America famously prides itself on not having a class system.
Richard Nixon knew differently.
Born to a hardscrabble family in rural Southern California,
he was educated in a local private college.
He felt that put him at a distinct disadvantage
to those from old-money East Coast families
who attended the famous Ivy League schools of the northeast.
His classic 1960 battle for the presidency with John Kennedy
encapsulated the conflict for him -
Kennedy, after all, was a handsome, well-to-do, Harvard-educated product
of a northeast family whose wealth, ironically, was built
on bootlegging liquor during Prohibition.
For Nixon, even after Kennedy was dead
and he had won the presidency himself,
that conflict never ended.
Years later, Nixon would often complain
that Kennedy had never invited him to dinner at the White House,
even though he had served the nation as Vice President for eight years.
Tonight we see Nixon's never-ending attempt
to divide and control his aides
by enlisting them in his relentless struggle
against "the best and the brightest".
Subtitles by MemoryOnSmells http://UKsubtitles.ru.
FROST: The conversations you're about to see
were recorded by the secret taping equipment
that President Nixon had installed in the White House.
These are the words actually spoken by the participants,
edited only for time
and in keeping with the era in which the original tapes were recorded,
this programme is presented in standard definition.
I had the Ivy League president thing yesterday.
They asked... Holy shit! Those sons of bitches? I wouldn't have seen 'em.
Well, the presidents, they... They don't deserve it.
God damn them, they are never...
I'm surprised that we really have... Who did this?
Did Haldeman tell you to have this or somebody? No. I did it.
They called him for a meeting with you but I went.
The Ivy League presidents?
Oh, I would never have those sons of bitches in this White House ever again.
Never. Never. None of them.
They're finished! The Ivy League is finished! I thought I told you that.
Well, look, I tell you, I spent an hour with them
and it was revolting,
because they have now embraced the programme of the radicals.
They said in effect that they want us to cut off economic and military aid.
Then what happens? They said you'd have a communist government in power in Saigon.
And I said, I said, "Do you consider that...?"
I was amazed that leaders of educational institutions
should hold such a position on a moral issue.
And the president of Harvard, he said,
"Look, there's a lot of immoral things happening in the world
"which we don't resist, so this..."
Henry, I would not have had them in. Don't ever do that again!
Don't ever have them... They came out against us when it was tough.
Don't ever have them in again.
And when they...
After you come back from your trip and if they want to do it...
No. Don't ever go to an Ivy League school again.
I never... Never. Never. Never.
I'll tell you... Look, I said... ..New York Times, Washington Post -
I don't care if they write the most slobbering editorial in the world.
I'm never going to see 'em again, never!
They're never going to be in this White House.
Let me tell you about the Ivy League presidents
and Time and Newsweek and the New York Times and the Washington Post
and the network queers.
They're finished and that incidentally includes the business elite.
The Times has been a little better. Ah, bullshit.
Life is a disaster. That's right.
But the point I make is this.
They're finished for this reason.
If, when it was tough, they weren't with us,
we don't want them.
We've got to build a new Establishment and we're gonna.
And it isn't gonna come out of the Ivy League. No.
And let me say, the instructions have already gone out.
We're never gonna have another Harvard man
hi-h-h... (COUGHS) ..hired in our staff.
Not any new ones. No more.
We've got too many. No more.
I know it's too bad, some good men will be missed,
but why would we take someone whose mind is poisoned like that?
But uh... Never, never, never.
No, you've got to put them to the sword, Mr President.
Oh, I'm going to. Yes and just no more.
I don't know if we'll get better out of Ohio State, but God, there's a chance.
Yeah... Harvard, there's no chance.
You'll get better out of, er... Yale the same. Columbia.
Yale is worse than Harvard. Much worse.
But this whole bunch - these people have no courage.
No guts. There's none.
Mm.
When I think of the, what the, the goddamn things I've gone through,
here, on the tough decisions, I got no support
but opposition or silence from these areas,
from the so-called intellectuals, the media, of course.
I'm not talking about the publishers, of course,
they're businessmen, they never speak up.
The media, the universities.
