On February 9, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, unknown person(s), Ronald L. Ziegler, Rose Mary Woods, Manolo Sanchez, White House operator, Stephen B. Bull, and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:45 am and 10:40 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 668-012 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 Do not cite this transcript as authoritative.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.
Why don't we get up there, you know, to acknowledge this?
Before I do this work, I want to say...
It's moving to the editorials and the columns, which is what you'd expect to happen.
What reactions have you had?
I was wondering if it might be useful, if you have not done so, to get a broader judgment.
And maybe college, doesn't it?
That's true.
Maybe it would be useful to see what I had as the push that Sidney is getting from, or has gotten from.
For that thing.
I think what I'm trying to do is to see what, I mean, see what my, I mean, tomorrow's,
If you talk to Bill or anybody of that type... Talk to Bill, I haven't talked to Sonny about this.
Why are you talking to Bill?
Oh, well, I wasn't in my mind.
On the country thing, if he had given me an idea, I said, I think it would be a good thing for him to visit some countries afterwards to inform them of China.
Give me a job.
Give me a list of things.
I know what the Henry thing in Europe is.
It's the builder of the Congress.
For God's sake.
He always goes to it.
He's been going to it.
He went up to it in Canada.
Yeah, he's been going to it for 20 years.
No, it's up in New England here.
Yeah, it's going to be in Vienna or some damn place.
It's going to be all the way up.
All the way up to the Americans.
That's right.
It's going to be in New England.
He's going up to Europe.
And he's been invited to the Gap and has been.
Yeah.
And so I'd like to go to Europe, is what he said.
And make this a day over.
Do you know what I mean?
for the second minute to the Build-A-Bird Conference.
But that's the only thing that's on his schedule.
In fact, it's invitations, because he's not going to be letting me play.
He's accepted none.
And that was the first of the ensemble.
He's been invited to Japan.
He's not decided anything about that yet.
He's going to wait until after he gets back.
He's been invited over there to do something at a university.
In Japan.
But we decided not to do that yet.
But I think it would be, as I said before, very useful for Bill to do Latin American countries or anything else he wants.
You see the thing that they sent the vice president, someone announced the vice president was going to Japan.
I don't think we've got that scheduled either, is that?
Correct.
Why is he going?
I don't know, but I think he'd be good for a pretty good ride over there.
Like if he got ridden on a ride?
Is that what you mean?
Yeah.
A huge old bill, that's got to be checked out.
He's got to check her name with it.
The old bill, I think it's, I have no concern at all.
That will avoid my having to breed people and so forth.
We've got to think very, very carefully about what kind of breeding to do, of having that for, you know, everybody wants about the giant shrimp, and he's got some ideas on the mind.
He just wants to cut Henry out, I don't know what he thinks he ought to do.
He had several ideas.
His thoughts were on the South American line, to the NAO meeting, which he has to go to, and then he's got sent to a CTO meeting, so he picked those up.
Then he was thinking about the Romanians, and you could sponsor a book, and then wondering whether he should do that in America.
Fine, fine.
I think all those are very lively, very good.
They're fine.
You should, you should, the cart, obviously, the needle and so forth.
Yeah, we'll come and see if you can get any remains on him, and if he was locked in, I see no problem at all.
He seems to think, at least the impression I get, it's a little hard for me to get a reaction, because they don't want to say anything.
I think maybe we ought to get someone else to ask, because...
It was funny, last night I went to this premiere of Nicholas Southend, and I was, you know, an invitation, thanks to a lot of people.
It was here in Washington, a movie theater.
It's a movie, a new epic movie on the... Oh, I saw it.
You mean with Raskin?
Yeah.
We saw it on the floor.
Did you?
Well, I had the Washington premiere of it last night.
Everybody was there.
And it was amazing.
The sense of experience, as it is, a number of people during their mission that made a point of coming all the way across the theater or something to come up to me and say, thank God you said something.
And I'm sure Pete said, don't let them back you off of it.
But people like Betty Neal who was sitting behind me.
Oh, uh...
When she gets back, I want to ask her about something I had talked about earlier tonight.
She poked me in the back, and she said, I have you in my bedroom every morning now, and all I can say is it's just a damn good thing somebody's saying sometimes.
And a lot of our OB shows practically tears in her eyes.
She came running up through the crowd, and she said,
I saw that Monday morning.
It made me feel good again.
I feel like a little remote once again.
I'm certainly positive.
The negatives are the ones we have to recognize.
The Democrats wheel, the American crimes, the press release.
I was pretty godlike responsible.
In fact, a lot of our people thought you were responsible.
I remember a great frustration.
It probably is.
Wouldn't call me.
I think.
Pretty good.
Yeah.
You ask him.
Yeah.
Roger would.
I think maybe Rogers would too.
I haven't talked to him this morning.
Let me see what he thinks after last night.
And today's news and so on.
They've shifted the ground now.
They've started into a pattern that the Washington Post editorial...
And Rogers.
Rogers hit, and Ziegler hit, and I hit, and Agnew.
Agnew hit, yeah, they keep bringing his.
He was the first one.
What the hell did he say?
He said something about the, just what he should have said.
I forget, he had one of them standard lines that we gave him.
Right, exactly right.
So what did they say?
They're looking for a sellout or something.
They are.
I probably know he said the best piece.
He hit it really hard.
True.
Sure.
And, uh, so they're saying that he, the secretary, and Sigler, and me, that, uh, this is an orchestrated thing to, uh, get them on board.
Well, let me read something to you.
Well, let me say something.
I think I'm going to do this.
I'm going to let everybody see it.
They have something to do with it, aren't they?
It's bad, but it's cute.
