Conversation 676-022

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 Do not cite this transcript as authoritative.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.

to keep escaping.

Well, you were at the big house down there.

It's quite a house, isn't it?

Ezra and Janet Solomon went down here this morning.

And we had a nice time.

Yeah.

Stevie was very good to us.

Sent us out on that boat that I gave you, right?

Did he take you out on that houseboat?

Yeah, he did.

Isn't that nice?

Very pleasant.

I had a little talk with Connor this morning, just by...

that those gifts from the Chinese would be very good to display at this point because they're, you know, over there like you've done.

Yeah, I was, you know, I was just thinking this.

There'd be enormous interest in them.

Okay, right.

Yeah, I know, I know they did, but I was just looking at the list of them here.

I doubt they're gonna sound interesting.

Okay.

Well, before I have a sort of

Uh, the uh, the China trip and all it stood for, uh, was just, I guess, in the nearby apartments was, was sensational, and I might say also, Mrs. Nixon.

She's marvelous.

Yeah, they saw all her, more of her than they saw a lot of her.

We watched her.

The Today Show did a beautiful job.

They had it on with Barbara Walters was excellent.

Herb Capo was excellent.

They capsuled it each day.

And of course there was a lot live at that point of the day here.

So we watched that and it was good.

a great sense of haze and statesmanship and dignity, and it was a most presidential thing.

And I think all the country was thrilled by it, and we're equally grateful to them.

So we just say, let's get a strike. .

It has to be done, that's correct.

What are you going to do?

You're going to say that there are 750 million Chinese and the main one, 14 million on the other side.

You're going to, shouldn't you?

We accepted at the very least we could.

I don't think that issue is going to be that big in the public mind.

Do you think so?

Well, I hope not, and I don't think so.

I think it's shaping around fairly well.

Interestingly enough, we had quite an argument, a discussion, in Kiva's game with the Solomons.

And Ezra Solomon, as you know, was brought up in that part of the world.

Yeah.

It's good to see you back in time, Mr. President.

It's a delight to meet you, Richard.

or whatever it is, let her determine.

And we were sort of arguing, well, the merits on Taiwan, obviously Taiwan is central to this.

We all agreed on it, that something had to be done there.

But then what is the reaction going to be?

And we had quite a little discussion on it.

And so now we're watching to see what the reaction will be.

But I think, well, actually, on the Taiwan, nothing's going to happen for a while.

But eventually, inevitably, it will happen.

I mean, that's what everybody has to realize.

I mean, you have to realize it's going to happen anyway.

Well, there's not a damn thing we can do about that, and we're going to lose that vote because the world is going to recognize the reality of that

Well, from all accounts, I want you to know that we just thought you and your voice did a fantastic job over there.

I know you must be bushed, so get some time off.

But in all the talks with our Chinese friends, they remarked about how young all of you were, but I imagine you've added 10 years to your life.

Yeah.

Well, it must be you got a little cold.

Yeah.

You got a floor.

I know I'm going to be more strongly pro-Taiwan than I am.

I like their system better than, I mean, I despise the communist system, of course.

I think, I mean, I wish they, I wish it were the other way around, but on the other hand, what we're doing here, as far as, they say we're drawing Taiwan, hell, we're not there.

We've got 2,000 troops, you know what I mean?

When the Vietnam War is over, the 6,000 are going to come out anyway.

So we're going to lose that extension.

And the 2,000, if they do, if they do have a settlement, they're going to come out.

It's tough.

It is tough.

Of course, they're all Chinese.

They need to be clever enough to work out on both sides of the way.

They certainly have to.

I was, of course, fascinated by all this when John Hurtman and I took that trip over here to Hong Kong.

But we went to Hong Kong, and we got a very good, and I think more reflected on, perceptive briefing from the Council General there, Osborne.

He was a very good man, I thought.

I have a little list of things to run over with you.

They're not things to decide on, but just to alert you to.

The foreign aid bill should be voted on by tomorrow.

