Nixon, Haldeman & Colson on Political strategy and Media relations

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Oh, your arm is up another eight today.

Eight forty-six and seventeen on the check.

What the hell is going on?

What the hell is with the market today?

The damn thing is at nine forty-six, nine forty-eight, nine forty-eight, nine forty-eight and fifteen cents.

Three.

One says that's six points, okay, thank you.

Six, oh, 940 says 940.

It would start at 940 today.

Well, whatever it is, I'm not damn high.

How do I clean that up with these guys, you know?

I ain't doing this.

People have been your friends, and you have to do something.

You won't say, well, perhaps next time you come to town, I'm going to see you.

Well, that shows a little guts to me with them tips, right?

Well, they can't help but appreciate it.

Oh, I thought Colin was the only one.

Apparently he's not.

I think it's better if he doesn't.

I don't think he should go in and put up too much like that.

It gets very lit and it's better than a tower.

So, I have a question on the JCs tomorrow.

They're going to present.

We had that scheduled for no press coverage.

Because we're going to get the press name on the press, I guess.

But

They're going to have a resolution supporting you on Southeast Asia.

And with that in mind, the question arises whether you should let them have press coverage.

Of course, that would be a way to cheer them on.

And the best thing to do is, as soon as it's done, I'm going to press out there and see.

I don't want them to say, I want to get them the hell out so I can go on and do my own deal.

And then they're only for the presentation.

Yeah, they can come in for the presentation, which will be at the photo in the pool.

I just don't, I don't think we want them in for any length of time.

And now, so that the president can make remarks.

Who, President of the J.C.?

No, for you to be able to make some remarks at the J.C. is what I have to do.

Why don't you just go to them?

We've got two other stories going on.

We've got the farm story going on, and you've got the barn story.

The Red Cross thing tied to the POWs.

That's more important.

We don't have the resolution.

Yeah, we don't have the resolution.

We're trying to get one.

Except they're going to heaven now.

Except we can put out the story.

I mean, you might as well put a thing.

How come they're not photographing cars?

That'd be hard.

Don't have, I don't want 18 tanners in there, you know what I mean?

And a great big, uh, give you, you don't have to be old.

Thank you.

Good night.

Well, we did the hard hats.

Well, they, I think they were fun girls.

They had to be.

There's so many to do.

They're our friends.

We don't need them because they have no clothes.

That ending was kind of nice.

I feel good about that now.

I think it's almost true that you're President DeAnna said after you've been there on this table, the closest to your partisan exit that you've been to your country is standing behind what we needed.

You're always welcome to see them just go up right in the chairs and agree.

Yeah.

Don't go home and tell their wives and not tell the other members, and that doesn't hurt about them, but we've had people at the convention today, and the reaction has been good.

They give

Any spokes will come back and say they had a good meeting with you.

They'll be able to say we told the President.

So we ought to have the President in his favorite place in action.

Right.

We can do something about the controller.

Patience.

That's not a problem.

That's right.

These are good guys.

They've been our supporters and we need them on our storage more than actually we need the relational controller at the moment.

I'm so smart in connection with this policy.

Well, they would.

And the time is going after these separate, uh, people from, uh,

Why don't you leave them in the door?

Why?

I don't think you will for about two or three days.

There'll be a few of them.

Great, folks.

They're probably hard-ass to go in and bust them on.

On our side?

Oh, they've got four beds, not three.

Yeah.

Some will get out of the church.

Why don't you quit trying to keep them locked up?

No.

It's a great thing, because the hard-ass should... Yeah, the hard-ass should get out of some of those beds.

The thing about this...

Well, if you didn't grab veterans to be a problem, that's a problem.

I think I'd let them go, but the question about this is if you could get them...

I don't know.

They'd still be here, Saturday.

Oh, that'd be tough.

That's the thing that's the worst.

I think that's true.

Actors, what do you want?

Act better if things happen.

That's funny.

That was... Well, they did, they conquered it to an extent, because they said they'd welcome, you know, non-veterans who wanted to join with them.

Oh.

Can we get any kind of honest reporters to go in and say how many are veterans and how many are not?

That's all being done now, aren't we, over time?

It's hard to do.

Reporters don't want to find out, do they?

They get a rather new story, you know what I'm saying, of veterans demonstrating against the war and the vote taking years out of this country.

They really don't want to expose it to any better news.

Most of the reporters get a better story the way they're going.

How many of they had ?

I never heard any of those words today, but they expected .

Can we get a redeeming honor recorder?

Why don't we put a guy with a 10 o'clock press, you know, some damn thing, and let him go down?

Let's find out.

I'll lay you money.

You're going to find out this is a phony deal.

We've checked a number of the leaves.

There's no question.

Is that right?

There are some very questionable sources of money.

Let's start getting that out.

You should have heard from the call that's taken off on the Republicans in the Senate today.

He says, he says, these guys on the other side, they're out to kill you.

He says, they laid you over for a little while.

They're out to kill you.

He said, they're just, they're trying to beat you up.

They're beating your brains out.

He said, none of your guys are standing up there and fighting back enough.

You can really lay them in greater hurt at all.

So, and below.

I don't know, can you do anything, Chuck, about it?

Or is it just impossible to get a lot of our guys, or new our guys?

