Conversation 755-001

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There's approximately a 2,700 mile chain of escalations, including perhaps a half a dozen major dams in the heart of the system, and then peripheral areas getting down to the mountains, which have, of course, the purpose of controlling the floodwaters in that area.

If it were the policy of the United States to bomb the diamonds,

We can take them out, the significant part of them out, in a week.

We don't do so for the reasons that I had mentioned.

Because we're trying to avoid significant casualties, not cause them.

Now with regard to the reports, reports that have come from my life, that there has been some damage to some parts of the diet system.

I think it's important to note two things.

One, there has been no report of the flooding.

Second, there has been no report of any strikes on the major dyer areas that I'm referring to, which is the big dams, which are part of the system.

There have been reports of incidental damage to some of the peripheral installations in this 2,700-mile city, which covers the country of North Vietnam.

Now, under these circumstances, I think that it is well to keep in context, first, what our policy is, and second, what is expected then.

Our policy is not to bomb civilian installation.

And second, our restraint, it seems to me, rather than being subject to criticism, should be subject to objective analysis, and it seems to me, a considerable amount of support

As far as this matter is concerned, I think, too, it's time to strip away the double standard.

I know that it's of interest to Secretary John Wilkins, his predecessor, to speak upon this enemy-inspired propaganda that has taken many well-intentioned people to attack what he called the American bombing of civilian installations

and risking a very long time, and yet not raising one word against the deliberate bombing of civilian installations itself.

I just saw the record of what you cut straight, and it should be stated at this point, all of you ladies and gentlemen are personally aware that you have created perhaps the most effectual one in this country.

I just got a cable from .

What is happening to civilians in the new offensive?

You recall in my speech in May 8th, I said that 20,000 civilian casualties, including women and children, resulted because of the deliberate shoving of the cities and the slaughtering of refugees indiscriminately within our communities.

The number is now 45,000, including women and children.

I asked him for the number of refugees .

There are 860,000 made homeless by North Vietnamese invasion of South Vietnam .

600,000 of them are still in refugee camps awaiting a home.

Looking back over the period of this period across the world, we find that since 1965, there have been 600,000 civilian casualties in South Vietnam as a result of deliberate policy of the North Vietnamese countries.

Not accidental, but deliberate.

And in North Vietnam in the period of 54 to 56, in their so-called land reform,

A minimum of 50,000 were murdered or assassinated.

And according to the Catholic bishops of Da Nang, who I talked to, I was there in the 16th century now, in addition to 800,000 refugees who came south, there were at least a half a million who died in slave labor camps in our country now.

Now, I do not relate this series of incidents for the purpose of saying, because they did something bad,

Well, I have to say, let's not have to take the credit on our own hands.

The United States is a dreamer strength, greater strength than any great politic ever shown to me in handling missiles.

We will continue to be a strength.

We have to deploy the necessary anti-military targets in order to accomplish the objective that I described in my goal in my speech the other day.

But on the other hand, as far as this particular matter is concerned,

I won't say that advantage would occur, but we are making every possible effort to see that it's not occurred yet, which gets me very much.

Military commanders, aircraft commanders, and so forth, in terms of where military targets are, are instructed to avoid civilian entry.

That is why some targets in the heart of Hanoi, for example, major power installations, fuel installations in the heart of Hanoi have not been hit, because I have not wanted to have excavated canopies in the last year or so.

I'll simply go over some segments.

This is a major propaganda campaign.

It's one that does consume us, and that's the direction straight.

In the event that the United States followed the course of the war, represented by some foes who had voted for the so-called war resolution, it would mean that they would be sitting upon South Vietnam, the same atrocities permitted upon North Vietnam, with perhaps at least a million marks for assassination because they had fought

against the North Vietnamese attempt to conquer South Vietnam.

I will add one other thing, as far as .

We are negotiating .

We have negotiated with the public.

We have had one private conference, and we .

We will be continuing .

We made fair offers .

We have not made them.

on a day-to-day basis.

We made their offers on exchange of prisoners of war, and not on the risk of action in the places of mutation.

But having done this, there is one thing that we have not done, and this is the one hang-up in the settlement to date, and that is the demand for the enemy.

Indirectly or directly, to do what they cannot accomplish themselves, impose a communist government in South Vietnam.

That would be the ultimate problem.

It holds in 17 minutes.

It's a communist government.

It's a bug-ass.

Let's follow it.

First, you mentioned a political settlement.

What do you foresee as a possibility without necessarily elections?

Do you see any two factions in Saudi Arabia coming together in some kind of agreement without an election?

There's one possible solution in the current time.

That's very...

Intercepting questions, but it is one that I think any of you here would agree that I should not comment on for the reasons.

Negotiations are the only way.

I have read these long negotiating sessions with Republicans, of course, and even more importantly, and at a time when matters are being discussed,

It is not well for me to state anything with regard to what has happened in the negotiations.

I want to say that we are negotiating with the desire of ending this war as soon as possible.

The fastest way

The end goal, and the best way to end it, is through negotiations.

