Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 488-022
Date: Tuesday, April 27, 1971 at 4:40 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Ehrlichman, John D.; Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob"); [Unknown person(s)]
Recording device: Oval Office
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/488-022

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:25] Well, well.
[0:37] Go ahead.
[0:37] I was just going to say, come on, get Henry Ford the other day.
[0:41] With a very good response.
[0:54] Yeah.
[0:55] Yeah.
[0:57] Yeah.
[1:12] Yeah.
[1:13] Yeah.
[1:24] and then that birthday party that the vice president threw for Bonnie Lasker, with all those two sheds, you know, up at the Madison.
[1:31] And they were all there, and it was very interesting.
[1:40] They're a very tight little crowd.
[1:41] Well, you know, it's an interesting thing, too, though, that that is one point, though, where we did come out smelling like a rose.
[1:48] I mean, it was a... We tended, of course, to get played at a time,
[2:06] up a paper and you're there to read, you know.
[2:10] And every time it's a little bit fresh because the market's at another level.
[2:13] And it was in U.S. News again this last week.
[2:17] Not yesterday, but a week ago.
[2:29] And it just keeps bouncing along.
[2:34] I think it really has a chance this time.
[2:38] I think the liberals are going to have to be
[3:06] Some of them are.
[3:08] Mathias is, and a few of those guys.
[3:10] Liberal Democrats, of course, are out on a partisan basis.
[3:15] But that's the point.
[3:16] Liberal Democrats will not.
[3:18] So we're just on reorganization, quite a few of them.
[3:25] Oddly enough.
[3:26] You are working on it.
[3:42] with that rather than just to go over and kick it around.
[3:49] The other thing is I was going to say on Connolly, if you would, let's start with three things.
[3:55] First, with Connolly, I want to make sure you might give him a talk.
[3:59] We were chatting today.
[3:59] If you'd like for him to call you whenever there's any question about one boy as president, it was really standing around here.
[4:16] We cannot control Burns, but we can control the administration.
[4:26] And Schultz now has the word, and McCracken has the word.
[4:30] And if you'd like to police that,
[4:39] is insisting on that, but he's got to let you know if there's any time that anybody's getting out of line.
[4:59] Second point is that with regard to Holby, I talked to Paul a little more about it.
[5:01] He said Mitchell may not have felt as strong as he might have felt.
[5:03] I mean, you know, his talking to Martin will clear the way for me and the professor to get away from him one awkward time.
[5:23] Well, that is not a first meeting.
[5:23] It doesn't mean he was a speaker.
[5:24] And it's true, we don't have a cabinet with any faulty speakers.
[5:25] But, uh, I just, I just have a, I have many emotions about it.
[5:27] My only feeling is that
[5:34] I'm just not sure that it makes that much difference.
[5:43] I hear that there are others that we can bring in.
[5:48] I don't know, we could get a, is the Corps an Italian?
[5:51] Sure.
[5:51] Well, that means a lot.
[5:52] And we've got a few Italians around, haven't we?
[5:53] Oh, yeah.
[5:53] Yeah, we're picking up a few.
[5:54] We've got a couple, I forget.
[5:57] We had an Italian general counsel the other day.
[5:59] And Daniel had an Italian ATW, if I missed you.
[6:01] Seems to me you're a good suggestion, actually.
[6:03] Thank you.
[6:05] And so I think in terms of speaking at Rumsfeld, we'll probably in a way get more people for us than Boeke would be.
[6:21] I would think so, yes.
[6:22] On the other hand, we gotta realize that Boeke appeals to that blue collar guy on the way up.
[6:34] Let me know what else we got in the field of the sticks.
[6:46] Listen, we don't have to be silent now.
[6:49] You and John, you and Bob, and at some point, wait a minute, you want to sit down and let's talk about this.
[7:00] I'm sorry we can't get the guy that's head of the Farm Bureau.
[7:11] Is he pretty good?
[7:11] He's a great cattle man.
[7:12] But you can't polarize the farm organizations that much.
[7:15] But we may find somebody.
[7:24] I think Rumsfeld would be pretty good running around the country as a cabin officer.
[7:34] Do you think so?
[7:35] I think so.
[7:35] You know, in the city thing, he'd be damn good.
[7:36] He's good with the suburbs.
[7:37] Yeah.
[7:37] Yeah.
[7:38] Flip around through the suburbs.
[7:39] He's always upbeat.
[7:42] Yeah.
[7:42] I think he's willing to throw a knife out.
[7:45] Oh, sure.
[7:47] Heck yes.
[7:47] And he'd run a job well.
[7:48] Yeah.
[7:49] I know we couldn't commit to these guys because
[7:54] The damn thing, from what I'm told, I had a guy on my staff do a little checking on it.
[8:07] The thing is dangerous right now.
[8:09] I mean, it's trying to develop them.
[8:31] My opinion is that we're going to be a laughing stock.
[8:44] We do.
[8:46] This has got to be postponed.
[8:47] There's a delay.
[8:51] I must admit, I haven't taken any steps up to go take a pee.
[8:54] I don't know.
[8:54] I'll find out.
[8:54] This is something that actually Peter has done on
[9:04] you know, for what he knows about it, and get him back into it.
[9:10] Now, the other, of course, thing that we're looking for is the guy in the Lincoln spot.
[9:18] Yeah, the guy there down the talk on Ford policy.
[9:20] I don't know who the hell would get him.
[9:26] I wish we had a real fine, you know, ballsy guy who would go in there and take that spot.
[9:29] That's for sure.
[9:29] Yeah.
[9:29] Only because it's in the NSC.
[9:30] Well, it's also, you know, they have Christ Daniel in there.
[9:33] And he did a hell of a job with the states and the cities.
[9:37] Yeah?
[9:39] And, uh... We don't have anybody on the seat who really... We put it over to an activist office.
[9:46] An activist does it in its own way, but it's sort of on the back of his hand.
[9:51] But they've got a big staff over there, and we just have to use that also.
[9:56] good operative and an absolute minus in terms of getting it across the arch.
[10:05] He's intellectually a very good man.
[10:06] He's highly respected in some areas and we've got to find a place for him in order that, well, in other words, a place to move him to.
[10:17] I think he wants to be retired.
[10:18] He doesn't want to retire after this job.
[10:20] Yeah, but, well, maybe we can pull this off.
[10:22] I don't know.
[10:23] I think we have to avoid the appearance of him being fired.
[10:36] We talked about it.
[10:44] He said it's a two-year deal.
[10:45] And we'd like to make the change.
[10:46] And Kissinger believes he can go.
[10:47] Andy Goodfessler is with us and so forth.
[10:48] He is respected.
[10:48] He's a wonderful guy.
[10:49] But he's not very damn good for our public health.
[10:52] We've got to be on top of the whole operation.
[10:54] I'd be glad to hear that.
[10:55] No dispute about that.
[10:56] It's just that China that we break in his leaving doesn't concern me.
[11:01] But if he was here for two years, that's all it's at.
[11:04] What do you want from her?
[11:13] I just wondered if he's a, and it might, I want a guy to get out and fire a couple of bombs and defend against the Florida Colts.
[11:33] I don't know who the captain is, that's a big one.
[11:34] He'd run the job extremely well.
[11:36] He deserves to get a job.
[11:37] You know, he's putting through his budget now and so forth.
[11:38] He deserves to get some.
[11:39] Let's look around.