Nixon, Haldeman & Ziegler on Vietnam War protests and Public relations

1:35:44You said that our work policies that may cause the problem of running out of this dollar in the bank aren't, Jesus Christ.
1:35:50Yes, I am, sir.
1:35:55Well, then, sir, I shall have to work with you.
1:36:05It's about time that we really don't take the risk, Bob.
1:36:13Don't worry about the... Well, they put themselves on the side of the energy.
1:36:21They march into the vehicle and fly to their goddamn rights.
1:36:26We're not doing anything equal.
1:36:28They have their meetings over there in Paris and Stockholm and plan the thing.
1:36:35our land needs to be taken as the BC didn't get it.
1:36:39They just call it Britain and get it broadly circulated and have somebody name an outlandish beach and all that.
1:36:45Let them say, I mean, I hate that.
1:36:46I mean, I'm repudiating the enemy, repudiating the support of this.
1:36:50I guess what I'm meaning when you go out to the beach, that's a little bit about .
1:36:59That makes it a partisan investment in a definite way, yeah.
1:37:04Because it's the party accretion deal and all that sort of thing.
1:37:09OK, wait.
1:37:10That might be a possibility.
1:37:12It might get some Democrats to step up to the whole thing.
1:37:16I don't want to respond to anything, because they're going to have a play.
1:37:23But if anybody cares, well, we're going to do it.
1:37:26We might as well do it, you know.
1:37:28Oh, Barbara, what's that called?
1:37:30Oh, God.
1:37:31Oh, millions of people.
1:37:33They're trying to make that point, some of the rest of it, and we'll go to exporting in one week.
1:37:40We'll go to the world.
1:37:42They've done an awful lot of good things, Bob, in the world.
1:37:48That's the thing that these little shitasses are demonstrating on their same credit board.
1:37:55Oh, Jesus, we've given away hundreds of millions of dollars.
1:37:58food and everything else.
1:38:00Americans go abroad and work their butts off.
1:38:02I've got that Peace Corps.
1:38:04We spent $100 million on that thing.
1:38:06He's a bright-eyed, squishy-tailed bastard.
1:38:08He's a broad-erased elf.
1:38:10Now, what the hell is all this all about?
1:38:11You know what I mean?
1:38:13God, I never can wait.
1:38:15I'm going to abolish that thing.
1:38:17Peace Corps.
1:38:30I said, I want every night and day to use twice.
1:38:56I mean, you put staff at every cabinet, people only should use the two big places, and Essen, and so I go there.
1:39:06Then all the staff people then can use Laurel, and the others, I mean, ooh, terrific, don't you think?
1:39:12So that way you can have two different parties, in other words, if it's an interdependent lot, you know.
1:39:18But the other thing I said, the crisis started
1:39:24I want to get Tom out there again.
1:39:27He works his ass off.
1:39:29I took care of it, he said, but you see, we otherwise get into the drill where people that sort of make a routine and go out there, they kind of do the thing.
1:39:41This is my phone.
1:40:04The way the networks are so careful, careful now.
1:40:10They should know.
1:40:28I mean, it may confuse all of you.
1:40:35Thank you.
1:40:53It's the confidence.
1:40:55He knows what that is.
1:40:56In some way, he knows that's bad.
1:40:58It's the gut reaction.
1:41:01That's one of these people.
1:41:05He had a physical exam scheduled this morning and he had an annual thing or something.
1:41:20And Saturday he had a golf team set with somebody that he was trying to get out of the way before he left.
1:41:27And he is going Sunday for a meeting.
1:41:33It would pinpoint then these two California senators.
1:42:02and say, all right, boys, lucky falls or it goes up depending upon whether you support SSP and make a straight-up deal.
1:42:12And I think we can go to some of our others, you know, some of our new senators who said they had to do it because they campaigned against it and all that, but maybe, you know, say they did it and now there's new facts in it.
1:42:23The House was operated and worked its will on jobs.
1:42:27I don't know.
1:42:28I don't know.
1:42:30No, I'll tell you why they won't do it properly.
1:42:32They've all read too many letters.
1:42:38Hello?
1:42:40Yes.
1:42:42Yes.
1:42:44Hello?
1:42:48Yes.
1:42:53Well, I just wanted to tell you that I, while you're in our country, I welcome you and wish you the very best.
1:43:01Yes.
1:43:02And I only wish that I could be there myself, but just to welcome you.
1:43:08But how is the operation coming, Mr. President?
1:43:15They're still trying to make a decision on it.
1:43:22Right.
1:43:23And you're in Cleveland, right?
1:43:25Fine.
1:43:25Well, that's a very fine institution there.
1:43:33Well, I want you to know that, as we talk, that I shall always remember that right after the elections in 1960, when you were in our country, you called me when I was in San Francisco.
