Conversation 827-021

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You want me to stay?

I don't care.

What do you think?

I don't think you might.

You don't need to stay.

What do you think?

I think it's a good thing.

Yeah, but it's not wrong.

I'll complain then.

Fine.

Okay.

Mr. President, how are you?

How are you?

I don't know if you can see his face.

Too bad he doesn't have it, but that's what I hear.

I want you to get a picture of him.

When you want to see the President, what do you always like?

I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Okay.

All right, it's real nice of you to make time to be here.

You're based in New York?

Yes, sir.

Yes, I am, yeah.

This room's all so great.

Thank you.

This is the place to live for the rest of your life.

Not bad, isn't it?

Miserable.

But my wife's going to blow the hell out of me for not wearing my Mildo suit when I see her.

Well, that's true.

That's what I did.

You look like a reporter.

What are you, a writer?

Yeah, a writer.

Looks like a reporter.

How?

Oh, lest we please, if I do.

Well, go out there.

Go out there.

They're pushing you to the ground.

It's just, you know, like, it's crazy.

It's like, uh, it's like, uh, it's like, look, I'm just no John Lewis.

Why, that's okay, but mostly what I'm pursuing is kind of a reflective story about, and they all have it, but we'll have it with you people after four years of the interview.

How do you really feel?

I guess that's the perennial question.

I guess the chief... No, no.

He went to the little office over the side.

He was kind of sneaky.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, as a matter of fact, there's you, you happened to come in on the day I had my physical, so somebody asked me how I...

Yes, I heard that.

I didn't even...

They said I felt all right.

Well, yeah.

The... Perhaps the best way to get at it is to start with the physical, isn't it?

Okay, in a sense, you know, if somebody asks how you feel, you almost have a little first reaction, like, you're fine, or I don't feel so good today, or something, and you're usually reflecting, whether or not you have a stomachache or a headache or some sort of physical disturbance, whether or not you have a stomachache or a headache,

I would say that I've been very fortunate in that respect.

For the four years that I've been here, I have not missed a day.

And of course, my soul servings me.

I thought that was a record, but I found that the only one that beat it was Truman.

Except that he didn't for any length of four years.

You see, I...

When Harry Truman came in, as you recall, the very first year of his term was about six before the term.

And he was not sick that year, but then he did get sick for a few days in his last year.

So I'm the first four-year president that's just been researched.

Again, provided I last through the 20th of January, that's the day it counts.

So, basically, I started with, I would say, considering my age and lack of exercise and so forth, which the doctors constantly criticized me for, that I have a recreation.

Although I can move quite specifically.

I can play golf.

That's what they were supposed to do with me.

I can say that I am blessed with a very, very strong physical faith.

Now that's, when I say blessed, where does that come from?

That comes probably from the parents of people.

and probably from a rather smart background.

I mean, as far as, as far as you saw, I didn't, I didn't invent that kind of job for anyone's later.

And so, maybe this is a good shape, but it is important.

It's a matter of practice.

I've never had a headache in my life.

I've never had a headache.

I've had my share of ailments and so forth.

The head never bothers me.

The stomach never bothers me.

Part of it is because of the physical details.

I don't see them, but I know they're on.

Part of the reason that I think the physical, that in this office, the reason I am, I do get away with it so often, is that I first, and this has been written before, it's good advice to everybody else,

I believe that in battle, and in battle, of course, this means any campaign, or in this office, which is a continuing battle, I don't think it's evil always, but just a battle.

No one ever leaves the presidency for a moment.

When I go to Florida, I'll be gone for maybe four or five days, but it's always there.

You're working to carry the office with you.

I perhaps do it more than others because it's my way.

But, on the other hand, it is very important first to

to develop, to live like a spark.

That's why my eating habits, my drinking habits are very moderate.

You know, for Socrates, that was long ago, so there's nothing new about it.

And it doesn't mean that I don't enjoy a good time, to my left.

