Nixon, Haldeman & Kissinger on Foreign Policy and Congressional Relations

2:02:06And also that the climate seemed to be pretty good here.
2:02:11So that's the president saying that too.
2:02:31But I think what we'll do is that I think the point is that they have a creator.
2:02:41So let's start bringing him in.
2:02:44And then he can go up and say, you know, he's going to be here.
2:02:50President, I'm just going to tell you a funny, very funny story.
2:02:54Watson saw the Chinese today, and we had told him to keep it quiet, and not make a lot of fuss over it, but the Chinese released it to the press.
2:03:04And the Chinese have insisted on calling on him Thursday at 11.
2:03:08There'll be two ambassadorial meetings, you know.
2:03:12They're right.
2:03:14Watson saw them today, and they were calling him on a Swedish meeting.
2:03:20And those were the great issues that got upgraded.
2:03:23I noticed one of the stories said that it was partially before the war, and it probably was.
2:03:31Well, I think the delay was part of the reason for all of this.
2:03:37The delay got upgraded?
2:03:37No.
2:03:38Oh, I see what you mean.
2:03:38I think the decision had been made before.
2:03:43But they held it off?
2:03:44Not for...
2:03:46I don't know what we can find out about this, but I usually get swayed away from it.
2:03:56I'm going to meet with Peter McClane again in a few minutes.
2:04:0210 minutes.
2:04:03Did Thompson talk to you at all about NaNo?
2:04:13Yeah.
2:04:13What's he mean?
2:04:16Well, uh...
2:04:18What concerned me was something you may have missed, but what concerned me was a little note in the summary to the effect that cables sent from RMC in Cambodia indicated that Bonneville was, quote, mentally and physically sick.
2:04:36That's not true.
2:04:36Well, the point that I made is, is this another leak from another state or something, or what the hell is it?
2:04:44There was a cable from Swank.
2:04:47Yeah.
2:04:48I thought two months ago that Anderson got to evade him.
2:04:52And that's not part of this series.
2:04:54All right.
2:04:55All right.
2:04:56All right.
2:04:56All right.
2:04:57All right.
2:04:58All right.
2:04:59All right.
2:05:12Well, we could ask Thompson to go out again, but the problem has been this.
2:05:17As I told you 10 days ago, the State Department has been pushing for a separate deal.
2:05:27And they have been nitpicking away at Lone Oak.
2:05:30We've been trying to get them to stop, and they've stopped it now.
2:05:35We gave them a tough message through Green.
2:05:39And...
2:05:45It's conceivable that Long Noble is trying to pat them down for what might happen.
2:05:51It also leads to Roland Evans, that they have been separate peacekeepers.
2:05:58And he's going to come to the story on that, that they can't go on.
2:06:01I noticed in the Washington Daily News something.
2:06:17editorial, and they tend to be critical of the fact that there was no mention of the Taiwan Independence Movement.
2:06:25Let me ask, is the Taiwan, that source is interesting because that's more of a conservative paper.
2:06:31Is the Taiwan Independence Movement is violently opposed to Chiang Kai-shek, violently opposed by the Chinese, and violently opposed by the Japanese?
2:06:44The Japanese haven't taken a position on it, but it's not a significant movement now.
2:06:55It is violently opposed by both the Chinese governments.
2:06:58Chiang Kai-shek had locked up the leader of the Chinese Taiwanese independence movement, and he's now in this country as an exile, and we had major problems with Chiang Kai-shek when we let him in here.
2:07:11So... And for the Chinese PRC.
2:07:13And for the PRC.
2:07:16But I've noticed somebody must be feeding that because the New York Times, which never used to give a damn about Taiwan, had an editorial about that last week, too.
2:07:24The Independent one.
2:07:28Yeah.
2:07:29We should be in the South City.
2:07:31Or could it be, is there somebody pushing the Taiwan Independence Movement?
2:07:35That's a lot.
2:07:36Have you ever heard of the Taiwan Independence Movement?
2:07:39No, not enough to matter.
2:07:43But we had another thing.
