Nixon, Haldeman & Mitchell on Anti-war protests and Political strategy

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Sir, hey.

Hi, how are ya, President?

Breaks on a rain here.

Well, no matter what you kids have come to the Rose Garden, I hope the hell they get here and get dumped.

I know they'll fix the bedrooms, their ceiling packs will leak, and their girls will get damned.

You ask them.

Not physically, they are there to get you an idea.

Just want to meet residential contenders, do you know?

A while ago, he went and sat down in the mall with him.

Senator Parker invited him all to his house last night for a fundraising dinner that was attended by such stars as Ogden Reed and Brad Morse.

Do you know who he is?

Reed?

Yep.

We were on the radio last night, this morning, complaining about how we had provided them with quarters to sleep in and all the benefits.

We had a little son of a bitch hung around during the campaign.

I don't know.

I can't believe that that's going to help even Teddy identify for that much.

What do you think?

I can't see the three of us.

They really are a gruesome looking bunch of people.

You know, they are a rally.

And the general was saying, hey, you drive by there, the pot smoke's hanging over the walls.

The girls are in the sleeping bags, and it's just a bleak, decadent type of thing.

Well, they are, and we're...

So at least plus this thing all over.

I don't want to have the bonus march and all that stuff.

The recollection, poor old Hoover.

That's MacArthur, you know.

MacArthur was the guy that lived there.

He was against the vote.

That's why they never forgave us.

They're going to technically comply with the order.

They're removing all the existing equipment and tents and all the rest of it.

And they're just going to mill around there,

It barely starts raining.

It's going to rain today.

I can see the rain coming.

This is a long-range weather forecast for Saturday for good weather.

Is it?

Well, that's a shame.

I don't know.

That's really not a good assessment, Jeff.

You never do until you get the final number of buses that are charted.

All right.

And the final number of...

trains, and then see the car pickups at the drop points and so forth.

The cars, is that the way they do it?

They have cars that really pick up people?

Well, for instance, in New York City, the Bryan Park is the launching place at 5 o'clock on a Saturday morning.

Anybody with a car, once it takes them, will want to drive.

They all meet at Bryan Park.

There are cities that come at the end of the time.

The one next week is Martha Radcliffe.

They're the ones that are going to stop Washington from functioning.

It's really the weekend.

They start on a midday.

If you threaten to stop the services, do you think they will try, John?

Do you ever think there's enough bodies?

It doesn't mean a lot needs to do it.

How do they do it?

Oh, they're just going to roll them right down in the traffic circles.

That way in the bridges.

What's the way in?

The way down.

The way down in the street.

The way down.

And, uh, when you've got these junk cars, they're going to go on all the bridges.

The junk cars stall them in the, on the bridges blocking traffic.

But the only people we'll have that can't get to work is everybody being piled up there and sit there for two hours.

Hey, Doc.

Doc?

I can't.

Elliot was telling Conover the car this morning that he's opened up part of the building to him for a reception.

They're going to have certain spaces and holes.

So, a bench did that, so he's got to follow suit.

Well, as Elliot points out, there's a way to keep them, or replace them, on the inside, blowing up the chair.

I guess there's a lot to it with the crowd he has.

Paul has a Black Panther meeting at lunch with his brothers, and it's terrible.

God damn.

I swear.

— 6 min 35 s with no transcribed speech —

And one of the things that she's doing for us is putting together a small group that is going to infiltrate the McCluskeys and all the rest of the schools and all the rest of it.

She would know how, wouldn't she?

Hell, yes.

She was our Nazmary in 68.

We didn't worry about us coming out of Rockefeller's camp, but he knew.

Because everyone was coming.

And she liked it.

She also, at first, had infiltrated Common Cause for us, which was

That's what we're going to do for the community purpose.

Now, on the money side, you're all right there.

Yes, the compact has got a million-two, I think it is, in cash and bank deposits, and I don't know.

I've got any details to have you work it out.

But he has enough.

That we're holding is untouchable money.

Pledges for $10 million.

He's got pledges for $10 million and some of them, which may wash.

He won't get it all, but he will get it.

He'll get it.

He'll get $10 million, because if he loses, he'll go out and get somewhere else.

And he had this connection, getting hurt back here, it says now, with Lee, who is already...

When did you go to take Lee?

He went to work for us Monday.

Good.

Now what do you, is he going to be your second man, basically your top man?

Well, uh, sort of like, like Clank used us before.

Where were you sitting?

Yeah, Clank.

You're going to need to agree to the Supreme Court on that offer.

yes please do ron for this reason uh what we're we're doing is getting justice the hell out of it and putting it in the park police but with the understanding that there's going to be no rousting no physical contact and

Ramsey Clark's people are down in the Justice Department interpreting what the order said and didn't say, and the effect of it is that they'll take their sleeping bags and tents and pull them out of there, but they will... Well, no, I don't want to get into the background.

The reason I'm...

I'm sorry.

I was pressed quite hard at the 11 o'clock briefing, and I said it was about it before the courts and so forth,

From this point of view, well, has the President talked to the Attorney General?

Is he concerned about violence and that type of thing?

And I'm going to get a posture on that.

Well, what I said this morning is that the President feels that the appropriate agencies have been in contact with the leaders of the demonstration.

that they are handling that according to what they feel is the appropriate way to handle it, and they are meeting their responsibilities on it.

