Conversation 659-020

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Well, I don't have anything else to bother you about, Mr. President.

Is there any information that you'd like to hear?

No, I have no other comparison to Mr. Paul, sir.

Yeah.

When the hell ever dreamed up the idea, it should be a white tie.

Ah, I decided one white tie this year.

That's it.

It isn't anymore.

Do you wear those new collars?

Do you have a new collar, or do you wear those little ones?

I don't know, but I've probably worn them.

But it's awful.

Do you wear them with the collar button that pins on?

I don't know.

You wear a fixed collar.

It's all part of the sock.

Well, it's soft until it gets to the laundry.

That's right.

But anyway...

All right, February 15th.

Yes, Senator, you saw mine, the money.

I took it for old.

It's like pop.

Yeah.

No, commuted.

Commuted.

That's a very good conversation.

Is that it?

Honestly, it's not good or good, honestly.

I wonder if it's...

I don't know what you said.

But so many compared to the country itself.

But beautiful today.

Two inches north.

Yeah.

I'll end it.

We do want to see this as a matter of course.

I want to see what the greatest change

Mr. Breeden was bothering all over me.

I spent three hours with him.

Thank you.

Let's see, what do you want here?

The kids would like to give me some idea what they'd like to do.

And they would like to make one very formal picture of the two of you standing here in front of the flags in color.

And then they also, after we do that, we move to another position.

Now, we're doing this in color and black and white, so we have both whites.

Okay?

Okay.

Just stand right up together, but I'm looking right up to you.

Dr. Goodison?

Yes.

That's right.

I'm not really sure he doesn't think I'll be able to stand.

I'm just looking right out.

That's right.

Now, when you want to move this position, we'll check your focus.

You got it?

All right.

Mr. President, sitting on the edge of the desk, like I am, Dr. Kissinger, right out of the country.

All right.

Well, it's in profile.

Pretty close to the desk.

That's right.

All of us are looking at each other.

Now, keep your eyes open, Mr. President, looking at Dr. Kissinger's eyes.

That's right.

Any complete casual talk.

Let me change just a little bit.

That's right.

We've heard that so often for 30 years.

I think that's just the way it is.

He said he could not believe it.

But he meant that he couldn't do it.

All right, and one other change, sir.

All right?

Mr. President, stand right here.

Hands on the desk like this.

All right?

And I'm going to put you over on this side.

All right, I'd like you to stand and talk right in this way, sir.

Good night.

Start to lean on your fingers, Mr. President.

Yes, sir.

It doesn't hurt to lean forward a little bit either.

All right.

I'm going to make a change.

I'm Dr. Kissinger.

Right across the table.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

I still avoided getting into the Middle East.

I figured the longer I can keep them dangling.

But next Friday comes the moment of truth.

I'd better start talking to him.

So he called his attitude was very insufferable.

Oh, he said, we want it.

We want big agreements made.

We don't want it to be a social visit.

We...

We'll make them.

And he said, you and I, I mean, he and I, we're going to have it all worked out by early May.

The communique will be all set.

When you leave, your president doesn't have to worry.

This will all be done.

And, well, he said he practically guaranteed us all the treatment.

The trade, it's done.

Middle East, we hope for.

And I told him, he asked a number of questions on Vietnam.

One that was rather interesting.

She said, how about withdrawal for prisoners and not a ceasefire, but a sort of a standstill.

And just for the record, I said, just so that we couldn't say, so that we can show this at some time, I said, look, if they make any serious proposition like that, it will get the most careful consideration here.

We may want to say at some point we told the Russians.

Yeah, we might have to give that some kind of stance.

And then he said, how do we set on a Geneva conference?

I said, we afford it.

He said, well, that's what he knew, but he just wanted to confirm it.

I'm amazed that the North Vietnamese have been much tamer than I thought they'd be.

They haven't turned it down.

How come?

I am not so sure.

The tragedy, the crime is that our people are turning it down.

By who?

Well, Joe Kraft is beginning to niggle away at it.

Well, of course.

And Rester.

Rester.

Yeah.

That's a hell of a note.

Now, these guys have no responsibility, so they piss on it.

What are they pissing on?

The only thing that we haven't offered yet, and never will, is to turn over... That's what they want.

But I think actually... On the other hand, Henry, when we say, so Joe cracked, I think we've got a lot of public support.

Mr. President, I think we have, in a few minutes, I'm going to see the P.O.W.

I think, Mr. President, we have gained more from that speech than I thought was possible.

What they have done on the time cover, they've called me

They have put my name on it.

They have put my picture on it.

But they have a heading that says, Nixon's Secret Emissary.

So it's...

I mean, that's the... Well, it concerns me, Mr. President, because... Well, that doesn't bother me.

What bothers me is when something good happens, you ought to get the credit because, A, you deserve it,

and B, none of us is running.

That's right.

But when they say Nixon's secret emissary, that makes me the two.

Right.

But getting back to this...

If we let the impression that I did it... Sure, so crap, this is on Washington Post.

And yet you have some very interesting editorial support.

Oh, I would say... Or that we usually have.

Oh, John Scali says it's still overwhelming.

Yeah.

So I just wouldn't worry about it.

I don't worry.

It does bother me.

It's wrong.

Every goddamn American ought to stand up and be for this.

And ought to be proud and pleased that his president worked so hard.

That son of a bitch is proud.

It's probably meant because you didn't tell him.

Well, he's not yet really attacked it, but he's... And the same with the New York Times.

That son of a bitch, Lyman, gives us one good editorial that he calls up today with ten hot ideas of how we can improve the author.

And that's our trouble.

It's a moral collapse of our leadership group.

Instead of somebody saying...

The collapse is unbelievable.

I can tell you, I go in there to the damn room and I meet with the construction industry council...

The only ones wearing the American flag in that room beside me were the labor leaders.

I'm telling you, those guys are good.

They're all for us.

I don't give a damn.

It's our national defense.

They believe in this country.

We love the country.

I don't wear it for pictures because it doesn't come out great.

I don't know what the hell it is.

I like to stick it with it.

I like to stick it with an election.

You see the flag in the audience on the picture.

Yeah, that's right.

But anyway, we had some fun, you know, some fun.

I tell you, Henry, I'm on that offer.

I think we made a, it came off bad at the end, right?

Oh, I didn't think it would get this reaction.

We got a reaction, the country was good.

One thing I find so interesting is not twice after months of screaming about secrecy in government,

If you bring up something secretly, they love it.