Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 790-018
Date: Monday, October 2, 1972 at 12:43 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Bull, Stephen B.; Butterfield, Alexander P.; Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob"); [Unknown person(s)]; Sanchez, Manolo
Recording device: Oval Office
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/790-018

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Ziegler is out of the building, sir.
[0:02] Good.
[0:02] If you'd like to see Colson, he's, uh...
[0:08] Uh, well, if I do, I'll see him at the EOB.
[0:12] He's around.
[0:13] Yes, sir.
[0:13] I just went in and checked with the secretary of defense.
[0:17] Ah, he's here.
[0:19] Uh, Alex, on the thing tonight, what, uh, what is the situation about where everybody's staying this year?
[0:25] Are you working on it?
[0:26] Oh, sir, yes, sir.
[0:27] They'll bring in...
[0:32] Rogers and, uh, I, I think of it.
[0:36] Rockets.
[0:36] I'm just trying to, well, it's near another cabin officer.
[0:41] That's not studying.
[0:42] I do it at the cabin officers for the elderly.
[0:45] Well, they're coming back.
[0:46] They don't want to spend years in the bus and three Russian.
[1:10] We're going to have to use them there.
[1:18] Why doesn't it make any damn difference?
[1:20] Well, it's easy to shift because it's just making it better.
[1:24] I thought, Bert, just because it's a little bit more detached.
[1:30] More detached.
[1:31] Yeah.
[1:31] Good.
[1:31] It might be.
[1:32] Good.
[1:32] It might be a lot better.
[1:35] Good.
[1:35] Let's do that.
[1:36] I can put kissing you where?
[1:37] Maple.
[1:38] Maple.
[1:58] The Americans go home.
[2:00] Jerry Porter went home.
[2:02] That's what I'm looking at.
[2:04] It's just, I didn't want to bother you guys.
[2:06] Cecil and Les and Peter, they got an autopsy.
[2:10] Jerry Rush was in the chopper and then back after dinner.
[2:13] It makes it a little more special for the guy who said, I agree, I agree.
[2:16] You shouldn't have the whole gang out there.
[2:19] What the hell does it mean to them?
[2:21] It would mean something to them.
[2:23] But it means less to Gromito if you have all of his crowds.
[2:26] I agree.
[2:39] 8 o'clock breakfast at Laurel for them, and 9 o'clock departure.
[2:45] Get here at 10.15.
[2:48] I mean, 9 o'clock, get here at 9.40, and then they go back to the embassy.
[2:53] They should be prepared to go right into the ceremony.
[2:58] Well, I hope it's a day like this.
[3:08] It was the most beautiful lab all the way.
[3:10] I never saw it.
[3:10] It was just great.
[3:11] Of course, this is the person who follows my sacrifice.
[3:20] Well, that covers me pretty well.
[3:29] You know, we really got this ambassador thing down about Pete.
[3:33] We did eight of those people in 30 minutes.
[3:36] Well, let's see, if you're going to do it, you sure as hell should do it at that rate.
[3:41] And that's about it.
[3:42] The thing to do also is to do about eight at a time, rather than doing three and give it a day and a half.
[3:49] You see, by the time I walk over and come back and screw around and set it up and the band and all the rest, hell, I've been looking for two.
[4:15] and said, no, you shouldn't do it.
[4:17] I know he's, doesn't, why he had the exposure.
[4:20] Well, he's reacting, actually, to it.
[4:22] But it's just, no, I'm not reacting.
[4:24] I decided, as a matter of fact, I made a post on it over the weekend on my own because of the fact
[4:45] They just got to have something to write about.
[4:49] That's the problem.
[4:52] We've given them stuff.
[4:53] What do they want?
[4:54] What do they do?
[4:54] What do they want?
[4:55] They want me in the ring.
[4:56] They want to have someone to cover him, right?
[5:00] That's not going to happen.
[5:02] That's the curious thing.
[5:03] They never called on Johnson to bring a gold letter to me.
[5:08] Never.
[5:08] Not one.
[5:09] Of course, Johnson had some at the beginning.
[5:13] Oh, I see.
[5:13] Yeah.
[5:13] They didn't call it Johnson.
[5:55] I know the question, Thomas.
[5:57] So the jury, tax, debate, whatever, yeah.
[6:01] I got it.
[6:04] Great.
[6:04] Thank you.