I guess I'm just... And for me, it's satisfying.
Hell, I'm sure that...
I'm sure as far as the rate of crisis concerns is concerned, and Sapphire, probably have gotten rid of at least with the...
I think it's bad, but I'm not concerned about that.
I'm just quite at it with it.
I saw Sands last night.
He was very enthusiastic about the rest of it.
He said you made some good points in the speech, and it was very good to go into the China foreign policy business.
Coffee read his speech yesterday at lunch, and Stan said, this is the first time I've seen him read the speech, and he was kind of anxious.
Let me turn it over to you now.
This has been our longest and most difficult war.
It began long before I became president, and I have been doing everything I can to end it honorably.
Almost one-half million men hang in Vietnam.
Catch the panel.
We're answering for the week for being killed by the National Army took office, this week there were two.
We've reduced air service fees, budgeted for our strata costs.
We have made the most generous peace offer in the history of warfare.
I have no complaint over the fact that during this period when I have been ending a war I did not begin, I have been subjected to unprecedented criticism.
I do not question the patriotism and the sincerity of those who disagree with my policy to bring peace.
As I said in 1968, when I was a candidate for president, we have only one president at a time.
Only the president can negotiate an end to the war.
Let there be free debate and vigorous criticism so that our policy will represent the best thinking of our nation.
But a candidate for president has a higher responsibility than the ordinary great.
A candidate should make any criticism he believes would contribute to bringing on for peace
But I would hope that each presidential candidate would examine his statements carefully to be sure that nothing he says might give the enemy an incentive to wallow in war and flash the election.
Let us seek peace with all our might, but let us be united in our determination to seek peace without surrender.
Trust in the United States among the 45 nations which we have truly committed is essential to peace and freedom that can be preserved in the world.
We are ending the war in Vietnam in a way which will not destroy that trust.
That's what Scali wanted to do in his statement thing yesterday, but does it without backing down.
Actually...
Now, what would happen out of that is, if they picked it up, what should it have been?
Maybe Nixon joins the orchestrated attack or something.
Because it attacks presidential candidates for selling out to the enemy or something.
I do not question patriotism or sincerity, but I disagree with my policies.
I get my point across there, but very few have used.
You know what I mean?
I did this, or you know what, I split that and that.
And I just thought there'd be three or eight of the biggest criticisms of our policy.
But a candidate for president has a higher responsibility than an ordinary critic.
A candidate should make any criticism that he believes would contribute to breaking off the peace.
But I would hope that each presidential candidate would examine his statement carefully, to be sure that nothing he says might give the enemy an incentive to prolong the war and revive the election.
But it's the monkey on their back.
You see, that's the point of that.
I think that's the thing.
I think it's got to be left there at that point, because you've got to realize that
We are building the case here for something very important.
We're building the case, putting the blame on them if they don't have it.
Dan Ryan?
I don't want to, I don't want to shop this around, because I don't want Dan.
Dan Ryan.
You know, you have, in something you were giving us earlier, you had a great line that we've used, but it hasn't gotten any play picked up, as the other way of saying, quote, prolong the war, which you say there, which was postpone the peace, which is in a way a more hopeful, because it's, if money fit right here on there, that would prolong the war, or like say, candidate,
It's not doing anything to prolong the war till after the election.
Postpone the beat.
I don't know that I...
I'm sorry, Mr. Red.
I know.
Be sure that nothing he says might give the enemy an incentive.
Maybe it's better to prolong the war there.
The other thing is whether we want to put the thing in terms of surrender or in terms of turning over Vietnam to the communists.
I have a feeling we have a stronger thing on the communists than we do on surrender.
I don't know why, in fact.
We're almost getting to the point where surrender is honorable.
Where they want surrender.
Or let's put it the other way, where surrender is a code word to victory.
God just didn't want that Nicholas and Alexandra in the currency of today's times, you know, when they kept saying we'll go, Kerensky and Mazar both saying we'll go for victory.
And people kind of, you know, in our time, victory is a dishonorable thing, you know.
This has a long, very, very stagnant share.
It's sure that I put in there that, you know, I have no complaint over the fact that this is a very good, this is a top-down line that needs to finally be set.
And by me, it's about the fact that I have no complaint over the fact that during this period, when I have been ending the war, I did not begin.
I have been subjecting unprecedented criticism.
Correct?
Because we have been handed the query department, and all the partners who already made it have been handed it, correct?
And you say I don't question the patriotism and sincerity of those who disagree with my policy.
That way I have, for the press, I'm trying to cover that.
They say, what about the sincerity?
See, that's the only thing.
It's just that I'm not correct.
I've covered that.
What question?
Patriotism and sincerity.
I'm sorry for the state to bring an honorable piece, though.
Oh, yeah.
The difficulty is, if you start turning over the comment, it has the... Yeah.
It has the cohort, you know, uh... Yeah, then if you are, I mean, if you've got a... Or you can say it without turning over the comment.
Oh, no.
See, that's fine.
Maybe it's without abandoning.
It's not abandoning.
Then you get an emeritus.
I think you're better off just the way you are.
See, that's the thing that bothered me about Scali's statement.
It got back to putting it on the framework of the argument of the POWs versus the president, too.
And that's the last argument.
I agree with him.
Ron's absolutely right.
That's the wicket on which we want to be finished, or we don't end up
For there, you don't have much support from the American people.
I don't think it's against prisoners of war.
On the other hand, it's hard for even the mother of a prisoner of war to get the United States to surrender.
That's right.
It's different.
You're not going for victory.
You're going for peace with honor and without surrender.
It has to be said.
I think by you that nobody can argue or quarrel with that.
