Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 510-007
Date: Wednesday, June 2, 1971 at 5:54 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob"); Sanchez, Manolo
Recording device: Oval Office
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/510-007

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] I guess this will change as the Nicaraguan Foreign Minister and Senator Meyer are not going to be standing by and not navigating this asshole.
[0:26] This has all changed, CSI.
[0:26] Well, anyway.
[0:26] Is that Henry's line?
[0:27] Yeah, that's good.
[0:27] Yeah, that's not right.
[0:28] The other end of that line.
[0:29] Are they coming at 7.30 also?
[0:41] No, sir.
[0:42] They arrived at 8.
[0:43] Okay.
[0:44] Mrs. Somoza and the Sakasis.
[0:44] That's right.
[0:47] They'll be brought up.
[0:48] We'll receive that once you and President Somoza join us.
[0:59] We were still fighting a couple days ago, earlier in the day.
[1:22] Oh, is that right?
[1:22] Yeah.
[1:22] But they wanted us to have an arrival.
[1:24] Now, we never did get to an arrival, but we were escalating rapidly, and we could have gotten to one.
[1:28] I had an entering program, fine.
[1:40] He was in full agreement with me, you know, just do the 7.30 now.
[1:50] We weren't going to do anything.
[1:51] He said you had to, and he bought the 7.30, but then taking his people, I guess, pressure from state or somebody.
[1:53] It's a basic process, because he's trying to record everything.
[1:54] And you give him the, now adding the wives to the dinner, and he said that was more of an occasion.
[2:09] I didn't know we had a separate... batch of stuff, but I think... part of that.
[2:36] Next to the roof, one of the people you got, they're going to have 30 days of lunch time.
[2:49] Oh, you got it.
[3:02] John Hughes was going to give me a list of people who were in the class who were there and outstanding.
[3:23] I guess he definitely didn't see it.
[3:24] What he was going to give me was the list of people that there aren't a hell of a lot of people.
[3:27] One of them was my answer to the conversation.
[3:48] All these matters that we just had.
[4:15] I was going to ask you, would you tell Riley to go in and take somebody else so that I can get out in 15 minutes' time?
[4:18] Talk about 620.
[4:34] Talk about 620 so we might want to have a spot like that.
[4:39] Okay, essentially.
[4:39] Uh, what will a scout for a fire engine prove?
[4:40] I was trying to suggest one thing that is not even any other to be borne in mind.
[4:42] I realize that it's hard to get out of Japan.
[4:46] They got a young group, you know, like that, and so when you put them in a room together, they all wanted their own hotel.
[5:02] Oh, yeah.
[5:03] I meant that they applaud and so forth and so on.
[5:05] They're enthusiastic.
[5:05] And it's terribly hard.
[5:07] You know, any of our crowd is, you know, like when our chief of state comes and applauds us.
[5:09] All right.
[5:28] That's right.
[5:30] You don't, you know, well, people just say, you know, how about, you know, we thank the God and have a speech on the door and nothing comes out.
[5:33] I just feel that we're trying to show, if we were trying to show enthusiasm for you, we didn't show it a whole lot out there today.
[5:35] I mean, they were nice.
[5:36] They were pleasant.
[5:36] So, which is good to me.
[5:37] Yeah.
[5:37] All right.
[5:37] America's a good place.
[5:38] It's fine.
[5:38] It's fine.
[5:39] I know I can
[5:41] their television picture.
[5:45] But it's the old shot of the portico in the background, then the boys.
[6:03] The old story of like the time we had the astronauts bob out of tubes.
[6:04] Yeah.
[6:05] The thing in the back, it's a question of do you want a great picture or do you want a feeling of excitement, of enthusiasm, you know?
[6:08] But it's my general feelings with the group that we really want them.
[6:10] I think it's an awful good picture of just you with the kids, because the expressions on their faces and the tremendous solace of the cameras, and everyone on the camera.