2:07:44I didn't see anything in the State Department papers indicating that we ought to support the title.
2:07:49Absolutely not.
2:07:51Did we?
2:07:51No.
2:07:51So some kind of a flat law, but did Roger freeze that?
2:07:55No.
2:07:56Well, they raised it at the end.
2:07:57At the end.
2:07:58At the end, they raised it.
2:08:00He raised it at the end.
2:08:02He said you ought to take it over.
2:08:04But he never raised it in the preparatory papers they gave us.
2:08:09Never.
2:08:10At the end, he did raise it among 500 other nitpicks.
2:08:16Not 500.
2:08:1718.
2:08:1815.
2:08:2015.
2:08:21But in this catalog of nitpicks, there was the Taiwan independence movement.
2:08:26But our formulation doesn't even preclude it says it has to be settled by the Chinese themselves.
2:08:31Nationally, the Taiwanese are not Chinese.
2:08:34If they want to CC, that's their business.
2:08:39Well, except that we won't encourage it.
2:08:43But we didn't say we will oppose it.
2:08:46We didn't say we'd oppose it.
2:08:49We said we will give it no support.
2:08:51And that's been our position.
2:08:53We have never given it any support.
2:09:01I think we ought to cancel it.
2:09:11It can only do damage.
2:09:14I think we've got a strategy on the trade thing, which if we let it be handled by commerce... Well, no, no, no.
2:09:20We're talking about the Russian thing, but Flanagan's got other things on.
2:09:24Well, I've seen Flanagan now.
2:09:25I think his major purpose was to have the Russian thing.
2:09:28about his major purpose with the Russians, then cancel it.
2:09:30We can't discuss it at all.
2:09:32I don't want that discussed in the presence of Rogers and the others at this point.
2:09:36The other thing is, it's my heritage with a lot of colleagues.
2:09:39You know, he's not too damn anxious, I think, to have Lannigan working in some of these areas.
2:09:47Let Lannigan work more as a staffer rather than do a big meeting.
2:09:52At this point, let's cancel the meeting.
2:09:55I think it would be best.
2:09:58Put her out of the booth on Friday.
2:10:00I think I'll go Saturday, but I just can't decide.
2:10:04Why would you, Senator?
2:10:05Because I've got all written out so you can go Saturday and Friday.
2:10:09No, well, I couldn't.
2:10:10I've got all of the ideas because I need it.
2:10:11Well, if you're going to be here that long, I'll help you.
2:10:14You have to work with me.
2:10:15I'm trying to work on the vinyl library and the bussing thing.
2:10:19It's a good advice for you to close it down.
2:10:22Yeah.
2:10:26I think the domestic things are harder to phrase, because with the foreigners, you're dealing very often with compatible interests.
2:10:36Not domestic.
2:10:37Although it's interesting to note the blacks out there in Chicago, they personally came out on both sides when you had against-busting debates.
2:10:55and a pretty good position.
2:10:57David Rockington, who just called five minutes ago to add his, and to be good at it.
2:11:03And his point was that the news meant, and of course, the news summary reflects the news.
2:11:23do not adequately really know the depth of feeling about the trip, and so, well, if they don't pass here, reflecting, I'm not sure that we're, I covered this, for example, with you, Bob, but I just said it.
2:11:41Part of the reason for their emphasis on the IAEA meeting, they must of course be trying to murder China.
2:11:50But on the other hand, we have to realize that when you look back to our announcement on the assaults, and when you look back to our announcement on the Soviet attack, when you look back to our announcement on the conversion to China's side,
2:12:09As Henry goes on, if you look back to Berlin, that's the best China.
2:12:13It's got a hell of a great, let alone biological weapons and so forth.
2:12:20We can figure $48, and then without a trace.
2:12:25And you remember Henry, he used to say, now this will buy us two weeks, three weeks, and this and that, and the other thing.
2:12:32And now China, however, has one advantage over the others, Henry, and you can get it coming again.
2:12:38Tell me about what you ran into in New York.
