Conversation 667-001

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Silence.

Give us a minute.

Well, if we do something, we'll follow the report.

Teddy has not had to set a quitter and get it strapped up to that.

I don't think it's going to be done before.

I did have to notice.

Give him a pass.

Good idea.

Give him a pass.

Or if I have to say it, give him a pass.

Give him a pass.

So they can have a view of the situation.

So they use.

I understand this from this market came off the way.

What is it?

Oh, the Rockets was was good time was very good.

And he's got top of both.

That was the thing that he really, really came through.

That's the very thing that we get.

Others that are finally coming through with the process.

So it isn't just John Connolly out in front all the time.

We're out of time.

Well, that's good to know.

We didn't know he was quite up to it.

I don't know what they thought of her.

He's not good at that, too, because his language plays a part in that.

We'll get this later on.

It's good that he has a little revival spirit.

That's a little odd.

But they expected to be there.

I wouldn't even have no idea.

We were afraid of that.

We did not emphasize the point of the compromise, which, of course, I wanted to do.

It went on and on and on and on.

We're afraid of that, putting them on, because it's hard to get to that.

I don't mind doing it, except that this is an issue they care about a lot.

It could have been left off.

But listen, don't be critical of the health.

Buzz is fine.

Buzz, incidentally, has taken a dang good position on the farm thing.

Some people, I'm sure, will argue that it's wrong.

But politically, it seems to me, he could be better for us because he's saying to farmers, and it's getting reported to consumers too,

To find out maybe the prices are going up, but the farmers deserve this kind of return, I'm going to fight with every bone in my body to get the farmers what they ought to have.

And I can't go out and say that.

It should mean a higher price, but I shouldn't put those in good hands and back them away.

I mean, he gets them a loan, but he gets cranked up with it, you know.

Something hard can never do.

Well, and it's hard to do here because our other gun calls tell them, you know, they'll jump on you.

They'll all get on them and say, look, God damn it, we're trying to get prices down for this country.

And you're, you're, well, anyway, it's rare in case they're going to bring the prices up.

So this may as well tell them that and make them feel good.

Well, that's one area where you can speak with two voices to deal with.

You don't get that close.

You've got to do that in a general press anyway.

And everybody knows food prices are going up, and we can be talking on other sides of the thing about getting them down, and talk about getting them squeezed down in the processors, and the middlemen, and the retailers, and all that stuff.

Producing.

Right.

Thank you.

If you want to ship the dive

The emphasis there would probably be in addition to or instead of energy.

Okay.

Not on this one.

Okay.

I don't think it's quite ready.

Also, I don't want to put it this way.

I don't want to put it in this copy.

I thought you just said you wanted to run into that boy, right?

Who did that?

Very strong news rise on that damn speech last night.

Oh, what the hell?

No, no, Bob, the network radio show, which is where, actually, a lot of these people, a lot of these people, I mean, I remember at the time, I was in the goddamn discussion room.

He took three hours to do that and got it over to me, and so I read it.

So I had to take ten minutes at the end and add to it, you know, I talked a bunch, I chatted, that sort of thing, just started to give him a lift.

But goddammit, we have got to do something about the speech thing.

It really, it was an audience that wanted to share something, you know, wanted to get a little lift.

And I just think, I don't know if it would,

I hate to say it, but I don't think Ray is a good speaker.

And therefore, he's not a good speech editor.

And frankly, I think it helps by the right.

I read those two speeches.

One of them has got a bite in the eye.

I haven't read one yet.

Well, that's got to be something to look at.

Yeah.

Because Nebraska had news in it.

That's where you called for the man.

It was that youth to join with us.

This speech was not, frankly, written for the audience.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, that's the last important thing.

because it just wasn't working for the audience.

I mean, I understand.

The thing I can't emphasize too strongly, I don't think that anybody here, I mean, even I, I think you do, but they don't realize that on the stage, and on these goddamn radio, that television, I agree with those self-affection speeches, you know what I mean?

You've got to go back and read that just in your head.

I did.

He said, what would have happened?

I didn't remember that.

I believe you.

I really, I, I, it was, I thought, yeah, I thought you were exaggerating.

No, what was I exaggerating?

No, his words, the version was over here.

He really thought you were exaggerating.

It was, you know, 9.7 points.

Dr. Disker did this, he did that.

Yep.

And then he ended it.

It got so tangled up in, you know, and then I did this, and he did that.

It's a history professor's type of lecture that overlooks all of the points.

And that's basically what we get pretty much in the crisis office.

And I, when we work about damn things, if I have the time, I get a couple of hit-or-miss.

But we just have one hell of a time, and I just don't think it needs to be this bad.

You know, I agree with the problem.

Either that or we're making speeches.

That's the other thing.

I think maybe that's the better answer, because we're making the goddamn things.

It really, really was not.

It should have been better.

I mean, it should have happened.

I'll tell you what, both Price and Sapphire are not capable of emotion.

That's what it gets down to.

A speech has got to have a little emotion in it.

It's got to have a little letter in it.

Yeah.

I was distressed to note one thing, that, uh, uh, God only had written the Memorandum to me with regard to the value added to it, and God, of course, anticipated myself.

You may recall, I spoke to you about it.

And, uh, that's the one, I told you, John Irvin had to defeat me.

Yeah, and John Irvin answered the Memorandum.

along in our heads, and certainly not in the white house, but in the life of a creature and other creature people.

Well, I find that's exactly the point I raised after I saw that, because I was very, very...

I didn't know it got that well.

I said, here, David, sit on me.

Here, David, sit on me.

I played it for the record because he felt the fire was taking a bad rap.

What he did it for was to try to open the line.

He tried three times to see it.

And it got canceled.

It got set once, canceled, and then couldn't set the next few times.

I figured he ought to get the thing over it.

I did it right for me.

He made the wrong decision.

I don't think he should have put the beer in his inch.

And I just don't.

He's got to say they can't get the seat on me.

I don't know.

Yeah, it's maybe true.

It's hard.

But my point is, then almost forget it.

You cannot have White House people writing, you start this missile campaign.

and going from one office to another, and going to your law office.

The guy might call you, I mean, or any other.

She said, I don't know if, I mean, I write letters to people that I know.

We don't do that.

John wouldn't have, had he been able to see it.

But he thought he ought to.

That's his story, I think.

He thought he had to get the point of it.

There's a problem, and there's going to continue to be.

It's very hard for the guys you've got here, Conley, I mean, Merle, and Schultz, and Henry, that's going to be for Peter, to get things done, dealing with Conley, because he is, he's got his hand in 300 too many pies.

He's got to schedule himself well.

He's got to get his equal.

Well, he's got to want people.

He spends a lot of time seeing ambassadors.

And that, in my view, has to be a total waste of his time.

I mean, I'm probably wrong.

Maybe there's somebody who's a courtesy son, but he's seen this event in the back of his heart.

Courtesy problems.

This should not be a start on the job.

I go right down the line.

I don't see ambassadors.

The only thing I can see is the goddamn congressmen.

I know.

I just don't see too many of those.

They all...

It's like anybody else.

