

Sure.

Isn't that stretching?

They do.

I mean, that same thing that gives two years to the average person, bigger than two weeks.

You know, they just ringed it right in there.

But now, for God's sakes, if you get a hold of, I don't count this term, but for Christ's sakes, let's run the cash remains this week.

Now, who's going to do that?

Because that was...

Can you do it?

Oh, sure.

How does he do it?

So you'll get people set to comment on it.

They'll run anyone.

They run everyone.

There's no question about that.

They'll run the proper, say, the lowest instance in such and such a time.

We've done very well.

I know that there's a lot of people that make a little stir about it, the lowest instance.

Try to get one of the network guys or all of them to make the point with it.

Well, I haven't hit it myself.

I haven't hit it myself.

We've been running with this for a while now since the fact that things have moved in the right direction.

But don't assume because they've moved in the right direction anybody's going to know it.

This goddamn press will not do it.

They're going to try desperately to run it the other way.

It's going to...

Wild, isn't it?

Yeah, there's one guy in this, apparently a little cougar.

Yeah, in a long hair coat.

Long hair coat, wears overalls, big overalls, you know, like the railroad engineer.

I'm curious to see if he doesn't blow that.

There's a peace badge or something.

Maybe they let him in forever, is it?

No, we don't care.

Why is that?

St. Paul is the most inspirational philosopher of our time.

Then he made the comment, something or other, that he was reading Chairman Mao's Little Red Book.

He said, this typical Nixon would call this trash.

He wouldn't allow it to be sold in an American bookstore.

And they all jumped on him.

Made the point that you can buy the sayings of Chairman Mao in any bookstore in America that sells Caterpillar comics.

Not with people who are other members of the team.

Even the news stories on it seem to be a little embarrassed by this guy.

They're reporting him, but don't worry about that.

Listen, the fact he's there is an enormous fact.

Kelly's got a lot of ideas on capitalizing on that thing, but I don't think you want to capitalize on the ping pong.

Kelly has put all that we've got to do.

The thing is, he has to talk with Henry, but the thing is that we've got to realize that we've made... Why would we capitalize on that?

Just to, we did, because it's a newsworthy development, yeah, to make, what he's talking about, for instance, you walk into the team members back or, you know, I didn't correspond, I don't know.

Uh...

enhance the president's images as an Asian peacemaker.

Vietnam demonstrated to criticize the president's Vietnam policies, he being a physician thinking far ahead of the time of American-Chinese relations, which proved to go out of the way of Vietnam.

We'd like for a follow-up to the blue seat of the Secretary of State of the United States.

Secretary of State of the United States.

Dr. Henry, but don't, don't tell him to take care of it.

And he should have a little talk with Skelly about it, I mean, that is, but, but Hannah was very discreetly, you know, like you know, Skelly doesn't feel it, that Skelly, Henry's got to live a little more, so that he knows some of the implications of this, and how much we can and can't do it.

He is on board now and comes on board today.

It might be a good idea to have him in.

You're welcome on board if there's anything else.

Yeah, Senator Stennis has asked to talk with you before he starts his hearings on draft extension military pay increase, which he will start Thursday.

And I'm suggesting that he and Margaret Smith meet with you for half an hour tomorrow morning on the Senate action on this thing, because it's going to be a rough battle, a hard battle, right?

Yeah, I hear you.

The surrogate visit I did, there was something when we were talking about juggling Florida and stuff around, we had a surrogate, you know, booked for that, I don't know, just mid-May, he just came back.

We can still go mid-May, you know, not exactly the first day.

Well, he's pretty well set, I think.

We can still go back.

There's a lot of reason to go back.

We can still, yeah.

You're still, we're talking now about going forward to April 29th.

So this would be two weeks later.

No problem.

And the agriculture day is moved to the 14th.

So he would have to

On the 22nd.

Well, he was talking about, they were talking about the 15th.

That's fine.

And you can still do it.

Just go down to Saturday.

Saturday and spend a couple more days.

And then stay over, come back Monday.

Or we can move in on Monday.

So then you can do it on Monday.

Saturday night.

Henry's suggesting it's better to have him Monday.

Have it Monday?

Yes.

No, I don't want to pick a crowd.

No, no crowd.

Absolutely not.

Very private.

But he's wondering if you don't want to ask him to do a private lunch.

Oh, of course.

Do something like that.

And what he's suggesting is that you should give him two hours for a meeting.

And he's suggesting you might want to have one hour and then lunch and then one hour as a way to do it.

And a two-hour conversation spread equally before and after lunch.

Or just before or just after.

I don't know.

I just do the thing before lunch.

Before lunch and then after lunch.

And continue to talk and say goodbye.

I think I would invite, if he's going to get the honorary degree, I would invite Kohler to lunch.

Without his wife.

One wild thought that Henry was kind of intrigued with already is that the 1st Marine Division officially returns home to Camp Pendleton on April 21st.

Their return could be delayed to April 24th, which is the day of the demonstration.

