Nixon, Haldeman & Ziegler on Assateague Island and Press Relations

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What did it do to this?

We found your ocean hideaway.

Yes, sir.

There may be times when it may not be instantly available, I don't know, on demand.

But we can do something.

That's the ocean.

That's their dock, and then there's a farm over here.

Yeah.

It's all over that beautiful, you know, sand, open sand dunes and all that.

This is the dock that's in the back, and then this farm is over here.

You can take your big chopper into the farm and take a boat over where you planted you right here.

The beach.

That's the mark out that there's usually an idea of the interior.

It's simple, but very comfortable.

I speak contrary to reading chairs.

It's just .

Yeah.

Not a very fancy bedroom, but it's .

Yeah.

It's a student bedroom.

It's a good kitchen.

It's two family bedrooms.

I don't want Secret Service.

I don't want communications.

You don't need any of that stuff.

You don't need it.

You don't need radio people and all the rest.

They're really overdone just a little bit.

They just have a hell of a group over there.

There's 40 people that go there every time I go.

40 people.

Bob takes care of all of them, feeds them, all that kind of stuff.

They don't need that.

They really are.

You can check.

I'm not complaining.

I'm just saying that it is true.

Because there's communications and a secret service.

Jesus Christ, they don't need that.

And there, of all places, there is absolutely no danger.

Just can't be.

Can't be.

I can go there by myself.

This has, this is Tom Drake, some of the same bad thing.

There's, on the map, this S.P.

Dunlap, this is the original S.P.

Dunlap.

That's a national park.

Oh, I didn't get it.

Well, McKinney owned it, and he gave it to the government as a national park with a 10-year lease back to himself.

But they talked to him about it.

Yeah, he was there.

No, he was there when they wanted to work on it.

He said it was totally cooperative with the system in any possible manner offered periodically.

I don't think it's, they say it's not suitable for, because you don't have, there's no support facility.

I don't want any meetings.

I mean, just for the sake of balancing that.

An hour.

By helicopter.

Yeah.

And that's the only way to go, obviously, you have to drive across that Chesapeake Bay Bridge, which is a disaster.

You can't drive through it.

It is impractical to drive.

But they said it has total and absolute privacy and that it's an excellent beach, safe swimming, very sandy, no rocks.

The press would have to stay over at Ocean City.

Great.

Where there are hotels and things.

Oh, that's only 15 minutes away.

By car.

Or by drive.

Probably by drive.

It's right at Ocean City, practically.

Ocean City, I know that's great.

From the mainland, it would be right up to Ocean City.

I've stayed at Ocean City.

It's great.

The Ocean City Golf and Yacht Club is right practically on his farm, which is back here.

See, you're out on this strip of...

But there is plenty of facility for press He's got 500 acres on the island and another 500 acres on the mainland It is air-conditioned except for the master bedroom

There's almost always an ocean breeze.

You just open it up.

Four miles of sandy beach frontage.

No rocks.

Beach gradually slopes into the ocean.

Extremely safe for swimming.

No wildlife has it.

Entirely secluded because of the private nature in the state.

part of the island.

Walk two miles to the north with total privacy.

Yeah.

There are mosquitoes at times, but they have smoking equipment to eliminate that.

The ocean temperature is 70.

It's an ideal place.

That's for your weekend thing.

It's a one- or two-night type of thing rather than staying for any length of time.

But it's an alternative to Camp David in the summertime.

It's a sensation.

For a time just to go to the beach.

Or maybe get a little break.

It's the things that are different.

The house is 75 yards from the ocean.

The thing that's nice about it is it only has two bedrooms.

Well, it has a lot more.

But it only has two family-type bedrooms.

The main floor has that front porch, the living room, the dining room, a den with television, the kitchen, two sort of staff-type bedrooms.

And a twin bedroom and bathroom would be Mrs. Nixon and a master suite would be here.

And down below, they have several other bedrooms.

Five other bedrooms.

The whole secret of this would be able to go

Secret Service mostly instead of communications of Ocean City.

Because you can't jam into a house like that while you're dead.

Bob has the advantage now that he can build three or four sheds for these people.

But he's overdone it.

He really has.

They overdone it.

Yeah, they're just over there with it.

Well, it's the closest to the swimming beach that you're ever, that you're going to find.

Because you can't swim in the bay.

The bay has jellyfish.

They're man o' worm.

Probably both.

And man o' worm.

So they say you can't swim.

No.

Well, the ocean there, I've been in many times.

Well, it could be that way.

No, I think actually it's the kind of place you can even go up in the morning.

