828–13

Conversation No. 828-13

Date: December 27, 1972
Time: 11:01 am - 12:01 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Patrick J. Buchanan.

Buchanan’s schedule
-Christmas

The President’s schedule
-Trip to Florida
-Weather
-Sun
-Pool
-Family
-Trip to Florida
-Thanksgiving
-Florida

Buchanan’s possible book
-Arrangements
-Deadline
-Outline
-Deadline
-Theme
-Richard M. Nixon administration
-Outline
-Chapter one
-1968 election
-Points to make
-Administration
-Philosophy
-Buchanan’s memorandum to H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman
 -26-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-08)

Conversation No. 828-13 (cont’d)

-Telephone call
-Buchanan’s New York Times article
-Theodore H. White
-Press relations
-Jeffrey Hart’s book
-1972 election
-1972 campaign
-1964 campaign and election;
-1966 campaign
-Effect on Republican Party
-Press coverage
-Attacks on Barry M. Goldwater
-Nelson A. Rockefeller
-Liberal and conservative Republicans
-Republican Party reconstruction
-The President’s role
-1962 election
-1960 election
-Press conference
-Vice Presidency
-Handicaps
-Lack of staff, funds, retirement benefits
-Post-1962 election
-New York
-Travel
-International
-Coach flights
-Lack of entourage, stenographers
-Southeast Asia, Europe Africa
-1967
-1963, 1964
-Republican National Convention
-Goldwater
-The President’s travels
-Commercial flights
-Goldwater, Congressmen, Senators
-The President’s relationship with Goldwater
-Lyndon B. Johnson
-Republican Party reconstruction
 -27-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-08)

Conversation No. 828-13 (cont’d)

-The President’s role
-1966 campaign
-New York
-Travel
-Predictions
-Congressmen, Senators, governors
-Press relations
-[Arnold] Eric Sevareid
-Martin Z. Agronsky
-James B. (“Scotty”) Reston
-Predictions about the President’s career
-Cambodia
-The President’s May 8, 1972 decision
-Chapters
-Organization
-Buchanan’s New York Times article
-Adversity
-1966 campaign and election
-The President’s travels
-Sevareid
-Television [TV]
-The President
-Predictions
-Rockefeller, Ronald W. Reagan, George W. Romney
-News magazines
-Unknown commentator
-The President
-Romney
-Polls
-The President’s travels
-1967
-1968 campaign and election
-1964 election
-Congressmen, Senators
-Johnson
-Congressmen, Senators, governors, state legislators, voters
-Republicans
-George H. Gallup
-1972 election
 -28-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-08)

Conversation No. 828-13 (cont’d)

-1972 election
-Republican Party
-Dwight D. Eisenhower
-Political balance
-Congress, Senate, governors
-Political balance
-Goldwater
-1964 and 1966 elections
-1970 election
-Republican Party
-Congressmen, Senators, governors, voters
-Press relations
-Editorial endorsements
-Washington, DC
-National TV
-Liberal establishment
-Johnson
-Eisenhower
-1968 campaign
-Hubert H. Humphrey
-George S. McGovern
-Edith Efron
-1968 campaign
-Tone
-The President’s career
-Guts, determination, stamina
-Luck
-1962
-1961 – November 5, 1968
-Vice Presidency
-Funds
-Public
-Republican Party
-1966 campaign
-Travel
-Airplane
-Earnings
-Winston S. Churchill
-Books
 -29-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-08)

Conversation No. 828-13 (cont’d)

-1932
-US lectures
-Networth
-1969
-Spending
-1968 campaign
-Republican Party
-Minority status
-Congress
-Press relations
-Opposition
-Exceptions
-Press relations
-Opposition
-Exceptions
-The President’s trips to the People’s Republic of China
[PRC] and the Soviet Union
-First term
-Edmund S. Muskie, Humphrey, McGovern
-Administration reaction
-Actions
-TV
-The President’s November 3, 1969 speech
-Cambodia, the President’s May 8, 1972 decision
-Chapter
-Trips
-Chapter Two
-The President’s November 3, 1969 speech
-Camp David
-Tone
-David S. Broder’s article “The Breaking
of the President”
-News magazines
-Demonstrations
-Confrontation
-Gallup polls
-New Majority
-The President’s May 8, 1972 decision
-Cambodia
 -30-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-08)

