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Richard Nixon Presidential Library Contested Materials Collection Folder List Box Number Folder Number Document Date No Date Subject Document Type Document Description 2 42 6/26/1972 Campaign Memo From Haldeman to Colson RE: McGovern's position on defense. 1 pg. 2 42 6/23/1972 Campaign Memo From Haldeman to Colson RE: Democratic and Republican Conventions of 1972. 1 pg. 2 42 6/28/1972 Domestic Policy Memo From Chapin to Haldeman RE: celebrities. 2 pgs. 2 42 6/26/1972 Campaign Memo From Chapin to Haldeman RE: 1972 Republican Convention. 2 pgs. Friday, March 05, 2010 Page 1 of 2 Box Number Folder Number Document Date No Date Subject Document Type Document Description 2 42 Campaign Other Document Strategy formulated for the Election of 1972 for RN. Author and recipient unknown. 6 pgs. 2 42 Campaign Other Document Strategy formulated for the Election of 1972 for RN. Author and recipient unknown. 6 pgs. 2 42 6/9/1972 Campaign Memo From Chapin to Haldeman RE: planning for the election. 2 pgs. 2 42 6/28/1972 Campaign Memo From Chaipn to Dick Moore RE: women and the Republican Convention. 1 pg. Friday, March 05, 2010 Page 2 of 2 June 26, 1972 EYES ONLY MEMORANDUM FOR: MR. COLSON FROM: H.R. HALDEMAN I am sure you noted in yesterday's Washington POST an article on McGovern in which they called him a disciple of Dwight David Eisenhower - this related to his position on defense expenditures. We should have a rebuttal written to that particular article placed in next Sunday's POST. Get a well-known personality to write the article (someone like Maxwell Taylor or General Omar Bradley) who can refute the McGovern assumptions. We cannot let McGovern get away with drawing the analogy that his posture on defense is the same as Eisenhower's. CC: Mr. Buchanan June 23, 1972 MEMORANDUM FOR: CHUCK COLSON FROM: H. R. HALDEMAN We should lay out a plan whereby over the next two weeks we are in contact with the major anchormen and correspondents who will be covering the Democratic Convention. Our strategy should be to give them the proper lines about the forthcoming Republican Convention. If we get the proper material to them in the right way, it is conceivable that they will use the same in some of their Convention commentary. You should work with the 1701 group, as well as with Ziegler, Moore, Scall, Klein, Safire, Clawson and Chapin. This effort should be handled as much as possible on a one-on-one basis with people contacting those correspondents whom they know fairly well. Will you please give me a report on this by Friday, June 30. June 28, 1972 MEMORANDUM FOR: MR. H. R. HALDEMAN FROM: DWIGHT L. CHAPIN SUBJECT: Celebrities I called Taft Schreiber last evening to review with him the plan for another celebrities event to involve Kissinger. Taft said that he had gone over the list with Dick Zanuck and that they had gone over the undecideds and had come to the conclusion that any event that they would put on would be so insignificant as compared to what Taft threw a couple of weeks ago that it would seem like a secondary party. Taft evidently has explained this to Kissinger and, according to Taft, Kissinger agrees. Evidently, Taft has talked to Norton Simon and Simon has agreed to hold a dinner on July 7. They will invite some of their celebrity friends. As you know, Simon is now married to Jennifer Jones. According to Taft, Norton Simon is going to come aboard and Kissinger has agreed to do this event. Obviously, the group is going to be liberal-oriented and Taft feels it will be per- fect for Kissinger. When Taft talked to Kissinger, Kissinger asked about the possibility of an event on July 8 and this is when Taft told him about his conversation with Zanuck and got Kissinger to agree to not having a celebrities event. They have given a list of celebrities to Norton Simon which includes many of the uncommitted people and Taft feels fairly sure that Simon is going to invite them to the Kissinger dinner. In terms of an event on July 14, Taft is very much in favor of this. He feels the guest list, including wives and girl friends, would carry the number upward to about 300. He says that they had 150 committed prior to the dinner which Mrs. Nixon attended and they have 16 new commitments from young people whom he says, "are damn good". A list of the new commitments is attached. I have talked to Dr. Kissinger and he substantiates all of the above. It is his opinion that he should not go with any event with celebrities other than 2. the Simon dinner. I have asked Henry to call Norton Simon today (Wednesday) and encourage him to invite some of the uncommitted celebrities so that Henry will have a chance to talk with them. Our next stop is to see whether you agree with the decision that there is not to be a "celebrity dinner" at Zanuck's or Warner's home and that we will let the Simon event serve that purpose. APPROVE DISAPPROVE Next, we need to develop a formal plan for the event at the compound. My suggestion is that we take one of our best advance men - like Duval and put him on developing the scenario for the reception. We should handle this just as we would any Presidential event and do the basic work on it, using 1701 only for input as to names and checking them all with Taft. APPROVE DEVELOPMENT OF A PLAN FOR A RECEPTION ON JULY 14 DISAPPROVE OTHER June 26, 1972 EYES ONLY MEMORANDUM FOR: MR. H. R. HALDEMAN FROM: DWIGHT L. CHAPIN SUBJECT: CONVENTION Moore, Carruthers, Tex and I had lunch on Friday to discuss some ideas to sex up our Convention and to keep the President on the highest possible plane. I understand that it is in our best interest not to lock the President into anything specific too soon. Therefore, we will just keep sending suggestions in. Toss those you don't like and hold the others as options. We have some sensitional oppor- tunities to show off the President during our Convention. MONDAY, AUGUST 21, 1972 A. Monday night - first night of Convention. The S '76 arrives Homestead. (A crowd of youth or closed.) The Convention is underway - a dead TV period so the cameras switch live to Homestead. The President escorts Mrs. Nixon to her helicopter which departs for the Convention Hall. She will be there for Reagan and the key note. President Nixon boards his helicopter for the compound. B. Half-way through the evening's activities, a couple of rumors start: 1. The President has summoned the Cabinet to Key Biscayne this evening immediately after the Convention gavel is down. 2. Speculation in Chicago to the effect the President will address the Legion tomorrow. C. When the evening session ends, the President has the Cabinet (maybe we would add some 3 or 4 leaders or a couple of Governors) come to the compound. The meeting is from 11:00 p.m. to midnight. There are many things we can do. But look at the effect. The networks will go out of their minds. The next day any of those who attended will be sought after and ideal for interviews. Mystique, drama and 2. speculation something is up. Plus it builds the President's team. TUESDAY, AUGUST 22, 1972 A. The President departs Tuesday morning in time to be in Chicago by 12:00 noon to address the Legion. He finishes about the time the third session of the Convention is called to order. Ziegler does not confirm he is going until early Tuesday morning. We go through Chicago around noon which gives us crowd possibilities. Daley should be on stage for the event. We have focused attention on the President. Not on Richard Nixon sitting at the compound waiting to be nominated. We have avoided having to do a raft of things in Miami in