Conversation 585-007

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No, I think it would be appropriate.

Yeah, well, he's maybe not too old.

You've got to think of him, he's the same age as her.

Yeah, one other incidentally, the name came up before me by somebody, by Duffy Swim, who's in here today, who's sitting on the right of a...

whoever's right, right, right, he, uh, he's, he's, he said there's a, oh, it's going to be the next president, the, the president from, from Texas, some sort of a Polish name.

Jaworski.

Yeah.

Oh.

That's, uh, that's right.

That's good.

Boy, I hope you can sell a little bit.

I hope you can tell her to see Jay.

He understands we called him.

He's just got to go.

Well, and the other one, man.

I just want to say, I had an activity on him.

It's nothing like that.

We've got no idea as to why you're here.

We've got to do something.

I'm just saying, I know we want to brush, but so that we have a wrong call, but I just feel that, you know, you see what I mean?

It's just starting to feel like what the hell with the court meeting and the rest of it.

What are we doing?

All right.

Fine, whatever you recommend, I'll do it.

All right.

Good.

Okay.

Sir.

Your point about meaning you were so good to pick that up because these fellows are 90% liberty.

But they're just with us solidly.

Vespasides is a...

He froze with you.

He was in such a low of being in here.

He's a very talkative fellow.

You can get him alone.

And he's apparently a pretty good local fellow.

Yeah.

Okay.

Captain.

Good.

Very hard on him.

Is he a lawyer?

Yes, sir.

Where do you take this from?

I don't know.

I don't know his background.

He's a good lawyer.

Are you sure that no lawyers don't run anybody against him?

In Lebanon, I already stood in the South.

Those guys over in here, those politicians who put us on that boat, by God, they don't have any advertising for those people with that suit.

The politicians aren't investing this time.

We think that Henderson and others are lying.

He is.

He is the real guy, especially with us.

He ought to be in the public.

He is 90% of the time.

He's one of those that are older than most.

Yes, he is.

And I like his looks.

He's a fine-looking man.

He stood right up there.

He's a tough guy.

He is.

Well, at least I think he knocked the, uh, he did not let you off the track.

Marvelous.

Came at a perfect time.

It was just the, just the idea or an aspect of the idea.

It's been flowing beautifully in the wires.

Just beautifully.

Yeah.

Great.

It's knocked the skeptics.

It says this has ended all the speculation that maybe the trip was, maybe the drug had been pulled out, maybe something serious had happened in China.

It's renewed all the enthusiasm for the trip.

It's a great shot in the eye timing-wise for the China and the foreign policy issues.

I talked to Harris today.

He was just enthusiastic about the announcement.

He said it's just come at a perfect time because it reinforces the wrong image.

It's doing extremely well.

He said, I don't know what the Democrats are going to do next year, but in my neck of the woods, where they're all Democrats, he said, we believe in everything this president's doing.

We don't believe in anything that the McGoverns or the Muskys, and particularly Kennedy.

He was vitriolic in Kennedy.

Well, politically, with a lot of people, it takes guys like this who are lower middle class and work their way up the hard way.

They're decent, law-abiding, God-fearing citizens.

And they just don't like to think of the President of the United States crawling.

It's a devastating reminder.

They're going out now to have a press conference, and the CD just said to me, do you mind my saying that this is the first time I've been able to talk to this president, but I'm convinced he will get our prisoners home, but he will never crawl into the cabinets.

I said, well, sure.

They're good people.

Every one of those commanders in the VFW, we've got Rainwater working for us now, as you may know.

He's on the payroll, and he's going around the country working on jobs for veterans.

And what he does, everywhere he goes, is recruit people who can be active in the campaign force.

Gallagher, who preceded Rainwater, is just ready to organize any kind of a veterans campaign.

He's been a good son of Phillips that we've had working in that area.

Thank you.

Barry Goldwater continues to hit hard for us.

I was going to speak to you yesterday.

He's from Kansas City.

He was down in Miami over the weekend.

Every place he goes, he's getting very good press.

Just looking at the days that came in, he's got eight paragraphs and seven of them are about you and your strong leadership there.

I worked with Schultz this morning in setting up a whole schedule for the Phase 2 effort where we really want to gin up our troops after it to get just... Good.

I'll build it very high as well and breathe.

Let everybody else talk about the Dow future.

I hope to God, I'm not out of the title.

They're going to have the prices, costs, and profits for it.

I said, no, I just can't do it.

It's too much time.

But then underneath it, we're going to have a rent board, a profits board, an interest board, and rent.