He waits a good chunk of his time on stuff he doesn't have to do.

And anybody who handles his own schedule is going to do that.

What he's got to do is if he trusts him, he'll use him.

If he doesn't get another kind of...

We'll do this once and for all.

The fact that you can talk to whoever handles the schedules, go over and put it in, and say, look, I wouldn't see all these, and I wouldn't see these, and God damn it, an ambassador from Mauritania shouldn't see the Secretary of the Trade.

He should.

I don't want to see them.

I mean, I don't even want to receive his credentials.

But he should see me on their own.

There's too much... Well, yeah, Tom has got it clear to you, John Tom.

And if he does tell you, then it doesn't get done.

Your argument is that it's better not to have it done than to do it without a family sparing.

But if you get to a point where that becomes a problem.

Well, that's the instance of what's the case of two common parents of Bob.

I mean, that was my view.

I just think it's a bad judgment.

I don't agree with John.

And it's done.

Once you're done, I don't believe in raising a child.

Well, I can emphasize that John and Henry, Henry sends his peremptory letters to Rogers, Blair, and so forth and so on.

That's one of the reasons the relationship's so goddamn bad.

Whenever you could use a telephone, use a goddamn telephone.

Or whenever you could see a man, you could see him.

But the moment you get into the business of, you know, of sending a guy a letter,

Well, letters get nearer and nearer, and that kind of a matter, too.

So the bullshit gets the shit out of people.

It sounds, too.

You know, when you're talking, I take a smile and try to back off of it.

You see how the guy's reacting and all that.

You write a letter, it's just cold.

And he could have said, I'm only writing this because I'm saying, you know, I want to save your time.

Just for the record, I'd like to save, you know what I mean?

You've got to come home to him.

Well, you know, to be discreet.

Yeah.

And he loved him.

Yeah.

And he thought he was.

But he, you know, John gets the Saturday night.

Maybe after the other one he couldn't get him, so he did it this way.

Well, that's the argument.

I'm not sure that he's tried to.

I don't think he's gotten it.

And he's planning to, hoping to, get a chance to talk to you about the plane going down.

Calentary action works out pretty well.

They're going into dinner at 7, so you can go over at 7.10 and be out of there at 7.20 and leave here at 7.30.

Pretty close, though.

At an awards dinner, they have only two awards to present, one to an organization, one to an individual.

Why is it that they'd like you to, and I think it's a good thing for you to do, give you, you know, career remarks.

It's some old folks' organization and a black woman's service.

It also preempts it.

You don't do it.

Eunice Kennedy, Eunice Charter, whatever her name is, would be the one to present it to the woman.

I don't know if it fits to the old clothes, but they'd much rather have you do it, of course.

Is she going to be there?

Yes.

OK. On the bipartisan leader's meeting, I assume you want the

First, don't do anything on that if you understand, because I'm allowed as part of my press thing.

You're not going to put me in on something big.

Don't have Alex call people you haven't seen for a long time.

You were the original city.

I think it's, you know, good to be changed because I've told them to hold up everything.

So I brought a few little tips and tricks.

Okay.

On that, you wanted to

Our service is for license, appropriation, medicine, and medicine.

Well, I'm thinking of the eye.

I've been trying to think about that a little.

That's true.

That gives you really all the guidance that you'll need.

Now, let me... Let's keep it open until...

Those times, we have all those.

We have to be steady, you know, if we go forward.

We may have just a few, just, you know, a very small group, one or the other, depending upon developments around the world.

But I don't know.

I'm just trying to get my feel of it.

It's more of a policy thing if you go to the new draft.

Yeah.

It's not hard.

We did it.

It's important for the defense now.

It's about to put everything together.

And that satisfies the department.

So I'm going to put it on.

It's making a difference.

I'll be goddamned if I have any answers to each thing.

But I'll be goddamned if it just

I mean, I know it's... After that one, I decided after, because I said, why in the hell did I fall in the situation?

Take off a couple hours, you know, work for a month.

It didn't, you see, it's...

It's okay to say it.

It's not a good experience.

It was a proper river.

It didn't have the, you know what I mean, the coast.

Yeah, I planned it.

They had a little blast.

They were there.

They wanted to cheer a little bit.

It's a very important group.

You come from all over the goddamn country, and then all they listen to in the rain is understand the other thing.

I must say, I do not think that that kind of reason or whatever is in our political interests.

The more I think about it now is that, you know what I mean?

This idea that, or maybe I'm using the other direction, but I'll get them over to the checkers and so forth and so on.

But I don't think they thought they'd get out of the shed.

They're basically such, they think they're doing a favor in common.

They're not the kind of people that are, doesn't like the rotors.

This is the number you're watching on TV.

And then find out whether or not, don't call his office now, but find out from his office.

Part of his office probably has a program for whether or not he's on the 1990 conference program.

He's on it.

Who called the comics on us?

I can't have an economic deal with all these people.

If he weren't on, I'm sure it would have been because they'd asked me to monitor for some reason, which he normally wouldn't do on something like that.

It takes all of us.

Maybe the whole answer is just to try to bury these goddamn things in far more parks and forget that they used to be garbage.

they won't sit down and figure out what the hell is supposed to be like you know how do you speak to people rather than

Well, I don't know.

It isn't that they won't.

They try.

It's that they can.

Because I talked to Ray this morning, and every day he asked how it went.

And he said, oh, fine.

He said, you know, the president had me take the two of them together and made it a little longer.

And he said, of course, he then went on after that text and covered some of it.

That's what he thinks.

And you've got this problem that, apparently, that you raised yesterday.

You've taken 15 or 20 minutes to whip the thing together or something.

I don't think he realizes that you don't do that.

But when you whip it together, it takes three or four hours.

At least, well, I don't take it directly into the paragraph, so that makes, if you've got a figure, I've got a figure.

Now I have two hours of my time in order to prepare anything that needs anything.

What the hell are you going to do if you don't just sit down and get away with it?

Because I've got to say something a little different each time.

That's the other problem.

And the goddammit, so later, Paris is coming.

You know, in the old days, it was easy.

You want it to sound that way, but it must never be that way.

Well, I wouldn't raise it on that subject, but if you just go and continue your search, and just move on to the speechwriter, I'll...

You can't punch a computer button and say, give me the run of the speechwriters, because there is no such thing.

The guy you're looking for probably is the speechwriter.

But what the hell is he?

He's got to be a guy who understands speechwriting.

I think what concerns me is that he is such an activist.

and is so confident that activism works, that it really troubles him, that maybe it ends very soon.

Is the luncheon speaker here?

I just want to be sure.

Everybody wants to come.

I think the time is required, perhaps, to take the time.

First, the kids don't schedule lunch.

Or, that's exactly that, probably.

Sometimes the kids say that, but you can often make a few remarks every now and then, and some of the assholes come to town.

But the other part is that when we schedule, I'll just take the time to prepare something that I feel comfortable with.

Until we get the problem solved, that's the way to get out of here, get the shit out of here.

And then make our culture, guys.

We still have to give you idea stuff, you know, because then you'll be able to get ideas and anecdotes.