If you didn't want to be overnight, just at least go up in the morning, spend the day there and come back.

Use the house as a bathhouse.

It's rather nice to spend the night.

Yeah.

Just so you don't have to take me.

It's fine.

Well, I wouldn't do it this weekend, I guess, because I got that wedding.

Oh, but let us, uh, I think of it for next week.

Explore the arrangements, plan it, and all that, plan it.

I'll do it only if we can.

Only if we can just have a total arrangement with Secret Service and communications.

They are not going to be there.

We just can't go.

They have to.

Some of them have to be there that they can be there out of...

They don't have to sweep there.

We just have to have the facilities to...

feed them and everything else.

It's just too much to try that.

And they're all there.

They do.

They're terrific at staying on site.

But you know what I mean?

We do all that at Camp David.

We do all that.

And Bob has it over there.

He runs the kitchen and everything for these people.

Oh, I'll do that.

Feed them all in England someplace.

How so?

So they're just the ones that are on.

Actually, they have to stay in the rooms.

Just stay in the rooms, that's right.

See, the problem is that I have to take a long, take a long, take a long, take a long, couple stewards.

Okay.

in Chicago over the ocean, and we get closer to

And the way we've been, you know, tentatively talking about it was the press conference next week.

Office.

Well, then we're going to do TV first.

The way we, when we last talked about it, we're going to do TV next week on the 27th and then office on the 10th, just before the conventions.

I should think that makes more sense anyway.

and just black out on the spot.

The TV, August 3rd, is almost the ideal time.

It's halfway between the two conventions, so it doesn't, you're not tying, you're not reacting to the Democrats, and you're not setting up yours.

Well, the thing about the office conference call that sort of appeals to me, it's that it knocks the shit out of the law firm.

I talked to Ziegler a little about it, and I think he's correct.

I think I'll have him in the office.

He doesn't think I gain that much from walking out of the door.

And he's thinking we have a long range of press relations.

He says in those terms, he said the office conference does have a leveling effect on it.

It really does.

And he was thinking, for example, he's got to write me a paper on it.

He's the only one whose judgment I really think is worth much here.

When I say worth much, I mean, I was thinking that maybe I'd have clients

Yeah, I wouldn't worry much about clients because Scally's has some validity because he's... Sure.

He's totally attuned to the telephone side of things.

Herb just doesn't, you know, he just really isn't with the whole press conference type stuff.

Now, well, he just, the mechanics of what you get out of a press conference, all he is, he doesn't pay much attention to.

Well, here's a person.

Why?

Well, he does think we did in 68.

You've got to recognize in 68, you've got two conflicting interests.

Buchanan has to think you screwed yourself because he used to.

In the early part, he handled the press.

In the later part, he didn't.

And Ziegler has to think you didn't because he handled the press in that part.

Well, he talks about what we did, and I did see a lot of the press tonight.

I saw him individually.

He used to come up there and tell everything from television people to all these jackasses.

He also said that, I said, well, what about this thing?

He said, there were 11 to 9, 4 to 20 that he knows.

Turned out 18 to 1, I guess.

I thought we could put it up there if we saw it.

Anyway.

or whatever it's worth, Hitler doesn't believe.

I think he's, maybe he's not being quite, maybe he's being too defensive on that.

He just may not realize.

He can't help but realize he's got a bad press, though.

And you can't read the effort about, without reading, you should include the terms that the hell kick out of this press, right?

Sure.

And the national press.

I don't know if it was that bad of a press.

But nevertheless,

I said, well, one thing they say is if you can't lose communication, you have an antagonist.

Whether it was true and whether it was our fault, I'm just not prepared to say.

I don't know how it could be our fault in a sense, because we did more in trying to molest the president.

It wasn't a question of not having a press conference.

He didn't have a press conference.

I mean, nobody has in the last three weeks of the campaign.

I'm sure you can't do it.

You can't do it.

You can't do it half-assed.

You can do it one way or the other.

You can do it wrong.

You can do it.

No, I mean that we have to realize that, well, first, I mean, to set it straight, I think that Klein was basically a disastrous press secretary.

And I think he was a disastrous press secretary fundamentally.

the press, how's he doing?

Do they like him?

And not enough is to help these bastards who are screwing us.

How do we screw them?

Sager, on the other hand, does not worry about how he's doing with the press.

He really doesn't.

I don't think he ever is concerned about that sort of thing.

Do you?

Not about his own press.

That's my point.

Right.

No.

And whether they like him or not.

And he doesn't mind getting out there and taking a hell of a knocking around.

