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    "title": "WHSF: Contested, 4-43",
    "description": "This file contains:\n\nFrom Colson to Haldeman RE: Tom Evans and fighting within the Republican Party. 1 pg. [Subject: Campaign] [Memo], 11/16/1972\n\nFrom Colson to Hallett RE: creating a realistic appraisal of the 1972 presidential election for posterity. 2 pgs. [Subject: Campaign] [Letter], 11/2/1972",
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    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/21/1447/26144721/content/presidential-libraries/nixon/RN-RET/2546065/Contested-Box-4/Contested-04-43.pdf",
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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\n4\n43\n11/16/1972\nCampaign\nMemo\nFrom Colson to Haldeman RE: Tom Evans\nand fighting within the Republican Party. 1\npg.\n4\n43\n11/2/1972\nCampaign\nLetter\nFrom Colson to Hallett RE: creating a\nrealistic appraisal of the 1972 presidential\nelection for posterity. 2 pgs.\nWednesday, August 25, 2010\nPage 1 of 1\nNovember 16, 1972\nMEMORANDUM FOR:\nH. R. HALDEMAN\nFROM:\nCHARLES COLSON\nSUBJECT:\nTom Evans/RNC\nI was told by a friend of mine at the RNC yesterday that Tom Evans\nis about to blow his cork. He thinks that we badly mistreated him\nand the RNC during the campaign. He has been on the verge of\ntalking to reporters badmouthing the White House and the\nPresident, etc. Tom is also on the verge of quitting -- and\nperhaps with a blast at us.\nWe don't need this right now within the Party. Tom has been out\nof sorts for months, as you know. Personally I've never thought\nhe was worth much but on the other hand he is co-chairman of\nthe Republican National Committee and a blast from him would be\nwell publicized and damaging.\nMy informant suggested that a call from you or obviously one from\nthe President merely thanking him for a good job in the campaign\nand urging him to continue his work for the Party whatever he does\nwould deter him from doing this. Tom, as you know, has been a\nbig money man in the past and I would think from all standpoints\nwe would want to try to keep him reasonably happy, If possible.\nI would, therefore, recommend that you call him unless you think\nthat perhaps the President should. I would be glad to do it but I\ndon't think it would carry enough weight coming from me.\nNovember 2, 1972\nDear Doug:\nI have your latest missal of October 24 which I find incompre-\nhensible. Either I am getting very dull-witted as the campaign\ngrinds to an end or else Harvard is doing something to you. I\nhave no idea what you're talking about on compounding immaturity,\nyours against mine, but I'll be glad to let one measure up against\nthe other any day! I'm glad you liked the one speech of the Vice\nPresident's before the Conservative Party dinner, especially since\nit was based on your draft. I assume you also recognized signifi-\ncant portions of your earlier submission in the President's radio\nspeech that I pointed out to you in my last letter.\nJust for old time's sake, why don't you call me this weekend and\ntell me how we're going to do in Massachusetts. I still think Inman\nSquare tells us a lot.\nSince obviously the law school gives you nothing better to do than\nwrite snotty letters and long speeches, why don't you prepare an\narticle on what the real meaning of this election was. Watch the\nliberal media turn on McGovern like piranhas. They will never be\nable to admit that the movement was defeated or that their ideas\nwere out of step with the mainstream of American thought. They\nwill have to come to the conclusion that their ideas were right and\nthat the time was right for the movement, but that poor, bumbling\nidiot McGovern blew it. They will have to blame him since by\ndefinition, \"movement\" can't be wrong in its ideas and ideology.\nThis is something you could have some fun with and could be damn\nuseful to us.\nIn my opinion, whether the President builds a permanent new majority\nor whether this is merely a phenomenon of the 1972 election, will\n2.\ndepend on how well we are able to convince people that President Nixon\ndoes indeed represent the mainstream of American thought and that this\nyear's election was a referendum on those very issues which we have\nidentified. If people feel this was a referendum of the kind I think it is,\nthen they may feel a permanent allegiance to a Nixon majority. If on the\nother hand, it is dismissed as an election year fluke, a bumbling George\nMcGovern blows a golden opportunity and despite all of the vicious sub-\nversions of the political process that we have engaged in, Nixon somehow\nmanaged to back into a landslide that's at least the way they'll print\nit -- then we won't build a permanent majority. I think it is really how\npeople perdeive this.\nOne of the reasons that CBS and the Washington Post have gone on such\nan unprincipled and unprecedented vendetta over the Watergate/spying/\nSegretti/sabotage garbage is that it is the only way they can sour the\ncountry on this election. They don't want the majority in this country to\nfeel proud of the way in which this President was re-elected, they want\npeople to have bad memories about this election because if people think\nill of this election and want to put it out of their minds or if they think\nthat we \"stole\" it through our massive army of saboteurs, then they\nwill detract from what really, in fact, has happened in 1972.\nMaybe they've already poisoned the water so badly that even honest\nhistorians will not recognize what was at issue in 1972 and what was\ndecided by the pelple. Maybe the post mortems of this election will\ndeal with the Watergate, the fact that it should have defeated Nixon but\nit didn't because the whole country has become impervious to scandals,\nhas come to accept them as a way of life, all politicians are discredited,\netc. Clearly the lesser of evils mythology is building very fast and\neven though we were filthy sinister people, McGovern was such an inept\nass that we won.* That's not the way it is and we need some of the bright\nyoung intellects of our party, which includes you, to start articulating\nwhat in fact did happen this year.\nLet us hear from you.\nSincerely,\nCharles W. Colson\nSpecial Counsel to the President\nMr. Douglas Hallett\n135 Antrim Street\nCambridge, Massachusetts 02139\n*At least that's what the WalterCronkites\nand Erie Severeids will say."
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