Nixon, Haldeman & Acker on State dinners and Congressional relations

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I don't think so, because there are only about three people here.

Mark, what I need is to listen to people, the congressional people that are coming, that have been invited or coming to eat dinner.

You've done that.

Cool.

Mark, before you come in, do you also check to see on the crew whether or not

It's a very large room.

I think they can have 20 to 24 in there.

See what I mean?

Yeah, yeah.

It's much bigger than the family dining room.

You can get me a checkup and then come right back in.

They grossly sent me to give me some names, and I've got to work out the list with you.

Well, it's not a problem.

Well, it is, because that's the thing.

If we can't do this sort of checking in here, we had to check with the medicine.

They've been working on what their plans are, which they've been joking around too.

There's also a crossfire between them and Henry as to where they're going to.

I think we've got somebody, and I know there's somebody over there that's a bit of defense because they think this is their operation and they're a beta plane.

They have their Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretary of Defense to welcome the people home and this kind of stuff.

We're dealing with some little guy that's had a project for apparently five years of how to bring VOWs home.

So I've got to get it untangled.

They're all upset because Henry's worked out the way the airplanes are to go or something, and they don't think he should be doing that.

I think they're putting this out, trying to stir that up, but I'll find out.

There's no discussion.

Wow.

I know this girl who's concerned about the young friends and people.

And I know John isn't comfortable with the friend in any way.

If we have confidence in Don Rogers, put him over there.

If he could run.

What other one that I thought could do it?

Uh, that could be considered.

That might get along with Brennan.

I don't know if they say he's not much of a manager.

It would be Collins.

Collins is totally loyal to us.

And I would say it would get along with Brennan.

And they turned down Brennan.

He wanted to take Collins.

No, Brennan was.

He did.

But Collins didn't.

Collins felt very strong.

He didn't want to take it as I understand it then.

There's... We're forcing a compromise, wouldn't we?

They can't just take somebody that can't run.

Well, they can't just take somebody that Brennan doesn't want and shove it down his throat.

Oh, absolutely.

The way you can take a person that's incompatible.

Another one that I thought would have been part of the Colson operation is Ben Barker.

He wants to come back.

He's a manager.

He's part of the new majority crowd.

Try him on.

See?

Rather than just have him come back to work on speeches and countermeasures.

Because my view is to just find somebody that, what Brennan is basically, a gun loyalist.

And he just doesn't want somebody that he doesn't totally trust.

That's right.

And we don't have enough people around here that they're loyal to themselves, but who are that suspicious about loyalty?

Well, Brennan's part of our problem.

Brennan also senses that he's an outsider.

know that he's not going to get stabbed in the back of his own place while he's moving around.

Yeah, I'm surprised they haven't hit somebody on the undersecretary because they've served a close to agreement a half a dozen times on people.

I don't think it should happen.

This is not your problem.

I'm just asking.

Why don't you do it with the... Well, if you're going to give it, it just doesn't get done.

Well, that was good.

What people do, I think that will be business of mine.

I call.

How are you doing?

And so forth.

And I believe that that is the way that I can do a lot of good.

John, I'm just getting a telephone call with us of people that are not counselors.

And I can call and say, how are you doing?

I saw you did something good or...

That's exactly it.

Mind speech.

Don't call and say, how are you doing?

Because then you walk into, well, I did want to talk to you about that, and we need another $10,000,000.

But I can say that I just thought you made a mind speech.

You do those so well, but if you've got a little thing like that to say, you do it.

You say it fast and say, fine, and hang up.

That's right.

Before I get into any kind of throwing off balance, I also think about John's idea of a little bit of balance.

It's about the internet.

I'd like to come clear across the country without a stopping.

It's going to be a very tiring thing.

You know?

And hell, I'd love to stop there and seriously argue for it.

Absolutely.

It'd be a hell of a good stop.

You'd get a hell of a reception.

That's right.

Plus, you'd impress the hell out of him.

Now, on this list, were this speaker invited?

Or, I purposely didn't invite him.

I was thinking that what I would do then would be to have them.

So, you know, that's just a throwaway.

So that there's no feeling at the beginning.

Speakers are so sensitive.

And I want Russia there for other reasons.

And then I want you to insist on that.

In case there must come, but I don't know if there must come this.

And you got it.

I'm counting.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

make it, uh, Mahon.

He's first.

