My Charm Offensive

THE WHITE HOUSE

WASHINGTON

December 4, 1970

MEMORANDUM FOR: H. R. HALDEMAN

FROM THE PRESIDENT


As I have indicated in a number of my memoranda to you in the last two weeks, I have reluctantly concluded that our entire effort on the public relations front has been misdirected and ineffective. I want to be sure to separate the problems. We have gotten across the idea that the White House is efficient at the "process" in both the NSC and Domestic Council organizations--probably the best that the White House has had for many years and that, all in all, we have a very competent group of operators in the White House. The net result of this operation has been to create the impression among average voters--an impression which is gleefully underlined time and time again by our opponents in the press, that we are an efficient, crafty, cold machine, both in operating the government and all of our political activities....

There are innumerable examples of warm items--the way we have gone far beyond any previous President in this century in breaking our backs to be nicey-nice to the Cabinet, staff, the Congress, etc., around Christmastime in terms of activities that show personal concern, not only for them, but for their families. For example, the Church Service, every other person who comes through that line practically gets tears in his eyes when he thanks us for allowing them to bring their children to church. I have yet to see any columnist write this, and I of course doubt that anybody will because none of us really have the capacity to get it across, (due to the fact that we are ''slightly embarrassed to say such things").

There are such little things such as the treatment of household staff, the elevator operators, the office staff, the calls that I make to people when they are sick, even though they no longer mean anything to anybody, the innumerable letters I have written to people when they have fallen on bad days, including even losing an election. I doubt if any President in history has ever written somebody who has lost an election. But I write to them in terms of their families and how hard they had worked, etc. Here we have an ironical fact. Ehrlichman is constantly bugging me that I am going to have to see the Cabinet more and the sub-Cabinet more. And Flanigan, of course, is after me to see the members of the agencies. No President could have done more than I have done in this respect and particularly in the sense that I have treated them like dignified human beings, and not like dirt under my feet....

On a small note, I called Fred Cialles the other night who was going under the knife for a cancer operation, which will probably end his life. Fred Cialles has had it in Chicago politics but he has been my friend for years. I didn't tell anybody about the call and won't, but I put his nurse on also, and urged her to give a lift to all the other patients, but that was the most important thing she could do. Rose will remember an incident where I took dolls out to a couple of children at a hospital, when I was presiding over the Senate, who were dying with leukemia. We deliberately didn't have publicity....

All of this must be handled subtly and under no circumstances am I going to sit down with anybody and start telling them all the good deeds I have done. Again, such things, to be believable, have to be discovered, and one of the great factors that should be emphasized is that the President does not brag about all the good things he does for people....

In the whole field of warmth--the thrust should be not only jokes, glad-handing, back-slapping, etc., simply these small human acts of kindness which will mean an awful lot to people. Again, here is an area of utter failure on our part....

Having spoken of the White House events, one great plus is that this is a happy White House--one where the First Family has made it everybody's house. I have hit the theme over and over again--this house belongs to the people. I have used the Latin phrase to people over and over again "Esta en su Casa," which means "whenever you are here you are in your own house". Of course, the brilliant events that we have planned, the brilliant "verse" has simply not gotten through in any adequate capacity. This, of course, is a major public relations failure....

With regard to the whole warmth business, a very important point to underline is that we do not try to broker such items. We allow them to be discovered. For example, I would be horrified at the idea of putting out the fact that I called some mothers and wives of men that had been killed in Vietnam shortly after I met with the POW wives. Incidentally, on the warmth deal, the fact that after the Ohio State Game I called the Coach at Purdue--a team that had lost 8 games this year, and where the Coach is probably on the way out, and told him how I felt he had done an awfully good job under terribly difficult circumstances. This I did not put out and did not try to broker....

To sum up, what is needed is to get across those fundamental decencies and virtues which the great majority of Americans like--hard work, warmth, kindness, consideration for others, willingness to take the heat and not to pass the buck and, above all, a man who always does what he thinks is right, regardless of the consequences (he would rather be a one-term President doing what is right, rather than a two-term President doing what is wrong), and just plain guts and courage.