Ask the Scholar
Document scope · 1 page
Scholar
Ask about this object, its catalog metadata, its source description, or the page inventory.
For page-specific OCR and visual context, open one of the page chats.
Source Description
This file contains:
From Bill Carruthers to Fred Rheinstein RE: planning for the Republican National Convention. Second page only. 1 pg. [Subject: Campaign] [Memo], 7/22/1972
From Tex McCrary to Chapin and Moore RE: impact of the 1972 Republican National Convention. Handwritten note added by unknown. 4 pgs. [Subject: Campaign] [Memo], no date
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
26144464
label
WHSF: Contested, 2-71
core
doc
dtoType
document
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
26144464
sourceUrl
contentType
document
title
WHSF: Contested, 2-71
description
This file contains:
From Bill Carruthers to Fred Rheinstein RE: planning for the Republican National Convention. Second page only. 1 pg. [Subject: Campaign] [Memo], 7/22/1972
From Tex McCrary to Chapin and Moore RE: impact of the 1972 Republican National Convention. Handwritten note added by unknown. 4 pgs. [Subject: Campaign] [Memo], no date
citationUrl
collections
Richard M. Nixon's Returned Materials Collection
Contested Materials Files
imageCount
1
hasImages
yes
source
import
hasTranscription
no
Source extras
naId
26144464
levelOfDescription
fileUnit
recordType
description
ocrSource
nara-archive
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
document
mediaId
b04f3dc568957a40
ocrText
Richard Nixon Presidential Library
Contested Materials Collection
Folder List
Box Number
Folder Number
Document Date
No Date
Subject
Document Type
Document Description
2
71
7/22/1972
Campaign
Memo
From Bill Carruthers to Fred Rheinstein RE:
planning for the Republican National
Convention. Second page only. 1 pg.
2
71
>
Campaign
Memo
From Tex McCrary to Chapin and Moore
RE: impact of the 1972 Republican National
Convention. Handwritten note added by
unknown. 4 pgs.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Page 1 of 1
1972 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION
COMMITTEE ON ARRANGEMENTS
MEMORANDUM
To:
Bill Carruthers
Date
July 22, 1972
From:
Fred Rheinstein
Page 2
Subject:
ADMINISTRATIVELY CONFIDENTIAL
The networks would probably (truculently) go along
with one floor camera, but it is absolutely in our
best interest to have two (or three, if they would
put them on the floor).
The Democratic Convention reaffirmed our longstand-
ing position that the number of cameras on the floor
bears no relationship to the number of interviews
done by the floor reporters. They simply do the
work from high camera baskets which made the young,
amply coiffed, lean Democratic delegates look poorly.
I believe it a safe generalization to say that our
delegates have less hair, fatter necks and rounder
tummies. Mr. Herman is adamant on maintaining one
camera on the floor.
3.
We are in tough negotiations over the amount of money
to be given the Pool for lighting. The Democrats (I
believe) came up with a little more than $5,000. We
have much greater lighting requirements due to our
multi-screen operation - the networks know it and
want more money. I requested $10,000 and hoped we
could do it for that. Mr. Herman has authorized
$5,000. I would like to pay as little as possible
and will proceed to negotiate as hard as I can. The
problem is that we are trying to seduce, not being
seduced. I fear Mr. Herman is confused about who is
the hooker and who is the hookee.
FR:es
CC: Dwight Chapin
Bill Timmons
Rt. Hon. Mark Goode
PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL
TO:
Dwight Chapin
Dick Moore
FROM:
Tex McCrary
SUBJECT:
Convention Impact
1. At the discussion of the convention program with both of you
during which I voiced the vehement objection to an opening impression
from which the President will have to struggle to escape, I have since
thoroughly reviewed every aspect and accent and focal point, every
headline, picture and caption that might come out of it, and this is my
summary judgement:
2. This is not Nixon's convention, it is Goldwater's. This is not the
Spirit of :76 or even 172 it is '64 and '48. It is the convention that
produced the LBJ landslide, and Truman's upset of Tom Dewey.
3. It makes the McGovern convention by comparison look like
Oklahoma and South Pacific and My Fair Lady and Funny Girl and
Fiddler on the Roof.
4. The McGovern convention made rising stars; the Nixon convention
uses faded stars.
5. You vote that you open with a woman -- Ann Armstrong is not a
woman, she is fat cat Texas king ranch.
6. The dominate name that hits the eye and ear first is Ronald Reagan,
who could not carry his own state even against Pat Brown this year. In
the year when George Wallace made tax reform an issue with as much
sex appeal as busing, Ronald Reagan comes through still as the millionaire
governor who paid no state taxes.
7. Reagan will overshadow the only black face in the opening line-up,
Ed Brooke who is scarcely a hero to blacks and has been often as
maverick as Javits.