Or, next is Sparrows.

Okay.

Now, on Scott, there's a substitute, who's that guy?

Scott Mansfield.

Okay.

There's a substitute for Mansfield, at least there's a substitute for Scott in the middle.

Now, if I have the score of the liters, it means I make it only two.

24.

I'll take it.

5.

I got that right with me.

2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 16, plus 4 is 20.

The 4 is 8.

The Y, 4 liters with the Y is 58.

I've got to do this for two people, Bob.

Albert is one.

He's essentially involved.

I mean, if you're Scott, uh, the answer is to get one Dan-a-lock out of the border.

What about Skidney, then?

If you want to go to other people.

Not have the leadership as such, but have one leader from each party coming in, one leader from each house.

Alright, fine.

Push down the Dan-a-lock.

Then I want.

Jerry, I want.

And Jerry is a Dan-a-lock.

Timmons.

Come and just recall, Jerry.

Mike would be good if we don't have any.

Yeah, Bill, can you just explain?

I should know that this one, that he was there, he's trying to work in a few people, people that have never, that have not been, you know, a few that have not had a chance to be the state members.

And, uh,

And that's why we're going to zero in.

Yeah, you can make that same point on the, uh, uh, he said that they're, because then you're not inviting leaders to that, that you are trying to broaden.

He ought to explain to the leaders what you're doing.

Yep.

And that we, and that they will, and that the president, Howard, wants them to know that anytime they want to come to a special, to a dinner in the future,

Like, for example, he can say what the next dinner will be for the Jew.

Has God wanted to come to that?

All right, just say that the next dinner is for that.

And that's why it's a very good thing.

The next dinner is going to be for Mrs. Minor.

If they want to come, any kind of leaders who want to come, be sure to let us know.

Mike, let's ask Scott if he would prefer to come to Sado or Minor.

Because I would suspect Scott would prefer to come to Sado.

Yeah.

Yes, yes, yes.

Okay.

If that's the case, I don't think that's the basis of that then.

If you leave Ford out, would you leave out W2 Goldwater and Schenck's?

And do you leave Albert Husky?

No, I would ask him.

I'd ask Albert, too.

I think Albert, Ford, and Mansfield...

scott should be said told that they uh should be told that uh we're trying to give an opportunity for others to come as well but we have two dinners we have the heat dinner the heat dinner the soccer dinner the rest no fine we've got i think the choice between we've got a dinner or

We can't go off on heat.

That's gone.

We've got a sado dinner tonight.

We've got a missus, which is a smaller dinner.

We know you said we've got a sado dinner.

And we've got a dinner for the Prime Minister of Israel next week on March 1st.

Which would you rather come to?

You got any?

Fine.

Then, with them not coming, that gives you room to invite Goldwater, to invite Stennis, and...

On the House side, by Mahon or Mills, I kind of vote for them.

It doesn't have to be equal.

Mahon and Mills, they're both very important to us.

Go on and discuss.

Wagner's not a good name.

The Democratic side should be given names.

The Republican side, I just don't think they're good.

And then have Bill Timmons make the calls

It's a good idea for Bill now to explain to your policy so they don't start wondering before they eat dinner why they aren't here.

Yeah, that's right.

Your approach to state dinners in the second term overall is going to be not to have the same people over and over by their rank, but rather to have a whole range of them.

But to get some of the other new leaders, for example, who have not been here before.

However, the president wants to be sure that the leaders know that any time they would like to come.

But they have a special reason.

But they have a special reason for coming.

And he would like them to come to one of the early meetings.

For example, we have Prime Minister Meyer.

Would you like to come to that?

Scott will say yes.

He'll say yes in full when he comes.

That raises another question.

When Phil Rogers is raised with you, and through Henry, as to whether you want to have a dinner for the same.

He's got a new bride now.

he thinks he puts great store by the little dinner you give for him yeah all right there bill is saying if you don't want to he'll have the dinner for him but we scheduled a visit without it good and that's but anyway quite a little

What the hell?

That's, if you're gonna handle it, why not?

On Sato, on Sato, it has to be a little one.

For a former prime minister, you don't put it in the State Bank.

Hell, he's a king.

Hell, I'd put him, I'd put him in this new bribe.

I'd put him in a bribe also.

I'd put him in a bribe.

It's an awful dinner job when they do that.