But I have found that, for example, in any political campaigns, that in any political campaign, there are a great deal of the worst things you can do

is to say, oh, gee, now this is, let's relax, let's get away from the car, and let's have an extra drink or two, because as much as you get a lift on the left, the left down, it's just too great.

So I'm not advising this for others.

I'm just advising for myself.

I find that, therefore, to be given this job, one should have, I would advise, physical discipline.

And then along with that comes also mental dissonance and emotional dissonance.

Now you'll know this is a very clean office.

This has been noted before if you've heard of it.

Ann Johnson's here.

This office like this would probably drive President Johnson right up the wall, because he liked something going on.

He had those three television sets, and he had them typically in the other room, and he could listen to the reading that George Christian was giving, and he wanted to do it, and he did it.

And he followed it, but he wanted to keep right up on it, and he had three TVs in his bedroom over there.

I have none, anywhere, not in here, not in there.

Not that I don't, when I go to Florida and I have a football game on, on Monday nights when they're on, or on Sundays, I will watch it.

But generally speaking, this is another thing that has to do with how you feel, how you handle crises.

And I didn't just learn this all, I'm sure I learned it by over a period of years.

I find that the most important

The most important characteristic that the leader, the decision-maker, must have is balance and objectivity and coolness in crisis.

He must act very decisively, but he must act very coolly.

I can imagine that people may remember some of the rather tough decisions I've had to make, the Cambodian decision, the Maine decision,

and so forth.

They have pictures of the president, Jamal, up and down, getting angry because the president saw that these guys didn't do this and that, and now they're going to bomb this nomination and so forth.

People who write that, of course, don't know, don't have to know me, because actually I have a reputation, generally, that's quite true of being usually the coolest person in the room.

And the reason is that

Because it's a matter of versus.

It's the way I am.

I'm second.

It's the way I train myself.

The idea that a great decision requires, in this office, the coolest, most objective, in-person attitude by myself.

Awesome.

That's why instant news is something I never allow to interfere with the decision.

uh for example i could sit look at a television commentator and go right along he says he's this this matter i might read the morning papers that i that i can then go over and react to what i would instead i probably have a broader coverage i would say of this

and almost anyone who's been here because it is remarkably the new summary that we have, a new summary that covers not only the great papers of York and Washington, but covers the country papers.

I know what they're saying in Rapid City, and I know what they're saying in L.A. and San Antonio and so forth, because you see, they always put it, and also I know what they're saying in the New Republic, as well as in national reviews.

We get that kind of balance in that.

And also, obviously, we cover the TV.

I never, this is something that I've heard of, I never watch TV commentators or news shows, or I've seen some, but I never watch them when they're about me, but I always read about them.

The reason for that is, again,

That I do not want a decision to be influenced by emotional, personal concerns.

I constantly have to take members of my staff, some of them are, some of them are rather high strung, some of them need to be cheered up, some of them need to be toned down a bit.

But I find the major, the major weakness of inexperienced people, and some are very old because they just aren't built to go around, the major weakness of inexperienced people is that they

They take it in person.

They allow themselves to become the issue rather than to deal with the issue.

And many of them have implied both in politics and in this debate.

And it's always that way in politics.

And I have seen in politics many men destroyed because they allowed themselves to become the issue.

They allowed it to become so personal in a way.

It's meaningless to say that these great battles that I'm supposed to have with the media and the press and all the right, the content with the press and so forth, as any one of the guys on here will tell you, the Carpenter, Tom Thomas, the other DNA people, or others, Craig, their friend, assuming they have one or two in Apple.

The thing is, the thing is, it's never personal with me.

Totally impersonal.

It was not always been that way.

I mean, years ago, when I was a young congressman and so forth, the sticking under my skin song.

I'd read this, and I'd read it, and I'd see her block cartoons, and perhaps nobody has been cartooned.

I'm easy to cartoon it and make it look bad, because I've got that kind of face on the other hand.

Rather than looking at a cover tool, reading the editorial, and then getting angry and coming over here and pounding the door, raising hell, I walk into this office, cool, calm, good.

