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From Buchanan to Haldeman and Colson RE: countering a charge made by McGovern and convincing African-Americans not to vote for him in the election of 1972. 1 pg. [Subject: Campaign] [Memo], 10/16/1972
From Buchanan to Haldeman and Colson RE: countering a charge made by McGovern and convincing African-Americans not to vote for him in the election of 1972. Handwritten note added by Haldeman. 1 pg. [Subject: Campaign] [Memo], 10/16/1972
From Buchanan to Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and Colson RE: countering McGovern's corruption charge and planning for the last weeks of the campaign. 3 pgs. [Subject: Campaign] [Memo], 10/13/1972
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WHSF: Contested, 1-29
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This file contains:
From Buchanan to Haldeman and Colson RE: countering a charge made by McGovern and convincing African-Americans not to vote for him in the election of 1972. 1 pg. [Subject: Campaign] [Memo], 10/16/1972
From Buchanan to Haldeman and Colson RE: countering a charge made by McGovern and convincing African-Americans not to vote for him in the election of 1972. Handwritten note added by Haldeman. 1 pg. [Subject: Campaign] [Memo], 10/16/1972
From Buchanan to Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and Colson RE: countering McGovern's corruption charge and planning for the last weeks of the campaign. 3 pgs. [Subject: Campaign] [Memo], 10/13/1972
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Richard M. Nixon's Returned Materials Collection
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Richard Nixon Presidential Library
Contested Materials Collection
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1
29
10/16/1972
Campaign
Memo
From Buchanan to Haldeman and Colson
RE: countering a charge made by McGovern
and convincing African-Americans not to
vote for him in the election of 1972. 1 pg.
1
29
10/16/1972
Campaign
Memo
From Buchanan to Haldeman and Colson
RE: countering a charge made by McGovern
and convincing African-Americans not to
vote for him in the election of 1972.
Handwritten note added by Haldeman. 1 pg.
1
29
10/13/1972
Campaign
Memo
From Buchanan to Haldeman, Ehrlichman,
and Colson RE: countering McGovern's
corruption charge and planning for the last
weeks of the campaign. 3 pgs.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Page 1 of 1
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
October 16, 1972
MEMORANDUM TO:
H. R. HALDEMAN
CHARLES COLSON
FROM:
PAT BUCHANAN
Some ideas sent in that have some merit: Considering
the "corruption" charge, etc., why not have the
President photographed in quasi-religious services;
either Sunday services, funerals, if they come up --
or other -- which in and of itself makes McGovern look
nasty in the character of his charges.
Secondly, strongly recommend that we take out ads in
all major black publications attacking McGovern for taking
blacks for granted -- and calling on blacks to repudiate
that sentiment. These ads would serve to force McGovern
to spend money to answer them -- and they might well weaken
him in the black community as McGovern has never been
strong there personally. This is the one major voting block
where McGovern wins overwhelmingly -- and some hard
negative ads might convince blacks either to "go fishing"
or cut McGovern.
Buchanan
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
October 16, 1972
MEMORANDUM TO:
H. R. HALDEMAN
CHARLES COLSON
FROM:
PAT BUCHANAN
Some ideas sent in that have some merit: Considering
the "corruption" charge, etc., why not have the
President photographed in quasi-religious services;
either Sunday services, funerals, if they come up --
or other -- which in and of itself makes McGovern look
nasty in the character of his charges.
Secondly, strongly recommend that we take out ads in
all major black publications attacking McGovern for taking
blacks for granted -- and calling on blacks to repudiate
that sentiment. These ads would serve to force McGovern
to spend money to answer them -- and they might well weaken
him in the black community as McGovern has never been
strong there personally. This is the one major voting block
where McGovern wins overwhelmingly -- and some hard
negative ads might convince blacks either to "go fishing"
or cut McGovern.