And we hope that public figures and their comments will not do anything to undercut negotiations, that Congress and its actions will not in effect give a message to the enemy.

Don't negotiate with the President's administration, because wait for us.

We'll give you what you want, South Vietnam.

Let's follow up the first question, if I may.

There have been reports that SAM sites have been put on top of those sites with dams.

Does your policy rule out the bombing of that particular area where there are SAM sites?

I have seen those reports.

Let's go over them.

The situation there is one that we would be against the taking out of the campsite on targets that would result in sedation casualties of a substantial amount.

However, I have not seen in recent days any reports indicating

any such stance I can give.

And we will repress the debate.

I think we are very careful when we start here.

We would do so only if we had to do so in order to protect American lives.

Otherwise, we'd be dead.

Mr. President.

Do you think that everyone in the state of Manitoba is going to fall?

Well, that's honest.

The question that you asked, of course, is related to it.

I have given the strictest instructions so that there is no direct or, in the case of your question, indirect assumption.

This is a personal matter.

The question of the selection of a vice presidential candidate is one which is a matter for the presidential candidate to decide with, of course, the advice and consent of the convention.

And I am not going to object myself to that point.

But to this person, it does give me an opportunity to say that not now on this matter, not in this campaign in the future,

are we going to campaign on personalities or on party labels?

The issues that drive the opposite side of this administration are so wide, in fact, it's the clearest choice in this century, that we must campaign on issues.

There is an honest difference between on board policy, an honest difference between on domestic policy, and an honest difference between on most

major events issues.

This is a campaign which I think should be waged.

I recall that this movement should be waged on issues of the American people and make their choice between two, the person president and the story challenger, who honestly so basically disagree on how the ends and goals

Mr. President, are you, are we, are we, are we to understand perhaps that now that it's stopped bombing the sites, that it's made very simple slogans, that perhaps those who have got behind it have not thoroughly checked the background of those accusations?

Uh, I didn't use the word naive unintentionally.

Uh, the North Vietnamese are very skilled at propaganda.

Uh, they have, uh, uh, first of all, the, the those who have been invited to the country, uh, to the areas where they have not, not been, uh, they have not been done anything.

So, of course, it's an actual part of the report.

This is a deliberate attempt on the part of the North Vietnamese to create an extraneous issue to defer detention from one of the most barbaric invasions in history.

and compounded by a violation of all the concepts of international law on the hand of the prisoners of war.

And for them, with their policy of deliberate murder and assassination and otherwise attacks on civilians, for the purpose of killing civilians, for them

who can sit in private seats on this and give her attention to that.

First, it to me is a painful topic, and it is one that I think needs to be answered.

We have to, of course, be responsible for what we do.

But it's time that, in this terribly difficult world, that some Americans, very much of us, we have to realize that we talk about morality

In fact, it's never an easy question.

If I address for a moment, I'm going to be a follow-up question on the other matter.

I remember one of the first conversations I've had with President Eisenhower about the war.

We were riding back to the point where he said he made a request to part of those meetings in Quantico.

And he asked me to ride back.

It was a very early demonstration in the first year.

to talk a little about the decisions he had to make in World War II.

And one of the questions that I raised with him was, clearly, on how to deliver upon the German cities, the tragedy of Dresden, of Essendon, of Harvard, not to mention Berlin.

And General Eisenhower said, that was a terribly difficult decision for us, a strategic bomb that we needed to use in Germany.

He said, on the moral question, we have the answer to ourselves this fundamental problem.

He said, the height of immorality would be to allow Hitler to rule the Earth.

Now, in our case, we have not gone that far.

We are not going to bomb Soviet countries now.

We are not using the great power that could finish off North Vietnam and Africa.

And we will.

But it would be the height of the problem.

The problem is this country.

It is leading this country.

And we need to turn over to this narrative debate of 17 million South Vietnamese who do not want to come inside.

We turn it over to them.

That's what this is about.

That is the only issue that is left.

And those who say, end the war,

We really should name their resolution along with the war.

They should name it along with the war.

Not because they want to end the war, just as I would.

We have to face this fact.

We have only one president in power, as I said in 1968.

And at that time, we should really call out and express quite often, ladies and gentlemen, what do you think we ought to do about the British nation?

I didn't think there was much chance of success in the British nation.

But I said, and I thought about it correctly, that would be one president.

I don't want to destroy any chance that he might have in this war.

Now, on this point, the chance for a negotiated settlement is better now than it has ever been.

I'm not going to raise any false hopes, but the enemy is failing on its military offensive, although there's still some hard fighting to do, but the enemy also is

Of course, suffering the consequences of our mining action, cutting the roads and the other systems that we bring in supplies to our Vietnam.

And under these circumstances, the enemy, because also we have made a very fair offer, has every incentive to negotiate.

But when you put yourself in this position, and then they hear that the Congress of the United States says, we will give you what you want.

regardless of what the president is talking about.

Why not wait?

This is the problem.

I've been holding senators and congressmen and all their countries.