2:12:51And both of us, is it still nice?
2:12:53Was the lady there?
2:12:55Yeah, she specifically kissed me, which is almost more than I can stand.
2:13:00She's all right.
2:13:02She's a nice person.
2:13:03But I had dinner with a man I'd never met before.
2:13:07He was a friend from the West Coast.
2:13:09They're the head of programs for ABC.
2:13:14And he said,
2:13:16This was the most moving event.
2:13:18He said he watched every minute of the trip.
2:13:23He said, well, he couldn't watch because of the time.
2:13:25He said he missed only one morning show, but he missed a few evening ones.
2:13:29He had taped and had played for him afterwards.
2:13:32He said, the president is a great man.
2:13:34And he's a Democrat, incidentally.
2:13:37So this is not, as most of them are, so this is not one of our supporters.
2:13:41And he has a super intellectual life.
2:13:44who studied social research at the School of Social Research in New York.
2:13:50So, you know, their basic direction is not favorable.
2:13:55But he said he was impressed by your behavior.
2:14:03And also people in the restaurant would come up and say, what a marvelous achievement.
2:14:10And David Rockefeller said the greatest coup of the century.
2:14:16And that sort of thing.
2:14:20That's really the overwhelming feeling.
2:14:23And then a vice president of NBC joined us.
2:14:27He had the same reaction, the head of the West Coast.
2:14:31John West?
2:14:32No, Schlosser.
2:14:33I know him.
2:14:36Executive vice president.
2:14:38Now, he leans more towards us anyway.
2:14:43But this was really here.
2:14:47And that sort of thing is .
2:14:49We have to realize it, too.
2:14:57The loose summary, which you've done very, very well, and so on, inevitably leans very, very hard on columns and on read-arounds and shows and so on and so on.
2:15:13So you read it and you, and virtually every morning in depression,
2:15:18The main thing is to read, not be attacked by it.
2:15:22You decided this week finally wrote something about 70% of what we gave him.
2:15:27Did he?
2:15:28Yeah, that you did all the meetings without notes, that you and Joe were both quiet and soft-spoken, but with steel underneath.
2:15:38He finally got out from under his black bomb, and thanks to you.
2:15:43And that I gave him an anecdote that didn't quite happen that way, but I have so commented that why does Kissinger always have to carry a black book when he talks to me while you talk without notes?
2:15:57I thought that would make it a little more vivid.
2:16:03And he printed them.
2:16:04And his people carried black books, too.
2:16:06They all had black books.
2:16:07That's right.
2:16:08That's good.
2:16:12Well, I'll tell you, it's just too bad that we have this.
2:16:20Stuart, I'll stop for a minute.
2:16:21You broke it all today in Rogers.
2:16:25I'm sorry.
2:16:26You shouldn't have put that column on there.
2:16:28I'll send you my phone conversation result.
2:16:32No, I'll give it to you.
2:16:33I had it set up.
2:16:35I told him to do it.
2:16:43And he started lobbying because he wanted to be Secretary of State.
2:16:46Nobody else picked up the next thing he did.
2:16:48The worst disaster, the worst mistake we could make at this point would even be to think about anything like this.
2:16:55It would be a total disaster right now.
2:16:59Everyone would say that this was, that the plot was to humiliate Rockford so that I could take his job.
2:17:06Oh, shit.
2:17:06Well, I think, now I'm going to have to remember Adrian.
2:17:08Now, let's see who else.
2:17:09That's the point.
2:17:10I don't think he's, Zegler makes the point that we figured that the crafts, the storehouse option, the rest of it, no, I'm going to send it back.
2:17:19Forget it.
2:17:20He said it's a tragedy.
2:17:22His good thoughts don't have much impact on his bad ones, do they?
2:17:25Well, they have an impact on the other journalists.
2:17:27That's where he has a high stand.
2:17:31That's all.
2:17:32That's all.
2:17:32That's it.
2:17:33Well, let me... On this testimony issue, Mr. President, my concern is, I don't give a damn about other journalists, we know that.