I'm going to say this in
If I say this in answer to a question, then they will continue to grow and grow, and I know a little bit of a thing.
If I say it however today, it's just part of the speech.
I've covered that yesterday in my mind.
Cover it thoroughly.
Yeah, but you're in an office press conference.
You don't have to worry about it.
I have another thing to say about it.
I have another thing to say about it.
You couldn't do that on television.
That's my point.
You have to answer it again.
But in the office, you don't, because they have to be present to be with what you've covered.
Sure, they can pick out the...
I mean, I agree they can pick out the one thing...
Thank you for watching!
And I put it in a way, I would hope that each presidential candidate would examine his state of concern.
Does that track you into endorsing all of that?
I know you didn't, but you see, what the editorials write is they say it's patriotism.
What they should do now, which is much more cleverer,
And I gave them, it was my fault, I gave them the opportunity to say, yes, they're all playing, but I would accuse them of treason.
That's the reason the Patriots were so just right.
Yeah, you're repudiating me on that, which is good.
That's the thing, I want to keep them on this issue.
But keep them on the... You're saying they are aiding the enemy.
Absolutely.
That's right.
But you're saying it's not a treasonable...
They're not doing it with treasonable intent.
And I just don't think you want to get locked into a thing where you're accusing them of treason the way I am now.
It's illegal, that's what.
And that's the opposite of that.
Except for this, that you can't leave it out if you do it.
The one line you have there, let them, of course you don't.
You say let them be sure, they're not.
I don't mean by that, I mean if you see a presidential candidate, you say I'm just being scared.
Are you sure?
I mean, he says he might hit the enemy.
Yeah.
And I'm saying, we're all in the war.
Yeah, that's completely different.
I see that.
It's a very different way of saying it.
Yeah.
Should we try it on Zivert?
Yeah.
I think he's the best one.
And he'll keep it.
He'll keep his mouth shut.
And he'll be much more negative.
He'll be very sensitive.
He'll be as negative as anybody else on this.
And I wrote this, but I think it's, I think, you know, I think this is a good possibility to just copy that figure.
I believe that I'm going to have to say that tomorrow if I don't say it today.
You know what I mean?
I'm going to have to get at the point.
A lot of scouts are concerned.
I think he wanted to state that in order to get you out of it, well, he didn't want me to say anything, which I think is a point, too.
But I don't like this business to say that I won't speak out on what you say, and that I'm pushing it to others to take the logo and all that bullshit.
This is the goddamn truth.
Well, in a way, isn't it better for it to rhyme in the context of the state of the world?
We have a court and all that stuff.
then if you do it tomorrow, it becomes an overriding lead of your press conferences, and tomorrow should be China.
Yeah.
That wraps up the case for having the, well, and also totally lays the groundwork for the case that they, that is their fault.
We're late.
You can go back.
Anybody can go back then.
On the basis of that.
See you get up.
Hi, how are you?
Oh, last night was not better than that.
The PTA was white.
I said, the PTA?
I said, that sounds like Christmas or something.
I don't want to get Scali and everybody else in this conversation up with you here.
I have a reason for it.
It's that we're going to have lots of battles.
I have a rule that I just don't want to lock up.
I don't want people to feel that you come in and may let down somebody, or something of that sort, which is the overshadowing, you know, because I have always had the practice of standing up for my people, and not just saying a word.
I just didn't like them coming at me that way.
I mean, why?
I just didn't like them coming at me that way.
On the other hand, I've been thinking about the way this story has evolved into, you know, we had a good break yesterday.
On the other hand, the Democrats were popping around and doing a little story in this very game about the...
The business that we're accusing him of treason, that's the first line of blow.
I don't think the rest of them...
The rest of them...
He has the ultimate case, and then he goes...
The contacts started to separate a little bit last night.
The Post this morning...
The Post is now moving to what I think is the...
the new ground, or the basic ground they'll use from here on out now, which is, there's a conservative thing here, that the vice president let it off, and the secretary hit it a little harder than you hit it, and then I took the total load, and I did the whole thing.
Shoved it all up.
Well, I think it's possible.
But, my feeling is that tomorrow
That I will be in a position of having to duck too much.
And also, my feeling is that what I say on this will override the positive things I'm going to say on China.
Now, the course of action is for you to say something.
But I think that would be, if you were to go out, it would look like you're reacting to the Democrats in here as they were kind of spoken of.
My approach, which I've talked, I've talked to, and I've been waiting for a while to read, is never to have a bunch of people parking around like this.
In a way, you want to realize we've got these bastards.
This isn't out.
On a way that they aren't going to particularly be comfortable with.
The reason that it isn't comfortable to be in a position, and probably, you know, I still come off about it, you know, of, well, what the hell are they for?
You know, what they are for is eternal surrender.
And they are, and they are, they are torpedoing the negotiations.
Don't you agree that some of that, that it's to our interest to have that out?
Because basically, right, negotiations aren't going to come off.
They may, they may just, right, we might get a negotiation at Russia.
That's where you want to be.
That's what we expect to get if there's a chance for it at all.
Maybe not.
But if they don't, you have to read it.
But if they don't, you say, we must lay the foundation.
You get my point?
You agree with that?
It's basically an undercut, a motion of undercutting.
Now what, after you're reading the morning things and so forth, you go with the skeleton, you think you ought to say something today.
How do you understand?
What I'm contemplating is something that goes much further for me to say something.
So let me tell you how it happened one night.
You see, I'm ancient, so I say the word, but I'm saying nothing else.
I'm asking to be a non-philiocrat.
Maybe God will say the word.
And also a way to answer it so that I don't do it sort of very precisely is to put a paragraph right in there.
