Nixon, Haldeman & Butterfield on Vietnam War and 1972 Presidential Campaign

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You have that education.

I don't need it now.

I don't need it until 3 o'clock.

But I remember I sent it back early when I had a few changes.

But if I could have it by 3, because I'll have to spend from 3 to 4 before I can go to the company to get the damn thing done.

So I can get it back in time.

Or if they can't have it by 3, then get it here by 5.

I don't know if it's any good or not.

We're at the Mercy now, with the children, and Bon Bon Don.

And I say that the Mercy is going to play a huge speech this afternoon at 5 o'clock at Bon Bon Don.

So again, at 5 o'clock, they pull the whole goddamn thing up.

But it tries different steps.

Vietnam agrees to release all our POWs, we should agree to a ceasefire and withdrawal of our troops, even if that would mean a communist takeover.

36 agree, 51 disagree.

The North Vietnamese communists and the Viet Cong should be allowed to keep those territories in South Vietnam they now control.

That's a fairly complex point, but still disagree.

A coalition government should be established in South Vietnam that allows the North Vietnamese communists a role in the government.

Well, a hell of a lot of us agree on that.

President 2 of South Vietnam should be abandoned in order to obtain peace.

I thought we'd get 70 agree on that.

I totally agree with that.

It's not very strong.

33 have no opinion.

Then we take the hold.

Would you approve or disapprove of the Vietnam settlement that provided for a ceasefire and return of RPOWs, allowed the present government of South Vietnam to retain control of the areas it now holds, but gave the communist North Vietnamese control of the areas of South Vietnam that they now hold as a result of their invasion of South Vietnam?

41 approved, 34 disapproved.

That isn't what the settlement is.

No.

But it's the VC, actually.

Yeah, but they don't even understand that.

41 approved, 34 disapproved.

That's pretty low approval on the basis of the fact that normally, what it all shows is this deal is, what was that?

Veterans?

Yes, but there's only one change.

I don't know.

Then Alan at this retired, would you favor a partial settlement that would end the fighting in Vietnam but leave open the questions of Laos and Cambodia?

Or do you think the whole Indochina problem should be settled at the same time?

But it's interesting.

23 partial settlements, 60 complete settlements.

And only 17 don't know.

It's a low don't know.

And a damn high thing where they don't want to settle just Vietnam.

Well, what it tells us is, it seems to me, is that it's a confused situation.

And that any settlement before the election in time will be bad.

The other point is that

The other point is which is not related to the patrol.

We're in the path of patrol.

We've got maniacs on both sides.

Not really.

They do it.

We'll just say we're for an honorable peace and stick right to our guns.

One thing this does tell us is the POW thing.

Release a POW isn't enough.

It's enough if it means a communist takeover.

So our answer

Which we've always felt.

Our answer to that is, in other words, if we can't just bring our, if we can't bring that home, that's impossible if I'm in a state building, sure.

If I'm in a body or whatever, it's too long.

Remember, I was always worried about that.

I think that on my own, there is a possibility that since we're going to have to count the scientists, there has to be a remaking of all the fucking trains.

and take a stop, and get the hell out of the car.

You gotta do it.

Then you gotta give a speech.

No, that's true.

Why are you bothering me?

No.

Well, I suppose when you come to these damn town, you're gonna have to be somewhat anxious.

No, no, you can't give speeches or lectures and all that.

Well, one thing, there's gonna be a motorcade-type situation

After dark.

So you can stay in the car.

We use that glass car.

And you can stay in it and turn the lights on.

And you really are better.

It makes more sense anyway.

They can see you better.

They can't see you if you stand up.

And you're not motorcading for the purpose of motorcading.

It's not announcing.

The event is the meeting at the hall.

Three.

On Ohio, we're dropping the idea of doing the radio speech on the road.

Any place you go, you're going to have demonstrators outside.

We can't secure an area.

I think you do it here before you go in the morning, then get on the plane and go to Ohio.

It was a good idea if we could do it.

But I don't care.

You can do a little town, a town hall, a radio station.

You can't secure the area around it.

You know what happens in those places.

We haven't done L.A. We haven't done, well, that's right, we haven't had a ride going on L.A. We could do it at L.A., just crank up a hell of a thing at L.A. Airport.

First you're going to ride the L.A.

Demonstration there.

Yes.

That's a problem.

You might have fired 6,000 demonstrators.

From UCLA.

That's right.

And they'd come out in three weeks.

That's why, if we go out Friday, I...

I think what we do is pass the Colorado.

It drops a chunk of your heartland.

That's the thing that bothers me quite that much.

The mountains isn't there.

I meant it.

First of all, I am a people of Colorado and Los Angeles.

Which is the way to do it.

If you want to have a man, make a hell of a big meeting.

If you could.

And it makes more sense to do it Tuesday than it does the following.

And then say that I've got to do the national television on Thursday and I'm going to California.

You have to do something in California.

There's got to be some kind of...

Motorcade in California, I think you're dead.

I think you're just too damn in a demonstration.

Would you rank up UCLA and Valley State?

Sure.

All the other state colleges.

They'll leave a nasty thing on the end, and that's the problem with having any other workforce.

Yeah.

Well, now if it's Ontario, what about going out and having a torch fight in Ontario like you did in 68?

I mean, in 60.

You wrote that up as the most memorable thing.

We ended up the campaign there.

What would we do at what time?