I haven't mentioned this one publicly but the religious groups.
OK. They're out squealing and so forth.
And the so-called business elite.
These parts never speak up. No.
The only support we get is from labour union leaders,
certain kinds of ethnics,
the farmers, professional military organizations,
a few Main Street-type businessmen,
and, interestingly enough, PO wives, er, POW wives.
And to walk into a group like that, of wives, families and the rest,
and look at those poor goddamn people
and these other assholes out here haven't got any stake here in this war... That's right.
Their kids are fucking around in Canada. They are. Exactly.
Particularly the business guys. And what about these people?
They have husbands and sons in these damn jails and prisons in Vietnam
for four, five, two, three years,
and all they can say is, "Bug out."
Now, who the hell has the character in this country? Who's got it?
I mean... It makes me ashamed of the people I come from.
What I mean is, I'm from that group - lawyers, business people,
with so-called superior educations
and, boy, they're...
Let me tell you, they are not fit to govern, not fit to do it.
Do you ever see any of them stand up, Bob?
Keep talking. Those types of groups I mentioned?
No. They haven't. No. Not when there's any crunch. Would it kill you to come in here?
When they stand up is when they see everybody else do it.
And I can also say, I can add to that,
you know, the bureaucracy in our own government,
the Cabinet members up from, come from that same elite,
have no guts.
You know, it's been a... It's been a remarkable experience
to watch this for this last week. I know. You know, they have...
November 3rd, Cambodia, Laos, May 8th,
just to name a few of the times.
Now, November 3rd, they, they came around... After.
It was after they saw... After. After what happened there.
Jesus, while you're making the tough decision,
they're out, marching around the Capitol with the... Oh, yeah.
And for two and half years telling them, "Easy. You've gotta, you've gotta back off..."
Back off. You know? Back off.
Generally, the tragedy of all this,
goes back to the educational system in this country. Tell me.
It's made America... America...
America's upper class now has become like the British upper class.
Er, much worse. Much worse.
I should say like the French upper class before World War II.
Decadent, incestuous, homosexual.
Well, this is where these guys... It's awful... started.
But I was saying it... Last night was the premiere, here in Washington,
of this new movie, Young Winston,
which is the story of Winston Churchill in his early days.
And it's quite a good movie.
Young Winston, tell him, now that's good. This fellow will get it.
But er, you, you er, you'll want to see the movie. It's, it's...
I read the book. It's, it's a well-done picture
but there's one moment in it, I couldn't avoid blurting out...
I guess no press heard me, a few people around me did.
There's a moment in the book where, er, Sir Randolph, his father..
Right... resigns as Chancellor of the Exchequer... That's right.
..and sends his letter to the Prime Minister... Mm-hm.
..and then goes to the London Times that same night... Yep.
..and hands the editor of the London Times his letter of resignation.
Mm-hm. And the editor says, "No, you must not resign."
And he said, "Well, will you print my letter for me?
"And the Prime Minister has accepted it. I have his acceptance here."
And the editor says, "Well, you've made a terrible mistake,"
and all that.
He says, "Well," he goes, "I've come to you because I want your support.
"I'm doing the right thing and you know it."
Because he was resigning over heavy military spending,
and, er... But he argued that it was rough... I know.
And the Times agreed with him,
because the Times had been critical of the government and... Correct.
..The Times did agree with that. Correct.
And he said, "I want you to at least print my letter of resignation for me."
And the editor said, "I will not."
And he said, "Why won't you? You've been critical of the government."
And the editor stands up and he says,
"The Times will be critical of the government when it feels the government is wrong.
"The Times will never do anything to bring the government down."
Jesus Christ. And I blurted out without even thinking,
"I wish to hell we had a Times like that."
(LAUGHTER)
But you realize though, that is the custom of Britain?
They stood by Chamberlain, they stood by Churchill,
but who, what...
Where the hell are the great press lords in this country today?
I mean, especially with the war, we have a few.
We've got the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Daily News,
a few of the smaller papers,
Copley, Paul Miller at Gannett, New York Daily News. New York Daily News.
