On January 27, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Stephen B. Bull, Henry A. Kissinger, and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House from 9:10 am to 10:05 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 658-003 of the White House Tapes.
Transcript (AI-Generated)This transcript was generated automatically by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite this transcript as authoritative. Consult the Finding Aid above for verified information.
Henry obviously did a superb job, as we heard he had done.
A lot of good stuff out of that, but the thing is though,
It's because the substance of all this is so complex, that there's, well, in a way that's looking for revenge, because it's, they are jumping out, the opponents are jumping out, and the things they don't understand is that they're getting shot down.
Yeah, I think you're right.
Like the police, the home police comment, he says what the trouble is, is the officer sees fire,
They've already rejected that.
They won't take it.
But that's...
They've done this on a bunch of these.
Looked like McGovern's saying, you know, they wouldn't... You know, but they did demand the overthrow, too.
Henry, he has.
He's shot at that.
Big, big, big... How did you get along with Brock?
Yeah.
And you explained the thing, and he understood it.
Yep.
You told him, and you said this is not, that I was just doing this because I felt it.
I was not trying to, but I just wanted to be sure he took the political signals.
Did I understand perfectly?
And he said, when he checked, it was very good.
It wasn't sometimes, you know, you can refill it very easily.
And it went out very well.
He said, on the airplanes, he said, there is no problem.
He said, I don't even know why he needed to mention it, but let me check.
He called Cisco, didn't tell him I was there.
He just said, I want to check again on this airplane below here.
Cisco said we're delivering two a month, every month, except July of this year and January of next year, and the Israelis understand why we're just one store in those two months.
I looked at the back of Henry and he said, that's right, there is no... What did Henry want?
He wanted to memorize that.
Well, there was a problem, and he wanted to use the phrase, because Cisco uses it as a bargaining counter, he just wants to be sure he's kept to the firemen.
I just wanted to make sure I could call the Israelis out, and I told the old lady, and I just weren't on the record.
And he understood that, and understood the political point.
He said there's no problem.
First of all, we can't get into the conferences for a couple weeks.
Secondly, we may not get into them at all, because Sadat probably isn't going to be able to get into them, because of the student uprisings.
At home.
He said, what we're really after here is to keep it looking like there's some hope of a conference.
And once we get that, we get into conference, and he said, there's absolutely no problem in having these conferences go anywhere.
They're the type that we can get started and turn recess for two weeks, we can install them, we can hamstring them.
We can make sure that nothing happens or everything happens.
We can build an artificial impasse that you can then go to Russia and break, or, you know, anything.
Henry, I...
Look, Henry on that overreacts all the time.
It's every time they turn around, they aren't getting the planes, they aren't doing this, they aren't doing that.
And it's because the Israelis are a bunch of goddamn Jews that are raising false things.
They read out, you know.
And they never quit.
That's right.
And that... Good.
That...
Bill would like to do a press conference.
Yes, he is.
It's not a press conference, it's a media conference of some kind that they're having.
And I said that you were hopeful that he'd do it for television, because we were purposely, you know, Henry's was not, and we needed a spokesman on TV by today.
And he said, fine, he'd be glad to do that.
And he had the
Input stuff, and he... See, Scallion's a damn good bridge there, if we could only get Henry there.
Ha!
I know, because Bill will do anything Scallion tells him to.
Or has to do.
And, uh... Henry, they couldn't have...
I've got to do this.
These people will help Henry.
That's... What people will help.
Scallion...
I talked to him last night about the
I talked to some of the people at the dinner, and they said that most of them heard it, but they didn't believe it was you.
We probably, see that was a problem at dinner, what we probably should have done is she should have come on and said, we've been informed that the president is calling Dr. Kissinger.
So that everybody heard it coming here, but he's making the call to Dr. Kisner.
And then just let Henry make up the count and say, yes, Mr. President.
It's all right.
It's all right.
It got him.
It got him.
It got him.
It was covered in paper.
John, early on in the same day, I said something about you that thought maybe going over would have had no effect here.
And he said, Jesus, he...