Yes, but not all that much is right.

They will argue that if you, a week or 10 days ahead of an event, would take either their ideas and give them critique at that point, or take...

But, but you see,

that you know that they're this is done those that you just don't they don't come off the top of your head i don't do it i can't you just think about it that's the beginning we don't uh they won't do that they're told a hundred times they have their ideas just by just hearing the threat well for the better reason

But now I do the outline.

I can talk.

I can really talk.

But then if I did this, and if I want to write or do that, then I can give them that draft, and they can take that and give me a draft.

Well, then they're not writing.

So you need to be shot in the face and send out that thing.

You don't have to write as much, but some of them.

It's that kind of thing now.

Maybe that, if you give up, if you face the fact that you don't have a writer who's going to do it for you, maybe that's an easier way to do it than for you

take the talking points, and try to add level.

Try to add level.

I don't know.

But what's probably is that it'll probably take you just as much work to do that and end up reading the speech, which is what I was good at, is add level.

You can't experience it.

There's no question that now, and on any occasion, even including the civility into that, actually, if you could add level, it'd be better than reading the speech.

And also, you've got to remember that you've got to play to your abilities.

And I have an unusual ability to advocate in an organized way.

You also have an unusual ability to read the streets.

And you know that's a bad thing.

Oh, no.

God, you're so bad at it.

Okay.

It's me.

You do much better at reading the speech than Lyndon Johnson or Harry.

They were not what I asked for.

All three of us did a very bad job at reading the speech.

Roosevelt did a superb job at reading the speech.

That's the only thing I ever did.

But I think that was Roosevelt and Marx.

Well, also we did get a television.

He never had more than a few thousand people looking at him while he read a speech.

You never have less than a few million people looking at you, in most cases.

Now, reading a speech for radio, you can do just as well as those above you.

If you have a radio style, if you have a radio voice, it works.

But radio isn't.

It may be, but it wasn't.

Today, the television is that medium.

On television, you've got your scene.

And if you're seen, you are more effective.

There's just too many of us.

More effective if you don't read.

and just try to wing everything and screw the fucking writing books.

That's all there is to it.

They're going to sleep on it while they are.

They wouldn't worry about that.

They believe I am.

They wouldn't.

Well, that's the last I don't care about the hell of New York.

It never helps.

Yeah.

Anyway, they've got a car.

They've got a thing, too.

Try to figure it out.

Well, there may be

that went along with the point you were making the other day on we've got to do more unplanned things.

Yeah.

Force coverage because the things we plan don't get to the truck.

But that may apply to speeches, too.

In other words, the text that you need when you force people to drive together.

Sure, you keep their deadlines and all that kind of stuff.

But what if they don't know what they're going to say?

Then they've got to pay attention to what you say.

That's right.

And they stood their right to say something.

And the report stood their right to file a summary.

Whether he's bedding or not.

The reporter and also the television cameras have to cover you.

Maybe he makes the news up, whereas otherwise he might not.

I didn't text.

The text also had to be covered.

And we can have a reproduction facility to show it.

That's another factor today that we have overlooked to a degree, is that when you say it's a great report.

The reason I got a hearing was because I had a speaker, an author,

And so you get to the point that one factor in modern technology that we haven't thought about is our ability to reproduce, which we didn't used to have.

It doesn't make any difference.

Okay, right.

Okay, let's see what they're going to write.

They're going to write, I mean, it doesn't represent them, so they're right.

But what difference does it make whether they have advanced standards?

God damn it.

It has no better, whatever.

Well, I mean.

It's much better.

They have, you know, you give it to them, well, they're advanced, and they're a lot handier and all that.

You don't have to stop there.

I'm not an advocate of advanced standards.

I don't.

I'm not an advocate.

No, sir, absolutely not.

We have one for you.

Maybe, you know, it's a television speech.

If you are going to read it, you have it, fine.

We give an advance.

We benefit.

But I don't think we should ever.

Well, it's within limited degrees, but I don't consider that to be more.

We need to force them to be surprised at what the president is concerned, and where they've got to cover anything that comes to the human view.

The advance text gives them a chance to fire around right there on the surface.

Sir, any decision should ever be made because of getting out of the advance text.

The other moral of it is that anything you're doing, if you want any coverage on it, do it tomorrow.

Don't do it tonight.

Oh, I know that.

Do it in ten minutes.

Yeah, that's like, like for this time.

Yeah, you could have been the luncheon speaker yesterday, not the dinner speaker.

I was not giving you one of that.

I literally didn't care at all.

As a matter of fact, the luncheon speaker is much better for me anyway.

Because what I had to do was just sit around all afternoon, waste my time, get ready for the goddamn thing, go over there and get back home, back by nine o'clock or ten o'clock or whatever, but use my computer.

And it's October, it's 9 a.m.

So on his desk, always, always, he can't go to bed, can he?

I would think that.

Well, no, I didn't read a lot.

He can't go to sleep after, you know.

Well, even though I was telling him I should go back to reading, you know, I had to.

But the funny thing is, always schedule me for different things.

I wish I had gotten in while I was here.

Yeah.

I mean, he's never been a chance.

He's very excited.

But in the future, in all scheduling, my appearances will be in them.

law.

You know, get it done in the morning, and I'm done with the damn thing.

I couldn't agree more.

This night's meeting is worth a day.

It is unbelievable.

It's just not.

It really is.

It's nothing.

No good.

Struggle.

They're not pushing me.

I don't know what's wrong with it.

That's for sure.

And so the night meeting, he said, all you guys are going to have to do is read the newspaper for next

television and the radio i continue to be an advocate of radio i think about all of those automobiles out there guys who want to work and listen to the news listen to the rock and roll stations and break in with five minutes listen to good music

The guy comes in for five minutes, takes a quick, good news summary, and the president's always in the lead of it.

It has had tremendous impact.

Yes, sir.

Two minutes of impact.

He was good out here, too.

I think he finally did the post-leadership briefing right.

We went out and we did two things.

The dog shark hit hard, talked about the billion-dollar loss in 1972, went immediately into the heat.

which is the story of the discussion of foreign policy.

Don't mind criticism.

Don't mind discussion.

The question is offering an alternative.

The presidential candidate is offering an alternative.

This, of course, undermines undercuts.

And then he read your 1960s platform statement.

And just both of them did a hell of a job.

Are there any questions that have come into your mind?

He kicked the points on casualties.

500,000 when we came in, 300,000 killed, down now, below five.

Couldn't use the two.

But they did an excellent job.

They referred to us.

Roger.

A loyal man.

Well, the point is he got out and said it.

Is he going to make it?

We've got to remember that they did.

Okay.

Okay, Mr. Major.

Am I willing to go to Marie?

No, sir.

Go to the environmental message.

She tells the trainer out there, don't go after them.

I haven't done anything.

All right.

You did it.

Oh, yes.

Don't go.

First of all, it was about 25% too long.

It ran about 90 seconds, rather than 45 seconds.

I cannot emphasize too strongly about it.

Also, when I'm talking to an adult person.

And also makes them write better.

100 words.