Detroit... I know. The New York Daily News... I mentioned that.
..and the best of 'em all, the Orlando Sentinel.
God, that's a great newspaper. Omaha World Herald ain't bad.
Yeah. If you're picking a few.
But... But the point I make is they're not...
Do you think Henry reads any of those papers? No, sir.
No, he won't, and he won't see anybody from those papers.
Do you know why? They haven't...
Because they are not the ones that the Georgetown people think are the better class.
There is a snobbish elite.
And you know, his theory... And do you know the reason?
Let me tell you the reason they are mainly petrified at my getting in,
why they hate my guts.
It, it, of course, goes back to history
but mainly, it is this.
I'm not one of them and they know it.
And they, they, they...
It terrifies them and it distresses them.
That's right. It terri... Doesn't it? Sure.
Yeah, that I can get any veteran's leader in here
who's maybe a little bit inarticulate
or I can see, go down and see a Mexican woman who gave me a bracelet and then kissed me.
It was a little bit embarrassing
but nevertheless, do you know what I mean?
That's right. Yeah. They can't stand that.
Well, they couldn't face those kind of things. I bet you agree, Bob?
Yep. But that's true of this class generally
and that's why we're going to stay in
because that's what's made, that's what this country is,
that this country is still strong and good and decent.
And there's a hell of a lot of...
There's 55,000 Americans who are...
who are down six foot deep.
Well, they think they're being devastating
when they characterise you as, as... Yeah?
I mean, middle-class moral values, and... That's right.
..and being a square and... All-work middle-class.
..playing patriotism and... That's right, that's right.
Boy, I'd love to screw 'em around.
I swear to God, we haven't done much but we're gonna do it in the future.
When you get over to the Army, I want you to kick 'em in the ass.
Remember, the people you're gonna be head of
are the good people.
Now, there'll be er...
It'll be tough and half of them are black
and we have no illusions about that.
The environment's not gonna change 'em. Uh-huh.
It's all inheritance. It's too bad but that's the way it is.
But there are a lot of good people.
There was the football game on television last night.
Two great running backs from Detroit, two great running backs for the other side,
two great running backs from Washington and stuff, they are all black.
And no whites. Goddamn, they're good. But the quarterbacks aren't.
That's right. Half of those guys are black.
I've seen character track. Southern Cal...
The length of their arms and their legs especially, they're sensational.
Goddamn, I think somebody ought to take 'em out, rip the shit out of 'em!
I believe... Oh, no. I guess it's best if we pay no attention to them
and give them the contempt they deserve.
OK but what I'm trying to say, Mr President, is
that by next October, these guys, every one of them,
they would have opposed you. They would have.
If it had not been this, it would have been something else.
Why are they against me? They hate you. That's right.
You're not one of them. You're impervious to them. That's right.
You don't give a damn about them. And they know it. And they know it.
And we can have peace, we can have prosperity,
we can have all the blacks screwing all the whites and vice versa - they won't be happy.
(EXHALES)
Now, the great problem in American society is that the elites in our society have gone soft.
Now, when the elites go soft in your society,
that's a very grave danger signal for that country.
Absolutely. Ruined Britain, ruined France long ago.
Germans had theirs killed off, so that's why they're still strong,
same with Japan.
But at the present time, the elites in American society -
and these are the kind of people that you know and I know - they...
They think I should be one of them
because I had a reasonably good education,
went to a reasonably good law school, had reasonably good grades
and all that crap.
And they decided I was an exciting personality
because of the Hiss case, even though they disagreed with it.
But, you see, if you do not join them
and if they know that you can handle them
and you do not become one of them, they hate you with a passion.
They never hated Goldwater like they do me and I understand that now.
Never, you know. Or McCarthy. The hatred is just so deep.
This, this change, in our, intellects, in our beliefs...
I think you put your finger on it.
The seminal reason was a change in educational emphasis. Yeah.
Maybe 20 years, 30 years ago.
Everything that's coming now... Yeah. ..came down to that.
You know? And the education... That's right.
It started 20, 30 years ago. That's right.
Yeah, but in the universities.