[6:33] I'm not going to write Eastman's opponent.
[6:34] I'm not going to write McCaul's opponent.
[6:36] Vice President covered Eastman pretty thoroughly.
[6:41] He endorsed it, in fact.
[6:44] He refused to endorse the Republican and said he would not, could not be in a position of opposing, of supporting an opponent to Senator Eastman who had been such a strong supporter of the Presidents and the administration.
[6:59] And Clark Reed played a few.
[7:08] would get the nomination, which would have been a disaster.
[7:11] And I told him he could expect no.
[7:13] He is running at my urging.
[7:16] But I told him he would have no support from the administration.
[7:46] getting back to the rest.
[7:48] The letters sound good to me, don't they, to you?
[7:50] Yeah.
[7:50] The other point that I was going to make, and I was going to talk to John earlier about it later today, or tomorrow, perhaps.
[7:59] The strategy in this $250 million debt limit is one of the ten suggestions.
[8:04] I write a letter to each member of Congress urging his support.
[8:08] I told John this morning it just sounded too gimmicky to me, particularly if I'm going to write support letters and all the rest, great.
[8:19] I just wonder what you think about it.
[8:22] I think I can indicate support for it.
[8:24] I mean, a letter to each member of the Congress, to the Democrats, Christ, I think that's, I think it gives them a chance, each of them, to respond to the letter and make news about it, a lengthy exposition of why this sort of thing is a power of wrong.
[8:40] It makes a lot of news and that sort of thing.
[8:42] The Republicans don't need it.
[8:45] John said, well, you've got to show presidential leadership.
[8:48] I said, Scott, damn it.
[8:50] John, I said, what does an 830 meeting in the morning mean?
[8:54] What does sending all my people down mean?
[8:56] John, why do you have to go out and say, isn't that leadership?
[8:59] What in the name of God?
[9:00] I don't know.
[9:01] Maybe I might use the story, I guess.
[9:04] I'm not going to send a letter.
[9:06] I don't think you should.
[9:09] I like the achievement.
[9:17] You can show leadership, by the way.
[9:19] Maybe you should call some Democrats in.
[9:20] Yeah.
[9:21] Yeah, that's just a grandstand play.
[9:27] I could make a few call-in calls.
[9:31] I still wouldn't install them for us.
[9:58] the dire Republicans and everybody else are going crazy hell about the Jews.
[10:03] I just, what I did, and that's okay, the bill said, well, it's perfect, we're out of the issue, we should back what we're supposed to do.
[10:10] I said, if the Jews want to make America fall in policy hostage to that, I said, they can do it.
[10:16] I said, but they're playing a very dangerous game.
[10:19] I was reading the analysis of the Jewish support that you're making.
[10:25] I can't remember whose it was.
[10:27] I'm very confident, which is that, and it's basically what you've been saying, the Jewish support that you're getting, the increased Jewish support, that is based in focus.
[10:38] The leadership has to do with this.
[10:41] In focus, it has nothing to do with...
[11:01] I thought it was great.
[11:03] It was a great picture.
[11:04] It frankly irritated me terribly in the beginning
[11:30] Yeah.
[11:31] I thought, oh Christ, it's like those World War II movies.
[11:35] But as you got through, you had a market that was great.
[11:38] But the point is, you see Fiddler on the Roof.
[11:41] If I were to choose right after Exit is, because I just have a network, right?
[11:46] Fiddler on the Roof, like the Rand Love Story, let the whole country see the son of a bitch.
[11:51] You see, because it gets everybody to remember about Jews.
[11:54] Yeah.
[11:56] But is it ever that we say,
[12:00] made that picture about Ukrainian Catholic men and about Lithuanians, about Estonians, about hundreds of millions of poor sons and bitches living in Russia.
[12:11] And music wouldn't have been as good.
[12:13] That Jewish music is great.
[12:14] What's your analysis of the Jewish world?
[12:19] Well, that they say, and this would apply to the exit pieces too.
[12:23] They can, if they went the other way, that isn't what they care about.
[12:27] What they care about is their personal
[12:30] pocketbook, safety, and community position problems.
[12:35] And their position in the community, their personal safety of their lives, and the protection of their pocketbook all push them to you.
[12:44] The first two because of race, and the third because of the, and there's a strong belief in the religious culture for passing, you know,
[12:59] White hat on the floor.