Remember I told you?

100 words.

Now 100 words I can say in 45 seconds.

And God damn, why don't they make it 100 words?

I can write 100 good words.

It's a lot of time to write here.

But they won't do it.

I think you can make a hell of a case that even if they use a minute and a half, you're better off if they only use 45 seconds.

That's right.

If you're not in 45 seconds, you're just telling them, no, I don't want to see a message at any time.

I just don't want to see it.

I don't want to see it to the Red Cross.

I don't want to see it to our troops abroad.

I don't want to see it to Happy Birthday or the old lady's home.

I just don't want to see it, Father Moore.

I don't want

And we're sending messages to neighbors who are too long again, or they don't have enough.

In fact, those should be 50 words.

Not one word over where 25, you know.

Set your standards and give it that way.

Uh, they either really cracked the price off or something like that.

They may not be able to do speeches, but they've done them well and keep the messages down.

So it's a reasonable amount.

See?

I agree.

I think that's pretty good.

One hundred words is maximum, depending on where you're over and how many words I want to explain.

Well, I think you're right on the dinner messages, too.

If you ever mess with your mom and read that stuff, you know, let's say twenty-five, about twenty-five words.

Let's say twenty-five words in a dinner message.

And leave out all the crap.

I'm so sorry.

It's an important occasion and all that sort of stuff.

So just say it.

Say it.

Get to the point.

This is a great man you're honoring tonight.

He does it such and such.

Good luck.

That's the problem.

The writers, they can't do it.

Now, when I work, it's basically the same thing.

I do my thing.

Sure, I write about a lot of things.

I do paragraph.

I get the outline and the word that's on the page over and over.

But I don't have much time.

That's why they had some crap coming in here.

You see the point?

You were there.

All right.

I know you've discussed this many times, and I guess it's a dead end.

Well, it is, because it's sort of like getting a really good baseball player and telling him to go out and be a good quarterback, and then saying, you know, why aren't you telling me to play right, and why can't you get the ball where it's going?

I think I just, you've asked him to do something, but he just isn't there to write beautiful stuff.

But to ask him to write a speech is just, the night that you're talking about, just, you're asking him to do something.

That's your wall.

They're all basically in us.

You saw that in the end, because he'd often get, he'd actually look for writers all the time.

He'd often get down to a group of essentially good writers.

They won't do it, then we shouldn't write an ad.

Because in an ad, you've got to, you've got to, you've got to make an opinion.

You've got to make an opinion.

And Jim Colquhoun is the one that got in.

And you know, that's what really, that's what really gives a speech is.

He's got a few words, and now Scott sort of overdoes it.

But at least he says a few things that get recorded.

And, uh, one of the, one of the problems with Jerry is that he's a baller.

He's a Jerry.

He's a Terry McDonald.

Terry McDonald.

Right.

Once in a while, Jerry picks up stuff and he's in it.

Let me say that we are sending a much better stuff than what you're seeing.

We have a hell of a problem in Stirling.

And the problem is that we've got to get more stilettos unless we access.

When we do send good stuff, it's got to be done a little more cleverly.

You've got to do it in Scott's way.

looking at the stuff and uh scott can be just vicious as hell but he loves it but he doesn't but he doesn't clutter it so it takes a little it makes it hurt more it takes some of the the blood out well i see that if you hold it the truck got all three networks last night

No, Henry, it was fine.

He's a leader.

Henry, I had a talk with the leaders before they went out just a little bit on the Manila.

Manila?

Well, the 1966 thing was right.

You were briefing yesterday when I said that you never criticized out-of-office.

Well, some guys stood up and

But it was 1966.

That's the point.

We'll make it.

I don't think anyone else will even try to bring that up.

Well, I was a candidate for president in 1966.

And there was no negotiation.

There was no negotiation.

Johnson simply said, if you'll withdraw in North, we'll be out in six months.

That's right.

That's what I called it.

You know what he said of the evidence?

He did not just tell us.

The evidence is a unilateral declaration that fired Johnson about our policy and our arrangements.

But he was not negotiating them.

They're not being changed.

You never asked for an oppression of disagreement.

I have said over and over again, Senators, columnists, and all the rest, but second in hand, I wouldn't mind to get away with it.

It's enough for nothing then, right?

You can go back to my interview, because I made the point, that was how the whole point was brought in to begin with, was what kind of criticism bothers you.

And I made the point it's only that criticism that interferes with the carrying out of a policy.

What's your – how's that story anymore just to come from today?

Well, the leaders are asking about it.

They have, I think, a delicate way.

They simply said, well, it's a personal view, and they're not going to, you know, comment or expand upon my other line.

I did.

But actually, it gives everyone, Bob, a position now where they can come out hard and still be –

He put it this way.

He said, the Muskie people are leaving with joy because they think this has really set them up now.

But he said, when they stop entering with it, they're going to realize that they've been had.

Because, and this is what Holden never speaks loosely, or ever speaks at all.

He says something that was a reason for his saying.

And the reason here is that Muskie has now been forced to a decision.

He's been trying to move to the left and capture, you know, reach out delicately and pick up some of this peace stuff.

He's now been chopped off and has to make a decision, which he before didn't have to make.

Which way is he going to go now?

Is he going to go for surrender, which is the only way to stay over on the left?

Or is he going to come back off of this position, trying to get back on the other side at all?

In which case, he's in real trouble.

He said if when they start running, they're going to realize that maybe they aren't so deep black.

You know, it's a must he hasn't said in one word.

Well, I mean, you know, that's quite about their delight.

Let me tell you, I'm not so sure that was Ron's reaction from here.

We sit around here in Washington and they moan about the Browns, you know, taking on the other person.

I don't think they particularly want this equation to happen.

The Democrats?

Yeah.

I don't think they know what I mean.

They are in a new swing.

Our poll analysis is accurate at all.

We're doing the right thing.

The more we keep it going, the better off we are.

As long as we talk, we're going to be fine.

That's my point.

much because of the guys in that car.

Sure.

For example, I've met some, you know, mother of all services, you know, right when, you know.

I said, what do you think about all of the states?

He said, I don't know.

I said, he's right.

So that, you know, and I was telling the president, well, no, but we were talking yesterday.

You know, we here at Washington, we here in Washington sit around and we say, well, you know, what about the McCarthyism and the philosophical?

The guy out in the car, out on the West Coast and all over,

hear something like that, and they will say right.

You know, the president should be running.

You know, who else can negotiate?

Well, you'll have to stop.

You've got to have their own.

You've got to have the right ones.

But we just, I think we just, well, the float up there.

Now, the president takes your line that we took yesterday.

It's right to criticize.

I don't think I've said this justice to these president-elects.

They're not president-elects.

They didn't put...

They did not press the leaders this morning.

They were not listening.

NBC figured out it was such important news that they gave it up on NBC or whatever it was last night.

Why didn't they fix it up for 10 days?

Yeah, they've had that story in the can for 10 days.

Okay.

While I was there, they could have run it on the news.

They could have run it on the evening news.

Of course, they had it in hand.

They knew it.

So it was there.

Oh, that's right.

