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

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I mean, Colson, Hasley, and the three other members of the executive board all mentioned it.

Now, I know her.

Would he rather delay a call after his lunch?

Would he rather delay the sentence?

As soon as this thing comes over here, we'll get it out into a house.

Is there anything you'd like to see in the meantime?

— 2 min 54 s with no transcribed speech —

He's over a comment.

Yeah.

As soon as he gets back, I mean, give me a thought.

Okay.

He really did.

Oh, he did.

What did he have all those medals on for at a funeral?

He had medals on?

He had them.

He drank about four or five or six medals.

As a kid, when I got back, I said, why did he try to get them?

Sure.

What's our background?

He has blue cross, and I thought we'll see whether that covers everything.

He mentioned the error that nobody involved in the United States.

It wasn't bad.

He talked about it.

Everybody was saying he wanted to make a little statement.

But I thought it was .

Because I left it on a fairly high note.

It was all of it.

That was the only thing.

I thought the whole service was beautiful, and the Army for us was so good and everything.

But he didn't need to go in.

He wasn't really trying to get on some national television.

He hasn't changed one bit.

We've got to have him over here.

Put it down.

I think we've just got to do it.

All right.

I 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.

Actually, some of the nickels, as we were driving away, I didn't see him say hello.

I was like, oh, he looks awful.

He looks so thin, and he looks very bad.

Maybe he still had problems with that.

You know, he had a heart attack one time.

Maybe that's it.

Rose, they're all getting very old.

They're all in their 70s now.

Is Lou that old, too?

Sure.

Well, he's damn close to 70.

He's a little younger than me.

I was glad to be able to get off whack after missing this.

I swear to God, I'm so sick of these disruptors.

I've never been on this number, and I don't know why.

You know, these things, the eulogies are difficult.

I did one for Eisenhower.

I'm not going to do any more.

There's nobody I can think of now that

But you can't say you'd never do it, because you see a lot, you know.

Well, I know, I know, but I can do official positions.

John is speaking, I have to do them.

I should.

I'm a personal professional.

I've never done it.

No, no.

But what I meant is there's nobody in official positions.

I'm a speaker, I don't own that well.

Vice president, you know.

Well, I will learn.

That's learning.

You can't really do it, John.

I will see.

But as a general person.

I would love to stop.

Well, they're very difficult to do.

There's a nice point to make, too, that the tragedy of the wife is the greatest of men.

It's only recognized after their death that he was .

It's quite true.

It is true.

Four minutes.

Oh, he went the way he should have.

I was so glad he went.

Oh, this campaign would have been horrible for that.

And frankly, as you know, we have strong, strong recommendations from our own staff here that I'm trying to understand.

This last fall, when he was under terrible attack,

I called him in.

I mean, I had breakfast with him and we chatted the whole thing over without being too direct.

I could see he wanted to hang tight, and I suppose he won't.

Well, God was good to him.

He took it.

He stayed on.

He'd become an issue.

He would have died a bitter old man.

As it is, he died in his sleep.

And by golly, there he is at the top.

And particularly, you remember in the press conference, too, they asked me about him.

I always stood up for him.

And it would be a shame to end the career like he's had.

with these harping critics tearing him to pulp reputation, you know.

Jack Anderson was actually starting after him again, I think, two days before he died.

Yeah, and the son of a picture of Franklin Hall after he died.

Well, he has said that.

He's such a hypocrite.

I don't think he even realizes what a hypocrite he is.

He's one of the most evil, evil, evil men I've ever heard.

Evil, just like Pearson.

But he was a good friend.

Yeah, that's right.

Of course, we all know his weaknesses and strengths of the old time.

He wasn't tired.

He was coming to the point that much of the road was being affected.

And we all know that.

But on the other hand, he had to go out this way.

He couldn't drive in on a bus.

He just graciously couldn't find a way to go.

Now it's down.

And he went out with Homer, and that's the right case.

He lived with him.

That's the first thing I thought the other day.

And Miss Gandy knows that, too.

I called her.

I talked to her shortly after he died, didn't I?

I talked to her.

Said that a great man had a great son.

She was broke out crying.

Oh, did she?

I don't know what she looks like.

Never seen her.

I didn't know where she was this morning.

It looks well.

It looks better.

I thought that we have this, uh, that's not bad.

She used to do mine as International Saturday Night.

You better hold it in.

I don't know what will happen.

I said, by Sunday, we will know.

We may not have it until Monday, but that's what we want to know.

Well, I'll just tell them.

I'll come another time.

I think, actually, that you might give Deep the call.

You see, I have indeed, from time to time, I mean, I only see it, frankly, I sort of feel guilty about it.

I only see it at 4 o'clock.

That's really what you don't like to do.

When would you like to see me come up Friday afternoon or Thursday?

When are you going on Friday afternoon?

I'll be up here at 4 o'clock.

If he's free.

And say he'd like to bring home a lot of work and I'm going up to work.

He always does.

He made a lot of calls last time.

He doesn't need to bring them up.

I guess he's a little too tired.

Well, you know, it's hard to find a good secretary at the crisis.

The kids who just play on tapas these days make fabulous sound.

And they get this exaggerated idea from schools these days that they don't really have to do it.

I can understand this problem.

It's difficult.

It's just part of the ages, not only secretaries now, it's gotten to be where people really don't feel they have to produce much, they just have to appear or something.

I bet a lot of people were watching that.

Sure, but a lot will be on the news tonight.

Marsh said that even Brian Utley, I don't like him.

I don't like him at all.

It was very, Brian Utley or something like that's his name.

And he seemed to be very moved by it, you know.

Maybe Kerry more than you think.

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

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

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Also recorded on May 4, 1972

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

AI Summary

Audio

NARA Description

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Transcript (AI-generated)

Also recorded on May 4, 1972

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