Nixon & Haldeman on Personnel appointments and White House staff management

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 7 minutes of this recording (about 49% of it) is represented by only a few words. Listen to the audio rather than relying on the text below; a corrected transcript is queued.

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Names and numbers are often wrong; speakers are not identified. Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

Download transcript (.txt) · JSON data

Yeah.

It was, and they all had a reason.

Well, they didn't all have a reason.

Well, some of them had, but some of the others should have been, son.

No, they didn't all have a reason.

Of course, everybody wanted to come in and sit and get a little drunk.

Need to listen to you in this chair.

They expect me to come over and do that thing for a little while, right?

If that hasn't raised it, I haven't told anybody, if that hasn't raised it with you and you don't want to do it, you don't need to.

It's...

I've just laid low.

It's there and it's a... All I can do is give you a couple of chances to talk to her about it.

There and there, you know, just raise it.

Well, there's nobody expecting you to do it.

I've, it's set up so that, you know, Steve knows, and that's all.

That's all right.

If you want to go over.

I've got to sit down for a second.

It's a good thing.

Let us, we ought to take a look at it before you go and see if there's some kind of neat way for you to do it.

I don't want to.

It's a show going on.

Maybe you can go in between acts in the show.

If I say, I judge.

Yeah, I judge.

I'm going to voice out the idea that you want me to do it.

What are they?

Half black, half white.

That's good.

There was a silver candidate on that, Secretary of Agriculture.

That's not, you know, a 40-year-old guy over there, early.

Harrier, staff, Nebraska.

Is that his department?

Head of the marketing research group.

He'd lose.

Though you're a very strong citizen, I understand.

You're a very strong citizen.

Well, that'd be great.

I'd just like to have a young man for once.

Can we partner next year?

We always have to.

We have no confidence in people younger than we are.

Now, you know, you're an exception, and I'm an exception.

You know, God, I heard me.

I have a lot of confidence in people as old as I am.

Because, right, we're always looking for young people, but we just don't saw the top of the engine.

We've done damn well internally.

It's hard to get other people to come.

We've got, we've put an enormous amount of weight on very young people.

Right?

Look at Zip, Zip, Zip.

Zip and Jay, they're very young.

And we've got lots of others that we have.

One hand, of course, is awfully strong in that.

Yeah.

And the left right hand always is a good reflection of loss in the presence of young people.

Well, you see that, and that's another thing the Disney organization has got.

They take, you know, just super young kids, and they look for ability.

And they see a kid who's got some drive and an adequate amount of intelligence,

And they put them in charge of something, and they say, here's what you gotta get done.

And here's what you gotta develop.

And kids respond to that.

If you get the right kids, you get good ones like that.

21-year-old kid was driving my car, drove me out to the airport.

He's the assistant manager of the transportation division of Disney World, which operates 120 vehicles.

He's responsible for moving all the people around.

I said, gee, that's great for a young guy like you who would have an important spot like that.

He said, that's what's so great about the Disney organization.

The only discouraging thing is my boss.

I said, why?

They have an older man running the thing.

He says, no, what's discouraging is my boss is 19.

He's two years younger than I am.

It's quite, it's quite wonderful.

It's a young world.

We've got some other people down here that are older people, but my God, I don't know.

Well, for operation, for getting things done, as contrasted to deciding what ought to be done, I think you tend to rely on young people more than older people.

Henry Heverson, John Roderick.

I don't know if I've seen any of this one.

It says to pick up Jim.

What was that?

See any of that stuff?

Mark?

I guess it's Mark.

Mark, thanks, Jonathan.

You got it.

Buddy's charity.

Buddy doesn't think he can solve it.

A little racist.

The problem on the first floor there.

whether he would break all the China in the department, and regardless of whether you're willing to do that, whether you can face the problem of the whole hierarchy quitting, which might be, might be a plus price point.

Second is whether you can sell them to the farm organizations.

And there it says it is a matter of getting them to support him.

