Nixon, Haldeman & Kissinger on People's Republic of China and Media coverage

1:04:01It's a good chance to make some points that, you know, should be made.
1:04:09In fact, I think Robs weren't jumping in and feeding a little bit of the deficit.
1:05:10That's a very good job.
1:05:16He's good.
1:05:18Of course, he's getting a hell of a lot of credit.
1:05:21I noticed all the weekly news magazines say he worked, which is good.
1:05:26We put it out on the briefing book with us.
1:05:30a reading book.
1:05:31Did you put that up?
1:05:32No, I didn't.
1:05:33But you said he was involved in the discussion.
1:05:37But time and news, if you read the map, read the map, it gives a great play and 98% on you.
1:05:45You were cool, what you did.
1:05:48Superb covers.
1:05:49You know, I was afraid, we talked about it, that, well, I don't want to.
1:05:54You were extremely lit.
1:05:55But let me tell you how much rock she's doing.
1:05:57And we're
1:06:02I don't, I don't give a damn about individual credit.
1:06:05The credit had to go to you.
1:06:06No, no, no.
1:06:06We went to find some Steve Rogers.
1:06:07God damn it.
1:06:08We made him keep that State Department line.
1:06:12And he gets out.
1:06:13We had to tell you, he heard us say he was the one that took the lead.
1:06:18Everybody shut up.
1:06:19All right.
1:06:19One of those bastards that stayed steep south.
1:06:22We're not kidding.
1:06:24But I'm really impressed by the time in Uzbekistan.
1:06:28Because that must reflect the command decision on their part that they weren't going to chop you up.
1:06:34As 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.
1:06:44If it isn't Rogers, it had to be me, but it couldn't be you.
1:06:48I 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.
1:06:59Well, and you're on the cover of both magazines, which is the worst way at all.
1:07:03That's right.
1:07:03You with Chew and Lye on Newsweek, and you with Henry on Time.
1:07:08Yes.
1:07:09And... And that's a cartoon of Henry Padwin, Padwin above, you standing in bounds.
1:07:15And 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.
1:07:28Nixon, I shall go to China.
1:07:30That's the implication.
1:07:35I'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.
1:07:47You know, I was wondering whether that
1:08:00and we went off to the restaurant.
1:08:02The study did, yeah?
1:08:03Yeah.
1:08:03He said it was non-presentational.
1:08:05No, wait a minute, was that a study or was that?
1:08:07It was a study.
1:08:11that it was non-presidential.
1:08:13Well, Bush, forget it.
1:08:14I think the politicians thought it like that.
1:08:16They can find a clue about that you went out to dinner after the war.
1:08:20They said we were at Gourmet dinner.
1:08:22And they said the Gourmet dinner and the helicopter trip were not presidential.
1:08:26Wasn't he expected to walk up to Burbank?
1:08:29Oh, no, he said he should have disissued his statement.
1:08:33Yeah, you're not correct.
1:08:36I agree with Bush.
1:08:38The 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.
1:08:50That he wouldn't dare to make...
1:08:52I'll send a note to Henry asking that he be tougher.
1:09:02and a little more detail with the staff on the secrecy of D.P.
1:09:07and Goddamn.
1:09:07I don't think you should see them at all, Mr. President.
1:09:10I do.
1:09:10You don't just sit in the meeting.
1:09:11You should just go in and I'm going to say that I started the other thing, the secrecy of this.
1:09:17Without secrecy, it couldn't have happened.
1:09:19Without secrecy, we'll not succeed.
1:09:22This is a terribly important step in the whole country and so forth, and Henry will not read it.
1:09:32Thank you very much.
1:09:33That's all.
1:09:34That's all.
1:09:35Because I had to work on it all night.
1:09:38Oh, it's all in there.
1:09:41Oh, now, Gordon, you've had these weeks of waiting and preparation, and...
1:09:49I don't think you should preach the White House staff anyway, because they'll just get some quotes from you.
1:09:54No, but I think it is good, sir.
1:09:56But the president, yeah.
1:09:57What time have you got it set?
1:09:581130.
1:09:58Oh, I just, then I'll set it up back in my office for a minute.
1:10:04I'll get it lined up.
1:10:04Just a little, a couple little nuggets, and that's all.
1:10:10The hell with it, it doesn't mean, if I speak it, I'll do this with the staff, too.
1:10:15I'll get them a little quote, sir.
1:10:16Absolutely.
1:10:17Give Zach the rest of the story, too.
