Nixon, Haldeman & Butterfield on White House scheduling and Press relations

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You can have Taker announce the briefing this morning at 2 o'clock.

He's not denounced it before then.

It will be necessary to take John Barrow down, Peter Loews,

Well, I've got that right across.

I'm going to work on it on the plane, or in case I want to do that.

Let me pull out one.

Let me suggest, however, that you not do the radio thing, because we've got, as it's ended up, we've got Richardson, Rogers, and McGregor all on the radio.

I'm on TV shows this weekend.

Fine.

I'm going to make some goddamn shoes on Sunday.

Did it waste you?

Yeah.

Did it waste you?

I had to skip it.

I wish it all was right.

Let me push Ray on getting one finished.

Exactly right.

I'm ready to go next week.

Let's not do it this week.

Let's just not do it.

But I'll have to have somebody there to do the Red Cross, so they can.

What day is the Red Cross?

I asked them to give me one I haven't seen in their schedules.

I don't know if I didn't have a chance to read it.

Were we able to get it to play on the transfer process?

Yes, they all did.

They all made the point that the line they used, that was the lowest for three months.

All right.

Anyway, we got it across.

It was gotten across on all three cameras.

He's got it.

very good, you know, blood in Atchison.

Thank God he was there.

He is really just, you know, just off with their heads, you know.

It's just awesome.

He has this great line that some reporters sneering at him, said, well, if you were all in such close, they were trying to put some split into that meeting.

He said, if you were all in such complete agreement about this, why did the meeting last an hour and a half?

And Atchison said, because

We are all old men, and we are all eloquent men.

Very often, Zap, he's got a great skill.

He kills people with that.

He's got a great put-down on the air.

Monty Wooley used to do that.

We're all old men.

We're all up.

that you want to get across the scallop and whatever that is necessary to do.

It's basically a good popular issue.

See what I mean?

I'm not... Henry doesn't understand this, of course, because he feels that it's a popular issue to be for NATO.

It isn't.

Nobody gives a shit about NATO.

And they're for getting the boys home.

So I'm all right to get this to show we're fighting something and that we win it, but I don't want it to be played up as the big thing.

It's somewhat like SST.

It's the same kind of thing.

We're interested in winning it, but we're not interested so much in playing it up day by day by day.

Although in this one, you're going to get more, I think, political value out of this than out of SST because it's a better leadership move for you

And you talk about the real thing we want to get through as leadership.

That's right from the beginning.

And the picture in the front page is in favor of you with the group model.

You saying we will not compromise and this kind of stuff as showing a damn firm position.

We've got to win the damn thing.

Even if we lose it, I think it looks good.

Where the SST is more crowded.

Anybody able to get going?

You see, we have a problem with the SST, with the fellows sick out there in the Virgin Islands.

If we got anybody, we could put church with Bob right now.

I mean, it's not really fair to Jerry to have him go down there and have a screw around here, you know.

Looks like, frankly, looks like a white hat.

Is Volpe working on it, for example, or what is the situation?

I'm not sure.

I think you better get at that this morning before I leave.

I mean, you know, right?

Goddamn.

Bill Allen is pretty awesome.

Both networks live with that, too.

But basically, they're against it.

I got back at that.

Did he have any success with it?

Yeah.

I mean, no.

Not at this point.

The Boeing people simply said, gee, I wish Bill had had that press conference.

I mean, they've got to get out and turn it around.

He wasn't very smart, was he?

At least they're going to work on it, aren't they?

Yeah.

Did you get anything on that?

There hasn't been anything that really takes it on.

There's one that made nobody concerned or made an allusion to what a crappy approach it was.

What would you respond to it as?

So far, I haven't seen it.

Well, just wait a week and then tell your people that we're there.

How come you missed that?

Huh?

And also, you might say, you might get across this, you might get across that, you know, I have a good sport theory.

Remember, I've always said that they will never, they've never really had this to do, never done this last time.

It was done not the way it should have been done, but I don't think, I don't want them to have any illusions that,

that they're winning the press guy.

They're not winning him, Bob.

You don't win him, and they do not change.

Incidentally, I'm with you, sir.

Could I make another suggestion to try to get a hold of Henry?

He's catching on.

God damn it.

You know where he was last night?

He was over-talking to the directors of the Brookings.