conjunction with the Convention. His remarks are key. They are defense oriented - the near end of the ten year war . or something. He is acclaimed by a "non-partisan" group. Guess what the evening news is all about! B. When the President arrives back at Key Biscayne, he goes to the compound. Later after the nomination (or maybe early before the nomination is placed) he goes to the Youth Rally. We are somewhat reluctant to have the President two probably to our advantage. evenings" If we can create ulternates to two 15 The option to the Monday night arrival would be to have the President fly into Chicago from Los Angeles or Washington on Tuesday for the Legion. He could go on to Florida. After the nomination, he could go with the Cabinet meeting. SUGGESTED FOLLOW-UP POINTS 1. Between the two Conventions, the case between the Democratic platform and the Democrats' performance in Congress should be exploited. A plan should be developed by the Congressional Liaison Staff in conjunction with the Domestic Council Staff detailing activities designed to illustrate Congress' poor performance. The activity should be designed for the period between the Conventions and should assume that there will be very little Presidential time available for his participation. APPROVE DISAPPROVE MacGREGOR SHOULD GET THE ACTION MacGREGOR AND EHRLICHMAN TO GET THE ACTION HALDEMAN MEMORANDUM PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM 2. The Domestic Council should be asked to come up with domestic related events during the period between the Conventions. These activities again should be ones which can be handled by people other than the President, as well as perhaps a couple of good recommendations for Presidential activity. These activities should concentrate on special voter bloc efforts, as well as key domestic efforts - in particular, taxation. APPROVE DISAPPROVE DRAFT MEMO FOR HRH TO SEND EHRLICHMAN SHOULD BE PRESIDENTIAL MEMO TO EHRLICHMAN 3. Ken Cole's memorandum states that the President "needs to rearticulate publicly his domestic philosophy - what he stands for -- what he is for and against domestically." He states a little later, "..he needs to state his goals for the nation domestically and how we are going to get there." I am not sure that the President knows what his domestic philosophy is. It seems to me that we should have a paper drafted by the Domestic Council, in particular, by Ehrlichman or Cole, which does state what our domestic philosophy is at this time. APPROVE DISAPPROVE OTHER 2. 4. It is suggested that perhaps the President consider a trip to Midway if all the indicators are right during the post-Democratic pre-Republican Conventions. The idea would be to dramatize troop cuts and meet with President Thieu. CHECK IDEA WITH KISSINGER DROP IDEA OTHER 5. Colson has recommended that the President be in Washington between Conventions and do one or two highly visible domestic events, perhaps a veto or calling in some food chain retailers. HAVE COLSON DEVELOP SPECIFIC PROPOSALS DROP 6. Ken Clawson has recommended that in the post-Convention period the President spend a week to ten days personally meeting with key national, regional, and local Party officials to give them marching orders. He feels it should be kept a closed affair and that we should let the press speculate. Should this idea be checked out with other political types? APPROVE DISAPPROVE CHECK MITCHELL FIRST 7. Buchanan and Haig both make the point, as well as Chapin, that we should not shoot every one of our cannons at once. We need to dribble out our material so that McGovern is kept on the defensive. Who is in charge of developing the release schedule for the issue material? Is there any action which should be taken on this front or is it under control? COMMENT: 8. Rumsfeld says we should enhance the President's advantage of incumbency by finding ways to contrast his Presidential actions with the opponent's rhetoric. I would like to ask Rumsfeld for some specific ways of doing this - examples or techniques of how he would go about it. APPROVE DISAPPROVE 3. 9. Clawson raises a point which many others mention in terms of the problem of the economy and unemployment figures. He says historically the Democrats lived from these issues. He proposes creating an almost separate, well-staffed, well-financed internal group whose job would be to solely create an image of economic well- being in the country. He goes on to advocate a counterattack mechanism on the economy to be headed by Colson in collaboration with Mitchell. Should we put this together? Under Colson? APPROVE DISAPPROVE COLSON SHOULD CHECK MITCHELL COLSON SHOULD COORDINATE WITH SHULTZ DROP IT 10. Buchanan in his original memorandum on the McGovern attack, as well as Ray Price, suggested we nail McGovern early on his radicalism. I assume that you and the Attorney General are signing off on the action memorandum which Buchanan sent in. YES NO OTHER 11. Colson's memorandum had several specific items regarding things that should be hit in the domestic area and action that the President could take or meetings which could be held, etc. It was his May 17th memorandum which was an addendum to the memorandum which I am addressing myself to. I assume that you will act independently on that memorandum. YES NO 12. Do you agree that we should set up some villains - bureaucracy, big spenders, abortionists, and perhaps a couple of others and start building them as straw enemies now? We can work up speech material and other facts which the surrogates can start cranking into their talks. APPROVE DISAPPROVE 13. In regard to the credibility and trust issue, do you concur that our surrogates, our Convention apparatus, and everyone should be mobilized in order to plug continually the credibility of the President? APPROVE DISAPPROVE HAVE BUCHANAN DEVELOP SPECIFICS THAT CAN ACT AS SPEECH INSERTS HAVE PRICE AND SPEECH WRITERS DEVELOP SPECIFICS 4. 14. Clawson feels that with the media our strategy must be to discredit and to spotlight the unworkability of almost everything McGovern proposes. The Administration officials must ask publicly the hard questions since the media will not. Should we draft for our surrogates a series of questions which they can start asking about McGovern currently? We can update and move it along as the campaign escalates. Our first step would be to do questions which can be asked prior to the Democratic Convention. APPROVE DISAPPROVE HAVE BUCHANAN DO IT BUCHANAN SHOULD DO IT AND MITCHELL SHOULD APPROVE OTHER 15. Colson advocates our contriving adverse polls to let the American people know that this election is a real test and that Nixon does not have it won. He feels we need to clearly find a way to scare the hell out of people at the prospect of McGovern's candidacy. He also wants to start a "real hatchet operation". Should Colson go ahead with this? APPROVE DISAPPROVE WITH MITCHELL'S APPROVAL ONLY OTHER 5. C. GENERAL THOUGHTS ON STRATEGY, ISSUES, TIMING AND POINTS OF ATTACK 1. Realizing the credibility and wisdom in playing off our strong suit of foreign policy, I still see a need (as do several others) to engineer a play for the domestic area. There is absolutely no reason to let McGovern force us early on into a completely defense posture vis-a-vis domestic affairs. Perhaps the whole key to our domestic affairs attack is our pleading the case for getting the economy in order and stressing the merits of the President's economic policy and his courage in moving into his reordering of the economy. We can tie directly to what McGovern's policies would do to economic stability and taxation and make our charge about the "McGovern Market.' 