Nixon, Kissinger & Haldeman on China initiative and Anti-war protests

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You call them back and say the president's just delighted with the one she chose.

Now you let me know how you're going to deal with this.

N.A.

War Red has received three, five, and six-minute reports from the N.A.C.P.

Network of Corrections.

And now the credits.

Three of those cases you're getting credit for.

Your point of call, sorry, is most successful.

I haven't gotten credit anywhere, and I've been... All my backgrounding has been that it's been your initiative.

They have never, as long as you've been here, except for this China representation issue, which is a relatively unimportant one, they have never raised

any China initiative with you.

Hell, they don't even know about any.

I have a whole book full of messages which we pass back and forth to the Chinese, all of which came at your initiative.

Well, on the other hand, this is also a minor thing.

One of our officials had a technical issue that he's been negotiating with the Russians.

And

And they said, we can't do it now, but in a few weeks the situation will improve, will be different, and then it will be... Can I suggest something on the China thing?

I mean, you gave the whole record to Scali.

Well, I haven't given the, the, the...

Nothing private, but you gave it everything that every person had to know.

Yes.

Because I want Skelly, you know, he'll go whirling around, and I want to get across.

I'm not going to let the State Park get this kind of thing down.

It's absolutely outrageous, Mr. President.

I'm not going to lie.

And moreover, this is one, sometimes I've made proposals, but this is one in which I executed your ideas, but it was basically your initiative.

It's really, you've got to, as you know, I started it, and I saw it, and I've been thinking about it.

That wasn't in the state reading paper.

You could tell there wasn't any reading paper.

Everything I said on this thing, kind of anything, you remember?

That was all right out of my head.

I remember it very well.

I just don't know what to do now with regard to these actions that we take.

When Bill always went along and said, well, that's fine, that's fine.

Most of the crucial ones, he didn't even know about.

For example, the message you sent to Kulczewski.

when then Kosciusko sent his Deputy Prime Minister, Deputy President, Vice President to, to Peking and brought back a message which we received.

I mean, we have known all along that they were moving towards us.

I mean, then, or when Yaya sent you the message from Chu and Lai saying, this is the first time we've had a direct report from a President, through a President, to a President.

and in which he said the only thing standing between us is Taiwan, so we knew that Vietnam wasn't standing between us.

All these things, all these, if not the every text of the message, but the whole idea was always yours.

I think the thing to do here is to get across the fact what you've been trying to come up with.

This is not between the state and the state.

This is the presence of the state.

It's got nothing to do with me.

They want to be in a position where they are the good guy.

Anything good.

Right.

They don't say they are missing because we get the plan for Laos.

That doesn't miss them.

No, sir.

Maybe they oppose it all.

That they, uh, not let anything happen that has popular appeal.

Well, that's something else happening.

We should see.

What was your feeling?

Did you see the, sir, did you see the TV on that day?

Was it, was it positive coverage or did he walk out of the chambers last night?

They come across repulsively, Mr. President, so that... On the other hand, it's the war.

Yeah, but they...

The press isn't going to play it, but they think it's going to hurt people.

Yeah, but the press can be totally wrong about... See, the press is wrong about demonstrations before.

About their impact on the public.

The press is playing them in borders...

No, the press is playing them in order to damage us.

There's no question about it.

It's hard to play them as heroes because they talk so inarticulately.

The press is treating them respectfully on television.

But I think the average citizen reaction has to be very negative.

They talk inarticulately.

They look like sloths.

They don't look patriotic.

They don't even get across.

They look like a bunch of kids in uniform.

I'll tell you why the guy and I, this is, let's have a fight this battle.

Let's get him needed every day.

Say, now, John, you've been getting across.

And just say, now, John, it's just only fair.

I think you ought to make the point, this guy, because I don't want to make him look...

Everything was tough.

The President had us.

Do you remember what else he had for the President?

And isn't it about time that we be fair here?

This is one initiative.

I'm just saying that, with regard to this whole business,

And Henry explained this point.

