Nixon, Haldeman & Woods on Public Opinion Polling and SALT Talks

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Oh, yeah.

He's a nice man, man.

The real charge here isn't anybody but the jury and John, because the jury, he'll keep them from getting so submerged.

He doesn't have the bureaucracy that they have.

And they're just like him.

They're all, you know, far-seeing guys.

He's going to get in and sign this, and everybody else, and everybody's going to do some things.

That's good.

But I get him in charge and I talk to him.

I think he was really quite impressed by that.

Well, not impressed, but he was surprised that I knew, you know, I had a feeling about, you know, making big breakthroughs in science and other things.

I said, Scott Adams, we're doing all these usual things on a Monday.

I want to break the lead for a lot of these goddamn things.

He says, well, what about my competition?

Well, I changed it on land.

He says, God, it's just out of his mind.

He loves land.

And again, that's why I pay attention to land.

When there can be a problem, because he wants all the left-wingers in.

And basically, not because they're left, but because he wants right people.

Oh, it's just the right people are all left.

It's just like one hand who was charged up and wanted to do things.

And the only other people who do are right people.

Yeah, Google is 54.33.

That's about where it was.

Well, it's up four points.

From our own.

Uh, Gallup.

That's Gallup.

That's from our own.

I thought we were almost 52 points.

Uh, last one's 50.31.

Oh, yeah, May 6th.

That was big.

Oh, May 6th.

The times are right.

After the demonstration, right?

Yeah.

And the one after the April press conference.

What's that?

May 1st and 2nd, 53-34.

52-53?

So this is 54, right?

54-33.

It's about the same amount of total.

The Gallup came in at 50, and we ended at 54.

Except we were down to 50 in our own.

Is this 1,000?

Yes, 1,060.

Yeah, on approval of Vietnam, it's 4843, which is about our total.

Well, the disapproval is up a little.

It was down to 38 last month.

But the approval is up two points also.

It's the undecided .

Sparrow Aitken, we haven't pulled since March.

In March, he was 42.39.

He's now 44.38.

So he's .

But March was his low spot.

He had been 49, 47, 49, 48.

Well, he isn't too bad.

He's still positive.

Has Gene heard or read about the press conference?

44%?

Yes.

56%?

No.

That's... Well, you participated in that, Bob.

Yeah.

Well, you know, a press conference is not something you have a kind of memory of.

But it was, for instance, the foreign policy report in March, the awareness was 36%.

The last press conference was 55, but we pulled right afterwards.

The positive reaction was 58, negative 31.

But in this press conference, President took a strong position supporting the Washington Police Master Reference Peace Demonstration.

The government approved or disapproved 71-19.

You asked a really good question, rather than me.

Not everybody said 7192.

Not the people who heard me.

No, not everybody.

We told them that in the press conference you did it, and we said, do you approve of that?

7192.

We were on the right way from there.

That contrast is about the same.

In May, we said where the police justified making the mass arrest is 7610.

So roughly the same.

In this press conference, the President came out against legalizing marijuana.

Do you agree or disagree?

Agree 73, disagree 22.

She's an excreta.

Nobody wants to legalize marijuana.

Well, that's very good of you, Bob.

You saw a couple of the columns from the Automatic.

Yeah.

I am delighted that they were elected.

Probably smokers.

Do you believe Communist China should be admitted to the United Nations?

Should 37, should not 44?

And that contrasts with Gallup, who says, yes, 45-38, and Harris, who says, yes, 48-27.

Which is basically the same as in March, before the thought.

In March, we had 38-48.

There's a lot of people, even Gallup, don't want to admit it.

See, my point is, it's the word communists.

But they all ask, they all say columns.

This is interesting.

Have you seen, heard, or read anything about the so-called salt talks that are being held between the United States and Russia?

That's all we get.

Yes, 29, no, 70.

Yep.

In 1970, we asked the same question.

Basically, we put in Vienna and Helsinki then to help.

And there it was, yes, 18, no, 79.

So it was 29, 29, 70.

Jesus Christ.

When you just call ourselves.

Then of the 29, we said, what are these talks?

The ones who said yes, they heard about them.

We said, what are these talks about as you understand it?

One of the 29 said strategic arms cementation, 1%.

13% said limiting arms or weapons.

So 14% or half of the 29 could identify them correctly.

The rest said arms or something else or I don't know.

What this really says is that only about 15% of the people know what the self-talk sector is.

That's what it says.