And I thought this afternoon, I would say the Department of Justice has been engaged today with a discussion with the Vietnam Desert Voyage Judge, and that justice is prepared to discuss the order, and what it means, and we are working with other sites, you know.

But there's other things that I understand.

That's all I can also say about that.

Yeah, your people are prepared to sign it.

But I'm just wondering what I should say in terms of the White House as the president in any way.

I think we should probably just keep it tight.

Well, how about John, just sort of saying all of the...

I mean, I see what you're trying to get a little tone added to.

Well, we are...

As in the case of previous terms, the President's interest here is to, primary interest is to see that he has the right to touch his Indians and be done so in a peaceful and arduous way, and we don't want that.

His instructions throughout, his general instructions, are to avoid violence and avoid violence.

and to allow peaceful demonstrations.

You know the president was the one that made a space available last year.

And the vice president consulted with him.

The president urged him to make the decision he did with regard to the use of the Capitol that peaceful demonstrations

There's something in there.

It's over.

I should have said something.

That's fine.

Is that all right?

That's John's trip.

We're going to buy it.

That works.

We're going to build and have it.

They're getting $60 million worth of equipment set up down here waiting to see.

Oh, they can't wait for those cars.

They want to see the police ride in with General McCarthy.

They have the CDS.

Probably hire some policemen to ride in.

So there's a little bit of a...

They'll be sure, John, that they be sure that the...

They're not going to be the policemen right in here.

That's true.

That's the other question.

Well, okay, the court is ruled now.

Who's going to enforce it now?

I'm talking to Justice People D. Basically, yes, I use it as a bridge line.

It's my understanding that if I'm talking to justices,

Lawyers, uh, would, uh... Why don't you, yeah, why don't you say, why don't you say that it's your understanding that this matter is being discussed between the lawyers for the veterans of the Justice Department, period.

But how do we... Yeah, and that we, and that we, and that we believe that we, we trust when we work on these...

The last thing we have, the last thing that would motivate the administration would be to file this in any way.

I'm trying to go further than that.

You can say that it's anticipated that these are going to comply with the court order.

Yeah, which the reports are that they are, from their attorneys, from their attorneys, that the reports are that they will comply with the court order.

In case that...

Right.

Fine.

Very nice.

How did...

But I know that his be a wonderful design.

Great job.

If you are at the press, sir.

He said, fine, God.

He said, it is most important.

He said, you know, it's kind of embarrassing.

He said, people are referring to me as an executive of a correction corporation.

He said, really?

Yeah.

We will be.

He said, I'm an employment supervisor.

Someone asked him what he did out there.

He said, well, I'm an employment supervisor for Section 8 on Blue Ridge Road or something in Detroit.

My boss is going to be glad to ask me that.

He was in a great time.

He was absolutely terrified when he came in here.

Walked in with this look on his face.

President standing here smiling.

The guy came all the way across the room and he straightened his hand out.

He didn't say a word.

He just kind of walked out.

The President, well, I... Well... Well, he... Oh, but then he calmed down.

He was just great.

The consumer price index...

The consumer price index... We're going to do that right now.

All right.

Goose it up a little.

Yes, sir.

All right.

All the time.

That's why we have Schultz briefed on this, because my crank was so, you know, we've got a good bounce on it again.

Did you hear how it, well, it's a two-tenths adjustment.

Now that means for the quarter, it's two of the seven-tenths.

That's compared with six, six-tenths he was on last year.

that's the word that since 67 and uh it uh it does never never anything out of the woods but it does mean john that some of the things we do are working that's the you know curious thing that some of these bastards don't realize oh that's it we won't well yeah the uh you know the uh

You really gotta, there's, I have a feeling that, as I said to you before tonight, all right, getting to present my economy, people just feel better, don't they?

And that, do you sense that as you talk?

Yes, and another thing that set us back, and it's been this damn weather,

You know, we've had a reasonable spring in this country.

Yeah.

With the Easter come when it did and so forth.

You had another big whack at it.

Yeah, we did.

Yeah.

But as the weather changes, stores are still there.

It's there to come.

And probably most of it will come.

The fact that retail sales, though, John, were high without a big Easter touch, that means something to me.

All solid stuff is out.

Autos, houses, home furnishings.

You know, as housing starts, that generates so much stuff afterwards.

Once it starts, so much follows.

And, of course, when you reach that size, you have to replace all the stocks.

And so, of course, it goes back up.

Inventories are lower now.

Well, coming on to your other, if you say that you're going to call her back to depart, her combat to come back to get geared in, it will be none.

Right.

So that there's no crossing of the lines there.

Will he be in one of those?

He will be in both.

Oh, that's right.

He knows how to raise money locally.

Uh, I think, uh, in fact, I'll bring this recommendation to somebody along the lines, if we look for some sort of a commission.

That's a great one.

Yeah, I'm making that up.

Absolutely.

You wouldn't get him out of being a minister, do you?

That was at that time.

In other words, he's still on, because he's, you know, he's quite a lot of those Canadian commissions.

Well, you can do a part-time commission.

Well, you get it.

You see, he's, uh, he's done all sorts of things like that.

Four-eighths.

They're embarrassed to look into your lens.

I don't think they can see you.

No, they can't.

I'm not sure if they can see the glass.

But you know, what a thrill to have to see those men going.

I told them the wedding was being held.

They liked that.

Are you touching more?

Yeah, that's where I came from.

Pat, you sure can't do 200.

Couldn't count the work she does.

She must have had a thousand days.

I know.