I read the news somewhere quickly and get it all in my mind.

Both sides, pro-Tom, shoo-shoo-Tom.

It always is for the president, Tim.

As some have said, perhaps.

more criticism of whoever, who happens to be president now than any president that's been in this office.

But that's because the issues are so difficult.

It's not me.

The issues are very difficult.

The wars are terribly difficult.

The whole problem of welfare is a terribly difficult emotional issue.

It tears them up.

And I understand that.

I have to disagree with them on that.

But the fight is, I never allow, and I'd like to put that also in terms of Congressmen and Senators.

I mean, the most, it's our surprise, in fact, the House and Senate will come through.

Bill Fulbright, I don't know, he'll cut me up one side and down the other.

He kind of done the leadership games.

We're the best of friends.

I'm not sure he feels that way about me, but that's the way I am.

You see what I'm saying?

Right.

And so, I don't want to give you the impression that you have sitting here, one, a president, and this would be a very dangerous thing to have in a presidency too, one who does not feel emotion, one who is not concerned about criticism, or one who pays no attention to what others feel.

Isn't that?

Because then you would have arrogance.

that power beyond belief, particularly without an election to push you on.

But what I am saying is that the most important thing I can do is to make the right decision for the next four years and not the right decision for tomorrow, next paper.

or tomorrow's newspaper, or tonight's news, that's the other thing, without reacting to it.

You must not react to it immediately.

But they may be right, and it's worth it.

For example, we're having a difficult time now, we're coming so very close, you know, we have a news hearing on October 8th, and then again on October 26th, and then again on November 20th.

Now, at the present time, it doesn't seem as bright as it did, so we have to continue the same military policies that we had previously made.

This means that we're not going to have peace.

It doesn't mean that at all.

It simply means that the right kind of peace that I've always insisted on

We will obtain, but we are not going to, we're not going because Christmas is coming, because an inauguration is coming, because of any artificial deadline.

We're not going to make any kind of a deal, an agreement, which would make everybody feel, oh, isn't that great, we've got peace now.

And then later on, we'd bust off into the war.

What I take out to here is another manner of approach.

It's a matter of perspective.

This individual, you know, the way we get perspective is reading a lot.

I perhaps read more than you.

Not as much as I would like to, but I read a great deal, because I don't watch television, except for any sports.

But I, and I read history, biographies, and I read a great deal.

But I think we're using that as a perspective.

So what I am really concerned about, I tell Henry when he comes in in the morning,

He said, oh gee, we've got this problem here.

Joe Kraft wrote this.

Scotty Weston wrote that.

Did you see what Malone said?

I said, Henry, I said, all that matters is how it comes out.

I said, the main thing is to do the right thing.

And six months from now, nobody's going to remember what Joe Kraft or Scotty Weston wrote.

or for that matter, Dick Wilson, or Howard Smith, who write a little on the other side.

I said, not that they shouldn't write it, not that their views aren't worthy of consideration, but the point is, the decision maker must not be affected by the current waves of opinion.

He must be affected even as we have hundreds of thousands of people circling around chanting, peace now, peace now, peace now, and worse.

And it must be affected by a tolerated box banging, banging, banging, banging.

World War III is coming, of course it wasn't coming after that.

At least I was relatively sure that it wasn't.

But the point is that we've come full circle now.

As I see the position at the present time, I'll probably do better in the next four years than in the past four years from having gone through a few crises.

gone through, whether, learn how to handle them, and handle them coolly, not subjectively, that's what I really should say.

I mean, the, and it's about, leaders differ with respect, when you think of some of the great leaders of history, some of them have been very subjective about it.

I think I am perhaps more objective

This is not self-serving.

It's not.

It's just descriptive.

I am more objective because I find that when a leader becomes too subjective, thinking of himself, thinking of his place in history, all that sort of thing,

He intends to make mistakes.

He intends to become emotional.

He intends not to sit down and make that rational, cruel judgment on what he can make.

