Nixon, Haldeman & Sanchez on People's Republic of China trip

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Are there any other people who would be black folks?

I don't think so, sir.

Do you want me to tell you what we do, sir?

He had to just be sure that all the books and that they're not left over there at the OV.

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I gotta find this stuff.

I don't think I really need to do it at all.

I need it.

Or you could just put it in the room.

I don't know.

I'm surprised to be here.

It's too bad that we locked it in.

You can't do it on the phone with it.

I can shut it back in.

I'll be back here at the dinner.

Okay.

You know, I don't know whether it would be helpful or not, but I think it's rather a good idea to have Brian go along.

It seems bad to me, but I'm going to do it, sir.

I mean, it might provide some sort of change, probably something.

Well, that's absolutely right.

Too much at stake not to have cover all the possibilities of making it work out as easy as possible.

and you get out where I would think it might be very hard because you get out and you have to go out and out into the cold in and out of places and all that.

You can get kinks and all that here.

Well, he's good because he can take care of it in just a few minutes.

It's a long process.

Yeah, that's the trouble.

You have to get all of it.

A little bit of oil.

You gotta get an un-oiled attitude or it's an hour or so later.

I have no license.

I mean, I don't care about the problems either, but it's a...

I guess that's the more good.

Boy, it's a bunch of bullion.

Muscle's fast.

Yeah.

Sure is.

You've got all that time sitting on the airplane, all that time sitting in those long meetings.

It's frightening.

You know, there's a good chance you're going to have to sit with children for a long session.

You know, you can't talk to them.

You know, I don't understand anything else.

He doesn't need to be on a mission.

There's no way you can do it when you're up there anyway.

What's that?

A table.

But you know, immediately after arrival.

I would have him on, you know, immediately standing by all these things.

Immediately on arrival in each place, and immediately after a session and all that, and then before you go to bed at night, and use him whenever you want.

And don't worry too much about having to cover other people.

It's better to have a hybrid.

Build it to you.

Give Henry some help, which will be good.

That's important.

And then beyond that, it just doesn't matter that much.

If he's got enough to do, he can help a press guy or something or a staff person.

Can you help Rose?

There you go.

There she goes.

All right.

I'll bet you.

That's the question.

She's a hero.

The way I think about trying to work this thing out is not to try to do it irregularly.

But there is going to be an irregularity to try to take some period of time.

It's going to take a long time if I have to.

I think we have it set that way pretty much.

The meetings are in the afternoon.

I open up early in the morning or anything.

There's one morning that there is some in the morning.

You have to go out to the wall or something.

You have to look for a hero.

Perfect excuse.

The wall.

The wall in the morning and you have to go out at 8.30 in the morning.

No problem.

You've got the perfect excuse.

But the first two mornings, you're absolutely clear.

The first two days, after arrival day, and you have the meeting that afternoon and the banquet that night, then the next day, you're clear until 3 o'clock.

And the same the following day.

For both of those, you're clear until 3, then you meet with Cho, and or follow.

And the first evening, the first evening is the second day you're clear until 3 and you have a meeting and you have the opera that night.

The third day you're clear until 3 and you have a meeting and you have a gymnastic exhibition that night.

Then the fourth day you have to go to the wall and you have a meeting that afternoon.

The fifth day you go to the Forbidden City but that's only a one hour tour in the morning.

That's all important.

Each day to eat at 3.

But they emphasize flexibility.

And, you know, as you get there, they may change that.

But you're pretty safe in the morning because children doesn't like to be hungry.

Your problem is going to be when you get clear at 9.

I'll have to work my hair out this morning.

Excuse me, in the morning.

But you'll be basically completely left alone.

I don't have to come back here and prepare this son of a bitch.

And you know what I mean, I can say it all and I get off the airplane and I can relax.

I know your theory of staying on the sun when you're up, but you get pushed too far.

I think we have to close meetings.

That's another way to make them all possible.

The perfect excuse.

