Pat buchanan, your new book about the 1968 campaign of Richard Nixon is that a beginning of a trilogy for you . I had intended by it. I got down into my files and brought back all the stories and memories, and thought the nixon comeback in his earliest years was a book in and of itself, a book in which i was very close to Richard Nixon, his staff is very small, and it was an extraordinary story, an extraordinary time. A time of assassinations and riots and campus anarchy and revolution, the tet offensive, americans coming home in caskets the convention at chicago it is an extraordinary story. I decided to put it all into one book. I will go through the chronological part of this book and talk about some of the things i have never seen before and begin with asking you about the first moment you met Richard Nixon. The first moment was at the Burning Tree Country Club in 1954. Pete cook and i were looking for a summer job. We were the only two white guys out there. After the black caddies have had gone after their afternoon bags, the Vice President s was put out on the bench. The assistant looked over at me and pete cook and called us over and we went around 18 holes at Burning Tree Country Club with Richard Nixon, who was not a scratch golfer. What do you remember about him and that meeting . He was in his early 40s, not athletic but enjoying himself immensely. It wasnt all mens club. I do remember him yelling across a couple of fairways, hey, steve, why arent you up on the hill, there is a vote . He would tell him to shut up. I remember that and i remember nixon was an irreverent figure but enjoying himself. Why were you caddying, and is burning tree still there . I grew up in washington, d. C. I was not a professional caddy. Black kids pulled me aside and said, heres how you do it, you grab the handle here and do this, put it over your shoulder like you know what you are doing. They told us that and instructed me there, but we wanted a job during the summer and we wanted to make some money. I am a d. C. Boy i grew up in the city, and that was the reason i was out there. How long did you do that . Four weeks or Something Like that before i got bored. We sat there and we rarely got bags but i do remember one time 100 degree heat, i carried nine holes and two bags. We went out for the second, too. Not great golfers. But it was great fun and great memories. When i get back up to the peoples drugstore i tell them i was out with the Vice President. They were impressed. When did you first see him again . Illinois. I was an editorial writer. After three years, i was getting tired of sitting in an Office Writing editorials. I was doing very well, and nixon was speaking filling in for someone. After it was over, don hess having a cocktail party. A little fundraiser. Nixon was going to attend. So i got an invitation from don hess and asked him to introduce me. Nixon was in the kitchen, talking, and hess brings me up to him. I said, hello mr. Vice president. If you run in 1968, i would like to vote early. He asks what do i do. I said i am an assistant editorial editor. He said no, what do you do. I said, i write. He asks, what do you write on . Then i mentioned the burning tree, described the bag and he , was apparently pretty impressed. He said that nixon had talked about me all the way to the airport. After about 10 days, i heard nothing then i picked up the phone and there was the familiar voice, and you come up to new voice, can you come up to new york and continue our conversation . Which is what i did for three hours in his office. After a threehour conversation with him which rolled over all over domestic Foreign Policy issues, personality, he said, i would like to hire you for one year. Basically, 12,000 for the first six months, 15,000 for the second six, 50 more than i was making. I said i am on, should i call my publisher . He doesnt know im here. You had to wait a long time to talk to him . Three hours. I arrived there at about 12 00 and he was reading this mail, which i was going to have to deal with. One of the reasons he wanted to hire me was a growing volume of mail and he couldnt answer it all. He wanted me to do three things. Get rid of the mail backlog, work on the syndicated column with him, and travel with him or do his work with him in the 66 campaign. He would tell me that was very important we got wiped out in 1964. We were down to 140 house seats. Have 240. Publicans nixon would always tell me the nomination wont be worth anything if we dont get the Republican Party base up to where it should be to have a president ial run. He believed the base was crucial, the size of it, and we were outnumbered more than two to one. Both houses of congress and state legislatures. So you take this job. What are you thinking at the time about him . You were only 27. What goes through your mind at that young age . I am going to make this guy president of the united states. What did you think of that time . I think he had to be thinking im thinking of 1968, i assess the field, this is between two people, governor romney of michigan and Richard Nixon. Nixons great and wise move was in 1964, after he introduced goldwater. Nixon, with my future wife traveling with him, traveled all over the country and campaigned harder for goldwater than goldwater did. When he went down to defeat, goldwater endorsed nixon and said, if you run again i am with you. The Republican Party base loved him but believed he was a loser, and the conservative movement and the conservative martyr Barry Goldwater with him. These were extraordinary assets. If it could be wedded to the nixon center of the party, there is no way the rockefeller wing could get the nomination. I assessed that myself after 1965. If you get the nomination, you are on the 40 yard line, 40 of the vote, you have a fighting chance. Since i grew up in washington, i wanted to get into politics. We didnt even have the vote in d. C. Until 1964. There was no way you could get elected to the senate. My idea was ted sorenson he was getting