You can't go on the 21st because you've got the Hassan visit on the 22nd.

But you were going to go to Camp David that weekend.

You could go to California and welcome the first Marines home.

There'd be a parade and their colors would be officially returned.

And you could give them the UN citation.

It presented colors of a change of command.

A new general takes over.

It's got to be an airplane fighter, military parade, and all that sort of thing.

It's talking about this 1st Marine Division.

It has a way to symbolize the troops coming home.

You need to do it on the 23rd, which would be really better instead of the 24th.

In fact, you should do it on the 23rd.

You should do it before the demonstration.

You'd have to fly out on Friday and back on Sunday.

It was Thursday night, the 22nd.

We had to fly back on Sunday.

We did the chamber on Monday.

Well, no, but you got to do it.

The chamber couldn't be done Tuesday.

Well, you would have other plans on Wednesday, though.

That's fine.

Wednesday, Wednesday, Thursday.

I'm not going to get you to Florida, but that doesn't matter.

It doesn't.

You go to Florida after the president, because I don't care about four days.

So you've got Wednesday, Thursday, you can move that one day.

I don't know how

Let me see.

Better still, because the Marines, they should delay the week.

Oh, you don't want to?

You don't want to go to California, then?

After 30th?

Yeah.

One after 30th.

First, second, third.

They could have the ceremony any time.

Yeah, but they can't, because they're bringing them home over a period of time.

And it looks less...

They won't all be there at any given moment, anyway.

Looks less obvious.

I don't think that I saw Frank Mankiewicz this morning, and he said... Have you ever seen Frank?

Well, I've tried to.

He's promised me that he would do me one favor.

I've caught him on here.

But he said that among his left-wing friends, they don't expect more than 70,000 people here on the 24th.

That's the Veterans Parade, isn't it?

No, that's the 1920 Parade, that's the big one.

Veterans Parade, that's out of there.

Oh, we can serve guests on 70,000, can't we?

Oh, yeah.

I'd simply make that a flop, you know, but no, the estimates are out of there.

How did they do a million?

We've done them all, haven't we?

Yeah.

Three-quarters of a million.

I have the sense that things are turning.

For another reason, when George Bundy called last night, he said...

Thank you, sir.

And I said, Henry, you know, we can set that up a little bit so that you can think things are hard.

And I pointed out, you know,

And I agree that they're harder in a sense than either Wilson or, when he used to say Eisenhardt, Wilson and Roosevelt experiments that were relatively easy due to the fact that all they had to do was win.

And hell, there was never any question about America winning in either war.

Hell, there was no question in the long run.

Well, actually, it's exhausting to be president in that country, the United States.

Yeah, that's right.

That's right.

And here, I'll show you this track, where he leads the charge.

That's not true.

That's right.

On the other hand...

We didn't, just anybody, if I was to work here, there's only one thing true.

The length of experience, nothing and everything allowed.

What that poor man went through, I mean, his wife was crazy, his two of her brothers were killed in the war fighting for the southern side.

His cabin was disloyal, I mean, openly disloyal.

Sandy wouldn't speak to him.

He had a

And the poor guy, they were dragged, the riots, they got him by the thousands.

They had a cannon in the street of New York.

The papers wrote vicious things about him.

And he just stood there like a rock.

And what the hell?

My only view is that, yes, you can all respect people.

Our time is difficult, though.

Our time is difficult because

Lincoln had a couple of papers for him, as I recall.

Yes, he did.

There were so many papers.

We got none.

Yes, I suppose we have.

We got the Richmond Times Dispatch.

And they are great.

And sometimes the Daily News.

And sometimes the Chicago Tribune.

But that is about it, correct?

And there wasn't the daily television coverage of the war.

It took weeks.

It took weeks for a battle report.

They had to stretch out a lot, but they got Vietnam as the number one story.

And what did they do?

They said, an American fruit yesterday.

This was the biggest catch.

It was in two weeks.

But I bet when we announce it's 39 casually, when we announce 39 on Thursday, it will not be the number one item.

Well, it's falling.

No, it won't be the number one item.

This is half, less than half of the week before.

Yeah, cut in half.

It won't be, no.

Well, it'll be an item.

It'll be a major... We've done very well to get some of those out.

We mustn't get too discouraged about the press and the rest, because you've got to keep doing it.

But what's your friend, George Bundy, saying?

What George Bundy said?

First of all, there's a very senior official on the Soviet UN delegation who's traveling around all over the world.

He talked to him again yesterday, and he...

Well, and he said, what the hell?

And he said, are we really taking the President's speech seriously enough?

And should he talk to David Rockefeller?

So I told him, look, you tell him one thing.

They know what the channels are.

And if they start bringing pressure on us,

It won't work at all.

That's right.

And he said the only issue the opponents have got left, he said deadline is nonsense.

No, he said deadline is nonsense.

No, it's farming civilians in Vietnam and Laos.

And he said if you send me the facts on that, I'll get them around New York now.