I said, Henry, that's an adjunct of the Democratic National Committee.

I said, they are your enemy.

They think you can't do any good there.

And I understand.

I don't mind talking every night, except I just don't want him to waste his time.

But see, if you ask him to talk to the American Enterprise Institute, you'd never get him.

I don't mind.

Because it doesn't have the prestige.

The point is, if he would talk to the American Enterprise Institute, he'd start getting prestige.

And we'd stop talking to Brooklyn and start purging in.

And that's what, which someone, he's gotta, he has the opportunity to build a little bit of a stash.

We had a hell of a time to get him to talk to Alan Ury.

You know, he was doing the book.

Which kind of surprised me, because Ury's a big enough name that I would have thought he would have jumped in.

Or Bill White.

I don't know.

Because Vic Lasky, hell, I don't know if Vic Lasky's a pain in the ass, but he writes our story.

He writes vicious stuff against the other people.

He's the only columnist right here.

He's the only guy we can get into, Grant, who will just kick the shit out of people when we want him to.

I'm with you all the way.

Well, I'll tell you what we're tired of.

From now on, I don't see you going to be on the side.

I'd rather you go and hang on that.

But God damn, the brain is obsessed with it, and it just...

You do keep that up with him.

I do, too.

He said, I know, and I won't.

Okay.

Rose, you know, she's got this jaw problem.

And if she doesn't want to go, it's fine.

But either she or Mark should go just for whatever I want done down there.

Because I might get tired of looking at the radio.

Take your husband and get ready to head down to the sun.

Very nice, very nice.

We just offered to Rose for his number one idea.

On that, do you want Roger Johnson to go?

Oh yes, does he know it?

No, you've got to tell him.

He knows I want him to go, but he doesn't know the time.

We'll depart here at a quarter to, you know what I mean?

Five, I mean the other 12 at 12, 12.30.

Time to sign everything.

At quarter to, I just sat back and it pushes us just a little.

That's all right.

Check about if you can with that.

And maybe the best answer here, always in our indirect way, is to get to check on the panel at Oklahoma.

I think she really had her.

Well, Belcher got over her and got her down there and talked to her all the way down, of course, but nevertheless, she was not complaining.

But her scheduler is Coral, who had, I believe she had five events.

She left here at 7.30 and got back at 8 last night, you know, and just one, two, three, four, five, you know, that kind of thing.

And I just feel in some way we've got to get a hold of the scheduling so that she doesn't have...

I think we've done... Carl Smith is a great... We've got... She understands.

We can work well.

You say we... Why don't you just so that she doesn't go tell Pat that we're trying to run her schedule.

But she must get into the... You know, you're there of the one... You know, two events of that.

She had a press conference.

She went to a junior symphony.

She went to a Red Cross thing.

She went to a children's home, and she went to a, just, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, you know, all the things that you can imagine, if all I can tell you is put her through.

Lucy apparently just called over to say that if you're going to Florida this weekend, rather than Camp David, Mrs. Nixon would like to go.

If the president goes to Florida, Mrs. Nixon wants to go.

If he goes to Camp David, she does not want to go.

She wants to pack if she's supposed to go.

Uh, could you get Mrs. Nixon, please?

I thought I didn't drop her off here.

I won't have her go.

There's no sense in her leaving us.

That's not the reason.

Hi, Pat.

I just got a note here.

Do you, can you go to Florida?

Do you, did you want to go to Florida or not?

Oh, I see.

I see.

Oh, yeah.

No, no, no.

Oh, wait a minute.

We have that only for the purpose of confusing the press.

No, I'm not going to Camp David.

I'm going to Florida.

No, no.

Swap.

Okay.

Well, fine.

I'm going to leave at 2 o'clock and I'm going to invite Roger Johnson in to go.

So if you... Louise will be alone in case you want to...

Okay.

All right, fine.

Rosie has to divert it the other way around.

That makes sense.

She saw the schedule and can't get it.

She thought you were going to start the show.

And she has a schedule.

I know.

That's why it didn't make sense to her.

Okay.

Good.

Carl is really the good one.

That's the best.

I think he is.

He's got it.

Have her talk to my wife, Jamie.

Yeah.

And say, look, this is the way we protect her.

I'll talk to her, too.