1:10:19Yes, because you can have the beauty of that.
1:10:22The rest of the story, they're going to get out, though.
1:10:24No, no, they shouldn't get out.
1:10:25They won't get out.
1:10:26They won't get out.
1:10:28Yes, they will.
1:10:29It'll leak, it should as well.
1:10:30Okay.
1:10:30It'll leak.
1:10:31Oh, nobody can keep that story.
1:10:33And that's just wrong.
1:10:35I love the story.
1:10:35It's good to laugh.
1:10:36Okay.
1:10:36Well, give me Kansas City City.
1:10:42Just say it in this paper corresponding to that.
1:10:44Do you like it?
1:10:46You might use them, all that holographic, you haven't used that in anybody, you see.
1:10:51And 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.
1:10:59Rather 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.
1:11:14What I am really impressed with is how they played the game.
1:11:22Oh, I think the leaders were eating it up.
1:11:30When Fulbright breaks its back to be cooperative, you know you've got something.
1:11:37I'm glad we got this consultation with Rogers.
1:11:41I don't want you to listen to the ones that count.
1:11:45I'd like Rogers to consult with the Baskets.
1:11:51The other thing is that I think with Fulbright
1:12:02We hit very hard with that standard.
1:12:04Please don't pass any resolutions.
1:12:06Please don't tell us what to do.
1:12:07Now, you notice I hit that.
1:12:09My God, we're not going to have it.
1:12:12But what Senes said to me when we walked out is he said, after Arthur talks to Mansfield, maybe the president could call him.
1:12:19Because he feels very strongly we ought to act tough now on the amendment.
1:12:25Good.
1:12:25Let's have Roger's hand talk with Mansfield.
1:12:28You see, what was the thing they referred to that we haven't met, still in Memphis, the other way around?
1:12:32Well, that's, that's just, golly, that's, that's just a hater playing his little games.
1:12:37He's playing games now.
1:12:38He's a nice, he's a nice... Well, haters all with us.
1:12:40He just, I know I'm lying to the others.
1:12:42He said, he said he'll take the amendment, but then he's emasculating the text in such a way.
1:12:47But, 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.
1:12:55The President, they support the President's efforts
1:12:59to negotiate a settlement with Vietnam consistent with our objectives.
1:13:04a 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.
1:13:32See, that's a devilish thing.
1:13:34See, that covers it.
1:13:35Free of outsiders' appearance, you have to say, because the Vietnamese don't consider themselves foreign.
1:13:40I'll be right.
1:13:41Take your time.
1:13:42We'll go five minutes earlier.
1:13:48Later, the staff take five minutes.
1:13:49Right.
1:13:49Boy, you know, it's hard to get used to this.
1:13:59Kennedy spoke to me about the, he wants to have a plane again.
1:14:03He's very excited to see that plane.
1:14:05Well, it's a prestige.
1:14:06All right, then you should talk to Rogers and the State Department should pay for it.
1:14:12Yes, yes.
1:14:13Just say, look, on this one last trip, let's let Kennedy have some sort of a match in the State Department.
1:14:22You know what I mean?
1:14:23They all spoil a lot.
1:14:24Let me tell you this.
1:14:25You know what they spoil?
1:14:26We give them too much.
1:14:30I 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.
1:14:41I went to four continents and I traveled with one other person.
1:14:47on God and a private plane, and sometimes coach planes, because I couldn't get anything else.
1:14:52I didn't hurt my prestige.
1:14:54People were up to meet me.
1:14:56They were impressed with it.
1:14:58What does it matter to these people?
1:15:00What do they think?
1:15:08I don't know.
1:15:09I don't know.
1:15:15I'm still thinking McGill, the Grove, might be interesting.
1:15:19I'm sure it was key, but only on the basis of going out and back, you know what I mean, for one day.
1:15:30You 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.
1:15:44Is that the gallops, the part that fall out of the gallops last full?
1:15:53Yeah.
1:15:53The last gallop didn't come out.
1:15:56That's the one where you went down on approval all of a sudden.
1:16:02And this is out of the same one.
1:16:12And there's a...
1:16:13It's a...
1:16:15They also, they're lagging behind.
1:16:27The facts are wrong.
1:16:28Their questions are distorted.
1:16:30They did a poll.
1:16:31Gallup is really screwed up.
1:16:33We've got to figure out some way to get out of it.
1:16:38They did a poll for this Potomac Associates, which is...
1:16:43Sort of a John Gardner type thing.