And as soon as it is, we will get it down to you.

The hope that you could sign it.

The trouble is that you know the continuing resolution under which we are operating

ran out the 22nd of February, and we're operating all these programs illegally now.

So we need to have that signed.

At the same time, we're, as I'm sure you know, completely up a tree right now on Radio Free Europe and the radios.

We will have for you a rundown on that situation, but it's very serious.

They are operating now

on private funds, and they can continue for about another week and a half, I believe.

But there comes a point when .

No, it's Fulbright, pure and simple.

So I think we will have you a memorandum of various angles and so forth to this, and some suggestions.

But I think it's a question of whether or not

you want to do it yourself or have somebody take that on and go over Fulbright's head and really blast at him, but he just got up to right now, and sooner or later, if there are no funds, we have to say, stop.

And that's very serious.

Yeah.

So we'll be getting to that.

I just wanted to alert you to that.

We also have a trying to get...

The agreement, or the executive order implementing a textile trade agreement is about ready.

And has a meeting with the textile industry, a fundraising meeting with them on Friday, so we're anxious to have that signed.

As soon as we can get it all prepared, as soon as we have it, it's possible it will get brought in here.

But before you leave, if not, we'll get it to Florida so that they can complete that piece of work.

The three sort of major issues we're struggling with and

I'm not quite ready for a discussion with you on, but as you know, there's work going on on the schools question.

And I think we've made some real headway on it.

And John Ehrlichman and Ed Morgan and John Mitchell and... Ehrlichman's going down.

I'm sorry.

And he's taking...

what we have now, but we don't have, we're going to improve that product before the week is over.

But Richardson, Mitchell, and I, and Barrow, and Morgan have been working on that.

I'll try to put it in my mind.

I've been so, first I had to concentrate enormously hard about two weeks before going to Sheriff Chan that week when I was there.

He is the ablest leader in the world.

I said he is as able as anybody.

But without question to the day, there's nobody else in the league.

That's right, but that's what we need to pray for.

I think many, many people may have got, well, no, they didn't.

They were eating for hours, so they might have gotten impressions.

This was just a lot of going around, looking at the Great Wall, eating Chinese food, shaking hands, and tipping glasses.

But, you know, that's not the way it came through at all.

That was just nothing.

No, that's not the way it came through at all.

It came through very well.

And there was also this stunning contrast between

Here's the president, and here's sort of what presidents are supposed to be like, and here's the way they behave.

And then here's Muskie on a truck, tongue-tied, crying with a handkerchief.

And here are all these other presidential candidates that are sort of scratching and elbowing around.

And boy, did that come through.

How did it get through?

Because the accommodators wouldn't say that.

No, they just showed pictures of people.

You mean sort of pictures in China?

just look good of course we've been doing it all the time they haven't carried it before not much never made impression y'all haven't said you know we do state dinners and we welcome people on arrival they knew that they uh your own conduct uh kind of showed through very well and mrs nixon's and everybody but you and mrs nixon particularly

And then I think everybody had a sense of a great event, including the news people.

And even when they were describing the Great War or describing some thing, it was nevertheless part of a big event and a big exercise.

And the president was the leader and had brought this about and was conducting it.

So I think all that came through very well.

And then, of course, they then show a picture of Muskie in New Hampshire.

And there he is on the screen.

And you see him.

They showed that.

And then that comes right after showing something over in China.

And the contrast is just stunning.

But the...

Well, Humphrey's down there in Florida driving one of those swamp buggies around Naples with goggles on and mud on.

I don't know why he's achieving by that, but he's making himself a real hand, I suppose.

But the contrast between what is the presidential way of behaving

And this kind of scratching away for a little publicity, I suppose, is just overwhelming.

And I think that you really are completely set apart.

I recognize my prejudice, you might, but I guess we came across.

Well, I'll think on it.

I'll think on it a little.

be able to concentrate on it probably next week.

We've got to resign and everything, I think.