The wall.

The wall morning, you have to go out at 8.30 in the morning.

No problem.

You've got the perfect excuse.

But the first two mornings, you're absolutely clear.

The first two days, after arrival day, and you have the meeting that afternoon and the banquet that night, then the next day, you're clear until 3 o'clock.

And the same the following day.

For both of those, you're clear until three, then you meet with Cho.

And the first evening, or the first evening is the second day, you're clear until three, then you have a meeting, then you have the opera that night.

The third day, you're clear until three, then you have a meeting, then you have a gymnastic exhibition that night.

Then the fourth day, you have to go to the wall.

And you have a meeting that afternoon.

The fifth day, you go to the Forbidden City, but that's only a one-hour tour in the morning.

That's all in the morning.

Each day, you eat at 3.

But they emphasize flexibility.

And as you get there, they may change that.

But you're pretty safe in the morning.

This show doesn't lie to me.

Your problem is going to be when you get clear at 9.

I'll have to work my way around this.

See you in the morning.

But you'll be basically completely left alone.

You'll have your own face in the morning since then.

Well, we certainly made a right decision to report to the Navy about the right decision.

But I don't have to come back here and prepare the son of a bitch.

You know what I mean?

I can say it all, and I get off the airplane, and I can relax.

to balance the weight.

I know your theory of staying on the sun when you're up, but you can get pushed too far.

I think we have nothing to do with that.

That's another way to make them all

I think tentatively what we'll do, we'll have those at 10 and we'll have some standby kind of scheduled activity for Tuesday and Wednesday.

that'll be basically sort of domestic kind of stuff, but no, nothing that blocks you in, nothing that you have to agree with.

You don't have to give it much.

And speaking of this domestic advisors, you know, and staff meetings, and somebody's got to come and tell them about the bus version for it, and I can't hear something about the wage for it.

What has to be done, don't have to set a meeting with a company and create it.

I think we ought to set up .

We should always have the .

That one will still be Attorney General.

I don't want you to squirm around for a second and try to remind me there's a group of businessmen that I'm going to change.

But I'm talking about just internal meetings.

There may be some, you know, where John Ehrlichman may need to catch on a couple points of action.

I don't think you need to have a meeting with the leaders, a meeting with the cabinet.

I don't think you need any other symbolic meetings, correct?

Correct.

Absolutely.

Sure is.

And then you do that Tuesday and Wednesday, and then I think we ought to tentatively figure

I'm going to Florida Wednesday night.

We won't announce it.

We won't set anything up.

Except to have you set so you can.

Then if you want to stay on here Thursday and do something you can, if you want to leave here set so you can go, why don't we plan for a Florida Wednesday?

I'll go fairly early Wednesday.

That would be good.

I mean, I'm at, where I've been.

I don't think there's anything to stay longer than that.

Do you?

No.

If you have the captain meeting, could you go to Florida again?

Or could you?

Yes.

I'd wait for a little.

You won't want to go right into it anyway.

I'd say maybe four o'clock.

That's what I'd do.

Let's go down to four, which is time.

Let's go down there and have a slim dinner if you want to get better.

I won't unless you're kidding me.

Move from there, keep it skinny, I've got a little bit of water here.

It's going to be a tile.

Well, it will be a tile.

The main thing will be just to sit on it.

Then figure I'll stay up until Sunday night.

And we'll keep Monday clear so we can stay up on Friday and Saturday and Sunday.

And we'll keep Monday clear so you can stay over Monday.

Yeah, that's what it should be like.

Otherwise, if I don't leave, it really happens.

We start working once, we get money.

I mean, I might be free to start to deal with it.

And on the last day, I'll know when they want to come back or I'll say, you know, I think I ought to stay.

So we'll keep Monday clear.

It might be open.

We might stay.

Now, with regard to the occurrences in the country, do we have to steal any of those indications?

No.

I'd rather not.

Not if you don't want to go until after the second week.