They would realize that we have just three months left before the election.

In those three months, we hope to do everything we can to bring this war to an end.

And they should take no action which would check our dominance.

those associations, I can only say with the resolution to this point, cannot help, they can only confuse the unconfessed, and at the worst, there is a long war.

The vice president, the vice president nominee, has been chosen under great pressure to be the vice president.

the great pressure of time and service.

Sometimes it turns out a lot, sometimes it doesn't.

Do you think that that message could be repeated?

I would like to know.

I can only, I can only get my own experience.

An individual feels that he is quite, shall we say, has a better than he has a chance, or he needs a chance.

He does a lot of thinking about who should be the right selection candidate.

I don't think it's quite as, shall we say,

on the top of your head, as you would indicate, because most of us, when we received the presidency long before the convention, had a pretty good idea as to whether we had a good shot at it, and we do a lot of thinking about the vice president.

Mr. President, given the continuing demand for

revealing the financial backgrounds of candidates and office holders.

What is your reaction to the suggestion that medical records of candidates and office holders be revealed?

And there's a corollary to that, if you will understand.

Have you ever felt yourself in more danger of being overconfident?

There is a bridge, but it isn't direct.

Well, let's say that for me to answer that question, my medical records, of course, like my financial records, are now already on the books over the press.

You recall that in 1968, a question was raised about medical history, and it was able at that time to put out the medical history and include the examinations, include some of the examinations.

It goes back to the time that I came to Washington.

So, as far as my own direction is concerned, they also have a public name.

Every year, my medical record is made public by Dr. McCosh and three things have changed.

i would also suggest any of my free students and a lot of self-serving records because the copy is coming out a few days ago and according to his contribution i don't think he said that probably on the center record i attended his office in austria and he had to do it and it never was an appointment at all so considering what i've been through it was fairly fairly certain crises

I would say travel.

I seem to be, I don't know anybody with questions taking the call.

I think that that would inevitably

be a subject that will be raised, and in which the candidates will have each of them make their own determinations.

I don't suggest that others should be like that.

Not as far as holder contracts.

Well, those are in terms of the

circumstances and the situation, given your position today as an incumbent president, running for re-election, you are the favorite.

And events in the last two or three weeks, rather over the last two or three days, have enhanced that.

That's what I would say.

Well, I recall

The fact that he was encouraged, whether he stayed on or not,

So I would say that that is certainly not entering into my predictions at this time.

As far as making the predictions, I will give it more thought and I'll be glad to respond to it when I have what I call a political press conference, which I will have immediately after the Republican convention.

in the Western White House.

As far as what the situation is now, though, looking at the back of the Democratic Party, that's a much higher registration, I think, looking at the fall of the mix of the American ruling public.

It is my belief, and I have told all of my associates this,

regardless of whether we're ahead or behind, this will be a close, hard-fought election right down the line.

People will make predictions now, but very, very bad later.

And we're going to assume throughout this election that we have a very hard fight at hand.

Do you think that it is...

A good thing, that it's going to be a fight off the issues.

A good, hard, clean fight off the issues before the United States.

We need to be close, and we won't be waiting.

What impact on American policy in the Middle East, because of the withdrawal of Soviet personnel from the United States?

This question, I notice, has been reflected in the fight.

It's lower than the position of the government, and not lower than the position of the United States.

our goal the situation there is still one that is not clear and any comment upon first might possibly be erroneous second

but very well be harmful to our goal of the just cycle.

So I'm not going to dodge the question, but I'm interested in whether it would be helpful to our goal of the just cycle.

It might exacerbate the common point of trying to evaluate what happens between Saddam and the Soviet Union.

Mr. President, I have a question.

Mr. President, I was asking for advice, but if you could tell us your comments on this.

on the subject of your selection of the SAG.

We've got a question.

I just wanted to get advice on the election report.

On the subject of your selection of the SAG, could you tell us if you considered anybody else for the job?

No.

My thoughts were expressed in this very room at one of the other networks and at the CDS.

And I appreciate it.

I discussed it in my conference.

I discussed it.

uh, I went over those matters that I know in considerable length right now, and just to say that I reaffirmed that and, uh, I think there's certain chances I believe that the choice I made for this room is one that, uh, should now be reaffirmed by asking me to run for the office again.

Now, there has been speculation, I would say, about other people for the vice president.

That's another one.

The vice president might decide not to run.

There has been a lot of speculation.

Secretary Conway may have come to mind.

I could point out the really great advice of Secretary Conway.

I gave you that very common bad news, and he was not going to do that.

I saw him writing that.

It was not bad news.

It was a matter of fact it wasn't good news at all.

strong here

Mr. President, I have a question for you.

Mr. President, would you say that you've been resisting pressure from the military in Boston?

The pressure does not come from the military.

I've fought this over the back of the war, and actually, as a matter of fact, let me just say one thing about our military, because the fight ought to be done.

We can be very proud of our military, not only of the men that are flying, the brave, the courageous, the men on the ground.