When he starts talking about busting, geez, Peter, I haven't heard from him today yet.

But we need to listen, John.

One thing we can say about this song, and I noticed this was in all the stories about, well, at least in the Washington Post, it must have been, this was a rebuff or a rejection of the Attorney General and the President.

It was also in the New York Times.

True.

Absolutely true, and it's great.

You want to be damn sure that gets played.

Now, Harry, that's even going to mail it to a few people.

Now, um, except for Berger, that's all right.

I was doing well on a lot of, with all Berger's kind of grounds, and this will be one thing, Berger's kind of great Chief Justice, it's still better to have him.

I was with about 30 southern congressmen last night.

Great.

And about, what they said, 10 southern senators.

And, uh, they were not funny about Berger.

They were blaming it on the court, and they didn't have the votes.

That's right.

And they knew that it was a compromise decision.

Do you know how that was defeated?

The American?

No.

Did you know an interesting thing yesterday?

That all three Democratic Senate presidential candidates, John Dwayne and

That's right, they're all asking, Bird did announce that Humphrey Byatt and Kennedy had been present, they would have voted today.

Humphrey announced, Bird, Bird announced as well, Humphrey, that Humphrey, Byatt, and Kennedy would have voted with Riverbottom.

And they did, well, Hussey didn't, wasn't, didn't say they didn't, that didn't go up.

But today, Byatt, Humphrey, Kennedy, McGovern, and Hussey all voted for the Riverbottom amendment.

Well, they voted for him, yes.

They voted for him.

He was defeated 51-35.

The Democratic president and other contenders voting for him.

It's wonderful that Chuck Percy is now beginning to show some deference to the President of the United States.

I heard him on the radio arguing with these veterans for your Vietnam policy.

Did you?

Yes, sir.

Really?

Yes, sir.

This is the only president that started to bring troops out of there and bring this war to a termination, and so forth.

Thank you.

Good for Chuck.

Oh, I think we're just going to turn it off.

I don't know if you heard, but the president of the department is pretty sure

You want to say somebody's turned to the right of Hitler.

He turned to the right.

He used to be his father.

I don't know.

His father still is.

Well, his father separated him from John Garrett and castigated him here in Poland.

Did he?

Arthur Plunkett did.

That's what I heard you told me.

Oh, good.

Well, that's good because, you know, we're making Arthur Plunkett the chairman of our founders of the AGP.

It's never that we ever find anything for Roots to do, you know, my son.

The jobs, you know, we got him on the commission of education or somewhat, and he wrote back in here to somebody and sent a message that he couldn't work with those couple of kids he had on the commission.

If he was chairman of them, it would be one thing, but they were just going to do good or something.

Everyone's happy with that, but we ought to pick that up.

Vocational education is what he's carrying on.

He's a jobs man, and incidentally, don't underestimate, Rhodes is a god damn sharp, tough operator.

And you know, they've got a huge program over at ACW on that.

Let's get a hard-headed former governor in there, pushing the vocational, you know, two-year college debt.

That's Ben Rhodes.

That's good news.

But Rose, as you know, is hard to tell.

Did they get it?

Yeah.

It's better.

It's better than putting it in something else.

Like, he knew it.

He had a job.

He's got to find a way to follow up on it.

Well, there's also the creation of Saxby.

You know, when it was on the Today Show today, it just did a superb job.

I mean, Darren McCloskey was small.

What did he do?

Yeah, I buggered the hell out of him.

You know, it was Saxby on Sunday, or whatever it was.

It was a party.

It must have worked.

Yeah, it worked.

I've got a plumber of events on the opposite sides with Saxby.

We had him down for lunch, you know, keeping him in the ballpark.

Good for you.

And he hated Climbing's guts, you know, originally over some of his judgeships and so forth.

Now he thinks Climbing's the greatest guy in the world.

He's out of Climbing's house.

He went into the whole thing and he put the emotion into it, too.

He said, I've talked to my wife's sons in Vietnam.

He said, I've talked to my son, and he's absolutely convinced me that we're doing, that the President's doing exactly the right thing.

He said, Mrs. Sachs, he's very upset about it, but our son's asked for an extended tour and wants to stay over there and finish it up.

He said, my wife's not very happy about that, but I have to respect him.

What did he say about the boss?

He only asked him.

Oh, he said he was completely wrong.

His facts were wrong.

He had been there exactly during the day before the busing, and he had not seen the writer and all that.

Senator Saxby.

Well, anyway, the thing is that if Saxby, let me tell you, he's smarter than Chan.

He's the worst.

He is.

He's the worst.

Still, just wanted to thank you for your, I didn't get to see it, but I was just looking at my news summary and I saw you, your comments on the morning show and I'm grateful.

I hope you don't get too much help for it.

I followed you while you were out there.

How long, you were gone about how long?

10 days.

It's really worthwhile, you know.

Yeah.

I would appreciate if you would do this, you know, I know you did, and if you could give a full report to Henry Kissinger on it, so to speak, and I'd like to get a little feel of it myself.

Of course.

We know.

You don't even talk about it on the phone.

Yeah.

He's a good man.

And a decent man, too.

Yeah, yeah.

And you want to remember, too, that...

They'll allow us to something that Harriman set up back in 1962 that this has been going on and we made the first disclosure of it in last year in March and that we're doing everything we can to wipe the damn thing down.

If there weren't 50,000 North Vietnamese in there, there'd be no problem.

