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    "title": "WHSF: Contested, 3-42",
    "description": "This file contains:\n\nRecord of a conversation between Colson and Al Sindlinger RE: breaking news on various campaign-related issues, particularly with regard to Russia and Vietnam. 4 pgs. [Subject: Campaign] [Other Document], 4/17/1972\n\nRecord of a conversation between Colson and Sindlinger RE: campaign polls. 1 pg. [Subject: Campaign] [Other Document], 4/17/1972",
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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\n3\n42\n4/17/1972\nCampaign\nOther Document\nRecord of a conversation between Colson\nand Al Sindlinger RE: breaking news on\nvarious campaign-related issues, particularly\nwith regard to Russia and Vietnam. 4 pgs.\n3\n42\n4/17/1972\nCampaign\nOther Document\nRecord of a conversation between Colson\nand Sindlinger RE: campaign polls. 1 pg.\nMonday, October 25, 2010\nPage 1 of 1\nConversation with Al Sindlinger, April 17, 1972\nS: Now, I've got this question I've been asking, it's been on for about 12\ndays now\ndid I tell you the questionnaire?\nC: I haven't seen it, Al.\nS: I should have sent it to you. The first question, \"have you read or heard\nanything on the radio or television lately about the fact that the war in Vietnam\nhas been stepped up?\" And we're getting about 80% saying yes to it. \"In\nreference to the war in Vietnam, what is the most recent news that you recall\nreading or hearing about And the daily headlines are played back for about\n12-15 hours and.. last week we had about 50 guys that refused and then that\ndisappeared. Yesterday's interviewing, of course, was coming up on the\nRussians. The Russians are finally admitting they are in Vietnam, these\ncomments are coming through and the hawks are coming out, I would say,\nwe've almost got 40% hawks now.\nC: Is that right\nS: They're coming out.\nC: Are you getting that last night after the bombing?\nS: Yes. \"Let's get the goddamned thing over with\", \"What's Russia doing\nin this ?\" and also I'm picking up some reaction that Nixon should cancel his\nRussian trip.\nC: Jesus, that's fascinating. As this breaks, you know, we're going to want\nto really play it.\nS: Now, what's going through my mind now, is what am I going, what is he going\nto do with it ? This is a fantastic setting.\nC: Well, I think what we want to do with it Al is bring you down here and have\na press conference. I'd like to play this as a hell of a press thing. You could\nmake some national publicity out of this.\nS: Well, now, remember I told you that I did the study on\n's Prime\nMinister ? Did I tell you about that?\nC: I think you did.\n2.\nS: And we were getting this high response among females who said that\ndrugs is not our number one problem and they were talking about food prices\nand this was run just before the Connally thing. Well, I want to put that\nquestion back on. I can't put it on right now, but I want to put that back on\nand I threw it on last night for a few KN interviews, I had it on when I was\nmonitoring and the food price thing I think has disappeared.\nC: Isn't that marvelous.\nS: That thing has disappeared and now they're talking about it is back as the\nnumber one problem -- drugs -- but what is coming through here is that the\nsize of doves is not changing, that's just a straight through and we're getting\nvoluntary remarks \"that stupid Muskie, what the hell is he talking about\", \"this\nis not the time to talk like that this is the time to rally\", he's reallyburying\nhimself. He's dead.\nbeen\nC: Have you/getting a lot of comments like that, Al?\nS: Yes. And Mc Govern negative reactions. All of his support is in that 20%.\nHis solid support is there and the idea of cutting taxes and promising all this,\nthat's poppycock, let's get to the issues. The issue is inflation and getting the\nwar inVietnam over.\nC: Well, those are the two we're working on. We're in the right posture there.\nHow soon could you get figures that would enable you to come and testify?\nS: Well, I ought to have 3 or 4 days of the Russian attitude. Did I hear someplace\nthat there's a, the night session of the Foreign Relations Committee\nC: No, it's this morning but it will be televised, retelevised tonight.\nS: I think I ought to pick up some reactions to that. What do you think will\nhappen there ?