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From Khachigian to Price RE: "Acceptance Speech" 9 pgs. [Subject: Campaign] [Memo], 7/20/1972
From Andrews to Nixon RE: "Acceptance Speech" 10 pgs. [Subject: Campaign] [Memo], 7/21/1972
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This file contains:
From Khachigian to Price RE: "Acceptance Speech" 9 pgs. [Subject: Campaign] [Memo], 7/20/1972
From Andrews to Nixon RE: "Acceptance Speech" 10 pgs. [Subject: Campaign] [Memo], 7/21/1972
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Richard M. Nixon's Returned Materials Collection
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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
53
48
7/20/1972
Campaign
Memo
From Khachigian to Price RE: "Acceptance
Speech" 9pg
53
48
7/21/1972
Campaign
Memo
From Andrews to Nixon RE: "Acceptance
Speech" 10pg
Monday, June 25, 2012
Page 1 of 1
Presidential Materials Review Board
Review on Contested Documents
Collection: Staff Secretary
Box Number:
136
Folder:
Presidential Speeches September 1972 - December 1972 [IV]
Document
Disposition
149
Return Private/Political
150
Return Private/Political
DOCUMENT WITHDRAWAL RECORD [NIXON PROJECT]
DOCUMENT
DOCUMENT
NUMBER
TYPE
SUBJECT/TITLE OR CORRESPONDENTS
DATE
RESTRICTION
N-1
memo
Khachigian to Price re: "Acceptance
7/20/22
C
[DOC.#149]
speech".
Andrews to RN re: "Acceptance
7/21/72
J
N-2
memo
[Doc*150]
speech".
FILE GROUP TITLE
BOX NUMBER
STAFF SECRETARY
136
FOLDER TITLE
Presidential Speeches September 1972- - December 1972 [V]
RESTRICTION CODES
A. Release would violate a Federal statute or Agency Policy.
E. Release would disclose trade secrets or confidential commercial or
B. National security classified information.
financial Information.
C. Pending or approved claim that release would violate an individual's
F. Release would disclose Investigatory information compiled for law
rights.
enforcement purposes.
D. Release would constitute a clearly unwarranted Invasion of privacy
G. Withdrawn and return private and personal material.
or a libel of a living person.
H. Withdrawn and returned non-historical material
NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION
NA FORM 1421 (4-85)
[Item N.1] N.1]
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
July 20, 1972
MEMORANDUM FOR:
RAY PRICE
FROM:
KENKHACHIGIAN De
SUBJECT:
ACCEPTANCE SPEECH
I have a strong feeling that the Acceptance Speech must
reflect the President's own personal dissatisfaction with many
things as they are. It will be difficult to do, but it must be
written not only to boast of four years of accomplishment but
also to indicate that there is some sense of dissatisfaction at
that which remains to be done.
The President should try to defend the Establishment (us)
without sounding establishmentarian. I believe one of McGovern's
strongest campaign assets is his ability to strike out at the
establishment, and if we are doing it better than he is, then we
give him a moving target instead of a sitting duck.
Also the speech should touch on McGovern's weak points
with obvious reference. His welfare giveaway, his weak defense
posture, his soak-the-middle-class proposals, and others must
be hit at least by reference. I have attached some things which
will do that.
As I mentioned to you, it is crucial that a paragraph's reference
ought to be made to the farmer and agriculture. McGovern sort of
ignored this, and we shouldn't -- also attached.
Finally, I paid most attention to developing an "America is not
sick" theme, one which I believe would be a very effective rhetorical
theme for the campaign, but must be done skillfully enough so as
not to connote "stand-patism."
Attachments
July 20, 1972
(KHACHIGIAN)
ACCEPTANCE SPEECH - SUGGESTED REMARKS
(Insert Before Peroration)
My fellow Americans, four years ago before this great
convention, I spoke of our nation's 200th birthday -- a day when
the world could again look to America as the shining example of
hopes realized and dreams achieved.
I am not here to report that day has arrived. I am here to
report that day is coming. We did not promise the millenium in
the morning, but we asked to begin on a long road to a new day
for America.
Yet, as we travel that road today we see self-doubt and a
questioning of America's will.
There are those who proclaim America is sick and decadent,
with goals unmet and problems unsolved.
Others say that America has lost her way, that our society is
repressive and racist or imperialistic and reactionary. It is said
that we are so tainted by national illness that we have lost our will to
be great.