We need to decide it, and I think that we have got an approach that John will tell you about, and we'll have in better shape by the end of the week or early next week to discuss with you.

Even though John is, this is his last day, although Keith Mitchell went to this discussion, so you'll have him as part of that.

That's right.

He's a good guy.

Well, he's gone back to testify again.

He's requested an opening of his hearing because of the accusations of a relationship between an ITT contribution and the antitrust case.

So that's postponed according to his vote.

Well, with that, another issue is precipitated by Mills' call for a 20% increase in Social Security benefits.

Sure.

Your position is 5% and the cost of living.

And we had, and didn't quite get to you before you left,

of the Social Security tax system and how it operates and how I think Connolly, Richardson, Stein and I all feel it might well be changed.

But there is a package of things involving taxes and benefits here that is substantively very important and obviously politically very important with the older population.

Connolly and I testified

on the debt ceiling the day before yesterday for our session and for the most part the testimony was very heavily on the social security increase and they tried to get us to make a statement about it and we basically said the president's position is five percent and cost of living uh and here are a whole list of problems we have

What can we do?

Well, I don't think the 5% is too bad a posture.

I think we should call for a reduction of the out-year tax rates.

In H.R.

1, there's a proposal for increasing the taxes in 1976 that result in a big increase in the

flowing of funds in excess of the outgo, and that's what is leading to these big suggestions for increasing the benefit level.

So I think we ought to be more realistic about the tax rates on the one hand, and work with our friends in the Congress on what might be done in excess of the 5%, but I don't see that

We need to go much higher.

The Social Security benefits have gone up by a third in the last three years.

So it isn't as though this is a segment that's gone up far faster than the consumer's price index.

Yeah.

But we have to be awfully cautious, obviously, and not seem to be against the old folks.

Oh, God, I know, I know, I know.

It's just really wonder if it's a darn country.

You kind of wonder if responsible government can survive, don't you?

You kind of wonder.

The other area where we have a prime issue, and Rumsel and Stein and Connolly and I are going to meet on it tomorrow, is the wage-price business, and you're familiar with all the information.

Long-term cities that can't swallow it.

They can't.

What's going to happen?

Another strike?

That's quite possible.

And then we have a major confrontation with the law.

And then we are in a big confrontation with labor.

And I think it would be very desirable not to have it if we can figure out some way not to.

that we have to stand by our program.

How could you possibly figure out a way not to throw them?

They back down and they can't, they won't take the dust away.

Well, it depends on how much less is called for, I think, partly.

And an awful lot depends on how we manage it and to what extent we can

We can enlist other people and show that this is not anti-labor and so on.

You remember when we had the postal crisis and we used the troops and so forth?

We had, we had awfully good lines into the AFL-CIO and me and company, and they never jumped the traces on that.

We got away with using those troops, and I never, I thought things would blow up, but I didn't.

What is the situation regarding the tincture settlements?

That's hanging out.

That's also hanging there.

Is there any preventive work being done on that, or is it possible to be prevented?

Well, we're trying to

as subtly as we can, after a while, no point being subtle, we just might go directly at it, is to say, well, what amount of change downward is tolerable?

What can we do and still not have teacher strikes around the country?

Right now we have a situation where the number of people on strikes

is lower, at least, than it's been any time in the last 10 years.

It's way down.

All of a sudden, we're there.

And if we can hold that, I think it will do wonders for the economy.

Can we see, while the economy has been churned and disrupted by the strikes the last two years very quickly, a period of stability would be good.

But that is a real problem.

And it comes at a time when all the reports that we have are that we're making a lot of headway with labor.

That meeting, I think I told you, that meeting you had with the construction people was great.

And they had a good meeting there.

We know we have some communication with them.

Even with me, we're not in too bad shape.

Would you care to see whether Kissinger is back?

I know he's looking for him, and I'd like to see him.

I'd like to see him before I leave.

So it might be that Blaine might be the fault of the team, rather than...