I'd like to go the first week.

And you don't want to go to the second week.

My point is I want to make a decision when I return.

Right.

To see how everybody feels.

You know, how, I mean, there are some options, Rick, to look at.

Yeah, I mean, you know, ready that we can do anything.

And why does Patty go to California?

That Friday, I believe.

She has to be there on Saturday.

Right.

She has to be there for the boys.

Well, it's not too bad if she got that good welcome out there.

That's good for the country, too.

I think she'd be ready to go probably anyway.

She might want to go on down to Florida early or something.

Get out of here.

No.

I think what you need to do is get other guys in the movie and get the hell to come along here earlier.

Would you say the same for me?

Sure.

You guys are getting a little stronger, aren't you?

Yeah.

Very good.

He's got a good...

First, I've done a good little note to her on the, you know, some other points that are still coming in that he's getting information from China on, and says, you know, he would plan to, if she wants to, to talk with her on the plane on the way to Hawaii and cover any other questions she has.

He's done a good job of briefing it.

You know, when you're shopping, I mean, his job, briefing, you know, so him would be better.

The State Department people are angry, Sean.

They just don't know, do they?

Well, he's done these very well, because they're in conversational tone, the way she, you know, it's questions, the kind of questions the press is going to ask instead of the stereotype question.

And he warns her about them, and then he goes through the problem of, you know, he points out some warnings to her that they may try to press her into comparisons of their system versus ours, and how to handle those.

not only the answer, but just a general guideline, kind of have to shift it to a narrative basis and just talk about how interesting it is now.

It's all stuff that makes me oversimplified.

She may look at it and say, I don't know this, but it can't be helpful at all.

It's always well to have yourself reminded because many times you just say something that is totally, seems totally logical, but just is awfully wrong.

And you just have to remind her, give her a little warning.

I think she'll find this very helpful.

I'm so glad it's done.

I just hope this gal works out, because that, yeah, is really .

I think we'll just, let's do our schedule of planning afterward.

We'll have plenty of,

Ideas laid out, ready to move into gear, but don't get locked on anything.

Have yourself set so you can go to keyless gain.

Yep.

But wasn't he mentioned something about that we had it scheduled in the entry primer day?

No, I was just, he thought that we'd go hit the country hat that week.

I don't think that matters though.

I think, I don't think you need to ignore it.

The fact of any of those primaries is to ignore them.

Yeah.

Couldn't agree more.

There's no bearing.

You just go.

Isn't there a mistake on that?

He hates us on the economy, and he hates them on the water.

He gets the hard hat view across.

Yeah.

Coastal officer reported that Muskie seemed to be a hard kind of loafer.

Yeah, Loafer's calling him Muskie on Muskie.

I don't know if it helps, but I think it does.

It's getting played around a little bit, and I think anything that takes anyone helps.

Why do you think that, frankly?

It's from away from us, down from Marlowe, and there's a little bit of press.

They built a straw man there, and one of those cardboard man, crazy Abraham Lincoln businesses.

It's unbelievable.

Always reasonable.

Always careful.

Always right.

Well, they take every one of his faults and turn it around.

That guy can't make up his mind, and he flip-flops, so they say that's a man of great wisdom who considers things carefully.

Set of standards, clearly.

But he is...

He should not have moved on this floor.

His best posture is to be in the center.

If he isn't in the center, his posture is not to be out there with the left hand.

He's over on the left, solid and hard now.

On that issue.

Sure.

He's got a hell of a...

I don't know how he can get back.

He's there and pretty much there to stay.

Unless we let it back.

Well, people's memories are sure.

Yeah.

I think Anderson, they remember that.

They forgot the Pentagon Papers, you know.

They forgot the citizen papers.

Do you realize that?

They forgot the Anderson Papers.

They forgot India and Pakistan.

Pretty much.

Bank of the Desk still has a little.

Sure.

But we'll recognize that in the future.

And don't forget that.