His view was that any association with that dinner was bad.
Even Henry's?
Well, no.
Not Henry's, but any association by the president.
Well, yeah, Henry's or his.
It's one of those typical things.
He said, this town is sick, and they are obsessed with having these gridiron-type dinners where everybody has to come and pretend they're having a good time.
Frank Church apparently did a very, very vicious...
And he did a superb job.
They all said that he had some marvelous gadgets.
He got some.
And apparently some very good material.
And of course he delivers well.
He's a natural comedian.
He does a great job.
He's got a strong voice.
And the accent helps him in place with that and all that.
The church apparently was in very vicious taste and cohesion.
So he came up with a show.
He said, at least we can be sure that if the China trip turns out to be a bust, Henry will know how to handle it.
You know, that kind of just, ah, dirty stuff.
So Henry got up and said,
Open Bicent Protocol requires that I precede the senator on the program, because he ranks me.
But apparently, a planner to the program reversed the protocol for very good reasons, because they knew that it would be impossible for me to... Because they knew I wouldn't be able to commit suicide after I'd been assassinated, or something like that, some twist like that.
But I guess that Henry did it.
So he did a good job.
What the hell difference does it make?
It's worth five seconds of his time, not five seconds of his time.
Well, we've got the word around, and I'm going to go to some special time now.
That's good.
Well, we're still, you know, on that question of what you're going to do as far as... Well, what's the matter?
Who's pregnant with me?
Come on, because I was lying.
The only, nobody's pressing for you to go except for the Poe question.
That's the only thing then.
Well, that just doesn't seem to make much sense.
Sorry.
Go ahead.
They've got very good water.
Good.
I'm not going to sue them, but I'm saying they are nice.
We haven't told them yet.
I don't think we have.
But I don't think we have.
The Trumpers are, you know, they're good people, but they're dangerous.
But what makes this is that they're worse than the others.
And the White House corresponds.
Of course, that's definitely, I just don't want, I don't want to say they're weak.
Bring it out on me.
There's no appeal on that.
What's the date here?
The date is April 8th.
Unfortunately.
I suppose there's something to be said regarding the people around here and how they are doing.
I think we can sustain the argument of not doing anything.
And I don't understand why Poe's really got... You know, after all that... Well, the signal, I suppose, that Poe's been a loyal guy, I suppose.
You have to sit there through unmitigated hell.
I've done it so well every other time.
I really have.
It hits on me every time.
And with no grace.
They've never treated me with grace.
You know, the Democrats, they've treated me with grace on the ship.
Again, I just don't go anymore.
I don't like the press.
I really don't, you know.
I don't like the bad guys.
You should go there and act as if you did.
The only...
What they've suggested is not that you go to the dinner, but that you're towing on the program, but then you do a drop-by to pay a little tribute to Poe.
But don't sit through the show.
We don't need to bother with it now.
No, we've got plenty of time.
I work on the assumption that you're not going.
That's good.
I'm not sure.
You think it's a good idea to have Henry do the press conference?
Yes.
So I...
It was good.
It was very good, and I think it was very good not to have him on television, although there's a strong argument the other way that he should have been on, because he would have been effective, and he would have.
No.
But we don't need it.
Oh, yeah, they had voiceover and everything.
They had all they needed.
A lot of mystery there.
A little more mystery.
Let Bill go on.
He'll be on the tube now tonight.
Yes, sir.
Bryce's point is very good, I think, which is that you don't want to create the impression that Henry Kissinger is ruling the world.
And you can go, well, but you can get to that, if he's doing all these dazzling things, and then also if the guy he's not talking about, he's got to be on the top of the class.
If he's on TV, he's on TV as the regular one, and we're not going to put him out there, Bob.
On the other hand, if he had gone on TV for that, in the first place, if we allowed TV, they would have wanted to carry it live.
Sure.
But they didn't come, which would have been bad.
They would have run in for hours on the news.
Yeah.
Ten minutes, probably.
It is fine.
This way we've got our story.
And while he did a superb job, you can't be sure that he does that good a job.