Or, you know, even though his mistake was still on the debt side, I'd have those troops lined up and I'd have those trumpeters, you know, trumpeters and all that.

Because it's right, he is a king.

And it's down to the white tie.

White tie.

All the heads of stage should be white tie.

And that's why you don't come by with a tie.

You're ready for terrible progress.

He's the head of government.

The queen did the white tie dinner.

And he gets the black tie, which is what they did then.

The queen's dinner was white tie.

All right, let's give Hussein the white tie dinner.

And the wrist is mine.

Oh, wait a minute.

The queen's black dinner.

Is he my early lifetime, even though she's not in his state?

I mean, is there somebody on the other side of the jury?

No, he's a king.

I mean, Goldie's visit is clearly an unofficial visit anyway.

But in his case, we can make it a nice, like, another group of people, another chance to get into some of the events and so forth.

Now, at least, we're going to be sharing that fondly on the same day.

Yeah.

At least, see if he wants to come.

So that gives you the key.

You have a big time.

You have a few days.

You have Timmons.

You went through those with Timmons.

Working out the professional side.

And then on the Hussein thing, you start the list.

Working it out.

That's the way to go.

Those evenings are going to be great.

Don't you think so?

Yes, sir.

Are those the dinners?

Did you stop?

If you've got the right kind of people, I wouldn't do it for all the little cats, but when you've got people at those dinners, the steak dinners, they're not bad in that you've got, it's a lot of your time.

Well, it is prostitute, you know, it is a toast.

A toast is difficult.

I don't have it.

It's a rival, certainly, I'm correct.

I had to see him in the office anyway.

As long as you got in here and had to see him in the office anyway.

I would make them all, I would make them all informal visits with him.

And I see them one day.

You have formal visits.

And now it's starting, you know, Henry's pushing it.

And you're starting to get more and more into the Camp David stuff.

And, you know, it would be helpful if we get into them.

It gets a little bit more than some of them.

Oh, who's the one in the Camp David now?

That incidentally, the British have now raised the question of whether they would very much like to have a luncheon for you at the embassy.

And they've raised the question of whether you, if Henry thinks you might want to do it, just to show special favor because you've never done it except for Bobbitt.

uh and you go to camp david anyway so you could go to the embassy for lunch and then take the helicopter from the naval observatory right by the embassy there and chop right to camp david right good it would be a sign of special favor that right he thought he might want to do since they stood down all right with you right but that will turn on all others in the future if you say that was the personal you understand i don't want to hear any questions on any other lunch

He isn't really pushing on this one.

He said, I think you ought to raise it because the president might want to do it as a show of special favor.

There's no problem.

He doesn't want to do it.

I don't know.

They'd love to do all that stuff.

I don't know.

That would be pretty well stuck with him that day, anyways.

Okay.

I mean, I don't know, I'm quiet today.

You know, there's just no way out.

8 column headlines last night where Cambodia may have a... Cambodia offers unilateral ceasefire.

That's a

I also want to ask you a question.

But you get something and I don't try to push everybody about this.

Maybe we're all already too late.

Maybe not.

We can get some of our stuff out.

There'll be

it'll be some of ours and our stuff is moving pretty good pretty well and all that stuff and you the editorials in the summer this summer today is you're getting that oh yeah they're saying the right things all right this is excellent thing along that by standing with this thing while everybody was shouting at you managed to bring off of me

I would be interested to see the, basically, the affirmative editorials so that I can know whether we're getting across the point.

Would you get all of those collected if you can?

Bill Rogers sent me over the two editorials, both written before

Yeah.

very valuable sessions of performance i would not want to extend beyond that i don't think what i think would be good for the counselor group maybe you get bugs and the rest i'm just not sure it's a different kind of thing there's a different meeting so i want you to know that we didn't have that meeting but i think that should be on a very regular basis once a week but let us set up an agenda and that was that was john's point we're not doing any quick notice yesterday instead of

Let's start right now.

You can go off the agenda, but you will, and that's fine.

But let's start with something we've got to cover so that we don't just come in and say, well, what did we talk about today?

And it forces them to think stuff through.

Otherwise, you get into kind of loose stuff where somebody lost something.

I'm ready.

They wrote a fairly good one.

It isn't really good.

What's that problem?

Uh, no.

They're, they're, they're very honest.

Nixon, Haldeman & Acker on State dinners and Congressional relations

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on January 26, 1973

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