You see, basically, the Southern Democrat needs to see a Republican kick his ass in the T-City.

I think their goal is, you think they're going to do well.

Why don't they do better, Mr. President?

They're learning.

You know, it's amazing.

I mean, yesterday they were, they used to go out and just give a speech.

Now they're, and folks, some of you will listen, now they're getting releases out of damn advance.

because they're finally getting the technique, getting the stuff out of it.

And a number of them are stiffening up with it.

And he said, I'll do it.

It was just down the head, but really articulate.

Yeah, I know.

There's no question that the country is up here.

It's whether these balls are about to, you know what I mean?

We know that.

In the country, it's everything.

The market's still up.

You know how these things are.

The war issues, coups on the China thing, screws up the lives.

They aren't going a hell of a lot, don't you agree?

Yes, sir.

This is really the problem.

And our guys, they're just a bunch of...

They're more cautious.

Even the tough guys on our side tend to be cautious.

Did you find out the age of that woman?

Yes, she was only 27 or 28.

The knitted flag, the lady that said every stitch is for something good in America, was a young lady who came in with Congressman Marsh and her four or five-year-old child.

That was the flag.

The one from the old lady was the President's seal.

She didn't say that.

Oh, the flag's better.

The flag is better.

Did you just say a lady?

I got it.

Sorry, I just thought if she was older, I was going to say it.

I think you may find that your House and Senate group is... Now, why don't we have a Senate loyalist tomorrow?

Who the hell are they?

That's a rigid question.

And the Tower of Belmont...

I'm sorry, they're good.

And they'll...

Hanson, Baker, Brock.

I have five of them that are up for re-election that are solid.

They're all coming to me.

The main thing is before they come in, have them be on the beach.

Don't have them come in and whine around and bitch about this project and that project and this cabinet officer.

Most senators and pastors who may come in are really disastrous because, not at all, I don't call them that because I don't talk about it so much.

Our Republicans come in and whine and bitch.

You know, they, I don't know what the hell.

I guess it's because we talk about it too much.

What do you think, Chuck?

No, I think it's because they're Republicans.

We're in power and they expect they're going to get catered to.

They should line up Bates and Greger and the others on the side and come in here and they should say, what the hell can we do to help?

We're all in a battle together and they're all only affected by it.

You should give them that kind of a talk.

That's the only thing we do, lawyers.

Let's go over and say we've gone home.

That's a house rule.

Not this week or today.

All right.

Also, I've got a story to bring on Muskie this week about the Incidential Overcome, the guy with the main sugar plant that's just gone bankrupt and involved in the administration of NASA.

Thirteen million dollars in funds during the Johnson case.

A million?

Yes, sir.

And some very questionable deals with Muskie's people approving all of the media for knowledge, stuff like that.

We've got a lot better camera going for us, I think, than these guys realize.

That's it.

And they started with basically the Cali thing.

Nobody thought it was a radio at the time, but the Cali, the quick Cali action.

I mean, it first knocked us down and then whacked us.

And then the April 7th speech.

And then, of course, the silly little Chinese thing.

so much, and we've got hope, and the economy coming the same way.

The feeling that people now know, they're all arguing.

As I said to these guys, I said, look, you're arguing about, well, is it as much, or is it this or that?

I said, the only question is not whether, it's how much.

That's the argument.

In fact, our Democratic friends have a little trouble with that, don't they?

Sure do.

And I love it.

I think that it's very reflective.

I'm sure about that.

I think you'll see more of that.

We've reflected this, of course, around nations.

he said the thing that you all must do is play that all the time in every way everybody who goes out

All right, go out and say, isn't it great the way the economy's going up?

Isn't it great the way the war's ending?

Isn't it great the way that we've got these great new programs?

Isn't it great that we're going to have a welfare reform?

Don't be pessimistic.

Be optimistic.

trouble with our people.

Don't analyze the goddamn thing.

Just babble.

Don't go into the problems we inherited.

That's right.

Don't bitch about the problems we inherited.

Forget about your nightmare dream.

That's right.

Venture the nightmare.

We can dream again.

Just talk about that.

If you talk about it, it'll make us want to be here a little bit.

One of the reasons they do is the television and newspapers will give us so much bad news.

And he said, because people want the good news, they're not going to like the people that tell them good news.

They're not going to like the people that tell them bad news.

And your opposition's got to go around bitching.

Because that's what they have to do.

They might start getting that right in America now.

You have somebody making all the speech over there at the Cannons in Russia.

Quit running America down.

These people are running America down.

Now that means we've got to quit attacking them a little bit, though.

Attack them off the scene, then.

We've got to make sure that that makes sense.

Plenty must be on the in a row.

Oh, no, because they're disposed to it.

Well, no, sir, I agree.

You see, Chuck, they've got to be so tested the way down.

Something for me?

No.

Well, we'll see you later, sir.

Sir, your daughter is my daughter.

Sir, your daughter is calling you.

Why don't you let her call you when you get over there?

Well, I have to go over there, sir.

Go ahead.

I promise.

Did you call him?

I thought I was going to call him.

About 20 minutes.

Okay.

I'm just going to arrest him.

Call him in 20, 25 minutes.

Nixon, Haldeman & Colson on Political strategy and Media relations

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on April 19, 1971

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