President Nixon: .. . we learned a lot from Mr. [Ronald] Reagan.

6. President Nixon:.. . we learned a lot from Mr. [Ronald] Reagan. Henry Kissinger: Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, he started bleeding. He said that you have a real problem with the conservatives. President Nixon: Oh, I know. Kissinger: Which is no news to you. He says you’re going to wind up without any friends, because you can’t win the liberals anyway. President Nixon: Jesus. Kissinger: And the conservatives are just saying— President Nixon: Henry, let me tell you part of his problem, of course, is that he’s in a very, very poor position in California, you know. [Break.] Kissinger: Well, I think he’s a—actually I think he’s a pretty decent guy. President Nixon: Oh, decent, no question, but his brains? Kissinger: Well, his brains, are negligible. I— President Nixon: He’s really pretty shallow, Henry. Kissinger: He’s shallow. He’s got no . . . He’s an actor. When he gets a line he does it very well. He said, “Hell, people are remembered not for what they do, but for what they say. Can’t you find a few good lines?” [Chuckles.] That’s really an actor’s approach to foreign policy—to substantive—

7. President Nixon: I’ve said a lot of good things, too, you know damn well. Kissinger: Well, that too. [Break.] President Nixon: Can you think though, Henry, can you think, though, that Reagan with certain forces running in the direction could be sitting right here? Kissinger: Inconceivable. President Nixon: No, but it could have happened. Kissinger: It could have happened. President Nixon: It could have happened in ‘68. What would have happened— Kissinger: If Rockefeller had stayed in—I mean if Rockefeller had gone in competently— President Nixon: That’s right. Kissinger: I don’t think he [Rockefeller] had a chance, but he might just have been able to [unclear]. President Nixon: [Unclear.] That right. Can you imagine? The fellow really is a decent guy, a decent guy. But there isn’t—there’s no, in other words, everything is . . . [Break.] President Nixon: Back to Reagan though. It shows you how a man of limited mental capacity simply doesn’t know what the Christ is going on in the foreign area.

13. President Nixon: Nothing else of interest in the world today? Alexander Haig: Yes, sir, very significant, this goddamn New York Times exposé of the most highly classified documents of the [Vietnam] war. President Nixon: Oh, that. I see. Haig: That, that— President Nixon: I didn’t read the story, but you mean that was leaked out of the Pentagon? Haig: Sir, the whole study that was done for [former Defense Secretary Robert] McNamara and then carried on after McNamara left by [former Defense Secretary Clark] Clifford and the peaceniks over there. This is a devastating security breach of the greatest magnitude of anything I’ve ever seen. President Nixon: Well, what’s being done about it, then? I mean, I didn’t— Haig: Well, I called— President Nixon: Did we know this was coming out? Haig: No, we did not, sir. President Nixon: Yeah. Haig: There are just a few copies of this— President Nixon: Well, what about the— Haig: —12-volume report.

14. President Nixon: Well, what about the—Let me ask you this, though, what about the—what about [Defense Secretary Melvin] Laird? What’s he going to do about it? Is— Haig: Well, I [unclear]— President Nixon: Now, I’d just start right at the top and fire some people. I mean, whoever—whatever department it came out of, I’d fire the top guy. Haig: Yes, sir. Well, I’m sure it came from Defense, and I’m sure it was stolen at the time of the turnover of the administration. President Nixon: Oh, it’s two years old, then. Haig: I’m sure it is, and they’ve been holding it for a juicy time, and I think they’ve thrown it out to affect Hatfield-McGovern [a Senate amendment to end funding for the Vietnam War]. That’s my own estimate. But it’s something that is a mixed bag. It’s a tough attack on [President John] Kennedy. It shows that the genesis of the war really occurred during the ‘61 period. President Nixon: [laughing] Yeah. Yeah. That’s Clifford. I see. Haig: And it’s brutal on President [Lyndon] Johnson. They’re going to end up in a massive gut fight in the Democratic Party on this thing. President Nixon: Are they? Haig: It’s a—there’s some very— President Nixon: But also, massive against the war. Haig: Against the war. President Nixon: But it’s a Pentagon study, huh?

20. President Nixon:Well, I’ve basically—we’ve got to say that it’s only the extent that it is required by law— Pat Buchanan: Right. President Nixon:By a court order, do I think busing should be used. Buchanan: Mm-hmm. President Nixon:Don’t you think that’s really what you get down to? Buchanan: Right. Right. President Nixon:Because the line, actually, between my line and Muskie’s, is not as clear as—I mean, it’s just the way he said it. He starts at the other end. He says, “Well, I think busing is a legitimate tool— Buchanan: Yeah. President Nixon:And then, “but I’m against it.” I start at the other end. I say, “I’m against busing, but, if the law requires it, to the minimum extent necessary, I, of course, will not resist it.” Buchanan: Mm-hmm. President Nixon:Right? Buchanan: Right. President Nixon:It’s purely a question of tone. Buchanan: Well, we’ve got to push Muskie’s emphasis up in the headlines; that’s the problem.