They're going in the mail today, but my judgment of Bundy is he's the coldest opportunist around.

He gets it wrong sometimes.

But he is an opportunist.

Oh, God, if he thought you were on the skates, he'd be out there leading the charge.

Would he?

Oh, yeah.

He's never, never once come to our help when we needed him.

Tell them about Scali's suggestion, and I want to tell you, I think it's very important that you handle Scali in the same way.

because he's going to be an enormous benefit to us.

But his benefit will not be, you've got to be very clear and really depressed.

We don't want any.

No.

His benefit, however, would be in telling you

which guys are worthy of what he knows, those guys on the back of his head.

Well, I don't see how he thinks what we're doing.

He's coming up with some ways to get a little track of them.

He'll know what can go on and what can't.

He can anticipate, and he falls out with what we're doing.

We've got a good man here.

But what he said, you know what I mean?

He said, now last week, I think we did the best job of using our cell phone, every year of time you spent with those television guys.

That's why I just raised Time Newsweek, only because I have reached the conclusion that Time Newsweek are like the columnists.

I don't think their words are time unless they're for you.

Just as cold as that.

I think tolerating people like a chancellor is worth your time, or frankly, even when he's against you.

See what I mean?

We got a lot of good stuff out of these guys.

The point there is that even if you look around here, and I bet you'll find that at least 75% of the people in the White House... Are you talking clerks?

No.

the full Time or Newsweek lead story.

That's right.

And that's in the White House.

Now, there's hardly anybody in this country who has a higher level of interest in those stories than the people in the White House, and yet they don't read them.

That's right.

Now, you go out in the country and try to find anybody that read the whole Time story or Newsweek story, and they never read it again, and you'll have one hell of a time.

Actually, that chart, which shouldn't come across very well on television,

It's very good.

In newspapers, they all show that.

Yeah.

In Newsweek, U.S. News has it, though, of what's a better term than the one we should have done.

Well, they have bars, you know, this many, this many, and this many.

And then they have men of shade, shadowed men behind them, which makes sort of the same point about CBS.

Did you ever get, for others, to find out what the trouble was?

Yeah.

Which is there.

It's a combination.

The usual thing.

It's everybody's heat about the chart.

And the problem there was that about this argument was you've got too much information on the chart, which is right.

As soon as this turn starts, which is when you came in, it shouldn't have shown the build-up.

It should have only shown the build-down.

This build-up is irrelevant to 101.

Mike, it's all good, sir.

You know, that kind of thing.

But I told him, Scali says, now I want to go with this Chinese thing.

But, you know, I think it's very important for us to handle it.

Thank God we didn't get into the Pakistan thing.

China backing Yahya.

That's why we mustn't go into it.

Mustn't do it?

They're in a hell of a spot.

You know, they're on either side of things.

No.

Well, they're slightly mistaking Pakistan, West Pakistan.

Yeah, but you know, it's a thing that must be even bold in the end.

We are smart to stay the hell out of that fight.

Absolutely.

And we must not now stay as a whole list of needling, nasty little things on the West Pakistan.

I don't think we should do it, Mr. President.

They are the government, and we carry out our commitments to them.

Scott wants to make something out of the China thing.

But I mean, Peterson has just sent in his notes on his talking points with the timeline editors.

He's leaving at 11.

He wonders if he wants to do it.

All right.

I don't think that covers very well.

This scaling thing was what I raised briefly on this point of whether there was a way we could make something out of the ping pong team as a way to build the present as a nation peace center.

And Preston's view was exactly the same.

My strong view is that thing is going so well by itself.

Don't screw it up.

If we make it...

There's only one thing I would suggest.

See, what Scali wants to do is do it now.

And don't always assume that because things go well, we can correct them.

Like the market I just told Bob, there's now 926.

That's just about 300 points above the time I had these Wall Street people in here and told them to buy stocks.

I told them earlier, I told them again a little slower.

They didn't.

All right.

Now, you remember I repeated that.

Now, we didn't get any credit.

I mean, we got a little story in Periscope and then there was one in the Wall Street Journal and so forth.

The point is, don't ever assume that Wall Street is so bitchy.

Now my point on this one.

Peterson, I told him yesterday, he's going to see the timeline vectors, and I gave him some strong instructions.

First, don't discuss

the truth of the problem.

If you say the President has spoken on that and his position is correct, I know he disagrees.

That's the one thing.

Then he's going to go into the International and this is going to be the decade of the period.

And I said, now I'm in China and they're all going to be fascinated with that.

And then I pointed out to him, I think I bogged you in here when I mentioned it in your interview.

I said, for your information, you should know that this was my initiative.

And it was done over the objections of the Foreign Service.

And he said, why?

I said, okay.

And he said, why?

I said, because the Kremlin knowledge is felt that would irritate the Russians.

And I said, however, we went ahead and we started months and months and months ago, mainly because of my concern that China is the Soviet Union's number one enemy, and the Soviet Union is China's number one enemy.

We're number two in both.