I don't know.

I hate to get in a fight with labor.

You know, you're looking at it in political terms.

I thought it would be common for me to have said this briefly this time.

He went out and testified and did the whole thing.

He told me that Arthur was super great, but not as fine as I'm compared to the others.

And I'm totally against him.

You know what I mean?

He knows where we all stand.

Gosh, it's really hard to deal with Arthur, isn't it?

It is just hard to deal with.

Very willful.

Connolly had a very long chat with him across a wide range of topics.

I guess it was after you left.

And he has perhaps told you from sources inside the Democratic Party, which you didn't tell me what they were, has strong indications of the labor people.

have about had it with most of the Democratic candidates.

And a lot of them, construction teams or many others, are looking for ways.

Yeah.

Our way.

Yeah.

Well, when you come down to it, looking at Muskie, Conley thinks he's a dead killer.

I don't think anybody kills anybody, people.

You know, he always survived.

He doesn't think Humphrey's got it.

Humphrey's

And so what's that mean?

He said, Teddy probably will come in and say, we want Teddy.

And he'll gobble up the nomination.

That's fine, yeah.

And we've got Teddy as the candidate.

Now, Teddy would have the enormous advantage of his Catholic labor full.

I mean, after all the dailies and meetings and the rest, are you going for Teddy?

No, sir.

I don't think meeting will go for him.

I don't know, Chairman.

You said he does as well as Chappaquiddick.

Well, I think I told you when he said this to me about Chappaquiddick.

Yeah.

A long time ago.

A long time ago, but still in all, his conclusion was he got in a jam and he panicked.

Those were his exact words.

So he shouldn't be President of the United States.

It was sort of the same thing as a Muslim.

What you would have with a Tetian, I'm not sure what the problem is now, but what you have would be a very scary thing because he would have, he'd have the total support of the blacks.

He'd just get them all like that.

He'd have very heavy Jewish support, which is important in New York, California, and to a lesser extent in Illinois, but New York, California Jewish support is important.

because that's where they are.

They're very hard to block.

he would have just that basic, latent kind of support.

He didn't have it all, but he'd get it.

He wouldn't get as much as Jack, he'd get a lot of it.

And he would have a lot of the young, you know, the jumpers and the thumpers, you know, the young people.

With that in mind, it makes a scary thing, because when you think of the various Democratic candidates, we have to realize that

I mean, if they didn't include them all, he would be the worst.

I don't think he's the worst man in the office.

Because he is, he is basically a man without more.

And it is an unobstructed personal morality.

But he has no principle.

None.

And he is a man with vanity.

Don't you agree?

He did that.

And he would have it over in Iceland, correct?

Good God, apparently.

We would have been fighting.

You know, on the island of Biafra, remember?

He wanted us to get involved in that, you know?

Fighting for the caps of Biafra, you know what I mean?

Well, that's one reason why I think your use of that quotation of the State of the Union

Students are going to be back in 10 to 15 minutes.

It's now 5 minutes to 12, would you like that?

12 to 10.

12 to 15 departure.

That will bring in help after 12 to 10.

All right.

12 to 15.

Thank you.

I don't think I'd rather take an unassisted union.

Will you use the quotation from John Kennedy,

that no place we won't fight, no goal we won't seek, or at least goals.

And I think played off against that very effectively.

Well, in the country, it would be a terrible, wrenching, polarizing kind of a campaign.

But if the country is going to go that way, maybe we'd better find it out.

So he'll say anything?

He will say anything, George.

Absolutely anything.

The only reason he's placing it in China is that he's a smart man to know that it's generally popular.

The price of anything is popular.

And, you know, there is no, and he'll, uh, and also he probably wants to go there himself.

Correct.

I don't think it's necessarily so that all the young people flock to him.

I don't think the young people necessarily follow him in overwhelming numbers.

He obviously has his certain semi-Bobby Sox appeal.

At least the young people around our household.