And so we come back to full circle with what we talked a moment ago about what's all this got to do with the physical situation.

Is it basically what I think it gets to is this,

is that an individual who disciplines himself physically, mentally, emotionally, and so forth, you've got a pretty good picture of the kind of individual you have here.

If, on the other hand, he's given to excessive births, he's given to rather excessive things.

I haven't said all this.

Most of the people out here in the press are going to say, well, that SOB does do obsessive things, so he's describing somebody else.

But I'm just taking my own description.

But you go ahead.

I thought I'd give you a monologue.

Is it, despite obviously continuing problems, is it possible to become more relaxed in this genre in four years?

Relaxed?

I don't mean in the sense that I've worked out because of the heart attack.

But I, you know, when it comes to making speeches, when it comes to doing a press conference, particularly a television press conference or a conversation, you have to be really up and sharp when every word gets out there.

If anyone is totally relaxed, he's going to be a dead flop.

It's like the Washington Redskins last week.

And the Dallas Cowboys, too.

They didn't do very well either in their last game of the season.

They were relaxed because nothing really mattered.

They didn't need to win the game, and they got clobbered.

They were flattered.

In other words, an individual must be up for the great events.

But then there's a balance there.

They must be up.

You must be up for it without being uptight.

And it's a very, very narrow, dark balance.

And I would put it this way, that having done it so often,

that I perhaps have a very, a much more acute sense, a finer sense, of just how up an individual should get.

Because if you go beyond a certain point, you can over-train.

You know, you study for examination.

I remember in law school,

I just got, it would just take another five minutes for me to let it dry.

I remember it lost speed.

I'd done it right away.

It's nothing too long.

I only sunk about four hours that night.

I still did very well in the course, but I should have done better.

And I haven't told them the next time you arrived.

It was all done.

There's all left in the practice field.

That's what we're doing.

And you know what we're doing.

On the other hand, then there's a thought that goes, well, I just can't believe I feel great and more relaxed.

You sit there and stand there for a press conference and somebody asks you a sharp question and you're a thugger.

Or you don't give a fuck.

Well, when you speak about being relaxed, I would say that...

That I, when I came into office, let me put it this way, when I came in in 69, I had been through enough.

The fact that I had suffered some rather shattering defeats, that had been, as De Gaulle or Churchill would have called it, the wilderness for eight years out of office, making money or use of that issue.

I think that's a few of the things.

But nevertheless, as a result of that, I came into office able to confront tough problems without flattening.

I don't flatten these things.

I don't, I once, well once, but the

An individual tends to go to pieces, tends to be nervous, not at his best, frankly when he's inexperienced, when he sees the great problem for the first time.

Now there are not many, there are just not many tough problems of one kind or another that I haven't faced in one magnitude or another.

I haven't faced them all, of course, but they have not been easy.

The very fact that my political life has been a difficult one, that it's been a life of comeback, the fact that it hasn't been starting from the top and never losing,

Perhaps it was a blessing.

I would have said this in 1960.

It wasn't a pleasant lose, and I thought, well, I should have come in as a C&P, but in 1960, I was going to.

Instead of 59, as I am today, I was only 46 then.

I was younger, worked a little longer, and so forth and so on.

The difference, however, is that I don't have kids.

I can't work quite as many hours as I used to in my 40s as I did in the 50s.

The point is that I get a lot more done.

I get a lot more done.

And I can handle it.

And I also spend far less time on what doesn't matter.

That's another thing.

Yes, I'm one who, if somebody else can do something better than I can, he doesn't.

I will not spend my time on details that others who have responsibility for my present.

There's the old story about Grover Cleveland.

He read every bill, and of course these days he couldn't do that, couldn't have the time.

He'd go blind in one term, let alone two.

He had two in those four years.

But the point is, why did he get it?

Because he would rather it was said about him.

He would rather do something poorly for himself rather than delegate it to someone else who might do it well.

And I retract to the other point of view.