2:17:39I think there's going to be a big attack on me, on you through me, at the center of the cult power in the White House.
2:17:48If I don't testify this week, I can't do it the week after I come back because I'm meeting with the Senate people.
2:17:53If I'm meeting with the White House, it wouldn't be an objection to do that same thing with the House people.
2:17:59Well, that really looks like an objection to it.
2:18:02And we don't have enough to set it up for convenience.
2:18:05It's the reason both of them ended.
2:18:08I know a lot of people, why don't we see what the greater good will come.
2:18:11But, Tom, I see, I do think it's very important that you have your niece and Morgan be there, because he's our best friend in that case.
2:18:20But if I get driven off this, then state will leave, because they are the people who have the right to testify, but they don't have the power.
2:18:26And then they have the confrontation that they want.
2:18:29That's going to be the issue.
2:18:31The only reason for doing this, and doing this possible, is so that we have made the record of willingness to meet with them.
2:18:38Before the attack starts, the attack is certainly to come, but I think, but I mean you already indicated you're going to be with the Senate every day.
2:18:49Well, I don't know if we can put it off too big.
2:18:51No, no, no.
2:18:51Let me, let me say one thing I've got to do with the Senate.
2:18:53Well, I think it would be very useful with the Senate if you, if we have Scott Mansfield.
2:18:59Scott Mansfield.
2:18:59They should be there too.
2:19:01But Scott is on, they're both on the committee.
2:19:04Scott Flora Williams.
2:19:05He is now, that's right.
2:19:07They're both on the committee, so they'd be easy.
2:19:10He might add a sentence.
2:19:12Well, I think Fulbright would be very unhappy.
2:19:14Well, Scott and Mansfield, then that'd be a good chance to do it in the House then, because if Borden and Albert were gone, Borden, Bob's going to be able to come to the House from there.
2:19:27That'd be useful.
2:19:28I was going to say, you've seen her twice.
2:19:31I don't care who comes.
2:19:32I have no interest in doing that.
2:19:33First of all, I could never stray from what Rogers had said.
2:19:36That's why I told you.
2:19:37That's why you said it the day after he testified.
2:19:40I understand that.
2:19:41We understand that.
2:19:43I understand that.
2:19:46Secondly, I'm not doing this as a move against Rogers.
2:19:48I'm doing it to protect you when the attacks... Well, your point is...
2:19:52I think what Rogers proposed about his intention is...
2:19:58Exactly the opposite.
2:20:00If he doesn't do it, then the attack does come.
2:20:02If he does do it, it diffuses the attack.
2:20:04Am I wrong?
2:20:05I've met with these people.
2:20:06I've met with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee six times.
2:20:10Have you?
2:20:11Yes.
2:20:12There has never been a story against Roger Johnson.
2:20:16It's never hurt him in any way, but it's protected you.
2:20:20Because then they can't say, you have a little kitchen cabinet.
2:20:22He is circumventing everything.
2:20:24Well, we should meet with them.
2:20:25I mean, and frankly, let me say this.
2:20:27I think if the Armed Services Committee wants to meet with you, you should meet with them, too.
2:20:33Right?
2:20:34Well, I, my primary concern... Not just board meetings.
2:20:37That's the point, Bob.
2:20:38Do you understand?
2:20:39Dean Russ, the reason I triggered it was because Dean Russ called me.
2:20:43He said, as a friend of the president's, I want you to set it up.
2:20:47If you don't make yourself available to congressional committees, they're going to raise a constitutional issue.
2:20:53And you should do it early on.
2:20:55Do you see the point?
2:20:56But now, let me ask this.
2:20:58With regard to the Senate, you said that there's not going to be any issue there.
2:21:01Haven't you agreed to do that already?
2:21:03I don't know why.
2:21:04The last time I did it, I should also manage to delay it three to four weeks.
2:21:08The Senate?
2:21:09Yeah.
2:21:11Did he?
2:21:12For the last time, what he did was...
2:21:14I know that.