And the profits board is going to be described solely as, of course, before profits.

But that we shouldn't just be thinking of holding the line on price increases.

We should be thinking of passing on some of the gains and productivity.

and that

That's right, and that won't, that won't take business.

Because they love to cut prices if they can sell them.

You say they love you, they don't love you.

No, they don't, but I... You know that we've gotten away with it in this country from the... Now everybody says, how am I going to go up?

We've got to get people to leave.

Like in a competitive situation in the world, we're not going to be competitive...

That's a good line.

That won't frighten people.

Maybe we could use Conley the day after your speech, the way we did before then.

It might be a good idea to use Conley as we did when you announced phase one.

Well, he's gonna go on before.

Oh, before.

He's going to go on for three, but not on television.

He could... You remember that was a marvelous one-two punch, Mr. President.

You spoke on Sunday night, then he took that press conference on Monday evening.

Oh, wow.

I know.

But you see, that had to be surprised.

And then we had to follow up.

This time, we can't breathe in advance.

But we can do both.

It helps find a way to have a press conference and stay on the ring.

That's a damn clever idea.

I sent him over to come.

He's going to see them.

He's going to get one of those.

You're going to see them?

Yes.

I called his office and they said he'd be glad to.

I wonder if you're mixing it up better and not.

It would be commonly bad, basically, on the razor.

And, frankly, having him go on in the press conference the next day, you know, that was too much before.

We're going to knock it out this time around.

We won't have it.

Why?

Because he will be having, basically, a backgrounder which will be the same as the press conference.

What the hell are you going to say to Paul?

That's the question.

Keep my point.

Well, he did the same thing last time, though.

He briefed ahead to the White House press corps on Sunday night.

Then you spoke.

Then he held him on the record the next day at Treasury.

which could be repeated if we want to.

It's really good.

I think let's not go overboard.

Let's have other people in common with the reason for the press.

Let's find somebody to be able to sign for the press.

that it helps the U.N. vote rather than hurts it.

The Australians say it's a sign of weakness for the Chinese Communists to do this.

Bush says he... We are having a problem with the Bird Amendment.

Mr. President, apparently Raj has called...

The Chrome Amendment, apparently Raj has called Scott and told him that we are opposed to it.

Scott has flapped it all over the place now that we are opposed.

It would be awfully hard for us to reverse Rogers publicly.

Don't reverse it.

Because we...

Yes, try it.

Try it.

I put that on there because of my personal belief.

I didn't want you to know.

I want to be sure that our Senate people don't teleport.

The shot is going around flat, of course.

It's all right, but I mean, there's no calls to be made by our friends, isn't that great?

Okay.

It's a frozen bill.

But Bush called out, he was, this is actually, he talked much longer than this, but he was babbling on.

He said, it's a great plus up there.

Why is it a plus, Henry?

Well, because they take it as a sign, A, of consistency.

We've always said we would do this.

B, uh,

The day after we announce a two-China position, China puts out an invitation to us, so it shows that you can have good relations with China and still maintain the position we recommend.

So the people we want to have our support who are worried that they might jeopardize their relations with... You think that China now might seize on this and... too late with them?

No, for their own reasons.

This week, incidentally, they put this announcement, the other announcement they just put on, in their newspaper, this one they put on the old China radio and in their newspaper.

They had the troops more prepared for this.

Yeah, they had their troops more prepared.

They were afraid to announce Nixon was coming, but they weren't, they didn't mind saying Kissinger.

Well, getting the arch enemy was...

And, you know, it was an unbelievable reversal.

We get this very sensitive information from one plane, and they were just stunned.

They went on full military alert when they announced you a visit.

For fear they'd have a revolution?

And for fear that some of the other countries would attack them.

How did the women on board react to that?

Very standardized, I would say.

Didn't they wear the same clothes?

No, they all wear the same uniforms.

Same haircut.

Is that where that communist?

Yeah, white, blouses.

You know some of the Chinese members, some of them.

I know, but they ruined it.

The Japanese, as I told you, didn't think of Japan.

I've been to Japan, but not to Egypt.

I've been there since the 60s.

The Japanese are much more civil than what I've heard.

The Chinese are

or your type, it's part of the challenge.

Don't tell us anything about it when we get back.

I don't want to deny you.

I'm able to tell you that one of your girls comes up and says, no, the doctor makes me do this.

The man wears the same thing as me.

No, I think this was just a hell of an important thing to...

to have this announcement today, in the light of the damn Vietnamese election.

Killed the Vietnamese election.

Huh?