2. I like Rumsfeld's idea that we find ways to contrast Presidential actions with McGovern's rhetoric. The question becomes, "How?" We need to get some specifics here and it should be part of the follow-up to this memorandum. 3. I made a point in my original memorandum, and Buchanan made the same point (others alluded to it) of the critical timing in terms of launching our various attacks. We must make certain that by the middle of October we have some initiative left. I favor putting a lot of stock in our ability to react quickly enough to issue charges so as to have the public feel that we are actually on the offensive side and that it is McGovern who is trying to defend. As I stated before, this has got to tie in to Pete Dailey's operation, as well as with those who are monitoring the issues for you. 4. Safire makes the point about picking a villain to attack. This is the same concept that Connally expressed to the senior staff at Blair House about attacking straw enemies. We should take the straw enemies such as the bureaucracy, big spenders, perhaps Congress (I'm not sure on Congress), drug pushers, the abortionists, and others and start building them as giant enemies to the general public now. We can demagogue these enemies through our surrogates in order to insure that when the President takes them on in the heat of the campaign they represent more of a threat to our constituency than they do presently. 6. 5. Although others did not mention it specifically, I want to re- emphasize my point that we keep the debate on issues on the broadest possible range. A one-issue campaign such as law and order was in 1970 should be avoided since it does not play to our advantage. Credibility is the real danger here. The exception as stated before would be a foreign policy crisis. 6. Virtually everyone is on the "credibility or trust" attack which is expected. Everything we do beginning now should build credibility. We should have a credibility desk, people who are ginning up examples of how credible this Administration has been. We should put out front a President and an Administration that has done everything possible within our bounds. For what we have not succeeded on, we should blame Congress, the bureaucracy and people who would undermine what is in the best interests of the country. All the surrogates, in particular the Convention apparatus, our advertising, other world leaders, whatever we have should be used to build the President's credibility. SUGGESTED FOLLOW-UP POINTS 1. Between the two Conventions, the case between the Democratic platform and the Democrats' performance in Congress should be exploited. A plan should be developed by the Congressional Liaison Staff in conjunction with the Domestic Council Staff detailing activities designed to illustrate Congress' poor performance. The activity should be designed for the period between the Conventions and should assume that there will be very little Presidential time available for his participation. APPROVE DISAPPROVE MacGREGOR SHOULD GET THE ACTION MacGREGOR AND EHRLICHMAN TO GET THE ACTION HALDEMAN MEMORANDUM PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM 2. The Domestic Council should be asked to come up with domestic related events during the period between the Conventions. These activities again should be ones which can be handled by people other than the President, as well as perhaps a couple of good recommendations for Presidential activity. These activities should concentrate on special voter bloc efforts, as well as key domestic efforts - in particular, taxation. APPROVE DISAPPROVE DRAFT MEMO FOR HRH TO SEND EHRLICHMAN SHOULD BE PRESIDENTIAL MEMO TO EHRLICHMAN 3. Ken Cole's memorandum states that the President "needs to rearticulate publicly his domestic philosophy - what he stands for - what he is for and against domestically." He states a little later, " ..he needs to state his goals for the nation domestically and how we are going to get there." I am not sure that the President knows what his domestic philosophy is. It seems to me that we should have a paper drafted by the Domestic Council, in particular, by Ehrlichman or Cole, which does state what our domestic philosophy is at this time. APPROVE DISAPPROVE OTHER 2. 4. It is suggested that perhaps the President consider a trip to Midway if all the indicators are right during the post-Democratic pre-Republican Conventions. The idea would be to dramatize troop cuts and meet with President Thieu. CHECK IDEA WITH KISSINGER DROP IDEA OTHER 5. Colson has recommended that the President be in Washington between Conventions and do one or two highly visible domestic events, perhaps a veto or calling in some food chain retailers. HAVE COLSON DEVELOP SPECIFIC PROPOSALS DROP 6. Ken Clawson has recommended that in the post-Convention period the President spend a week to ten days personally meeting with key national, regional, and local Party officials to give them marching orders. He feels it should be kept a closed affair and that we should let the press speculate. Should this idea be checked out with other political types? APPROVE DISAPPROVE CHECK MITCHELL FIRST 7. Buchanan and Haig both make the point, as well as Chapin, that we should not shoot every one of our cannons at once. We need to dribble out our material so that McGovern is kept on the defensive. Who is in charge of developing the release schedule for the issue material? Is there any action which should be taken on this front or is it under control? COMMENT: 8. Rumsfeld says we should enhance the President's advantage of incumbency by finding ways to contrast his Presidential actions with the opponent's rhetoric. I would like to ask Rumsfeld for some specific ways of doing this - examples or techniques of how he would go about it. APPROVE DISAPPROVE 3. 9. Clawson raises a point which many others mention in terms of the problem of the economy and unemployment figures. He says historically the Democrats lived from these issues. He proposes creating an almost separate, well-staffed, well-financed internal group whose job would be to solely create an image of economic well- being in the country. He goes on to advocate a counterattack mechanism on the economy to be headed by Colson in collaboration with Mitchell. Should we put this together? Under Colson? APPROVE DISAPPROVE COLSON SHOULD CHECK MITCHELL COLSON SHOULD COORDINATE WITH SHULTZ DROP IT 10. Buchanan in his original memorandum on the McGovern attack, as well as Ray Price, suggested we nail McGovern early on his radicalism. I assume that you and the Attorney General are signing off on the action memorandum which Buchanan sent in. YES NO OTHER 11. Colson's memorandum had several specific items regarding things that should be hit in the domestic area and action that the President could take or meetings which could be held, etc. It was his May 17th memorandum which was an addendum to the memorandum which I am addressing myself to. I assume that you will act independently on that memorandum. YES NO 12. Do you agree that we should set up some villains - bureaucracy, big spenders, abortionists, and perhaps a couple of others and start building them as straw enemies now? We can work up speech material and other facts which the surrogates can start cranking into their talks. APPROVE DISAPPROVE 13. In regard to the credibility and trust issue, do you concur that our surrogates, our Convention apparatus, and everyone should be mobilized in order to plug continually the credibility of the President? APPROVE DISAPPROVE HAVE BUCHANAN DEVELOP SPECIFICS THAT CAN ACT AS SPEECH INSERTS HAVE PRICE AND SPEECH WRITERS DEVELOP SPECIFICS 4. 