Conversation No. 828-13 (cont’d)

-Predictions
-The President’s May 8, 1972 decision
-World War III
-US-Soviet Union summit
-Criticism
-Respect
-Single standard
-First term
-The President’s lack of critical meetings or telephone calls
to editors, publishers, TV commentators
-The President’s supporters
-Johnson
-TVs
-News tickers
-1967
-Eugene J. McCarthy
-Compared to the administration
-The President’s experience
-1962 election
-Vice Presidency
-Alger Hiss case
-Post-public life [1962-1968]
-The President’s view
-Reading
-News summary
-“Puff pieces”
-Self-adulation and self-pity
-Press releases
-Time
-Covers
-The President’s trip to the PRC
-Effect
-Personalizing issues
-Detachment
-Friends and foes
-Substance
-News summary
-TV, news ticker
-1968 election
 -31-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-08)

Conversation No. 828-13 (cont’d)

-1964
-1962
-Lack of funds, support
-First term
-Criticism by supporters
-Cambodia
-1970 campaign
-1972 election
-Victory margin
-Press relations
-McGovern
-Man and ideas
-Issues
-Busing
-Permissiveness
-Drugs, crime
-Vietnam War
-US withdrawal
-Social issue
-National scope
-South
-Massachusetts
-Southern strategy
-The President’s trips to the PRC and the Soviet Union
-Economy
-The President’s announcement
-Outline
-Chapter one
-1968
-Triumph
-Election
-Tragedy
-Triumph
-1962
-Tragedy
-Tet Offensive
-McCarthy
-Robert F. Kennedy
-Johnson
 -32-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-08)

Conversation No. 828-13 (cont’d)

-Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
-Washington, DC riots
-Kennedy
-Triumph
-Election
-Victory margin
-Administration opposition
-Media, universities, foundations, Congress
-Supreme Court
-Earl Warren
-Resignation
-Timing
-Liberal establishment
-Compared to Eastern establishment
-The President’s interview with Garnett D. (“Jack”) Horner
-“Washington establishment”
-Chapter two
-Confrontation
-The President’s speech
-Summer 1969
-Moon landing
-Guam Doctrine
-The President’s trips to Vietnam and Romania
-The President’s speech on welfare reform
-The President’s trip to California
-Left
-Demonstrators, media, Congressional relations
-Press relations
-News magazines
-Broder
-Tone
-The President’s public approval rating
-Chapter length
-Left
-Silent Majority
-Chapter three
-Media relations
-Speechwriting
-The President’s role
 -33-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-08)

Conversation No. 828-13 (cont’d)

-1973 Inaugural speech
-Franklin D. Roosevelt
-Samuel I. Rosenman
-Chapter three
-Media relations
-Establishment
-Vice President Spiro T. Agnew’s Des Moines speech
-Washington Post
-Networks
-Sales
-Syndication
-Chapter length
-Outlook section
-Op-ed articles
-Outline
-Chapter four

Manolo Sanchez entered and left at an unknown time after 11:01 am.

Buchanan’s book
-Outline
-Chapter Four
-Blacks on Supreme Court
-Supreme Court
-Philosophy
-Blacks
-Hostility
-1972 election
-The President’s personal commitment, working relationships
-Busing, welfare
-Liberal establishment
-Supreme Court
-Rockefeller
-Republican Party
-Eisenhower
-1960 campaign and election
-Catholics
-John F. Kennedy’s telephone call to [Coretta Scott King]
-Robert Kennedy
 -34-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-08)

Conversation No. 828-13 (cont’d)