I'm a little hooked on this but I think the key is that...
See, I make this point. The point I make is that they are out of touch with the country.
And a lot of our own people are out of touch with the country too.
A lot of ours, believe me.
Now, why are they out of touch?
Let me tell you - because they read the Washington Post.
They see the Times, the Post
and the networks who piss on us every night.
And then what else do we find?
In addition, where do they go to dinner?
They go to the parties and so on and so forth
and they hear this constant, constant dripping.
The Kate Grahams. Just knocking the living bejesus out of us.
How the hell else do you turn out?
It takes a strong person not to end up the other way.
But I digress.
What I say simply is that if Life magazine had read the mood of the country a little bit better,
it might survive.
But now though, maybe picture magazines don't go.
But some magazines are making money now.
But what do Life do? Life first went for the erotic stuff. Yeah.
Which was stupid. And then they get rid of all their great editorial writers.
The great editorialists were gone. They never had anything to say any more.
Then Life goes for sensationalism
and then, bam, and it's out,
and it should be out, it deserves to be out
because it isn't a good magazine any more,
even though they say it has the best editorial staff in America.
But maybe I'm wrong. Well, I think, I agree, that's right.
They lost half of their audience and their audience was a big mass of people in the country.
I think the reason that they've got this elitist view -
and Frank and I saw that that staff was an elitist staff... But let me...
Let me tell you another thing that happened to the movies.
I had a hell of a talk with Jack Warner the other night.
Of course, he's the great producer of all these great American shows.
I had seen this most obscene, horrible goddamn movie the other night
and I said... You know, I don't mind, I like a nice lusty movie,
with some action and this and that.
I said, "But do you think that, that, that, that...?"
This 12-year-old kid drowned his cat, electrocuted his stepmother,
tried to poison his second stepmother and a lot of others,
finally died when his second stepmother threw a rock,
er, threw a ball in front of a car, and er...
so that his pet dog ran in front of the car,
he ran in front of the car and the car ran him over
and mangled his head and that's how the movie ended.
They've got GP. Yeah, I would have loved to have turned it off.
But I said to Jack, "What about this?"
Because, you know, Jack made all these great patriotic movies.
I said, "Jack, your younger guys are not going to agree with me
"but the reason that the movies at the present time,
"the movies are not going over,
"goddamn it, they're out of step with the country."
Now, I've talked to my kids
and they, of course, went to the schools
and they said, you know, there's all this talk about nostalgia for the '50s
and talk about change in the attitude to music,
change in the attitude towards this overt sexual business.
But everybody's bored at this point in the living room. Yeah.
Now the other thing. There's this thing where...
And here's... What we can't...
The situation we have is where we have this goddamn Kennedy Center.
Huh! I don't know why they built the son of a bitch.
They had this horrible, horrible modern art.
I know that's wrong because a lot of the people around here have modern art around
but let me just say simply say
that they are catering, pandering, to an audience that is not a majority audience.
Now, take the New York theatre.
I went up there to see what was supposed to be the best musical to come into the New York theatre.
Much Ado About Nothing. It isn't worth a goddamn.
For Christ's sake, if I can't take anything that Shakespeare wrote
and did a little something better with it,
I mean, I would like to think that...
But this was mediocre, this wasn't worth twelve bucks.
I mean, where in the hell...? You couldn't put...
Where, what, where is the stuff, you know, that used to...?
Where is the good music score?
Yeah? Well, listen, they are writing for themselves. Yeah.
They're writing for their own writers
and I think they're out of touch. Yeah.
I say that there is, frankly,
a New York and Eastern liberal Establishment elite
that is corrupt, decadent and wrong.
All right, Christ, put them all up there
and let them look at their goddamn filthy pornography
but let the rest of us see something decent.
Yeah, I think... That's all I want.
The media in this country is extremely dangerous.
You're better looking than I am. Why don't you stay here?
Do you think they know?
The filth. The anti-Americans. And the rest.
It's the media. The media.
I shall resign the Presidency effective at noon tomorrow.
Subtitles by MemoryOnSmells http://UKsubtitles.ru.