Killed the Vietnamese election.

Yeah, the Vietnamese election wiped itself out pretty well.

Yeah, that was already too serious to act on.

And it just started to piss down the drain anyhow.

They got bigger votes than they thought they'd get, and it sort of took all the steam out of everything.

Nobody killed anybody.

The public doesn't give a damn at this point.

The big importance of the Vietnam vote is not the percentage that you got, but that you could bring off this one-man election and that the Communists couldn't do a damn thing about it.

They decided that the Communists couldn't agree.

In that sense, it was a referendum, not as it has against people.

It's not Communists' opponents, but that the Communists couldn't get riots started or keep people from going to the polls.

Even though they tried, they started an offensive at the border, they got smashed at the Cambodian border.

But whatever kind of a build-up the media made, which they tried hard, is just washed completely away with this announcement today.

The focus is back.

It's a front-page headline.

Not the whole spread, about half the page.

It's still pretty big.

And New York Times and Post are going to have to play it again.

The passengers are probably going to die.

Must be.

They'll have to play it again.

Oh, yeah.

But this is interesting, that George Bush, you heard it.

Sure.

But he was, he called up, he said it was, it gave everyone a great shot in the eye.

Really did.

And of course, it's not going to be the end of it.

We're going to have some more.

So, yeah.

Mr. Henry's got the best damn job.

That's what I'd like to be doing, to be making these trips.

I mean, wait.

Doesn't have to work.

No, but really, the most interesting thing is just the beginning, to go over it the first time.

That's true, Mr. President.

It's fascinating.

That one's all laid out, and you come in, and it's just like you didn't hear what he told you.

Well, oh, no.

Oh, God, no.

I tell you, Mr. President, when you meet Joe and I, Joe and I and you, this is going to be a historical occasion.

That's

That's still going to be, not the, uh, exciting, but of course it's... Well, here we go.

Hop out.

You heard the mayor?

He called you.

Must he?

He's busy with his engagement parties.

He's probably going to babble.

Why don't you see the Russians?

Oh, yeah.

We can't see the Russians.

I told them to go see if they're not coming here.

He's going to...

I said we'd give anything to get, to get Harry Manard on that one.

He could have won.

He knows.

Oh, God, they got screwed again.

It's for them.

Right after the election.

That's what I mean.

Two days after the election, their speaking friends had screwed them again.

But whatever shot they might get out of the Pogoni visit, that's eclipsed for a few days.

So whatever great historic pronouncement he was going to make there, that's, you know, that's really putting it into the

First the Chinese killed at seven points, now they killed at Wat Kone, Tripp, and the Vietnamese election, whatever little fire there was left in that.

Makes them feel kind of lonely there, wouldn't it?

They don't feel lonely for a couple of weeks.

You know, I've been meeting those POWs, so I wish they were away.

I'd just like to be with them, just to go there anyway.

You just do it.

I can't do it.

Go there and be a hostage.

We've got to get those people back.

We've got to do this.

I don't mean to do it because of anything like crawling.

I tell you, they don't know how goddamn tough I can be if they turn down our last offer.

Believe me.

We will risk everything for it.

We're going to get screwed around this time.

Well, I tell you, that recent strike, their reaction to that was really nothing.

I mean, first of all, the reaction from Peking and Moscow was so minimal.

Neither of them made a governmental statement.

Both of them had a sort of population statement in their news, in TASS and in the China News Service.

But no government statement, just a very brief commentary.

One day, that was all.

And...

And Hanoi itself didn't have the guts to do a hell of a lot.

They called up one meeting in Paris.

And in your news magazine, people call you?

No.

This is Tuesday.

They'll do it before the weekend.

Oh!

Well, they do it.

They got time.

They can wait to see what happens.

They don't rush on it at this point.

Well, you've got a bunch of extra stuff.

I told you both the Today Show and the Counts called up and said they'd free any of that.

They have that I brought up.

There'll come a time.

We'll see if there'll come a time we'll want to use that.

Well, if we do, though, we're going to screw up the Today Show.

It's going to be crime.

Right about now.

I'm telling you, I've got a comment that might play a test.

I don't want to waste comment the day before.

I think it's better to have others breathe the press.

on this jackass, you know, program.

And then have Conley go on with the press conference.

I know you're panting to get in here with Godson.

So he's up and he wants to follow through with the...

the world is.

Although, if you put it in the schedule sheet, you'd think you'd have it figured out.

Do you agree with me that the comment going on the next day, O'Berry, et cetera, probably will help O'Berry.