And there are things that he does that you wouldn't want on TV, and I'm sure there were in this one.
And it wouldn't, overall it wouldn't, and they would take the things too.
Where he gets, you know, a little bit emotional.
He gets emotional, or he tangles sometimes.
And it isn't really completely direct, and it's all the time the way you are.
Bill, he seemed to be in good luck.
The Henry had a good father.
He talked to him about Vietnam and that kind of thing.
Well, you know, Samson, if you just can't hide the Vice President, I'm sure he's got something to agree with.
Oh, we've got...
The Vice President's in a strange room.
We've got to figure out what to do.
It's because it's time-bothered.
No, earlier it was...
The VP is really chomping and digging a lot of stuff now, too, wasn't it?
He takes this sort of standard line, and John said the leadership then was exactly consistent with it, which is, I know, it's just policy now, we've got to be behind it, because if you'd only talked to me about it beforehand, you know, you wouldn't make this terrible, he said.
And that's sort of the way he goes at it.
Yes.
And, well, it's a line that he took right at the beginning, when he wanted to be in here.
Yep.
Discussing it.
Yep.
And that, I'm sure, is the frustrating thing to him, that he hasn't adjusted to in that job, is his role as a policymaker.
The other thing Bryce said in that, when I talked to him, in his thing on congressional leaders, is that the problem is that Agnew is nonsensitive.
He doesn't understand the relationship with the president and Congress.
And he thinks, when you get in a meeting like that, that's our game, and we're all just sitting there working things out, like we would in a SAP meeting or something, you know.
And doesn't look at it as an adversarial relationship, that even our own leaders supposedly are the leaders.
have with the executive.
And that he just, you know, he never goes up to the Hill anymore.
He doesn't preside at all.
Ever.
Really?
Oh, never.
I'm sure I'm right on that.
That was true for, you know, something like that.
You know, even the days I was president, I ran for president.
I didn't do it every time, but if I was ever in Miles' place, I'd go over to the Senate.
You know, he just started as part of the job.
Not for, not for, I don't believe.
Now, he may once in a while go out and open and then leave.
But I don't think he's even opening anymore.
I think he's just written off that part of the job, which is of course the only part of it.
He doesn't have, he doesn't have real debt and wealth.
His point is, he's too damn parochial, you know.
He's a little whiny.
That's his problem.
Big mistake.
Another thing that happened to me, John, is he's surrounded by people around him.
Yeah.
Who are always talking as if he has, you know what I mean.
That's why he hates to be Buchanan, I used to think.
He is, but worse than Buchanan, you see, because Buchanan at least is honest.
But you know that he's a goddamn pervert, because people are horrible.
The wine bitch.
On the Republican governor's dinner, he has apparently taken that over, which properly he should have, but has decreed that there be no staff there.
I don't think that's a good idea, unless you agree with it.
In some of the people, the Orleans and Chelsea's that deal with the governor's ought to be at the dinner.
Sure.
With them.
At least if we want to have them.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But I think we've got to have a few of the seniors.
Yeah.
The people who have the money to give it to get out to them.
Yeah.
Irving Schultz, Weinberger.
That's about it.
It's good to have Weinberger anyway.
Yeah.
God damn him for being that way.
That's terrible.
They'd much rather park those cat members than they would one of those cat members.
Absolutely.
Well, there's no word that stuff comes in.
But see, that's part of Agnes' thing of, he is supposed to be the one for the other.
He's just the one.
He sure may have pushed her out.
You know, I agree with you, but I just want to be sure.
We have so many disloyal people around here, even in the White House, that aren't with us philosophically, you know.
And god damn it, we don't fire any of them, Bob.
Now this is a good guy, this is, he was run so, all right, A on the hail him.
And just, I'll be damn sure that we understand that I believe in loyalty.
And, uh...
We won the other side of that one.
I don't care about which side.
I'm not going to give that Hesford commission the opportunity to go in and harass businessmen.
That's not going to happen.
And we use every goddamn negro in the country.
It's not going to happen.
