Nixon, Butterfield & Haldeman on Anti-war protests and U.S. Senate

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You won't believe this, but you can get it on ABC tonight, but no, long, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 62, 62, 63, 62, 62, 63, 62, 62, 63, 62, 62, 63, 62, 62, 63, 62, 63, 62, 63, 62, 63, 62, 63, 62, 63, 62, 63, 62, 63, 62, 63, 62, 63, 62, 63, 62, 63, 62, 63, 62, 63, 62, 63,

Hold all, uh, everything out.

Unless it's urgent.

In other words, so that, so that I will be sure that I got it.

So then I have to do this right here.

Right.

And I get all of the readings.

Here's what I'm going to do.

but NBC had a long week on the watch on the U.S. Senate.

You've got to take note of the challenge.

But that's all right.

That's each of the reviews.

The interesting thing, the news today, as you've probably heard, is the congressional business.

The demonstrators went up to Congress to do their... Why I called you in was this... Mr. Kogel, the interesting reaction.

I was amazed.

I don't know what you heard, but I'll give you the one reaction.

You know, one thing I want to say about Russell Long, God damn, he's the ableist man in the Senate.

Believe me, he's, his mind, he's got to be a pure genius.

I compare him with our Senators, I mean, the Scotts and the Grebens and the

the Tafts, all the good guys we've got, even the baker, even the baker who was quick, barely cooking.

You know, Howard's very quick, actually.

Russell Long, he's four times as quick.

I mean, the brilliance, he's just, he's got it.

It's always good.

It's a pleasure to talk to a man sometimes whose mind is fascinated by the ball of knowing.

You can win on some, not on others.

They did cover the welfare thing, at least the chamber thing.

Thank you.

But anyway, he was telling me today with great pride that John Osner had a really good piece.

There he is.

I thought you'd be interested to sort of brighten your day up a little, Henry.

You could be brightening, doesn't it?

Oh, I'm in good shape.

You better be.

Well, I had these two senators, Long and Bennett, and .

Long came in, and he said, now before we begin, of course, he's going to disagree on all these things.

He said, well, he had heard of it, so he made the notes.

He said, I just want to tell you that, by God, I am proud of you, and a lot of us are proud of the way you're standing up .

He says, that bunch up there, we had snot today.

He says, they were the most horrible bunch.

I said, well, they don't engage in violence, Russell.

I said, I can't object to that.

They threw red paint on Barry Goldwater's door.

But his reaction was surprising to me.

Of course, Russell's a hawk.

And he hates Kennedy.

And he's probably reacting to Kennedy going down and sorting with veterans.

But somewhere or other, something had ticked him off because he walked in and just said, I was just proud of you.

Then when he left, there was this interesting thing.

He said, I said, I don't, I said, Russell, I'm going to keep you welfare bills and all the rest.

I had asked you to support me.

I know you can't.

I said, whatever you do on that.

I said, I just want you to know that I appreciate what you and your son and friends are doing on this war.

And I said, you could easily desert.

And I would understand more than a few Republicans.

I said, by God, he says, we should support you.

He said, because you're carrying a hell of a load, and I don't know how you do it.

Now, that's very interesting.

I mean, Russell Waller, who is not given to, well, he's given to wild statements, but he's not given to making politically naive statements.

I don't know what happened.

What happened is that they interrupted the Senate by telling them, stop the war.

There are people dying.

God have mercy on your soldiers.

Senate doorkeepers hustled the demonstrators out of the galleries.

And one of them, wearing gumperies and a red cloth depicting the Viet Cong flag buried around his body, stood and yelled, stop the war, at the top of his lungs.

Senator Humphrey, presiding at the moment, rapped for order.

Senator Tower asked the gallery to be cleared.

Humphrey instead ordered the doorkeepers to remove those causing the disturbance.

The Senate will not tolerate these disturbances, Humphrey said.

The second demonstrator rose in an opposite gallery, also shouting, stop the war.

I asked again if Towers would be clear.

Towers said, again, not for refuse, only ordering those creating a disturbance to be removed.