And still others look at America as corrupt and rotten, our
values distorted, our institutions crumbling, and our determination
defeated.
What nonsense!
What a waste it is to wallow in guilt and self-flagellation, to
tear at our confidence and stain our resolve.
Page 2
Some see war and think that peace is but the absence of war.
Some see honest disagreement and confuse it with division.
Some see preparedness and call it militarism.
My fellow Americans, America did not come all this way on
the energy of defeatism and despair.
For too many in our country, the wish is father to the thought.
If they speak long enough and loudly enough of decadence, we will
believe ourselves to be decadent. If they tell us often enough that
we are sick, we truly may think so.
Weep for America? I don't agree.
We have far to go for we are still a young country. We have
obstacles to confront and barriers to overcome.
We must work still harder for peace at home and abroad.
A full prosperity is never around the corner; it only comes
with hard endeavor.
Our air and our water must be made cleaner. Our streets,
safer. Our cities, more liveable. Our sick, healed. Our hungry,
fed. Our unsheltered, housed. Our young, educated. Our country-
side and farms made vital. And most importantly, our selves fulfilled.
But consider this for a moment; if we had but half our wealth;
if our cities did not gleam with tall buildings and our farms produce
in full abundance; if we did not have high technology and sophisticated
Page 3
machinery; if we did not have all these, we would still have our
most precious asset -- the will and tenacity of the American
people to take themselves beyond limiting boundaries.
If we lose our will, if we weaken our resolve, we do not
deserve the mantle of greatness.
But if we retain our self-confidence -- the confidence that
carried us from a hot summer's day in Independence Hall to the
marvel of Apollo XVI -- the future will hold still more promises
of majesty for this great and good nation of ours.
So my fellow Americans, we must enter this election campaign
with the counsel of that wise injunction by a man who shared the
high office I hold -- that we shall not fear fear.
The Vice-President and I are going to campaign not just for
ourselves but for America.
We are going to every citizen with the message: we don't
love America because she is perfect; we love her because she is
perfectable.
We are going to talk to the millions of Americans who work
hard and pay their taxes and raise their children and tell them:
"Keep going, there is work to be done. 11
Page 4
We are going to the people who have built this country with
their sweat, their hands, and their prayers and tell them: "Come
with us; our work must continue. "
We are going to the young and the old; the black, brown, red,
yellow and white and tell them: "If we do not work for America
now, when will we ever work for her ?"
We will go to Republicans, Democrats, and Independents and
tell them: "Our work is not partisan; it is America's work. Come
join us."
And we will not stop until we have shined a beacon from coast
to coast and border to border: "The work we do is for tomorrow,
the day after, and for the history which generations from now might
ultimately judge us as gracious and good, but humble and thankful.
So let us resolve in this great assembly tonight -- and my
fellow Americans, I ask you to join us in that resolve -- that we
are going to put our doubts on the run.
I am not satisfied with where we are, but rather, I am concerned
about where we are going. And on our way there, let us proceed
with confidence, compassion, fortitude and love.
We still see that day which is four years hence, and we will
not stop working until that day is here.
July 20, 1972
(KHACHIGIAN)
ACCEPTANCE SPEECH - SUGGESTED REMARKS
(One-liners and Phrases)
All the wishful thinking in the world will not preserve our
freedom if we do not make clear that our national strength is the
first principle of our freedom.
The promises we kept are important, but more important is that
we did not make promises we knew we could not keep.
If in four years I could have solved all of America's problems,
I would not be here asking for another term of leadership. And I
say to you, those who claim they can solve all our troubles in four
years don't deserve to be our leaders.
We must seek change without throwing out our most cherished
traditions -- the suffering and happiness; the sadness and laughter;
the heartbreak and triumph; and above all the wisdom of our heritage.
These standards of the American experience are too valuable to be
thoughtlessly discarded. Progress means learning from the past,
not just cursing it.
*********
The state of our welfare system is not going to be improved by
ushering in the welfare state.
Page 2
We don't need to hand out money, we need to hand out
opportunity.
*********
Unilaterally stripping our national defense may save money,
but will squander our ability to secure peace.
The answer to big problems is not bigger government.
July 20, 1972
(KHACHIGIAN)
ACCEPTANCE SPEECH - SUGGESTED REMARKS
(Welfare)
Four years ago I said that we needed to do something about a
welfare system which perpetuates itself, discourages work and
demeans the recipient.