\nC: Well, they'll give Bill Rogers a working over, but he'll be good, he's great.\nS: What's the movtive?\nC: Oh, political. It's going to revitalize the war issue and get everybody mad\nat the Administration. Ithink it's going to work just the other way. Because the\npublic figure will after 2 weeks of raiding the South, what in hell is wrong with\nbombing them?\nS: And that's exactly what we're getting. And as , the reaction is we're not\ndoing enough. We have a couple people mentioning the atomic bomb. This is\nfrightening.\n3.\nIf\nC: It doesn't frighten me, I'd be all for it. think it would end the goddamned thing.\nS: It's pretty clear that Russia now is certainly admitting that they're there.\nNow why would the Russians be so stupid\nC: Well, because I think they figure they can't get away with not doing it, Al.\nS: Forced into the problem.\nC: How soon could you have a press conference down here if we were to arrange\nit?\nS: Well, now would that be good though?\nC Hell, I think it would be terrific. Come down to Washington and say that you've\nbeen polling, in addition to your economic polls you've been conducting polls on\nthe public's attitude onthe war and you find it very startling.\nS: Wouldn't it be better if I arranged it myself rather than you?\nC: Oh, we wouldn't,\nwhat we would do is if you had\nS: but\nC: What we would do, A1, is if you set it up down here where you'll get twice\nas much publicity as you could get in Swarthmore. Then we can tip off friends\nin the networks and they'll come and cover it. You see, we can magnifiy\nyour publicity, like we did before.\nS: Alright, that's the way to do it. What about\nC: You'd set it up, we wouldn't set it up. You come down here, you announce\nit in advance and then we tip off the people and that way we can assure that\nyou'll get a lot of national press.\nS: Well, I think we ought to have about 3 or 4 more days on the Russian thing\nC: Well, then let's shoot for Wednesday or Thursday, could you have your\ndata tabulated by then\nS: Couldn't have it by Wednesday, I have a client meeting with Genesco in\nNashville tomorrow and I'd need Wednesday\ncould do it Thursday.\nC: That would be beautiful, ideal. I'll tell you why. The American Society of\nNewspaper Editors are here in Washington and they would read it locally and\nyou'd probably get some editorials out of it. See this kind of thing gets you\nsome good publicity because it gets thatname out in front of the public and\nit would be carried, there's no queston about that\n4.\nS: Well, this is the most fantastic study.\nC: I think we ought to do it. Let's shoot for Thursday. Why don't you keep\ngoing, I'll keep in touch with you.\nConversation with Al Sindlinger, April 17, 1972\nS: Sunday, interviewing and Jesus, Muskie and Humphrey have collapsed.\nAnd Wallace and McGovern have shot way up and Wallace has got himself in\na box because he's now appealing to the doves who want taxes cut. Boy has\nhe got himself in a box.\nC: Well, let's see, he doesn't care where his votes come from!\nS: I know but that's not a very solid faith. But, on females Humphrey's down\nto 7.2 and Muskie to 3.6, Wallace is up to 11. 7, Nixon is up to 38. 7 on the\nfirst choice among males. Nixon's just lost a little no, it's 51. 2, he's up.\nHumphrey's 6.1, Muskie's 4.3, Kennedy 3.7, Wallace 13. 5, McGovern 4.9.\nC: How many interviews is that\nS: It's about 600.\nC: That's a pretty good sample. I wonder if you could tab those dove/hawk\nquestions.\nS: That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to cross tab them.\nC: That would be fascinating.\nS: And the same thing is happening today from the interviews I've been listening\nto.\nC: The same thing on the hawk/dove, bombing?\nS: Yep. So, this is will wreck Humphrey and Muskie.\nC: That's putting them on the limb.\nS: And this Wallace coming up, that's prettyinteresting.\nC: The troube is these guys don't stay wrecked very long. That's the trouble.\nS: Well, I think Muskie's done.\nC: Well, it's going to be a hell of a ballgame. I'll be anxious to hear what you\nget on that bombing results. And I'll send youup that list of people right away.\nS: So I'm working on the date. But isn' that fascinating\nC: I should say.\nS: Just what a couple of days can do.\nC: We want a couple days like this just before the election. I'll be back to you."
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