Let me turn it over to you, Tom.
This has been our longest semester of the Cold War.
It began long before I began prison.
And I have been doing everything I can honorably do to end it.
I have brought almost one half million men home from Vietnam.
As high as 300 wheat were being killed in action when I took office this week for truth.
We reduced air servings, budget cuts, draft calls.
We had made the most generous peace offer in the history of warfare.
I have no complaint with the fact that during this period when I had been ending the war, I did not begin.
I had been subjected to unprecedented criticism.
I do not question the patriotism or the sincerity of those who disagree that my policy should bring peace.
As I said in 1968 when I was a candidate for president, we have only one president at a time.
Only the president can negotiate an end to the war.
Let there be free debate and vigorous criticism so that our policy will represent the best thinking of our nation.
A candidate for president has a higher responsibility than the ordinary great.
A candidate should make any criticism he believes will contribute to bringing an honorable peace.
But I would hope that each presidential candidate would examine his statements carefully to be sure that nothing he says might give the enemy an incentive to prolong the war until after the election.
Let us seek peace with all our might, but let us be united in our determination to seek peace
Trust in the United States among the 45 nations with which we have created commitments is essential if peace and freedom are to be preserved and worked.
We are ending the war in Vietnam in a way which will not destroy that trust.
That's very good.
It's much better than me climbing around out there, and I think that puts it in the right place.
How does it tell the sign?
Good.
I know.
In the context of the way it's sent here, it tells a lot.
Is it?
I think so.
It's a hell of a hypo.
Right.
Now this is something, if I do understand, put it in the coffee, and I want you to give the coffees out.
The moment I just delivered the speech, you know what I mean?
I don't mind.
And I'm not going to clear it with anybody.
Or I could do it right after.
Well, do it right after.
Have them ready and give it to them.
Well, give it to them so they can follow.
Yeah.
Yeah, just bring that up.
Here's the speech.
Well, you've got Capo and who's this on at 11?
Live in the White House.
They should not have this until after they go out there.
That's right.
I just say that we're, I just give it to them at 11 o'clock.
Now here's what I had in mind too.
I mean, you're on at 11 o'clock.
Yeah, I'll give it to you right when you start up.
Yeah, I'll say here's, I just say that I have to be, they don't dare to be crashing for the documents.
You know, that's a, it's an action story.
But when you see here,
You covered several things.
I don't question patriotism of those who disagree with my policies.
We're in peace.
That covers, that does all of what's happening.
When he's fallen, some will write it that way.
That's all right.
But I don't agree.
I don't know the person.
I guess I have a question.
Which is, of course, you said you were speaking for yourself.
So I said I was speaking for myself.
That's clear enough to represent.
It's an amazing thing.
The New York Times, in your story, ran, you know, all in a blast.
And Ziegler says, not necessarily, he's speaking for himself, not necessarily for the president.
Dan Marshall Post picked that necessarily up and put it in quotes this morning.
I've just checked the tape of my transcripts.
I did not say necessarily, and I'm going to skewer them if that's what...
There's a couple of them, every week at 9 o'clock.
What about the fact that President joins others in saying that presidential candidates prolong the war?
And my answer is, that's just fine.
I said that to the leaders the other day.
I said, no, if the candidate, if they say we'll wait for the candidate, that screws in the Gestapo-Taxi negotiations.
I think we want that issue.
I are on the right.
I feel that we want the issue along this line, that they can criticize the human being, but they should not undercut what is being done in negotiations, because one man has a responsibility, and that man who has a responsibility is doing what he can to end the war.
And that is separate from being critical.
It's attempting to present a program
which goes around the program in the manner that it's responsible for.
That's the issue.
That's not a bad thing to do.
A candidate should make any criticism he believes would contribute to bringing an honorable release, that lets him get out and beat for a cop all he wants.
That's like, for an honorable, of course, I'd cop right there.
And then I say, but I would hope
I've done this very carefully.
I worked up to, well, I had a bunch of talk earlier.
I said, I think it's well to put it in a gentle way.
I will, each presidential candidate, will examine his statements carefully.
Sort of puts them in an above-the-battle way of, oh, you're all around here running for president.
I just said, just examine your statements carefully.
So how do we be sure?
How do we be sure that nothing is said?
might give the enemy an incentive to prolong the war without resolution.
Well, that lays it out there very well.
Does it bother you?
No.
I would have only one suggestion, which would put it into a little deeper.
Instead of saying presidential candidate, where you hold the highest office in the land, it gives the person listening to it a sense of, here's a man who is in the position thinking about other cities.
Each man who is seeking the highest office in the land, or each man who is seeking the presence, instead of...
I had that in my first draft.
Instead of referring to them as presidential candidates, it's sort of... What's the highest rank?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think it's the way I heard from the... Yeah.
Those who seek the presence.
Right.
Because if...
But I can say that it doesn't bother you to say that a candidate for president has a higher responsibility or an inquiry.
It doesn't bother you at that point.
A candidate.
But I would hope that anyone seeking the presidency...
Right, that's it.
...seeking the presidency...
Don't you want credit?
For the examiner's sake, it's fair that you should.
I think he says that you're the only person in the wrong bar in the election collection.
You know, I'm the candidate up above here.
I can't say something.
No, no, no.
Because you cover it in the next sentence.
So you say he should make it?
There's a part I'm trying to recall when you refer to you use the word surrender and then
Yeah, we don't like surrendering.
How does that... Let us seek peace with all our might.
Let us be united in our determination to seek peace without surrendering.
It doesn't bother me as a statement, I'm just trying to put it in perspective of the news flow of today, and what is being said, and how they may seize upon that word used by you, and apply it out of context.