We can be very proud of the Marines, all of them have gone now, for what they've done for the Marines, and not just the downed soldiers, or the civilians.

And like you said, it's a story of generosity,

As far as our military commanders are concerned, while they do give me their judgment as to what will affect the military outcome,

They had never recommended, for example, bombing and all that.

You've seen some of those bombs.

Bombs and all that.

In fact, they were around in the 60s and 80s.

But our military didn't do that.

They know, they believe it.

And second, they believe it's not necessary.

Not necessary.

It might shorten the war, but it would leave a legacy of hatred.

throughout that part of the world.

So, our military has not advocated bombing of the Dias.

They have not advocated the bombing of Sluice Center.

They are doing their best to carry out the policy that we want, of hitting military targets on them.

as a result of what will often happen.

The bomb is dropped in areas of injury to civilians.

It is not my intent, and it's a very great thing.

A similar question was asked another president in your experience.

Would you please tell us what policy decisions Vice President Agnew has contributed to in your administration?

Well, I don't need to know the minutes.

One of the considerations that motivates the president, especially the vice president, is how does he handle himself?

Now, the vice president does not make decisions

I've heard that, I've heard that, you know, it's that decision regarding the scheduled guests and advice, et cetera, but not the decision.

The president only makes that decision.

But in the case of the medicine, I think it's obvious we've got some pretty hard questions.

They may use the decision, the November 3rd decision.

The decision with regard to the assault, I agree, which involved a fight between the hawks and the doves was not easy.

I don't mean to indicate it, I just want to mention to the staff that it was a yes-man.

He was very unspoken, very quiet, but very unspoken and articulate.

But what has impressed me about him in those instances is that he is a man who poised calm and judgment.

And when it gets down to a final tough decision, he's always cool with what it's going to be.

And he's willing to do that work.

He's expected to make decisions in the future, but in a calm, cool, judicial way.

Now, that does not mean that all those decisions will be good.

Those calm, cool, judicial men make bad decisions.

Just as emotional men sometimes make good decisions.

But my point is that in his case, in all of it, he's a priceless, intrepid, and a decisive demonstration.

He has been strong, courageous, and loyal.

And those are things to consider.

Let me say one other thing.

We tend not to look at the records of vice presidents who have become presidents.

Now, that did not happen to me, so it was none of self-serving's sake.

We missed it.

I mean, it became present as a result of the advice of others.

But look at this century, to the start of the 19th century.

around the turn of the century, Theodore Roosevelt.

And some of you will remember Mark Cannon, the great McKinnon.

Nobody thought McKinnon was a farmer himself.

He was shot.

Theodore Roosevelt paid for the presidency.

Mark Cannon, who didn't care much for Theodore Roosevelt, said, now I have this fanatic in my house.

And yet, Theodore Roosevelt began to be very creative.

And perhaps that isn't the best analogy, because Theodore Roosevelt, I'm not sure if that even came out of racism.

It wasn't very true at the moment.

And I must say, I was in that time with the other party.

It was Henry Truman, a succeeding, towering figure at this time, Frank Roosevelt.

Remember, I went to the editorial and said, Harry Truman, a man from Independence.

The very question somebody else asked here a few minutes ago, shouldn't he have a better method?

He said, like me, I threatened him.

I said, now we've got this little man from Missouri present.

He said, you all know that, Harry Truman, I've had it with you.

I also remember the publication of the three very tough decisions he made.

I was reading Mr. Churchill the other night.

His first reading was truly impossible.

The use of the bomb, and this is a terrible proposition, but he thought it was probably correct to resurrect it.

It would save many an American's lives, probably whoever had it.

That's not what we're going to do today.

That's why the use of the bomb was never before in hand.

The second decision, I had the opportunity to support him.

It was a green turkey shake program.

That was tough.

It split his party.

It split it, and Andrew Wallace went his way.

Andrew Wallace, you know, I remember that.

But it was a good decision.

And I split it.

And I said, I still support Pete.

just as necessary today as it was then.

Now, hit the back without a crease, and you have a violent policy to save Israel.

the same on the Korean War.

Now, I criticize the conflict of the war too many of us were out.

But his decision to go into Korea was right.

It was necessary.

It was tough.

Just before being captured, he said, as long as we talk about it, we're not going to make that decision.

I talk too often about what I was simply saying.

Here was the little man from Missouri.

He was the last president.

He looked at the mighty Roosevelt, mighty Roosevelt, and so many others, the power equipment, his cash, and the descent of the rest of the people from Missouri.

The little man from Missouri had that indivisible quality that did the big man from New York, D.R.

Roosevelt, that character that made him a man.

capable of making tough decisions.

Thank you.

They don't take me.

My hair?

Well, I've got hair.

No, no, that's good.

You look very good.

No, I never have.

Have you been on the law force at all, Mr. President?

Have you had a chance to recall?

you know we've got three holes out there i'm not walking around there but i had just i just uh

Decided, because I haven't had a chance to get out for about two weeks, I decided to try to play tomorrow.

