Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 789-002
Date: Saturday, September 30, 1972 at 9:42 AM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob"); Kissinger, Henry A.; Bull, Stephen B.
Recording device: Oval Office
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/789-002

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:10] Well, I was thinking, I was concerned a little bit, you know, on the grain thing, you know, the ground reactor could have hit a drop in the Midwest.
[0:18] That's what cost it for the first place.
[0:20] You see?
[0:21] It really didn't cost it.
[0:23] Now, there will be other events that could cost it, but it's going to be a grain deal.
[0:29] And the grain deal, that's why I don't think we want to overreact to it.
[0:33] It's kind of like the CBS thing last night.
[0:36] kind of ground it the other way.
[0:37] It is a con.
[0:41] As John points out, it is a con.
[0:43] I'll start on one thing so that you can pass to John.
[0:47] He mentioned cargo yesterday, and I thought he would praise us myself as he did I will.
[0:53] In order to copper that one in advance, be sure that cargo lost its ass.
[0:59] Here's the firm that Mitchell was in, and that I was in.
[1:03] And cargo, our own firm, lost its goddamn ass
[1:07] but it did not interfere with or its hesitance on the air.
[1:11] I put that out, not that it was the firm that put that out, but quite a bit of the target of the major grain trader lost its ass.
[1:18] I mean, it's basically what the republic can do.
[1:21] It's very conservative.
[1:22] We don't get into that, do we?
[1:26] Yeah.
[1:27] Because, you know, I think, get it out first.
[1:30] Yeah, get it out first so they don't react to the other.
[1:34] Because they did lose their pot money, according to John.
[1:49] Miss Kelly, did you have the talks you could have had in that episode?
[1:52] Those were great people.
[1:53] Was there anything posted they didn't know?
[1:55] I was out of the office, and I'll catch up.
[1:57] Sir, sir, boss.
[1:59] Sir, boss.
[2:00] Whatever.
[2:01] Dan, remarkable man.
[2:02] Yeah.
[2:02] I don't know what they are, Greeks or what, but for Christ's sake.
[2:06] He's a doctor.
[2:07] And he wrote this damn post, and they thought they got into the black, and they got caught in the black, and Jack and Jill were black.
[2:14] The goddamn thing.
[2:14] They were sawing the old three steel mines, and
[2:20] Blue Guard's best friend, probably the highest Blue Guard on security, sent it to the guy, and this guy gave her a song.
[2:26] He and she made one point, very, very importantly.
[2:29] I said, I said, how much is circulation on this?
[2:32] And they said, Nick, it's over, right?
[2:34] And I said, how do you pay for it?
[2:35] And they said, well, we charge a dollar.
[2:37] And I said, a dollar and a half?
[2:39] And they went, stand up.
[2:41] We're just panicked.
[2:43] Why are you doing that?
[2:44] And they were reading it on the glass.
[2:47] I said, well, we've done a lot of checking in this, and it's not only this magazine, but the, he said, the media people, I mean, he said, the big advertising firms, including J. Walter Thompson, he says, the buyers, the media buyers, so forth, are on the left.
[3:07] And they are now spreading the lie that they're taking is that we've got to go into left-wing provocations in order to keep the Congress, the liberals of Congress, from
[3:17] This woman is smart as hell.
[3:20] And she said that they were company after company, like a kid.
[3:25] Take the truth for her.
[3:43] They want to advertise it, and then the art firm turns it down.
[3:48] They wouldn't want to build it.
[3:50] Yeah, well, they've got two arguments.
[3:51] One, they'll say they don't have circulation.
[3:53] It's true.
[3:54] They're raised too high for their circulation.
[3:56] True, true, true.
[3:56] And it is what God damn clearly wants to do.
[3:59] Okay, that's the point.
[4:00] See, they can afford it.
[4:03] What disproves their theory, which is part of the truth, what disproves it is the success of Reader's Digest.
[4:10] The reason for that is the Reader's Digestion has the circulation.
[4:14] It has the circulation to add a little writing.
[4:18] The Post is building.
[4:20] But what I'm trying to do is, the point is the clients.
[4:28] putting advertising in the post, not simply as an advertising investment, but as a means of building the post.