Now at this particular time in history, looking at peace for the generation, we must try to have peaceful relations in both.

And that's our old theme and our theory.

It's over.

So he said, well, if you're letting down on China, why can't I?

What do I say when they say, why aren't you letting down your trade?

So I said, well, if you can't talk about linkage, I guess I'm going to tell you this is not the time to do it.

But tell them that it's all under consideration.

No, that's fine.

On the background page.

Under consideration.

Well, I totally talked about that.

I don't know.

No, that's what I, what worries me, Mr. President, is

You may not believe me with credit, but I think that the... What happens?

...Cartney-Sandy, the true and lie sees the ping-pong team tomorrow.

You announce tomorrow the lifting of some restrictions.

Yeah.

And this looks... That's already gotten out of this family.

I noticed it.

That's apparently true.

I had it.

I had it last night.

No.

How did he get it?

I know it was the Trump guy.

I know.

I saw the news.

No, he just simply said the president will announce tomorrow.

No.

You know it didn't come from us.

Of course.

That doesn't make any difference to me.

It doesn't hurt.

As a direct result of the tour, Nixon is prepared to reliance restrictions on trade of non-strategic goods as a result of the tour.

It doesn't make any difference what they say, though.

The point is, we deal with it.

Yes.

All right.

But I don't think we should be...

The big problem is not to play for short-term publicity on this thing.

Because if we make it too blatant, the Chinese will have to pull back, and the Russians will then really get sore.

It's sticking it to them very cold.

If we get a summit, if we get something that's a permanent achievement, then we can play the pieces out of that.

His point on this was for you to talk to Scali and give him some of the background implications.

So, like this, for example, when he's listening, this is what I'm having him say on track as a timeline, and he sees it's all right.

He's taught it very well.

The president took the initiative after continuing discussions some months ago.

He came and asked you about it.

When he said it was trade travel restrictions, these are very likely to be staged reactions.

Now you can't enter grounds to make a Soviet statement.

The president purpose is not to make a Soviet statement.

He did it with quite different reasons.

First, he's welcome to bring this into situation number one and number two.

Also, the greatest one is still China.

And remember that many other countries do not know America far as they experience it.

An isolated, alienated, yet nuclearized China presents a world very different than any other diplomatic, political, and territorial entity in the United States.

The only point I'd make is 20 months ago.

It's not 30 months ago.

You thought that it was due.

20 months ago.

Mr. Hughes, the police and the train is out right now.

I'll be on it.

With regard to Lodge, he's going to talk about going to his apartment.

That's going to be a nod.

Yeah, that's going to be a nod.

Well, what I should do is...

He's got his nod, so I don't go into it.

It's all right.

I think we can't do anything about it.

Yeah.

Hello.

I, I, I heard the memorandum.

It's fine.

Except that the, rather than 13 months ago, it was 20 months ago that we started this, uh, meeting with regard to the Chinese.

March of 70, there could have been an announcement.

It was 20 months ago that we started the private... That's right.

See, I talked to the Indian ambassador and Mrs. Gandhi, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

You know, it's on my world trip at that time.

But you would say 20 months ago, then you made an announcement 13 months ago.

All of that is correct.

The main thing is, however, if I...

to change things just the way we want.

We do not want to know.

I want both of you to appear, or one of us to appear, the X-Wayman.

Do you see what I mean?

And so you can simply say, here, that's you.

And when you call them this, you tell them this is for your background only.

Be very confident.

This is not for use.

And say, however you should know, that this is the way it began, this is the way we feel.

But don't, don't, uh...

I don't want them to have a story next week saying, this is all a plot.

I wish the plan, I wish the president, you know, started this many months ago and did this and that and the other thing, and now it all comes to fruition because then...

That may overplay the team.

It could be a little bit too interested in that.

It might knock that one out.

And secondly, it may hurt what we're trying to do with the Soviet right now.

You see, what really is going to come with the Soviet team is the back.

That ping pong team that we're in, that's right up the wall.

That's the back right there.

I'm just giving you this as a little kind of that kind of background stuff that, of course, Lord loves to hear.

70.

And give us another sphere information now.

You can say I'll urge you to watch this.

70.

But your whole general trust is right on target.

Time to go.

No, no, no.

Oh, you can say that the President took this initiative.

I think that is public knowledge, but that I took the initiative, and that it was my decision, and that it was not, it was one in which there was, I think you can honestly say that there was some, there was opposition in the Foreign Service to some of the criminologists because of their concern about the Russians.

I think that's very clear.

I shouldn't comment.

No, that could be, that could be something they can use.

Just a minute, let me just see, let me check to see.

I'd tell them that on the back, on the, I'll tell you a quick thing.

Yeah.

They shouldn't use it.

Yeah.

The difficulty with that, I could tell them that on a completely, completely deep background, which means they can't use it for this reason.

It'll look like we're just trying to pick them up and stay there.

Right now, we're trying to teach things.

I think you could simply tell them that, why don't you put it in a more fuzzed-up way?

argument, tell them that everybody's on Stalin right now.