Do you see what I mean, Mike?
Maybe we could strike that out, totally.
We could end this way, but I would hope that any man seeking the presidency would examine his statements carefully to be sure that nothing he says might give the enemy an incentive to prolong for any length of the election, period.
And then, trust in the United States among the 45 nations which we have redeemed as essential of peace and freedom and order.
We are ending our war in a way which will not destroy it.
Or should we say, let us end our involvement in the war?
Let me in a way.
Let us end our war.
Let us end our war.
Let us end our war.
In a way.
End our involvement in the war.
In a way which will not destroy that trust.
That surrender thing isn't common.
It's a code word thing.
Others have got to say it.
That's right.
Others say it.
But this is a perfect way to put it in perspective.
If you use that word, then they will take that and generalize it.
And then the question becomes, does that mean that he feels that Senator Rasmussen is calling for peace back home for victims?
That's right.
This is the person.
Real stingy way to get it to the back.
Show him how to eat it.
Because you know that take this little part of it off.
Here it goes.
Now Henry's going to greet me this morning.
I'm not going to discuss this with him.
But I'm going to make it clear that if that's, you know, the subject that he should just say, it's been covered, period.
There's no reason why he should say anything at all.
He doesn't want to anyway, so there's no problem.
The last thing he's going to do is say anything about it.
I think.
Why you really gotta watch Sapphire?
Goddamnit, Henry should have watched this too.
All the way through the vibe, wherever they say China.
But the People's Republic of China.
You know, he's got it in here four times.
China.
The United States and China.
You really shouldn't realize what that does to Taiwan.
Mainland China.
Mainland China.
Mainland China.
Mainland China.
Mainland China.
I need some other changes I can trigger, right?
There it goes.
Hold it.
I've done it there again.
Four o'clock.
I know it's four o'clock.
I think it's a good little needle too, sir.
I've got to do this to point out the fact that this is not my war.
Right.
Absolutely.
I've got to try, sir.
I've been in a war I did not begin.
And the fact that it hurts, I beg you to... That's simply wasted.
I'm ready to...
When you use unprecedented, the critics always say, well...
I've been subjected to...
Uh... Constance Sharpe?
Constance.
Constance.
What?
Constance is like...
Figures.
Figures.
Figures.
Figures.
Figures.
Figures.
Figures.
Figures.
Figures is a better word for some guys who do a great deal of criticism.
Figures.
Figures.
Huh?
Do you like figures?
I've got the word.
It's kind of weird, that one.
3.
To make any criticism he believes would contribute to bringing an honorable peace.
But I would hope that anyone seeking the presidency would examine his statements carefully, to be sure nothing he says might give the enemy an incentive to prolong the war after the election.
Why don't you tighten this off?
Down to here.
There's one thought I have.
It's a payoff.
Which would just go back out of there, I mean.
When you end this, I'll tell you what I had in mind.
The stakes are too high.
We must stop the killing and bring prisoners of war home.
Our forces have a better way of saying that.
But that pays that off.
In other words, don't give the enemy the incentive to prolong the war.
There's too much at stake here.
Our prisoners of war...
There's too much at stake here.
We must stop the killing of the bears.
We bring our prisoners home.
And, well, are you saying peace is true?
Definitely.
It was beginning to end.
As I said in 1968, peace is true.
Peace is true for partisanship.
That's the specifics.
Are you saying the lives...
No, with the lives.
See, what you're paying off would be the consequences of prolonging the war.
What are the consequences?
With the lives of Americans.
With the lives of American men.
And the fate of our field of agency.
Let us unite.
It's called the unite.
Let us unite.
It's a story.
A policy.
It's a great peace.
It's a great philosophy.
Go again, not again.
Go again, not again.
It gets in more personal terms, don't you?
Mm-hmm.
You're not going to be nice.
Say it.
Tell you they're wrong.
It's the lives of American men and the failure of U.W.s.
So if you do that, they'll say, fine, just get the hell out.
That's the only thing.
They should be driving, you know what I mean?
They'll say, fine.
One point, honey.
I don't know, I... That's what gets you back into discussing the...
Yes, the particulars, which is just what you don't know.
No, I had an idea about this, too, that...
From a technical standpoint, so as to get on the tube, to put this on the teleprompter.
But I don't want five cameras there.
If I'm on the teleprompter looking into one camera, and then all the others in there from the crash point, I'm not looking there.
Now, can we put it on our own teleprompter and our own camera?
...and the district into the fire.
We should put it on our own teleprompter and one camera.
But it should have speedy.
They're cool.
They never can be sure they do that.
But will they be cool?
No, absolutely.
I don't want it to happen at the speech.
You have to request to do this for television in the presence of...
One camera.
One camera.
And one teleprompter.
How about that?
And no newsman or
No, absolutely not.
Now, where is the best place to do that, Father, here?
Right here.
Oh, can they set the camera, please?
Sure, put it right there.
All right, take them.
All right, well, I'll leave.
I'm going to go over to the OB now, so they can set the camera up.
And, uh... Well, we can do that afterwards.
No, I can do that afterwards, can't you?
Right.
You should do it afterwards.
I'd rather tell them.
I'd rather say to them, after this, you don't want to say this before you go on the air.
Oh, I see, right.
I want them to come back.
I've heard this before.
You get this from Kevin, you tell him, and you say, yeah, I'm going to be glad to see the highlights.
And you go out and...
But I also like the highlights.
Absolutely.
And that'll be it.
And I don't think that takes more than a minute and a half when I get straight.
About right.
It's of it.
I think they'll, do you think they'll carry this line for you?
Like how it sounds?
I think they'll carry it.
I don't know.