And I don't mean just my children, but they people have been getting kids for dinner and whatnot all the time, and we talk to them, and they're from all around.

Some for us and some against us, but very few are all set for Teddy.

Really?

Why?

Why do they have doubts?

They think that he is Two-Face.

He doesn't have integrity.

That's something that young people are very interested in, I think.

They like integrity, which is good.

You know, they see black and white, they're idealistic.

Anyway, back on the labor thing, I think that

not against Teddy when he would do some bad things like that.

Well, I would hope so, because I think the labor guys are more moral than the businessman.

The labor man is a more moral man, let's face it, than the businessman, usually.

I don't mean, I'm not referring to the brothers like Hopper, but the average labor guy.

You need the very moral man.

That's what we need, isn't it?

For me, it's...

I like him, and I adore him.

And incidentally, as I think you suggested, Bob Haldeman transmitted it to me.

I called him before you left about breakfast, and he is, I'm sure, looking forward to that.

That's something that ought to be scheduled, I think, as soon as you're back from Florida.

Yeah.

He had called me back, incidentally, after I called him to...

to talk about that.

He called me right back about five minutes later and asked for some stuff on Vietnam, which I got for him.

And he made some very good statements.

I bet you're right.

I very much saw that in you, sir.

Bechtel has invited me to go to Augusta.

Good.

March with me, and me and Mr. McConnell, who's a great friend.

We'll spend an afternoon the next morning in Plymouth down there.

That would be nice.

And also it would be a chance to try to work out of Meany's system a lot of these myths that he's carrying around.

He still has this notion that somehow or other in the White House we're trying to get him.

Oh, Christ.

I keep passing the word along that if somebody is, I don't know who it is.

So I just happen to know that the President likes it personally and admires it.

But I can do a lot of that kind of talk with him down there.

But if Bob could figure out a time, I'll write.

Yeah, I'll get that.

When I'm there, I'll fix up a scheduled thing with a practice meeting.

It's very important.

Sure, I will do, too.

I like him because he's a man of principle.

He'll raise all of us up.

He probably doesn't like the...

No, he doesn't, I'm sure.

He was more restrained, however, in his comments than he had been earlier.

And when I went over after your call that day and briefed him on the question, he picked up the subject of China toward the end of our discussion.

And, you know, he has long served on the board of ComSat.

Apparently, one of the key people there that he had known went to China on one of the early advance trips and came back.

And Meany saw that fellow out because he'd known him.

And he asked him a lot of questions about China.

And he was telling me about what this man had told him about the nature of the Chinese society.

And he wondered about this and he wondered about that.

And Meany, as a 77-year-old man, is very curious about China.

And he's, of course, a deep anti-communist, but he's also a man who is interested and wants to know what's going on.

He was telling me that he'd heard this and he'd heard that.

So I know that he's not a— I'm going to try to get Henry— I'm going to try to get him over it.

And you ought to give me a little briefing if he couldn't even decide to do it before Henry goes to court.

Or is he sort of keeping from lashing out?

Well, it seems to me that if Meany can be kept from lashing out, then that has an impact on the Republican right wing in an odd way, it seems to me.

When Meany is all out, that just encourages them.

There's an odd sort of positioning of those people together.

But if he can go out of his mind and he can break it, it's all right.

He can break it, of course.

It's about believing.

But that's one of those things.

I mean, you have to.

In every important decision, you have negatives and positives, and that's all.

You don't want them all.

And that's the way the system works.

You do the best you can.

I understand from a colleague that the money supply began to grow.

It's begun to move, yeah.

So that's something anyway.

And we've had some good economic markets.

Yes, we've always had a little of that.

We have leading indicators and so forth.

Well, the next unemployment reading will be released Friday.

I don't know when it is yet, but we'll hear either this afternoon or tomorrow morning.

The insured unemployment has come down and total unemployment has kept there so that the gap between the two is as wide as it's been in a long while.

And I think that this suggests that

The rate for married men ought to start coming down pretty drastically because that's essentially the group in the insured-unemployed category.