This is not a fight between two, whether state defense or history of the country.

It's mine.

It's mine, period.

And it's the point that it's got to be done.

And I'm just a little bit...

I want you to just go just a goddamn little minute.

I think rather than get Roger's race to a beat, it's got to be done right.

I'm going to call Roger's in.

and be mad.

And I haven't been getting any credit for that.

Obviously, you haven't done anything apparent at all.

But who's always got a CBS running?

But I haven't.

Now, maybe it's that bad.

And Bill won't turn it off, so maybe just skip it.

But you may have turned it on because it started... No, if you don't, Bill, I think he might turn it off.

If he knows he isn't getting away with it.

Yeah.

And we haven't done a thing over here that, uh, that they, that... No, I haven't.

You can say you've looked at the record.

I mean, we're talking about two different issues.

If he's talking about admission to the U.N., that's one thing.

But in regard to this issue, I know who the hell started it.

And to that I can say, Bill, there's a long letter here from Tommy Thompson

in our file opposing the submission, which the president is about ready to put out.

Why don't you just say that?

And there isn't a single document from the state supporting it?

Yeah.

No, just forget it.

Forget the documents.

Just say there's a long letter from Tommy Thompson at the time this began, opposing it because it would irritate the Russians.

This is well-known.

The President has this in his office.

He looked at it.

And if you continue to play this line, the Foreign Service – Bill, we know it's not even the Foreign Service – he's going to drop a bomb on you.

He just dropped the letter out.

Well, you know that green wood shop with Tommy Thompson's letter out?

It's not a bad idea.

But actually, I haven't been getting any credit.

I don't want any credit.

Oh, the credit has come to you.

Exactly right.

Now, come here.

Are you following him?

See if Scali follows up or is he following her?

Is he?

Good.

All right.

Now, that's it.

And Henry's right.

He hasn't gotten any credit.

There hasn't been any... Nobody has even mentioned it.

The only basis on which anybody in the state could argue that there's any attempt on Henry's part to take credit is that Henry has made it very clear in a couple of background claims writings

That the president was, you know, some of the specifics of what the state should be doing.

You're not that glimmer anywhere of saying that Henry did anything on it.

He couldn't handle it better.

Well, didn't you get that list out to others in simple form?

I haven't ever seen it in a column or anything.

Well, I've been telling... You know, I've seen the list in February.

My thing is, like you gave John Austin...

Yes.

Well, I gave it to Oberdofer, I gave it to Sidey.

Okay.

I sit there and I go through the whole list, month by month, and it shows that every month you ordered something.

That's the thing, Bob, that makes it very difficult to say.

I hear it really, just really...

And they can't cite a single thing.

I was going to ask you the question that I asked Cameron.

I know that Buchanan makes a great point out of it, as he should.

More on the fact that each of the networks have put in between five and six minutes on the demonstrators as the lead storyteller last night.

Question.

The press, obviously, the TV is doing it for the purpose of evidence and the war effort.

Yes.

Well, they look bad, but I don't know.

I'd just pull together more shall we, to get into exactly that question.

And the question, I think we're, we gotta figure out what we do.

We're on a strange wicket here, in that the Justice Department went and asked the court for an order to get those people off the mall.

And the court granted the order.

No, the court denied the order.

It was then, then went to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, who upheld the justice order.

That was then appealed to the entire Supreme Court, and the entire Supreme Court upheld the order.

And we now have a situation where those people are camping on the mall in defiance of the Supreme Court.

Leave them there.

And you question what we do about it.

No, leave them there.

Haggle around about it.

I agree.

Haggle around.

We've got to look like we're haggling around.

Mitchell said, I talked to him about it yesterday, you know, said that he's going to

Just present the thing to them and we're negotiating with their lawyers.

Negotiate on it.

Is that a problem there?

Because their lawyers are smarter than we are.

Because Ramsey Clark went out and said we've lost.

The order is clear.

He must leave.

Right.

Good.

All right.

Ramsey Clark's part.