14. Clawson feels that with the media our strategy must be to discredit and to spotlight the unworkability of almost everything McGovern proposes. The Administration officials must ask publicly the hard questions since the media will not. Should we draft for our surrogates a series of questions which they can start asking about McGovern currently? We can update and move it along as the campaign escalates. Our first step would be to do questions which can be asked prior to the Democratic Convention. APPROVE DISAPPROVE HAVE BUCHANAN DO IT BUCHANAN SHOULD DO IT AND MITCHELL SHOULD APPROVE OTHER 15. Colson advocates our contriving adverse polls to let the American people know that this election is a real test and that Nixon does not have it won. He feels we need to clearly find a way to scare the hell out of people at the prospect of McGovern's candidacy. He also wants to start a "real hatchet operation". Should Colson go ahead with this? APPROVE DISAPPROVE WITH MITCHELL'S APPROVAL ONLY OTHER 5, C. GENERAL THOUGHTS ON STRATEGY, ISSUES, TIMING AND POINTS OF ATTACK 1. Realizing the credibility and wisdom in playing off our strong suit of foreign policy, I still see a need (as do several others) to engineer a play for the domestic area. There is absolutely no reason to let McGovern force us early on into a completely defense posture vis-a-vis domestic affairs. Perhaps the whole key to our domestic affairs attack is our pleading the case for getting the economy in order and stressing the merits of the President's economic policy and his courage in moving into his reordering of the economy. We can tie directly to what McGovern's policies would do to economic stability and taxation and make our charge about the "McGovern Market." 2. I like Rumsfeld's idea that we find ways to contrast Presidential actions with McGovern's rhetoric. The question becomes, "How?" We need to get some specifics here and it should be part of the follow-up to this memorandum. 3, I made a point in my original memorandum, and Buchanan made the same point (others alluded to it) of the critical timing in terms of launching our various attacks. We must make certain that by the middle of October we have some initiative left. I favor putting a lot of stock in our ability to react quickly enough to issue charges so as to have the public feel that we are actually on the offensive side and that it is McGovern who is trying to defend. As I stated before, this has got to tie in to Pete Dailey's operation, as well as with those who are monitoring the issues for you, 4, Safire makes the point about picking a villain to attack. This is the same concept that Connally expressed to the senior staff at Blair House about attacking straw enemies. We should take the straw enemies such as the bureaucracy, big spenders, perhaps Congress (I'm not sure on Congress), drug pushers, the abortionists, and others and start building them as giant enemies to the general public now. We can demagogue these enemies through our surrogates in order to insure that when the President takes them on in the heat of the campaign they represent more of a threat to our constituency than they do presently. 6. 5. Although others did not mention it specifically, I want to re- emphasize my point that we keep the debate on issues on the broadest possible range. A one-issue campaign such as law and order was in 1970 should be avoided since it does not play to our advantage. Credibility is the real danger here. The exception as stated before would be a foreign policy crisis. 6. Virtually everyone is on the "credibility or trust" attack which is expected. Everything we do beginning now should build credibility. We should have a credibility desk, people who are ginning up examples of how credible this Administration has been. We should put out front a President and an Administration that has done everything possible within our bounds. For what we have not succeeded on, we should blame Congress, the bureaucracy and people who would undermine what is in the best interests of the country. All the surrogates, in particular the Convention apparatus, our advertising, other world leaders, whatever we have should be used to build the President's credibility. June 9, 1972 DETERMINED TO BE AN 2:00 p.m. ADMINISTRATIVE MARKING E.O. 12065, Section By run MEMORANDUM FOR: H. R. HALDEMAN FROM: DWIGHT L. CHAPIN SUBJECT: General Thoughts Some ideas were generated from the trip to California. Check or comment on any which you feel have merit. 1. Have Julie address a high school graduation, perhaps a vocational college. We would keep it short and have it reprinted in Readers' Digest. 2. Make Len Garment our Hugh Sidey and get the Newsweek/Washington Post syndicate to run him. He has the flair and the emotional understanding of the President. 3. Give Dick Moore the job of figuring out how NBC or Metromedia is purchased and develop a plan on it. We could establish our own mini-network or better yet, think big. 4. Get educational TV, Metromedia or whoever to rerun the July 4 Archives speech. 5. Today McGovern is producing slick TV, spending a fortune and using more Madison Avenue techniques and people than we ever did or will. Tomorrow McGovern will be the poor boy. We will be the big spenders, the slick ones and be torn apart by the media. Let's attack McGovern now. Let's say now that McGovern is a TV age product who is meeting only the test of the tube, not leadership. 2 6. Send Julie, Tricia or both to the Summer Olympics. The best dates are from September 1 to 4. ABC plans massive coverage and we could do a lot of color things. 7. Wolper says Teddy White told him, "McGovern is not a smart man". Maybe we should get this talk circulated among the press. CC: Dick Moore June 28, 1972 11:45 a. m. MEMORANDUM FOR: DICK MOORE FROM: DWIGHT L. CHAPIN I hope you follow-up with someone concerning your thoughts about women and the Republican Convention. We tend to downplay the importance of women in so much of what we do and I think that If we take that attitude concerning the Convention and the election we're going to find ourselves in deep trouble. The idea you expressed about some of the trashy looking types that will be used at the Democratic Convention and our putting forward good solid positive-looking citizens at our Convention, I think is outstanding. We can use housewives, secretaries, teachers, nurses, you name it. This should all start with the platform hearings and go right through the campaign. One thing that we should keep in mind is the big issue that single working girls have with the tax burden they must carry. I'll bet If you took a poll among the unmarried secretaries in the White House you would find the tax issue is one of their major gripes.

Document source description

This file contains: From Haldeman to Colson RE: McGovern's position on defense. 1 pg. [Subject: Campaign] [Memo], 6/26/1972 From Haldeman to Colson RE: Democratic and Republican Conventions of 1972. 1 pg. [Subject: Campaign] [Memo], 6/23/1972 From Chapin to Haldeman RE: celebrities. 2 pgs. [Subject: Domestic Policy] [Memo], 6/28/1972 From Chapin to Haldeman RE: 1972 Republican Convention. 2 pgs. [Subject: Campaign] [Memo], 6/26/1972 Strategy formulated for the Election of 1972 for RN. Author and recipient unknown. 6 pgs. Campaign [Subject: Campaign] [Other Document], no date From Chapin to Haldeman RE: planning for the election. 2 pgs. [Subject: Campaign] [Memo], 6/9/1972 From Chaipn to Dick Moore RE: women and the Republican Convention. 1 pg. [Subject: Campaign] [Memo], 6/28/1972