Then we said of the 29 who are aware of, do you believe these talks are making progress or aren't they?

33 yes, 38 no, and 29 no.

That didn't get through.

Now, have you seen, heard, or read about President Nixon's recent initiative regarding U.S.-Russian discussions of nuclear arms limitations?

Yes, 38.

No, 59.

So we did get some through other agencies.

So whatever's on the news, just think of how low it is, right?

How low the top is.

Then do you approve or disapprove of the Presence Initiative?

71% of the 38 approved.

Of the 38?

Yeah.

The others don't know about it.

This is interesting.

In your opinion, is it important for the U.S. to keep ahead of the Russians in military strength, or does it matter if we fall behind the Russians?

Good.

Seventy-five percent keep ahead.

Seventeen, it doesn't matter.

Eight, no opinion.

Good.

I'm glad you brought that up.

And this is another interesting one.

Which of these phrases best describes your overall attitude toward our armed services in general?

We had asked this question in 69.

Same question, very favorable, moderately favorable, half and half, moderately unfavorable, very unfavorable.

And now the favorables total 45, in 69 they total 68.

The half and half was 18 in 69, it's now 33.

And the unfavorables were 9 and now 14.

So it has to move very strong in the unfavorable, but it sure dropped a chunk of the favorable.

And the very favorable went from 34 to 21.

The moderately favorable, 34 to 24.

That's not a lot of questions to put in one poll.

We can do them.

Then, to which of these two should government policy give the highest priority, reducing unemployment or fighting inflation?

Fighting unemployment.

Unemployment, 31.

Inflation, 33.

Both, 30.

No opinion, 6.

We didn't ask them.

We didn't give them both as an option.

We just said, which of these two should they do?

And what it is, a third said inflation, a third said unemployment, and a third said both.

Even spot on.

My fellow, ask me and all the rest.

Don't overestimate what the people learn and hear.

I'll solve every thought and everything.

I don't know, I shouldn't talk about it, because half the other people in the staff, and everybody here, and Colson, and everybody knows about it.

So I felt great yesterday.

I was in this.

Great thing.

Everybody knows about this.

I did it with the maximum impact.

I was on television.

I had to take it off.

And everybody knew.

Huh?

I don't know, but that three minutes was every network.

That's right.

All that time.

That's right.

Wow, every, that's right.

So it was on the news.

That's right.

You know, we had to leave at 9 o'clock.

We were going to find ways to make an announcement at 9 o'clock.

Isn't that interesting?

So you know about it.

So we haven't gotten much lift out of that.

On the other hand, I would say that it shows that at least we're not dropping.

We're not dropping.

In fact, we're probably running a little bit better.

We've got the Trout Needs also.

The Trout Needs against Muskie is now 41-35-14.

This shows us the way at six points.

Our last phone poll, and that was in April, and then it was 41, 35, 14, exactly the same.

But our poll, our field poll, you know, personally, it was always 38, 40, and 12.

But phone polls are not considered as accurate.

They're not as accurate.

Aren't they more loaded for the rich people?

They go, that's an argument.

He does it himself.

I mean, they say they balance it, so it's not.

Against Kennedy, it's 41-39-12.

Kennedy runs stronger than Muskie.

What was the last time?

On the phone, it was 43-38-12.

45-34-12.

He's the leader.

Before, it was 44-36-14.

It's not really much change.

Don't you think, actually, that there's no statistical significance?

Don't you think something is not right on this story?

Don't you have a feeling, at least, that they've just got to not maintain it?

Hey, Jackson.

Jackson, go with it, because it's most just a nice way to go about it.

Really?

Will Jackson go on a trip with that old man?

Yes.

That is your brother's campaign.

Isn't that true, General?

Yeah.

I think he was a Catholic.

I don't know.

Take it.

Light it up.

Miss Woods, please.

I think the marijuana question and the demonstration question.

Check to see whether Jackson, whether he's a Catholic Protestant.

Henry Jackson.

Yeah.

Or do you know him?

I just said, well, just check, you know, if you've got one of those directories.

Yeah, anything on the night is all set.

Terrible.

Now, I think we should not take any more polls now, for a while.

Again, I think we have a tendency to sort of worry about the thing.

We've got it done.

Oh, we've got some questions.

Well, basically, this is going to get down to the bottom.

We've got a reason to take one.

Nixon, Haldeman & Woods on Public Opinion Polling and SALT Talks

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on June 7, 1971

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