Then they took a vote and said we won't leave anymore.

We're going to negotiate.

Just continue to negotiate with them.

Don't throw those guys off.

You cannot have them.

That's sort of the situation.

Forgetting the law and order thing.

Now here's the problem.

They were going on the assumption they would leave tomorrow night, or leave tomorrow after they finished there.

Then the other riot began.

Now it turns out that they plan to stay there on for the next couple weeks while the other riots begin, and that the other rioters will now start joining them.

Then we get to them.

Then we go in and move.

When the other rioters arrive, then you go in and move.

Then I don't know.

I don't know what the rhetoric is on.

Just, you're continuing to negotiate on the matter.

Did you hear about the lady from Texas?

No.

Ah, she was great.

A nice, just American lady from Texas was up there and they showed up on the Capitol steps, all these miserable looking shits.

And this lady got up and she was sort of trembling with emotion, but well-controlled emotion.

She said, could I say something?

And they said, yes.

And so she gave him the microphone.

He said, I'm a taxpayer.

I pay tremendous amounts of money to support you people.

Now get out of here and go to work.

I have a living.

puts down her microphone and goes away.

And boy, that's just attractive to tell on television, because you can just see everybody at home who's the same way, sex right on, ladies and gentlemen.

It was very emotional.

My car rolled down, but not quite.

My car rolled down the street and had a hell of an impact, because I tell them, get off your ass and start scrubbing the living room.

You know, Henry is a, I did not say what the situation, you know, why I would speak with a rather appealing about that.

You know, at the present time, he's got them welfare reviews that we won't disrupt floors or empty bedpans, you know, things like that.

That's been your work.

— 1 min 15 s with no transcribed speech —

This broker then doesn't send me one bit.

I mean, they come in and say, we can't force these welfare mothers to do this.

The hell you can't.

They either work or are a goddamn star.

That's my view.

It could both be.

Let the rest of them go out and work and screw everywhere else and their kids and the ones that are sick.

We, you know, probably can't do anything in regard to this, but let's only mow around about what we can or can't do.

The television is doing their best to make something out of it.

On the other hand, yeah.

Don't, don't, don't get into the business.

We show them any mind.

I'm not going to see them.

I'm not going to have a look of them up here in the police.

I don't want anybody in the White House to go down and commiserate with them.

I want them treated with cool respect.

That's all.

And as far as enforcing the law, the attorney general is doing his best to enforce it without violence.

And we're trying to get him violent.

He's going to talk, and he should be with Clark again today.

Now, you're the attorney for this group.

I urge you again, Mr. Clark, put the bucking back on his back.

But don't let Mitchell...

Order the Park Police, you see in the picture, of taking an amputee, there's three amputees in there, and herding them off of there.

That'll kill us.

We ain't gonna do it.

Let those bastards stay there throughout.

It'll start raining one of these days.

If it rains, though.

Is that good to hear?

At least for a bit, I think...

If it gets in the next week...

I think if you've waited a week, if you can demonstrate that you've waited a week, you've asked them every day to leave,

But they are becoming a public spectacle.

If you position it very carefully.

And get away from veterans.

If you get past Saturday, when you get all the ratty people in, instead of discussions, then you're in a different position.

The whole thing is butter stuff.

I have a feeling that people are turned off by the war.

They may be turned off more by this kind of ratty people.

What do you think about that?

I don't know.

I hope they're not.

In Washington, D.C., they're not.

That's for sure.

But the country, your poll so indicates this.

Sure does.

I think they are in Washington, D.C. Mr. President, let's get one or two more successes.

I find, for example, that this China thing is...

It's still building because a lot of people are just waking up to it.

Are they?

Yeah.

And I'm saying he must have done something.

Now let's get this... Did you hear how well the stall did last time?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Just great.

His style was great.

He leaned on the podium, and it was very relaxed in the lean, lean.

Just a great questions and everything.

It was all about sense.

I mean, I just enjoyed the supervisor.

He's a very good one.

Section 8, Green Road.

And my boss would be very glad you asked the question.