Yeah, yeah, up there in that road thing, that's the kind of thing I'd like you to go there and get a little fill in.

Well, I'll have Anthony give you a call when you get that done.

I appreciate it.

Fine, fine.

Get it in and go.

Keep your little rest.

I suggest, when you, on the mail-out of that welfare thing, Louis loved it, but don't I, particularly.

I remember that he spoke to me about welfare when I was in Kentucky, and I hope he, and how pleased I was with his introduction.

Would you do a little of that?

It goes a long way with Louis, doesn't it?

I was wondering, Louis is a thousand percent on board, because you have one half of the...

He wants to make you a Jack Williams ambassador.

That's all right.

Well, except he wants to put him in Spain.

Why not do it?

Why can't we?

Well, Williams is 70-some-odd years old.

Seventy, yes, seventy.

Seventy-seven.

Does anybody get the ambassador to Spain?

I don't know.

Does Peele want to come home and run for government?

Actually, that's what we're trying to find.

Then let Whitney have the job.

I see no reason why not.

Well, we're going to, when Martha and I go down and spend the year with him, we're going to see.

Well, you take a look at him.

He's in good shape now.

He doesn't have to be established.

There's no problem there.

Well, he does.

Well, let me say this.

John, I'm prepared to make a deal on that.

I think we ought to, you know.

I don't expect people of that type to be ambassadors, John.

Part of these aren't going to leave you.

Well, it's a good way to tie the establishment together with the other.

And once you know that, you can forget about some of the rest of them.

Yes, sir.

We've got lots of money in here at Congress.

But we're getting a pretty good chunk of wedge money, too.

Which is also in the front.

He's called Sonny, isn't he?

Sonny, Sonny, Sonny.

That's right.

I don't know.

Yes, you're right.

It's his son.

That's right.

The other one is John.

Because they're not really, no one's there.

It's because of Jim.

Because of Jim.

I thought they were.

Good luck.

One of the things that has turned up in our LEAA program is a very bad one in Clark.

It's not bad enough to indict anybody, but it's just scary.

I'm not scared of that.

You're not scared of that?

That was when Kurt was there?

Kurt was there.

They had such something to do with the part that Kurt's staff was on the payroll.

You know, they did do some of the work with her.

I would say the planning agency, but it's pretty bad.

Of course, it was one of the rough hands, not complying with our regulations during the whole meetings and minutes and reports and so forth.

But what we're going to do is to send Jerry Leonard after he's confirmed, give it to ASU, and ask him to roll it up on the meeting release that he wants to.

He's going to take the correct measures.

And there's some other ways.

Is Kirk still living in Florida?

He's living in Palm Beach and trying to hustle everybody.

He always did practice in the law.

He's a businessman.

Thank you.

Is he lost?

I don't know.

Not a lawyer.

Oh, yes.

Kirk is a lawyer.

Is he?

Could die if he goes to law school.

because the Golden Bears made a crazy show.

Do you think so?

Well, I just trust that

I would hope that at your earliest opportunity that you would get Mr. Kissinger in and sit down and go over this point.

There's been some recent developments like yesterday's and so forth.

Half of the entity shows me in the cables that represents to me are true.

That State Department is not playing this ballgame with it.

I thought we'd been fine in the States, just to accept his mayoral speech.

Well, he just made speeches of glory, Mr.

Nature, about the administration.

Well, I don't care.

I only have one idea.

Only half of it.

I'm going to give it to you as a special reference, sir, not generally.

Well, he set himself apart from the governor.

Sure.

He got his own niche.

Well, but he came out for us on Vietnam.

Oh, yeah, right.

No, he's silent.

He is the bankroll of the common cause.

Yes.

Is he a common cause?

Well, they've got to put down Henry to get signed, and he and your undersecretary of state, Irwin, gave $75,000 to him, according to my report.

I can't hear him.

Do you want to see some of them on the list of contributors?

Well, I think he would be just as willing to throw them in the hell out of that computer.

Well, what the hell can't we do something about Hartstein?

What the hell is Irwin doing giving it a damn?

So is the Watsons.

They think that, you know, this is just another one of these nice...

Listen, I don't know whether... A lot of people have thought that they're changing their minds.

Well, let's take Irwin to change his mind probably in an hour.

He gets the hell out of that job.

John St. Jack or whatever.

Are you sure you're not thinking of Robert Miller?

No, I guess he was the only one in there.

Everyone knows and knows.

Jack, what did he do this time?

We'll check this list because I believe there have been files over in the area.

Check that out.

Tell Henry to get Howardstein down.

See, Henry, Howardstein is beginning to have some doubts.

He called Henry.

before I did my talk on the 7th, and he said, well, you know, if you make some progress in the war, the Dow will go to 1,200 and all that sort of thing.

I didn't say exactly what he wanted, but quite a bit.

The Dow is going to go to 1,200 eventually.

You know what I'm saying?

But Stein,

I think he knows better than anybody else who Rogers used to represent.

Yeah, that's right.

That's what he said.

He was a trustee.

He made a bundle.

That's where he made his money.

You know what was going on at the board, or it was, until we got this question from the bench, Ray Shaker.

Who do we point to the bench?

Did you know that?

It doesn't matter.

I thought everybody was against appointing him there, but I just signed those appointments without ever... Well, he hasn't gone up yet, but this is... District Court.

No, it's the Circuit Court.

This is Scott and Schweikerts and a lot of other departments, whatever you want.