So I told them to try to get an open on the cabinet office to see if they could find a time to play.

So I may play tomorrow.

But I got to play.

I got to play.

He might be there, too.

I played with him.

He's good, too.

Way behind.

From 100 yards in.

I've never been in that stuff, man.

100 yards in.

No, no, this is not good.

Okay.

I noticed when you asked that question, I was thinking back to that boat you remember years ago.

What year was that?

I can't remember.

I was remembering, remember we were talking about it one time.

I was remembering in Africa in 59 and .

Yeah.

No, I can't remember the .

Thank you.

Huh?

Well, you know, I thought about that, Truman, Roswell.

It was just a good idea to tell him, you know, how could a man answer his in the damn office?

I would ask again.

I just can't help it.

It's broke down.

It's great the way he waltzed in the Greek age.

wonder if they're true, and then there's three great decisions, and then pre-K, all of a sudden, that's great, but you've got to say, there's too much.

Which is the problem, but that's the biggest problem with the press conference.

There's, Jesus Christ, there's what, 20 major stories in here.

They won't use it, but I mean, if you went out in the abstract and made any one of the busts, well, maybe eight or ten, let's say this is to me, there would be a major story.

One of the things is this doesn't accomplish no interest.

It just, you can't have a press when you sit there, when you talk to them this way in the office.

They're not going to be for you, but it's much harder for them to be real.

Yeah.

I don't know what you mean.

Yeah.

I don't know if this is the better format if you're going to keep a little loose.

Keep a little loose.

You sure that's your steer?

You know, all these jokes that are being on the line, so I can make sure each one of them have to strike the cards and prolong the war.

Now, while all that fight is cracking, I'm hitting him on the double standard.

You're the critical double standard, man.

Well, I'm not.

Well, I've been right where you go, huh?

Yeah.

You good?

I'm on the standard.

and also the strength of the American military.

Yeah.

That would be ignored.

You'd never see that.

That would never see that.

Depends on the American military.

I'll tell you what's in the light of day.

That's the first answer.

If that needed to be said, it would have been said in some way.

It should have been said.

Yes, it was.

About the hypocrisy.

There's a double chapter again on the fifth one.

Well, I deliberately didn't want to do this kind of press conference and make a speech and talk.

You don't have to worry about short answers.

I tried to cut it off in 30 minutes.

Actually, what I was saying to Bob, I'm really convinced that these office conferences, in terms of keeping the press just, believe it or not,

much better than the others because they don't feel, you don't have the antagonist relationship in the office that you do out there.

On television, they don't show you up.

Plus, this at the end was just great, too.

You mean about the whole thing?

I think one of the better answers is about TR.

Well, I think the best answer is

really with all of its meaning with all of its historic significance significance was i can uh i only need two minutes yeah that was that was very good that was perfect and i'll think about it he said i only need two minutes it had so much building one one line that that would get a lot of good sidebar plays and that's great sort of self-deprecation that's supposed to be one of the great blows to you and all that right

I got in a good thing with Bill, too, when I said that Bill Rogers and I had talked about the- It is there.

Incidentally, Ron.

No, Larry, out of- You should know that tomorrow we are going to see me in the golf course.

Good.

The way it'll work now, it's perfectly set up.

I've been on some shit with Rogers.

I said, well, he's there.

Now he just shows up.

There you go.

I thought, and he won't do any of that, I told Bill that was the case, I didn't mention by name, I said the two of you were going to play at Tucson, but that Jerry Schultz was planning to play with a friend of his from across the street and that he may run into him.

And Bill said great, he said I met his friend the other day, we're good friends and that would be an idea.

Great, that just happens.

No one has just heard of her, actually.

I mean, wait a minute.

I was pretty perceptive of who was it working against, Wilson.

Yeah.

Who?

I mean, you said you were playing.

He said, not with me.

Walnut would be a little scurrying out of this, which is good, but it's not about this.

You've got to come in.

About the time.

Well, yeah, there he is today who said, well, Walnut, if you hadn't met with, uh,

I said, screw him.

He's going to be contrived in public.

How would this be contrived in public?

I said, like his predecessor.

The other thing, too, I thought.

That's the kind of stuff that...

It'll be in the trench at Waltham.

We'll see it.

And the other...

Uh...

I'm just saying...

Tonight, McGregor's can't come.

He has a dinner to be given at 5 o'clock.

It's a dishonor.

Chevy Chase has a question.

I had not asked Bill.

I wouldn't wait until I got the things back from McGregor.

This is not happening.

It's real purposes.

I just feel McGregor's got to be there.

You know what I mean?

Okay, then...

I just put Mitchell and Harlow on standby, so I'll just tell them that I'm going to drop them trying to schedule it later.

I think you should.

Okay.

You tell Mitchell and Harlow that we're going to drop the plane for dinner tonight.

We're trying to schedule it later.

That we could get everybody together.

Okay?

There's always something to gain when you're sitting down and talking to them.

I spoke with him.