And, you know, I keep this line across, but I guess, you know, the poor old garment and the sapphire...
Earl and the rest are under such horrible pressure.
They fought that, and Barton's been sick and still a killer.
Okay, it's fine.
I'm going to veto it.
That's just all there is to it.
It's going to be like the 18-year-old voter and the rest of the things they talk about.
I'm vetoing some bitches, and I don't care what the situation is, and it's not appealable.
I will not discuss it, and I do not want to see the other side.
Is that clear?
I do not want to see it.
That's a vicious, terrible, terrible piece of legislation.
I made up my mind.
I'm going to need it.
I'm going to give it a little fight.
We lose the liberals' mind.
I'm going to need to make a few votes in the racial tax.
Henry's asking for a meeting today with Grant Martin.
No, I will not see Grant Martin.
I've got to give guidance on how to direct his efforts.
No, I haven't time, because I'm leaving immediately after this.
As I told you, I'm going my way.
So, this is just leaving Ohio.
I've lost him there.
I've got to hand him a guide.
I don't like him very much.
I don't mind him, but he's not for me.
He doesn't need to see me.
I've had him in the job.
He's a foreign service man.
He's not without.
He has a fine job there.
I've got that, and then I've got it.
I've got it.
But we're not going to do any more of that.
That's just language.
I'm not going to do any more.
This is what they're saying.
See, if there's anything I can do, there's nothing I can do.
And where did he come from?
He said he's come from the south.
It's about the prime minister like yesterday.
I've got to see him, but I don't need to see our ambassador.
I don't have to see him.
You know what?
I really do love him.
The substantive stuff he's got to do, which is his influence in the presidential elections, are stuff he's got to get from other people.
Right, right, right.
Are you doing today?
Out there, fine.
I was going to ask... How do you do?
Hi, boss.
Yeah, obviously.
You know, that's the sort of joke that loses him.
That's what they said.
You know, he was so crude.
Well, when he said, for Christ's sake, that Bob was fine, it was horrible.
Were you there?
No, no.
Somebody said, for the son of a bitch, said that the peaking trip of the bus and how to handle it, Jesus Christ, that would not be done by a high school sophomore.
Exactly.
So crude.
And then he said... You know what I mean?
Take a guy like Jackie Gleason, who's a comic, but a clean comic.
He would never use that word.
Never.
You know what I mean?
And Paul Keith would, but not Gleason.
And then there was...
I mean, not because...
It's hard to be dirty, but you don't have to be.
Base.
Just like a... As he said, it's no wonder...
He said, you don't expect a Republican president to get along with Democratic India.
You know, it's a cheap little shop.
And it's the sort of thing that people titter at, but then they're embarrassed that the guy's doing it.
I think that's right.
And that was everybody's opinion, and he had come off very bad.
So I actually, he was so partisan that I cut out the few cracks I had in a Democrat, except for one or two, and got it on a higher level, because I figured we'd get the benefits, not from cracking the Democrats, but from looking good.
And because the whole theme of my speech was, at the end, that we needed unity and get-together.
Art Buchwald was on the Today Show today, and they said that you write the church speech, and he in fact had written major parts of it.
And he said, I only take credits for things that are good.
He disavowed it.
They ran a big part of it on the Today Show and on the CBS shows and my screenings.
Did they get that Q&A finished?
Yes.
I have to be sure these things are done.
I can't have the staff drop the ball.
It's all done.
I've seen a copy of it.
It's gone.
It's gone.
Yes, that I happen to know.
The rest are all going out this morning.
I saw the whole rundown.
You originally said you'd go from me, and we changed that to the hill that's going from Clark to the...
Right.
What I've done this morning, Mr. President, is I've had a call...
Ted Elliott, the executive secretary, is saying we're not doing any more briefing here.
And that the job of defending the program now is entirely in their court.
That's what I told Bill yesterday, too.
Good.
And I said the same thing.
And also, let me just add one sidebar that we would bother to talk about.
We were thinking about your program, actually, how good it was.