Everybody else told me never give Schaefer a damn thing about state-of-the-art cancellation, but if you want him, fine.

Hell, I don't want him.

Hell, I thought he was great on the marijuana commission, but...

through yet and that was that well starting you know bringing bring back some unity in this our lady said this he ain't going any further that's pretty high uh he does have a good legal background oh yes he was a prosecuting attorney and all this and he's there now he should have had a good record but he's a good lawyer he'd be a good judge

to get it out of the way where it can't .

He swallowed it, that's the point.

That's what we should do instead of these basket jobs.

And the Treasury continued to give us the down grants.

I almost threw up the other day when I heard all of them screaming and hollering.

I've been with everybody.

A.T. Becker of Chicago winds up as the managing partner, the top spot in this agricultural finance that's coming out of the Treasury.

How does that sort of name not get to me?

A.G. Becker was brought in to this treasury financing for the purpose of providing money to Humphrey's Canyon Pension.

Put it down.

Yes, get it reversed.

Yes, put it down.

Let's find out.

No, no, no.

I want to know what happened on it, Bill.

Let's find out how we missed.

Let's find out.

Let's see.

Let's see who did this.

Let's see who was that son of a bitch, Walker.

See, probably at that level, I have a doubt that Colin even knows about it.

All I've got to know is John Cannon.

Furthermore, this was probably started before.

Yeah, exactly.

Senator as well.

Casey was there.

He said some awful nice things about you and the administration and all that.

Of course he was there.

He was great.

He was in this part of New Jersey which is so gone.

Casey will work around out here.

Even in the committee the other day.

He took on somebody in our defense.

He's against everything we're doing.

Somebody was earning unfairly.

He said, no, that's not fair.

Yeah.

He's basically one of these leading part of the country.

Honest types.

And now and then, he does stand up for you.

Huh?

Well, it gets to a point where it's good.

Of course, the tax force up there in New Jersey and our U.S. attorney are gone.

John, can I raise a letter to the Rick Cannon College?

Yes, sir.

Can I tell you one more political thing?

Sure, sure.

These are political, too.

That has to do with a program that Bill Brock wants to do.

No, he should care about the president.

But with young people?

Yes.

I tell you one thing I did that I think you'll be pleased with.

As a lawyer, I hope you're pleased with it.

They sent me in a recommendation against it, and I know why you wouldn't.

This whole militant in Michigan has, the Michigan legislature's passed something

which call it the age of the majority, and which they say that everyone in personality is 18 years old, you know, and gets the right to vote, but you have all the rights of adults.

Vermont needs a voter.

You have to.

Vermont needs to get fastened to the governor's hand.

That's what we have to do.

I'm not for it.

And they're not for it, because I don't think it makes any votes with him, but for God's sakes, what are you going to do?

They're going to be drinking, they're going to be raising everything.

Did you see what Joe Biden came up with?

That's right.

He was for it.

He'd like a constitutional amendment so that 18-year-olds would be elected to Congress because of such outstanding human people and mission in serving the Congress.

This is not directed at college kids.

This is more like a 4-H design.

This is directed at that other part of 18 to 20.

I feel like Brock all of a sudden and his crew saw the light, apparently.

Well, he hasn't been on the college team for a while.

I know, but he was running around trying to take the heat out of it.

And he still got a report coming in.

And I said, well, what do you guys think?

He said, let's take a look at it before it ever gets out of any place to make sure it's covered.

He said, my man.

Well, I'm all for this proctor.

This is about the proctor.

Divert the energies of these guys from everybody that's obsessed with running around to Harvard and the University of Chicago and UCLA.

Go ahead.

Go to Texas A&M if you want to go to college.

Well, then let's go to Texas A&M.

Inquire.

They might not have them came through lunch, and we support you in what you're doing.

They're praying for you.

That kind of stuff.

All the truth comes through.

We've got Global Olympic College there in California.

We've got 6,000 students.

We've got more students than Harvard.

Yeah.

And they're probably 80% Nixon.

That's right.

We've got a view that we can win.

That's what I keep saying.

And young people talk to the poor ages.

We just hear it from the others.

Well, we've got to find ways to get it.

I don't know.

Maybe the ages of the jury.

Maybe I'm wrong.

Actually, we should go overboard and endorse him.

Legally, I don't think it's right.

Well, I don't trust you.

I think that's not what we're talking about.

But I also believe that you will get such a reaction from the hell of a book.

The kids don't need it here, do they?

It's getting over-obsessed.

It's like the damn China thing.

You get one ping-pong game, and now they want to send every athlete in the country over to play games on China.

John asked me about a couple things.

You mentioned the OEP.

Now, that is an opportunity for a health.

I mean, we need to strengthen the cabinet and our administration team in terms of sales.

There is one place where we could use a hell of a salesman.

If you know, whoever is in that job sits in the NSC.

Now, he doesn't need to know anything about stockpiles.

He doesn't need to know anything about national security.

But he needs to know that he knows a little about four of us.

He can learn it.

He can be a hell of a Nixon salesman.

He can be out in the making.

It's a disaster as far as we're concerned.

I'll read this.

oil quotas, federal chemicals, everything.

But the reason that it's a disaster as far as I'm concerned is that on such a matter as the California thing and the Texas disaster, God damn it, we don't get any credit.

We just get our ass kicked around.

Well, he's leaving.

I'm asking you for that.

Now, Bob, I want to go out of there by July the 1st.