At the time, the Senate was debating a bill to provide one and a half billion in emergency school aid.

A few minutes after the first outburst, at 1.40 p.m., another demonstrator yelled, shit, you fools, how about the children in Vietnam?

from other Galleries came repeated shouts to stop the war and have people die.

Senator Byrd demanded that the Galleries be cleared.

Byrd or which one?

Virginia or Bob?

Robert.

Bob.

Florida the hardliner.

Quib.

Quib, yeah.

Demanded that the Galleries be cleared.

Senator Buckley, who had replaced Humphrey in the chair, ordered the Galleries cleared.

Humphrey, back on the floor, asked that the Byrd demand be rescinded and that those visitors in the gallery who were obeying the rules be permitted to stay.

Byrd insisted the galleries be cleared first and then those who made no disturbance be readmitted.

The Capitol Police arrested the demonstrators as they were ejecting from the galleries.

They were escorted to the street where a paddy wagon waited.

They've had a hell of a stir up there, and this has gone sharp.

And it's, it's pretty big on television, and they are, and they go to the 1, 2, 3, 4, we all know what you're talking about.

This is too early, I wish they didn't escalate it so quickly.

Some of them are saying that you're starting too soon.

It staged a big thing in Hugh Scott's office about a killer squad dressed in army batiks, mourners dressed in sackcloth.

They ran around yelling, kill the gooks, kill the gooks.

Then the mourners would come along crying and waiting for the dead gooks.

Well, now, this overplays their hand.

I'll lay you money on a bidder that's on television tonight.

If this is the outcome, that's what I was just...

It is.

I was just watching.

That's why the bone builders, they'll say, you're nice, pleasant, little, peaceful people.

Those are sort of something.

They are just horrible looking people.

Well, I'll tell you what, it was an absolute outrage.

I mean, I do...

I think, Mr. President, that really this is going to turn again.

I don't know if it was a return again, but we've been talking about that, and we've got some decisions we've got to make on how we deal with this thing, because that's their problem.

How Congress deals with it is their problem, but how we deal with it.

They're going to the department tomorrow.

What do we do in the department?

Do we let them run around?

Do we arrest them?

I think we arrest them, just like Congress did, if they impeach the operation.

Oh, yes.

Absolutely.

Now, the real problem you get is this plan, and we spent most of the day on this thing, because we've got to decide pretty soon, and we've got to be in the right decision this time.

What we do, the plan starting Monday to stop the traffic into Washington will, by every estimate, work very effectively.

And it's going to be very difficult to stop it if they have any numbers.

Chief Wilson thinks that he can stop it if he can arrest them.

That's what our plan is.

And it obviously should be.

But the tactic we're talking about now is considering the possibility of going to Congress

and requesting a new law that makes it a felony to obstruct traffic on the arteries coming in here so that we've got a deterrent to keep the good kids out and a basis on arresting the others for holding them on a felony charge.

I wouldn't have us go.

I'd have somebody in Congress do it.

Well, if you look at public feelings, we might as well be accredited.

I don't know whether public feelings are high, but let's stop it first and then pass the law.

I'll be too late then.

Well, then, when it's too late, we won't arrest them until we stop them.

And what do we lose if they stop the traffic?

As long as we arrest them, it's...

I'm not so sure we want to stop the government.

I'm not so sure we give a damn.

Let them stop the government.

Let them screw the things up.

As long as we arrest them...

I don't think we ought to jump in like Mitchell did in order to make a point.

Leave it.

I rather think we'd rather...

I've got to go.

Well, anyway, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I,

Talk to you about it, they'll call you about it.

But anyway, the, uh, uh, let's not shift the capital.

Senators, well, senators don't see these people.

That's not, they, they, they, you know, they read about a demonstration and the rest of it.

But it tripped them up.

That's what you guys said there.

Senator, you remember it.

Yeah.

You remember it.

Yeah.

Wow.

Nixon, Butterfield & Haldeman on Anti-war protests and U.S. Senate

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on April 26, 1971

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