[6:32] It's pretty much that idea of just
[6:37] He feels very strongly that my showing's a little out of range.
[6:59] He said, you know, I did what I might have said.
[7:00] And he said, you know, I got bad at one thing.
[7:01] And I said, now look, there's a lot of other subjects in action situations other than what a 12,000-rattling bunch of demonstrators did when they came here to Washington.
[7:04] Let's get on with the next subject.
[7:05] Kennedy used to do that, son.
[7:06] He used to try to depress.
[7:21] He'd say, I mean, there's nothing, you know, I'm accomplishing anything by pulling the hammer away.
[7:27] That or something, it doesn't make any sense.
[7:28] I mean, he sort of...
[7:29] I don't know if he could.
[7:29] He'd get away with it.
[7:30] Well, you'd get away with it with the people.
[7:31] The people are with you.
[7:32] You can't get depressed all the time.
[7:32] What the hell do you care?
[7:33] They like it when you do it.
[7:33] Sometimes.
[7:35] There's a day he did anyway, but...
[7:56] It probably would be effective.
[7:57] Well...
[7:57] I wonder...
[7:57] I asked Connor to raise the subject with me himself.
[7:58] I thought you said it was Charles that raised it this morning.
[8:00] Yeah, I did.
[8:00] It wasn't this morning.
[8:02] Always having the customization to pick up all this stuff.
[8:25] It's a hell of a thing.
[8:25] I told, uh, I told, uh, uh, Colin, bring it in.
[8:26] I'll give him a certificate or something.
[8:27] Okay.
[8:27] I think that's a good thing to do.
[8:28] So that's constantly good.
[8:28] Let's get some stuff here.
[8:29] I don't know.
[8:29] Yeah.
[8:29] That's what started up a little bit.
[8:31] You know, I think I should just start my own opinion charge.
[8:50] You know, see, we're putting a man down over here in Chappie.
[8:52] And he's there in the White House, and we're going to take him to National, and other agencies, and so forth.
[8:54] We'll reward people.
[8:54] And this time, the other day, it hasn't worked.
[8:55] Nothing has worked out for this time.
[8:56] Part of the reason is the government's been going home.
[8:57] They've got corrections.
[8:57] You've got to go to them.
[8:58] You've got to do like Jay Edgar used to do, you know, don't arrest a son of a bitch till I get there.
[9:05] And he'd walk up to the door and bang on the door.
[9:08] And LaGuardia used to jump in the fire wagon and run out to the fire.
[9:17] People probably used to be really worried about him.
[9:19] You can't do that kind of thing.
[9:22] Your people can't.
[9:24] You could do something, but I wonder if you're quite sure if you're looking at this in general.
[9:28] Yeah, John says, no, no, he says, no, he may not think that.
[9:54] He just, I just, just, just a little, just a little, some fire.
[9:57] First Congress, there is heavy enough.
[9:58] Because I think he showed some energy.
[10:05] He caught balloons and vandals.
[10:06] Those were the words.
[10:06] Maybe they were said too coolly.
[10:08] You said those pretty firmly.
[10:12] Yeah.
[10:12] You said those, so you were looking right into the camera.
[10:17] So I recall you got that.
[10:18] We're taking that down.
[10:20] And now to this fundamental point about this whole graph of what we do.
[10:28] Those goddamn white curtains back there, can they do that, please?
[10:51] Sure.
[10:51] Or better still, take them off.
[10:52] Reboot them for a second.
[10:53] We don't need them.
[10:53] Okay.
[10:53] We'll tie them.
[10:55] We may have to put them down.
[10:55] I don't know.
[10:56] Take the time back.
[10:56] They've just been sticking them back.
[10:57] Yeah.
[10:57] It's messy.
[10:58] The real question is, you know, we have always, I mean, it really goes back to the steps from that whole period of what it is to make it.