Oh, I keep getting comments, people calling up and saying, that really was sensational.

Well, it is.

Well, and if they knew the whole story, and sometime before the election we can get it out.

Long before that.

I think when you do call Mel, tell him he does know I'm going out to welcome him.

He knows it, yes.

Oh, strongly.

He's told me.

I think it would be nice to let Scali go out on that occasion, just to let him see it.

It's a good idea.

Yeah, he's got his heart set on it.

What he thought of it, and it's a great idea.

I think he's in a flight in the Air Force One.

He gets in a flight, and then let him wander around with the press, eat a little of his stuff, and we'll be working on some other things.

The way I'm setting up the European thing is I'll get myself an invitation from Heath to come to London to work with his cabinet secretary.

He'll write a letter to you and then from London I'll hop over to Paris for an evening in which I'll be very conspicuous.

I'll get Watson to get the dinner for me.

I'm worried.

I think I have to just...

But I won't go until we cut the Duprin and things straight down.

Well, of course not.

After that...

The demonstrating thing is just...

The press is so desperately trying to show only the good-looking ones, aren't they?

But they can't succeed.

Not really.

There aren't any good-looking ones.

I took a picture this morning at the Post.

I had two guys who were shaking in the front row at the Post.

But there's this absurd Marine who looks as, who always wears this full-dress uniform, and I swear he looks as if he were from the Civil War.

He looks absolutely absurd.

It's a...

In fact, I thought it was an advertisement.

Maybe we're kidding ourselves, but I just can't...

I just can't see that this is...

Whether we're kidding ourselves or not, we know we're on a course.

We've got to see it through.

Come on.

Mr. President, if anybody had predicted a year ago that you could do Cambodia and Laos, that you'd have the North Vietnamese...

in more trouble than they've ever been, and the Chinese move towards you, and perhaps break something with the Russians they would have said that can't be done.

Jesus Christ, Johnny Byrd.

Another crybaby.

Hello.

I'm sorry.

He's a nice guy.

But I must say, Bob, I'm sure it's hard to find him in your pocket.

He's got to be gotten down.

Thank you.

No, you sit and put a chair over here.

Oh, I see.

All right, good.

I bet we'll move her out for another picture.

All right, Paulie, take one of those briefs.

You sell this to Mundy, huh?

Yeah, I think Mundy's a great Mundy.

I think we'll build you a Mundy and sell it to Mundy.

Yeah, I think that's a good idea.

I might get it in the morning.

That's it.

All right, Bailey.

Not that.

You go on and sit around and see that Bob Holland.

Yes, indeed.

How are you?

Good to see you.

Well, there's a lot of places the government can go.

Seriously, the rest of the government can go.

That's right.

There are places the government can go.

We had to move some people from here over a period of time.

We put them out in agencies, and they're happier.

They can run as fast as we need to.

They can take a three-hour break and do all the things they need to do.

Right?

I was in New York this weekend, and a lot of your friends and sisters, well, they're all encouraged about the economy of the campaign down the boulders.

Were they the champions of the campaign?

Yeah.

Oh, that's good.

And you were also talking about the very thing you talked to 12 senators about, about beyond Vietnam, what do we do about Japan and Germany and... Well, George was still along, too.

I was... Well, I heard some great shit about Japan.

Oh, yeah.

But I spoke with a bunch of people over 65 years ago, 84, so...

I delivered a speech written by Noel Cook at the Bullock Forum called Cheering the Polls.

It's a great speech.

And of course it turned out very strong.

You look beyond the polls and very well received.

He spoke in there a time or two at the Bullock Forum.

Oh, look, Calvin Williford.

I was there.

Oh, it's all the quiet.

But I know you have no time at all.

Read that speech.

It's a great one.

Good.

I know.

But I think a different talk than your talk is just being on some terribly difficult issue.

And all I can tell you is this.

Stick with it.

It's coming out.

And we really stop to think of it.

And we're not indicating to you because any more than I would to the press or anybody else or anything may happen.