2:21:16I scheduled it, and when he heard that I had scheduled it, he scheduled a briefing for himself and that same day, so that I can...
2:21:28When did you make the meeting with him to deal with Fulbright?
2:21:32To Fulbright playing in set for the 28th.
2:21:34Well, that's done.
2:21:37That's what they wanted, right?
2:21:38Well, they wanted it last week, but I didn't do it because Rogers was specified.
2:21:44Well, that's what's fair.
2:21:47And they can't do it this week, so we did it the 28th.
2:21:52And Fulbright didn't tickle to think about it.
2:21:54I'll get it.
2:21:55Well, on the 28th, there was no problem.
2:21:57All right, I'll get the break, and we'll work something on it.
2:21:59All right.
2:22:06You know what's really the sadness of this is when he's got something important to discuss, and he's emotionally disturbed about his pissy-ass thing like this, and the same is true of Rodgers.
2:22:17He just can't possibly do the expression on a commentator.
2:22:20Nobody can.
2:22:22Nobody can have an arrogant of that sort, and then go into a meeting of great importance and make decisions and recommendations that are good.
2:22:30Greener now.
2:22:31Absolutely.
2:22:34You say that you have heard that Rogers or State is making some moves or are making some moves on it.
2:22:54and try to get into the mess of the Russian trip protocol.
2:22:59Well, yeah.
2:23:00They've just made phone calls wanting to know what, you know, planning is, you know, glued in, that kind of thing.
2:23:10Well, we've taken care of the planning.
2:23:13That was before I called Rogers.
2:23:15And on the other thing, you made, see, I didn't mention the McCloskey Club.
2:23:19I just did the generalities when you said, oh, yeah, McCloskey.
2:23:26Coming to IADT is, I don't think I have more on that than we can do.
2:23:30I read the Crosby magazine.
2:23:32I noticed you even killed boys.
2:23:34I guess that's one of those things.
2:23:39It's a, it's a, it's a field day for the colonists, isn't it?
2:23:43Yeah, well, they're not really all that caught up in it.
2:23:47They haven't been, mostly they're fighting, fighting each other, which is unfair, so.
2:23:52I haven't read the magazines.
2:23:53They're,
2:23:55cracked up on today, but, uh, separately, Kavelinis is on the cover of Time, the newsroom, the newsroom, I guess.
2:24:05I haven't seen Time, and I haven't read any of it.
2:24:13But, uh, we've got the question, still, that Dede Beard's been cleared to testify on by their doctors.
2:24:22In the hospital, they won't let her out, but the committee sent representatives in.
2:24:29And so they're cranking up on that today.
2:24:31Presumably they'll send somebody out, people out today, or tomorrow or Wednesday.
2:24:39If she says the right thing, then we're in pretty good shape.
2:24:43We don't know, we've done everything we can.
2:24:49I don't know what that error in the net is.
2:24:56It was about being this way when I came in there, so I don't know what it is.
2:25:10on all that at this point.
2:25:12I asked one other thing.
2:25:15I know that with Musty moving on the finance thing, the prayer on the stands, even somehow will become... Well, I talked to Mitchell about that.
2:25:23He had talked...
2:25:26His point is that we have a substantial problem if we do put anything out because we have taken our contributions on the basis that we would not report them, which we're perfectly entitled by law not to do.
2:25:43That he thinks that our, see April 7th is when the reporting business starts, which is only three weeks away.
2:25:53And on April 7th, you have to report the amount of money you have on hand.
2:25:59And our point was at that time to also state the number of people who had contributed that amount of money, whatever it may be.
2:26:10that we have on hand, and that will work pretty well because we have a mailing out, mass mailing, that we put out a couple weeks ago that will produce a lot of small contributions.
2:26:20So we'll have a large number of contributors against a large amount of money.
2:26:24We will have a large amount of money.
2:26:27John feels very strongly that we should just straight arm it.
2:26:33On the basis now, he says, I don't think anybody gives a damn about it, except the people that are talking about it amongst each other.
2:26:39Well, except, well, Muskie and Humphrey said, no, that makes it clear.