I bet we could get live coverage as we did before.

He won't be the same thing as the other.

No, but he can go on.

They'll want to know about the international thing, and they want to know about this thing, and our things coming to the Secretary.

He could have a news conference, but this time, not on the Treasury.

Let's let him have it.

That's really where you shouldn't have it.

That worked pretty well, but does he have a good auditorium?

Yes, it was good.

It's better, but it's kind of awkward with Bill Rogers.

You can go to the state auditorium.

I don't see how another cabin officer can.

That's right.

Especially if they have him in town.

But I had to have the briefings done here in the East Room, though.

And I believe that our young, our own people were young.

But they could have not used Conley at all, and not answered too many damn questions.

I'd just say that Secretary Treasuryman hasn't bucked up some good questions from him.

Well, there'll be plenty the next day.

The way it worked before was, even after all the briefings ahead of time, overnight,

They take it all out.

They aren't quick enough studies to do.

And then that gives the next day press conference a real shot in the eye.

Yeah, just open it up.

Open up the press.

Say, look, here are the statements that we have.

So point the press along.

And he said, we will, uh, Secretary of the Treasury will be having a press conference tomorrow on all the details.

And here, you know, we will be looking at your background.

And there's a difference between a back-under and an on-the-record press conference, too.

This way, they get in direct rotation.

The back-under is just very common, really.

Are those really long?

One bill on each side.

Two dollars, actually.

Isn't it a great idea?

Otherwise, it would be a bribe.

Huh?

Otherwise, it would be a bribe.

This was a bribe that you didn't get a sense of.

Not the matter, but I must say, there's more ideas.

John, I've been sitting here and talking to Chuck Colson and Bob Sullivan, and I've got a different idea, which I think is better in regards to the reading on this.

I don't think we ought to waste you on a background thing the day before.

I think that what we ought to do is sort of let McCracken and Stein, or whatever they want to call it, they can get a background so that they can see that's out of the television or anything.

and they can do that.

And then, I'll go on and then talk at that time.

And then, I'd like, I think you then ought to do what you did last time, have a press conference at 12 the next day, and be on live again, you see?

How's that sound to you?

Oh, they will.

They will.

See, because that will give you a chance, too, to get them to do the end.

They'll ask about the international economy.

They'll ask about the rest.

But they'll watch along.

There's no worry because there will be enormous interest.

I said no questions.

We'll deal with that on the next day.

But if you go on for the briefing thing, and they haven't had you, but I don't think we should wait for you on the briefing.

If we put them on the briefing, the staff people,

I mean, you'll come on, and they will say that the press secretary will create a press conference tomorrow, and you, too, will be glad to answer any background questions.

Now, I won't leave my little trunk.

The next day, you come on and take the thing, and get the thing done, too.

We, Bob, you agree they'll want it live, okay?

Just like we did.

I would certainly think so, yeah.

That's what we think, at least.

Even if they don't hear it all the time.

Yeah.

Sure, as a matter of fact, as a matter of fact, but I think they'll take it live and it'll dominate the news rather than having the critics on the edge and it'll see, rather than being here or, for example, the government or something like that.

So I think it's the two-day job that we need.

Okay, bye.

Yeah, so he'll hold back even now.

Well, no, that isn't me who's going to tell this story.

No, it's Friday at noon.

It doesn't have to be Friday at noon.

It's a good time because that means we've captured the Wall Street crowd.

And let me say, we'll make it Friday at noon.

And I know that they'll carry it nationwide, all the television, all the radio now.

So you get that.

I've done that at times.

And I'm sure most of all,

I wouldn't do it myself.

Yeah.

No, no.

On this subject, on this subject, you know, I just like that I hear you being a commander.

Okay.

All right.

Did that be a W-5 over there?

Yeah.

Well, wait until you see that.

It's a dollars.

Five hundred dollars.

That's not, okay.

Wait a second.

Oh, I didn't get it.

Too much exposure this time.

No.

I said no.

This is some kind of drama.

The last two weeks he's been in front of us and the lawyer, he hasn't... No, not enough.

It's been... Well, he's been out, but I personally believe that on this side of it, it's expected that he'll do a hell of a job.

Well, what difference does it make?

Sure.

I mean, it's...

They talk about it isn't over.

It's good exposure.

As long as we get a benefit from it, it's good.

The main thing is it'll give us a big ride in the evening news.

You're a presence to the critics here.

Yeah, it'll also carry over the weekend with your speech, which is setting a high tone and then kind of taking the tough nitty gritty.

I'm still...