It's only a matter of getting them not to oppose him.

100% of Harlow would be good, or he'd get all of us, mainly because he'd be in the whole farm, so he'd know he was pushing the present.

But one of the hard horses is the bank manager.

And Tommy is good, and I guess maybe he'd fall in right now.

And Harlow has great confidence in Tommy.

I can see how some of the ways that you're acting with him here, I can see the level of... Can you?

No.

Because we know he has that expertise, but I can't imagine anybody else can.

Well, if you want to rip, rip, rip him up, just take him so far, he has to make him Secretary of Agriculture, it's about as incongruous as you can get.

and she'd argue that taking Texas from Anshulmeen and setting up a charity business in San Diego, you don't knock her away.

There's another possibility that maybe isn't even worth reconsidering, and that is that the Felman disqualification is not total.

Because you can't go for, and it has been done through his precedent, you can't go for congressional amendments, you know, to exclude him from the restriction.

You have to be, in effect, you have to be confirmed by both the House and the Senate instead of just the Senate.

Probably would be.

Arthur.

Arthur, when he came out of here, said he wanted to see Mal.

He didn't give him anything, not a bunch of shit.

What did he give?

He gave his name to Mal.

Well, it's just as cool.

I mean, it's just as well not to expose.

So I'd crack her around.

It might get a little worse.

I've had a couple, most people in the last two weeks have taken off a couple days.

I wasn't that bad off, but one day I was.

I can't remember what year.

No, weeks, not weeks.

I need to be setting up for having the, you know,

In terms of the, in terms of the same thing, something like the U.N. thing.

Well, controversy is not that bad.

It's important, you know?

And it is, and it shows action.

So, you know, I said it all, but everybody, I mean, major leaders in the politics, and he's constantly lobbying, lobbying for a new mission.

He did reasons, told him his story.

Now, Reginald can't make a deal with him.

He trusts the White House now.

So he has to give the Israelis the plane and all the rights.

And that's how it goes through as far as the kind of dealings he's in.

Rogers, of course, goes through the other experience of smarting around.

and stuff that is not work.

What is the work for the year?

The teacher got it a year ago, we are going to have it in weeks.

And he's been saying, starting with every sentence, well, yeah, several times since, we have to remember him.

He said there was going to be a war in the Middle East, by the way, at the end of the summer, by the fall.

And he's told you more often, he's told me, he's told Mitchell, sir, he'd be right.

Tracy Rogers has got us into a war.

Yeah.

Correct.

At least, I've never seen a Jewish.

Never.

You really got some talent there.

on this goddamn Arab country, but for the rest of the region, I'm sure this is your option, you know, because they're failing to comply with the U.N. And again, there's many Jews in the U.S. right now, and they're not really threatening to disturb the U.S. with the same logic there.

And how do the people, how do you want to avoid the U.S.?

Yeah.

He doesn't have, I don't know how early.

He is not staged the way you are.

He has to give it to us.

Yeah, but it doesn't matter that much.

Also, he doesn't have to send these meetings.

Like, I'm recording all the time.

I'm recording extra video articles and comments and short shows.

Two, three hours of recording is not easy.

They cover the

social order on the call pretty heavily.

Although I think he likes it.

I don't think he eats it up like Henry does, but I think he likes what he's living pretty well.

He's always getting hurt, you see, except in the White House, I'm sure.

Roger, he's always, I guess, in honor of those in the patrols, which isn't bad either, you know.

That's a lot.

I hadn't bought it.

They go to the Kennedy Center, and they're sort of the center of attraction, and they go to the functions and charity bowls and all that stuff.

Well, he had something that came with it, and he does.

I think I'll hoard it for him.

He mentioned he had some time.

Sure, I'll get you to him.

All right.

I'll get you to him.

One of those events would be a hoax.

Nixon & Haldeman on Personnel appointments and White House staff management

AI Summary

Audio

Transcript (AI-generated)

NARA Description

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on October 29, 1971

Cite this conversation