Saturday evening.

Say that I have to finish work here.

I do.

I'm going to do a radio.

Do a radio here.

Saturday.

And then fly out late Saturday and arrive in the evening at Ontario.

It'll be early.

It'll be dark early, so you don't have to get there late at night like we did before.

We got there too late before.

All right.

I have a hard time getting there at 7 o'clock.

I have a hard time getting there.

I have a torchlight where they speak briefly.

You know, they crank up some entertainment ahead of time.

You get the people all in that area.

It's a part of California we haven't yet.

And it's sentimental.

And then get the chopper from Ontario right out to San Clemente.

Home for the night, Saturday night.

You go to church on Sunday.

Go to headquarters on Monday.

Boat on Tuesday.

Come by.

You give a speech, but you give kind of a sentimental speech.

You don't give a campaign speech.

I agree.

Here we go.

Good.

And by doing it Saturday night, I don't get any coverage.

particularly Saturday night in the west, get some, get some eastern coverage, whatever.

We'll do it early enough to get some western coverage, which you want.

You might even cut to it live.

We did it at 7 or something.

Well, it'll be a nice show.

It won't be too bad.

You might have a few radicals around, but they can roll them off there, can't they?

Probably.

And frankly, if they're noisy,

I don't see what it would accomplish.

Symbolically, the people in the mountain states, they don't know the difference.

You had a regional

invited the people from the Mountain States, two of each perhaps or something.

They want to come.

It costs a lot of money.

You invite them to Chicago.

Oh, it isn't really necessary to do that.

Why have them fly all over?

I think we ought to fly.

I think we should.

We should cut down the numbers.

I've got the numbers in any event.

I'd say, or go the other way.

You don't have to shake hands with all those people.

I guess you really do.

I really don't think we do.

I think we ought not be in Chicago.

I had to talk a little bit more, but that's all right, too.

Sort of a long talk, but plenty.

You gave him a good talk last night.

George and I.

That's all that means.

Even having to give a speech later, you still gave him a darn good talk.

Tied into all the states.

That's a tough exercise, and it'd be hard if you have that many states, it'd be hard to do that.

I wouldn't even try it, sir.

I'd try it in a different way.

Another possibility is to send her to the military.

Yeah.

And control the goddamn thing a lot better.

You can't get nearly as many people.

Or rather than going to the Ontario airport, you should go to Marchfield.

Where does that go?

Go to a military base.

Marchfield?

I think there's something to be said with a military base that you've got control of.

Does that give you more control?

Yeah, I think it does.

I think it does.

But it's also to control the traffic.

I don't think, frankly, the size of the crowd is possible.

I think coming in and out and rather than doing, I don't think we should do the same thing we did in the 60s.

We didn't win in the 60s.

I think the Ontario

There's some after doing after dark.

After dark.

Everybody torches.

See if they get the right amount of crowd.

If they can't, why don't we try another air base in that area?

Maybe Marksfield.

Marksfield.

That's it.

Just kind of better to get to another base.

You're right about the motorcade in LA.

It was a good idea in the first place.

And also, I think people may be getting the idea that all this necessity could be helping.

Crescent of the flesh, they're overshadowed.

You've done it.

You had to do a couple of undue.

They feel that.

That's what bothered me so much about that meeting, where they all said you had to do more.

As soon as you were doing it, they changed their minds.

And they have.

Now, we didn't talk about California.

You know, when you say that, you know,

Let's go to Marksville.

Pretty good crowd there.

We cranked up a damn good crowd.

I think we get an enormous crowd in Maryville.

You see, the freeway there is not as hard a riverside as it used to be.

That's right.

That's John Riverside, San Bernardino, Ontario, Pomona, all that.

There you can swing in there.

I must say, the more I think of the Watergate thing, I just, I can't think of a whole lot more visual.

I just want to see how we can do it in these balloons we buy.

It's great to come out with a white paper, but I want to come out with an answer.

That's about what we came out to do.

What we were thinking about was mailing it and Clark McGregor sending it in answer to questions that our own people get questions on this.

So we sent it out to our stewards saying here are the specifics, the charges and the answers, the false charges and the facts.

so that you know, because you've asked, how do I answer your question on this and so on.

And you've been laid out, and of course you give it to editors, and you say, in the interest of fairness on this thing, there's been a gross distortion of the... Smear.

Oh, it's usually a distortion.

Smear.

It's rough language.

Massive smear.

Most people would have been good at telling those.

That's right.

The point of it is not to hear the rhetoric that's coming to the top.

There's a question whether you want to get into it because then you get back in almost specifically.

The first thing is to look at it and see whether it is what it looks like.

We haven't put it in one place.

You got a hell of amounts for some strange reason on your veterans thing in Arlington, too.

And you did your take.

And they got a big plate of the amnesty thing.

It wasn't amnesty directly, but it was indirect, like honoring those who served instead of those who deserted.

Of course, it's the thing I said last night.

It's the thing I said over and over again.

Boy, did you notice all the abortion stuff out in the motor

They are really organized through those towns up there.

Oh no, it was the other way.

Absolutely not.

They were, they were, those were in support.

There were a lot of them that said, you know, support next to me supports the right to live.

Great, they're going to vote for next.

It's a vote against abortion.

Nixon, Haldeman & Butterfield on Vietnam War and 1972 Presidential Campaign

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on October 24, 1972

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