tremendous publicity. He was right beside kennedy. I said, that is the job to which i could aspire. So you like the idea of the lights and the writing . I liked the idea of the writing and being the adviser. It was not being a candidate, because i couldnt be a candidate, but that was the job to which i could aspire in the white house. You said this a couple time in your books. The press is the enemy. I didnt really take that belief with president nixon, but he would always say that. The press is the enemy. I didnt believe that, i was in journalism school, many were friends of mine. There were nixon haters in the press, but i thought it was over done on nixons part. He had a tremendous number of friends in the press, columnists coming in like him and respected him. Name some. Roscoe drummond, william white, jack patrick. Even David Lawrence ran a column. These were wellknown people that really liked Richard Nixon. There were others out to get him including robert novak who i went to a Memorial Service for. I think novak was the best political reporter angie made no reporter and he made no apologies about the fact that he did not like nixon. Did he ever like nixon . I dont think he ever really liked nixon, no. I dont think he ever got to know him and nixon left office. No him when nixon left office. Novak did come around. He came around to admire ronald reagan. Im going to go to a story about the press not so much about the press as it is about you. Richard amberg. Richard h. Amberg was a democrat when i got out there. Amberg had come from this syracuse paper. He was one of those fellows that knew how to move around, very powerful turf figures, very effective publishers. He had gotten almost the jewel in the crown. We have 320,000 in circulation. It went under in 1985. The story wanted to tell wanted you to tell starts out on page 101. The rest of us were not observing any moratorium you go on to tell the story about a column that was written that he signed under the name nixon, g. O. P. Big winner. Explain that whole process. After the election is over, 66 election, which was a tremendous success. We gained 47 house seats. I wrote this piece, probably close to 2000 words long. It described nixons tremendous job when he campaigned and predicted this and that. It had quotes in it and it was a welldone piece. You wrote it. I wrote it. Sent it to my exboss. He puts it on the weekend edition. Nixon, big winner in 66. His byline. It goes to this article, we got the copies with his byline printed fullpage, sent out to every republican in congress and senator, county chairman, all over the country. All these columnists were picking up quotes. The play was just tremendous, we got into the bloodstream of the country until many of the columnists were saying Richard Nixon had a tremendous success. I didnt tell you they have another thing which was called another column i wrote. You wrote this piece, mr. Amberg put his name on it, you got to reprint it and then you had it sent out in the mail by fred seaton. Interior secretary. Under ike. He endorsed nixon early. We wrote the letter from fred seaton to all the congressmen, senators, republican state en. Irma you wrote the letter. We drafted it for his signature and we had them all printed out in new york along with the ambergbuchanan piece. We put them in suitcases and i flew out one day, all day long, to omaha with Frontier Airlines to hastings, nebraska. I got off and took my suitcases in to see fred seaton. He was a nice guy, sipping his whiskey, and she and i were and he and i were talking. He was signing these. We left them there to be mailed out, to have that middle american postmark. [laughter] isnt this why americans hate politics . There was nothing seaton disagreed with. Marty nolan once came after me and said buchanan corrupted the letters to the editors. Because im breaking letters to the editor. Writing letters to the editor. My name is not any articles that i wrote, columns speeches i had written i am a ghost, that is what we do. I didnt find any questionable morality and ghosting letters to in ghosting letters to the editor if you ghost article for the Vice President. Did you continue to do that kind of stuff all for the presidency . That is how the agnew speech came about. It was after nixon. A background on the agnew speech . November 13, 1969 a vicepresident stood up for the first time and blistered the National Networks that is when the networks were the first primary source of information for twothirds of the american people. Nixon gave his great silent majority speech and it was a tremendous success. But the networks trashed it. It was a success with the american people. Nixon vaulted the 68 . He said, get your letters to the editor organization, which we put up together at the rnc. Writes letters to the editor and get people to sign. I said, this is preposterous. We have got this seizure the white house which is our big asset. I sent a memo, which i still have, saying agnew should give a speech heaving after the speech going after the networks. I will write it. Lets stop the mickey mouse with the letters to the editor. Agnew loved the idea. There was a note at the top that said p has seen president has seen go ahead. That speech, i dropped it for agnew, he loved it. The president wanted to edit it. So because we did the oval office. I have to be candid here, the language was a little off, i am reading through the speech, second draft, hes got his glasses on. He rarely had glasses on. Reads it. You can hear him, this will tear the scab off these bastards. [laughter] i broke out laughing. He loved the idea. That was november 13. All three Network Heads were on time on newsweeks cover the time and newsweeks cover following sunday. The whole issue of network power, bias, you responsibility, irresponsibility, allbility of that i remember that the Networks Carry that speech. Agnew was going to deliver the speech, and i got a call. Abc is carrying agnews speech live. I said, holy smoke. I go out to the university