Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 691-004
Date: Tuesday, March 21, 1972 at 4:57 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob"); Bull, Stephen B.
Recording device: Oval Office
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/691-004

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] These are still really too long, aren't they?
[0:26] Although I suppose you can call them any less than that.
[0:29] Most of these people now do a pretty good job of outlining that thing so you can get to it.
[0:38] I'm very pleased with the settlement.
[0:40] I think they're off to the same end.
[0:43] They're better than they were.
[0:44] I mean, you know, Eisenhower got a bad record to hate for insisting that everything had to be up on the page.
[0:51] I don't know why, because he got that one.
[0:56] That's the only way you can discipline them.
[0:57] That's the only way you can discipline them.
[0:59] And frankly, it's all the time you have.
[1:00] Discipline them.
[1:01] How much time have you got?
[1:03] And these people got a real-life life this morning.
[1:06] What the hell?
[1:08] When I met the Turk, when I didn't meet the Turk, who was to know that he was the Schultz of the crisis, and I had seen him for an hour, so that took out an hour and a half.
[1:19] I was not as prepared as the Turk as I was.
[1:20] I took five minutes.
[1:22] I got it with five minutes.
[1:23] But if I could have got a damn boat, and what the hell good is that going to do me?
[1:28] See my point?
[1:29] And also, it's good discipline, because people say, here's the things you need to do.
[1:33] It's important.
[1:34] Less than anybody can write a paper for 30 pages, or a speech for 30 minutes.
[1:39] Damn few can write it for 15, or 10, especially, or five.
[1:44] But we do well.
[1:45] We do well.
[1:45] We work hard.
[1:46] I don't remember.
[1:53] Well, I see that, so the reason that they had Hague is because they stopped talking about Poland.
[1:59] He's thinking it through.
[2:00] He thinks that that's his problem.
[2:04] He thinks that it has to do with the German treaty and that they're trying to get the Russians behind it.
[2:13] That's what he thinks.
[2:14] That's what Adam's saying about the Turk.
[2:20] Well, he said that would be better than Poland.
[2:24] The problem with the Turk is NATO.
[2:27] Well, because he told NATO we weren't going to do, we weren't going to stop in NATO.
[2:32] So we're not going to stop at the capital.
[2:35] But you just stop there.
[2:36] You see, you're in Iran.
[2:37] Then you can stop in Turkey for three or four hours.
[2:41] That's what I'm speaking of.
[2:42] Three or four hours, but not overnight.
[2:44] Yeah, see.
[2:45] And then go on.
[2:48] And the hell is to stop there.
[2:50] I don't think Russia knows.
[2:52] Yes, they know.
[2:53] So I would stop in Ankara, not the capital.
[2:57] Yeah, Al said he thought he ought to have Henry call you about Poland.
[3:06] I said, hell no.
[3:07] I said, don't have Henry call me.
[3:09] You just figure out what you think.
[3:10] And let's talk about it.
[3:11] He hasn't decided to go.
[3:13] He's just raised the question.
[3:14] Why won't you call me about England?
[3:16] I don't think we're going to go to England.
[3:18] I don't know how it would work out.
[3:21] I don't know what to do.
[3:22] We're always going to do the best we can.
[3:27] It's going to be about three or four minutes, for instance.
[3:35] What is it?
[3:36] Do they help some of them?
[3:38] No.
[3:39] I haven't talked to them in the last couple of hours.
[3:44] It wasn't in the mid days.
[3:47] No, they're not?
[3:55] No, we weren't.
[3:56] It was extremely loud.
[4:32] Now one thing, if we don't get the pandas soon, which we may not, they may not be ready, and even if we do, I just wonder if they can do it, if we want to think about letting the pandas make a tour across the country on their way to the Washington Zoo.
[4:55] It could be a hell of a thing to have them land in L.A. and have them work their way and have an air-conditioned display van made for them.
[5:06] Let them work their way across the country and let kids be let out of school to see the Panthers.
[5:10] I'd drive them and do them in a downtown area or something, a central exhibition place of some kind.
[5:19] You could put it in a self-contained van so the kids could file through and see them
[5:25] We've got to be careful if there's any danger to that line, or if anybody's going to raise that line.
[5:57] They're already rushing the tourists, but I was just going to work out this parking and get more facilities.
[6:02] Did I always say that right?
[6:03] I always say, uh, I was earlier than you when I was on the bus.
[6:12] I think so.
[6:13] Yeah, on the road and so forth.
[6:20] You know, I thought that, Bob, I thought about that.
[6:25] Somebody asked, I'm grateful.
[6:27] You know, he'd stay there, he'd stay there, and then turn around.
[6:30] What the hell?
[6:32] I was just like, complete turnaround.
[6:33] I was thinking if I did that, I was just thinking if I did that, they'd crucify me.
[6:39] He's, it's become so much his stock in trade that apparently he can do it and everybody just kind of smiles.
[6:44] And you jump up and shout about it, and they all come along and say, well, that's Hubert.
[6:53] He says, you know, he didn't understand what you were saying on the TV, and after he studied it, he realized it was not what he thought.
[7:00] After he studied it, he found out it was a hell of a lot more generous than I said.
[7:05] As you know.
[7:13] I was interested to know that, you know, what was the first thing that you used with editorial writers?
[7:21] Bullshit.
[7:23] And again, the rest of the thing, I felt that I did not show my concern about the rights and the rules and the rules of life.
[7:38] I wonder if, and we'll work on the center section of the speeches, I wonder if in voting about that, they might say, let us all, they said use this opportunity, let us all, remember, let's live together and work together on it.
[7:50] There's a lot of that in one of the early
[7:53] Well, the first half, I just cut it out and I just called Rick or something and said, as you know, there's a segment of people that want to hear that all the time.
[8:01] And I'm supposed to be depressed about that.
[8:04] But did you get a feeling from hearing that speech that it was unbalanced?
[8:08] No, I didn't.
[8:08] I thought it was...
[8:09] I was worried the other way.
[8:10] I thought it was very balanced.
[8:12] I was concerned that you were going to do too much of that in the relevant...
[8:16] Apparently, we didn't go too far in the election.
[8:18] No.
[8:18] And they had... the people got the message.
[8:25] How was he going to do it?
[8:26] Of course, that was only in the middle.
[8:28] He came back at the end of the other theme again.
[8:34] But it did, I was beginning to wonder if he had gone, got too much of the Garland and Price kind of view.
[8:42] You mean about the concern about the kids?
[8:45] Yeah.
[8:45] Educating them where they are.
[8:47] Is that what you mean?
[8:52] Educating the kids where they are?
[8:53] Yeah.
[8:55] You talked about busing being at least an equal opportunity in building there.
[9:02] If you really want to come down to it, if you're talking about race, hatred and division and threats, there is nothing that contributes to it more than busing.
[9:12] That's the point.
[9:13] You've got to get busing out of the dialogue.
[9:23] You know, that's part of the trigger.
[9:25] He is a master.
[9:26] Why do you put him?
[9:29] You don't have to stick with me.
[9:33] I speak about those games.