That would be re-owner of a hazard agreement.

Well, I want to tell you, as soon as you get a man, every large corporation in this country has been beating up on John Stanton.

Let me tell you, let me say what we need here.

We need an articulate, equal, attractive guy that can go out and be one of our top salesmen.

He can sell us some foreign policy.

Have you got any hint that he said, I don't want a guy that can run his office.

Screw that.

I want a guy, I want a guy that is a veteran.

Is there a track, whether somebody, a second man over there can get some of this mess straight back?

Well, Darrell Trent is the second man over there who's playing his guy.

Well, let's be sure that we play ball.

I want this office of planning where we run the OAP with all of his prejudice in particular.

I think his prejudices would be whatever he spoke to.

Well, he's got to.

Right now, there can be no prejudices about this.

This office needs to be run slowly, boy.

Slowly, boy.

From now on.

It's got to be.

But on the other hand, if we can get a good man, I'm just thinking, I mentioned this, here'd be a hell of a job for us.

Could Rumsfeld do it?

He drops off.

He said, I think if there's any place for him so that he could have a seat would be better than that guy.

I'm not even sure.

No, I don't think we want him in the NFC.

Basically, this is a hell of a job.

It's a better job than a cabinet job.

Mind your own business.

You've got to glamorize the...

He did a good job, but only if he did what he was supposed to.

He's done a bad job since then.

Yeah.

Well, all he's supposed to do is bad jobs.

That's right.

But my point is, John, here's a good job.

Second point, very sensitive.

I think we ought to, I think, I think that because it will be inevitable that the varsity is going to get, Martin's been very, very lucky to come through two years, almost two and a half years, not two and a quarter years, without getting his brains beat up.

I mean, it's impossible to be as the Secretary of Aging.

He, however, is not basically an asset.

I mean, he's no liability as the Secretary of Agriculture, but we need, at the present time, a guy who's going to go sailing out there, charting around through the fire country, you know, a little dirt in his cow maneuver and his boots and a few things like that, or somebody that at least can talk to him.

Now, I understand Hardin has been offered the presidency of Purdue,

which is something, say, he would like to take as his true father.

Now, he wouldn't like to take it.

Yeah, he's very much tempted by it.

He would not let us down as a president.

Yeah.

You see, Perdue's president is retiring this year.

I'm going to be retiring again this time.

Spread it out to him as president.

Certainly.

But now, again, I have no candidate for the job.

But, uh, you really complimented Harden by saying that he was right in the middle and wasn't in trouble.

I don't, I don't know.

But right now, if you agree to go to the police, let's tell the department, the secretary of agriculture, and make it look like maybe there's going to be a 15 for the department, what's, what's the timing?

Well, I don't think it would have to be, uh, this time.

You can announce it this time or any moment at, uh, M-10.

September 1st.

Superb.

It's an opportunity to get another good salesman in the county town.

We sure as hell need some people to kind of sell and kind of attack too.

Well, I kind of appreciate the possibility.

If you could do it in a very clever way, it's normal.

He knows the fire mission better than anybody.

He's the ultimate fighter.

And he's gonna set it.

Do we have to go down that trail gate, negotiate for six months, and wind up money-seared for that job?

You think so?

Yeah, because of the non-partisanship.

They have to let it go for a cap, and it's just not competitive on that.

But he says, man, I don't know that that's it, but maybe he, I don't know, I don't know whether Spencer's smart enough to do it.

I don't know.

But you see, John, I really think that Spencer is what you want.

What you need is sort of a guy that's sort of, well, down and kind of too tired, strong, tired.

Spencer may

except for the farm?

I'm afraid it's to the Grand Farm Bureau.

That's my guess.

And I must say, what the hell, you might as well play your friends.

It's a question you just have to take it out and see whether he's...

who well liked the mountains, and so forth and so on.

Now the idea of going to a palm beaver, there's no, no pizzazz there, no pizzazz in camels.

Do we have a good sun there?

There we go, what camels?

Uh, is there?

No, thanks.

There you go, go right.

He's the right type of person to help with that.

Is there a guy in California?

This is very good.

Is there a young agriculture type?

Oh, you mean the guy from the beach girls?

My old friend.

Oh, that Bungie?

Yeah, Ralph Bungie.

He does drool.

He's too much of an executive secretary kind of.

A ballsy guy from California.

There's somebody else.

One of Reagan's guys.

Somebody that he's got.

He's supposed to be good.

Here's a California guy.

Agriculture is basically hardline stuff.

It would be better to get a Midwestern region hardline.

Well, Bryce is Oklahoma, so that's right.

But Bryce would be totally acceptable to me.

And he would be very clever with that.

There's nobody that could handle a congressman better than him.

What's Bryce's connection with the farm groups as a head?

Well, not professional, but he's worked out the call.

He's dealt with them.

He's put them on.

That's the trophy that we have to coach him, though, for a very high concentration.

Of course, he is a very active, geared reporter.

He just lives and sleeps with those guys, the publishers and all those people.

I didn't even know that the plate was open.

The other one wants to go.

You get a good man to play in this place.

That has to be right away.

The other thing you've got to do is... John, it's a terrific opportunity.

It's a hell of a job.

It has to be done.

I'd rather have that than being in the cabinet, you see.

He doesn't have to run a big goddamn hell of a job for somebody because the guy, he's basically just a black house in the city.

