The magazine was a brandnew magazine. I checked it. This was maybe the second or third issue called scaanlons monthly. It was a total shoestring operation. I called some people to ask them what this magazine wasnt people what this magazine was and people i did not know what john brown was asking me this. I called him who was younger than i was who was younger than i was and still is. I called him and i asked what it was all about. He said let me explain you should know what this means. He said i collect the president s news summary every morning and the president writes remarks of the new summary where he gives action he wants staff to take. He has this one for you. Hes obviously been thinking about your arrival here. In essence, i translate that and we keep the residence papers separate and i translate and send out. In my immediate mind, give the president ability for these kind of actions. Thats obviously why it was set up that way. I figured a good counsel tells a client when not to
As part of a project to document the 37th president s administration. This portion is about one hour. In this early. , what kind of access to the president did you have . I knew enough about how the white house worked from my dealings with the staff at the Justice Department. If the president calls you and you did not call the president when he wanted you to do something, typically, he was a president who liked particularly to work with paper. My memorable first assignment that i did not know was from the president initially was a memo that was waiting for me when i arrived from the staff secretary, john brown. It said cryptically it was an action memo archival people are familiar with. It has been noted that a magazine called scandals monthly has made an outrageous charge about spiro agnew, the Vice President , that he is planning to cancel the 1972 election and repeal the bill of rights. I said, well i knew spiro was a man of some rhetoric but i dont know how he would do that. It wen
Headquarters. Richard nixon president ial library conducted this interview as part of a project to document the 37th president s administration. This portion is about one hour. In the early days, what kind of access to the president did you have . I knew enough about how the white house worked from my dealings with the staff at the Justice Department. If the president calls you and you did not call the president when he wanted you to do something, typically, he was a president who liked particularly to work with paper. My memorable first assignment that i did not know was from the president initially was a memo that was waiting for me when i arrived from the staff secretary, john brown. It said cryptically it was an action memo archival people are familiar with. It has been noted that a magazine called scandals monthly has made an outrageous charge about spiro agnew, the Vice President , that he is planning to cancel the 1972 election and repeal the bill of rights. I said, well i knew
All they know is what we have done. This is almost an exact quote. Not why weve done it but what our motives were. I dont tell them that. The secretary of state or the secretary of defense. We go back to what i was talking about compartmentation earlier. They have no they may object to and it may even like. In fact one of the first suspicions is that laird had leaked yes. This was a long concern. Yes. So thats why they didnt give him that kind of information. In other words so long as i didnt know much as far as nixon knew about his policy, nixon had no reason to fear me. Im with rand. Kissinger knew more than he let on. As far as i can tell from the record kissinger never did for the tapes, kissinger never did reveal to nixon that i had worked for him on the options paper or at all for the pierre or the the indication of that is, he talks about my dealing with him in the late 60s and then again a meeting he had with me in 71 he tells, at a conference where i confronted him, an m. I. T
Justice department they called my office and said cant you do something about this guy up here . And, yes, i was able to call in the attorney general and deal with him that sort of thing. But were not were just aware because for time reasons, i often had to follow Major Supreme Court decisions to see and i knew when they were going to come down and get the slip opinion because nixon would need particularly as a lawyer, would want to be able to respond even before the department of justice could crank the papers around and get a summary of it out. We would have to have it, boom, get an opinion from the court and have somebody to Say Something about the opinion so we followed cases before the court. But as far as getting into the areas like the plumbers, we were excluded totally from that operation. And for good reason. And ill explain that. After the pentagon papers leaked, as you know from the record there was a major thrust by nixon to deal with ellsberg and make a political as well a