And yet, in spite of that, in

In spite of their determination not to, I think you would find that more of the press liked Ron than liked Herb.

Some of them really loved Herb.

Some of them did.

But an awful lot of the sharp ones knew that Herb was mushy, and they know that Ron isn't mushy.

Herb was mushy.

They don't like the fact that Ron doesn't tell them everything they want to know.

But they know he doesn't like them.

And they know that he's doing his job.

They all will tell you that they don't like it, but they know perfectly and they respect it.

The press secretary's job is to tell the press what they're supposed to be told.

And Ron does a good job of separating his professional and personal things.

So he isn't vindictive or mean to him personally.

But he's mean as hell on a professional basis.

And you've got to be careful.

I think he regards us as a total enemy.

And yet I think he has a...

Not a good, but a perfectly adequate personal relationship with him.

I don't think Pierpont dislikes Ron.

And that's important, because Pierpont is not going to be on the air.

There's no point.

I kind of think it is.

I think maybe just this weekend would be better to stay around.

That's right.

Anyway, welcome Ron.

It's too late.

He has some ideas here about seeing various people.

I had to talk with him.

He said his arm was fractured.

I said, don't do it.

I said, Rob, and I know this is terrible, but we've always done it.

I said, yes, we've always done it.

He said, I just want to see all we can.

What do you think?

Of course, they'll be mad as hell.

They'll get vindictive.

What I told him I would do, what I would do, is I would see, say, a bill of urgency, but I would see that he, it ought to be not for an interview.

And he's grounded in a very, very good idea.

His view is that don't give any exclusive interviews.

But he believes that even enemies, and enemies,

The idea to mush out through the press, you see that is off the record, off the record.

Just have a check, personal conversation.

He does that in a different way.

He made Henry do the same thing.

My view of Henry is a little bit different.

I think with Henry, Henry is very good in a group.

And I'm inclined to think that Henry could do the top in six or seven CBS.

Let me see.

You know what I mean?

But do a name soon.

I mean, do each now with several.

Christ, yes.

Do a group from NBC, a team from NBC, then a team from CBS.

Yeah, all three.

But he's going to give me recommendations.

Yeah.

Early on, you should do the same.

Those are the only two guns that we've got that are worth that much.

Yeah.

But those ought to be identified to good individuals.

He feels that I shouldn't do it to him.

And it's that way.

He doesn't think the editorial conference is worth a shit.

You know, the Whittaker's Memorandum.

Hell, you can't help it.

Well, we sort of have to do those, but...

I've been around.

Just why?

In what good country?

He's right.

He said you could go to the New York Times.

They said you can go out there and change.

You want to go out there and do it?

Los Angeles Times.

Also, if you do the New York Times, Bob, you're screwed.

You've got to do the Los Angeles Times.

Go back and do others.

You mean you doing one?

That's right.

Yeah, but I... Nobody else suggested that.

That's...

Whitaker looks at a lot of this, as some of, a few of the other people do, as, from his background, as, as working as a candidate, rather than planning for a president.

And, well, I had to throw it, I wanted to get it all out there around CRP, they just worried about how I'd do it, but we figured none of that, but he thinks that badly, well, now, Reverend Whitaker's always been into the press conference thing.

He thinks that,

We ought to keep a basically non-antagonistic relationship with the members of the press and cover-ups.

That's why your paper's not on there.

An airport thing.

What are you talking about?

Social things.

And that's why your paper's at this fucking office.

I didn't talk about this thing.

An office order going out there.

They have a little feeling of being in a little bit more.

And then

He would consider, he says, the matter of any regional press conferences.

In other words, doing the press conferences a little more.

His point, your point, he, you made, which was somewhat mitigated, I must say, by the announcement that he was going on the face of the nation.

This may be relevant to the proportions of every government in the United States Congress, although he's had it once.

Maybe he doesn't need the proportions.

But Everton didn't leave now, though.

He hasn't been up before.

I'm traveling the press corps, moving from candidate to candidate, and zeroing in.

That's right.

On the other hand, I read my first news summary for two weeks, which is a good thing.

But what the hell was in the news summary in the last two weeks that I didn't need to go?

It just wasn't the name of God.

I've seen stuff that wasn't today.

I haven't seen doses breaking over on and on and on.

ACLU's battle line.

And the day after day, the political crud, it's amazing how it, you really can't, you could have seen it for more than two weeks and not have seen it.

Not my point is to go out there and

I think that going to Japan, and I mentioned that to Ben Michaelis, that there are three that want to sound out on this.

Their concern is that you think you'll be more in trouble if you get government granted and so forth and so on.