I will delegate when somebody has confidence and he doesn't, and then I back him up.

But where the important decisions are concerned, domestic or foreign, I may.

and I bring them in here, and then prepare to take the heat, as well as to practice that all the time as necessary.

And I will put aside, I mean, what appears to be, oh, this thing, this appointment just has to be had.

You've got to have this sort of thing, it's got to be answered.

Or this meeting, you've got to attend to that.

Or this speech, you've got to prepare for it.

If, at a certain time, I have a major decision to make, it all goes totally out of my mind, everything.

I put it all aside and I just concentrate on what really matters.

Then I come back to the rest and do it.

Or, so that I don't wear out, concentrating simply on the important thing.

What I will do then, I'll go over to that little vacant sitting room, and I'll sit there with my table.

And I can do that practically in my sleep.

I go through the paperwork, checking, you know, options, this and that, and the other thing.

I'm dictating the rules, you know.

Speaking of your political career, election night must have been doubly sweet in view of the nature of your past career, and I know you've said only a little about your own feelings, and I know you're not in the habit of saying much more than a little bit, but I wonder if I could get some of your thoughts that night.

It's hard to describe thoughts, and I'll bet it won't be.

But I think for me, the greatest pleasure was to see what a big kick the young people got out of it.

I heard very kindly to our young voters and all that, Patricia and Julie, to whom the defeats of 60 and 62 were very traumatic experiences, and also my wife.

Frankly, while women are stronger than men in many ways, to them, anything is black or white, to most women.

The man tends to roll with it.

Both my wife and two daughters took the defeats of 1960 and 1962 very, very hard.

I took them pretty hard as well.

I managed a lot to lose.

But on the other hand, winning in 1969, of course, 1968, made that feel very good.

That, Julia, that's how it is here and there.

And then,

But then in 72, the rather capital, because, you know, in 69, it was the third party, and we only got 43% of the vote, and it took all night to count the votes.

People were wondering, well, is this kind of a mandate?

Of course, the country was all torn up, and so forth and so on.

There was no preventative order.

Problems were insurmountable.

There was going to be a long-term president.

He wasn't popular, et cetera, et cetera.

Well, who cares about all that?

So here comes 72, and that's after four years of the most devastating, and I don't complain about it at all, the most devastating attacks on television in much of the media.

I don't know if we can perfectly there, but an understated amount of reporters and reporters and tutorials and things here.

Or morally, the Washington columnist practice there, which we see and pay attention to.

And then during the election period, in the last two or three weeks, some of the sort of wishful writing and commentating of those who said that the gap is narrowing and it appears it's going to be very close to election.

And then landslide, 49 states, 61% of the vote.

Well, you would think that I personally would have a very good relation.

Oh, isn't this great?

Well, I mean, you did, you would.

But it's always been my experience that you never really have that.

I mean, you put so much into it, and the rest of the jury, you don't have that.

But I must say, as far as the family was concerned,

that Trisha, Julie, Mrs. Nixon, they just thought it was great.

He just loves politics.

And Eddie Cox, they kept running him with the results.

I was sitting in the back of the room, you know, making calls, trying to figure out what I had to do, giving them calls, and they were all so terrible about it.

And the very fact that they were so excited about it made me feel more excited about it.

But then after it was in, you know, it was in early, around 11 o'clock after we got to be, I was over at the state, we stayed there, and I went over to the sheriff, and I went over there, he told me to get over to the last year.

We then felt, I was there, it wasn't true.

But then, you are so drained emotionally that there is no good realization.

What happens then?

And that's why I always advise people, never take a vacation right after a reduction.

You can't do it.

That's why we went to Florida for a couple of days.

We worked over there and then went to the Camp David Central because that's the time.

It's going to take a long time to run down, to get the system down.

Now I'll go to Florida and perhaps take a few days and enjoy it more.

But as far as...

As far as a, for those that haven't been through great election contests in this sort of, very few go through election contests for the presidency, but the Senate, the House, you know, it's not the same thing.