I'd like to have a guy that was really sort of a mean guy, so that too, you know, he could sit under me, you know, and it could be a good foil for Kissinger and Rogers and all that, you know, since the NSC was a hell of a job.

One of the difficulties of finding somebody for that is the oil problems and all the other problems of that office.

Otherwise you could go to some of the corporations.

I was thinking of some folk like that.

Yeah, Bert Cross, for example, 3M.

I don't know what kind of a speaker he is.

He was a big, ballsy business executive at the very time.

Some ballsy business executive.

Maybe we've got one.

I don't know.

He'd be awfully good with me.

Boy, it'd be a pleasure to have him around.

And we could then prepare for, you could use him pretty effectively in some way.

We could prepare him for something else, which we have in mind.

Sure, Mr. Vogt.

CIA.

Yeah, Secretary, Mr. Vogt, I'm not putting him down.

Watch his throat, he's undersecretary.

Oh, I see.

Isn't there any real value to you?

I mean, he's had no substantive value to you in Germany, but he's had no value at all about you.

By golly, Ken Rush would be a hell of a guy to have around that table, wouldn't he?

Then you could teach him a few, you know, he'd get ready for moving to, because you know, you've got to keep this following CIA until he no longer does any damage.

One is, incidentally,

That dinner that Henry was at at Joe Alstom's, where they took the polar out of the table, Joe Alstom wrote it up in his column today.

And it was 13 to 1.

It was not 14.

It was not unanimous.

And Alsop said he identifies the people by category, but he doesn't identify them by name, of course.

He says the only vote was by the wife of a government official who is not political anyway, who would vote for a lot.

They took that at an Alsop dinner the other night, voted to honor a gentleman, to honor Missy Chandler.

It was attended by Henry Kissinger, but Bob McNamara, Kate Graham,

Ben Bradley.

No, Ben, I don't even know him.

No, Mr. Phillips.

He was outside, Joe outside.

And I don't know, a couple others.

Oh, I don't know, the house.

When does General Watson go?

Cushion?

That's an open question.

No, no, because I said that he was going out.

Yes, he's going over to Greenford.

Oh, yeah, but when does he come back?

Oh, I should be there.

Well, he goes there that day in July.

July, yeah, when they're counting the vices, the deputies, or whatever it's supposed to be.

There's a military quality we have there.

I'd like to get a stronger personality.

Hell, yes.

Now, here's what happened.

Helms has been talking to me about this.

He's saying it's at least military-dependent movement and so forth.

Just keep cutting.

Well, I'm glad to do what he says.

No, but here's what Henry and I are talking about.

Why don't I bring John Walters back and put him in there?

He wouldn't do it.

Oh, hell yes.

That would be the, he wouldn't have the other things to talk to him about, but that's what he, intelligence is what he loves.

And he would love, he would be much more valuable than Bob Bush.

He would have been a straight arrow that he would have lost and all.

Well, first of all, he's not very bright.

Well, he is bright, but he's not very bright there.

Well, he's not clever.

Not clever.

He may be intelligent, but he's just right down the tube and no schedule.

But this, there's nothing wrong with that.

But Waters is the most devious son of a bitch loose, and he's totally dedicated to you and would love to be your spy.

Let's go.

Good.

Let me ask you about bringing Rush to the back.

Why not?

Why not bring him back?

I mean, the Berlin thing, we might get that dancing out of the way and just bring him down and put him right in there.

And Canada would be great.

He wouldn't mind living in Washington County.

So his kids are grown.

He's a health development.

He would be a great addition to our team.

He'd be a loyalist by his eye.

See, that's what it is, Mark.

You're looking for guys like that, like the company is.

And, you know, John, you have only a couple that are guys that are sort of your peers that you can work with.

That's right.

And that basically can go out and affect others.

That's right.

Because they, now Rush is sort of a guy that I have talked to, and I would like to talk to John Connolly.

He's turned out fine, hasn't he?

So far, he's been everything I say I'm...

impresses me more.

The rush thing is the best idea.

That's a terrific idea.

If we could pull it out.

Now let's check and see if we'll be sure don't get Henry worried about it too soon.

Don't talk to Henry about it.

He'll talk to him about it.

You know, Henry clipped your hat.

Now he'll lose his back-chamber operation.

He's got his head.

That'll be over very soon.

And it'll last a thousand years.

It matters a lot to Henry.

Nobody in this country even knows that Berlin is there.

Henry believes that this is all going to be a great coup.

And it is not.

You know, when Ken Rush came back with us, they're annoying, but I guess he gave us an excuse.

He came back in a personal manner.

He said he wanted to see me.

at the meeting in our apartment.

And ever since then, I've never seen him.

He was telling me what a great guy.

He came rushing it down.

What a sport.

You know, let's come back to Walters.

We'll just crank him right down the other fellow's throat.

Helms?

Helms.

Helms, that's right.

He wouldn't have any problem.

Walters is interestingly qualified for that post.

There's no military man any better qualified for this.

The guy's been running around blowing up countries, killing Marines all his life.

Good, good.

He'd be great on that super-digger stuff, too.

Darn right.

And that'll give us an opportunity to call him in on occasion.

His linguistic ability ain't all bad and post either.

Oh.

Find out some things that he doesn't know.

He is smart as hell, you know.

He can sit in those meetings and listen to what's going on and come out and tell you about it without having to take notes.

Dude, that's...

He's got all kinds of advantages.

He'll smile.

That's the point.

For us.

That's exactly the point.

He will love you.

I'd like to get over to see you around there.