But let's just think of the fact that

came to this terribly difficult war.

The Kennedy-Johnson War.

Have you ever referred to it as that?

Well, the Kennedy-Johnson War.

I always put the Kennedy in, right?

And the second part is, they got us in, and we're getting us out, and we owe it.

And so, now, this is going to be quite something that will pee to the wind.

And Americans are concerned about the draft, and Americans are concerned about the price of war.

I think another good line to be in some areas more idealistic than the talk I made on the governor's conference.

They want them to work, don't they?

That's a great fact.

Some of these people... And I think if you could get the whole thing, Bob, though, get a little personal anecdote that I have, and then you could get some nicer, and then get a start of a down version of the Senate, and it's time for people to... You know, the idea that let's be able to help more generously those who...

who can't help themselves and won't do it.

But the key line is the guaranteed income.

And I am not for a guaranteed annual income.

I don't think you can guarantee a person an income if he's not spending enough money.

You know, that is ridiculous.

I am not for a guaranteed annual income.

Our program does not provide for it.

Our program provides if a person does not work

When he has an opportunity, he gets off and he root-fogs your eyes, right?

That's what strikes out, just root-fogging.

Well, I put it all through the discoverer's bottle.

I've had a devil of a time getting the government to get it through because, you know, most of the people in the AGW and that's where all the people and how do we assist and how can we get more food stamps and all the rest.

The heck with that.

I want to help them.

I mean, particularly I've seen welfare kids and I've done a little poverty and seen a lot of it in my life.

But, by and large, I don't think you do a favor to a person.

You do no favors.

when you help him, when he can help himself.

Because when you do that, you deny him the ability or the chance that every individual must have

to find out, to develop the capability of helping himself.

The child walks, the baby.

Do you remember the fright you had when the child took the first step?

I remember when I understand.

She might fall down.

Of course she fell down three times.

She would not walk unless you made her take the first step.

Remember throwing them into the water the first time, make them swim?

How do they learn to swim?

They got to be thrown in the water, right?

That's when you go.

True?

Absolutely.

Every good swimming teacher throws a kid in the water.

They paddle and say, oh, I'm fighting to death.

Mommy, so is it.

Cruel.

And then also this whole idea, well, it's terribly cruel.

to make an individual work and so forth.

Like my little example with the kids from Rio Grande High School.

I know many had a bleeding heart, a soft hearted willy heads around here would say, we've got to give them a lighthouse.

I said, isn't it a shame, those poor little Mexican children, that's the poorest county in Texas, you know, that they had to earn the money, work for a year,

you know, the scrubbing pads and the 86 and all the other things in order to get them like, why didn't some foundation help them?

Why didn't the rich merchants help them?

Or why didn't we find something out of the government to help them so that they wouldn't have to work?

And the answer is, that doesn't do a favor.

It does no favor to an individual to deny him the right

How does an individual become strong?

He becomes strong by having the developmental capacities, right?

And you've got to tell them that.

Now, they say, that's hard-hearted.

You don't care about this poor person.

Oh yes, if a person is blind,

If a person is deaf, if a person is crippled, if a person has any kind of mental or physical disability, I give them pay, including everything I've got.

That's real charity.

If I've got a person, he is not, he is not dressed, he ought, he should develop that fetish, or you're making him blind.

You know, a muscle that isn't used becomes, you know, nothing, right?

You've been more, look, your chairman has been more active than

in this field of helping the handicapped.

This is not known.

It's hard-hearted.

We've got almost any senator I know, but he says, don't help those clowns.

They're here to help themselves.

I think this line is a good line for Republicans.

I was fascinated, talking to Henry earlier, about this law firm speech in Kissinger.

It asks about the president's allusion to menial labor and working with bedpans and sweeping floors and everything.

Did you tell his story at the governor's?

No, no.

I heard him in tears in the eyes of the big men when he spoke that night.

That was on the Rio Grande High School thing.

That was included in the governor's conversation.

That's how the question arose.