[4:34] That's right.
[4:35] It's for their interest to build the post, and they should.
[4:37] They can invest a little bit, but it isn't as cost-effective as- They talked about it, but Holladay is a huge advertiser, right?
[4:45] Holladay is Wilson.
[4:47] Right.
[4:48] Wilson is a hard- Well, not only for us, he's a Billy Graham.
[4:52] That's right.
[4:55] He wants to do something for them.
[4:56] And they're advertising he's not able to come to this instance.
[5:00] Blasphemy turns out to be opposed to going on the ground on the holiday instead of getting liberal publications.
[5:04] Bob, I think it is true.
[5:06] I think the whole New York area is obsessed with a bunch of left-wing assholes.
[5:10] There's no question about that.
[5:11] Are we?
[5:12] Absolutely so.
[5:12] I know that with the children.
[5:14] It is true.
[5:15] I want to leverage those people.
[5:16] We've been playing with the network.
[5:17] We've got to start playing with the agencies.
[5:19] What is the whole group that are together concerned?
[5:22] Absolutely.
[5:23] You make it open.
[5:24] And I would be like, yes, good direction.
[5:26] I'm going to get them in, and I'm going to read their ass.
[5:28] I mean, I guess we didn't have any success with Kennedy and Mack.
[5:34] I'm not sure.
[5:34] I'm not going to say.
[5:37] Not us.
[5:40] They're still trying.
[5:41] I don't know.
[5:41] Yeah, I don't know.
[5:42] I haven't seen it this morning.
[5:57] It is, well, we ought to get the agencies.
[5:59] What we also ought to do after the election is hit some advertisers.
[6:06] Yeah, big companies.
[6:08] Yep.
[6:08] Just make the point to them that don't let the agencies give you the bullshit about getting along with Congress.
[6:13] You've got a worse problem getting along with the- Right.
[6:15] With the executive.
[6:16] That's right.
[6:17] And if you want to get along with the executive, we'll be looking at some of these things.
[6:20] That's right.
[6:20] Because we need media support that do this.
[6:23] And it isn't just the Saturday Post.
[6:25] I know.
[6:28] Hearst Newspapers and the New York Daily.
[6:32] Well, of course, they buy the daily news.
[6:34] They support the house.
[6:35] It's got the circulation.
[6:37] But you've got to invest a little in some of these, you know, the George Putnam shows.
[6:42] People like that.
[6:44] Let me say, have one of your...
[6:47] The secret guy is giving me a list of the good conservative television, radio, and other things so that we can talk.
[6:53] You can't deal with that very specific with these assholes.
[6:57] We're going to be goddamned.
[6:58] But this is part of our project to building a new establishment.
[7:00] This is what we've got to do.
[7:01] We've got to get some commentators on the air that aren't on now.
[7:06] I mean, let's move on.
[7:08] Let's put her point on the air someplace.
[7:12] You're goddamn right.
[7:14] I was thinking, you know, to show you, you see the enormous buildup in the news, I'm reading, that Pearson and the others are giving some of it to Trump.
[7:24] What do you think they're doing?
[7:27] No, they have no chance of selling that buildup because the guy's on television every night.
[7:32] Well, that's, do you think he does that on television?
[7:35] What did you think of the build-up that Elvis Pearson and the Los Angeles Times talked about?
[7:40] He's the second comic on each of your stories.
[7:42] Huh?
[7:43] Yeah.
[7:43] Usually for the comic books and so forth.
[7:46] Mine's a typical one.
[7:47] Pearson, you expect, the only time you expect, it is, I don't think it's surprising at all.
[7:53] No, I just, you don't get through it.
[7:55] I think they're doing it.
[7:59] Same as Pearson's other thing.
[8:00] Pearson's been a journalist for four years.
[8:02] Right.
[8:02] And every story he writes on us is negative.
[8:04] That's right.
[8:05] always, I can't, and I've raised it with Vermont Royster, and as you say, he's a great reporter.
[8:11] He's not a great reporter.
[8:15] He's not.
[8:15] Well, well, he is, he is a great reporter.
[8:18] He gets into talking to everybody, you know, he gets into talking to everybody.