2:26:43Okay, but our position, well, he says that,
2:26:47One answer is, first of all, the President's not involved in this.
2:26:49This is a private committee for the re-election of the President.
2:26:53And we have been, this committee has for some time been soliciting contributions for the President's re-election.
2:27:00And it will all be reported according to the law?
2:27:02It will all be properly reported according to the law.
2:27:05We will follow the statutes.
2:27:08But aren't they also doing more than is required of them all?
2:27:11Yes.
2:27:13But they're candidates, except that they were company distinguished.
2:27:16That's the argument, that they've been out raising the money themselves.
2:27:18They are candidates.
2:27:19Of course, you can argue that you've candidated your name to be put on the list.
2:27:25Except I'm not up there.
2:27:26But you've only done that in order to comply with the statutes in those areas.
2:27:30You had no choice, because the other, the alternative was to say you would not be a candidate, which of course you couldn't do.
2:27:53John argues strongly that we just gotta, we got three weeks, we gotta ride it through.
2:27:58On April 7th, it'll all go away.
2:27:59And he says, I just don't feel it's possible to do anything otherwise.
2:28:02He said, if you got any suggestions, that's fine.
2:28:06And I'm going back to SANS again and see if we can put out any other ideas.
2:28:10But if we put out any partial, then we're really subject to criticism.
2:28:18Because we have to put out a whole- Why don't we have to say that April 7th we will begin reporting on the law?
2:28:24That's if we're not present.
2:28:26But will you have- We're not there to report.
2:28:29Will you have our PR people work up a good statement so that we can get one that can be put up and stand?
2:28:35I don't mean that we put up, that stands can put up.
2:28:37And then that Ziegler, when he's asked about it, can simply refer to it.
2:28:43You see what I'm concerned about, Bob, is that I don't want us to be in a position where by the time I get out of the press conference, I'm just going to be in an age or something, you see?
2:28:56Yeah.
2:28:56I realize the problem.
2:28:57I can see that next year people are going to want their damn age used.
2:29:01That's Muskie's problem, of course, too.
2:29:02I don't know how he's worked it out.
2:29:04He said he's going to report only contributions that he receives in January 4th.
2:29:09and he impacted the others or something.
2:29:11That's the way he used to do it.
2:29:12Well, if we could say that you'll report all the contributions you've received since I became candidate on January 9, you might try that.
2:29:20How would that be?
2:29:23I have an honesty problem with that.
2:29:27Most of what we've gotten has been since then.
2:29:30What?
2:29:30Most of what we've gotten has been since then.
2:29:33Well, it has.
2:29:34See, when Stan moved over, just before he moved over, they started a massive effort to get the money and everything in that they could before it was up.
2:29:43I think it's just something to say once, but I heard everything.
2:29:48Well, if you, who have you got that you can put on the writing of such a statement?
2:29:53You know, Sandbark didn't stand on that first.
2:29:56Good.
2:29:59And a statement that he could work up with the floor stands.
2:30:06And half prevention, see, everybody's got to say the same thing.
2:30:11And it's enough to let me say that the only reason, I suppose, is because of the
2:30:18IGT, then that will raise some pressure on us, you see, to put on who other contributors are, what you think.
2:30:26Sure.
2:30:26Yeah, where does that look down?
2:30:27When he says, on the other hand, we have a problem tonight.
2:30:31Yeah, the general feeling is just, you can just swear out loud.
2:30:40Well, yeah, maintain the counterattack.
2:30:42Cook moved on his executive session over the weekend.
2:30:45Got a little right swing before the cameras today.
2:30:48They said it should be retried.
2:30:50But I hope that at least he got on.
2:30:53Got on, sure.
2:30:54And they're going to do a...
2:30:59They think Eastland's going to go for an executive session.
2:31:02If we can get an executive session, just the fact of that will help a little bit to cloud things up.
2:31:07And then hopefully tomorrow they'll get Peter Beard.
2:31:12Right.
2:31:12We'll see what she does.
2:31:20What did he do?