We do not intend to deny the needy. Americans can truly
pride themselves on being the most unselfish people on earth. We
have never questioned the need to help dependent children, the
disabled, the blind and the elderly.
But when a system such as we have gives out money without
giving out dignity; when it discourages work while weakening our
families; when it reduces the dignity of the recipient in his own
eyes and the eyes of his family; when it fails to stop the perpetual
cycle of welfare; then I say it is time to throw out such a system
and replace it with one that works.
Three years ago, I proposed a new system, and in three years
the Congress of the United States has not brought this legislation
to my desk -- legislation which would reform our welfare system,
encourage families to stay together rather than drift apart, and get
people on to payrolls and off welfare rolls.
So when we hear about the welfare mess this year, let's
remember one thing: for three years Congress has had an opportunity
to stop the mess, now let's get on with doing it.
Page 2
And when someone says that the answer to the welfare
problem is more welfare, our answer is more workfare.
No job is more demeaning than having a check delivered
into the mail or having a welfare investigator probing into the
personal lives of our citizens. Let no one complain if a job
makes him or her a productive member of society and provides
for a shelter for the family and food for little children.
July 20, 1972
(KHACHIGIAN)
ACCEPTANCE SPEECH - SUGGESTED REMARKS
(Agriculture)
The American farmer has been central to our economy, and
he will continue to be the foundation of our prosperity.
So tonight, let's give farmers and rural America the vote of
thanks they so richly deserve.
Agriculture has been the most productive industry in America.
While I will not be satisfied until prices have stabilized on all fronts,
let us be mindful that in the last
years farm prices have gone
up only
%.
Let us also remember that food is still a great buy in the
United States. Today, Americans spend 15. 6¢ of their after-tax
income dollar on food compared with 20¢ in 1960. The British
spend 24¢ per dollar, the Italians 37¢ and in Ghana it is 60¢.
Finally, let me say one thing about a promise I made four
years ago and a promise I kept. We now have a Secretary of
Agriculture in Washington who talks to the President for the farmer,
not the other way around -- and believe me, the farmer has a good
advocate in their Secretary of Agriculture.
{Item N.2]
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
July 21, 1972
MEMORANDUM TO:
THE PRESIDENT
VIA:
RAY PRICE
FROM:
Acceptance X speech
JOHN ANDREWS
SUBJECT:
Some of your more seasoned veterans already having submitted
full drafts and comprehensive theme/tone proposals, I will focus
on a few random notes and angles.
It would be most desirable to evoke in your audience a sense
of being swept along on the crest of a great wave in human history --
a sense of the inevitability of the last four years, the inescapable
logic of the next four, and the continuity of all eight with the 20th
century's long drive for peace, freedom, plenty and social justice.
Something of this, though not as broad in the time-sweep as it
should be, is contained in the long " fragment" attached. (That is
really more an exercise in linking the 1960 and 1968 acceptances to
1972, and then paying the whole thing off with the quote from Timothy.)
A better way to get at the same idea might be a thumbnail sketch
of the way RN's career overlays the whole postwar era, highlighting
the personal involvement in the national quest for peace each step
of the way. The subliminal message here is that America has found
its Churchill/DeGaulle, the man and the moment have come together,
but that America won't throw him away in 1972 as Britain and France
did with their great statesmen in 1945.
2 -
A good axis of contrast between the RN and McG offerings
might be this: The American spirit is expansive, generous, optimis-
tic, adventurous, out-reaching. Our policies, foreign and domestic,
fit this mold. McG, on the other hand, tailors everything to limitation,
scarcity, fear. His economics is a perfect example -- instead of
expanding the pie in order to give everyone a bigger piece, his
deficits, punitive taxation, etc. half economic growth and so naturally
lead to his confiscatory income redistribution with a static or
shrinking pie. Ditto the defense cuts in order to find money for
domestic needs. In Vietnam, the past burned us, so we try to punish
the past and end up punishing ourselves and 17 million SVNese, rather
than doing the best we can, carefully, and compassionately, from
where we are here and now. And so on.
I would like to see a really open and daring approach to the
disarray of the Democrats. This could be more than just an invita-
tion for the homeless to join us this year only (suggested paragraphs
attached) -- it could even sketch the outlines of a new permanent
alignment, which in fact has already begun taking shape because RN
has not hesitated during the last four years to cross traditional
party boundaries in shaping the policies America needs for the
Seventies. In terms of years in power, the Dems dominated US's
first century, GOP our second; with the third now about to begin,
another "new" party may be in prospect -- actually a reborn GOP
with new elements, maybe even a new name.