[8:22] I've gotten to ask everybody, I know those bastards, and you take on the guys on the other side of the U.S. this guy, you have Coral Howard, and he's around dropping his pencil, and
[8:33] And Jack Sutherland, who has to be the dumbest guy in the entire press.
[8:37] And I don't think he's with us either.
[8:39] I think he's basically against us.
[8:43] He had the other way a little bit.
[8:46] Maybe it was delivered, but did we tell him to have lunch with the timeline people?
[8:59] The other ACP was out for three hours, but they don't have the rest of their body.
[9:02] They've been trying to do this once, but they're good.
[9:07] I didn't know he got hurt.
[9:08] I just, what?
[9:10] Beat him.
[9:13] Never.
[9:14] Never, never, never.
[9:17] Do you think it was any good?
[9:20] No, sir.
[9:21] I'll take one of the secret orders.
[9:23] My brother is doing the Washington Post dedication ceremony on October 16th.
[9:28] Rogers is?
[9:28] Yeah.
[9:31] I just got an invitation from Captain Gregg to attend their dedication ceremony.
[9:35] He said that the featured speaker should be the Honorable William D. Rogers, Secretary of State of the United States.
[9:43] Now that's the Walter Washington Mayor.
[9:44] That has got it damn wrong.
[9:46] Now I want the word, I want the word to get around this goddamn White House that if anybody, anybody from the White House goes there and asks the Fire Office, White House staff to do that.
[9:57] He'll open up everything and get an invitation.
[9:59] He's not to go.
[10:01] He says he didn't get an invitation.
[10:02] I didn't get one either.
[10:03] You won't get one.
[10:04] They'll know.
[10:06] Mine was addressed to Mr. John Mulder.
[10:08] And I thought I'd drop a note to Kate Gray and say that there's usual accuracy with this.
[10:14] The director says it.
[10:16] Or has it?
[10:17] Oh, no.
[10:18] They have just ignored me.
[10:22] But they've been nasty to our foreign policy.
[10:25] Oh, God.
[10:30] You know what he's thinking of?
[10:32] I guess being a lawyer again.
[10:35] He's not going to pick it up.
[10:36] Let me say this.
[10:38] I want, this is one where if he got a man cold, I want it frozen beyond any capacity.
[10:44] I want you to get around.
[10:46] Incidentally, I don't mind calls with the captain people.
[10:49] We don't want them to go.
[10:50] Is that clear?
[10:52] I really think so.
[10:53] Captain people we can talk to.
[10:56] The president would feel very, uh, it doesn't feel we should attend this, even though the secretary has his reasons.
[11:02] But this is not a report.
[11:03] The president is not concerned.
[11:05] I don't know how you're going to do it.
[11:07] I don't think you should do it.
[11:09] I don't think you should do it.
[11:11] I don't think you should do it.
[11:15] I don't think you should do it.
[11:17] I don't think you should do it.
[11:20] I don't think you should do it.
[11:22] I don't think you should do it.
[11:23] I don't think you should do it.
[11:26] The DRV side considers that the next meeting, which should last three days, is of vital importance, and that it is time to take a clear decision concerning the orientation of the negotiations.
[11:39] Either both sides will arrive at an agreement on the essentials of the questions which have been raised, thus committing the realization of the schedule of the negotiations already understood between the two parties, that is to say, to end the war and sign the global accord,
[11:53] toward the end of October 1972, or even earlier, which would be better.
[11:57] Or both sides will not be able to agree.
[12:00] The negotiation will remain at an impasse and the war will be prolonged, in which case the American side must accept the responsibility.
[12:07] If the American side really decides to opt for the first orientation of the negotiations and find rapidly a peaceful solution to the Vietnam problem, the next meeting must see a real effort
[12:20] For its part... No, no, for its part, the DRB side will study in detail the 20-point proposition of the American side and will attend the next meeting in a constructive spirit and with a very serious attitude in a maximum effort to arrive at an agreement on the essentials with the American side.
[12:41] They have never done this, and this is, you know, unprovoked.
[12:46] Can I go back to the old question?
[12:52] Oh, I agree, I agree.
[12:53] I mean, they don't have to be in the past.