1:43:45And then, on the many occasions I came to Pakistan, you were so good to receive me.
1:43:50And I didn't want you to be here without knowing that I was thinking about you.
1:43:53And Mrs. Nixon joined me in sending our very best wishes.
1:43:57We know your country's going through some difficult times, but I wanted you to know that we've always had such a strong feeling for your country, and we're going to do our best not to make any trouble.
1:44:15And we just wish you the very best.
1:44:31Secretary Connolly is going to come over at about noon now, so he can address himself to the Wholesale Price Index also, which is out today.
1:44:40For the positive twist on that, and also now it's Lockington at that time, he only has 30 seconds.
1:44:47He understands what I'm saying.
1:44:50So I won't say that he holds it.
1:44:54Five-tenths
1:45:00But Connelly has a great way of handling this.
1:45:02It's not that they're excited.
1:45:05It's that we want to be sure that we set them in the right reverence so that Ziegler's friends out in the pool are okay.
1:45:23We're pumping farm prices up and when you raise it up at the bottom, they're going to come up at the other end.
1:45:51Well, he's in a meeting now.
1:45:55Yes, sir.
1:45:56I'm going to go out and brief now.
1:46:16Uh, the, uh, on the, on the matter relating to District of Columbia, we just completed a meeting with Ehrlichman and Dean and everything.
1:46:23Yeah, I'm going through that.
1:46:24Thanks.
1:46:25You've had it very well.
1:46:26Well, I don't know, yesterday, I think it came out all right, but the line I'm going to...
1:46:30So everybody said it came out all right.
1:46:32The line I'm going to focus on, I'm only going to use it one sentence.
1:46:34Even Henry said so.
1:46:35He must have been all right.
1:46:38Kissinger?
1:46:38Yeah.
1:46:39He said to Rodney that a wonderful statement.
1:46:43He didn't need to talk at all.
1:46:45No, no, no.
1:47:10All right.
1:47:11The only line I'm going to use today is just straight talk.
1:47:14The president is satisfied.
1:47:16I'm going to go through the little civil disturbance thing.
1:47:20The president is satisfied that the District of Columbia Police Force conducted itself with great restraint in a competent way and handled the situation appropriately.
1:47:35out in front of a car that's too close.
1:47:37You know, that's one of the points somebody raised up here earlier, and maybe you can't relate to it, but the kind of thing we sure got to get across is that you have a remarkable situation here when you have a group of radicals led by Randy Davis looking for trouble, looking for trouble, going through this exercise day after day in the District of Columbia to start a life on a site.
1:48:02The President, looking at it from a perspective of the police department, deserves commendation for its firm, but restraining and limiting the situation could have been explosive.
1:48:14working particularly to deal with the fact that some of those, a number of those in the groups were looking for confrontation, wanted trouble, and so forth, said that, second, he wants to commend the government workers again for their not being intimidated.
1:48:32Third, the military for their handling of the situation.
1:48:37But fourth, I don't know if it's not all right, but fourth, he wants to commend the citizens of Washington
1:48:43who were inconvenienced, who had their tires slashed, who had trash thrown in their streets, who were delayed, and so forth, were the remarkable restraint that they showed.
1:48:57That in this whole week of illegal, of illegal,
1:49:07an illegal conduct that the law-abiding citizens of Washington and the law enforcement agencies of the District of Columbia contracted themselves in a way that there were no serious injuries.
1:49:22See, that's the remarkable thing.
1:49:24No serious injuries, or no serious injury of any of the citizens, of either police or, you know, no, there were no serious injuries, period.
1:49:32There were no unsurpassed serious injuries.
1:49:37The President does take note of the fact that there was a massive, a very significant damage to property and a very significant cost to the taxpayers of the District of Columbia to handle this.
1:49:57That this, through the taxpayers of the District of Columbia and the national taxpayers, taxpayers and the taxpayers of the District of Columbia
1:50:25millions of dollars, running into millions of dollars for the handling of this situation.
1:50:30And that, uh, we, uh, we, that, of course, is, uh, that we, many, the President repeats the right of, the right of peace, peaceful, uh, peaceful
1:50:50I want to indicate to everybody concerned, when you say as far as the President is concerned, that we will not tolerate any place in this country where the federal government has a responsibility