It was a good sidebar that you worked, because of course it got an enormous play in the news, but beyond that, beyond the fact that you worked, that allows you to, Chris is not a press conference, it's a medium, but he can feel that he's going to be on there.
Much better.
On balance, it was better.
And the point is, your study just once over, which is what got managed.
A couple of three points that I want to be sure he doesn't frankly back us off on.
First, his comments are, he is stupid for operations.
I haven't seen them.
Well, what he said is that, he says that the reason that the North Vietnamese cannot accept this is because the president's system of ceasefire, and he knows they will not accept the ceasefire.
Goddamnit, didn't Clifford himself advocate the ceasefire last year?
Wasn't he one of the ones who did it?
You've got to go out and check this.
Check to see whether he did it, and then ask somebody now.
Mr. President, it's a stupid point anyway, because the ceasefire they put into the goddamn plan, that's 10.7.
And I know the point that you have made in your reading is that the ceasefire is not an issue, right?
They object to a ceasefire before a settlement.
We have agreed to have a ceasefire after a settlement.
Which is their own formulation.
So it's an absurd attack.
And in fact...
But somebody's got to say that just about the same time.
I may step out at some point and say it, or let Ron say it, if he understands it.
Ron's got to be prepared.
Ron must be prepared on that point.
That's a good one for Ron to say.
It's good for him to take Clipper down.
All right, but now how do we get this to him?
I'll call him, because he may not understand this.
Yeah, you didn't say it on the video.
The factual fact on the way that it had gone, the one on the ceasefire, is that you're not going to say it.
But we know that it is a news summary, and he's left himself hanging out there a mile.
Ceasefire is no problem.
C-spire as part of an overall settlement is no candidate.
The other attack, yes, at the north, the east, do not object, have never objected to a C-spire as part of the overall settlement.
That isn't the part they object to.
It's in their proposal.
It's in their proposal.
It's in their nine points.
Our five, point two.
That's what you say, it's in their nine points.
Point two is Kennedy's attack is more pointed and more effective.
is that why don't we just drop all this and come out with a straight withdrawal for POWs.
Forget about eating oysters at one point.
One might be withdrawn from POWs.
That's the candid point.
Now, I want to be sure Bill does not... You see, he cannot back to that point and say, well, we've offered POW withdrawal, because we have not.
We've offered POW withdrawal, and he's fired.
Yes, but again, this is true, but it's such a cheap attack.
I'm sure it is.
Because if they had wanted it, they could have said, either this is our May 31st proposal, and our last proposal goes very far towards POW for withdrawal by implementing it first.
Well, you could say, Bill, that our last proposal implements the view that this is withdrawal part of the first.
Right.
I think you can say that again.
And could you get this to Rob, too, then, to the grok?
If he's raised in the county.
The only thing, the only other thing that seems to me is that the best wine...
But we can't be in a position to say we've made an offer and we won't discuss it.
We've got to answer some questions.
But, generally speaking, you have got to make an offer and then stick to it.
You cannot give a goddamn hint.
That is right.
It appears that we've shifted our ground.
That is right.
Well, the New York Times had a rather good editorial today, didn't they?
They had a very supportive one today.
It wasn't, of course, this lying...
I mean... Well, they said it's exactly the same proposal you made on October 7th last year, which is an outrageous lie.
They said you proposed ceasefire then, but that's... October 7th, 17th.
October 770, you proposed... Two resignations, they don't mention the fact that...
In October 7th, you proposed to cease fire first.
Here we propose to cease fire last, which is a terribly important difference.
October 7th, we didn't say anything about electoral commissions.
This time, we put the whole... Also, we didn't... We didn't say anything about a deadline.
We said nothing about a deadline.
That's the main point.
We spoke about mutual withdrawal.
Here we speak about unilateral American withdrawal.
It's really on a factual basis so outrageously wrong.
All right, all right.
I've got an idea on that.
You write a letter.
And this is disordered in the Washington Post to appear on their op-ed column.
Why don't we get the state to do it?