I think we've been going to the post office.

I think it's a good one.

Well, you may have a story to laugh about.

I did a press conference about it today.

What did you do there, Bob?

I did a press conference about it.

Why do you think the press is only answering?

Because they don't have a chance.

There's no question of the president thinking the press is the answer.

It's the point of the press.

Indy Fairbairn might have done with the Press Corridor, quote, always have been in this vast majority of the Press Corridor, politically and philosophically opposed to her political and philosophical position originally.

Correct.

Well, that doesn't block me.

That isn't something out there in the people's eye.

I'm not in a hurry to do it from the start.

That's how the President understands that perfectly, and realizes that they're perfectly honest in their opposition.

Talk about that.

In other words, we're knowing that this exists.

The reaction is not there for the first season.

The reaction is not fair for them to see.

In other words, we, in our overall press relations, have been fair.

So they don't have a, they don't have that issue to seize on.

I don't think we've given them a certain knowledge.

I don't think that's the reason.

I don't think we're making a difference with our overall press relations.

I don't believe

that even though you've got that, most of them are not energetic enough.

Most of them are not energetic enough to get off their asses and carry out their biases.

Therefore you can get away with beating them with a lot of stuff.

Well, not all of them all the time, but all of them some of the time.

Well, I agree.

I agree.

I agree to this extent.

I don't think we ever get invited by setting up as our press strategy, treating them nicer, catering to them.

But I think that the best press strategy is to, as we were talking about before, keep them off balance and keep them kind of confused and so forth by not allowing them to seize upon their own mental attitude that

The thing that they're being trodden upon and repressed or whatever the word is.

Well, no president's ever going to go back and leave the restaurant.

I don't know.

I've never been back to it.

You know, Mr. General, the best way to go back to it is to go to John C. Kennedy.

The zealot went off.

The zealot?

What?

Johnson had a car.

It just started soaring in the evening.

My wife knew about it before I made one.

They started running, correct?

Yeah.

But the minute they began to get a few knocks, it sure could have cooled off.

And doesn't serve any use of public purpose.

Beyond their own knowledge.

Well, I have a line I can answer, and they say, when's the president going to have a press conference so we can get some questions answered?

I said, what are they?

And then they, you know, mumble around, and they can't come up with anything.

That's the other thing.

We have all these questions.

They say, what are they?

And they can't, they cloud it right away.

Very good.

Well, I think if you were a few years into a law firm, you'd be able to see the device, the publishing lines, at a certain time.

At a certain time.

At a little over the mark.

Well, I think doing the Thursday one in the office is the right way to do it.

Jack Pipsa.

Supporter.

Yeah.

He's an all-out right wing.

Enthusiast.

Steiger's good on the other side.

That's a good idea, having a couple other guys in each camp.

I'm going to be all the time, because there's a lot of guys in each camp.

It will be eventually.

It takes time.

It takes a hell of a long time.

I don't know, this is the guys that are part of it.

The guys that are out busting their ass for rigid nations, too.

That's correct.

That's the only time they're going to get time to come to everybody.

So why is it phased off?

That's not a bad word to get around, to start your gets at.

And Luke Fry or Bill Cross or any of those people, I'll tell you a story.

Well, my idea is that your Democratic friends are not going to have a problem.

They don't know if they want to jump on this line.

I feel very comfortable this morning about because I think they did a good job.

We'll have to see how it moves.

But I think they moved it away.

In other words, your thing was out there for a day, but it didn't make a point.

And I think the leaders today kind of moved it a degree

to the point of not second-guessing the president, and not all cameras, because it will undercut, I think, because of your statement, what they said today will get big play.

I think it should.

Because you can sense in the room, the reporters were, you know, the guys back on the cameras were making sure the film was rolling, which they always don't do.

Now, we'll have to wait and see.

They'll get big play.

What I said got big play because of what Roger said, too.

Yeah, it is.

See, that's what they may have to do.

The other thing they finally picked up on the news last night, which was some advantage, I guess, was the more pertinent point I made, which was that the people now who persist in the criticism have only one, can't have only one solution, which is to turn this out now and we're going to do a common discovery.

They're not willing to stay there.

That's what Joe Graf is saying.

Nobody is going to suggest that we should return.

The best way for this to focus, without getting into extensive discussions on C-STAR and things that people don't understand, the best way for this to focus is

The President is there with the responsibility, doing everything he can, and these people over here are undercutting him and diluting his efforts.

That is the real issue that we'll take with people.

That's the next step.

I think we have to make every effort to not allow the issue to come down to what the Democrats are fighting to get into and pushing to get into, to set in their public mind two versus 400 prisoners.

That's right.

See, now, we've got to...

It is.

But we've got to be very cautious that we don't allow them to drive us into that position, because that is

The thing we weren't on.

It's not that.

My role has turned it completely, like a play on that, has turned it completely away from the POWs versus Q.

And gets it to the question of undercutting the negotiations, first of all, and the communists turning over.

There's a different thing to turning over South Vietnam to the communists than there is to supporting the Q government.

I haven't mentioned Q at all.

But the strongest issue is the president on this issue.

I think in order to make that point, the president, as he is, maintains the posture up here.

moving to meet his responsibility and lets all of this occur down here, and that will solidify this position.

And I think the American people can't help but support the president on that.

But if it gets down to the Q, the ceasefire thing, and the 400 prisoners, it's too complex for people.

They become uncomfortable with it.

They can't understand it.

And then they finally, in frustration, say, damn it, I want out of here.

I don't care how we get out.

Why don't we just get you out of there?

Get out of here.

That's what Buston said, and that's what Buston said.

That's what Buston said.

Right.

But because he was too dumb and hadn't done his homework, he outside threw him completely off of that.

That's what Buston said.

They may, in their frustration, say, let's do that, and the public sentiment will be built up to do it, but there's no question about it.

And the strong point, too, I think,

responsibility less on the person.

I think people accept that.

I think they're conditioned, after their life did, to accept that, you know, the looking to someone for, to assume responsibility.

They don't like to see that person who's in that position's responsibility undercut.

You know, I think it's a basic human reaction, I would quote, quote, quote, take.

If they do, if they get a good play tonight, I think the whole thing will shift in our advantage from what they said today.

In other words, there's a direction on it.

It's not the time to offer alternatives, criticize.

This man has a responsibility to still do it.

Yeah, I can imagine more hair in these elections.

Very stupid writer.

And he's a smart guy.

You know, he's not a doctrinaire right-winger.

He's very right-wing.

But he's not doctrinaire.

He's very intelligent.

Don't you think so?

Very.

He's... Yeah, he's...

He's got a lot of...

He's looking at...

He's very pragmatically intelligent.

I believe that, uh, Martin Luther King, it's goddamn hard to, uh, quit the prison in this country's head.

change in their attitudes.

I think that's what I'm proud of.

And that's why it's hard.

But that's why, frankly, we're better off having a mosquito in our hands than somebody else.

having an arms appeal.

Muskie has not an appeal for this, you know, because of the fact that he's a non-controversial change.