A strong pitch for both young people and women would surprise
many people and I think be very well received. This could be cast
not in terms of an appeal for their votes, per se, but more as an
appreciation that both are coming into their own as participants in
our society, with the observation that each group brings strengths
and sensitivities which have already begun to leaven the national
consciousness in needed and healthy ways, and which will be very
important to the vitality of the American spirit and the American
system in the time ahead.
/
- 3 -
A, an anecdote ty ing in with SO many key themes -- youth,
the hope for peace, idealism, national unity, the calming of the
country, the personal side of the Presidency -- I think it is hard
to improve on your pre-dawn visit to the Lincoln Memorial at the
time of the Cambodia protests two years ago. This could figure
very powerfully into the acceptance recipe, and I will be working
on some specific language for that purpose.
For a close, I heartily concur with Safire's recommendation
of one more outing for the Tanya story. Best of all, we were given
a "dream partner" for Tanya when little Jessie, the 8-year-old
black girl, was photographed with you on your flood tour in
Pennsylvania.
By referring to the two of them, you could bridge naturally
from the international and peace emphasis over into the domestic
area. From an emotional standpoint, this would beat McG at his
own come-home game (see attached paragraphs). Not that we are
going to put an end to floods if given a second term, but that we
care, RN cares, about kids, black people, unfortunates of all
sorts, and from Leningrad to Harrisburg we are going to build a
better world for them. Having won that one for Ike, let's win
this one for Jessie and Tanya.
(Andrews)
July 21, 1972
ACCEPTANCE (FRAGMENT)
The rhythm of our Presidential elections in this country tends
to make us think of American history in neat four-year cycles.
But as we look back across the span of decades, we find that no
such narrow perspective will do.
For there are larger forces at work, and they are working
across'a longer sweep of time.
Election by election in the affairs of men, the tides may rise
and fall; but beneath it all, ceaselessly and silently, a deeper and
a steadier current runs. We must know that current and steer with
it, or we are no more than drifters on the trackless ocean of history.
Many of you -- because this Party of the Open Door is not a
party which shuts its veterans out when it welcomes new participants
in many of you who are delegates here in Miami this week were
delegates too at Chicago 12 years ago. You remember our hopes
at that convention:
We did not want to see the peace Dwight Eisenhower had won
and kept for America dissolve into the tragedy of another distant
war. We did not want to see the prosperity Dwight Eisenhower had
fostered in our land run out of control and become a ruinous inflation.
-2-
But in the contest that followed we did not prevail, and in the
eight years that followed we watched other men and women lead
this country ever deeper into the valley of shadow.
Through it all we held to our hopes, we stood by our standard,
we stayed the long and grueling course. Not because we felt that
God was on our side -- for the blind self-righteousness which can
believe that, which can threaten to bolt a party if someone else is
nominated, to abandon a foreign commitment if easy victory is not
achieved, to flee a homeland if military service is in prospect and
then demand forgiveness for that flight -- such self-righteousness,
my friends, is not our way, not the Republican way, not the American
way.
No, the reason that we persevered as Republicans in defeat
and adversity through America's time of trial in the 1960's was
that we devoutly prayed and diligently sought to be sure that America
was on God's side -- as Lincoln put it in a dark hour of the Civil
War and as I echoed in acceptance of your nomination in 1960.
And so as the Vietnam nightmare wore on, as our own cities
burned, as our racial tensions worsened, as our government seemed
more and more impotent because of its very size and power, as our
prices and our taxes climbed, Republicans waited and watched and
built for the future.
-3-
The opposition which we offered the party in power on domestic
and especially on foreign policy was at all points a loyal and construc-
tive opposition a record whose contrast with some of the political
opportunism and partisanship of these last four years should be to us
a source of just and lasting pride.
(that
We believ there was a better way to lead America, the American
people believed that there was a better way, and when the time came
in 1968 it was the Republican Party which pointed the better way.