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    "ocrText": "Richard Nixon Presidential Library\nContested Materials Collection\nFolder List\nBox Number\nFolder Number\nDocument Date\nNo Date\nSubject\nDocument Type\nDocument Description\n2\n42\n6/26/1972\nCampaign\nMemo\nFrom Haldeman to Colson RE: McGovern's\nposition on defense. 1 pg.\n2\n42\n6/23/1972\nCampaign\nMemo\nFrom Haldeman to Colson RE: Democratic\nand Republican Conventions of 1972. 1 pg.\n2\n42\n6/28/1972\nDomestic Policy\nMemo\nFrom Chapin to Haldeman RE: celebrities. 2\npgs.\n2\n42\n6/26/1972\nCampaign\nMemo\nFrom Chapin to Haldeman RE: 1972\nRepublican Convention. 2 pgs.\nFriday, March 05, 2010\nPage 1 of 2\nBox Number\nFolder Number\nDocument Date\nNo Date\nSubject\nDocument Type\nDocument Description\n2\n42\nCampaign\nOther Document\nStrategy formulated for the Election of 1972\nfor RN. Author and recipient unknown. 6\npgs.\n2\n42\nCampaign\nOther Document\nStrategy formulated for the Election of 1972\nfor RN. Author and recipient unknown. 6\npgs.\n2\n42\n6/9/1972\nCampaign\nMemo\nFrom Chapin to Haldeman RE: planning for\nthe election. 2 pgs.\n2\n42\n6/28/1972\nCampaign\nMemo\nFrom Chaipn to Dick Moore RE: women and\nthe Republican Convention. 1 pg.\nFriday, March 05, 2010\nPage 2 of 2\nJune 26, 1972\nEYES ONLY\nMEMORANDUM FOR:\nMR. COLSON\nFROM:\nH.R. HALDEMAN\nI am sure you noted in yesterday's Washington POST an article on McGovern in\nwhich they called him a disciple of Dwight David Eisenhower - this related to\nhis position on defense expenditures.\nWe should have a rebuttal written to that particular article placed in next\nSunday's POST. Get a well-known personality to write the article (someone\nlike Maxwell Taylor or General Omar Bradley) who can refute the McGovern\nassumptions.\nWe cannot let McGovern get away with drawing the analogy that his posture on\ndefense is the same as Eisenhower's.\nCC: Mr. Buchanan\nJune 23, 1972\nMEMORANDUM FOR:\nCHUCK COLSON\nFROM:\nH. R. HALDEMAN\nWe should lay out a plan whereby over the next two weeks\nwe are in contact with the major anchormen and correspondents\nwho will be covering the Democratic Convention. Our strategy\nshould be to give them the proper lines about the forthcoming\nRepublican Convention. If we get the proper material to them\nin the right way, it is conceivable that they will use the same\nin some of their Convention commentary.\nYou should work with the 1701 group, as well as with Ziegler,\nMoore, Scall, Klein, Safire, Clawson and Chapin.\nThis effort should be handled as much as possible on a\none-on-one basis with people contacting those correspondents\nwhom they know fairly well.\nWill you please give me a report on this by Friday, June 30.\nJune 28, 1972\nMEMORANDUM FOR:\nMR. H. R. HALDEMAN\nFROM:\nDWIGHT L. CHAPIN\nSUBJECT:\nCelebrities\nI called Taft Schreiber last evening to review with him the plan for another\ncelebrities event to involve Kissinger. Taft said that he had gone over the\nlist with Dick Zanuck and that they had gone over the undecideds and had\ncome to the conclusion that any event that they would put on would be so\ninsignificant as compared to what Taft threw a couple of weeks ago that it\nwould seem like a secondary party. Taft evidently has explained this to\nKissinger and, according to Taft, Kissinger agrees.\nEvidently, Taft has talked to Norton Simon and Simon has agreed to hold\na dinner on July 7. They will invite some of their celebrity friends. As you\nknow, Simon is now married to Jennifer Jones. According to Taft, Norton\nSimon is going to come aboard and Kissinger has agreed to do this event.\nObviously, the group is going to be liberal-oriented and Taft feels it will be per-\nfect for Kissinger.\nWhen Taft talked to Kissinger, Kissinger asked about the possibility of an\nevent on July 8 and this is when Taft told him about his conversation with\nZanuck and got Kissinger to agree to not having a celebrities event.\nThey have given a list of celebrities to Norton Simon which includes many of\nthe uncommitted people and Taft feels fairly sure that Simon is going to invite\nthem to the Kissinger dinner.\nIn terms of an event on July 14, Taft is very much in favor of this. He feels the\nguest list, including wives and girl friends, would carry the number upward to\nabout 300. He says that they had 150 committed prior to the dinner which\nMrs. Nixon attended and they have 16 new commitments from young people whom\nhe says, \"are damn good\". A list of the new commitments is attached.\nI have talked to Dr. Kissinger and he substantiates all of the above. It is his\nopinion that he should not go with any event with celebrities other than\n2.\nthe Simon dinner. I have asked Henry to call Norton Simon today (Wednesday)\nand encourage him to invite some of the uncommitted celebrities so that Henry\nwill have a chance to talk with them.\nOur next stop is to see whether you agree with the decision that there is not to be\na \"celebrity dinner\" at Zanuck's or Warner's home and that we will let the Simon\nevent serve that purpose.\nAPPROVE\nDISAPPROVE\nNext, we need to develop a formal plan for the event at the compound. My suggestion\nis that we take one of our best advance men - like Duval and put him on developing the\nscenario for the reception. We should handle this just as we would any Presidential\nevent and do the basic work on it, using 1701 only for input as to names and checking\nthem all with Taft.\nAPPROVE DEVELOPMENT OF A PLAN FOR A RECEPTION ON JULY 14\nDISAPPROVE\nOTHER\nJune 26, 1972\nEYES ONLY\nMEMORANDUM FOR:\nMR. H. R. HALDEMAN\nFROM:\nDWIGHT L. CHAPIN\nSUBJECT:\nCONVENTION\nMoore, Carruthers, Tex and I had lunch on Friday to discuss some ideas to sex\nup our Convention and to keep the President on the highest possible plane.\nI understand that it is in our best interest not to lock the President into anything\nspecific too soon. Therefore, we will just keep sending suggestions in. Toss those\nyou don't like and hold the others as options. We have some sensitional oppor-\ntunities to show off the President during our Convention.\nMONDAY, AUGUST 21, 1972\nA.\nMonday night - first night of Convention. The S '76 arrives Homestead.\n(A crowd of youth or closed.) The Convention is underway - a dead\nTV period so the cameras switch live to Homestead. The President\nescorts Mrs. Nixon to her helicopter which departs for the Convention\nHall. She will be there for Reagan and the key note. President Nixon\nboards his helicopter for the compound.\nB.\nHalf-way through the evening's activities, a couple of rumors start:\n1.\nThe President has summoned the Cabinet to Key Biscayne\nthis evening immediately after the Convention gavel is down.\n2.\nSpeculation in Chicago to the effect the President will address\nthe Legion tomorrow.\nC.\nWhen the evening session ends, the President has the Cabinet (maybe\nwe would add some 3 or 4 leaders or a couple of Governors) come to\nthe compound. The meeting is from 11:00 p.m. to midnight. There\nare many things we can do. But look at the effect. The networks will\ngo out of their minds. The next day any of those who attended will\nbe sought after and ideal for interviews. Mystique, drama and\n2.\nspeculation something is up. Plus it builds the President's team.\nTUESDAY, AUGUST 22, 1972\nA.\nThe President departs Tuesday morning in time to be in Chicago by 12:00 noon\nto address the Legion. He finishes about the time the third session of the\nConvention is called to order.\nZiegler does not confirm he is going until early Tuesday morning.