You can just say, like, two of us talk with her.

Two of us.

Always the whole deal, you just, you do one event.

I mean, the one event deal that is the idea, and then go in and go out.

And make the point that your principal is your own horse, and that's it.

And it's not such a... Pat has got to know that she's a hell of a property.

I mean, Pat said that she had over 150 that went to the press conference.

They came from North Dakota.

Not at all, sir.

From all over the goddamn place.

The governor's wife had gone to meet with me.

Was she pleased with you at all?

She was very pleased.

She said she was going to do some more of the goddamn, right after the wedding, she'll do other things.

But the thing to do is to get good invitations for her, and then make good invitations, an easy date for her, and make it a hell of a thing.

Don't have her, and always have her on a case.

Always happened on the case of In-N-Out.

Never a case of a three-day tour.

I think that's wrong.

A three-day tour.

And one other thing that helped on this occasion.

She took the little plane and no press went with her.

So the local press got a chance to ask the questions.

And that's the way to play it.

The national press don't give her any play anyway when it starts.

The wires don't cover her there anymore.

The local wires don't.

The national press can't.

These goddamn shit-asses from over here.

But that's why the local water service, she prefers to go with the small plane.

And also, Carl Spitzer said, never allow the person that invites you to go on that plane.

The idea that the plane's too small, right?

They must go and meet her there.

I would never let Belcher go off the plane.

See?

Would you?

No, sir.

Because it's enough to do it for him.

Absolutely.

That's, you've got to set it that way that she just, well, then she has a pleasant thing, and she goes, but she does a hell of a job, you know, and I think that she could be an enormous asset, particularly in this.

And she would take a couple of the gals from her office south of the Midwest.

Ever hit the south of the Midwest?

Yeah.

That's a good group.

That's, that's, yeah, good.

No, no, we didn't.

We didn't.

Jesus Christ.

That's just to do that.

There's no press, I put a press here for the Percy meeting.

There's no press on this one.

See that?

Well, I'll be trying to stop this.

All right, let's start with the Percy meeting.

Is that clear?

Well, Percy's got 300 people from Illinois.

I just got to get these guys to get a hold of their schedules.

If you can't hold them, then I will.

We've got some, we've got 12 events on the system.

There's no press on the person there.

All he has is a photograph.

The only press photo is with Dr. Cruz, the POW guy.

I've got Andrew in on it.

Do you agree to it?

He said it out before.

I never agreed to it.

I don't even know what the hell the group is.

He must be talking out of his mind.

That's one where he raised it.

Set it up.

Expanded it.

He's crazy.

That's one I will concede total defeat of.

Well, we've just got to keep him the hell out of the schedule.

I hope you told him.

It is awful.

These are the worst God-man people you can imagine.

and labor, CIO, American Friends Service, that's left-wing fascist, church service, communist, that's communist, Congregational Christian, communist.

Goddamn Henry goes back to this.

This is the dumbest thing I ever heard.

Five Jewish organizations, and that's it.

Yep, I'm afraid so.

Okay, done.

That is, this is about as close to the broken list as you can find.

It really is, and it looks like it's going to be a similar batch.

Mission report found.

That's very, very established.

They're having me.

They're running around doing business.

Yeah, who?

He in the crack.

I'm meeting dudes.

I'm meeting guys.

It's a general business.

Not just you.

Supposedly.

I get some support, knowledge, help, coaching, advocacy, and just not any support.

I don't think I can get through that fast, that's all.

We'll have to, we'll move in on Dr. Bruce.

That's the only way you can handle a meeting with Max.

You just gotta squeeze a piece.

like some of those other people don't see, just like he did to you at the dinner.

He'll get a hold of you.

You see Bob?

He's caught me at two dinners now, and he's always at the other ones.

As I said, he took ten minutes in this one.

So he really has, he does it to all of us.

I mean, you know, any time, if I see Max Fisher in the distance, I turn around and run.

He doesn't tell anybody to give his arm home, which is probably why he made all that money.

And he's got a half-hour schedule for this.

He's got a half-hour schedule for this.

He's got a

They're here for, you know, all those meetings and stuff.

I see.

You should have said that.

The meeting with the Pan-Americans.

The lid is not on.

Not on.

He's never told the press the lid is on.

Never.

Yeah.