club, got a call up there while i was in the pool. All three networks are going live. I was thinking, this is the end of my career. That night, agnew delivered the speech and i thought it was terrific. The next morning i had to go back to the air force base at 3 00 or 4 00 in the morning. He was going down for the launch of apollo 12. He sees me, comes through the plane with a big grin on his face and says dang, buster. An addendum to that somebody else got on the plane. Father salinger. He expelled me for problems with some police officers. From georgetown, several years before. He comes on and he sees me. I told him, i was just nothing. I hadnt seen him in 10 years. There is a big statue of salinger now in baltimore. Thats what he was doing on agnewss plan. This is a non sequitur. It will be in my next book, lord willing. This is a non sequitur. You tell a story in this book about the first time you saw secret service. This is after Bobby Kennedy was shot. Suddenly, all the candidates got secret service protection. Nixon was at the point. Ray price and i were staying down at and inn. 1968 . 1968, just before the convention. I think rosemary woods was out there too. The rest of the gang went down to miami beach. Nixon is in theire and i see ths guy standing there, looking around. He is looking off to the woods. I was behind him and i picked up a rock and i threw it over his head into the woods. He went into a crouch. I probably shouldnt have done it. He drew his gun . He put his hand on his gun, it was a stupid thing to do. Why did you do that . The impulse of something. The kind of thing that got you in trouble in georgetown, messing with the cops . [laughter] the beginning i have got that whole story. Right from the beginning, i have got the whole story. Here is another story Richard Nixon meeting with a group of harvard students. That was very early, february, 1966. Nixon invites me to his apartment, meeting with some harvard students. We went up to his apartment and i sat down, one of them was don reakle. Switched parties. They Ripon Society and nixon was having trouble because he had made a statement about this fellow who had said at the university down and rutgers that down at rutgers that he should be fired because of trouble with academic freedom. One of the harvard people was thinking of hiring the kid. We are in nixons office and he is talking to this kid. Sounding them out. Him out. And the kid says, before i would consider that, i have to know what your views are on academic freedom. [laughter] is this kid nuts . The insolence of it, to interrogate you to make sure that you are a subject i can work for. What happened when the kids were walking out . He went back in the office and said, i never want to see that kid again. [laughter] another story the mike wallace relationship. We like wallace. He was combative, argumentative. We looked on him as a friend, even after nixon went into the white house. We would get together with him. Wallace he was offered the job and given a copy of his letter, where he turns down the offer of being press secretary i was given a copy of the letter where he turns down the offer of being press secretary to Richard Nixon in the spring of 1968. He was a good friend. They offered him that job and they turned it down, saying he was going to stay where he was. But he was a good friend. One story is when he found ted agnew was going to be the Vice President nominee. He came downstairs i had not known earlier that when he came downstairs, we do it. We knew it. The press had heard and he was cussing up a storm. He said youve lost this, kicked it away. The reason was mike wallace was a dedicated liberal, but he was a friend of ours. I think what happened was they all felt, because agnew had made his reputation by publicly reading of the right act to the civil rights leaders after baltimore burned, carmichael had been up there he had been the governor of maryland. The first open housing law south of the mason dixon line. When the civil rights leaders refused to condemn carmichael trying to urge on the burning. He read the riot act. He brought in the tv cameras to do it. He was persona non grata to the liberal press after that and the idea that nixon would pick him was deeply offensive to mike wallace. He had felt we lost the election. But nixon i liked agnew. I sent nixon the clippings of what agnew said. I was impressed. He said, i want you to condemn you didnt condemn him, you ran away. I went i was the only one there. Nixon introduced me and we all went upstairs. Nixon was watching and agony was and agnew was very tough and, buchanan, i think we have got ourselves a hanging judge. [laughter] but then . We went out to michigan bay and agnew did not perform well. They had a murder board for students. Where we were all questioning agnew on stuff, he didnt do well, he made a lot of gaffes in the campaign. I volunteered to lead nixons campaign. Around october, he decided to leave the campaign. You could sense we were losing. Humphrey was gaining. We got on the agnew plane for several days or eight days or seven days or eight days something. I think i did some good out there, wrote speeches on social security, went down to the border states. Agnew and i became great friends after that. I was at his funeral. His burial site, anyhow. You tell stories about mike wallace and the time the cameras were rolling after the election. 1966. This was during the [laughter] mike was a friend. We brought him in to let him film our senior staff and nixon during the roll call at the convention. In the hotel . In the hotel. Nixons suite. It was a tremendous benefit. We were in there and we start the roll call. There was this picture of me right beside nixon, David Douglas duncan took it. They started the roll call and it was going according to form, till we got to michigan. As i recall, governor romney, 40 votes, four votes for Richard Milhouse nixon. We got the birchers. They were defecting from romney and we didnt think they liked us at all but we got t