Buchanan
I disogreet bott on
H
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
October 13, 1972
ADMINISTRATIVELY CONFIDENTIAL
POLITICAL MEMORANDUM
MEMORANDUM FOR:
H. R. HALDEMAN
JOHN EHRLIGHMAN
CHARLES COLSON
FROM:
PAT BUCHANAN
McGovern appears to have but one card left to turn over the
"corruption" issue. And it is not a bad one. There is a theme
abuilding in the media, which runs like this: What has happened
that America and Americans are sympathetic that they will not
become enraged at the atmosphere of scandal and chicanery that
now exists in Nixon's Washington. Agronsky, Sidey, Severeid,
Reasoner, Shana Alexander and a host of others are pushing the
theme.
The Times has put its top Mafia guy on the Watergate-Espionage-
Sabotage issue and the Washington Post may very well have a few
more trumps to play.
My concern is that we not "freeze the ball" with our twenty-odd point
lead, and three and a half weeks to go -- as we did in 1968. We have
two possible lines of attack as I see it, and I would prefer the latter.
First, is to attack the Post head-on along these lines. "Just as in
1968, the leftist press is digging up all the dirt it can print between
now and the election to salvage the collapsed McGovern campaign.
In 1968 it was the Times when their smear on Agnew; in 1972 it is the
Post's desperate last-ditch effort to smear the President on Watergate.
Innuendo and unproven charges are being given the kind of ride they
have not gotten since the days of Joe McCarthy. Where Dick Tuck's
screw-ball antics were applauded and laughed off pranks performed
by some over-zealous types a) have not even been tied to the
President's organizations; and b) are condemned as though we were
running a concentration camp. 11
-2-
Something along these lines taking the attack to the Post.
However, before proceeding up this avenue, we had best know
exactly how much more the Post has than the stuff it is running
right now.
However, my preferred line would be for us to use the above only
as an "answer" and to respond to the Washington Post's vendetta, and
the others who are fortifying McGovern's charges, with their venom
and outrage by stepping up the attack on McGovern on our issues.
To this end, I believe that:
A)
The earlier we use Connally, the broader the audience, the
better. This speech not only creams McGovern it turns the focus
of ma tional debate back onto our issues -- foreign policy, defense
cuts, amnesty, bipartisan tradition -- and hits McGovern hard for
his radicalism.
B)
We need new and more attack ads, in my view; and a crash
program should be initiated to provide them. What are the issues
hurting McGovern most? When we find these, we ought to have one
minute reminder ads -- for massive use on a state-by-state basis in
the waning days of the campaign.
C)
We ought to consider the possibility of placing print ads in
black papers all over the country condemning McGovern for not
placing such ads and "taking blacks for granted. 11 An ad which says
in effect you won't see McGovern taking an ad in this paper because
he thinks you're already in his pocket.
D)
While we have hit McGovern some on his Vietnam speech, it is
not enough, and not hard enough his speech disappointed and
concerned even Kraft and Reston we should be hitting him hard
and repeatedly, and at high levels on Vietnam.
E)
We have several "bombs" lined up like the Defense Budget
Analysis, the Welfare Analysis, the Connally Speech we need more
major "events" or "attacks" at high levels, which can frame the
debate in our terms, not, theirs. We must keep the country thinking
of McGovern and his idiotic schemes, his ineptitude and his radicalism -
if we are going to hold onto our existing lead.
F)
The time is approaching I would think, when we would want
to move the issue further by calling for a "vote against extremism"
and get prominent Democrats and Union Leaders to start talking
publicly, and calling for the "repudiation" of the Radical Left that
has seized our party.
-3-
G)
Perhaps we need once again to go back through all our
anti-McGovern material -- pick out only the harshest and toughest
material we have -- and feed that to the press for one more round.
In brief conclusion, the next ten days are crucial to breaking the
back of the McGovern campaign; we ought not to be holding back
material now -- but pouring out everything we have. We should
be getting as much of this anti-materi al into the record as possible;
if McGovern has made no progress by two weeks before the election,
the stampede might begin, and that may be it.
Buchanan