I think you should remove this whole thing.
They'll carry what you want on it.
Well, every day I'm worried.
I'm afraid about it.
That's when some of the best stuff comes out.
Sometimes, sometimes it doesn't.
The point is that at least you go to the juggler in the middle of the night.
This is the best, I think we could, we get away without it.
And I can handle the rest of them, because I think the story, and it's not, I mean, I think it's the one with Ron Geary, I think Ron is probably correct, or Ron, or Bob, I think it's correct in the sense that this is moving from the news pages to the editorial pages, and they all mull it about the goddamn thing, but...
I knew this about a place called Beebe today.
He's George Walsh's cousin.
It's a very close association of his.
He advises George in his Florida campaign.
And it's one of the reasons George is kicking the shit out of the Democrats rather than us at the moment, because we kick ass very much.
Tell his cousin, tell Beebe that if he could get a hold of the cousin and say, look, we need a real opportunity for you in Florida.
With Beebe.
would be, so that you're just not a one-issue man.
That musky country hold themselves up, musky, particularly, hold themselves up.
And that George being the patriot that he is,
But he did not criticize Johnson.
He and I both, as candidates, did not criticize Johnson in 1968.
And that he might want to take Muskie on.
What I meant is, I think it would be good to inject that into the floor of the Democratic primary.
Aren't you agreed, George?
And that he ought to take him on for, that he ought to take him on for his, their undercutting the president, undercutting the chancellor for peace, and calling for
Surrender to them.
He might say a few things.
You can ask him what to say.
Don't draw again.
Yeah, good.
Try it.
But I said that, but on the other hand, I was thinking of my deal tomorrow, and I'm confident that the way these people are, you know,
Two things they have to do, too, because it's been covered in a briefing, because it's personal view, and then you challenge your view, so it locks off.
And if they begin to follow up, nothing puts them down faster if you just look them in the eye, you know, and just say, I have nothing more to say on that point.
What you can do in here, you can't do under the government.
And that allows the China story, right?
China could probably go tomorrow.
Our statement, what I have said, what I have said, what the president has said is clear.
My position is clear.
There's nothing more to say.
Because then they just chop them off and make them feel, you know, ridiculous for trying to follow up on something.
You know, it's amazing, I mean, this is, you think about it, I was thinking about it last night, it's all kind of a story.
It is.
It is.
It really is.
You know, all these grown men getting all excited out there, and the pressure of God, you know, it's foolish to be resting right now in this stuff.
She said, you know, it's rather interesting.
NBC made the full transcript of the Hall of the Interview that was run on Monday.
Available to all the newspapers and television news services on Friday of last week.
Not one of them picked up this point at all until after it was on the air Monday morning.
Then she twisted it her way.
She said, I guess it's because it was a woman interviewing.
They figured it wasn't worth taking seriously.
Very clear, though.
Don't let it sound like that.
They have always underestimated me.
patriotic forces in the country.
Do you think so?
Or do you?
I think so.
I think this town has.
I think the people that we deal with.
There's absolutely no question.
It always starts with someone they find out that people put flags out on the roads and it comes into town.
They wear flags and they lapel.
They don't like it again.
It is a state that can be made in this town.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
If your mom said, you know, he goes out to the show last night, that there's still a few hardhats around, because there's the only number of people at the time in the quarter air last night that came up.
Did you manage to get a wife?
Who was that?
The one?
All of the number of people.
A lot of them.
There's apparently a person called Anna Chenault down here.
She's like... And she grabbed the Chinese ambassador who was over there and brought in one of them.
And a little man, you know, and he said...
Very pleased with what you set up for the television program.
I need to ask her about this.
It's hard to say what's the best thing.
I think the best and most cunning thing that's been written is Crosby and I.
You see, that thing was probably written before this story broke.
God damn, didn't he come to rescue his son?
He's done it.
He's followed that one in a couple of times.
Now, he is, he's no wild man.
No, he's not.
Not always for us, usually.
Not always.
But Jesus Christ, didn't he slice them up, you know?
Of course, it's surrender.
It is.
Get out.
Bug out.
Well, they had this as their life.
For that, I mean, so that, because the war is in the people's minds, of course, it's get out for a while, it's good, and everybody was saying, great, I remember the 70 campaign.
Everybody said, isn't it wonderful, or wasn't peace an issue, or was the war an issue?
It wasn't wonderful at all.
Do you understand?
Do you agree?
Hell, because all of a sudden the Russians are riding around in these cars, wearing flags, and all of a sudden they didn't realize they were undercutting the president.
We should go the other way.
The war is a bad issue for us.
Yeah.
But the peace in Vietnam is a good issue for us.
And if I plane down the war as an issue, we can make the mistake of also plane down the peace.
I'm planning on the fact those veterans got us in, and I've got them out.
There's no question they're drunk.
Do they get that much?
Yes, they are.
I think even the men... No, let me say what I said.
With that, it wasn't a lot.
But that's what our case speaks, really.
If they had an effect, the major effect they had would put us on the side of the pieces.
But they run those charts.
They run the charts of the number of men and the charts of the number of men.
I don't think there's any question...
The impression is certain in this country that you are moving to end the U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
I think we are beginning to set the impression, and I don't think it's certain yet, that there are forces attempting to undercut your efforts.
And that is why you and I have talked about this.
We're tied up here in this town about it, but it takes a while for that type of thing to permeate the whole, you know, the thought process of the country.
I think the worst thing that can happen to us now, as far as we can hear it by the critics, is to tear it off.
That's why it would have been a mistake.
I wish to hell I hadn't said Aiden the vet, because that's the finest treason.
I didn't want to give him a treason, but that's too bad.