I'm sure they're all going to find the same thing.

And I don't mind the personality.

You have to cheat.

Just wait till that day comes, just wait till it returns, and then we're going to have the greatest celebration, we're going to feel grateful, and if you don't, there's a left out.

Not a disappointment, or any of that sort of thing, but basically your dream.

You know, I feel the same way when you've written an article and you work with it, it's going to be great, doesn't it?

You get through, it takes you two or three days before you get the left out.

It's always that way.

Mr. President, is the presidency a kind of continually learning experience for you?

Oh, absolutely.

That's the one thing I feel is very important.

It's a learning process for everybody in the staff.

A number of people are leaving government.

A number are staying.

Those that are staying, however, I've talked to all the cabinet officers or staff members tonight.

recharging, they've got to charge up again.

There can never be a light knocking on this office.

Never, never, never.

And that is why the

That's one of the great dangers of a landslide victory, and that's one of the great reasons that I've made a number of changes.

Some are leaving, and in none of the departments are we, except for Rogers, do we have a cabinet officer who's there four years ago in that same department.

Well, he's the only one.

The reason is that we want every cabinet officer, every division head, everybody who has that to have a new charge, have a new challenge, so that he won't get into a routine.

Every troop this is a routine.

It's got to be treated as a great experience at all times.

And so that takes back to you learn something.

You learn something unless you begin taking for granted the power that you have, the grandeur of the office.

Let me hit it another way.

I think you've had a lot, there's been a lot written about this business of the, what they call the, well, isn't it very dangerous for a president to be reelected?

and particularly be redacted by a lot of folks, because then, after he's reelected, he has no restraints on him, because he just never runs again.

That's really, that's really a, really a fatuous argument.

I mean, a fatuous and mighty and superficial argument.

analysis of the presidency.

Any individual who serves in this office does not serve here simply for the purpose of getting re-elected.

He serves here because this office gives him an opportunity to do great things, and the opportunity to do great things without having to be concerned about having to do things that have to do with getting re-elected.

could be even greater.

That's why I think, while most second four years have been downhill, I think they have been downhill due to the fact that there's been a tendency too often for the re-elected presidents to go with the same teams

That doesn't mean you don't keep a lot of the same players, but you move them to new jobs so that you have a new job.

And there's a tendency to say, man, it's over.

And I have to agree with that a little.

But what we want to do is to, I want everybody in this office, not everybody in the cabinet,

to think every moment of the next four years that uh that the challenge is just as exciting and just as great as when we came in four years ago now that's the job of the leader though he's constantly at the end whipping them up and if he doesn't feel that way the other right i mean the team the team will always uh they'll go just about as fast as the leader takes them no faster

So whether it's the coach, if the coach calls the play, or the quarterback, if he's called the play.

In this case, I'm both.

I'm playing the play, and I'm the quarterback, too.

Certainly, I would have given one more question.

Well, I think my question would have been, is there any sense of relief over the fact that you're not going to run again?

Well, let me say it again, first of all, the campaigning is a, that's the first thing, this is something that I would say to all those who work in the campaign for either our opponents or for ourselves.

And all those who have some candidates, whether they won or whether they lost, it is a great experience, and individuals should not, should not be afraid to step up to them.

To me, one of the great tragedies I can, I'm not going to give names, are men that I can think of in the House,

or even in the administration, men 45, six or seven, who now should run for either senator or governor in their states, but who somehow, somewhere along the line, got too cautious

I'm playing a little two-step-three.

They're in my house.

They're back out there retarded.

Or in the same seat in my house.

They don't want to come in here.

That's true.

They don't want to take a chance.

Or if they're out about this, oh, gee, I've got to take a poll and see what the people think.

That's the thing.

An individual must do foolish or rash things.

But he must never be afraid to take a chance if there is a chance.

This is the deal with politics.