He'll die.

It's been very, very... John, think about that.

But now, you've got to find out how we can go on the other show.

I've got to get some time to talk to you, Mr. President, about this antitrust business, because this is political dynamite.

Clarence, I'm talking about the whole picture of this ITT, what can develop out of this Senate investigation and so forth, that we don't need it.

We're going to need it for these bastards up there, the burglars.

I don't know who's been giving you the information, but it's a bad political mistake.

I'm not talking about the parents of them.

The problem we've got is this.

We've got to get...

I have a thing about the Mayor of Cedar.

We have a situation where, and colleagues spoke to me about it, where the business community for bullies

that we're a hell of a lot rougher on them, but they're antitrust than our predecessors were.

And they don't think you are.

They think McLaren is.

Well, there is, because he believes in us.

It wasn't McLaren, you know, that started all this.

It was your Council of Economic Advisers and Arthur Burns, and it was done in order to help cool this economy and the stock market, and I could go on and on about some other things.

And the things that they're accusing McLaren of, they're just...

It's just not true.

There are, and I trust cases here, but what I want to know is the political aspects of it.

And if this thing should be turned off, I mean, the general concept of it, you've got a review going now, intergovernmental, it's time to do it.

But you just can't stop this thing up at the Supreme Court.

Because you will have Griswold quit, you will have the Senate investigation department just love this, and we don't need it.

There are other ways of working this out.

Okay.

But I want to go ahead.

I understand that that's the problem politically.

Go ahead.

The only thing that I want to say is that I do feel that we've got to sit down.

And so it seems to me that you've got to get accommodating.

Stan's also around.

He wrote this standalone memorandum to me.

Well, if you could sit down and convince them, I don't hear any more about it.

We have an intergovernmental study.

I know about antitrust policies, and this is fine, but you don't just cut this thing off at the top.

And then get up before that heart community up there and get yourself chewed.

All right, so it's fine.

And you have a, but if you do, would you do this without my being a person?

Get calm and get a hand.

Those of you who do, we'll have a hand call.

We'll have another one.

Now, McCracken's been the best thing.

The race is saying that he's catching hell on it.

McCracken, for Christ's sake, he was the one who basically, and I'm sorry that he says it, but I said it was the business community.

Well, what we have to do is change the policy, and we can get rid of this IT team.

I don't care about that.

Now, the other thing I would like the General to call to say that they put off this network.

Let me tell you why.

Why?

Well, to tell you the reason.

Nothing I'd rather have than that.

It's not for them to sue.

But I don't want to have the depression right after that summit and whatnot thing, this hell of a fight, you know, this fundraiser about that, that we get repressive suit.

That's what I'm afraid of.

You know who's going to get all the benefit of the suit in addition to the public?

The people that called it through the motion picture.

who have been beating up on us for years.

John, I'm part of it, but can you handle it in a way that we are not, that we are not, that it doesn't look to the administration?

Well, let's hold it a while.

That's what I mean.

That's all I ask.

No, no.

Or the suit.

I've got a suit anyway, which you can sit in for layers.

You can sit down and dance.

No, no.

I want you to screw them.

Screw them good and incidentally, anything you can do to them.

That works more power to you.

But my point is, I just don't want to talk right now with refreshments.

I say, if you can see John Hill, Bill Terrace, pieces, I mean, every network, they'll say the administration, Vice President Agnew, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

That's what I'm talking about.

It's the politics.

This thing, I'm going to sit in the limited confines of it.

to be programmed, in my opinion, where the public will say, Jesus, it's about time, and we've got some new, when can you do it, report it, or I'm just, it isn't for the purpose of, under no circumstances is it to be dropped.

I just don't want you to do it right now, right after the selling of the Pentagon.

I can listen.

Okay.

Give it to him.

And instead of getting some credit from the movie people, would you?

Uh, yeah.

I'm not surprised they didn't beat you over the brains.

They did.

Oh, did they?

That's why, one of the reasons I'm for it.

Attached drivers and all.

That's the main reason I'm for it.

The main reason you're for it is to screw the networks.

And anyway, they've got to be screwed.

They're terrible people.

They're a bunch of bastards.

But the movie people, when we were in California, they hit this, and I promised them we'd do something.

Oh, no, that's it.

I'm all for it.

This is purely political timing.

I do what you agree about.

You hit the networks, like this week or next week.

If you file a suit, I'm satisfied with it.

Take orders.

The presentation is at the end of the school month.

I expect it.

If it's over, I'm going to lay low.

And in addition to that, get a consent decree.

You probably would.

All right.

But you're not, uh, you're not affecting their new, you know, not doing that.

Oh, they're doing this new year.

Do the ITT any way you want.

The only right is, would you, so that I don't get the heat prime, you get a crack in it.

But I bet the Kraken said it because he's been at it particularly calmly in his stance.

You see, they run over the time.

They get at the heat.

They say, what the hell is this McLaren doing?

It's fair enough.

Granted, this could have been the case.

He's landing into it.

This is all part of the group that's working on it.

I think they've got to have a chapter and a verse as to what we are and are not doing.

Okay, John.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Nixon, Haldeman & Mitchell on Anti-war protests and Political strategy

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Also recorded on April 21, 1971

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Nixon, Haldeman & Mitchell on Anti-war protests and Political strategy

AI Summary

Audio

NARA Description

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Transcript (AI-generated)

Also recorded on April 21, 1971

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Cite this conversation