As he said, these people, you know, some of these welfare things, don't talk to us about those measly little jobs.

When we find a kind of society that we these days whine around because of the little tasks we've got to do, we need a little character in this country, really.

Did you see that Texas lady on TV last night?

On the Capitol steps?

No, I didn't.

She was just great.

Ordinary, middle-aged, ordinary-looking woman who was up there on the hill, and these veterans were up, you know, these ratty-looking people.

and she said, could I say something?

And they gave her the microphone.

They thought she was going to give an NILR speech or something.

And she was right on the brink of emotional breakdown.

But not quite.

She didn't cry.

And she didn't break down.

But you could see she was controlling herself.

And she did.

She got high-pitched and loud.

And she said, I'm a taxpayer.

And I pay a lot of money in taxes to support you people.

Why don't you get out of here and go to work?

She turned the mic as well.

Boy, that was pretty focused stuff.

Everybody sitting at home saying exactly the same thing.

Well, the old Rio Grande kids would have been proud of that, my goodness.

And the prettiest child, we ought to check to see if the next girl, she must have been 18.

She looked at me and said, this could have been 25, very mature, well-spoken.

Maximum background, obvious, but a beautiful child.

She said, lack of a Ghana face.

And she presented, she got the idea there.

And they said, we wouldn't do those Russians and Asprings.

We decided we'd earn it all ourselves.

And they sold Texas to Molly for 75 cents a dozen.

I said, how in the world can you do that?

And she said, Molly, she said, you can't sell to Molly for a dozen.

Oh, these were the little Texas ones, rather than the big California ones.

You know, the California ones, the big fat ones, which cost 75 cents each in a restaurant for a dollar.

And I said, you made money off that?

Yeah.

But they did a lot of other things.

They washed the cars.

That's what she could have done.

You know, picked oranges and all those, you know, horrible things.

You ever picked an orange?

Spiders.

The dirtiest work.

That's why they had her in there.

That's why the Mexicans do it.

He can tell that story.

He's in charge of our youth program.

Well, and here they are.

And they all came up.

And you should have seen.

They were all like little boys.

Little Mexican boys had their ties on.

And the girls were all looking at them.

And the principal was a nice Mexican fellow.

And they were so proud that they'd done it themselves.

And I see other scrubby bunches come.

Most of the kids that come here are fine, really fine.

They're from all over the country.

But sometimes you see a scrubby, scrawny bunch come out here, you know, whining and bitching around.

And you'll find that somebody hated them or they're complaining that mama didn't give them big enough allowance.

You throw me one of those and I'll show you one that's going to go to the devil fast.

Fast.

What are your ideas on this, Mr. President?

What are the... We can't simulate chores anymore.

We can't simulate... How do we get kids to measure themselves in new ways, to challenge themselves in new ways?

Well, let me say this.

You can't do it.

And let me say the problem really is in our class, your class, my class, and so forth.

All of us have it.

Even with our own children, they probably have been received too much.

The main thing is not to give them too much, to know them to do something.

I mean, whether it's the new car, or the trip to Europe, or whatever the case is, or the feeling of responsibility, the feeling of having to do something.

But beyond that, I think I can only talk around the subject.

The worst thing you can do to any individual, and particularly to a child,

is to let him deploy something else or somebody else for his own inadequacies.

For example, the war will be over while we are here.

The environment, we're going to have a big program to clean it up.

It won't be clean, but everybody can do it and say, well, we're going to have clean air and clean water and nobody.

And we'll have a nice little welfare program, and maybe we'll get a little revenue sharing program through, and we'll have a little health program.

And we'll do the best we can for the poor Negroes and others that don't have an equal chance.

All of a sudden, and as to that, the culprits are not the kids or these goddamn college professors, particularly assistant professors.

Most of whom are draft invaders and draft doctors and the rest, and try to avoid it.

And preachers, they are preachers who did it for the same reason, including, and I'm a Quaker, an awful lot that became Quakers in order to avoid the military services.

But that's an aside.