But at that time, I initiated this, there was argument because some of the criminologists in the Foreign Service were deeply concerned about the fact that they're going to have some problems in their Soviet relations.

And then you go on to say, look, this has nothing to do with it.

The first resource is that this has nothing to do with trying to make the Soviet mad or the Chinese mad.

The purpose is to get along on both.

We want to be

is the lie that I took of Romaine and Yugoslavia and Romaine.

That you can be our friend without being anybody else's enemy.

That's the lie.

I think, don't worry, that 13 months ago and 20 months ago... That was when we started the overtures 20 months ago.

Yeah.

And the... 20 months ago, the overtures were begun.

And some of that is already public knowledge.

For example, the meeting that the ambassadors vessel had with the Chinese ambassadors 30, 30 months ago.

What I want to start doing on background is mainly the idea of the fight, I mean, of the State Department.

I want that to be on background, except that I want a later resting idea.

What I'm really trying to get at is you that didn't get asked to it yesterday.

They have tried, some have tried to create the impression, some in the press,

that I have reluctantly gone along.

It's just the opposite, see.

So I'm just trying to give you the background so that you'll say, now look, boys, we have read that if anybody, there's always this in your company, but this is something that's a presidential, has been a presidential iniquity from the beginning.

I think that's what you would say.

Absolutely.

And also the bread and butter, the guns and butter deal, that's good.

And the other, the idea is that way of, I mark two for future, and this is not for them, of getting the speech team to work on this.

It's an excellent idea.

This is something we're ready to, when you get back, do some thinking on it.

We'll get some real good stuff.

But your outline is excellent.

I think you've got the right on target.

Good luck.

And stay out of it.

And as I say to you, as you know, like it's been very critical of us on the military side, I just, I just think the main thing there is to assume complete confidence.

Say, look, we know you disagree with us on that.

This president is ending this war purely.

You can argue about the means, but at the end, that's a mood question.

Now, let's go on with other subjects.

But don't let them drive you into it.

Don't say a word about that except confidence that we're doing the right thing.

All right.

I think that's breaking very well, and we shouldn't.

Well, the thing about exploiting them is that it would be so obvious that we are exploiting them.

The only thing I wonder is this.

I just don't want to see a story development in the state next week.

I'll say that Dr. Marshall agreed to that, to the effect that this is a state initiative.

I want you to tell us what's going on.

Now, that scally can be helpful in getting that word out quietly.

I agree.

You've got the scally to say, now, John, here is why.

And here is why we don't want to exploit this, and so forth and so on.

And let the word get around.

Let the word.

But I think the word's got to get around by God.

I've got John with Roberts.

I think we're going to get some good stories out of him for a while, because I told him what you said last week, that you could give him an interview before he retired, and to...

And, well, he wrote a very favorable one on Sunday.

What I thought you could do was do it just before we heard it, because that time's on Maybrook.

That's right, it's June, I think.

That'll be the time to do it.

Late May or June, and until then, and until then, he's going to be on his best behavior.

Sure, that's the way to keep on it.

But at this time, I think I've made a note here.

I do feel that we don't have to reverse it one more time.

They are going to try to play it as if this was their idea and it will remind them of your intentions.

I'm not going to let them get away with it.

That we can't commit.

All right.

That's what I told you.

But why can't I?

The way to do that would be to get in Stuart Altsop or somebody and get him.

Just given the evolution of China, probably he can do it without clothing.

Can't just say this is how it was started or something.

Well, again, a good friend of the George line, how about Dick Wilson?

Dick Wilson.

Bill White.

Just wanted to call back that.

I'll give it to Bill White.

Maybe three of them.

Bill White, he needs to be really serious.

That's good.

We'll do that.

I'll wait until after the announcement tomorrow.

On Murphy, you're going to call it?

Yeah.

I didn't figure why I didn't support it.

Tomorrow I think we're going to have to agree on that much there.

And I think you, of course, is absolutely right.

Our friends have to know that we don't care.

The point that I'm making is that everybody, as a result of this ping-pong game, is not going to be strongly oppressing us.

Why don't you believe in the UN, Henry?

That's the big question that's going to come up next.

Now, my point is...

We've got to think that one through and be damn sure that we don't get rolled on by Satan.

I'm going to get Murphy out there next week.

We'll get Murphy out and then find out.

Because on that one, I would like to, if the old man wants it done, if he wants universality, let me do it.

I don't think I've done out of state.

But then you can give a speech.

That's what I mean.

I'll do it with a speech.

Why the hell should we have a speech?

I'm not going to have a state.

I'm not going to have Bush or Rogers or anybody else make a speech about it.

I'm going to make the speech.

You take the, of all the tough things.

You say we're going to do some nice things for a change.

So if you get worthy out there,

Absolutely nothing new, and it's better than it was, but it's...

You know it's something.

We've had a 12% improvement there.

They're trying to find something wrong every place.

They snoop around the country, trying to knock it down.

