Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 763-025
Date: Monday, August 7, 1972 at 4:13 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Butterfield, Alexander P.; [Unknown person(s)]
Recording device: Oval Office
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/763-025

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Yeah.
[0:03] No, thanks.
[0:04] I'm going to go to the other side.
[0:15] Okay.
[0:15] Thank you.
[0:16] All right.
[0:19] The point is, I cut this down.
[0:21] This isn't bad.
[0:22] Maybe we ought to cut it more.
[0:24] These are the people going to the meeting and the dinner.
[0:32] These are the people who would not go to the dinner.
[0:38] And would not be going?
[0:40] What do you mean?
[0:41] Well, yeah, that's right.
[0:43] They wouldn't have to go to the meeting.
[0:48] Well, I don't know.
[0:51] We can have all the dinners, don't you know what I mean?
[0:54] Well, I don't care.
[0:55] That's fine.
[0:56] Except that I wouldn't have these present.
[0:58] See what I mean?
[1:00] I think that I don't want, in that category, early on, finding that this is your present.
[1:05] That's what is basically, uh, a, uh, uh, yeah.
[1:07] Why does somebody, does somebody... Well, I don't know if you've ever made a follow-up guy.
[1:15] I don't know.
[1:16] I know, but he works for the committee.
[1:19] Yeah.
[1:21] He works for me.
[1:22] He works for me.
[1:23] He works for me.
[1:24] I wouldn't have any of it.
[1:27] But since you've got the time, all of these go to the tenor.
[1:29] If you've got room, that's no problem.
[1:31] See?
[1:33] But what I meant is I want to get...
[1:34] I'm trying to separate the stuff that he's got.
[1:38] The political life, you know what I'm saying?
[1:45] What's the problem?
[1:45] They should be there, too.
[1:48] Yeah, well, the ringers are all committed to being a matter of the greater peace.
[1:54] I mean, I should find them.
[1:56] What I mean is, the only ones that I can leave off there are the girl who finds them in the cold.
[2:01] So they don't have to go off to dinner.
[2:05] Well, they don't go, you know, because they're already buried down.
[2:08] If they're not going to be briefed, I don't see any reason for them to go, you know, they can stay here.
[2:13] That's true.
[2:13] Yeah, that was really something, but I was wondering if they'd go up there.
[2:17] No, no, no, I want them off the elevator.
[2:18] I just don't think they should go, because there's a hell of a lot of work to be done here.
[2:21] I mean, they're working on all sorts of things, and there's no reason for them to shoot them after they're there.
[2:27] Yeah, go ahead and sit it through and brief them.
[2:32] Yeah, that makes sense.
[2:33] Anyone who doesn't have to attend a meeting, should they even go up there?
[2:37] Here's the point.
[2:38] It is, if you've got people always sitting in every goddamn little thing, they can't do anything else.
[2:41] So I wouldn't invite them.
[2:44] Actually, just in general, at least it's not everything.
[2:46] A lot of them may have foreign policy, I'm sure.
[2:49] Agreed.
[2:50] I would hope so.
[2:51] They're talking about the issues.
[2:52] They've got to talk about the foreign policy.
[2:55] So I wouldn't have Irwin.
[2:56] I wouldn't have Flanagan.
[2:58] I wouldn't have Cole.
[2:59] But I just have a, you'd be there because it's a capital meeting, and the others are all Canadian.
[3:05] So what if there's a bargain?
[3:06] I mean, I'm probably willing to be convinced that there's something.
[3:10] No, no, I'm with you now.
[3:12] I see what you mean.
[3:13] You have Baldwin there because he's basically a political man.
[3:16] Irwin is not political.
[3:17] Flanagan is not political.
[3:18] Cole is not political.
[3:19] See?
[3:21] All of my names.
[3:22] You're there as a reefer.
[3:24] Everybody else is either a captain or a reefer.
[3:33] But I see no reason for hurting them.
[3:37] In other words, if they go, they've got to go to the dinner.
[3:41] You have people that rank not go to the dinner.
[3:45] Because they basically ran for the House of Representatives.
[3:49] I just meant they're his people, and I don't, I do not have early plans, or just, they are the three top subjects in the White House, and I don't think they should be here.
[3:58] Understood.
[3:58] That's all I was saying.
[3:59] Okay, really good.
[4:00] If I didn't hear it at the beginning, if I didn't know it was done, I don't know what the hell would have come.
[4:17] The people that we're talking about here are growing.
[4:24] For example,
[4:40] Just to give you an example, you're not in Stein.
[4:43] That's right.
[4:43] Now, we eliminate him.
[4:44] All right.
[4:45] Then why do you have, why do we have Blanigan then?
[4:48] Because you might find, we eliminated Scali, we eliminated Stein.
[4:50] Well, they're not Scali on the same rank.
[4:53] You see, well, we eliminated Dr. David.
[4:54] I said, I want David.
[4:56] All right, fine.
[4:57] Let's take Stein.
[4:58] Stein will have more to contribute to this kind of a meeting.
[5:02] If he participates in anything else, he's an economic man.
[5:04] If they're going to discuss anything in terms of the
[5:10] I didn't sit down and try to break it, but earlier we did.
[5:12] I kicked it up, and I came back over here.
[5:15] God, how do you think?
[5:20] Are you sure as hell sure we've got a lot of bears in the economy?
[5:29] Well, if they do, then I'll bite each tree.
[5:31] I'm not going to have a damn thing without animals.
[5:33] That's not right either, see.
[5:35] But why do you have Earth and the sky?
[5:38] Well, planning, for example, needs not to be it.
[5:40] I just told him I don't want to keep him in the hell out of politics.
[5:43] I want him for another reason, because he's vulnerable.
[5:46] And it would be a nice way to keep others out, too.
[5:51] They all have a chance, but if they don't want to go, Christ, I don't care.
[5:56] But if you have, frankly, if you have early on in the planning, that's fine.
[5:59] That's just true.
[6:00] I mean, it all should be fine.
[6:05] I'll tell you what, we are looking at his trajectory pretty good on this.
[6:09] I mean, you know, I've been talking to him, I don't think he's nothing to do with us.
[6:12] Yeah, he has a little more sense than a bunch of people.
[6:15] Well, he, uh, well, I know that everybody wants to bring all of this to the case, Gary, but not that.
[6:24] We really do know that we can watch our channel.
[6:26] It's just as amazing.
[6:33] There are more here than there are here.
[6:37] That's why I'm checking to see.
[6:38] I'm trying to cut the goddamn thing down.
[6:49] I don't know how hard it is, but it's going to make sense.
[7:01] Oh.
[7:28] Thank you.