I mean, I don't mind doing it, but... All right, you write a letter for somebody to send that they will use, and to say that it's... And then just lay out a bribe or something like that.
That's why my point is... That's Marshall Green.
That's Marshall Green.
All right, that's Marshall Green.
I'll do it, but I think that... You can tell Marshall that I felt that he was the best man, he's been out there so far, but you prepare the letter for him and say this is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.
And they know the suspect, it's not that they're editorials, but they told you, you see...
The thing about you, Bob, you've got to kick our people in the ass to make them work.
The post is a disgrace, and why we can't get some rich people to start a newspaper.
You've got another newspaper.
The Star Editorial was good.
I haven't seen it.
Of course you didn't.
You didn't have some problem with it.
No, but it is a disgrace to have these, they are the most lying, one-sided people.
The New York Times occasionally is fair.
It should.
It takes a bit more than you.
It calls up and says...
Every time, all he has to give him is attention on the trip, and he doesn't have Dick Wilson on the trip, he doesn't have a lot of others.
All right, the post is coming off this trip.
They are coming off the trip.
The star we own, the post will not exactly put it down, and carry it out for once.
God damn it, I'm sick of this shit, of our people around here trying to second guess me.
The Washington Post is not going to be on this trip.
It's a central newspaper that's sending it.
It is not going to be on this trip.
Is that clear?
They can carry it from the U.P.
and the H.N.O.P.
You just tell Ron, go ahead and come in and bring in your own thing.
It's not going to be done.
You can have the Times, and he said, you've got Ron Osborne.
I don't mind that.
You can have Marcus Childs.
I don't mind that.
Any lines, dirty son of a bitch in the press corps.
But you're not going to have the Washington Post, which deliberately is adopting a policy that screws us day after day after day.
So it just doesn't happen.
That's the way I'm going to run through some things around here to make people look worried.
What he said, well, maybe they'll send Mr. Eddie.
He must not, if that's wrong, he must not tell any press people that they're wrong until I look at the list again.
I don't think he's wrong.
I've got a lot of opinions on it, Bob.
I've got a lot of things.
And I thought about it a lot last night.
And I think we're going to play a little better.
We're going to get a kick in the ass, no matter how unfair we are.
There's one other thing to do, be unfair as hell.
Put on two or three radicals and about to kiss a lot of your friends.
Except for the pelican.
You've got to take a look at this now.
We're not taking who they sent, we're telling them who they sent.
The Post is not sending anybody.
We don't have paper, we tell them that the reporters find them, just find a way that the Washington Post has a paper.
It's not going to be long.
The funny thing is, the Chinese won't let them in either, you know.
I was commenting that with Bill, if you were just in the line,
Ja, they sort of berated the plan, but they didn't reject it.
It's a funny thing, they're taking the line, you know, it's a maneuver, it's up the future.
That's right.
No, they didn't do so much.
They just said it's a way for you to continue the war.
But what they're now doing is just asking for surrender.
I mean, that's what it's come down to.
But we didn't expect them to accept it today.
Or for the next weeks.
Or with Bill, I would say.
One thing I found interesting last night, leaving aside the merit of the speakers, the fascination with China, anything having to do with China, they had a song by...
Some people is sort of Chinese song.
The whole theme was China, but they really, every time China is mentioned, it gets a ripple of excitement.
And that's different from Russia.
I mean, Russia actually will have more achievements.
Well, what I was going to say, you're saying that these things are good.
Why don't you put it on the pages that we just read?
But I'll just say that our ceasefire is point X. I'll look it up over there.
Okay, nine points, and it's slightly rewritten, but no major substantive difference.
No argument about a ceasefire.
That's part of the...
It can't be.
This is the real one.
It can't be person for withdrawal.
We have offered that in implementing the only plan they have been willing to discuss, that we would begin with prisoners for withdrawal.
The first phase of the plan that they have indicated they would discuss...
Which is the only one they've said...
The only plan that they've indicated they said would be prisoners should withdraw.
And I... And they've indicated they won't take it.
The Kennedy proposal is totally irrelevant.