They're having a hell of a time on it.

I am interested, for example, Mankiewicz, whom God knows I don't like.

I'm just using him.

I kill these people.

They're our enemies.

So you're trying to win.

Well, I think you're one good columnist.

If you write a nasty one, that's not new.

If you write one good one in two months...

And he's a good sounding board for the liberals.

So he's worried.

Well, he didn't have the old fire.

He's wailing around again.

And he says, well, he says he's just worried you'll be confused.

There's going to be only 70,000 people here.

He already sees you going around saying they expected 500,000 and only 70,000 show up.

Me?

I don't understand about it at all.

Well, but it's a science.

That's defensive.

I don't consider that a science.

He's never heard me say that before.

He thought he had the wind in his back.

He'd be much more aggressive.

And he said, he doesn't understand your speech.

He said it was so tough.

He said, why?

That's very upset.

Why didn't you make more concessions?

I said, now, Frank, you've watched the president since he inaugurated.

When has he ever yielded to public glamour?

When he knew what was right.

They're playing Cali, but they're wrong.

I didn't need you to... Well, he's very upset about Cali, too.

He said, you know, I never believed you guys when you spoke about a right-wing reaction.

And I still don't, but that Cali thing has given me pause.

We must stick to our guns.

I think Henry, that we ought to freeze time as we hike.

You agree?

Absolutely.

You're for that?

Good.

And graduate.

I saw Bryce Harlow.

Oh, he did?

Yeah, I walked back with him from Metropolitan Club.

And he thinks that tight has turned.

I said to him, he said, how are you?

I said, we're in the eye of the hurricane again.

He said, no, the climax has passed.

He said, the thing we have to remember is, we ought to ask ourselves these questions.

Can the Democrats afford to let us withdraw successfully?

The answer is no.

Therefore, no matter what the rate is,

they're going to ask for a pass if it fails because we've accepted their aid are they going to accept responsibility the answer is no he said therefore forget it just do what you think is right said don't flap when the Congress yells and he thinks the climax has passed for this for this part and he thinks you have handled it excellently

And he's a wise fellow.

Well, we have to hold it firm now.

You've got to get a huge degree.

Put that Dan Wessig in there, and I want that Cambodia program, I want the Indonesia program, and I want everything else rather than Iron Man in there to do what we say.

And then Vietnam...

the economic assistance, military assistance, everything they need, and every goddamn thing they need.

Because we are the inside of breaking the bank of this now.

And if we, Mr. President, if they thought they could break us back, could you remember when Chu went live into Hanoi, I thought then that this might be as easily the overture of a peace campaign as the opposite.

That is, they really intended to.

I thought that they were posturing a bit too much if they wanted to strike.

And this shows their toughness.

I think the Chinese behavior is also going to have an effect on Hanoi.

And are you worried that China is not being nice to Americans?

Even though one of the ping-pong players leaves mouths of tongue and wear a wig overalls.

That's silly.

You know, no one takes, this is what makes it such a subtle move.

I mean, no one gives a damn what ping-pong players think about it.

Yeah, come in here, Ron.

And everyone knows.

That's right.

Slow, slow, slow, slow.

whether or not we will talk about it.

And as I continue to understand this, I will want to end the line.

We are sitting here and saying, we're going to end the line tomorrow.

Thank you.

No, but what we can announce tomorrow is... No, no, no, but didn't we in March of 1970 indicate... No, we list the traffic as travel of our people.

We are only going to list travel of their people here tomorrow.

We ought to find this out.

I don't have anything for you on that today.

I think you just spent a little bit of time there.

They're already speculating on it.

It's a long story, so don't you say anything more today.

I don't want you to blow it anymore.

Why?

Do you want to blow it?

Well, no, I don't want to blow it.

I just wonder if my heart knows it today.

I may not get the question, but if I do, if my heart knows it today, it will be there.

It will be there.

We don't know.

I mean, you can't, in language, we're not really concerned this time about the... We're not going to be accused of that, no, sir.

Well, in other words, if I'm asked a question, I'm going to say, well, the president's trust is in me, or he's opening the channels of communication.

I think that is what we said before.

I prefer not to say anything more on that.

I just say I don't want to get in.

I just don't have any comment on that today.

I just don't have any comment.

Let it go.

Then tomorrow, it'll be a one-day blip, and then tomorrow you get a story.

I'd rather say no comment today.

I think it's a little better because it might take the guts out of our story tomorrow.

We ought to tell that to all the departments.

No, the departments, they're all the same.

And nobody's disposed, I think, right now to knock on doors.

We're ready to cut.

You're not being cut.

I have nothing to add to what you said previously.

Okay, then one final thing.

On the FCC thing, I'm going to take the non-partisan posture.

Why don't you use my line?

He just believes that the same rules should apply to one administration as applied to the other.

That, as he said, the same, that they should treat the

that they can treat such requests with exactly the same fairness that they were treated with such requests in the Republican National Committee when they made such requests.

