Conversation 539-006

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It's a good chance to make some points that, you know, should be made.

In fact, I think Robs weren't jumping in and feeding a little bit of the deficit.

That's a very good job.

He's good.

Of course, he's getting a hell of a lot of credit.

I noticed all the weekly news magazines say he worked, which is good.

We put it out on the briefing book with us.

a reading book.

Did you put that up?

No, I didn't.

But you said he was involved in the discussion.

But time and news, if you read the map, read the map, it gives a great play and 98% on you.

You were cool, what you did.

Superb covers.

You know, I was afraid, we talked about it, that, well, I don't want to.

You were extremely lit.

But let me tell you how much rock she's doing.

And we're

I don't, I don't give a damn about individual credit.

The credit had to go to you.

No, no, no.

We went to find some Steve Rogers.

God damn it.

We made him keep that State Department line.

And he gets out.

We had to tell you, he heard us say he was the one that took the lead.

Everybody shut up.

All right.

One of those bastards that stayed steep south.

We're not kidding.

But I'm really impressed by the time in Uzbekistan.

Because that must reflect the command decision on their part that they weren't going to chop you up.

As I told you, well, but the normal tendency is to say, if you do anything, if the president does something right, preferably it's Rogers.

If it isn't Rogers, it had to be me, but it couldn't be you.

I mean, that's been their normal tendency, but this time it's all brilliant presidential coup, presidential initiative, awesome power of the presidency is what the Newsweek says.

Well, and you're on the cover of both magazines, which is the worst way at all.

That's right.

You with Chew and Lye on Newsweek, and you with Henry on Time.

Yes.

And... And that's a cartoon of Henry Padwin, Padwin above, you standing in bounds.

And it's, uh... No, it's a wrap, but it called Journey to Peking, and, uh... And Newsweek has a cover, I Shall Go to China.

Nixon, I shall go to China.

That's the implication.

I'm just skimming Newsweek, the ecstatic time, extraordinarily laudatory, and in the right framework, they don't pretend that this was just a quick gimmick.

You know, I was wondering whether that

and we went off to the restaurant.

The study did, yeah?

Yeah.

He said it was non-presentational.

No, wait a minute, was that a study or was that?

It was a study.

that it was non-presidential.

Well, Bush, forget it.

I think the politicians thought it like that.

They can find a clue about that you went out to dinner after the war.

They said we were at Gourmet dinner.

And they said the Gourmet dinner and the helicopter trip were not presidential.

Wasn't he expected to walk up to Burbank?

Oh, no, he said he should have disissued his statement.

Yeah, you're not correct.

I agree with Bush.

The Soviet ambassador to Indonesia made a public statement saying any attempt by the two countries to solve world problems is good for the world, and I welcome President Nixon's move.

That he wouldn't dare to make...

I'll send a note to Henry asking that he be tougher.

and a little more detail with the staff on the secrecy of D.P.

and Goddamn.

I don't think you should see them at all, Mr. President.

I do.

You don't just sit in the meeting.

You should just go in and I'm going to say that I started the other thing, the secrecy of this.

Without secrecy, it couldn't have happened.

Without secrecy, we'll not succeed.

This is a terribly important step in the whole country and so forth, and Henry will not read it.

Thank you very much.

That's all.

Because I had to work on it all night.

Oh, it's all in there.

Oh, now, Gordon, you've had these weeks of waiting and preparation, and...

I don't think you should preach the White House staff anyway, because they'll just get some quotes from you.

No, but I think it is good, sir.

But the president, yeah.

What time have you got it set?

1130.

Oh, I just, then I'll set it up back in my office for a minute.

I'll get it lined up.

Just a little, a couple little nuggets, and that's all.

The hell with it, it doesn't mean, if I speak it, I'll do this with the staff, too.

I'll get them a little quote, sir.

Absolutely.

Give Zach the rest of the story, too.

Yes, because you can have the beauty of that.

The rest of the story, they're going to get out, though.

No, no, they shouldn't get out.

They won't get out.

Yes, they will.

It'll leak, it should as well.

Okay.

It'll leak.

Oh, nobody can keep that story.

And that's just wrong.

I love the story.

It's good to laugh.

Okay.

Well, give me Kansas City City.

Just say it in this paper corresponding to that.

Do you like it?

You might use them, all that holographic, you haven't used that in anybody, you see.

And I could use the, well, I, you know, one could use the rest of the story as an example of how much he's on top of things.

Rather than something else, say that a reporter from Washington, say who it is, was on his way, an American reporter, actually really concerned about a leak, and he said, well, you know where he is, he's on the train.

What I am really impressed with is how they played the game.

Oh, I think the leaders were eating it up.

When Fulbright breaks its back to be cooperative, you know you've got something.

I'm glad we got this consultation with Rogers.

I don't want you to listen to the ones that count.

I'd like Rogers to consult with the Baskets.

The other thing is that I think with Fulbright

We hit very hard with that standard.

Please don't pass any resolutions.

Please don't tell us what to do.

Now, you notice I hit that.

My God, we're not going to have it.

But what Senes said to me when we walked out is he said, after Arthur talks to Mansfield, maybe the president could call him.

Because he feels very strongly we ought to act tough now on the amendment.

Good.

Let's have Roger's hand talk with Mansfield.

You see, what was the thing they referred to that we haven't met, still in Memphis, the other way around?

Well, that's, that's just, golly, that's, that's just a hater playing his little games.

He's playing games now.

He's a nice, he's a nice... Well, haters all with us.

He just, I know I'm lying to the others.

He said, he said he'll take the amendment, but then he's emasculating the text in such a way.