2
8. In the year where there is a chance that the President can crack
the critical Jewish vote in the key cities, the only Jew prominent in the
line-up of your convention is Sammy Davis, Jr. who will be remembered
throughout the South as a black who married a white girl and then dis-
carded her. And you have him singing the National Anthem! Why not
Sinatra, whom somebody wanted to take to Moscow.
9. In a year when with the help of the Jewish vote and the split in
labor, you might crack Chicago and Los Angeles and Miami and New York
City, the only voice of the cities is lost behind Reagan and Brooke in the
key-note quartet -- Mayor Luger of Indianapolis. And labor is as
speechless here as in McGovern's show.
10. When Dwight said that "Wo have to work Goldwater in somewhere, "
he needn't worry -- Barry is already everywhere, the spirit of ¹64.
11. It is true that you have a touch of class in Jimmy Stewart and
even Clint Eastwood and Johnny Cash; and nostalgia in John Wayne and
even Pat Boone; and both class and nostalgia in Mamie Eisenhower
but from the opening shot of this monumental bore, I keep expecting to
see Bob Doe or Ronald Reagan introduce Jimmy Hoffa and Harold Janine
and Carswell and Haynsworth and Martha Mitchell and Hedda Hopper and
all the other grinning ghosts working to help McGovern win in the closing
week of '72 as Humphrey was winning at the finish in '68.
12. The feel and smell of this Nixon convention of '72 is frighteningly
reminiscent of the euphoria that beat Tom Dewey -- I stayed for Dewey's
closing Madison Square Garden. rally in '48 and watched in horror an
audience walk out on his speech and next day on NBC I said, "Last night,
Tom Dewey lost the elction. 11
13. The insensitivity of this spectacle is frighteningly reminiscent
of the insolated arrogance of the Taft gang, which we attacked in the
Madison Square Garden rally for Eisenhower in the winter of '52. And
in Chicago, starting with the young Texans I brought to that rally, Taft
was routed the way the McGovern gang took Humphrey and Wallace and
Muskie and Jackson and Meany and Daley. The same tide is rising again.
But for the Democrats.
-3-
14. Now I know why that battle cry for the 172 campaign came from - -
"Nixon now more than ever" is "in your heart you know he's right", plus
8 and spelled backwards, but not in Hebrew.
15. Johnny Unitas in this line-up has only three pass receivers
Mamie and Pat and the President and nothing but holes in his pockets
to give him protection until he can get rid of the ball.
16. The President acceptance speech better be better than Lincoln's
Gettysburg Address -- and it better be full of quotes that will finally get
him into Bartlett's and give him a headline for the campaign equal to
"I never shoot blácks".
17. And you better figure out a way fast to get Kissinger and Connally
into the Convention line-up; and get Agnew into black-face to play Jimmy
Brown.
18. Also "the only man who can beat Nixon is Nixon" now he can
add the architects of this convention to that list of one.
19. After the Peking trip, I wrote across the bundle of headlines:
"Look Out for Loose Boards". In this convention structure, it is hard
to find anything but loose boards.
20. In introducing Agnew at the Heritage Dinner I tried to make two
points: "Not since Disraeli has any immigrant Jew been brought to such
biblical power by any great power as Richard Nixon has given to Dr.
Henry Kissinger. In America no political party can become, or deserves
to become a majority party, until minorities feel at home within it. 11 This
Nixon convention, as outlined, even to Archie Bunker is pure early
California WASP, Right parade.
21. In terms of show biz there isn't a belly laugh or a roar, not even
a chuckle or a knuckle in the whole lineup no sex, only X. In terms
of drama, no suspense, no gut emotion except Mamie, no encore! In
terms of news, no headlines. In terms of history, it is as sharply
focused and significant and electric as Dave Mahoney's plans for the
Bicentennial.
-4-
New Subject: Had a good meeting with three key guys on Agnew's staff --
Summers, Damgaard and Goodearle. Based on working with them by
phone on the Zionist and Heritage Dinners, they seemed genuinely
hospitable, not at all resentful or suspicious at my office. To sit with
them from time to time for suggestions, review, and preview. They
accept even though Connally is my friend, I am not his man, As I
have suggested to Dick, perhaps the best way I can be helpful to all of
you from now on is to be helpful as I can to Agnew -- I think your boss
is going to need a very good fullback to score on the ground, the muddy
ground, until his instincts and scars tell him it is safe to put the ball in
the air.
New subject: Around John Price and Queens, which is Archie Bunker
country and the key to the New York State election, we will try to set up
a perfect prototype campaign for any strategic urban area. In that
territory Agnew will have more candle power than any movie star,
second only to the President, if the President comes into the climax.
My gut instinct and scars tell me that this weird campaign will be won
in Hanoi, Wall Street, and other chancey places like Queens - not on
Pennsylvania Avenue.
####