But I think the bottom line is that there are some guys, you know, that are not true, is that coming up with a goddamn program may not be answerable enough.

Taking the hell out of the trees.

I realize that there is a program theory and all the rest, but let's put it this way, we've got to come up with a plan.

We just have enough on the plate, and I don't think we need any new shots from this crowd.

Right now, we've got a couple of shots in our crew.

We've got a lot of stuff in the crew.

I don't think it's going to work.

The fact that people do everything they can to, to hope that unemployment goes down, but that is something you need to know, just don't worry about it.

That'll rise on that one goddamn little number.

It doesn't matter.

You can go out every day and start worrying about jobs and all that.

If it stays the same, you've got a problem.

If it goes to five years, pretty good shape.

If it goes under five years, you're sorry.

Yeah.

But it takes a while for that to happen.

Like California, where unemployment has gone down substantially, there's probably still a level of concern.

I don't think people realize it's gone down very

I hope

He's never gone over.

Has he gone over to see him yet?

He hasn't been talking to me.

get people around here overall.

I guess I'm a ambassador for the city of Alaska.

I'm an ambassador.

We know a little bit of good in my position as the vice president.

I'm not sure at all.

So, I don't know.

Our worship, I understand, we have a couple of ambassadors for it.

Rockets is my president.

Do you agree or not?

Not much.

It's a little more understanding because it puts it in Henry's opinion.

But now Henry does run a few that don't, most of them, that Henry recommends have started with Henry's devotion to taxing.

But Bill doesn't stand to turn it down.

Yeah.

With an exception.

And some of them would probably listen to him.

But

Well, that's why I purposely stayed away.

he makes the hell a lot better

He makes a call.

He's heard runs.

He is a really loyal man to some guy.

And that's the impression.

And Andrew Hill is there talking about the president.

I mean, and he does it when I'm not there.

He sure does.

And he says, he says, this is a fine thing.

He says, I'm going to say, Secretary of State, you're going to have to allow me to do it.

This is my duty.

I'm going to do that for the president.

You know, that's a very good thing.

We just got to get down to a fundamental point that Henry's presbytery, Halloween, performance, and so forth, except for some evidence that he makes, and I know he makes, but what to, you know, bring, you know, the proper balance in.

But for the most part, Paddler's primary concern is to impress the people about him.

In other words, to impress them that he knows a hell of a lot about the subject.

And as a result, almost inevitably, he gets the stories about a virtual super-farm design he's part of.

But as I modified R2 to be, and Scali is a great thing, he's great as much as Scali.

not very effective cutting edges, with regard to the points, and the reasoning as to why I agreed and I finally did it, and why I agreed and did not agree to do it.

That's the case here in its purest form.

Now that would sound great for a press briefing.

It would overhaul the hell out of it.

That would sound very complicated.

But who the hell could write a story out of that?

Who in the hell could understand it?

It was terrible.

Well, that's the point.

He did not like it.

I mean, he did not like it.

He did not like what we did.

He did not like it at all.

If he got into it on that night, when you raised all those questions, it finally, he had gone down.

I know.

But he didn't like taking it and cutting it back and so forth and so on.

But you see, literally, the whole...

I don't want to miss your approach here.

Each person's purpose.

But we've got to remember to attend to your briefing.

As we go along here.

There's something about it.

It doesn't come true.

Even though I know he wants to, as effectively as I know he wants to.

The secret is, as Congress of the Rogers, the substance of Rogers himself is nothing.

Therefore, when he says about the President, comes through, overrides what he says about the President.

He is, with this virtue, on the subject of us and the substance.

And therefore,

The one comes through louder than the other, and you don't hear the other.

And Bill was best.

He was the decided benefit to superficiality.

That's why politicians are gone.

The whole thing is superficial.

The whole thing is superficial, and especially television.

It's gone.

And that's why it's one of the profound dangers in Congress and so forth.

And first, they're elected.

Second, they are elected.

And that's true.

What is politics?

It's saying something that's, you know, acceptable.

That's why you're always going to decide if you're going to go over something that's not acceptable.

But, boy, the first time around, he was gone.

And, of course, the public was positive.

But the comment that what you've got to have to make a good

not just politician, but political leader, is an internal complexity to deal with, so that you don't kick yourself by your own oversimplifications.

And that's where Redmond falls down, is that Redmond believes his simplifications.

Yes, he believes his simplifications, I agree.

But that's an error.

On the other hand, he is a god, damn it.

I agree.

He's a hero, and he has a group of people, and they're going to all be on top, just damn it.

The main reason is because he simplifies.

He simplifies, and he says it all.

He said, he's not too good at it.

And I respect him in a very different way.

He doesn't justify at all.

But just overall, I'm going to use his knowledge.

I still didn't know if I didn't have brothers.

We were back in January of 69.

go back to the way we had originally set out, which would be to have, because it could not be as close as before.

Even though, badly though we needed his briefings, badly though we had to get those points across, we could have found other ways.

We could have gotten Rogers in and drilled him on it, like Scottie does now, and then sent him out.

Or we could have had Scottie with us then.

Yeah.

But having a test tube in the breathing is not a good thing.

It's not.

And Bob, having your own one isn't in this either.

No, it isn't.

And I think, well, there's a difference here.

Earth, let's put it on the other hand.

Test tube is not a good thing.

Test tube is very nice.

That's right.

But even being a good breather, it's wrong to use that guy in that post to breathe back in.

You're right.

I think you just gotta use that value.

You gotta use it on other people.

You gotta get the cap on that.

Also, it's hard to work with some guys.

But it's even harder to compete with them.

That's what you do.

As soon as you make that White House guy a spokesman, then he's competing with the cap on us.

That's part of the problem.

Because the real thing here, in my view, is your difference from the cat posture, not your similarities.

The last thing you want is to be in a similar posture to competing with them on their ground.

The other side of that is the weakness we've had in our cameras.

We haven't had it.

The talent.

We've got better talent in here.

Henry gets better talent than Bill and Mel.

In what way?

Not as a preacher.

I agree with that.

I think Bill could have been broken up to do it.

I don't know if I'm good at it.

He was like a little kid about to derail a man.

I'm searching questions about the police proposal.

God damn it, all of a sudden, he killed me because it's not a right thing to do.

In fact, when he came to Paris, he said in the final police proposal, he's pulling out his leg.

Paris was out there, but he's seeing it.

They're both men.

And a man is a very clever bastard.

But at least he's got a cast of bad guys who will tell you pretty much whatever you're going to say.

He's good at this, you know, this dialogue with Joe and Lonnie and so forth.

But, my God, one of the reasons Joe and Lonnie talk so long is because they can't talk so long.

You know, Ricky, you're not the kind of guy who can do it.

You go on for a long dissertation about it.

background, the historical process, and all that crap.

Well, it's important to know it, but you don't always have to talk about it.

You know, I'm sure you all know Henry's problem is that he loves to show off his intellectual powers.

But you know, that's it.

Well, then given the Chinese philosophical basis of maintaining faith and all that sort of thing, as soon as Henry starts starting that, like Joe would have to, I guess,

He can't be outdone in his philosophical depth by the guy he's talking to.