[11:21] They're very sensitive about the fact that I'm never supposed to show any emotion, you know, anger and that sort of thing.
[11:34] I'm not sure that's correct.
[11:35] I'm not sure, but if somebody said, I hope a lot of people like the old links, what's it called?
[11:39] They're not so sure that they may be as impressed with this whole business of coolness and so forth.
[11:58] Now, you've got Christ there, of course, which is totally that.
[11:59] You've got to be like God.
[12:00] In other words, you're cool, tempered, and this and that.
[12:02] I'm not so sure.
[12:02] I'm not so sure.
[12:03] I think it's a very fine line, and there is a need, if you're going to make an issue,
[12:04] Now then, you've got to hit something.
[12:19] Conley said he got an enormously behavioral reaction when he said immunity.
[12:22] Because he cracked.
[12:23] He stood up for America.
[12:23] He kicked people out of the water.
[12:24] Conley got surprised.
[12:24] Conley got surprised.
[12:25] That's what helped Agnew.
[12:26] At the time that he did it, he's not a word now.
[12:27] He's become peevish now.
[12:27] He's whining.
[12:28] He's fighting, and he comes back to it every time.
[12:42] How about that?
[12:43] He's like, he issues a lot of strength.
[12:50] Well, it's not getting mad at your kids or your employees or anything else.
[12:52] It's good to do, but you've got to do it on purpose, when it serves your purpose, not just all the time.
[12:54] Having this was his goal.
[12:54] That's all I should have understood.
[13:06] Maybe that wasn't the one to use it on, to be frank, but you may not think it.
[13:33] What I meant is, what I meant is such a,
[13:36] Nothing could be that kind of thing.
[13:46] Oh, yeah.
[13:46] They were waiting on that.
[13:50] I'm not going to waste that on an office press conference.
[13:53] You know, you can blow it out, knock the gas all the way into the... See, I would never wait to set it on the surface.
[14:16] I would never, I would never give them the chance to pick something up.
[14:17] Yeah, because then they, then they fight for it all.
[14:18] Then they check.
[14:19] The way they describe it would be bad.
[14:19] You want to do it when people see you do it.
[14:20] Absolutely.
[14:21] My show's finished.
[14:21] It's pretty brief about that.
[14:22] Just to give you a very, very brief update on any domestic gas.
[14:24] I just want a little update on the stuff.
[14:49] Yeah, I want to keep my writing on the desk.
[14:50] I have dumb things for next week.
[14:51] Last week, my honor, the last one that came out of the first, but I think now it's reverted to the control of this California thing.
[15:11] It's going to be hard.
[15:11] I think he's right about the...
[15:12] I'm not sure he's right about the honorary champion.
[15:13] I'm not sure it means all that much.
[15:13] He may be having a hang-up there.
[15:14] I mean, the honorary champion means a goddamn thing.
[15:16] Well, except that it does it to Reagan, but it does, it gives his people a handle, and that's what Bob's concerned about.
[15:34] There's some reason for concern there.
[15:37] Mitchell cares a lot.
[15:37] You're going to have Bob Walker running around.
[15:38] I see.
[15:38] He's not going to run the campaign.
[15:39] I don't know why Mitchell can't just talk to Reagan, though, and just spell that out.
[15:41] Why do they say he's not going to be out?
[15:41] Pretty good setup, then, to do this, don't you think?
[15:43] They continue to go so bad.
[15:53] I mean, they did look particularly bad last night.
[16:00] They had granules and sobs.
[16:00] They were mean.
[16:01] They were.
[16:01] Most of us don't have breathing, you see.
[16:02] Gratitude.
[16:02] I mean, she's got to be very careful.
[16:03] I hope we see her.
[16:03] I mean, just touch her.
[16:04] Last night we were pretty much on that issue.
[16:26] I don't see how that could have come out very strongly.
[16:27] I get the advantage of repetition with a very strong point, strongly made.