\nWe go through Chicago around noon which gives us crowd possibilities.\nDaley should be on stage for the event.\nWe have focused attention on the President. Not on Richard Nixon sitting\nat the compound waiting to be nominated.\nWe have avoided having to do a raft of things in Miami in conjunction with\nthe Convention.\nHis remarks are key. They are defense oriented - the near end of the ten\nyear war . or something.\nHe is acclaimed by a \"non-partisan\" group.\nGuess what the evening news is all about!\nB.\nWhen the President arrives back at Key Biscayne, he goes to the compound.\nLater after the nomination (or maybe early before the nomination is placed)\nhe goes to the Youth Rally.\nWe are somewhat reluctant to have the President\ntwo probably to our advantage.\nevenings\" If we can create ulternates to two 15\nThe option to the Monday night arrival would be to have the President fly into\nChicago from Los Angeles or Washington on Tuesday for the Legion. He could\ngo on to Florida. After the nomination, he could go with the Cabinet meeting.\nSUGGESTED FOLLOW-UP POINTS\n1.\nBetween the two Conventions, the case between the Democratic platform and\nthe Democrats' performance in Congress should be exploited. A plan should be\ndeveloped by the Congressional Liaison Staff in conjunction with the Domestic\nCouncil Staff detailing activities designed to illustrate Congress' poor performance.\nThe activity should be designed for the period between the Conventions and should\nassume that there will be very little Presidential time available for his participation.\nAPPROVE\nDISAPPROVE\nMacGREGOR SHOULD GET THE ACTION\nMacGREGOR AND EHRLICHMAN TO GET THE ACTION\nHALDEMAN MEMORANDUM\nPRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM\n2.\nThe Domestic Council should be asked to come up with domestic related events during\nthe period between the Conventions. These activities again should be ones which can\nbe handled by people other than the President, as well as perhaps a couple of good\nrecommendations for Presidential activity. These activities should concentrate on special\nvoter bloc efforts, as well as key domestic efforts - in particular, taxation.\nAPPROVE\nDISAPPROVE\nDRAFT MEMO FOR HRH TO SEND EHRLICHMAN\nSHOULD BE PRESIDENTIAL MEMO TO EHRLICHMAN\n3.\nKen Cole's memorandum states that the President \"needs to rearticulate publicly his\ndomestic philosophy - what he stands for -- what he is for and against domestically.\"\nHe states a little later, \"..he needs to state his goals for the nation domestically and\nhow we are going to get there.\" I am not sure that the President knows what his\ndomestic philosophy is. It seems to me that we should have a paper drafted by the\nDomestic Council, in particular, by Ehrlichman or Cole, which does state what our\ndomestic philosophy is at this time.\nAPPROVE\nDISAPPROVE\nOTHER\n2.\n4.\nIt is suggested that perhaps the President consider a trip to Midway if all the indicators\nare right during the post-Democratic pre-Republican Conventions. The idea would be\nto dramatize troop cuts and meet with President Thieu.\nCHECK IDEA WITH KISSINGER\nDROP IDEA\nOTHER\n5.\nColson has recommended that the President be in Washington between Conventions and\ndo one or two highly visible domestic events, perhaps a veto or calling in some\nfood chain retailers.\nHAVE COLSON DEVELOP SPECIFIC PROPOSALS\nDROP\n6.\nKen Clawson has recommended that in the post-Convention period the President spend a\nweek to ten days personally meeting with key national, regional, and local Party officials\nto give them marching orders. He feels it should be kept a closed affair and that we\nshould let the press speculate. Should this idea be checked out with other political types?\nAPPROVE\nDISAPPROVE\nCHECK MITCHELL FIRST\n7.\nBuchanan and Haig both make the point, as well as Chapin, that we should not shoot\nevery one of our cannons at once. We need to dribble out our material so that\nMcGovern is kept on the defensive. Who is in charge of developing the release schedule\nfor the issue material? Is there any action which should be taken on this front or is it\nunder control?\nCOMMENT:\n8.\nRumsfeld says we should enhance the President's advantage of incumbency by finding\nways to contrast his Presidential actions with the opponent's rhetoric. I would like to\nask Rumsfeld for some specific ways of doing this - examples or techniques of how he\nwould go about it.\nAPPROVE\nDISAPPROVE\n3.\n9.\nClawson raises a point which many others mention in terms of the problem of the\neconomy and unemployment figures. He says historically the Democrats lived from\nthese issues. He proposes creating an almost separate, well-staffed, well-financed\ninternal group whose job would be to solely create an image of economic well-\nbeing in the country. He goes on to advocate a counterattack mechanism on the\neconomy to be headed by Colson in collaboration with Mitchell. Should we put\nthis together? Under Colson?\nAPPROVE\nDISAPPROVE\nCOLSON SHOULD CHECK MITCHELL\nCOLSON SHOULD COORDINATE WITH SHULTZ\nDROP IT\n10.\nBuchanan in his original memorandum on the McGovern attack, as well as Ray Price,\nsuggested we nail McGovern early on his radicalism. I assume that you and the\nAttorney General are signing off on the action memorandum which Buchanan sent in.\nYES\nNO\nOTHER\n11.\nColson's memorandum had several specific items regarding things that should be hit\nin the domestic area and action that the President could take or meetings which could\nbe held, etc. It was his May 17th memorandum which was an addendum to the\nmemorandum which I am addressing myself to. I assume that you will act independently\non that memorandum.\nYES\nNO\n12.\nDo you agree that we should set up some villains - bureaucracy, big spenders,\nabortionists, and perhaps a couple of others and start building them as straw enemies\nnow? We can work up speech material and other facts which the surrogates can start\ncranking into their talks.\nAPPROVE\nDISAPPROVE\n13.\nIn regard to the credibility and trust issue, do you concur that our surrogates, our\nConvention apparatus, and everyone should be mobilized in order to plug continually\nthe credibility of the President?\nAPPROVE\nDISAPPROVE\nHAVE BUCHANAN DEVELOP SPECIFICS THAT CAN ACT AS SPEECH INSERTS\nHAVE PRICE AND SPEECH WRITERS DEVELOP SPECIFICS\n4.\n14.\nClawson feels that with the media our strategy must be to discredit and to spotlight\nthe unworkability of almost everything McGovern proposes. The Administration\nofficials must ask publicly the hard questions since the media will not. Should we\ndraft for our surrogates a series of questions which they can start asking about\nMcGovern currently? We can update and move it along as the campaign escalates.\nOur first step would be to do questions which can be asked prior to the Democratic\nConvention.\nAPPROVE\nDISAPPROVE\nHAVE BUCHANAN DO IT\nBUCHANAN SHOULD DO IT AND MITCHELL SHOULD APPROVE\nOTHER\n15.\nColson advocates our contriving adverse polls to let the American people know that this\nelection is a real test and that Nixon does not have it won. He feels we need to clearly\nfind a way to scare the hell out of people at the prospect of McGovern's candidacy. He\nalso wants to start a \"real hatchet operation\".\nShould Colson go ahead with this?\nAPPROVE\nDISAPPROVE\nWITH MITCHELL'S APPROVAL ONLY\nOTHER\n5.\nC.\nGENERAL THOUGHTS ON STRATEGY, ISSUES, TIMING AND\nPOINTS OF ATTACK\n1.