I can tell you, one day, when all these problems, it's the system that's involved, it's the word for the word, in fact, but if this environment were cleaned up, it'd be bad.

And if we weren't mean to the races, then the system would be all right.

One day, that child, or that individual, looks in the mirror.

When that day comes, that moment of truth, he'll notice something.

But you've really got to say, and it's a very, very tough thing, because sometimes it'll turn them off.

See, we pamper them so much, and we treat them so well, and everything is so easy, and, oh, dear, don't move.

I'll move the television set a little closer to your chair, or they'll slap it on the floor, you know, and all that.

Know that?

But it doesn't mean getting out and getting a little blackened and so forth.

We didn't like much of that.

But let

What it really is, it's the safest thing we must avoid.

And this is the trouble with the nation today.

If we look at America, when they don't, they say, oh, we must go spend our money for the SSD.

We should spend it on the ghettos.

And so we must spend our money on defense.

We must spend our money on these other great breakthroughs that we've talked to.

All right, what's the nation?

What's the nation?

And the same is true of the person.

begins to think solely of itself rather than of, what I think, being bigger than itself, that nation is destined to be a small nation.

and a poor nation and a weak nation.

I often quote de Gaulle, and he did a lot of things I didn't like, but he said some things that were quite true.

And one thing he said was that France was never her true self unless she was engaged in a great enterprise.

So it is with America.

America has been her true self and a great nation because from the beginning we have been engaged in great enterprise versions.

It was exploring the West, then perhaps it was other things.

Sometimes it was war.

We rule out war now, so that's gone.

But there are other enterprises that take space, the space thing.

To me, the space thing, I don't give a damn if we go to the moon or not.

I don't care that there's nothing there, and I don't think they're going to find them scientifically.

It happens.

They didn't find a lot.

We developed a whole new program in regard to computerization, which put us first in the world.

The important thing is to go.

The important thing is to explore the earth.

The important thing for the young today is to not think of these what are really totally selfish terms.

Well, they say it's unselfish.

They'll tell you, if I want to help the world, I want to join the Peace Corps.

Or a pistol.

And so they join the Peace Corps and just get out.

What do they do when they get over here?

They start demonstrating against their government.

They think, well, that's really good.

That's my way.

But that is all selling.

Well, when it really comes down to it, they must send you.

There is a good one.

And let's be fair to them.

There is a strong, idealistic trait that runs through the street, just as there are young people here.

And that's what we must appeal to them.

They would like to be sought for land.

They would like to live their own lives.

They would like to help others.

And they would like their nation to mean something more to the world than simply living selfishly within our own nation.

They would like to be what it is destined to be in this last third of a century.

to provide the leadership, and that means the military strength, the diplomatic leadership, the economic growth, which will allow us to be the first nation in the world, because we will use that position of first, never to destroy freedom, never to break the peace.

We will always use it to uphold freedom and uphold peace.

Now, the world is very fortunate that America, at this time, happens to come along and is in that position.

Because in times past, and this is no reflection on the other times, because there was a difference in other countries, the British, the French, the Spanish, all the others, were moving in the other direction.

I'll let you know.

The situation is...

So what I'm really trying to say is that

First, starting with the kids, particularly the understanding with the kind of people you will talk to, because you will find in most of the families of the governmental class that represent, who are mainly Republican or Democrats and supporters, that they have very great problems with their kids, and they have problems

for a reason that is understandable because they are so compassionate and they are so good to them and they think, Jesus, it's hard for me and I don't want to make it hard for them.

I'm going to feel that way a little myself.

But the understanding of it, but also point out that at this time, let's face up to it, kids, maybe it's a mistake to think that the way of greatness for an individual or for a nation

is to make it easy for them.

It is to see that everything, that there is a guaranteed annual income, that you get an income when you work or when you don't work, that we have a welfare program that provides assistance with regard to the work requirements, that we will provide an education for our children and not require anyone or any responsibility on our part to make it easy for them.

What I'm really saying is that I don't mean you want to make it hard on everybody, but I am saying

That there is the line in between.