1:16:48And in that, they come out with a lot of settlement of the war type stuff that they're obsessed with.
1:16:58They really aren't.
1:16:58God, it's just the organization.
1:17:01Let me say this.
1:17:02George, I guess, is obsessed with them.
1:17:04Those are all irrelevant now.
1:17:06They must have been well-realized.
1:17:09But I think we have got to hold the view of Gallup now in the present tense.
1:17:14He may be under the conceit, but regardless, people are powerful, and they have money to control.
1:17:21Yeah.
1:17:21So... Tony says it isn't very correct.
1:17:22It's the same kind of thing.
1:17:23My inclination has to hold tomorrow and Wednesday.
1:17:28Good.
1:17:29Which will let today's news and tonight's television set in.
1:17:33Yes.
1:17:33Yes.
1:17:34One more shot there.
1:17:34So we've only had one night of TV.
1:17:37On this thing, really, because Saturday and Sunday don't really count until it's at the end of time.
1:17:41The news magazines are not really known.
1:17:44They don't make that much difference in a poll.
1:17:48It doesn't.
1:17:49By Wednesday, it will.
1:17:50It will affect you to the extent it does.
1:17:52Tomorrow, things will be in the room.
1:17:54But most people don't get into this thing until tomorrow.
1:17:58I 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.
1:18:09You know, because, you know, a lot of them have been doing too goddamn much second-guessing, first of all, and there.
1:18:14But they'll get back to it.
1:18:16But you agree?
1:18:16Yeah.
1:18:17I 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.
1:18:25I mean, goddammit, they gotta face up to the fact that life sometimes is tough, and sometimes we lose, and sometimes we win.
1:18:31But by God, we're doing about the right thing.
1:18:35Don't you think so?
1:18:36Yep.
1:18:36Yep, I did.
1:18:36I guess I'm missing that kid.
1:18:50I really did, because I wish the hell both of you had been there, each of you.
1:18:55And they will vote me in or out of the vote.
1:18:59Well, they're peeping with you.
1:19:00They'll report it back.
1:19:01Yeah, they will.
1:19:02Because they both have a tendency to second-guess, don't they?
1:19:07They're powerful.
1:19:08They will be, especially.
1:19:08You know, he goes along in this incredibly stupid approach that, you know, everything he thinks that you haven't thought of.
1:19:16I mean, he seems to think nothing that wouldn't have occurred to you.
1:19:20Hickel was the crime guy in that area.
1:19:22Yeah.
1:19:28The 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.
1:19:39I'm going to read that sometime.
1:19:41Yeah, but I don't think we've got enough time for it.
1:19:46I don't think it's this week.
1:19:48Yeah, I think it is.
1:19:50I think it's on Thursday.
1:19:52I'm not going to read that.
1:19:53Fine.
1:19:53On the leaders, I mean, on the press tonight,
1:19:57If you could put Mom on the list for tonight, what would you do?
1:19:59I just think you ought to put him on.
1:20:03He is a Bureau Chief, and he is our friend.
1:20:05How about all that?
1:20:06Well, Tom, you've got to take Wilson there.
1:20:08It's all right.
1:20:11It's not.
1:20:12And he's really, we've got Mom going on some other stuff.
1:20:14It's not.
1:20:15No, no, no, no.
1:20:16I didn't go there.
1:20:17I sent people.
1:20:23Dick Wilson's really senior and has much broader coverage.
1:20:29Almost too far, I'm gonna...
1:20:34It's just not there.
1:20:37It'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.
1:20:48That part's good.
1:20:50But I sure wouldn't go beyond, you know, what he did, and making the point that he made the speech in Australia is good.
1:20:55Well, Henry's just been great.
1:20:58This guy's been good at this.
1:21:00Well, he can afford it, but he doesn't hurt much this time.
1:21:05He's on this cover of Time magazine, running the boat.
1:21:10Yeah, but you're much better than he is.
1:21:12I thought both covers would be all in.
1:21:15I did too.
1:21:16I listened to Henry.
1:21:17I was prepared for it, which I was prepared for.
1:21:18They're all right.
1:21:19Yeah, but it's much better this way.
1:21:24Both of them have you.
1:21:25Henry is even on this week.
1:21:59Yeah, he should have started last year.
1:22:06No, he had to start at the beginning.
1:22:12No, I didn't say that.

Nixon, Haldeman & Kissinger on People's Republic of China and Media coverage

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Also recorded on July 19, 1971

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