[13:38] the Democrats would seize it.
[13:39] They're going to try to say that we're soft on the Russians.
[13:45] We should have insisted that the Russians let the Jews out and so forth.
[13:52] It's really so kind of hypocritical.
[13:55] We don't like some geocrats and these others who are so soft on the Russians.
[14:26] Are they slower in the age?
[14:27] No.
[14:27] How old are you?
[14:30] I'm in an enormous college.
[14:31] So this is a period of 55?
[14:32] Yeah.
[14:33] I'm in an enormous college.
[14:38] I'm going to be close to what you would raise taxes on.
[14:42] Well, they do a good job after your meeting this morning.
[14:44] I've seen them.
[14:46] I've seen them.
[15:05] Thank you.
[15:05] Thank you.
[15:45] On this, do you agree more with the position of Nixon or more with the position of government?
[15:50] And we don't have the breakdowns, but when you take the total, I don't have the specific issues, but when you take the total, it's 49-22, Nixon and government.
[16:01] And which position do you agree with?
[16:04] And on the second most important issue, they did the same thing.
[16:07] It's 37-19.
[16:08] 44 on the second, much harder to decide on as the
[16:13] reports the issue goes down.
[16:15] The third is 1710, with 73 on the side.
[16:19] On the grain deal, was this a good thing or not?
[16:24] We asked, you know, in Iowa, we asked the same questions here.
[16:30] In Iowa, this approval, 5918, nationally, it's 4929, while the registered voter is 5128.
[16:33] So it's
[16:43] Call it a 50-30.
[16:47] Do you think the charge on the deal is true or untrue?
[16:51] 38 true, 16 untrue, 47 no-no.
[16:52] And then the FBI should investigate 83% say no.
[16:59] And if this makes you less likely to vote,
[17:28] Of the two presidential candidates, whose policies do you believe provide our POWs with the best chance of being returned to the U.S.?
[17:33] We tried to hit that because it was POW week.
[17:36] Nixon, 46, McGovern, 28.
[17:39] Do you agree or disagree with the charge made by Senator McGovern's administration's actions in recent release that the POWs delayed their release and will endanger the release of other POWs?
[17:52] 16 agree, 50 disagree.
[18:00] our POWs, but is sacrificing their freedom in order to keep South Vietnamese president too in power.
[18:04] Do you agree or disagree?
[18:06] 13 agree, 34 disagree.
[18:07] 39 have been heard.
[18:09] Do you agree or disagree with this proposal made by Senator McGovern?
[18:17] We should cut our defense budget by 32 billion even if it puts us behind the Soviet Union military's training.
[18:23] 16 agree, 73 disagree.
[18:26] We asked that in July of the 19th.
[18:37] and answer it.
[18:41] But it shows the POW thing didn't do us any harm.
[18:44] The weak deal with us is making much difference, and the men are saying it's still hurting them.
[18:59] You're right as your voter to be able to hear, and you say Gallup, was his last poll right as your voter?
[19:09] Well, that's that would add up to, this is total, Gallup at 61.33, which is a closer spread.
[19:15] This is a 31 point spread, right?
[19:16] Ours is a 31 point spread.
[19:39] That's 31 inches 28.
[20:10] and also the fact of the taking up and also the fact that they're using this totally away from the issues that we want to address.
[20:23] Absolutely.
[20:24] If you start, people are going to be there every day and say, Bob, what's the latest one?
[20:28] I don't listen to Gallop and Harris.
[20:32] Even in using it, we just say we've got a bullet from somewhere or we saw something.
[20:36] Yeah.
[20:36] We want to use it.
[20:40] But I don't think we did.
[20:42] You know, I don't use any of that.
[20:44] I want to know about the trade.
[20:47] You did get the question, but I don't know whether or not we should put it in the next week.
[20:52] Trade deal.
[20:53] Yeah.
[20:54] A trade deal as to whether the Jews...
[21:09] Except Jews, the Soviet Union charges exes for Jews who want to leave the country.
[21:18] Some members of Congress feel that the United States has a trade agreement, not providing for race trade.
[21:28] And all of the agreements of the United States don't say trade.
[21:33] So the people who trade aren't controlled and so forth.
[21:49] But we have to sell it.
[21:52] I hope we can find it.
[21:55] I hope we can find it.
[21:56] There aren't very many people who care.