1:51:16breaking the peace at home in the name of seeking peace at all.
1:51:23I'm not going to talk.
1:51:26If more happens, it will be prepared for another demonstration.
1:51:29I'm going to handle it exactly the same way.
1:51:32Any others that come to Washington for the purpose of breaking the peace will be handled exactly the same way.
1:51:42Okay, that's a warning.
1:51:43Did you read about it?
1:51:46Which now, I'm going to say, I'm promoting the little bastards.
1:51:50That's what they all do.
1:51:51I wouldn't let me say it last week.
1:51:52All right, now this week, it's all over.
1:51:54That's the way it is.
1:51:57Man, I'm so satisfied with this.
1:51:59I think we've now found the way to handle this situation.
1:52:02We're going to handle it this way in the future.
1:52:05The results speak for themselves.
1:52:07That's really the thing.
1:52:09And the whole point of this is not to be arrested.
1:52:13He has a right only to a fair trial, to a speedy trial, and to a fair trial.
1:52:19And that was accomplished in the end.
1:52:22I'm just arresting history when I am.
1:52:30Don't worry about it.
1:52:31I mean, it's best to come at you at some point.
1:52:33You don't need to worry about what you say.
1:52:36But they're just, they're going to be boring.
1:52:38They're trying to get us to say we're sorry.
1:52:40We can go back in time and, uh, and if the president says he regrets it, you say he is, he does not regret it.
1:52:50Period.
1:52:50You see what I'm saying?
1:52:52Don't talk to him.
1:52:53He does not regret it.
1:52:54And don't try to...
1:52:56And don't try to put words in my mouth or in his.
1:52:58In fact, the president says, don't try to put words in my mouth or in his.
1:53:02Those are your people here, right?
1:53:04As far as he's concerned, this was handled right.
1:53:06We're going to handle it that way in the future.
1:53:08We're not going to allow peaceful citizens and millions of law-abiding citizens in this country to have their peace destroyed.
1:53:19That's exactly what we got into the issue of the campus approval place, Mr. Ellis.
1:53:23They've left the demonstrators to open the campus for everybody else.
1:53:26That was the one place he had signed.
1:53:28I've got a question for you.
1:53:30Have you been affected by all of this as far as the purpose and certainty is concerned?
1:53:37That's a great question, John.
1:53:39The academic freedom on the campus and the answer to that was the academic freedom of those who come to pursue an education has got to be protected.
1:53:47But he is under enormous pressures and he handles himself with great skill.
1:53:56He's better than me.
1:54:07Anybody can have it.
1:54:08Well, the problem is they can't do it.
1:54:11They can't do it.
1:54:15He knows the stories.
1:54:17He knows what they're trying to get at.
1:54:20He sees the lines and the other are going to see it and so forth.
1:54:32I said, if you don't get it by Wednesday, delay it two weeks.
1:54:40I said, there's a reason for that.
1:54:44I want her to smoke.
1:54:53I told him,
1:55:21The difference is I do much more deliberately on some things.
1:55:27I won't go off on comparison.
1:55:31I mean, wait, wait.
1:55:35Once you have a need.
1:55:41Now let it wait around, rest around.
1:55:44It grows, and also you may lose the moment that it acts.
1:55:50Time is so important here.
1:55:57The deliberations, the processing.
1:56:00Some of it is very important to be delivered so that your enemy doesn't get you under pressure.
1:56:05But once you have crossed that line, and God happened to be delivered just for the sake of being delivered, there's no virtue.
1:56:10You don't want to be speaking.
1:56:12You want to get people off their heads and get going.
1:56:16Well, he's going to find himself.
1:56:18He's having a good vacation out there.
1:56:22Drop him around here.
1:56:25I wish we could get that draft in there.
1:56:27I agree with you, but we don't get it now.
1:56:31I really think, though, that we may want to take that prayer from you and me.
1:56:38Now, that's going to be a real problem.
1:56:43But I think it's all right.
1:56:45There's no...
1:56:51dreams, as I said, it's good timing for you.
1:56:54He's got the idea that, well, after all, maybe he could go to Paris and maybe the pre-meeting should work something out.
1:57:03I think it could.
1:57:13I set it up this way.
1:57:14God damn it, you don't get it.
1:57:16You don't get the draft in it.
1:59:44We're going to plan that trip.
1:59:46Yes, sir.
1:59:48Now let me tell you the problem here.

Nixon, Haldeman & Ziegler on Vietnam War protests and Public relations

AI Summary

Audio

Transcript (AI-generated)

NARA Description

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on May 6, 1971

Cite this conversation