That doesn't bother me.

I have a feeling that if you go over to, when I say go to Japan, go over to Hawaii.

I don't think we should say, I must say what I thought we would.

I think we should go over and do the meeting and get the hell out of it.

I think going there does show that we're running the business of the country.

It's a very important thing.

I'm inclined to think that instead of Hawaii, we ought to come right down, come right down the main street of Honolulu.

We've got better have a little welcome.

I'm not so worried about that as I was.

I think it's Pearl Harbor's 30 years ago.

And I think we could do it.

We ought to be in Monkey Key.

And I think it would be awesome.

God damn.

The Rockefeller thing is a, I've been there.

If you want to stay awhile, a week or two, it's nice.

Go to France.

If you can't, you, there's no way you can go to a hotel and enjoy it.

I don't want to enjoy this.

This is work.

Right.

So therefore, why don't we just put a, go to a hotel in Milwaukee and do it just like you do in Milwaukee.

Yeah, put it in Milwaukee.

But I mean, let's have a crowd.

I think, I think we ought to do Hawaii and enjoy it and we get a, get a crowd.

I don't, I've had a horrible experience at a goddamn airport with restaurants.

I don't want that guy to get a nine-minute in the background.

That ain't good.

I don't,

Okay, let's see.

Nobody's ever had a crab in Hawaii, have they?

Even I started to get one.

Let's see if we might get one.

We just might.

40% of the population of Hawaii is Japanese.

40%.

It's much bigger.

It's bigger than the Chinese.

It's bigger than Hawaii.

And actually bigger than that, than the holidays.

So it's a hell of a big Japanese population.

Plus the Hawaiian reaction to a Japanese prime minister, even.

No problem.

I think what I'd ask is, I think what you ought to do is, on this one, I think what you, you ought to do is to get our NASCAR involvement on the lines.

Quiet and judging on this.

It's very important that we have a meeting there.

Should we go to the big island or should we go there and support us on this?

What would be the reaction?

See, he's the best man.

He'd like to be asked to.

Mm-hmm.

And I'd say we'd like for him to play any role that he likes in it, since he's a Democratic governor.

And Ira might be there, you know.

He'll be there.

But, now, with this in mind, I think that you've got a problem with the NOA.

You'd have to have him.

Oh, sure.

That's great.

Have you two?

He's Japanese as hell, yes.

That's what I mean.

They're Japanese.

They're not here.

You're over there.

Yeah.

Looking deep now.

American-Japanese, even though they didn't like it.

He's not that proud of being Japanese, right?

Well, he's basically Chinese.

Well, he is Chinese, totally.

He's not basic, he's totally Chinese.

The Chinese are only, I mean, he's Chinese, so why 10% of them?

No, it's not at all.

It's pure Japanese.

It's not at all.

It's a Chinese.

Chinese don't mix much.

His wife, by the way, his wife is completely, uh,

He looks Polynesian, though, as he must have.

He's got to be some bad face, but you never know.

Anyway, ask Hiram and ask him soon, right?

And he'll love to be asked and say, we want to get out of here.

Great confidence and so forth.

It's very important.

We have to be a summit meeting with the Japanese, the new prime minister, Uriyama.

He's a good personal friend of the president's presidency.

And this is a good way to go to Hawaii on a non-political basis and so forth.

For your information, Henry gets back today at 6 o'clock.

We've announced it, right?

That he's there.

Yes, sir.

Well, you've said he's there.

Right, and so... Oh, they were probably announced.

Yes, sir.

Was Henry left already then?

I don't believe he's left yet.

Well, I think so, probably yes.

He's 11.

It's 5 o'clock in the afternoon.

But they announced it in Paris.

Yes, sir.

He was there, and they had a meeting prior to being here.

So we've got him called up.

Expected bullet, of course.

She's a .

Right.

Yeah.

OK. We'll talk before .

OK, sir.

Yeah, it's .

It's only another five minutes or something like that.

So it's close to Jimmy.

Oh, I see.

This is just a picture of Jimmy from Mills that had a motion for their publication.

What I'm going to suggest, and I'm going to keep it brief, is that we fight against the funding.

Yeah, we can talk about that.

Well, actually, this is a promotion.

I'm flying because Tom's up here.

I should be here.

Well, that's all right.

I'll see.

You know how open it is?

Does anybody appreciate it?

No.

Nobody's been open.

That's right.

Those other people are going to be here part-time?

I thought I left them during this present.

Thank you.

Nixon, Haldeman & Ziegler on Assateague Island and Press Relations

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on July 19, 1972

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