[16:29] I don't see how that could have made any questions or any doubt.
[16:30] But the O.H.
[16:30] readers, they say, well, Halloween is a cool weekend, right?
[16:34] Now listen to the fact Bob, a lot of them go back basically, not to the campaign.
[16:53] It wasn't the campaign, but to that one miserable production job.
[16:55] Just one.
[16:55] It's not the campaign.
[16:56] Nobody ever raised any questions.
[16:58] I personally had no reason to.
[16:59] My teachers at the campaign were highly responsible.
[17:00] They weren't arguing.
[17:00] You know what I mean.
[17:01] None of them started fighting.
[17:02] But that was just one thing.
[17:02] I remember we had Mr. That's what it was.
[17:03] So he was, I guess, but he never told us.
[17:10] Yeah, he told Bill, but he also said there wasn't, you know, he wasn't asked.
[17:15] That he was told to put it on.
[17:21] He pointed out the problems of all the billions.
[17:22] He was told to try and solve them.
[17:24] So he did.
[17:25] He tried to solve them.
[17:25] I don't know how that is.
[17:26] cool stuff and so forth.
[17:41] Whether really you're getting, whether you get across a strong enough image, that's what we're talking about.
[17:47] That's what the cool tones mean.
[17:47] The reason T is the cool medium, you should be cool generally.
[17:49] You can use some iPhones, you know.
[17:49] That might be one.
[17:51] I don't think you want to come on, you know, come charging in there all the time.
[17:53] First question, banging away.
[17:58] That ain't the coolest, but then a little righteous indignation or something like that on a particular point where there's a reason for it.
[18:15] It might be sort of a spice that picks it up, changes the tone a little bit, builds the conflict.
[18:20] If you argue that the medium, that the device is a good one because of the conflict, then that conflict ought to be sharpened.
[18:29] There should be a little ebb and flow in the conflict.
[18:31] There should be the touch of humor, and then there should be the touch of sharpness.
[18:39] So they got, so they've seen how they've changed.
[18:43] So it's a little fight for range, yeah.
[18:43] But there's some fight there.
[18:44] They ought to feel good about it.
[18:45] It should be bitterness.
[18:46] It should be...
[18:47] querulousness or anything like that, but it should be just, uh...
[19:00] Naturally, you can't do it, but why should you feel like doing it?
[19:08] Well, it would have been easy to be natural on that one last night.
[19:10] Really?
[19:10] Oh, well, not really.
[19:10] I get under complete control in those kind of cases, and I just... You'd have to say that.
[19:12] You'd have to be under control.
[19:13] You couldn't let it irritate you.
[19:14] You couldn't do it if you were mad.
[19:18] But you'd have to do it where it would be natural to be.
[19:27] I've had money for a case to be able to pay them off.
[19:29] It's totally unfair, totally, where they say that you have taken on pretty...
[19:32] I guess you've done it cool.
[19:34] You've done it as a child as far as you're concerned.
[19:38] The elections appreciate it.
[19:57] Maybe Anderson.
[19:58] Maybe that guy out there.
[19:58] He'll come in every day.
[19:59] And the facts are, you don't know whether he'd like to see a knockoff.
[20:04] He doesn't like to see somebody come up.
[20:05] Yeah.
[20:05] Rockets.
[20:05] Rockets.
[20:05] Rockets.
[20:05] Rockets.
[20:05] Rockets.
[20:06] Rockets.
[20:06] Rockets.
[20:06] Rockets.
[20:06] Rockets.
[20:06] Rockets.
[20:07] They've got to remember four days.
[20:21] Drugs, they're not going to forget anyway.
[20:23] See, because you'll state the premise there.
[20:27] Even if they didn't hear you do it.
[20:28] Right.
[20:28] You're going to say it.
[20:28] You'll say, President Nixon said he is opposed to legalizing marijuana.
[20:30] Do you agree or disagree?
