Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 635-016
Date: Friday, December 10, 1971 at 12:37 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Timmesch, Nicholas P.; Ziegler, Ronald L.
Recording device: Oval Office
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/635-016
National Archives Catalog: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/417180363 (NAID 417180363)

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Oh, hello, Nick.
[0:05] How are you?
[0:05] I was reading some of your calls.
[0:10] Oh, all right.
[0:11] That'll be good.
[0:17] Well, his...
[0:48] Turn 40.
[0:48] That's it.
[0:49] How old are you?
[0:50] 41.
[0:50] 41.
[0:50] You don't look like that.
[0:55] I don't.
[0:57] God, I don't give a crap.
[0:58] Hell, I don't give a crap.
[1:00] Now, I'll be right here.
[1:01] Good.
[1:01] Why don't you let me know when you're done?
[1:03] This is all kind of a background thing.
[1:08] I'm surprised they didn't say that the babies were down in Florida.
[1:12] Good.
[1:12] So how did that happen?
[1:15] Well, they flew down and got James by the chest and, uh,
[1:19] Myself, a couple guys from NBC, but they weren't newsmen.
[1:25] They were executive types.
[1:28] The Navy, uh, thinks it's time to come down for it.
[1:34] Here's the water.
[1:36] Let me tell you, this is in terms of your right.
[1:39] You can do this.
[1:41] This is in the highest authority.
[1:45] I just had a call with Packard, who says that I'm not believing that you know all of this.
[1:58] First of all, I should mention one of his comments.
[2:02] Anyway, looking to the future, it is a priority that the United States maintain its position of leadership in the naval area.
[2:14] That's why, in terms of both, I'm not referring just simply to the nuclear, everybody talks about the arms, you know, the nuclear planes, the polaris and so forth.
[2:20] But the service fleet and so forth, the service fleet, including the carriers and so forth, must be modernized.
[2:25] It must be an area where the United States must be first.
[2:27] We must continue to
[2:45] And that's why in our whole defense service, it takes a long time to build a name, you know.
[2:51] It takes a long time to build a ship.
[2:55] But we are projecting for the future, under my constant pride, we are projecting on a specific, a program of
[3:08] I mean, of keeping our naval strength, not only at the levels, but to the problems and so forth.
[3:15] Well, the way it was described to me, pulling a lot of ships out, let's say pulling out 50 last year, but the new ships coming in, it's so much better.
[3:23] We're so hard.
[3:24] Our non...
[3:26] The nuclear components are really old.
[3:28] You see, the difficulty is the Soviet Navy is new and being new is more modern.
[3:33] Now, there is always, we have had to fight the tendency within the Navy, like in all the services, they don't want to get rid of any ships because it's dull.
[3:51] We simply, but what you simply got to have, you got to pull the old ones out and get the new ones in.
[3:55] And the Navy costs money, but it has to be.
[3:59] I'm basically on a big Navy man.
[4:01] I've always been.
[4:04] Because in terms of our whole world, it's like, the presence is so important.
[4:09] By the means of presence.
[4:12] Oh, it's about now.
[4:13] That's what it's all about.
[4:16] You know, part of the problem is...
[4:23] I was once in the NMU, and I don't think you could ever get a good merchant ring with a union center related.
[4:33] No way.
[4:36] Well, I'm sorry you can't read me in the Washington paper, but I'm not around the country.
[4:45] I was in the Post this summer.
[4:48] You said you were going to get him to the Star.
[4:50] What are you talking about?
[4:51] My God, he ought to be in church.
[4:53] He ought to be in Canada.
[4:54] But you are here with him.
[4:54] Well, I was thinking about Los Angeles Times.
[4:57] What time?
[4:57] And randomly and jailed over the post-event.
[4:59] Considering, you know, it came down to the radio now.
[5:03] Four months out of the end.
[5:04] So I thought, you see, this is an absolute star.
[5:07] You know, you like Captain Graham's dinner party scene.
[5:18] That's too high a price.
[5:19] You don't need it that much.