Did you say that in my response?

What did that say?

That the president says he believes in fairness, but it must be even-handed.

It must be even-handed.

That he believes such requests and can be treated with exactly the same fairness that the committee can treat with such requests.

I bet the Nats created such a fuss when they were making the report.

Just look at those people.

Hypozoic.

Now, the China story tomorrow will be good enough to make it a lot more interesting.

Not heartless, but just say, well, I think it's very interesting to watch.

So, what's up?

Thank you.

I wouldn't turn Lodge off completely, Mr. President, because he's more of a problem when he gets...

He's had his heart set on going there.

He wants to look into the police forces.

He can't do much damage on that.

We've got a long report from Thompson on the police forces, and he can sort of follow up on that.

That's better than having him hailing around after peace initiatives.

They don't think that.

They don't think something like, Andrew Newton and I met me.

Well, you see, the contacts were, well, they break in, the state department, you know, they, those bastards just can't.

Now, they probably gave that to Carl.

Carl gave them the contact, right?

And that's funny.

I wanted to put you on to the president.

Oh, yeah, how are you?

Nice to see you, buddy.

How are you?

You look great.

Glad to see you.

So, sit here for a minute.

I have a picture.

Ready for the president.

Where's your post?

Oh, absolutely.

We'll be sure to see you.

All right.

I am not sure what it seems to be.

I don't know.

They were good at games, yeah, but they didn't use to know anything about baseball.

I tell you the truth.

They were good, but they had to ask for support.

Start writing stuff in.

.

That's an interesting sense.

That's what I'm talking about.

It is.

That's another one that many don't recognize.

Oh, Mr. President.

You're not saying much about it, but that visit is very, you know, the Chinese are so subtle.

Yeah.

That's very subtle.

We're a few people in other capitals, which is fine.

Now tell me about, did you have any other items that you wanted to mention?

Well, now tell me about your trip.

The trip possibility of going to the United States.

Oh, I would be very happy.

I'd be very happy to go in May.

And I think that I could bring back some insights.

It might be your scooter, that's all.

We've just had a report capped on by Sir Robert Thompson on the police forces.

And if you could, you know, you'd be so interested in it from Saturday.

Yes, Saturday.

You know, you can take the report and take a hard look at it and go back to all the old provinces, because actually there's quite a story out there.

Kennedy just left.

David Kennedy just came back.

He said he was amazed.

You know, you read the reports here, you don't know what's happened.

You never hear about what harvest these poor people have made.

You know, you realize in the 3rd and 4th Corps that this hasn't been any activity, frankly, since the Cambodians.

Nothing to talk of.

There have been no major actions at all.

Central Highlands now, they've cut this attack on 5A6.

And Sindin province, we still are having trouble in the mountains.

Okay, since we've dropped to 39, I'll be an officer.

I think it's time to go.

Why don't you go then?

Well, let me, now that we've talked about it, get in touch with Bunker.

Oh, and one thing I think is very important.

There's no man there, Kevin, that can make it except you.

He is, you know...

But I think that if you go, one thing that could be very hopeful, without being obvious about it, is to do everything you can to bail him.

Do you understand?

Yeah, that's true.

It's the same for our business.

Before his election, when we announce that we want to blame him, we'll hurt him.

We want to be sure.

That's why I heard him running a tight ring on business at this time.

And I just want to be sure that he's, because he's played the game, and we're putting him up very tight with the mark.

This last withdrawal is about $20,000 more than they would have liked.

It's all right.

It'll work.

But by putting them up to the mark, then they come along faster.

That's the way it's working.

At the same time, if there's a reception or other, that big mid is that.

Oh, my.

No problem with that.

I've got a lovingly described photograph.

I see the problem, but I think you know your quality.

You know.

Just remember, the man, we believe, and Bunker, Bunker's, I've had him analyze this for me to see.

First of all, nobody else has announced.

And they're all sort of late.

at the first time.

He was the best man, right?

I don't know what you can figure out, but you might have some.

Oh, and she was always making me go travel around a bit.

You've always heard it there.

Maybe you just find a way to be nice to him, you know what I mean?

You had a good relationship.

Oh, you and I had a good relationship.

I knew him when he was a re-elected general in 63.

And then when he pulled that coup against General Kahn, you remember that thing in the middle of the night?

I've known him a long time.

And I've always considered him able to keep, although I think keeping this guy's a real villain.

He has a villain.

And he's about five years away from the top spot.

His trouble is not his brains, it's his temperament.

Balance, that's right.

Balance.

In fact, Cabot might use some influence with Key to quiet him down.

Very important.

Key must be very sure to know that anything, that if anything else, whatever happens in the election, actually we're not going to care.

But that he better damn well do nothing.

that will discourage the United States from continuing its economic resistance.

We've got to call the package for them.

You understand?

He must do nothing.

In other words, he must not play the campaigning anti-American sentence, and he does.

then it would be so easy to let the whole thing go down the drain.

So we want to do that.