2:31:21Well, he was part of the shell fire.
2:32:08It should be one.
2:32:09It's very important.
2:32:10We have absolutely nothing to hide.
2:32:12We're not complying with the law.
2:32:14We're just setting up our machine right now.
2:32:17We'll start making the reports that are required by law.
2:32:20We will be prepared to enable the Senate.
2:32:24In the meantime, the president is...
2:34:16Henry thinks it is, I think, because he thinks it would mean to look like a state victory, but he always thinks in terms of .
2:34:34On the other hand, Rodgers
2:34:42I think if Morgan is available on Thursday or Friday and Henry can do it, I think he ought to do it this week.
2:34:50But it still gives it, you know, a little lapse after his testimony's noticed.
2:34:59And of course, the partisans are going to actuate.
2:35:05I'm on your side.
2:35:05I'm not going to go to the teachers' briefing or something like that.
2:35:12And Bill, Bill's answer should have been, look, there are no sides here.
2:35:17We're all on the same team.
2:35:19But I bet he didn't say that.
2:35:25All I had is Bill's story of what was said in McGregor's.
2:35:28I said, I've done that part.
2:35:29So then I wonder if McGregor is well advised to...
2:35:33as you get further into the year to continue ahead.
2:35:36I'm not so sure I kind of see how to put it.
2:35:38You know, it's, you're just providing an initiative for things.
2:35:43I'm inclined to think the less contact we have with Democrats at this point, the better.
2:35:48I think we can do a little, well, I don't know, I don't know how.
2:35:56Well, he has press there too, which creates a problem.
2:36:00You know, this is just a,
2:36:03It doesn't make great much of a problem as long as you've got Democrats in it.
2:36:06You're going to go to the press anyway, so it's...
2:36:11But it's just, you get into the kind of conversations after a few drinks.
2:36:15It's like the conversation at Joe Liddle's dinner.
2:36:17People left.
2:36:18They heard the gridiron.
2:36:19They picked the cars up at the gridiron.
2:36:20What happened?
2:36:21The cop told the party doctor he was dead.
2:36:22He said, well, I've got a homeowner.
2:36:24We've got a homeowner.
2:36:24Right.
2:36:25And he knocked someone off the bench and...
2:36:30I guess we're just going to have to stomp off, because I can see the problem.
2:36:35Also, to the moment you put out the contributors, the later you put them out, the better.
2:36:39Everybody's going to pick every goddamn contributor and say, what have we done for you in the government, right?
2:36:44Yeah.
2:36:45But what can you pick them up?
2:36:47That's exactly what's wrong.
2:36:48Yeah.
2:36:50And, well, plus the fact that they've contributed on the assurance that they were doing it.
2:36:56By law.
2:36:56By law.
2:36:58Because there's nobody that's quite out there.
2:37:01Maybe it was just straight to the line.
2:37:03But at this point, it's just straight to the line.
2:37:07We're in a different position from the Democrats.
2:37:10It's their problem.
2:37:11Is that what he means, basically?
2:37:13Not even to get to the point that the Democrats just ignore him.
2:37:18Not ignore him, but just simply say, we're just worried we can get out of the way.
2:37:21I'll let them handle it their way.
2:37:38There's two endowments, the arts and the humanities.
2:37:48He's the humanities side of it.
2:37:59A rare bird, because he's apparently very highly regarded in the electoral committee, and yet he's solidly for us.
2:38:13You know, they're just going to say it's got to be balanced.
2:38:24That's what it must be.
2:38:31Because I didn't get to your office most of the time.
2:38:33I mean, all these people walking around.
2:38:36No, this is just one of these.
2:38:37No, but I mean, it piles up over a weekend, and people get a chance to think about it, and they read the news.
2:38:40I mean, it comes Saturday, and it comes on the 19th, 10th, and so on.

Nixon, Haldeman & Kissinger on Foreign Policy and Congressional Relations

AI Summary

Audio

Transcript (AI-generated)

NARA Description

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on March 13, 1972

Cite this conversation