Well, why don't you, maybe we just go ahead anyway and make everything a little shorter.

And we'll leave at 6 o'clock.

Scratch that.

Confirm to them that the dinner is on.

And we'll meet them at the boat at 6 o'clock.

That's a different set of views than you generally hear.

some of the good charm of Hammer called and said, he says, I think I'm going to be able to persuade Herman Watson again that I just want to give you a report.

I'm working hard on it.

Lyndon Johnson's told him not to do it because it might hurt his relations in the company, but I think I can talk him out of that, excuse me, all this crap.

And then he says he wants me to call Peterson and make sure that he gives Tim Babcock a good reception in Moscow or something like that.

They'd already set that up another way.

I don't think they'd do that.

This guy ties each one thing right to the next.

Do you mind?

I would bother.

The hell with this son of a bitch.

Watson will talk to Conley and Conley will make his deal with Watson.

Do it around him.

The reaction out there is just phenomenal.

Really?

Oh, yeah.

That's good.

Excellent.

The simple said...

He never asked the question.

No.

Simple said...

He just liked to ask questions.

He said the president, you know how they talk out there, he said the president was calm, collected, and very much in charge.

He said if the president would have been any more relaxed...

He said, I would have looked for him to begin to rise.

He said, I would have looked for him to begin to ascend.

But the overall reaction out there is, you know, here's a guy in charge talking about what he believes.

Thanks.

What's the lead?

Well, the leading president, Nixon, lashed out at critics of his Vietnam policy today and said the North Vietnamese were promoting hypocritical double standards and charging U.S. planes for bombing and bombing dams and dikes.

The chief executive delivered a spirited defense of U.S. policy in Vietnam at an impromptu news conference in his office.

He said the United States was applying great restraint.

We could finish off North Vietnam in an afternoon, and that his policy was geared to gain a negotiated settlement.

So UPI, President Nixon said U.N. Secretary Kurt Waldheim had been duped by communist-bought propaganda into criticizing U.S.

Vietnam, about raising one word of protest against North Vietnamese criminal acts in the South.

Senator Tom Eagleton's mental treatment and predicted the November election would be a close one that should be decided on the issue.

Good.

Asked if he was now overconfident of victory as a result of the revelations, and he was asked three times between 1960 and 67 of fatigue and oppression.

Nixon reached to his own background and predicted that the McEvern Eagle ticket would not be spilled and that it would shut up.

That's all right.

Nixon told the news conference— Well, I was a bit—that was a good spot, though, to say, well, they all predicted it was going to run on the ticket, and they ran a trophy off the ticket, and it didn't.

You know, that's a very subtle hint for the government to keep the key.

I told a news conference that November 7th, the election between him and the Democratic gentleman who joined my government provides, quote, the clearest choice in this century.

We must campaign on issues and on personality.

It's my belief that regardless of what the polls show, this will be a close, hard-fought election right down to the wire.

We are going to assume throughout this election that we have a hard fight on our hands.

That's good.

Our troops don't like to hear that.

All those people that say, don't be overconfident.

Yeah.

They always want to be told against your back.

No, they want to be, they want to...

But this check makes any, when you get a wire made like that, that check makes any, you know, indiscriminate use of pulling quotes out of the text into an ego story.

Ego story.

It's amazing they get that done.

It's a trash wire.

That's...

They're writing it in here.

They write it in here.

If they haven't written it, if they haven't basically written it, then they can't write it.

That's their trade.

Sepp was pleased with the, was he just him alone?

No, others were safe.

He was pleased because of the style.

Rather than suffocation.

He was like the President was nervous.

He likes to relax.

It was a very impressive situation.

You know, the general summation.

Could you see, Ron, where the Los Angeles chapter is?

Yes, sir.

That's the problem.

You see, the Los Angeles Times started talking about that goddamn thing.

Can we do a little heat on that?

Can we get George Clinton, for example, about what you just did?

If you could kick the shit out of that.

I mean, the president won't get a good break in some hometown because of the guilt.

What do you think?

Sure.

That's what that sounds like.

Also, I would say that

Be sure that that is, with a vicious attack, you go to every publisher and editor, at least a hundred, and talk to your station owners in the area.

There are no sanctions.

See?

Just let them take a look.

Not from us, but you don't.

Some of them, maybe every editor will.

They've got to be sensitive about this deal, but they should keep drawing.

Okay.

That must be the child.

They would have names on them.

So if there's how much bigger, they must, well, there's a lot of other papers around them.

I think the county does.

Yeah.

I was a straw on the window.

I said, I'm going to be watching her.

I'm going to watch her press very carefully until I can help her.

I can help her on her own.

You don't want to plead with five liberal senators to vote with you on the end of one minute?

I won't.

I said what I want to say right here.

I won't say what I'm going to say.

I can't be in a position now, although I'm this close to the election, calling in these sons of bitches and begging them and then being turned down.

I'm just talking about who is it?

I suppose Miller is one of them.

Sachs, maybe.

Cook, Mathias.