Many of you here tonight were present in this same hall four
years ago when you gave me the high honor of a second nomination
for the Presidency, and when I in accepting that great commission
called our party and our nation to a new and higher commitment to
the truth -- "to find the truth, to speak the truth, and to live the truth. 11
And it was when the people went to the polls in the fall that we
saw our faith confirmed. We saw that the current sweeping America
on to greatness was still flowing wide and strong, undiverted and
unchecked by the shallow ebb and flow in the fortunes of any one man,
any one party. For the voters that year spoke out for America. They
spoke out loud and clear, nearly 6 in every 10, writing a mandate for
change from the old leadership with its long record of well-intentioned
failure to a new set of leaders, leaders whose vision would be wider
and whose deeds would live up to their words.
-4-
Tonight, looking back and looking ahead, we can say that we
have honored our mandate, we have kept our word, we have begun
to make our vision come true. Our stewardship is far from finished.
But all America and all the world know this: in its first years that
stewardship has been faithful; it has been forceful; it has been
fruitful.
We said we would find the truth, and we found it: the truth that
prosperity based on war and inflation was a fraud, that social change
which triggered anarchy was good for no one, that endless war, hot
and cold, was an idea whose time was gone.
We said we would speak the truth, and we have spoken it: the
truth that good jobs, decent income, and a sound dollar can be made
available to every American, that life can be better when government
steps back and sets the people's energies free, that peace can be
achieved through negotiation and through strength.
We said we would live the truth, and we are living it: the truth
that prosperity is happening now, that reform and a rebirth of freedom
are taking place now, that peace is gathering strength now, all across
this land.
But there is so much more to do. Much more truth than we have
yet discovered lies hidden we must find it
stands mute we
-5-
must speak it
waits unused -- we must give it life.
Ours it is to find the true path from poverty and powerlessness
up to human dignity and fulfilment for all our brothers and sisters.
Ours it is to seek true equity, and true balance in the workings
of the free enterprise economy.
Ours it is to set and to achieve true standards for quality in the
lives we live and the surroundings we live them in.
Ours it is to build and to preserve a true structure of peace
above the mere absence of war.
Ours it is to be about the urgent business of alleviating tyranny,
suffering, and want wherever they afflict the family of man/
It is in this cause that we will take our case to the American
people over the weeks and months to come. We do so confident of
the outcome and glad of the chance to submit once more to the Nation's
judgment at the polling place. For we trust that judgment, we revere
its wisdom, we cherish the democracy it represents.
But as I accept for the third time, in gratitude and deep humility,
your nomination for President of the United States, it is not to the
people alone -- not even to the people first -- that I feel our ticket,
our party, our Nation, and our great cause must turn.
No, my friends, I believe that our first prayer must be, as I
said from this platform in 1960, that the divine will be done. Or again
-6-
that prayer must be, as I said from this platform in 1968, that the
truth may rule in our hearts and so govern in our land.
There is one verse from Scripture that captures all this, a
verse that has been much in my thoughts these last few days. In a
Quaker home, as my home was, the Bible is quoted often. But
abroad in the world, it is different. There the Quaker way is to live
the Word and let the lips be silent. Tonight I will break that rule,
because I feel that this one thought which my mother gave me so
often is one which may serve to guide all Americans in this great
year of decision.
It comes from Paul's letter to Timothy, and this is what it says:
"Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth
not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 11
There, my fellow Republicans and my fellow Americans, there
is where our confidence rests; there is where our salvation will be
found.
In a year when exotic panaceas are offered to lure the fleeting
approval of voting blocs and factions, let each of us so order our lives
lasting
and so serve our nation as to merit the approval of supreme wisdom
and goodness.
In a year when shame is in fashion and work is degraded, let
each of us take pride in the workmanship of a new America and a
-7-
new world which we have well begun these last four years, and
which working steadily onward we shall mightily advance in the
years to come.
In a year when fantasies, errors, and outright falsehoods fill
the political air, let each of us rededicate ourselves to seeing and
serving the truth about the rights of man, the ways of nations, and
the price of a lasting peace.
This done, we shall not merely win an election -- though surely
we shall do that -- but above and beyond that landslide victory we
shall win a world, a world where mankind finds nothing to fear but
all things to achieve and to cherish.
Standing before this convention 4 years ago, I ventured the
prediction that ages to come will remember 1968 as the beginning
of the American generation in world history. Already we have seen
much to bear that prediction out. But now, with the first step taken,
there comes again a time to choose.
No one who knows the American spirit as you do and as I do can
doubt what that choice will be. It will be a choice for the forward
and upward path, into peace, into plenty, into brotherhood for all
Americans, into a new golden age for the common man and woman
in this uncommon land of ours.