Just like they'd forgotten those EVOs that were starving to death.

Boy, yeah.

Yeah.

But remember how, boy, that was so vaguely amazing that Mallory Kennedy supported those tons of men who ran to him.

I hope he does it again today.

of the forgotten issues of Cali.

Where is Lieutenant Cali today?

It's way back up on the island.

It's funny, I get my weekly report from my two college kids.

Yeah.

And they talk to both of us.

And you always have this.

They call, some of them online, though not necessarily.

It just happens that last week they called after your speech, or the week before, and then we didn't hear from them after.

I was very, especially when one of you said, well, the boy is very involved in politics and stuff.

I thought, especially with his professors and stuff.

So I said, well, we survived this week.

And he said, this has been the most fun of any week I've had at school.

I said, why?

He said, because there's been a lot of discussion.

Everybody's pretty interested in this, so I assume that I really turned him off with my McCarthyism model.

He said, not at all.

On the college campuses, even the left-wing kids liked it, because it was a fight again.

They liked seeing something stirred up.

He said, some of them were staring at you on the basis of the McCarthyism business.

He said, not very many.

They don't know McCarthy.

They don't understand what they're talking about about McCarthyism.

Which is interesting.

They weren't alive, or more conscious.

So they really don't know.

Well, they weren't even alive.

Most of the 17 patients weren't alive.

They got him fifty-seven, didn't they?

They got him fifty-eight.

So what happened was, anyway, they went around and he was an interesting note, because, you know, the babies have something to do with the health.

They're in the health area.

He loves them so that then you can, too.

And then he bought them.

And it's, again, totally a bullet to the price of their age.

I said, you know, we turned the kids off.

Did I turn them off?

Was it, did it really create problems?

He said, no, no, he didn't mention it.

Which is kind of interesting.

Well, I tell you, I do think it became, it came at a good time in the sense that, like we said this before, the January 20th dispute, you were murdered in school.

Because if I hadn't had Williams any better, we'd have a pretty good number of people.

You know, your head is going to wait until she returns, and then send back all of your pictures and stuff.

Other than that, you can do your thing as long as you're there.

Don't you think that would be a better idea?

Yes.

You would love that, right?

Yes.

Yes, you've got to have a good picture, haven't you?

Well, I don't think that's what I'm talking about.

You've got to have a good picture.

No, you've got to have a good picture.

No, that's not what I'm talking about.

Let's try it.

If the guard does it, you may not be able to address this.

I wonder if you might ask our friend in Washington.

Thank you.

Everybody lies.

You know, all you can make of it is this spectacular picture of you and Joe, or you and Mal, or the four of you, or something.

I still think that you did all the rest.

She had one, an autographed single picture too.

I won't go into it, because they all have a road sign on them.

I sent one of those, but I sent one of the others too.

That's about it.

Well, we can always take these with us.

If you want to use them, go ahead and send one of those to us, and send the others back.

Are you sure you want to?

Well, that's why we need to know today.

Maybe it's a good idea to have them so that if Joe gives, if they give you pictures and you've got them there, you can decide there whether you think you have an idea in the city.

You might have an idea, but only for the time being, too.

Does that make sense?

I don't know.

Probably not.

I don't think so.

I think maybe there's a case that we might not use it.

I'll do it.

See, my trouble with a man at dinner is if I have dinner in my home, the way it was up to me.

Even in that life last night, the older it is, and I'm with me, but that was the problem.

But when you're not on stage, and I'm on stage, and all wheelchairs go to bed, and I'm on stage at all, and my idea is...

It's a hell of a lot better.

I mean, we're not going to sleep close all the next day.

Nixon, Haldeman & Sanchez on People's Republic of China trip

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Transcript (AI-generated)

Also recorded on February 15, 1972

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Nixon, Haldeman & Sanchez on People's Republic of China trip

AI Summary

Audio

NARA Description

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Transcript (AI-generated)

Also recorded on February 15, 1972

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