21. President Nixon:That’s right. That’s right. Yeah. It’s got to be—well, I think it probably is going to get some play in the South now— Buchanan: I think, well, that’s something you could really move by various statements exaggerating his position, and then Muskie would come back sort of drawing it back and it raises—identifies him with it. President Nixon:Yeah, the thing to do really is to praise him—have some civil rights people praise him for his defense of busing. Buchanan: Mm-hmm. President Nixon:That’s the way to really get that, you know. It’s much the better way than to have people attack him for it— Buchanan: Mm-hmm. President Nixon:—is to praise him for his defense of busing, see? Buchanan: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. President Nixon:And I don’t know if you’ve got any people that can do that or not. But I would think that would be very clever. Buchanan: Mm-hmm. OK.

29. Bob Haldeman: That’s a regular show. It’s on every week. And usually it’s just set in the guy’s home. It’s usually just that guy, who’s a hardhat. President Nixon: That’s right; he’s the hardhat. Haldeman: And he always just looks like a slob. President Nixon: He looks like [the comedian] Jackie Gleason . . . Arch is the guy’s name. But the point is, you can’t imagine—for example, Arch is sitting here in his sloppy clothes, and here’s his hippie son-in-law, who’s married to a screwball-looking daughter, and you know . . . Arch is sitting, and they said, well, Freddie or somebody is coming home or John is coming home. “Oh, you can’t let him,” Arch said. “I mean, you can’t let him come in here—he’s queer.” [unclear] “He’s a flower.” And the hippie son-in-law says, “Nah, he really isn’t.” I think the son-in-law, who apparently goes both ways, despite the daughter and the rest, so .. . [Break.]

30. President Nixon: It [a TV show with such a theme] outrages me because I don’t want to see this country go that way. John Ehrlichman: Well, you know there are— President Nixon: Look at other countries . . . You ever see what happened—you know what happened to the Greeks. Homosexuality destroyed ‘em. Sure, Aristotle was a homo, we all know that. So was Socrates. Ehrlichman: But he never had the influence that television had . . . President Nixon: And let’s look at the strong societies—the Russians. Goddamn it, they root ‘em out, they don’t let ‘em around at all. You know what I mean? I don’t know what they do with them. Ehrlichman: Yeah. President Nixon: Dope? Do you think the Russians allow dope? Hell, no! Not if they can catch it. They send ‘em up. You see, homosexuality, dope, immorality in general: these are the enemies of strong societies. That’s why the Communists and the left-wingers are pushing the stuff. Ehrlichman: Sure. President Nixon: They’re trying to destroy us.

31. [Break; the trio discusses what professions are appropriate for gays.] President Nixon: Decorators. They’ve got to do something, the rest. But goddamn it, we don’t have to glorify it. Ehrlichman: That’s right. President Nixon: Isn’t that what it gets down to? Ehrlichman: Yeah. Haldeman: That’s—yeah— President Nixon: Fashions! You know one of the reasons that fashions have made women look so terrible is because the goddamned designers hate women. Now that’s the truth. You watch. Now, there might be getting around now—you know, some of those, they have the flat-chested thing, those horrible-looking styles they run. That was really the designers taking it out on the women. I’m sure of that! And finally the women wouldn’t buy it, and now they’re trying to get in some more sexy things coming on again. Ehrlichman: Hot pants. President Nixon: Jesus Christ. [They all laugh.]

49. Bob Haldeman: And [Labor Secretary-designate Peter] Brennan has gotten the damndest press reaction, Mr. President, the damndest fan mail . . . President Nixon: Is that right? Haldeman: Oh, it’s incredible. You mean, letters—he brought in some of ‘em to me. There’s letters from people saying, “Well, we weren’t really sure—we voted for Nixon, we weren’t really sure. But now we are. He does believe in the working man, and he’s . . .” You know, I think this has really had a . . . President Nixon: You mean, the idea, they finally think–the appointment of a working man makes ‘em think we’re for the working man. Haldeman: Yeah. That’s precisely it. President Nixon: You talk about all the tokenism. We appoint blacks and they don’t think you’re for blacks. Haldeman: No! Exactly. President Nixon: And [you appoint] Mexicans, they don’t think you’re for Mexicans. But a working man, by golly, that is really something.

50. Haldeman: Well, this kind of locks it up, you know. [Break.] So I don’t think— President Nixon: Great. Haldeman: I really don’t care who the hell they— President Nixon: Yeah. Haldeman: —they put in as the [Democratic] party chairman, the fundamental dichotomy, or the fundamental cleavage, within the Democratic Party is such that, with what you’re doing to build the new majority, and what I hope to help you doing, I think we’re going to keep them split, and . . . President Nixon: Mm-hmm. Haldeman: I’m awful bullish about what we can do in this country in terms of the basic philosophies, or the basic— President Nixon: Right. Haldeman: —choices of the people. They may not ever become Republicans, but they’re Nixon’s. President Nixon: Yeah. Haldeman: If there’s some way to perpetuate that, I don’t know. President Nixon: We could change the name of the party— Haldeman: Great stuff. President Nixon: —Yeah. Haldeman: Great stuff. President Nixon: Yeah.