-[Martin Luther King’s release from jail]
-Foreign policy chapter
-The President’s trip to the PRC
-Photographs
-Oliver F. (“Ollie”) Atkins
-Philosophy
-The President’s trip to the PRC
-Vietnam War
-Chronology
-Success
-US force level
-Deadline
-Foreign policy chapter
-Vietnam War
-US bombing north of 20th Parallel
-Outline
-New Majority chapter
-McGovern
-The President’s May 8, 1972 decision
-Labor relations
-George Meany
-The President’s Miami trip
-Patriotism
-Business leaders, press relations
-Work ethic
-Politics
-Respect
-Meany
-1972 campaign
-Neutrality, support
-Final chapter
-Future
-Second term reorganization
-Bureaucracy
-Spending, taxes
-Responsibility
-Congressional relations
-1972 election
-Victory margin
 -35-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-08)

Conversation No. 828-13 (cont’d)

-Length
-Organization
-Writing
-Press relations

Press relations
-Ronald L. Ziegler’s press conferences
-Accommodations
-Compared to Johnson
-Press conferences
-Opposition
-Networks
-Power
-Public opinion
-1968 campaign
-1972 campaign
-McGovern
-Welfare
-$1000 per person proposal
-Vietnam War
-Redistribution of wealth
-News
-Strategy
-Networks
-Power
-Public support
-Louis P. Harris poll
-Polls
-Reliability
-Vietnam War
-End
-Effect
-Opposition
-John D. Ehrlichman’s and Henry A. Kissinger’s briefings
-Administration reaction
-Tone
-Influence
-Subscriptions
-US bombing north of 20th Parallel
 -36-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-08)

Conversation No. 828-13 (cont’d)

-Morale
-Compared to Johnson
-Telephone calls
-Effect
-Change
-Walter L. Cronkite, Jr., Dan Rather, John Chancellor
-Women
-Blacks
-Administration
-Possible actions
-Buchanan’s lunch with William Small
-Cable TV
-License renewal
-Bias
-Clay T. (“Tom”) Whitehead’s speech
-Local stations’ responsibility
-New York
-El Paso

Buchanan’s book
-Buchanan’s schedule
-Controversy
-Liberals

Press relations
-Bias
-Efron
-Effect
-Networks
-Public opinion
-Networks
-Agnew’s Des Moines speech
-Networks
-Public awareness
-Buchanan’s book
-Public relations [PR]
-Washington establishment
-“Intellectual incest”
-The President’s conversation with unknown European ambassador
 -37-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-08)

Conversation No. 828-13 (cont’d)

-Presentation of credentials
-Ambassador’s US trip
-US
-Goodness
-Mental and emotional sickness
-Dissipation
-Commentators
-1972 campaign
-Robert D. Novak’s article
-McGovern
-Reported gains
-Polls
-News summary
-Accuracy
-Vietnam War
-TV coverage
-South Vietnamese
-Battles
-Compared to North Vietnamese
-Provincial capitals
-Battles
-Countryside
-Provincial capitals
-Network requests for Hanoi photographs
-Bomb damage
-The President’s meeting with Col. Richard T. Kennedy
-North Vietnamese atrocities against South Vietnamese civilians
-Rocketing of cities
-Assassination, murder
-US military action
-Military targets
-Double standard
-Spanish Civil War
-American Revolution
-Army
-Continentals
-Loyalists
-Tories
-Spanish Civil War
 -38-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-08)

Conversation No. 828-13 (cont’d)

-Communists
-Loyalists
-Gen. Francisco Franco
-Rebels
-Loyalists
-Civil War
-South
-The War of the Rebellion
-The War between the States
-The President’s use of TV
-1972 campaign
-Press conferences
-Vietnam negotiations
-Breakdown
-Kissinger
-Resumption
-Press conferences
-Purpose and location
-Bureaucracy
-Oval Office
-National audience
-East Room
-Single point
-Desk
-Questions
-Guidelines
-Timing
-Scheduling
-Programs
-Congressional relations
-PR
-Commentators
-Frequency
-Eisenhower
-Republican Party
-John Kennedy
-Johnson
-Johnson
-Kennedy
-Kennedy
 -39-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-08)

Conversation No. 828-13 (cont’d)

-Wit

Stephen B. Bull entered at an unknown time after 11:01 am.

The President’s schedule
-Walk from Oval Office

Bull left at an unknown time before 12:01 pm.

Buchanan’s book
-Preparation

Buchanan left at 12:01 pm.