So I would just hold Keith's hand and say, look here, you say the president has great affection for you, great respect for you, you're a fine leader, and so forth and so on.

But whatever it is, if you do become a candidate, be sure that you don't make the United States the issue.

Remember, you need, you know, whoever wins this needs the United States, and we want to help him.

Hell, the package will have to be anywhere in half a billion a year.

That's what I want.

Military, you know, I don't know, don't hold me to that counter.

Do you see what I mean?

They must not do how this is supposed to be.

There, everybody runs against the enemy.

They can't let her not start doing that now.

Not until we get the crawl.

As soon as we're out, they'll take a line against us.

Take their chances on me.

Well, I think I'm in quite a good position to say that he's going to be very well as a politician and just say, look here.

Also, you can talk to him about his age.

And if you're trying to say, look here, don't waste your shot now.

Don't do anything now.

You'll regret the next time you run.

No, the truth is, the best thing we could do is not run this time.

The best thing he could do, actually, would be to present a united front.

That would cost us enormously in this country, so that we don't have a hell of an argument about anything.

Basically, that in August and September about Vietnam, see, we're cooling it now.

There's nothing.

All that's going to happen now is the casualties are going to go down, the withdrawals continue, the bombing, you know, there's all that's...

passe, you know, except for the trail.

And there'll be some activity in Cambodia.

So the point is, what we really don't need now is a hell of a political upheaval out there.

And they shouldn't have one.

And if they're not in it for that, that's the plan.

The team must not be so short-sighted as to get involved in a political upheaval.

Do you think that you will keep

Well, actually, we've made an analogy, Mr. President.

We used to think

that he would take votes away from you, it now looks he's more likely to take them away from men, because he hasn't announced yet, and they're getting pretty desperate about his inefficiency and incompetence.

Well, I hope you do see it.

I remember it.

No, sir.

But I told him, he wouldn't help it.

He's going to put all of me there and then off, there and then out.

So men, men, men should be there at the reception and they just, you know, stay home.

Well, because Kappa does have the problem that they shouldn't think that whenever you show up, we are planning a change in government.

That's right.

That's right, you know.

But then we're special with big men, so... Yeah.

Well, that's where the announcement from here will be important.

Oh, we'll look that up.

I'll get in touch first, but back to Mr. Dresden.

You've not only got an able commander out there in neighbors, but you've got a very able deputy in the front line.

I don't think you could have made a better selection than that.

Line, Mr. Dresden.

Oh, yes, and he's got the head for this kind of thing.

He's got to do well in the promise of time.

That ain't much.

That's very good.

Considering the division slice and how many are in Saigon and how many are in the Air Force, you realize how few it is.

It's very, very good.

And then you see by the end of the year, you're down to 170.

We'll see you next week.

Oh, yeah, that's right.

Thank you.

for a picture only one person

Thank you.

I don't know.

Open floor.

Yeah.

Open floor.

You're all ready.

All right.

Ready to go.

Anyway, uh...

The, uh...

One thing that's very interesting is the departments of the stock market.

Those guys don't bet unless they're a cold-blooded bunch.

You figure that the Dow is now just five points short of 300 above what it was 12.8 months ago.

That's 50%.

That's the biggest bull market in history.

11%.

Well, certainly in terms of volume, that 50% increase in the market volume.

Now, this volume is important because it's what's rehabilitating the profitability of these institutions.

You mean what?

How they... Well, the brokerage firms.

Oh, the brokerage firms.

Oh, how they ought to be making a lot of money.

Well, they're supposed to break even at around 10 to 11.

Well, we've been getting 19.

Yeah, they saw a slow day and we have 13 now, 14.

Yesterday it was 19.

And 15 is about the average, 15, 16.

So they're doing better than breaking even.

Some of them must be making one hell of a lot of money.

Oh, I think they are, I'm sure, apparently.

Oh, there you go.

And, uh...

No, they've come a long way since those anxious days.

Yes.

Well, we should start to close.

What do you think is going to happen to the CPI here?

What do you think?

Three-tenths.

We are, we talked this, discussed this with the pricing first.

Yeah.

They think that it'll be in the three-tenths range.

All right.

Two-tenths, four-tenths.

It'll stay the same.

Got it.

Well, it was two tenths less.

It was two tenths less.

Two, two.

Before, it was one, two, one, three.

Yes.

One percent actual.

So if you can hold it at three tenths, you'll get it down to 3.6, 3.5 percent.

That's an achievement, right?

That is.

You see, that's 6 percent rate.

What was it in 1970, the whole year?

For the whole year, when I sent it, when I checked the papers, I didn't get it.

So I think we did.

So we're pricing it, right?

Yeah.

No, I don't have a thing, but it's under six.

Just under six.

So this year, we're getting down to a little more.

That's progress.

That's real progress.

And without, you know, without any collapse in the economy.

Well, good luck.

Thank you.

Tom, the main thing.

Our plan is working, so you start doing it.

If there's anything you need to stick to it, wham.

It's right in the top.