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    "ocrText": "No Objection to Declassification in Part 2013/05/09 NLN-TELCONS-3-7-26-4\n-7-\nK: Yes, Mr. President, every week they kill a few tens of thousands of\npeople.\nP: I don't think they feel we are going sort of lxixag hind-tit to Wilson\nand sucking around that government. Tell Bill if he announces he is\ngoing to Lagos he should do it on the basis that he wants to go and be\nof assistance. If he could play it that way. The purpose is not to go\nand then back down in front of this damn murderer Gowon. But certainly\nthe Nigerians have got us where the hair is short. If they don't let us\nin we can't get in. I think Bill ought to play that cold and help the\nNigerians too.\nK: A lot of the State Dept people here say by our being SO active this\nweekend\nthat\nGowon\nwould get mad at us.\nP: I understand that but this is a civil war. Tell Bill I think he has got\na great opportunity here. I would appreciate it if he goes and that if\nKx he does indicate Presidential concern that we have expressed so deeply\nand we don't want to interfere with internal affairs but he ought to make\na little statement about our interest in the humanitarian\nconcern. He must talk to the leaders there. I do know that if we go in and\njust sort of turn our backs on this think, the Henry, we could look awful bad.\nK: You have been getting a lot of mail from Catholicx leaders like Father\nHessberg.\nP: I would like Bill to contact Hessberg and Cardinal Cook. I think it would\nbe very good internal American politics if he could indicate to the Catholics\nX leaders before he goes that he is going to exert all the influence of the\nU.S. to render relief. One other thing. I have been sitting here k working\nand I have reached the conclusion that-I have just read a book on all the\nmessages that have been delivered. It really has to do with the concept of\nthe Presidency. The State of the Union is really now an anachonism.\nI have found that many of the best State-of-the-Unions have been less than\n30 minutes. Wilson's first was only 10 minutes. Eisenhowers were 55\nminutes to an hour. So were Truman's. The reason was that the custom\ndeveloped to make them a laundry list and they bored the people to death.\nK: I would not do that, Mr. President.\nP: The question is whether we should have 300 words about foreign\npolicy. Could you figure up 300 words about foreign policy? I would\nlike\nto XEE say I am going to treat foreign policy in a message to the Congress\nwhich I am going to send on blank. The main thing about that is to say\nsomething that indicates the State of the Union should be strong and\nforceful and also if we can use it as an occasion not simply to say well\nthis is what we are doing, etc., but maybe to think of a new phrase.\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library\nDECLASSIFIED"
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