On the other hand, if I had just said something, he wouldn't have gotten mad at me.
So, maybe it was worthwhile.
Whether it was or wasn't, it's in the pot.
The thing now is from where the ball is now.
Yeah.
We make a terrible mistake if we try to, I think, if we try to back off and say, oh no, they're all doing a noble thing, and never mind, this is the last thing that they're, and never, never, never, please, fucking rest.
And rest, and look at these, this is honest.
I haven't minded about it, but on a day when it's very calm, feeling good, won't you?
Went over to Rebson's house, talked to John Gardner, and said, maybe we're wrong, what do you know?
The son of a bitch has read nothing but bank columns since he was there.
Am I wrong or right?
When Henry said he had tears?
Yeah, well, he said he had tears because we were getting somewhere.
He tears in his eyes also because he had grabbed him.
And Kissinger is the hottest property in town.
They all on one hand reached dinner.
He goes to the wrong places.
Well...
This whole thing is over with the $40,000.
Well, it takes a lot of time today.
Sure, and the president...
You know, they all, that's where we want to get in.
You, then, always, of course, just never return a call from any of these batteries.
I wish more people around here would follow that line.
Have your own.
Be very considerate.
I worked him in.
I mean, I just didn't like to be a non-sanctioned agent.
He won't get his views if he finds out what's up.
I mean, it's marvelous, uh, possibly, but, uh, he had one, uh... Oh, yeah, just what did you think?
I used to say, I used to say, I don't anymore, so I don't know anymore.
I had fun with him, and I sat with him, and I said, don't worry about it.
And I knew he would say what.
I don't know what.
I said, I don't know, and he looked up, and he said, I don't know.
And I...
I didn't want to hold it, but I did.
Now, I just want to do that and make sure that the rest of it can be started from now.
The rest of it can all be done with the insert.
I just want to check once more for my line.
You know, the...
They must say they're always a stimulating group of people.
There's a goddamn enthusiasm.
They're good people, too.
Were they searched at this time?
Yeah, it was very awesome.
I found it, I want you to make a note of this, there are conventions in Atlanta, in general.
I think it's a very, very unlikely possibility.
We have very confident accounts.
Also, if you talk to Tom, Ben, Abilene, Texas, I told him that I'd like to go to a small town in Texas, and it's an honor for Houston to be the only publisher in Florida.
And there's an event that we can do in March any time.
That might be a good way to go to Texas in addition to the other one.
Isn't it Rotary?
Rotary is in June.
Rotary is June 11th.
The week of June 11th, the JC's is the following week.
Starts at 20.
On that campus crusade is also the week of June 11th.
Well, we... Well, not necessarily.
Darn it.
We haven't been to Houston.
Yet the governor's conference is in Houston.
I'm not going to do the goddamn governor's conference.
Who the hell is pressing that?
Nobody's pressing that.
It's the week before, the week before.
This is a national governor's conference.
I know.
I'm not going to do it.
I'll tell them I'll be right there.
But remember, after this is done, hard on you.
I'm saying you didn't know anything about it.
No, absolutely.
And you didn't know anything about it.
Yeah.
He didn't like the, he thought the speech needed a little assessment, so he put it in.
Let me tell you, I got to ask you to play it anyway, but now I'm going to play it.
Huh?
All right.
Farewell.
You know, we sneered at the other stuff.
I'll tell you, that environment thing yesterday got a hell of a good flood.
Yes, one of them.
Two of them.
I didn't see it, but I guess it was fine.
It has to be done with one camera.
It looked alright, but when you get the camera...
No, no, Roger.
The, uh, I forgot to say, you, uh, you've left out, uh, next, Tom, next table.
Yeah, that's all right.
Tom, it's, in that stage, yeah, that's right.
All right.
Where did it go?
You know, it's, it's page 88.
It's called that page 88.
Okay.
It's, it's not in the book.
The other night, see?
It's between 9 and 10.
Yeah.
This is the bottom of page 9.
Okay.
It's got the beauty of being very clear to the public in the way you want to be clear to them, but it has some super subtleties in it that are going to be gotten clear to some other people.
I'll have Jerry come and get it in a few minutes, because we've got to get ready to hand out a lot of those steps.
We're not going to hand it out until then, but we'll have a couple of those steps.
Goethe!
I can't read it over again.
I'll be back in a couple of minutes.
One of those days, I'll be back in five minutes.
If you do that, I want you to take advantage of it.
Why don't you try to go to the canteen?
I think it's a good idea.
Like in this sentence, this teenster guy has a thing.
I might have called him, but don't, but things were sure, I don't want to.
And I think we're going to leave out now.
I mean, I just got to send letters to people that, you know, some guy should save the policeman's life, and this and that, and the other thing.
I really didn't leave.
I don't think I can get into that very much right now.
I mean, it's pretty deep in the bulletin.
To do it now, to send me notes, actually, I've been looking the thing over.
It's hard to be sure, but I think we're getting better mileage out of the notes than to get out of the phone calls anyway.
Yeah, yeah.
Simply because, what, I don't know what to do about the phone calls.
That's right.
I don't know whether it's personal.
With the note, it often gets printed.
It's amazing how many times that note gets printed.
The picture of the letter itself gets printed in the paper.
Those are just thin, in fact, in a local paper.
They're not word-digging parts of the paper.
The phone calls, and you've done an unboxing of the...
I don't think there's any point in that.
Maybe once in a while it'll be one.
Once in a great while it's a John Harley motion or something.
But I think the letter is something that... Like the New York police, you were concerned that you didn't get phone calls on.
What's the name of the thing you did?
Yeah, I don't know.