And it's not only the average insured-unemployed, but the initial claims for unemployment insurance, which show you how many people are starting in, are down.

The layoff rate in manufacturing is way down.

So there are a number of things of that kind.

But at the same time, retail sales are just very, very discouraging.

Are the retail sales of Lancaster, we thought, very good, fully themselves?

That's true.

But then on our better statistics, we have had to conclude that the early statistics were more buoyant than was actually the case.

I think we're paying a penalty for the low growth in the money supply in the last three months, particularly of the year.

But then it could start to turn around almost.

You know, you had a theory that you used to express a couple of years ago that spring has a rather interesting effect on confidence in the rest, correct?

Well, yes, I think it does.

It does indeed.

I mean, you go through that in the spring.

begin to feel a little better.

Well, I think these... And there's a...

I have a lot of some of these.

We know there's a lot of steam in that boiler.

Jesus Christ.

We also have the contrast.

Well, I'm not a big believer in the psychology school of analysis.

I know, I know.

We compare this spring with now with a year ago.

A year ago, we were engaged in a big reference to the battle of Laos.

That's right.

And it was dominating everything.

That's right.

And now we are engaged in .

Right.

for a positive thing.

Well George, you posted and if you need to see or anything, come down, huh?

All right.

Yeah, I want you to cover these two.

Come down on the courier.

There are these two.

Yeah.

Probably not going to be able to address Barnett's bill.

But all right, we'll have you there.

Fine.

Okay, fine, fine.

We'll see.

Have a good trip.

Well, we're trying to get Henry down and get him a load of rest.

I don't see why he needs rest.

He's going for it.

Oh, there's a sight to see.

I'll tell you, he got less sleep than I did.

Well, I said to the President, and he told me to you that it was a magnificent trip to watch and very presidential.

And in contrast...

of the president on the one hand, and then the next thing on the TV would be Muskie in New Hampshire or something like that, clogged, scratching away.

Well, that just showed how unpretentious that end was.

It was really quite striking.

You heard about it?

I just spent an hour and a half with the press.

Oh, yeah?

I think I got the truth around at the end.

Who was it?

Frank Connell.

Somebody said, why didn't you tell us all this in Shanghai?

I said, because it was impossible.

What did you talk about?

I hope not about, uh, they weren't seniors in Taiwan, were they?

Because that was a major subject.

No, what I did, in fact, was a boycott version of what I did yesterday for the cabinet.

I said, you have to look at it, I guess.

I just talked about Taiwan.

I said...

In fact, was that a major subject of interest?

Yeah, well, yeah, they... No, no.

They saw larger implications?

Well, after I told them they saw the larger implications, I said, now, gentlemen, let's go through this Taiwan section.

It says, with the prospect of a peaceful settlement in mind, we'll withdraw, but before we...

So we have this limitation on it.

But before we even get to the withdrawal, in the meantime, we'll reduce as tensions diminish, which we control.

And I said on Chinese soil that the tensions apply to the whole area and to the world.

Well, that's a... And I said it's a restatement of our public opinion.

But then I called their attention to the principles, which they had never focused on.

You mean to think about the mean principles of co-existence and so on?

Well, John Scali, who was there, and Ziegler both think that it went outstandingly well.

What did you do under what basis?

What role?

Background.

Occasionally I make a deep background.

I was very candid with them because I figured we've got nothing to lose together, so it's a cargo base.

...to get two wobble sensors on skybox, neither of which obligates us to do anything now.

When you say they're coming around, I don't think they're going to make any sense.

No, no, no, they did not.

We're asking a lot from ICA and the President.

They've been describing good.

And did you see the Washington Post editorial yesterday?

Well, they had an editorial attacking Taiwan, saying there was no come out of Taiwan.

I got it.

I got along very well with Goldwater.

He's issuing a statement endorsing the case today, making the case that Mexico survives.

Yeah.

