The Obvious question - Whose way was most of the time? Om K
"Nixon was unhappy with the amount of attention paid Kissinger. Once he ordered Kissinger not to see reporters under any circumstances, to do no interviews, and to have no social meetings. "He wanted the White House staff to focus on the president, not on Kissinger, and pleaded with aide John D. Ehrlichman, 'Can't you let me do things MY way, just this one time, for a change?' '' Insights Into the Innermost Nixon WASHINGTON (AP) -- Richard Nixon did not like the portrait of him on the walls of federal buildings. He did not like all the attention that foreign policy adviser Henry Kissinger got. He also did not like most government workers -- 99.9 percent had nothing to contribute, he said. These candid insights into the opinions of the 37th president come from one of the few people outside the National Archives to have heard some of the still- secret tapes seized by the government when Nixon resigned as president in 1974: appraiser Steve Johnson. In a report entered as evidence in a lawsuit, Johnson reported that Nixon grumbled that he did not get enough credit for working through lunch hours and into the night. Nixon complained, too, in 1970 that Vice President Spiro Agnew was being sent to big cities to give speeches. The White House ``should save larger places'' for him, he told aides. On the other hand, Nixon was a hard worker, Johnson wrote. ``He can discuss any detail precisely, without preparation, even with the specific staff person within the bureaucracy who is working on the matter.'' Nixon turned ``earthy and mildly profane'' when having to confront the disagreeable. When Nixon tried to make a joke, his humor ``might be characterized as corny,'' Johnson also said. Johnson was hired by the late president's estate to appraise the recordings for its lawsuit against the government seeking $210 million in payment and interest for materials Nixon left behind. His estate used the report to show that the tapes were valuable historic documents. The government argued that paying anything would ``convert a national legacy into a national embarrassment.'' Paraphrasing the president, Johnson reported that Nixon felt ``that 99.9 percent of government people have nothing new to add to anything'' and ``routinely refers to the non-senior staff members as 'little boys.''' He added, ``On one occasion he makes a statement warning that 'Some of these little boys should not hear the kind of talk we will be doing to plan this speech.''' Nixon expressed unhappiness with the amount of attention paid Kissinger. On one occasion, he directed that Kissinger should not see Time magazine reporters under any circumstances, should do no interviews, have no social meetings and return no phone calls. ``He wants White House staff to talk about the president when they get a chance, never about Kissinger,'' Johnson notes, adding that Nixon pleaded with aide John D. Ehrlichman, ``Please to let him do it his way just this one time.'' On another occasion, Nixon told Press Secretary Ron Ziegler that anyone in the White House who talked to Time reporters ``should have their resignations requested within one minute.'' Frustrated with leaks, he discussed leaking false information to the Washington Post and CBS ``to throw them off and make them look unreliable.'' He also talked about giving lie detector tests to the 300,000 people in government with top secret security clearances to combat leaks. After nine months in office, Nixon complained he got ``no public relations exposure'' about working through lunch hours without eating and late into the night, Johnson noted. And near the end of his first term, Nixon expressed unhappiness to Ziegler about a photograph of him on public display. ``The president feels he needs a new smiling photograph on the walls of federal buildings,'' Johnson wrote. Nixon's humor tended to be ``corny,'' the appraiser said, but occasional humor occurs on the tapes. In 1971, Nixon recalled a question from a group of editors asking what came into his head when he woke up in the middle of the night. He had replied that he pondered achieving world peace, but privately he told aides he wished he had told the truth: ``that he thought about going to the bathroom just like everybody does when they get up at night.''