The game of politics, it is the only game

but here this game affects the life of the nation and the life of the world because of what this nation is and so for that reason it is vitally important that

that the individual be participated to a, I would put it this way, the individual, whether he's the president, or a congressman, or a senator, or a cabinet officer, or a staff member, must always play the game of politics, by politics, statesmanship, right up to the hill.

Now, in terms of, to get to your question,

whether or not is it a relief not to have to run for office again.

I feel that responsibility is of course politically true to help members of my party and others who make their own news, even though they're all on the road.

And I will do so, I will need that responsibility.

It is somewhat a relief not

It is not a relief in the sense that I will not have to spend time, however, with individuals who, because it's their business to do so, come in state after state all over the country and say, you've got to do this, this, this, or this, or you may not win this next election.

Now the decisions, the decisions I always have tried to make are basically what's best for the country, and every president tries to do that.

But decisions to a certain extent are influenced by how they're going to affect the next election.

None of these decisions will be influenced by how they're going to affect the next election.

However small that might have influenced before, it's gone now.

It's not personal.

It's been removed completely.

Personally, you may think, certainly, of your party, or you may think of your ideas, and whoever may carry those ideas on, whatever his party may be.

And you want those ideas to succeed.

But you're not going to allow all those hanging little tales about whether the Air Corps are going this state or that state, because it might not affect the goals of that state.

Think about that.

It would be good to be under that, that, that.

You don't have to worry about whether this person should get that or that person should get that.

There's another good thing about living this way.

You see, when you win 49 states,

They all get the same treatment.

But that doesn't mean that Massachusetts can't deal with it.

The District of Columbia we have a special responsibility to.

As far as Massachusetts is concerned, I've asked many Harvard men in the administration to deliver plenty of good treatment.

But it is quite true, you see.

This is, in a greater sense even than President Johnson's victory, a national victory.

This is north, east, west, and south.

some of the southern states a little higher but uh sure it is certainly it is certainly not to have to go out except we do things for solely political purposes

political versus in the sense of my own political future.

On the other hand, leadership will still be required.

As far as traveling to the country, I believe I also got to go to the country, traveling to the country, winning the support of people in the country for the policies that we have, particularly with the Congress being in control of the other party.

This is still going to be required.

But taking the personal factor out of it is indeed a

Shall I say, what about the major dividends?

Thank you very much.

Okay, for the most kind, would you pass on my best to Mrs. Nixon and tell her I'm still grateful to her for spoon-feeding me that ice cream at the Goom's store in Moscow.

Oh, Goom's.

Goom's.

They handle it.

They're a big pile.

I don't know what to do with them.

Yeah.

I know they love ice cream.

It's great ice cream.

I'm most grateful to God for all the ice cream.

I've been to Jersey also.

What kind of money do you spend?

I see.

What kind of money do you spend?

He was thinking of $258, everybody wanted to get a bunch of something, but nobody has, so everybody wants more.

It won't be enough.

Well, he liked it as a present.

Yeah, he had one picture of you looking after him.

Sure.

Sort of contemplative.

All that old contemplative stuff, yeah.

And look at that tripod.

Out here?

That's the place.

All right.

Don't say I look worried.

No, no, no.

Can't tell from here.

No.

But I have an important rule to about the city of Maine.

Never look back.

Unless...

You're kind of learning something and looking back about what to do about the future.

There are so many people, you know, who are very good at telling you what not to do, worrying about this decision or that one or the other, and then come in afterwards and say, gee, we've only done this or that or the other thing, maybe what happened there, but it didn't.

So once you've decided something, it's done.

And there's no criticism of the past.

There's no looking back.

You look to the future.

You've got to keep looking.

And also, you never look back.

And you never look with myopic vision.

You've got to look way forward.

Particularly here is the long view.

The long view is part of being in this office.

It's a good thing it's a legal office in a sense, I suppose.

Because one must think in terms of the long view and never in terms of what's going to be in that.

There's three little old TVs over there in the market.

That's the main difference.

Thank you, Senator.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you very much.

Except for the people that are on TV.

Thank you, Mr. President.