Especially when it's his point of view.

Anyway, he's injured.

Did he bust your case?

No, I didn't bust my case.

Well, what do you think of that?

If you're right, I'd rather be paying for the whole thing.

But in the future, I don't think we can at all.

But I think in the future, it is going to be much better not to have basically white house people not breathing because of this enormous problem that we're facing.

We have to see where it's all headed.

He's got his BBC thing.

Oh, no.

The BBC is trying to get it.

It's just unbelievable.

They're trying to get him to do it.

They're doing a television special on that.

On the horny eve of the China trip, they wanted him to do a... Of course.

I said, what in the world good did that do us?

He said, well, it would establish the right line in the British press.

And how will the British press get the wrong line if you don't do it?

And, uh, unbelievable.

Then what difference does it make to us what the British press writes anyway?

He said, I'm not arguing for it.

That's his standard line.

I don't want to go on it.

Everybody is active.

In the morning, he said, no, you're not going to give it to Barbara Walters.

I said, she's worth it.

You're not going to do it ever.

I told him that.

He did it.

It was okay for him to do it, because he did it on the, you know, what's,

Well, that's what I said.

How would we explain to the American audience that you do an exclusive for the British Broadcasting Company?

What the hell will it do us?

What you do then is, because they'll pick it up.

You force the American network to get their interview from Kissinger by taking it off the British television.

He's not going to do anything before we go on that.

That's, you know, that's pretty clear.

And they're all going to come back.

We may have to, you know, what we want to do then.

I think you probably want it to go on.

Well, I wish you were right.

Well, I did stay put for hours, I think.

You did?

Well, yeah.

Desirably, I had to have him on.

You see, I understand.

It's just a penny to go on, I forget.

A penny to go on, I ain't got many of us.

That's why I said you ought to take some invitation.

Well, I don't either.

You know, full ratio of in and my members inside.

And then you've got to be very good on the contract.

Because you can really get a chance to take a mess of life out of the contract.

And you've got to be very good on the contract.

Later on you might want to read the text.

I've been a coach for a long time, but I don't know what's next.

And I said, you can't just get through it by coaching.

He said, no, no, no.

I don't know what's next.

I have more time.

I don't know what's next.

Thank you, sir.

Sir, I think you teach the Chinese perception of the government, what the Chinese religion is, in the back of his mind as he talks to you.

What the Chinese position is, I think we have our recommendations for your position, which pretty well follows what I've said to you there.

Very good.

What the Chinese position is going to be, that's the trust of what Joe said to me, so you can rely on the fact that when this is the real world, that is the real problem.

I would just say, you understand, I'm talking to Morale.

You want to send me a little paper?

I don't know.

I don't think they've ever had this call.

I need to tell them.

Why do I have to learn the goddamn?

I don't know.

Well, he and I have come back from a trip to the subcontinent.

Yeah.

One thing I'm going to do is... You notice that Teddy's going to go down there in subcontinent with Bobby's son and with...

With John, I was nervous about getting a great big reception, but I thought it was the President.

John, I've been thinking about getting in here for lunch before we go away.

You're cool every day.

When we come back, there might be a serious discussion.

I don't think we should.

I think Mr. President, I think that a lot of the Democrats really, every doctor, man, is telling us things that must be.

I was at the dinner last night.

The Georgia Speaker was getting to a staff speaker.

The movie producer.

Oh, yeah.

I'm the governor.

I'm here in Muskie.

I'm the governor.

Of course, I'm the mayor.

I'm the governor.

I had a hell of a speech.

I hope that was very well received.

It was covered up this morning.

And I pointed out, and I pointed out, and somebody, somebody directed me, I don't remember if it was, I don't know, something like 66, when Johnson was, when they lost that, of course, the point was made that, you know, that wasn't a negotiation.

I mean, that was just a unilateral statement on the part of the United States.

I trust you with the point.

I was not a candidate for president.

I said, well, we should distinguish between what I call the judge of candidates for president, which I wasn't talking about.

I asked this guy.

And others were not.

But I'd like to.

But John separated also.

He says, now, there are old Democrats that are going to party for the country version.

He says, you're going to vote for him.

And Jackson is very supportive.

He's trying to know that they come up and thank him for it.

But the others are beyond the pale.

And without them at the helm, I want to say that we want Becker to go beyond the pale.

We want McCarthy, who's not in this circle, beyond the pale.

And thanks for that.

But I think we want to push Muskie.

Peter will have a part in this.

We want to push Muskie beyond the pale.

McGovern, let's see.

I'll just make sure.

How did Muskie get involved?

McGovern?

Well, he, uh, you know, uh, well, McGovern came in and he told the two of us what, uh, what was going to happen.

I said to him, I said, well, you know, you're an honorable man, and you represent the only alternative to our position.

He said, that's absolutely right.

There isn't an iota of difference.

There was an iota of difference, he said, between Muskie, Nixon, and Humphrey in 1968.

He said, in 1969, he's drafting it out.

He said, and now Muskie is dead.

And everyone heard his chancellor was there.

He said, Muskie is just an opportunist.

He said, and Muskie

either lead to the mixing position or do the .

But there is no mixing position.

He said he doesn't know what he's talking about.

And I said, you know, George, you're a Democrat as long as you say it, I will say it, and try to do it.

But what he said about the ceasefire was absolute nonsense.

And he said, that's Trump.

Oh, he was making all our points, and I couldn't.

And also, by praising him the other day, I was fair-minded.

I said, I want you to know, I'm totally opposed to your position to it, but it's the only alternative to our position.

The only alternative to our position is to turn the government over to the country.

And to do it fast.

And Chuck Johnson was there, and

Is that a viable position, or what do you call it?

Maybe people will stay above sluggish as a matter.

You look, for example, at Algeria and the Gulf Strait.

So if you turn it over to the radicals,

And it didn't matter whether the old France survived by world power.

It doesn't matter whether we survived.

That's it.

Mr. President, it is forgotten that it took him five years to do it.

And he did it in a totally confused way, in which this is eventually what happened, but it is what happened immediately.

And he had the great advantage that his opposition was on the right.

so that everyone opposing him had a worse solution.

Coming back to this, though, the feeling is, my feeling is, that even if the country would say, turn over the communists, that we have no choice but to fight.

We have no choice but to fight.

And the hate was that it didn't have the British embassy yesterday, the Goldberg conspiracy.

I'm embarrassed to have muskies as my standard favorite.

Democrats don't deserve to wear them.

Stuart Altsop was babbling there all over the place with a full muskie.

Last night.

Where, where, where do we just leave this with the R.V.M.D.?

So, I guess I'll leave this with the fact that, uh, as I think of these R.V.M.D.A.s, they're all going to check.

They're all told not to treat Nixon again and again.

Absolutely not.

No.

I don't, I don't believe that.

After all, the question they put with the Russians is very interesting.

How do we know if we make a deal with Nixon that he won't break it?

After he's re-elected.

They're right.

We won't, but I mean, they're right.

That makes the question.

That's right.