Cook, Mathias, Pearson, Stanford, Stevens.

I don't know.

Screw them.

We've got to get three of them, maybe.

Try five.

I didn't try any.

Uh, he's by far the most connected person I know.

I'm sure they have.

Just five.

Who is she guessing at?

Timmons?

Crosses.

Timmons and Crosses.

Are they both?

Early part of next week.

What they're figuring is you've got 11 Republicans winning against us on Monday night.

They think these five are the best possible switches out of the 11, and if they can get three, they're all right.

Well...

I just think it's pissing against the wall.

I just don't think it ever does any good.

I've never known it could help.

You know, I've done it, you don't have any time, so, you know, ADMI.

Have you ever known as to get one?

Remember these sons of bitches that they asked me to talk to?

Never.

I've never known as to get one of those books.

No, by the time they try anything else, and if they can't get them on everything else, bringing them in to see you does feel like, I've got to murder everything.

I'm not sure they've tried everything else with these guys in here.

Mr. Devlin, could you notice in that whole session, there wasn't one domestic question?

Not one.

Vietnam or political?

Not one.

Check.

We're right when the rest work their ass off.

Give me stuff on taxes.

Give me stuff on... We haven't been sharing.

Well, we have a lot of questions.

I know.

But I think in the top ten minutes, we'll first answer.

And the dice.

And the political settlement in Vietnam.

And back to the dice.

And mental illness.

And back to the dice.

and the beat he selected under pressure, and financial background candidates, medical background candidates, over a confident situation, I was the same guy.

So getting at ease, selection of agony, and back to the dice, and agony upon his contributions and decisions, and I was done.

Now, that one I have no quarrel with.

That one, there's no question in my mind.

It's much better to have done it here than on TV.

Or she would have been on TV.

She would have done it there.

There's a pen on TV, put it up there.

And everything.

And what do we do when they call?

You can ask them.

So we just let them pull a car, go out with you.

We can go out.

Outside the club.

Yeah.

No problem.

But they can't come to the club there.

That's the first one that went out there.

The whole club had a bunch of people.

They don't want to do it.

You want Bill to ride out with you or me out there?

Better go separately.

That's what he's expecting.

I said, you might have to come back a different way anyways.

You have to come back to go to the Aunt David.

Rose is set for the end date.

And Natasha is set for the end date.

One of the things about these in here is that while they do, of course, they all require work.

It doesn't take so much time as the others to bring your message down.

That's not a factor to be underestimated.

You can do more and keep control of the thing.

Say a few things to me that you said.

I'm worried I didn't get back, because the moisture of the scar was just over there.

I would have done it.

Yes, I guess.

I don't even think he would have been in front of the war.

He shouldn't.

We've told him not to.

Have we?

Over and over.

Oh, that's a good reason.

It's like telling a drunk not to drink.

Take another drink.

I mean, he really gets almost the same thing.

Well, he went.

So they were complaining about the dice a lot.

It wasn't starting to get worse and worse.

But on the other hand, when they saw Harriman sitting there, they just forgot it was another disaster.

Well, like they, Harriman would, because they totally ignored him.

He was wandering around down there at Miami Beach, muttering under his beard, and totally, you know, he's thrown out of the party completely.

One thing about my going to the conference, it does give me an opportunity to kind of live through some of the next forces that stay with me through.

And I can set the line for him better than anybody else.

Sure.

I like to say the same.

You know, everybody's been answering, but nothing will have the effect that you've hit.

And when you hit something like that, as cold, hard, clear as you did, I'd like to hit for critical double standard.

You know, bumping that one against the wall all the time.

I would only call some trouble and get that answer effectively distributed.

Now this is the gap on where people are.

Vee, incidentally, did get your message and all that stuff.

He tried very hard.

He knows that he slipped on a couple of times.

And he wants to do it right.

You're damn right.

And he said, you've got to realize, I didn't hurt anything.

The Senate rejected the Benson Amendment to reduce the pricing of funds by $500 million.

They rejected $39.47 million.

Yesterday they had defeated, as you know, the Saxons in the 29th and 60th country and came out of it carried.

He said, so far so good that the Brooklyn and the Warren Amendment will be done.

Shit.

Well, I put it to them awful hard.

I said, you're just prolonging the war, and it's true.

The enemy are talking to the enemy.

Wait for us, and we'll turn it over to you.

That's just what they're doing.

They know what they're doing.

These goddamn assholes are just trying to...

I don't understand.

He went and reminded them.

How Stafford's going to write it, you're going to make him decide.

Well, I think, well, come on, I'm going to try and get Brian as well.

Percy, you understand, he is a god.

Well, Percy is an enemy, and Percy and Matthias are, they're doing it for their own purposes.

Broker's too bad, but I guess he figures he's got to do this to look like a hero.

Yes, I think he's got to do it.

I read him.

I understand him.

Because that's the trouble.

All the assholes were running this time.

What in the world is happening to Mark Hatfield?

Do you think he had disappeared from the face of the earth?

I don't know.