We've got some awfully good notes, and we've got none of those down to short ones.
Yes, and we're doing a hell of a good job now on the one-liners.
Are you great?
Yes, sir.
And, Shane, I thought your speech was great.
Great job on the speech you did last week.
All right.
You know, it's back to the thing, just a little greater sort of punching thing, so it's a nice thing to be great.
It's great.
Let me say, though, that I am totally resigned to express that I'm not going to press myself on these kinds of edges.
I mean, I think that I've been breathing on that for the rest of my life.
I mean, we have to do it anyway.
They write what you say, rather than your words.
They do have a couple of papers printed, transcripts.
Nobody reads the transcripts.
Nobody reads the transcripts.
Oh, the general, that's the name I guess.
That's the 12th.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, boy.
If you want to...
I don't know.
He was a good friend, you know.
My view is that he should not.
My view is that he should not.
It's just because he's too low-level a guy.
He has no public appeal at all.
Let it go.
Anyway, I'm...
Another thing, for whatever it's worth, Henry has sat by Missy Chandler, because he's never been down by Missy.
And he said she has turned around 180 degrees.
She's with us.
And Bob Hinch says that Otis is much better now than the Y.
And Otis has the economy really moving in California now.
I don't know, we get, apparently, that on the planet.
It's beginning to come along.
Yes, it's getting some pretty good money out of it.
Yeah.
It really, I mean, I've been watching that.
You know, you get it poured with some effort, and it does some good.
Yeah.
Because, you know, we have poured effort for this.
We've poured a lot of effort in.
Finally, we get it.
But it takes time.
You can't pour it in on two shanks.
Because at that point we were in the Dallas bussing business, and we had to keep you isolated.
I want to hand you a letter from Mrs. Thompson, sir, because Senator said you might have a problem.
One is a dear Jane, one is a dear Mrs. Thompson.
One is a dear Jane, yeah.
She's got you now.
She is.
She's got you now.
She's got you now.
Ha!
On the teleprompter, you want page 8, page 9, and page 9.
Let me suggest something.
This is a radio speech.
Why don't you leave the microphone on your desk and read it?
White teleprompter.
Because, you know, and I know, and I figured, and I didn't mention it to him, because I figured what had happened is that Ron's office got, you know, buggered, it could be, to say, we've all got it covered now with our cameras.
It could be, goddammit, so it's Ron Sinker, I'm starting to raid here and there, and they're shooting deep in the side.
Of course, that's usually the way it's done.
When you're talking, I was standing up and so forth, but...
That doesn't show the judgment.
Somebody should have thought that true.
I thought the moment I walked down the road, I said, well, for Christ's sakes, I said, I said, I said, I released all these cameras.
He said, yeah.
So they're all in there.
What probably happened is that the press office set it up, not knowing either teleprompter or anything.
Well, why should they know?
Because those were playing well in advance.
There was no last minute type thing on that.
And I'm going to do it again that way.
But we've always wanted a full camera.
And also a little shirt.
I told you.
If I got to just get there and do the teleprompter, and I could do more, and I would be glad to do more.
Particularly if it doesn't require a lot of moving around, and there's good things to do.
And you know, I can send messages down, Doc's driving around, and they can see me on there, talking right into that camera truck.
But if it's 45 seconds away when they get a pistol, that's exactly right.
They expect to see the president on the new day.
Yeah, a few minutes.
Part of what's happening today is what the president did.
You're on gross release at 4 o'clock.
Right on, 330, level 345.
Right on.
Chopper 4.
Chopper 4.
Do you believe it's time to retype this one, thanks for it?
No.
a separate kind of craze or that sort of thing.
We just realized that the job of everybody on the president's team, the leader's team,
Must think of him first.
That's right.
Not themselves.
That's really what we get to.
Really, that's what we get to.
Yeah.
Rather than thinking of, they walk into this office while I have all these damn problems, and what's he going to solve?
It's the national phobia.
Of course, yeah.
I mean, everybody, a businessman, come in and, you know, they're... Yeah.
But here's the reason why I told her, what are you going to do about it?
Yeah.
And, uh...
You won't find any on the prompter, please don't you?
Today I have submitted to Congress my third annual report on United States foreign policy.
I want to share my thoughts with you now on some of the highlights of that report.
For the first time in a generation, the most powerful nation in the world, and the most populous nation in the world, the United States and the People's Republic of China, have begun a process of communication.
For the first time in a generation, we have taken a series of steps that could mean a new relationship with the Soviet Union,
For the first time in a generation, our alliances with the nations of Europe, Japan and other nations have been shaped to reflect their capacity to assume a greater responsibility for their own events.
For the first time in a generation, we have laid a new basis for fair competition in world trade that will mean more jobs for American workers.
These are great changes.
They have brought the world closer to a stable peace.
They did not happen by action.
These breakthroughs for our peace took place in the past years for a good reason.
Three years ago, we started acting on the basis of yesterday's habits and started acting to deal with the realities of today and the opportunities of tomorrow.
Where did this new attitude take us?
In our relations with the Soviet Union, these were the elements of the breakthrough that took place over the past all months.
We broke the deadlock in the arms limitation negotiation and agreed on a framework for progress in the Soviet Union.
We agreed on a treaty marking weapons of mass destruction from the ocean floor, and on another treaty to remove the threat of germ warfare.
We agreed on a more flexible and reliable hotline between Washington and Moscow, and found new ways to consult each other in emergencies which will reduce the risks of accidental nuclear war.
And, in respect of the greatest importance, we reached an agreement on Berlin.
If there was one city where World War III could have broken out in the past 20 years, it was Berlin.
This new agreement reduces the danger of the supercars and direct confrontation.