Because when he says one point, prisoners should withdraw, they've already turned that down.
When we came to them and said we want to settle the military issues first, which is this...
They said that political and military issues must be linked.
They said it to us, they said it to the New York Times, they said it publicly.
It is a cheap, democratic trick of Kennedy.
I'm going to call Bill because he's going on my letter.
But at that dinner again last night, I went to the reception first.
The newsmen, you know, they're barracudas, and they're going to turn...
But I think we've got a lot of credit with them now.
And aside from the clan, the thing that I think did us most good was the fact that you've been working on this for two years, that what you said was right.
And that sort of impresses them.
I mean, when you said they were secret dogs and they were sort of flickering to themselves.
It was very, very respectful.
Well, in the line that you've been able to get any of that personal stuff out, I talked to Colson last night, and he thought some of that was coming true.
But are we hitting that, you know, the fact that for two and a half years we've taken the slings and arrows of these sons of bitches?
Yeah.
And they've talked about the lonely decision type thing at the present, but...
I think that's coming across.
And pull the rug out from under the grips.
I've eaten Brinkley.
I've eaten Jordan, the star, who always does the right stuff against this really good piece.
You cannot do anything but appoint the president for what he did.
He obviously didn't like it.
One thing I'd like to get this captain to make, my general,
One little captain out there criticized us on exactly the right reason.
He didn't have the right speech.
But he said to the director about losing 50,000 men when he fought them just to get back to the field, that's wrong.
He said, we never fought them.
It's the people of South Vietnam.
We must not surrender.
And that's the healthy America.
But that's my belief.
What you have done now, Mr. President, the Democrats are in the position where the only thing you haven't done is to surrender.
Some of our people out there have to say this.
That our democratic critics want to surrender.
They are for surrender.
They are the party of surrender.
Just get it hard.
Just like that.
I mean, that is not the party.
Our democratic critics.
No, our critics.
Their heart is with the critics.
Praise the good crazy.
Man, she was good.
She was good?
Yeah.
But there's several that Jackson has been good.
Praise the loyal Democrats, you know.
Never give it as far as the goal.
The goal isn't sophisticated enough sometimes.
It isn't precise enough.
The other thing is that they want a communist government being done.
God damn it, they've got to get up and say it.
The team has no clothes.
Henry and I were talking about this yesterday, and our people now, it's no subtly law.
They've got to fight it.
They've got to nail everything in law.
I know they're burning hell.
It's almost impossible.
But I think we have to agree that it's going for us.
One of the things is, we had audience abasement, and these goddamn piddling-ass critics that are, of course, taking the news and the rest of it, and we have smaller audiences, and it will not be as believable.
Frank, you have a lot of, you have the majority of the media for you right now.
No, I mean, the critics are waffling back to what Oral Gilbert is, you know, each stage of events is different than the last one.
And they're pointing that out.
They're saying that they're in,
Disarray, I don't know what they're saying.
And Muskie's first statement was quite favorable, and now he's running for cover.
Now the idiots are fastening on the cheese fire.
We could just say, I think Ziegler should say too, gentlemen,
The ceasefire we propose is point X of the North Vietnamese 9.9.
We don't know what this screaming is all about.
Just say it coldly.
I don't know what they're talking about.
Apparently Dr. Kweber hasn't studied this.
The ceasefire down at this point is so-called their plan.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
On the overall question, they insist on it.
They can't get us on this one, because, first of all, we've been setting it up carefully.
Secondly, we've been nuts to come get out there with any credibility problem, knowing that the North Vietnamese, the Viet Cong, and our democratic critics are laying for us.
I don't know, Nancy Dickerson, I don't know, I don't know if you can see her at that dinner, she said that press is completely...
Well, no, today it sees at 90% of 400, and those who are not, have been found.
Oh, no press?
Oh, yes, yes, yes.
So, I'm not going to let you do this.
Thank you.
No, it's better than that.
There you go.
You're right.
Yes, of course, son.
Yes, good.
Stand firm.
Good.
It's great.
So, we have to start fast.
It's off.