But, but the text could only, if we had the condom, and what are the few notes I have got it now, would be perfectly, perfectly all right.

The President, they support the President's efforts

to negotiate a settlement with Vietnam consistent with our objectives.

a settlement consistent with our objectives, including the following, the release of POWs, a ceasefire, an immediate ceasefire, and finally, a settlement which respects the right of each country in the area, the right of independence of each country in the area is free of foreign interference.

See, that's a devilish thing.

See, that covers it.

Free of outsiders' appearance, you have to say, because the Vietnamese don't consider themselves foreign.

I'll be right.

Take your time.

We'll go five minutes earlier.

Later, the staff take five minutes.

Right.

Boy, you know, it's hard to get used to this.

Kennedy spoke to me about the, he wants to have a plane again.

He's very excited to see that plane.

Well, it's a prestige.

All right, then you should talk to Rogers and the State Department should pay for it.

Yes, yes.

Just say, look, on this one last trip, let's let Kennedy have some sort of a match in the State Department.

You know what I mean?

They all spoil a lot.

Let me tell you this.

You know what they spoil?

We give them too much.

I don't think they believe, you know, that I traveled around the world as a former vice president and as a potential presidential candidate in 1967.

I went to four continents and I traveled with one other person.

on God and a private plane, and sometimes coach planes, because I couldn't get anything else.

I didn't hurt my prestige.

People were up to meet me.

They were impressed with it.

What does it matter to these people?

What do they think?

I don't know.

I'm still thinking McGill, the Grove, might be interesting.

I'm sure it was key, but only on the basis of going out and back, you know what I mean, for one day.

You know, I was noticing in the news summary that a rather curious twist where Gallup had Kennedy leading 41 to 40 and had Harris headed the other way.

Is that the gallops, the part that fall out of the gallops last full?

Yeah.

The last gallop didn't come out.

That's the one where you went down on approval all of a sudden.

And this is out of the same one.

And there's a...

It's a...

They also, they're lagging behind.

The facts are wrong.

Their questions are distorted.

They did a poll.

Gallup is really screwed up.

We've got to figure out some way to get out of it.

They did a poll for this Potomac Associates, which is...

Sort of a John Gardner type thing.

And in that, they come out with a lot of settlement of the war type stuff that they're obsessed with.

They really aren't.

God, it's just the organization.

Let me say this.

George, I guess, is obsessed with them.

Those are all irrelevant now.

They must have been well-realized.

But I think we have got to hold the view of Gallup now in the present tense.

He may be under the conceit, but regardless, people are powerful, and they have money to control.

Yeah.

So... Tony says it isn't very correct.

It's the same kind of thing.

My inclination has to hold tomorrow and Wednesday.

Good.

Which will let today's news and tonight's television set in.

Yes.

One more shot there.

So we've only had one night of TV.

On this thing, really, because Saturday and Sunday don't really count until it's at the end of time.

The news magazines are not really known.

They don't make that much difference in a poll.

It doesn't.

By Wednesday, it will.

It will affect you to the extent it does.

Tomorrow, things will be in the room.

But most people don't get into this thing until tomorrow.

I thought, too, it was just as well that they had the shit done, just to be a little bit honest, you know, where I said, look, on all these things that they're doing, I mean, just all of a sudden, I'm done.

You know, because, you know, a lot of them have been doing too goddamn much second-guessing, first of all, and there.

But they'll get back to it.

But you agree?

Yeah.

I mean, they, all this business of, why don't we do this, and haven't we thought of that, and what's the matter here, and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

I mean, goddammit, they gotta face up to the fact that life sometimes is tough, and sometimes we lose, and sometimes we win.

But by God, we're doing about the right thing.

Don't you think so?

Yep.

Yep, I did.

I guess I'm missing that kid.

I really did, because I wish the hell both of you had been there, each of you.

And they will vote me in or out of the vote.

Well, they're peeping with you.

They'll report it back.

Yeah, they will.

Because they both have a tendency to second-guess, don't they?

They're powerful.

They will be, especially.

You know, he goes along in this incredibly stupid approach that, you know, everything he thinks that you haven't thought of.

I mean, he seems to think nothing that wouldn't have occurred to you.

Hickel was the crime guy in that area.

Yeah.

The other thing I thought would be a good thing to do this weekend, to work on that going down to the House for the Appropriations Committee meeting.

I'm going to read that sometime.

Yeah, but I don't think we've got enough time for it.

I don't think it's this week.

Yeah, I think it is.

I think it's on Thursday.

I'm not going to read that.

Fine.

On the leaders, I mean, on the press tonight,

If you could put Mom on the list for tonight, what would you do?

I just think you ought to put him on.

He is a Bureau Chief, and he is our friend.

How about all that?

Well, Tom, you've got to take Wilson there.

It's all right.

It's not.

And he's really, we've got Mom going on some other stuff.

It's not.

No, no, no, no.

I didn't go there.

I sent people.

Dick Wilson's really senior and has much broader coverage.

Almost too far, I'm gonna...

It's just not there.

It's fine, it's to your benefit to have said that he sat in and only the three of you knew and that kind of thing.

That part's good.

But I sure wouldn't go beyond, you know, what he did, and making the point that he made the speech in Australia is good.

Well, Henry's just been great.

This guy's been good at this.

Well, he can afford it, but he doesn't hurt much this time.

He's on this cover of Time magazine, running the boat.

Yeah, but you're much better than he is.

I thought both covers would be all in.

I did too.

I listened to Henry.

I was prepared for it, which I was prepared for.

They're all right.

Yeah, but it's much better this way.

Both of them have you.

Henry is even on this week.

Yeah, he should have started last year.

No, he had to start at the beginning.

No, I didn't say that.