\nRealizing the credibility and wisdom in playing off our strong\nsuit of foreign policy, I still see a need (as do several others) to\nengineer a play for the domestic area. There is absolutely no\nreason to let McGovern force us early on into a completely\ndefense posture vis-a-vis domestic affairs. Perhaps the whole key\nto our domestic affairs attack is our pleading the case for getting\nthe economy in order and stressing the merits of the President's\neconomic policy and his courage in moving into his reordering\nof the economy. We can tie directly to what McGovern's\npolicies would do to economic stability and taxation and make\nour charge about the \"McGovern Market.'\n2.\nI like Rumsfeld's idea that we find ways to contrast Presidential\nactions with McGovern's rhetoric. The question becomes,\n\"How?\" We need to get some specifics here and it should be\npart of the follow-up to this memorandum.\n3.\nI made a point in my original memorandum, and Buchanan made\nthe same point (others alluded to it) of the critical timing in terms\nof launching our various attacks. We must make certain that by\nthe middle of October we have some initiative left. I favor putting\na lot of stock in our ability to react quickly enough to issue\ncharges so as to have the public feel that we are actually on the\noffensive side and that it is McGovern who is trying to defend.\nAs I stated before, this has got to tie in to Pete Dailey's operation,\nas well as with those who are monitoring the issues for you.\n4.\nSafire makes the point about picking a villain to attack. This\nis the same concept that Connally expressed to the senior staff\nat Blair House about attacking straw enemies. We should take the\nstraw enemies such as the bureaucracy, big spenders, perhaps\nCongress (I'm not sure on Congress), drug pushers, the abortionists,\nand others and start building them as giant enemies to the general\npublic now. We can demagogue these enemies through our\nsurrogates in order to insure that when the President takes them\non in the heat of the campaign they represent more of a threat\nto our constituency than they do presently.\n6.\n5.\nAlthough others did not mention it specifically, I want to re-\nemphasize my point that we keep the debate on issues on the\nbroadest possible range. A one-issue campaign such as law and\norder was in 1970 should be avoided since it does not play\nto our advantage. Credibility is the real danger here. The\nexception as stated before would be a foreign policy crisis.\n6.\nVirtually everyone is on the \"credibility or trust\" attack which is\nexpected. Everything we do beginning now should build credibility.\nWe should have a credibility desk, people who are ginning up examples\nof how credible this Administration has been. We should put out\nfront a President and an Administration that has done everything\npossible within our bounds. For what we have not succeeded on,\nwe should blame Congress, the bureaucracy and people who would\nundermine what is in the best interests of the country. All the\nsurrogates, in particular the Convention apparatus, our advertising,\nother world leaders, whatever we have should be used to build the\nPresident's credibility.\nSUGGESTED FOLLOW-UP POINTS\n1.\nBetween the two Conventions, the case between the Democratic platform and\nthe Democrats' performance in Congress should be exploited. A plan should be\ndeveloped by the Congressional Liaison Staff in conjunction with the Domestic\nCouncil Staff detailing activities designed to illustrate Congress' poor performance.\nThe activity should be designed for the period between the Conventions and should\nassume that there will be very little Presidential time available for his participation.\nAPPROVE\nDISAPPROVE\nMacGREGOR SHOULD GET THE ACTION\nMacGREGOR AND EHRLICHMAN TO GET THE ACTION\nHALDEMAN MEMORANDUM\nPRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM\n2.\nThe Domestic Council should be asked to come up with domestic related events during\nthe period between the Conventions. These activities again should be ones which can\nbe handled by people other than the President, as well as perhaps a couple of good\nrecommendations for Presidential activity. These activities should concentrate on special\nvoter bloc efforts, as well as key domestic efforts - in particular, taxation.\nAPPROVE\nDISAPPROVE\nDRAFT MEMO FOR HRH TO SEND EHRLICHMAN\nSHOULD BE PRESIDENTIAL MEMO TO EHRLICHMAN\n3.\nKen Cole's memorandum states that the President \"needs to rearticulate publicly his\ndomestic philosophy - what he stands for - what he is for and against domestically.\"\nHe states a little later, \" ..he needs to state his goals for the nation domestically and\nhow we are going to get there.\" I am not sure that the President knows what his\ndomestic philosophy is. It seems to me that we should have a paper drafted by the\nDomestic Council, in particular, by Ehrlichman or Cole, which does state what our\ndomestic philosophy is at this time.\nAPPROVE\nDISAPPROVE\nOTHER\n2.\n4.\nIt is suggested that perhaps the President consider a trip to Midway if all the indicators\nare right during the post-Democratic pre-Republican Conventions. The idea would be\nto dramatize troop cuts and meet with President Thieu.\nCHECK IDEA WITH KISSINGER\nDROP IDEA\nOTHER\n5.\nColson has recommended that the President be in Washington between Conventions and\ndo one or two highly visible domestic events, perhaps a veto or calling in some\nfood chain retailers.\nHAVE COLSON DEVELOP SPECIFIC PROPOSALS\nDROP\n6.\nKen Clawson has recommended that in the post-Convention period the President spend a\nweek to ten days personally meeting with key national, regional, and local Party officials\nto give them marching orders. He feels it should be kept a closed affair and that we\nshould let the press speculate. Should this idea be checked out with other political types?\nAPPROVE\nDISAPPROVE\nCHECK MITCHELL FIRST\n7.\nBuchanan and Haig both make the point, as well as Chapin, that we should not shoot\nevery one of our cannons at once. We need to dribble out our material so that\nMcGovern is kept on the defensive. Who is in charge of developing the release schedule\nfor the issue material? Is there any action which should be taken on this front or is it\nunder control?\nCOMMENT:\n8.\nRumsfeld says we should enhance the President's advantage of incumbency by finding\nways to contrast his Presidential actions with the opponent's rhetoric. I would like to\nask Rumsfeld for some specific ways of doing this - examples or techniques of how he\nwould go about it.\nAPPROVE\nDISAPPROVE\n3.\n9.\nClawson raises a point which many others mention in terms of the problem of the\neconomy and unemployment figures. He says historically the Democrats lived from\nthese issues. He proposes creating an almost separate, well-staffed, well-financed\ninternal group whose job would be to solely create an image of economic well-\nbeing in the country. He goes on to advocate a counterattack mechanism on the\neconomy to be headed by Colson in collaboration with Mitchell. Should we put\nthis together? Under Colson?\nAPPROVE\nDISAPPROVE\nCOLSON SHOULD CHECK MITCHELL\nCOLSON SHOULD COORDINATE WITH SHULTZ\nDROP IT\n10.\nBuchanan in his original memorandum on the McGovern attack, as well as Ray Price,\nsuggested we nail McGovern early on his radicalism. I assume that you and the\nAttorney General are signing off on the action memorandum which Buchanan sent in.\nYES\nNO\nOTHER\n11.\nColson's memorandum had several specific items regarding things that should be hit\nin the domestic area and action that the President could take or meetings which could\nbe held, etc. It was his May 17th memorandum which was an addendum to the\nmemorandum which I am addressing myself to. I assume that you will act independently\non that memorandum.