Because he's told me a couple times he wanted to do things, but I told the press the lid is on.

It's never on.

You know?

Just say, I don't know what he's going to do.

I can't tell you.

Also, we're going to have to set it this way so that I can plan my trips and then cancel them if I want to.

You see, I've been screwed four or five times.

I don't want to go.

I don't.

We'll just do it now.

They get two hours notice, and I don't.

They're absolutely not.

I really think we've been too much the slave of the press while they've made their interventions.

Their wives are gone.

They'll be able to feel it, sir.

You've got to, you've got to, now Roger is fine because you can cancel him.

You've got to watch that on, you know, if you invite John Mitchell or something, then you get him to hang up there.

You did it one time with Rogers in draft structure.

It's like this, even if you wanted Mitchell, the thing to do would be to go on down and then on the way, you'd call back, call up, say, see if John's not going to go on the plane.

uh incidentally yesterday that i want him to put humphrey and musking on the spot they've got deliverables and i want to know if they do not you know what i mean

And if you find somebody entering the apartment, stop breathing.

And build a box.

Your eyes should be open.

I'll be watching as I'll show you what to do.

The strangest thing I have to do.

I don't even remember his letters.

Actually, I'll shake his hand and tell him.

But she can't really think about it because, you know, he didn't write it.

She's going to have to deal with it.

Well, he says that's how it was written for her.

She wrote it for him and wanted to do that.

I don't know, but you know, he's doing the right thing for the Democrats as well.

Because if Biden would have a tough time against Howard, he might be.

Now, I would like to stay out of this.

He told me that if I could call Howard and tell him this, the money coming.

But I don't want to tell him it was the slimy son of a bitch.

Now, I'll tell you what you do.

Tell him, John, come.

I tell him all the time, tell him it was the son of a bitch and never say it again.

I just say that if now is this, that we...

You know, to the circumstances that we'll run out the yarder or the briscoe or somebody like that, or governor or senator, we don't know anything about.

But the general employee should be, Tower should run on his own.

The governor should run on his own.

I just want to get my point.

My point is that John Tower, what he should avoid at all costs, because we have this understanding with Barnes,

And it is to just give, it is to try and kick, to run a gubernatorial candidate.

See what I mean?

So that Tarr then drags me down and himself to the level of our gubernatorial candidate.

And Barnes, on his side, would do the same.

Actually, Tarr will have to endorse the very Republican candidate, whoever he is.

The other guy will endorse his solo.

But I have an understanding.

I have an understanding.

Connelly says there's an understanding.

Barnes

except for Scoop Jackson, who would not support him with that reference.

Now, that is the only one.

But, you know, it can't be trusted.

But I think he could trust, I think Conway is our man.

This is a man who's a good maneuverer.

Conway says that Barnes is a big power.

I think he's good looking.

He's, frankly, he's got a better man than Conway in a lot of ways.

I mean, he's a good man.

He really is.

But your point is that Conway's a hell of a good man.

That's why Conway's great.

Conway, Bob.

He's a total loyalist to our side.

He's fighting a hell of a lot of tough battles for us.

You know, he was really burned up with that damn boy thing.

You know, that was bad.

He lost the SSG.

He went down and did this.

I mean, it just makes you sick, this American business community.

I believe he had shot me.

Yeah, I suppose they have to do this to their shop owners.

You know, they're trying to make a killing on a cancellation.

and then try and hurt the opportunity to reverse it.

Well, and to do something for the country.

Yeah.

Why don't we tell the kids to do something for the country?

The laborers do something for the country.

And here are the American business leaders, knowing that all the profits are going to be sent to the bunch of God.

I don't think the profits are going to continue.

I don't think they're going to continue.

Okay.

Now, another way to do it, I think it would be nice to take the floor.

Be Christ.

I cannot see me.

But, you know, he's one that never asked for anything.

Why don't you just have to go down here and sit and see?

All right, let me give him a call and see if he'd like to.

Yeah, is that all right?

Yeah.

And then, as a matter of fact, he'd take his secretary and Senator Rose, Senator Rose, and then I'll let the changes be made by this secretary.

All right.

See if he'd like to do it.

All right.

Fair enough.

All right.

Nixon, Haldeman & Butterfield on White House scheduling and Press relations

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on May 14, 1971

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