I'm going to try to speak to him about it today.

Yeah, you can do that.

Can I suggest something?

You know, I'm telling Henry it's not too much, and he probably has told you that he did well, but Scali, I've never seen John Scali, so completely undone, as he is this morning.

He came in and said, I've got to talk to you about Henry.

I thought, okay.

I said, Henry, blow it.

I said, I mean, he came in, sat down and asked me.

And it just was so superb and smart.

And it was just all, it was completely emotional.

And all those people there, I would have run up and kissed him.

Don't do that.

I think about it.

He was so excited.

Well, I gave a rather emotional account of what you had done.

You explained a little about the battle of the heavyweights.

I think that's a very powerful thing.

Oh, yes.

I spent some time on that.

Also, they wanted to say that it must have been awful when the president had to stay up himself till 5.

I said, no, it wasn't quite that.

But the president was available till 5.

Whenever we got a section finished,

Or in principle, we would take it to him.

He would then make certain changes.

But he did not himself physically do the drafting because that's not his nature.

On the other hand, you do not exchange it.

Nor did Joe and Lyle.

So as these sections were finished, they would go back to both principles.

They would then make certain changes and then come back together again.

And it is that process which kept the president

Let's see what they can arrive.

The other one that I thought you might give a call to so that he can come and bring this to me.

Yes.

Do you mind just calling him on the phone?

Not at all.

I'm glad.

I'm glad I had you prepared.

I see.

We ought to consider, Mr. President, the day of starting Raising Hell Now at the House

whether I should testify in those sessions before some committees, I'll kill them.

And if they, before they turn it into, I don't want to do it, I have nothing to gain from it, but before it turns into a huge issue.

Well, if you do that, I don't think you can have presidential or White House.

It has never been done.

What I think you can do is to set up the informal one.

where I invite members of the committee down and say a flare house, and you do it that way.

But if you go on and test them, and you establish aggressive terms, probably a little.

Probably, I mean, I'm threatening all commuters by having them take the terms.

Is that a problem?

I know you can tell me.

What about the other one?

Why not take all the foreign places?

It's all right, why can't we take it?

But I'm glad we've got foreign areas.

They want to take notes and they know.

Yes.

Absolutely.

And this is that.

But it's not the reason why we cannot do that.

We'll have that down here.

Yeah.

Why don't we do it that way?

Yeah.

And also, we've got to figure out the results.

We don't want to do it either way at this point, but it's better to go along.

But I think on the, I think you're, we'll talk about this later, but I think the idea of

I think anything we can do to preempt it, I am in favor.

Un-tell what he wants.

We couldn't do it before next week anyway.

I mean, it's not to do it soon, necessarily, but to give them a time so that they can clear it up.

What's he want?

What's he always trying to do?

I'm sure we want it.

If you want it now, I mean, he said it's up to us.

Did Haig do it because he had a satisfactory report from Houston?

Yes.

Rogers said he didn't commend it.

Haig presented it on the basis that he was worried.

Not what Rogers would say, but what his department would say if he gave them a similar treatment.

Oh, in comparison to the entire line.

Yes.

Well, and he ought to be doing some of this freezing, haven't he?

He's got to do it all out of fear already.

I mean, he ought to.

The feeling, well...

I would like to read in the newspapers that high state department officials said it was the thing they had dreamt about for 20 years that the presidents, Bush and Derrick... What rest?

Did you see the rest in column today?

Oh.

All of you.

Nixon will go down in history as the man who has done this.

Oh.

It saw the greatest diplomatic acumen.

It was thoughtfully prepared.

Three years of hard labor and of tremendous foresight and all the nitpickers that will be forgotten when Richard Nixon will see in the history books a man who has created a new world scene.

I would never have believed it possible.

I want to walk with you to Seattle.

I'm glad you're going to Florida.

What time do you have to come back there?

Saturday afternoon.

Well, that'll give you the whole of the Wednesday night, Thursday and Friday.

Now, this will get to you.