1 President Nixon and Chuck Colson Lincoln Sitting Room Telephone call January 20 1973 White House Tape 036-018 Nixon Don't you think the idea of having three concerts was great Sticking it to Washington having Eugene Ormandy the great symphony rather than that goddamn Washington Symphony even with Antal Dorati who's a great composer Colson That's right Nixon You don't have them And God Ormandy was fantastic Colson Well he's-- Nixon You know about a dozen of his people said asked to be relieved because of the Christmas bombing of North Vietnam and the rest He said hell no we'll throw you out of the symphony Colson That's right Nixon And he said that if the President decides to come back -- I hope he does -- I want him to put his arm around me in front of these goddamn left-wingers Colson Is that what Ormandy said Oh Nixon That's right He told his wife Colson That's marvelous That is marvelous Nixon Well I'm going to have him at the White House Nixon Do you want to hear a little bit of the acceptance speech Colson Yeah I’d love to sir Nixon Abroad and at home the time has come to turn away from the condescending policies of paternalism of Washington knows best ” Colson Oh great 2 Nixon A person Listen to this “A person can be expected to act responsibly only if he has responsibility This is human nature So let us encourage individuals at home and in nations abroad to do more for themselves and decide more for themselves Let us locate more responsibility in more places ” And this is the key line “Let us measure what we will do for others by what they will do for themselves ” Colson Uhmmm Beautiful Nixon “That's why I offer no promise of a purely governmental solution for every problem We have lived too long with that false promise and trusted too much to government We have asked of it more than it could deliver This leads only to inflated expectations to reduced individual effort and to a disappointment and frustration that erode confidence both in what government can do and what people can do ” Colson Ahhhh Nixon Listen to this Government must learn to take less from people so people can do more for themselves ” Colson Oh magnificent Nixon “Let each of us remember that America was built not by government but by people not by welfare but by work not by shirking responsibility but seeking responsibility ” Colson Oh Jesus Nixon “In our own lives let each of us ask not just what will government do for me but what can I do for myself In the challenges we face together let each of ask us not how can government help but how can I help ” Colson Magnificent Just magnificent Mr President That is the Nixon legacy in my humble judgment because what you're really saying is you believe in self-reliance -- self-reliance of nations around the world self-reliance of people Colson You see the important thing to remember though Mr President is the country doesn't buy that The country does not buy a lot of the crap that they're fed Sixty-seven per cent of people interviewed to seventeen per cent do not believe that we deliberately bombed hospitals or civilian targets Now you had the goddamn CBS News and Hart and Ramsey Clark and all these people on every night saying we were deliberately bombing Bach Mai That's all we ever heard about was that damn hospital but 3 Nixon Good God when you think of what basically Eisenhower did in World War Two I mean he decimated cities Why Colson So did Truman Nixon Not because he wanted to kill people but because he wanted to the end the war Colson Truman Nixon Why did Truman drop the atomic bomb Not because he wanted to demolish cities Because he wanted to end the war Why did Eisenhower bomb the shit out of the cities of North Korea Colson That's right Nixon And that's what ended the war you know Nixon And the economy's more important than the bombing too Colson Of course that's just going great Everybody’s economic fortunes are up except The Washington Post Oddly enough their stock has dropped three more points since I told you last It's now 28 Nixon That's too damn bad Colson What a shame It was 38 in December and had record earnings and it’s dropped 10 points but Nixon Keep 'em busy Colson All of the rest of the economy except for The Washington Post is great Which is a good way to have it Transcribed from Nixon Library White House Tape 036-018 by Michael Dobbs for King Richard 2021