The Presidents Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity
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Mitchell offered his own tidbit: Richard M. Nixon, John Mitchell, and Henry Kissinger, 005-070 (phone call), June 14, 1971, transcript and MP3 audio, Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia, http://whitehousetapes.net/transcript/nixon/005-070.
But soon, “after you’ve started reading all this”: Daniel Ellsberg, Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers (New York: Viking, 2002), 238.
“Lyndon Johnson’s credibility versus the world”: Richard M. Nixon, John Ehrlichman, Henry Kissinger, and Bob Haldeman, 525-001 (phone call), June 17, 1971, transcript and MP3 and FLAC audio, Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia, http://whitehousetapes.net/transcript/nixon/525-001; and Stanley I. Kutler, ed., Abuse of Power: The New Nixon Tapes (New York: Free Press, 1997), 3.
“Now you tell Bryce”: Richard M. Nixon and Charles Colson, 005-113 (phone call), June 17, 1971, transcript and MP3 audio, Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia, http://whitehousetapes.net/transcript/nixon/005-113.
Anything he said publicly: Nixon, RN, 510.
“That’s a hell of a lot better”: Richard M. Nixon and Henry Kissinger, 005-117 (phone call), June 17, 1971, transcript and MP3 audio, Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia, http://whitehousetapes.net/transcript/nixon/005-117.
“Dr. Kissinger called”: Seymour M. Hersh, The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House (New York: Summit Books, 1983), 388.
“So that ended any participation”: Haldeman, The Haldeman Diaries, 367.
“He spent twenty years in the CIA”: Reeves, President Nixon, 339.
“Just go in and take it”: Kutler, Abuse of Power, 6.
“I want the Brookings Institute”: Richard M. Nixon and Bob Haldeman, “I want the Brookings Institute safe cleaned out” (phone call), July 1, 1971, transcript and MP3 and FLAC audio, Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia, http://whitehousetapes.net/transcript/nixon/i-want-brookings-institute-safe-cleaned-out; and Kutler, Abuse of Power, 7–8.
He argued to Haldeman: Nixon, RN, 637.
“If they’re from any Eastern schools”: Richard M. Nixon, 534-002 (meeting tape), July 1, 1971, transcript and MP3 and FLAC audio, Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia, http://whitehousetapes.net/transcript/nixon/534-002.
In the days that followed: Hersh, The Price of Power, 391.
“I’m going to do everything”: Robert Dallek, Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power (New York: HarperCollins, 2007), 313.
“You can rest assured”: Richard M. Nixon to Lyndon B. Johnson, August 10, 1970, Presidential Papers: Reference File: Nixon, Richard M., Papers of Lyndon B. Johnson, LBJ Library.
“The only thing more impotent”: Richard Norton Smith and Timothy Walch, eds., Farewell to the Chief: Former Presidents in American Public Life (Worland, WY: High Plains Publishing Company, 1990), 106.
“I didn’t know they made presidential candidates”: Dallek, Flawed Giant, 617.
The revolt extended to Johnson’s own family: Bruce Oudes, From the President: Richard Nixon’s Secret Files (New York: Harper & Row, 1989), 520.
“I can only say”: Nixon, RN, 673.
A statement of support: Oudes, From the President, 520.
Connally agreed that Nixon: Haldeman, The Haldeman Diaries, 493.
“Hell, that’s not going to hurt him a bit”: Ibid., 494–95; Nixon, RN, 674.
“He made it clear to Graham”: Haldeman, The Haldeman Diaries, 497.
So for those involved: Walt W. Rostow, “Memorandum for the Record,” May 14, 1973, Presidential Papers: Reference File: South Vietnam and U.S. Policies, Papers of Lyndon B. Johnson, LBJ Library.
Nixon asked Haldeman: Kutler, Abuse of Power, 144.
“We have not used the power”: Richard M. Nixon, John Dean, and Bob Haldeman, “Everybody Bugs Everybody Else” (meeting tape), September 15, 1972, transcript and MP3 and FLAC audio, Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia, http://whitehousetapes.net/transcript/nixon/everybody-bugs-everybody-else; and Kutler, Abuse of Power, 146–52.
“PEACE POT PROMISCUITY”: Rick Perlstein, Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America (New York: Scribner, 2008), 713.
The Post called it: Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, “FBI Finds Nixon Aides Sabotaged Democrats,” Washington Post, October 10, 1972.
“So every conversation I had”: Kutler, Abuse of Power, 168.