Now, we've got a good start first.
That's nice.
There's what we can't do, son.
There's what we can't do.
And I think, you know, I intend to keep doing that for the next two, two times here.
Because I think it's just, this is one of the problems that I see.
People are too, I mean, peace is too important for politics.
And that, that our, that our, that our critics are putting partisanship above peace
Hardest ship of all our POWs.
If you think you could enlist Buchanan to do the writing, you can do it.
Colson has more contacts than Koch and I have.
Koch is good, but he's very intellectual.
And we need a charter cutting edge.
Part of the problem is that they're getting out there.
Colson isn't able to see this, just doesn't have the body.
Buchanan doesn't have the body.
And then we've got to get, I'll tell you the way to do it, rather than have Coles asking, you asking about it.
The president wants him to take over, which is to knock the shit out of him.
Do you agree with the idea or not?
Yeah, I do.
Because you've got to use your pen, and you've got to.
For example, if you can't do it, you couldn't write the 15,000 word, then Hebrew does that, but Hebrew can't write the cutting edge.
So...
No, they did not understand after this.
I am gratified with the fact that we have been able to get some of the mail.
The politicians screwed up a lot of things.
This has been followed up again from Steve.
I've said it several times.
A signing ceremony.
It's with Aliak.
So I'm not going to have a press photo in there.
I'm not going to do it.
Has it been announced as a press photo?
It hasn't been announced.
It's too bad.
It's almost not going to be a press photo.
It's going to be an Aliak.
I have no speech to make to these people.
I'm just not going to do it.
Who decided this would be that?
No, the life was not this, and this should not be this.
We can't start changing the sand story.
Today is the public story.
And you've got all those people standing around.
It's a lousy picture.
And so forth.
Now, goddammit, don't do this again.
Let's not make this kind of mistake.
I'm not going to say all these things.
You've got to take these a little more closely, because that is a good policy.
It really is a good policy.
To sit there and sign these things in front of everybody is just a horse's ass thing to do.
I guess you think I'd better start looking at these schedules as well, sir.
Well, all right.
Will you watch them?
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Now, there's one picture there.
Yes, that's it.
Yes, it is.
So, we've got it done.
I don't know, you know.
It's a good point.
I don't know whether the cabin people know that Peter's in tree places.
Call them.
It might be worth calling them.
Just call them while we're making the announcement today.
I'm sure that you know that in this deli, if you can't get a cabin officer, don't insist that you've got to talk to him.
That's our thing.
Okay.
And yeah, we have downstairs.
Yes, and also Thomas Peter Bynum will take the position of the other.
Yes, and announce all treatments.
I think that actually we have this same position at the present time.
It's a good thing.
And if we can
I'm not allowed to step away.
You can treat it as if you've got any more crew small than you had before.
Just like you say, from the time I lived in China, we peed the offensive on the Vietnam issue and hit these bastards over the head and let's make them a party of surrender, a party of communism.
You have to be, you have to be agreed.
I sure do.
And I go off beat and knock their brains out and really stick their heads up.
No question.
We talked about it right from the beginning.
The easy part is going to be to give it a kick for a couple of days.
The problem is going to be to stay with it.
This is what we've got to stay with.
We can gain a hell of a lot from the next few years.
We've been through this a lot.
Everybody will say, well, we came out fine on that one.
Fine.
Like we're ours.
It's longer than that for the setting of the funds.
Another point is that we have to control the politics, particularly from the candidates.
So we can't just wait, just continue to hammer and hammer and hammer.
We can't pretend that this is how it will be.
If we can hold just some of the people that we've had and not allow them to get the solution,
Keep mailings going out like that, and it gets deranged about what this thing is all about.
Now, most people that you love are so goddamn confused.
That's all right.
But if they get something that indicates that...
What it is, then they feel that they're not confused, you know.
It's just like having a huge book there.
It's actually what Jesus Christ said.
It must be a very, very socially proposed thing.
Exactly.
Whether they read the book or not, they think they understand.
And also the answer to these sons of bitches is a good thing.
Do you think so?