\nYES\nNO\n12.\nDo you agree that we should set up some villains - bureaucracy, big spenders,\nabortionists, and perhaps a couple of others and start building them as straw enemies\nnow? We can work up speech material and other facts which the surrogates can start\ncranking into their talks.\nAPPROVE\nDISAPPROVE\n13.\nIn regard to the credibility and trust issue, do you concur that our surrogates, our\nConvention apparatus, and everyone should be mobilized in order to plug continually\nthe credibility of the President?\nAPPROVE\nDISAPPROVE\nHAVE BUCHANAN DEVELOP SPECIFICS THAT CAN ACT AS SPEECH INSERTS\nHAVE PRICE AND SPEECH WRITERS DEVELOP SPECIFICS\n4.\n14.\nClawson feels that with the media our strategy must be to discredit and to spotlight\nthe unworkability of almost everything McGovern proposes. The Administration\nofficials must ask publicly the hard questions since the media will not. Should we\ndraft for our surrogates a series of questions which they can start asking about\nMcGovern currently? We can update and move it along as the campaign escalates.\nOur first step would be to do questions which can be asked prior to the Democratic\nConvention.\nAPPROVE\nDISAPPROVE\nHAVE BUCHANAN DO IT\nBUCHANAN SHOULD DO IT AND MITCHELL SHOULD APPROVE\nOTHER\n15.\nColson advocates our contriving adverse polls to let the American people know that this\nelection is a real test and that Nixon does not have it won. He feels we need to clearly\nfind a way to scare the hell out of people at the prospect of McGovern's candidacy. He\nalso wants to start a \"real hatchet operation\".\nShould Colson go ahead with this?\nAPPROVE\nDISAPPROVE\nWITH MITCHELL'S APPROVAL ONLY\nOTHER\n5,\nC.\nGENERAL THOUGHTS ON STRATEGY, ISSUES, TIMING AND\nPOINTS OF ATTACK\n1.\nRealizing the credibility and wisdom in playing off our strong\nsuit of foreign policy, I still see a need (as do several others) to\nengineer a play for the domestic area. There is absolutely no\nreason to let McGovern force us early on into a completely\ndefense posture vis-a-vis domestic affairs. Perhaps the whole key\nto our domestic affairs attack is our pleading the case for getting\nthe economy in order and stressing the merits of the President's\neconomic policy and his courage in moving into his reordering\nof the economy. We can tie directly to what McGovern's\npolicies would do to economic stability and taxation and make\nour charge about the \"McGovern Market.\"\n2.\nI like Rumsfeld's idea that we find ways to contrast Presidential\nactions with McGovern's rhetoric. The question becomes,\n\"How?\" We need to get some specifics here and it should be\npart of the follow-up to this memorandum.\n3,\nI made a point in my original memorandum, and Buchanan made\nthe same point (others alluded to it) of the critical timing in terms\nof launching our various attacks. We must make certain that by\nthe middle of October we have some initiative left. I favor putting\na lot of stock in our ability to react quickly enough to issue\ncharges so as to have the public feel that we are actually on the\noffensive side and that it is McGovern who is trying to defend.\nAs I stated before, this has got to tie in to Pete Dailey's operation,\nas well as with those who are monitoring the issues for you,\n4,\nSafire makes the point about picking a villain to attack. This\nis the same concept that Connally expressed to the senior staff\nat Blair House about attacking straw enemies. We should take the\nstraw enemies such as the bureaucracy, big spenders, perhaps\nCongress (I'm not sure on Congress), drug pushers, the abortionists,\nand others and start building them as giant enemies to the general\npublic now. We can demagogue these enemies through our\nsurrogates in order to insure that when the President takes them\non in the heat of the campaign they represent more of a threat\nto our constituency than they do presently.\n6.\n5.\nAlthough others did not mention it specifically, I want to re-\nemphasize my point that we keep the debate on issues on the\nbroadest possible range. A one-issue campaign such as law and\norder was in 1970 should be avoided since it does not play\nto our advantage. Credibility is the real danger here. The\nexception as stated before would be a foreign policy crisis.\n6.\nVirtually everyone is on the \"credibility or trust\" attack which is\nexpected. Everything we do beginning now should build credibility.\nWe should have a credibility desk, people who are ginning up examples\nof how credible this Administration has been. We should put out\nfront a President and an Administration that has done everything\npossible within our bounds. For what we have not succeeded on,\nwe should blame Congress, the bureaucracy and people who would\nundermine what is in the best interests of the country. All the\nsurrogates, in particular the Convention apparatus, our advertising,\nother world leaders, whatever we have should be used to build the\nPresident's credibility.\nJune 9, 1972\nDETERMINED TO BE AN\n2:00 p.m.\nADMINISTRATIVE MARKING\nE.O. 12065, Section\nBy run\nMEMORANDUM FOR:\nH. R. HALDEMAN\nFROM:\nDWIGHT L. CHAPIN\nSUBJECT:\nGeneral Thoughts\nSome ideas were generated from the trip to California. Check\nor comment on any which you feel have merit.\n1.\nHave Julie address a high school graduation, perhaps\na vocational college. We would keep it short and have\nit reprinted in Readers' Digest.\n2.\nMake Len Garment our Hugh Sidey and get the\nNewsweek/Washington Post syndicate to run him. He\nhas the flair and the emotional understanding of the\nPresident.\n3.\nGive Dick Moore the job of figuring out how NBC or\nMetromedia is purchased and develop a plan on it.\nWe could establish our own mini-network or better yet,\nthink big.\n4.\nGet educational TV, Metromedia or whoever to rerun the\nJuly 4 Archives speech.\n5.\nToday McGovern is producing slick TV, spending a\nfortune and using more Madison Avenue techniques and\npeople than we ever did or will. Tomorrow McGovern will\nbe the poor boy. We will be the big spenders, the slick\nones and be torn apart by the media.\nLet's attack McGovern now. Let's say now that McGovern\nis a TV age product who is meeting only the test of the\ntube, not leadership.\n2\n6.\nSend Julie, Tricia or both to the Summer Olympics.\nThe best dates are from September 1 to 4. ABC plans\nmassive coverage and we could do a lot of color things.\n7.\nWolper says Teddy White told him, \"McGovern is not a\nsmart man\". Maybe we should get this talk circulated\namong the press.\nCC:\nDick Moore\nJune 28, 1972\n11:45 a. m.\nMEMORANDUM FOR:\nDICK MOORE\nFROM:\nDWIGHT L. CHAPIN\nI hope you follow-up with someone concerning your thoughts\nabout women and the Republican Convention. We tend to\ndownplay the importance of women in so much of what we do\nand I think that If we take that attitude concerning the Convention\nand the election we're going to find ourselves in deep trouble.\nThe idea you expressed about some of the trashy looking types\nthat will be used at the Democratic Convention and our putting\nforward good solid positive-looking citizens at our Convention,\nI think is outstanding. We can use housewives, secretaries,\nteachers, nurses, you name it. This should all start with the\nplatform hearings and go right through the campaign.\nOne thing that we should keep in mind is the big issue that\nsingle working girls have with the tax burden they must carry.\nI'll bet If you took a poll among the unmarried secretaries in\nthe White House you would find the tax issue is one of their\nmajor gripes."
}