“But the President did not ask me”: Cartha D. “Deke” DeLoach, interview by Michael L. Gillette, January 11, 1991, transcript, Oral Histories, LBJ Library.
He expanded the denial: DeLoach, Hoover’s FBI, 407.
“He has access”: Reeves, President Nixon, 532.
He wanted to be able to blame: Perlstein, Nixonland, 709.
“That son of a bitch”: Hersh, The Price of Power, 582.
“After the 15th of October”: Ibid., 591.
“We had a lot of success”: Perlstein, Nixonland, 709.
“Good,” Nixon said: Kutler, Abuse of Power, 175–76.
He was “a 20th century giant”: “The World of Harry Truman,” The Presidency, Time, January 8, 1973.
Every afternoon the pains would come: Leo Janos, “The Last Days of the President: LBJ in Retirement,” Atlantic, July 1973.
“He never brings up”: Richard M. Nixon, phone call to Lyndon B. Johnson, January 2, 1973, MP3 audio, http://nixontapes.org/lbj/035-067.mp3.
“Johnson had just apparently used him”: Fred Emery, Watergate: The Corruption of American Politics and the Fall of Richard Nixon (New York: Times Books, 1994), 253.
Get that story out: Ibid., 252.
He was setting up a strategy group: Dallek, Nixon and Kissinger, 457.
If the administration could just produce: Haldeman, The Haldeman Diaries, 563; and Kutler, Abuse of Power, 198.
“We’ll float it out there”: Kutler, Abuse of Power, 197–98.
“So you’ll follow through rigorously”: Ibid., 200–201.
“Restore respect for office”: Reeves, President Nixon, 558–59.
That day, Nixon ordered Haldeman: Haldeman, The Haldeman Diaries, 565.
“We will use it without question”: Kutler, Abuse of Power, 203–4.
“turn the tables on them”: DeLoach, Hoover’s FBI, 409.
And just in case: Dallek, Flawed Giant, 618–19.
“And when she dies”: Doris Kearns Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream (New York: Harper & Row, 1976), 286–87.
Now that we have such a settlement: Safire, Before the Fall, 681.
“We need to make every day count”: Haldeman, The Haldeman Diaries, 573.
“He neither gained the love”: Greene, Fraternity, 55.
Chapter 14: “I Had to Get the Monkey off My Back”
The thin man: Hugh Sidey, “Richard Nixon: Fanfare for an Uncommon Man,” Nation, Time, May 9, 1994.
“I heard about your big win”: James M. Cannon, Time and Chance: Gerald Ford’s Appointment with History (New York: HarperCollins, 1994), 53.
Ford liked to hang out: Gerald R. Ford, A Time to Heal: The Autobiography of Gerald R. Ford (New York: Harper & Row, 1979), 68.
(Ford had trouble): Douglas Brinkley, Gerald R. Ford (New York: Times Books, 2007), 14.
“In fact in political philosophy”: James M. Cannon, Time and Chance, 57.
“We understood what it meant”: Brinkley, Gerald R. Ford, 16.
They carpooled from northern Virginia: William A. Arnold, Back When It All Began: The Early Nixon Years (New York: Vantage Press, 1975), 6.
“‘The Vice President slept here’”: Gerald R. Ford, A Time to Heal, 69.
“He seemed sad and detached”: Ibid.
“My impression was”: James M. Cannon, Time and Chance, 57.
“All Michigan representatives”: Richard M. Nixon, RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1978), 101–2.
But when it was over: Jerald F. TerHorst, Gerald Ford and the Futur
e of the Presidency (New York: Third Press, 1974), 70.
“I know you said ‘don’t answer’”: Richard M. Nixon to Gerald R. Ford, August 1 and 10, 1956, Gerald R. Ford Scrapbooks, vol. 6, February 1956–December 1956, Gerald R. Ford Library.
Nixon did this the old-fashioned way: James M. Cannon, Time and Chance, 68.
“A conservative [who combines] the wisdom”: Ibid.
With Ford’s permission: TerHorst, Gerald Ford and the Future of the Presidency, 73.
About one hundred flag-waving supporters: Ibid.
Maybe so, but there is evidence: Ibid.
“We’d done our sitting-up”: Betty Ford and Chris Chase, The Times of My Life (New York: Harper & Row, 1978), 146.
“Making up his mind”: Gerald R. Ford, A Time to Heal, 73.
And, ever the good soldier: TerHorst, Gerald Ford and the Future of the Presidency, 73.
“Would you take it”: Ibid., 85.