There is such a thing as national character and individual character.

It is never developed in the rich societies.

It is never developed in the soft societies.

It is only developed in those societies that continue, either because of religious background or because they have to do it, but continue to have to hack it.

Let's look around the world for just one other moment.

But the two great nations in the world, other than our own, who are they?

The Japanese and the Germans.

Who would have predicted after World War II that the two defeated nations, demolished by the war, those peoples would come back.

Why did they come back?

Well, partly maybe because they were Japanese and because they were Germans.

They had a lot to do with it.

In fact, there is such a thing as an inheritance.

But there's another reason.

Because they had to.

They had to do it.

Here they were defeated.

They had to mount something.

They didn't have any choice.

And so they went to work, and they developed.

And in the process, they had to go through some pretty serene experiences.

But in the end, they developed a little steel of their character.

And so here's America, rich, a little fat maybe.

And as far as our people are concerned, our kids, maybe what I'm really saying is

college scholarships, free loans, you don't have to pay anything back.

For example, one of the reasons why I've been in the college business, I have four programs of loaning the money and making them pay it back.

I want it free.

Not because I want to be hired with them, because I know it's better for them.

Not because of the dough, but because of their character.

And yet, that ATW bunch over here is always in Hawaiian and squealing around and says, wait a minute, friend, do you want this poor child to have to have to pay it back?

You're better children than you do.

See?

And what we're really talking about is that what is being tested, what is tested in this next few years, more than America's military strength or its economic might, is its character.

And character doesn't,

Leaders can talk about it, but it's going to come from the home, it's going to come from the mothers, it's going to come from the church, it's going to come from all these institutions that are now in disrepair.

And so you can tell the ladies of the country particularly, strengthen the home.

strengthen your community, strengthen your church if they want to believe in any church.

I hope a few people still do, but I doubt it.

But if they do, strengthen all those things.

But the least they can do is to not to destroy the character of their own children or of others by a permissive, permissiveness for either word, by a permissive attitude that completely denies that opportunity

to have to sort of look in the mirror one day and say, well, maybe it isn't the war.

Maybe it isn't the old man who's a little bit too hard on me.

Maybe it isn't the environment or the dirty air I'm talking about.

Maybe it isn't the system down at the college where they grade a little too hard.

Maybe it's me.

Looking back on my college and high school career, the best teachers I had were the ones that were the toughest on me and gave me the worst grades.

Now, they did at the beginning.

I eventually came up.

And the poorest teachers were ones that I thought would be wonderful.

That was so nice.

So anyway, you have the main thing is to charge them up.

If they're on the right side, they're going to win.

They need it.

And by the way, the last thing, partner, don't talk to them and say, well, I think you heard the people that have sent the radio and the television and the newspapers out day after day to tell us what's wrong about America.

Stand up and be gentle with them.

This is a great country.

Most of our kids are great kids.

This is a fine country.

We talk about all the poverty in America.

The poorest in America would be rich in three-fourths of the world today.

We could be proud of our country's foreign policy.

We've never cried over ourselves and everybody else.

We've fought four wars worldwide.

None.

Except their freedom.

I think the American people are just hungry to hear things that are right about America.

And then some work out with the gimlet, even the bottom end of the suit.

Kick it a little.

All right?

Yes.

Well, oh, let's see.

Oh, thank you, Eric.

Oh, you're so good.

Thank you.

My dad wasn't here, that's right.

You know, she looks good.

I can't quite talk about it.

I think she's a little smarter than Pat.

I think she's smarter than Pat.

I look at her a little better organized.

Pat's wonderful, but I think she's a little more experienced.

Is that a word?

Yes sir.

Nixon, Kissinger & Haldeman on China initiative and Anti-war protests

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Also recorded on April 22, 1971

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Nixon, Kissinger & Haldeman on China initiative and Anti-war protests

AI Summary

Audio

NARA Description

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Transcript (AI-generated)

Also recorded on April 22, 1971

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Cite this conversation