[5:21] Incidentally, I asked John Coulson, he and Smith-Hemstone were in the Marine Corps together, and they're great friend buddies.
[5:41] I asked him to speak about it.
[5:42] I thought we ought to get it in our hands.
[5:43] I just thought it doesn't mean, obviously, I don't have to do it.
[5:48] But I think it would be an excellent thing for people in this town who are reading something.
[5:55] It makes you work better than other people.
[5:58] You're writing about a reason.
[5:59] You put forth a very honest one.
[6:02] Well, also, I've gotten that from people who are readers.
[6:04] I mean, your discussions, you know, are some of the work you want to do.
[6:10] I'll send this back on the desk.
[6:23] How many?
[6:23] Well, I have three at home with me in school, in the school.
[6:27] Yeah.
[6:27] And I have a daughter at a friend's school out in Sandy Springs.
[6:33] All right.
[6:33] Did you see the piece Mike Walsh did on the percent of words?
[6:38] Yeah.
[6:39] Oh, yeah.
[6:39] He did it on a column I wrote.
[6:42] Yeah.
[6:42] Yeah.
[6:42] I know.
[6:43] I know.
[6:43] It started at your column.
[6:44] And then I turned around and wrote a column about this program.
[6:47] Yeah.
[6:47] He said he got a record deal on it.
[6:52] Well, those are real crows.
[6:54] He's a real big one.
[6:55] He's Polish by background.
[6:57] He had those feet.
[6:58] Mike Wallace was Polish by background.
[7:00] Yes.
[7:00] I didn't know that.
[7:04] Yeah.
[7:04] He's probably a long man.
[7:06] I can't do it.
[7:07] It's a suspect in him, of course.
[7:10] Yeah.
[7:10] He's got both of them.
[7:12] He looks like that fuck who says everybody who looks like him.
[7:14] I can't explain what happens in Luxembourg.
[7:19] And I was going through Luxembourg two years ago the first time, and I saw my name over a door, Timish.
[7:22] And I said, stop the car.
[7:24] And I went there and met a man named Jacques Timish.
[7:27] And he had a brother, Nicholas Timish.
[7:29] So we had a big reunion.
[7:31] Turned out their people went to Minnesota by the time my grandfather came down from there.
[7:36] So I had to sue them.
[7:37] It's a great feeling.
[7:39] Now, do you like... Do you like what I call...
[7:44] rather than the time, you know?
[7:46] Oh, yeah, but I had my years of time.
[7:49] And what you do, you're writing for Rewrite.
[7:51] Writing for Rewrite.
[7:52] Writing for Rewrite.
[7:53] We have so many people here, you know, great reporters for time, but they know damn well, or this week, that's good.
[7:59] It's just by the grace of God and the magic of the Lord that we're going to get in.
[8:02] Well, both magazines have opened up a little now to you people of credit.
[8:07] But I don't know, you've become a train horse after so many years.
[8:10] You're writing this to some other guy to be writing.
[8:13] And you get to the point, gee, it's very frustrating.
[8:16] Yeah.
[8:16] Let me ask you this.
[8:17] Have you ever done any television?
[8:20] I've done, uh, well, I've done, you know, I did Buckley, Buckley had a fire line, and I've done a little, uh, once in a while in education.
[8:34] That's another establishment where it's hard to practice.
[8:41] Yeah, oh yes, except by Van Hoeker and a few dogs like that.
[8:49] Take a look at the, go, take a look at that public broadcasting talk over there.
[8:58] You're very good at autologizing.
[8:59] You've got the looks.
[9:01] You're a young man.
[9:02] Well, I was offered a job at the CBS.
[9:04] Oh, it's so damn influential.
[9:06] That's the point.
[9:07] Just don't ever turn it down.
[9:09] I mean, we all live with a written word, but...
[9:12] But by the way, if you do it, I want them, I want them on this.
[9:18] If we could, we've got to get them on this.
[9:23] We've got to get them on this.
[9:25] We've got to get them on this.
[9:30] We've got to get them on this.
[9:31] We've got to get them on this.