And when Nixon gently floated: Robert T. Hartmann, Palace Politics: An Inside Account of the Ford Years (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1980), 6–7.
“I shook my head in disbelief”: Gerald R. Ford, A Time to Heal, 86.
“Let me think about it”: James M. Cannon, Time and Chance, 175.
Even Pat Nixon was betting: Nixon, RN, 927.
Connally, for his part: James Reston Jr., The Lone Star: The Life of John Connally (New York: Harper & Row, 1989), 457–58.
Republican he’d ever met: Carl Albert with Danney Goble, Little Giant: The Life and Times of Speaker Carl Albert (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990), p. 159.
This left Jerry Ford: Nixon, RN, 926.
“Nixon hated the idea”: Richard Reeves, A Ford, Not a Lincoln (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975), 40.
On instructions from Nixon: Alexander M. Haig Jr. and Charles McCarry, Inner Circles: How America Changed the World: A Memoir (New York: Warner Books, 1992), 170.
“I’ve got good news”: Betty Ford and Chase, The Times of My Life, 146.
“They like you”: TerHorst, Gerald Ford and the Future of the Presidency, 142.
“It was more tempting for Democrats”: Henry Kissinger, Years of Upheaval (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1982), 514.
Wearing no makeup: “Off to a Helluva Start,” The Press, Time, August 26, 1974.
“my own lunch and my own dinner”: Gerald R. Ford: “The President’s News Conference,” August 28, 1974. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=4671.
“every press conference from now on”: James M. Cannon, Time and Chance, 372.
Ford hosted women and blacks: Gerald R. Ford, A Time to Heal, 139–41.
“I had to get the monkey off my back”: Ibid., 159.
“Will there ever be a right time”: James M. Cannon, Time and Chance, 374.
And Ford worried about Nixon: “The Pardon that Brought No Peace,” Time, September 16, 1974.
“The quicker I made the decision”: Thomas M. DeFrank, Write It When I’m Gone: Remarkable Off-the-Record Conversations with Gerald R. Ford (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2007), 117.
take over in a “short period of time”: Gerald R. Ford, A Time To Heal, 3.
resign in return for a pardon: Ibid., 4.
“‘You must resign tomorrow’”: Ibid., 4.
He said the list of options: Haig Jr. and McCarry, Inner Circles, 481–86.
“I want you to understand”: Gerald R. Ford, A Time to Heal, 13.
“this isn’t pleasant”: Nixon, RN, 1073.
“Now that old Harry Truman is gone”: Ibid.
“Be very firm out there”: James M. Cannon, Time and Chance, 378.
What Ford had no way of knowing: Ibid., 380.
“President Nixon is not issuing any statement”: Ibid.
(Haig later denied): Haig Jr. and McCarry, Inner Circles, 513.
Becker then flew home: Gerald R. Ford, A Time to Heal, 171.
“‘Enough’”: Bob Woodward, Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999), 30.
“opinion polls to tell me what is right”: Gerald R. Ford, Remarks on Signing a Proclamation Granting Pardon to Richard Nixon, September 8, 1974.
“a burden I shall bear for every day”: Richard M. Nixon, former president Nixon’s response to the full pardon granted to him by President Ford, September 8, 1974.
“I’ll bet you the best thing”: Gerald R. Ford, A Time to Heal, 197.
“Yet, I am not here to make history”: Gerald R. Ford, “Statement and Responses to Questions from Members of the House Judiciary Committee Concerning the Pardon of Richard Nixon,” October 17, 1974, Papers of Gerald Ford, American Presidency Project, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=4471#axzz1evl7qDIZ.
“Surely, we are not a revengeful people”: Ibid.
“There was no deal”: Ibid.
That last part: Woodward, Shadow, 38.
“If compassion and mercy are not compatible”: Ron Nessen, It Sure Looks Different from the Inside (Chicago: Playboy Press, trade distribution by Simon & Schuster, 1978), 36.
“Oh, there’s nothing he’d like more”: Gerald R. Ford, A Time to Heal, 201–2.
“I’m deeply grateful”: Gerald R. Ford, A Time to Heal, 202; and Nessen, It Sure Looks Different from the Inside, 35.
(“Ironically, my first lie”): Nessen, It Sure Looks Different from the Inside, 36.
“If he had died”: Gerald R. Ford, A Time to Heal, 202.
“President Ford made a courageous decision”: Edward Kennedy, “Remarks by Senator Edward M. Kennedy,” May 21, 2001, available online at John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
Chapter 15: “It Burned the Hell out of Me”
“That kind of contest”: “‘I Don’t Expect to Lose,’” The Nation, Time, January 26, 1976.
