Nixon, Butterfield & Woods on J. Edgar Hoover and Eulogy

2:29:11He's over a comment.
2:29:13Yeah.
2:29:14As soon as he gets back, give me a buzz, OK?
2:29:46He really is.
2:29:47What did Harold Mendel go for at a funeral?
2:29:50He drank about four, five, or six Mendels.
2:29:57As a kid, when I got back, I said, why did he try to get the surgery?
2:30:05Well, it started bad for him.
2:30:25He has blue cross, and I can almost see whether that covers everything.
2:30:48He mentioned the error that nobody involved the President of the United States.
2:30:53It wasn't bad, he talked about it, everybody was saying he wanted to make a little speech, but I thought it was anticlimactic after, because I left it on a fairly high note.
2:31:02It was, it was all, it was, that was the only, I thought the whole service was beautiful, and the Army Corps was so good and everything, but he didn't need to go in.
2:31:09He wasn't really, it was, he wasn't trying to get on some national television, and yeah, it was,
2:31:17He hasn't changed one bit.
2:31:19We've got to have him over here.
2:31:28Put it down.
2:31:29I think we've just got to do it.
2:31:36All right.
2:31:50I took Bob King with me, and he thought it was just, he said, you know, the words were well chosen, and he was very, very pleased with how he delivered it.
2:32:03Actually, some of the nickels as we were driving away, I didn't see him say hello.
2:32:05I was like, oh, he looks awful.
2:32:07He looks so thin, and he looks very bad.
2:32:13Maybe he still had problems with that.
2:32:15You know, he had a heart attack one time.
2:32:16Maybe that's it.
2:32:19Those that are all getting very old in their families, you know, they're all in their 70s now.
2:32:24Is Lou that old too?
2:32:26Sure.
2:32:27Well, he's damn close to 70.
2:32:28He's a little younger than me.
2:32:30I was glad to be able to pick up why I had permissiveness.
2:32:48I swear to God, I associate with the disruptors.
2:32:52This and that.
2:32:52I've never got a snub or got a go at it.
2:32:55You know, these things, the eulogies are difficult.
2:33:05I didn't want to rise in harm.
2:33:08I'm not going to do any more.
2:33:10There's nobody I can think of now that
2:33:27But you can't say you'd never do it, because it might be someone you feel was, you know.
2:33:30Well, I know, I know that I can do official positions.
2:33:32I should, for a personal impression, never do it.
2:33:41No, no.
2:33:41But what I meant is there's nobody in official positions.
2:33:44I can speak, or I don't know them that well.
2:33:50Vice President, you know.
2:33:54That's where you can't really do it.
2:33:56I will see.
2:33:56But as a general question.
2:34:05Well, they're very difficult to do.
2:34:30That was a nice point to make, too, the tragedy of the wife, which I thought .
2:34:38The tragedy of the wife was that the greatest of men was only recognized after their death, but he was .
2:34:49That's quite true.
2:34:50It is .
2:34:59Oh, he went the way he should have.
2:35:01Oh, Rose, listen.
2:35:03I'm so glad he went.
2:35:04He didn't go a minute too soon.
2:35:07They're nice.
2:35:07Oh, this campaign would have been horrible for them.
2:35:11And frankly, as you know, we have strong, strong recommendations from our own staff here that I'm trying to understand.
2:35:20This last fall, when he was under terrible attack, life was at risk.
2:35:25I called him in, and I had breakfast with him, and we chatted the whole thing over without being too direct.
2:35:31I could see he wanted to hang tight, and I suppose he won't.
2:35:37Well, God was good to him.
2:35:38He took him by the hand.
2:35:40Yeah.
2:35:40But he lay.
2:35:41He stayed on.
2:35:42He'd become an issue.
2:35:43He would have died a bitter old man.
2:35:45As it is, he died in his sleep.
2:35:48And by golly, there he is at the top.
2:35:52And particularly, you remember in the press conference, too, they asked me about him.
2:35:56I always stood up for him.
2:35:58Yeah.
2:36:00And it would be a shame to end the career like he's had.
2:36:05with these harping critics tearing him to pulp reputation, you know.
2:36:14Jack Anderson was actually starting after him again, I think, two days before he died.
2:36:19Yeah, and the son of a picture of Franklin Tom after he died.
2:36:22Well, he has said that.
2:36:23He's such a hypocrite.
2:36:24I don't think he even realizes what a hypocrite he is.
2:36:29He's one of the most evil, evil, evil men I've ever heard.
2:36:33Evil, just like Pearson.
2:36:42But he was a good friend.
2:36:43Yeah, that's right.
2:36:45Of course, we all know his weaknesses and strengths of the old time.
2:36:51He wasn't tired.
2:36:52He was coming to the point that much of the air was being affected.
2:36:57And we all know that.
2:36:57But on the other hand, he had to go out this way.
2:37:00He couldn't drive in on a bus.
2:37:01No.
2:37:02He didn't.
2:37:02He just graciously found a way to go.
2:37:05Now it's done.
2:37:06And he went out with Homer, and that's the first thing I thought the other day.
2:37:11And Miss Gandy knows that, didn't she?
2:37:13I called her.
2:37:15I talked with her shortly after he died, didn't I?
2:37:17I know, sir.
2:37:21She was a great man.
2:37:21She had a great time with him.
2:37:23She was broke out crying.
2:37:25Oh, did she?
2:37:25I don't know what she looked like.
2:37:29Never seen her.
2:37:29I didn't know where she was this morning.
2:37:47It looks well.
2:37:48It looks better.
2:37:50I thought we'd have this, uh, some event she used to do, Lions International Saturday night.
2:38:32You better hold it in.
2:38:34I don't know what will happen.
2:38:55I said, by Sunday, we will know.
2:38:56We may not know until Monday, but that's what we want to know.
2:38:59Well, I'll just, there's no problem.
2:39:00I'll just tell them.
2:39:01I'll come another time.
2:39:08I think, actually, that you might give Deep the call.
2:39:15You see, I, indeed, from time to time, I mean, I mean, not to be, because I only see it, frankly, I sort of feel guilty about it.
2:39:22I only see it.
2:39:26But that takes everybody.
2:39:27But it's really what you don't like to
2:39:59When would you like to see me come up Friday afternoon or Thursday?
2:40:02When do you go on Friday afternoon?
2:40:15I'll be up here.
2:40:15And say he'd like to bring home a lot of work.
2:40:18He always does.
2:40:19He made a lot of calls last time.
2:40:22He doesn't need to bring them up.
2:40:24I guess he's a little too tired.
2:40:31Well, you know, it's hard to find a good secretary at the crisis.
2:40:40The kids who just play on tapas these days make fabulous sound.
2:40:47And they get this exaggerated idea from schools these days that they don't really have to do it.
2:40:52I can understand this problem.
2:40:55It's difficult.
2:40:58It's just part of the ages.
2:40:59Not only secretaries now.
2:41:00It's gotten to be where people really don't feel they have to produce much.
2:41:05They just have to appear or something.
2:41:40I bet a lot of people were watching that.
2:41:56A lot will be on the news tonight.
2:42:07Marge said that even Brian Utley, the one I don't like at all, was buried.
2:42:12Brian Utley or something like that's his name.
2:42:15And they say he was buried, though.
2:42:20Seemed to be buried by, you know.
2:42:21Maybe carried more than anything.

Nixon, Butterfield & Woods on J. Edgar Hoover and Eulogy

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on May 4, 1972

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