I said to them, I said to the president, I asked him the question, how do you know what the president is going to do if he gets re-elected without a deal?

I said, it's not unnatural for him to take violence.

He said, I like the way you put it.

I would have said it's natural for him.

You know, Eric, you're absolutely right.

The biggest mistake we made was the EC-101.

But the biggest, the most important, simple thing that we did was Cambodia.

Without Cambodia, we'd be in a drought.

Laos would have been beset.

You know, this war, but in another way, it's heading on.

We did it.

I mean, it was a partial victory, but it was obscure.

Well, if Laos had worked the way, if we could have stayed in two more months, then we wouldn't have to worry about an offensive this year.

And then, if that was the case, there would have been a negotiation.

But I was still right, and it helped.

Well, it gets us that year.

I think, Mr. President, they're going to negotiate this year.

Yes, definitely.

Can I come back to the property tax?

You say it's hard, but it's a good race.

It's starting tomorrow night at 9 o'clock.

Oh.

And I want to see some stories about the Pentagon and this crazy action and all that about military affairs.

It's trying to compose a plan.

It's trying to change the student plan.

I don't think he's enthusiastically for it.

He was.

Why the hell is he?

Well, because I think Mr. President, actually, you know, actually, if you take the term, you have some substantive tasks.

You have to read them to say about the completion.

And the Army.

And the military.

You know, there aren't good men in the military, though.

There aren't good men.

I wanted to...

I'm not going to turn to that.

I'm not going to tell you this.

I have a moron.

Okay, Rafferty's a hell of a guy.

He was a strong, immaculate, tough guy.

A moron is too shrewd.

He's really a tough guy.

If you prop him up every three months, he's all right.

But he's not a natural force.

Now, one thing about morons, but that I wanted to mention to you, if you haven't...

uh the westmoreland is retired in december and i wanted to recommend that we considered well haig should really be the chief of staff but is that what you think when he's just trying to be made a major general but i would strongly recommend him as vice chief of staff mr president he's tough he's loyal he's imaginative it's almost

It's impossible for me to conceive operating the dog at home.

Yeah, but in any event, he has to leave this summer because he's been here for three and a half years, and if we don't get rid of him this summer, his army career is wrecked.

I don't think we have any guide to do that.

But I think he should be made vice chief of staff.

But that, my accuser, leaves it too much open to a charge of favouritism.

But I'd like to talk to Ken Faloo to see whether we can swing that.

I would put him in there, Mr. President.

There's no one who has his courage, who knows you so well, who's so loyal.

And he's got guts, and he's a combat guy.

The other alternative is for him to take a decision.

But that's wasteful.

Now, then if he's vice chief, Mr. President, in two years when Moore retires, you could consider Hague for chairman.

But looking back, though, let me ask you this.

Let me ask you, though, in terms of this thing, why –

Don't you think it's a good idea?

Isn't it a better idea to concentrate the 48 hours on one target and to park around making the same goddamn S.R.T.

trades we've always been making on the same targets?

It doesn't make a little sense.

But that's why the military needs that sort of thinking.

They'll listen to them again.

Read the books.

Jesus Christ, they all studied this.

I haven't studied military art.

You didn't either.

I don't think so.

Jesus Christ, all they've got to do is to read it.

I'll follow you.

You read it.

2 Kings 4, verse 1.

2 Kings 4, verse 2.

I mean, keep following this.

But God damn it, it's history.

All this is correct.

All these really imaginative things have to be done.

That's all.

who had the daring thought, as you pointed out the other day, to treat bitterly Ford, MacArthur, or Ninja.

They called him back before a while.

He said it's true.

They all came out to Japan.

Then they called him back to wait on going after the other day.

It turned out to be wrong.

Well, I think, first of all, we might be lucky and hit a division.

I mean, after all, secondly, we ought to demoralize them a bit.

Thirdly, it's a signal to them that we are getting goddamned, goddamned, goddamned.

Well, it ought to do.

They will now hit a lot of targets that they used to consider secondary.

Is that right?

Yeah.

We took off the Saudi limitations.

We're putting more planes in there.

That's all they're working on.

No, they're strong now, but this track, they can use the air because they've got the air that's concentrated.

And then after March, the later they wait for the attack in South Vietnam, the better off we are because the closure will be to the end of our Chinese trip.

The later that it comes, we are.

So if we disrupt their attack, that will count.

I think they'll probably start this weekend if they're going to start.

We expected last weekend, two weeks ago.

Last week, now this weekend, I think it's going to be.

That would be it.

But this is the kind of strength.

Oh, yeah.

Because they won't have quite as much, perhaps.

Well, they ought to be in a position where they're beginning to concentrate.

If they're going to attack.

And we can tell you something, don't we?

Well, we have to know within the general area where they are, whether it's from radio and so forth.

And I have really... Well, Mr. President, what I regret is if we had really taken charge of the Lam Khan operation last year, if we had made them do this in Laos, where they were really not giving all their assets, if we had put in some more air power,

and take off the sortie limitations.

Oh, you know what?

That is a real problem that we should have done.

We should have had the 52s and everything else getting in there, knocking the hell out of them when they were concentrated.

Well, we didn't do it that very badly, but we should have.

Well, it's water over the dam.

That's the one.

So it was a success.

The difficulty is the Americans are very, very, very, very, very bad.

We are not good at running any war, Mr. President.

We do anything we can do with logistics and grinding the opponent down.

MacArthur was a great strategic commander.

Patton was a great tactical commander.

But that's about the end of it.

We didn't have these static moves that in the German general staff that had great commanders.

They were usually operating on such a shoestring.

That if they lost one division, they were in trouble.

But if they had had our resources, they would have run the French through the Pyrenees in World War I.

They were fighting the troops.

I remember, I remember.

One of the most horrible tragedies I've heard.

The Germans, who were virtually always attacking, lost against virtually everybody.

Well, they were in almost every battle, one or two courts, which is $60 million against $400 million.

They asked us, that's too great.

But they nearly won at Vermont.

They nearly won at Virginia.

They nearly went on March 21st.

They went to Italy.

They went down there.

They were the ones that saved them.

You know, here we are, the two great generals.

But our people are now demoralized.

Our military people are now demoralized.

Now, and before we got into this, they put him in the blank now in the wrong place.

That's why it was not like that article said.

We had ordered a five-day strike, and it was the wrong time, and all that, and so forth and so on.

So we were showing that.

That's always, you know, the military always falls back.

We determined that we should go on blast.

It's a victory to lose the war.

Now, it's that or that.

But let me tell you that at the present time,

It's like, if I come over, by God, we didn't can't hold you.

We didn't allow this.

We bought the NARC.

We've got everything these factors have recommended, except mine, which we can't do now.

And so it's their fault, is it not?

If it is fault, we don't think it is the NARC's fault.

And by the way, we've got the other side.

We've got the other side.

And if you do get one, you can have it carried for a month.

Well, then, I don't think that...

I mean, your jury, even two years ago, was it both sides?

Maybe it just sped up to the wire, and that one's been ready to fall, and you never know when it's ready to fall.

But that, I mean, it's just predictable.

Look at that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that.