“And I must admit”: Gerald R. Ford, interview by James M. Cannon, April 29, 1990, transcript, James M. Cannon Research Interviews, Oral Histories, Gerald R. Ford Library.
Whatever China’s game: “Nixon’s Embarrassing Road Show,” The Ex-President, Time, March 8, 1976.
“Nixon is a shit”: Ron Nessen, It Sure Looks Different from the Inside (Chicago: Playboy Press, trade distribution by Simon & Schuster, 1978), 198.
“If he wants to do this country a favor”: “Nixon’s Embarrassing Road Show,” Time.
Ford read it: Nessen, It Sure Looks Different from the Inside, 201.
“run in the primary against a sitting Republican President”: Miller Center, “Interview with Lyn Nofziger (2005),” available online at http://millercenter.org/president/reagan/oralhistory/lyn-nofziger.
And Ford, the longtime party man: Robert T. Hartmann, Palace Politics: An Inside Account of the Ford Years (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1980), 337.
Never mind that the Newsweek story: Nessen, It Sure Looks Different from the Inside, 193.
Best of all, Washington paid: James Mann, The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan: A History of the End of the Cold War (New York: Viking, 2009), 11.
Not surprisingly: Hartmann, Palace Politics, 336.
Reagan felt “particularly insulted”: Lou Cannon, Governor Reagan: His Rise to Power (New York: Public Affairs, 2003), 403.
“[Reagan] is almost perfectly attuned”: Robert Teeter, interview, Gerald R. Ford Library Oral History Projects, Gerald R. Ford Library.
“It burned the hell out of me”: James M. Cannon, Time and Chance: Gerald Ford’s Appointment with History (New York: HarperCollins, 1994), 406.
“We built it”: Nessen, It Sure Looks Different from the Inside, 206.
The North Carolina defeat: Ibid., 208.
“He reasoned that he could pick off”: James A. Baker III and Steve Fiffer, Work Hard, Study—and Keep Out of Politics! Adventures and Lessons from an Unexpected Public Life (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2006), 50.
Bowing to pressure: Gerald R. Ford, A Time to Heal: The Autobiography of Gerald R. For
d (New York: Harper & Row, 1979), 328; James M. Cannon, Time and Chance, 406–7; Thomas M. DeFrank, Write It When I’m Gone: Remarkable Off-the-Record Conversations with Gerald R. Ford (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2007), 175.
Several dozen copies were made: Laurence Barrett, unpublished file, August 18, 1976, Time Life News Service.
This was, in Ford’s retelling: Ford, interview.
Reagan, who had been subdued: Dean Fischer, “Unpublished Files, Take 27,” Time-Life News Service, August 19, 1976.
“On the other hand”: Ford, interview.
“He’s not a good actor”: Dean Fischer, “Unpublished Files, Take 27.”
Though he prepared no remarks: Martin Anderson, interview by Stephen F. Knott, James Sterling Young, and Allison Asher, December 11–12, 2001, transcript, Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia.
“There is no substitute for victory, Mr. President”: Ronald Reagan, “Address at the Republican National Convention in Kansas City,” August 19, 1976, The American Presidency Project, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=85204.
“So he determined”: Lyn Nofziger, interview by Stephen F. Knott and Russell L. Riley, March 6, 2003, transcript, Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia.
“Reagan never had that philosophy”: Miller Center, “Interview with Stuart Spencer (2005),” available at http://millercenter.org/president/reagan/oralhistory/stuart-spencer.
“With everything else”: Stuart Spencer, interview by Paul B. Freedman, Stephen F. Knott, Russell L. Riley, and James Sterling Young, November 15–16, 2001, transcript, Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia.
“They didn’t give a damn”: Ford, interview.
“He believed in winning”: DeFrank, Write It When I’m Gone, 123.
Carter recognized: Martin Schram, “The Return of Richard Nixon,” Washington Post, January 30, 1979.
Nixon himself had created for Johnson: David Frost with Bob Zelnick, Frost/Nixon: Behind The Scenes of the Nixon Interviews (New York: Harper Perennial, 2007), 165.
“It nauseated me”: Ford, interview.
“I’m not a candidate, I’m not”: Elizabeth Drew, Portrait of An Election (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1981), 18.
Reagan couldn’t win: Adam Clymer, “Ford Declares Reagan Can’t Win; Invites GOP to Ask Him to Run,” New York Times, March 2, 1980.