Well, I'll tell you what, they signed up on this stuff because they heard of an argument.

You know, the argument was patient, but the Republicans are not, and they didn't give him a hand.

Mark would be very interested to see you go out there and get all the Democrats to blame these great running presidents.

He really has disappeared, isn't he?

Yeah.

I just think that I don't understand any of the guys that are out there.

You know, it makes Ron's job easier, Bob, when you give him something like this about once every two or three weeks.

Oh, sure it does.

But that isn't what your... Oh, yeah.

Your job isn't to make Ron's job easier.

No, I'm not thinking Ron personally, but I mean...

The relations with... His relations with the president also...

Which means you're with the craft team.

That's my hand.

My voice, he's got to get out there and bat that around.

If I handle some of these things, it knocks it off.

Well, then you can knock them out of the ballpark wherever Ron can.

I mean, Ron can't go out and blast Walt and I and Bert.

I won't.

Being like his predecessor.

I didn't dig against the head of the U.S.

I got him bad, but... You're darn right, but you think so?

It's about 20% of the people in this country that are for the U.N., if that.

They're more than half the force of it.

Basically, you can get it right down to it.

A hell of a lot of them are just a chandler.

They don't think it's much good.

And we are just on screw.

And they don't like the head of the U.N. sitting near a czar's gasket.

We would have a third of the money.

That's the point.

A third of the money for the U.N. And they always shake us in the ass.

And never condemn the R.P.L.

That was the point.

The double standard.

This never gets to the questions they submit to me.

Yeah.

Henry Shaw had to think of that.

And the words here were created with a double standard.

Prolong the war amendment rather than end the war amendment.

What do you think of the fact that in 1968,

avoiding criticism.

Yeah.

Because we heard, I said, right now, they ought to insult their conscience to see whether they think it's going to help or not.

I did try to get Larry first on this thing that he said.

No, he was asked.

No, because he was out in Wisconsin or something.

I wanted to know he was asked.

How long?

Yeah.

How long did I...

I had one other thought that I thought we might work out about.

Congress will forward a college-supplied report to the Silicon Valley.

Do you think we could set White House phones at each of those places?

I don't know how White House owners are scattered around.

Why couldn't they be in the forest?

I just think it would be useful to have an accomplished place.

What do you mean?

You can't hear.

I mean this house.

Down there.

We don't have a switchboard.

We don't have a White House home.

We don't have a switchboard.

Down C. Oh, you have a switchboard.

Yeah.

We can put a separate line in it that...

You see what I mean?

You know, we could use this as a direct ringing line, so we'd have separate service from this, or ordinary phone service.

Would it cost a great deal?

Oh, no.

No.

It wouldn't be a direct line off our board.

It'd be a line we'd have to call.

It'd just be a second phone, in effect, and it wouldn't cost anything at all.

Could you do that, sir?

For Connelly alone, then.

For Connelly alone.

Just put a separate line in charge of the campaign.

A line between here and the White House board that we'd call the White House line.

Well, no, it's not a direct hit.

There's no timeline in the White House where that costs a fortune.

It costs $50,000.

This is a regular phone.

But when we call him, we call on that line.

So when that phone rings, he knows it's the White House.

In other words, he has a phone there, a separate extra one.

Yeah.

Or a separate button on his regular phone.

He has a button now, and he knows it's on that line.

And we always use that for White House calls.

We always use that.

He can always use it.

And then when he ever uses it, it's charged to us.

Good.

So he can pick up God's calls on that so that he doesn't use his own line for calls.

Good.

And we can ask, we can ask if we have a Social Security check made on that line.

Good.

Because of Martin Teuchert's work.

He talked to, I think, I forget who Martin talked to.

Yeah, he would say, because of the security.

Martin Teuchert, the president, has some matters, right?

Just say there's some matters that he hasn't been looking into.

Yeah.

Mr. Special, let's just do the spec on how you want it.

Oh, good.

We can do a little thing.

I want a little way less tab on it, so.

Would you tell the company that I suggested a way to light that scene?

They don't work together much right now.

There's no problem with that.

Client.

Client is just ecstatic when you hit the thing about Conley.

Because you go online with your client sitting out here.

Oh, I know.

And you hit the thing about the, uh, Conley, because that, you made it verbatim what you told me to have him put out.

So I've given it to him, he put it out, it didn't run.

And he was, he said he'd been, they'd been pushing him on that.

They said, boy, you just saved him because you said the same words he said to him.

And he was delighted to laugh at him.

That was good.

Sure, this was the opportunity.

Sure.

They walked right into it.

He's a good one to tell the lines.

Sure will, but anyway, he had that one too.

Couldn't see him.

I guess it goes to that.

I'll see you in the boat.

I will believe it that you can ride down with me if you want to get me by quarter of, quarter of, yeah.

And would you tell the boat man that we go directly to Mount Vernon, okay?

It won't make it too long, and he can come back in a helicopter, all right?

Not at high speed, but reasonable to the speed, okay?

So you'll have to be out about two hours.

Okay.