[20:30] Okay.
[20:30] And that's a drug.
[20:31] On the other hand, you won't quite state the premise.
[20:33] No, but you, yeah.
[20:33] I think what they're going to remember is that in the calls you had, most everybody mentioned that.
[20:35] Yeah.
[20:37] In the Christian survey, only half or someone less than half will have seen the press conference.
[20:55] Half the people you're talking to won't have seen it anyway.
[21:00] We get the answer from everybody, not just the people who saw the press conference.
[21:01] We can separate it and look at it and see whether it made a difference.
[21:03] Yeah.
[21:03] It's been really worth holding this week.
[21:04] What do you think?
[21:04] We just spent all the money we needed.
[21:06] I've got all this time on the verge of a poll.
[21:20] When the hell are we going to have a show really until after we have a major foreign policy breakthrough problem?
[21:25] I'd like to see.
[21:25] I'd like to poll before I go to the wedding.
[21:26] I'd like to see what the wedding does.
[21:28] You do?
[21:28] Yeah.
[21:28] I don't know why, because we can't stage another one.
[21:32] You know, one builds on the other.
[21:33] All right.
[21:33] I'd push for more polls.
[21:34] I used to.
[21:35] push or not pulling.
[21:48] It's been good to pull intensively as we have.
[21:52] We've learned a lot on how to use them.
[21:54] And what's to save the money?
[21:55] I don't know.
[21:55] And we don't need to save the money.
[21:57] I don't see any reason to save the money.
[21:59] I just, when you think, you know, we can run half a dozen polls with a cost over one minute spot on television.
[22:04] The information is there.
[22:05] All right, polls are worth a lot more to us.
[22:17] And we get other questions in.
[22:18] We get our, you know, get the China question, the Uber question, the BP question.
[22:19] There's other things we... Well, I think it's worth, like the marijuana question, I think it's worth getting, yeah.
[22:23] All right, let it go.
[22:43] You may get a lot more than I think, and the kids should avoid us missing out.
[23:06] You know, don't think shit about us.
[23:07] Really, I don't want to use you.
[23:08] They don't think you did much.
[23:08] Why?
[23:08] Because they know us better.
[23:09] They think the only deterrent you have is moving on.
[23:10] They know it slows them down.
[23:11] It's a real time to dinner.
[23:11] I don't think a lot of fun.
[23:13] Thank God there's no more of these.
[23:36] It's so hard to do that.
[23:37] It's impossible.
[23:37] I mean, there's some fucking shit out of me.
[23:38] I'm forced to do it.
[23:38] Oh, man.
[23:39] I hope this man's around to be a little clear.
[23:40] A little brief updating about just around the basement.
[23:41] You need to take her to get together.
[23:56] Now, this is only the White House question, or this time.
[24:04] So, what additional questions?
[24:05] This is one of them.
[24:05] This.
[24:05] The one I gave to Kennedy is an old lady's action.
[24:08] Diamonds.
[24:08] She took them out.
[24:10] They'll give you that in the morning.
[24:29] Okay.
[24:29] All right, I got it.
[24:30] Yes, sir.
[24:30] Ah, John, that's so good.
[24:36] I'll tell you what, this fellow, John, was in the morning.
[24:42] I called him to be the...
[24:45] I guess Kuro's gonna be there because I'm gonna call on him to run the meeting so that I don't have to do it.
[24:59] I'm gonna just say that I'm serious and be there to talk about it.
[25:00] Wait, because he said he did not do this, I'm using you all the time.
[25:01] I didn't get that you couldn't step back and watch what's playing and even sing in the things where he didn't.
[25:04] It's as if you're running away from him.
[25:04] You can't see where it's going, so please, please hold free.
[25:06] You shouldn't be without me.
[25:06] You shouldn't stress about me.
[25:07] responsibility you can be more effective than if you have to run it you can't i know you can't if you sit back you can watch and see where