100. Conversation Among President Nixon, the President’s Assistant (Flanigan), and the White House Chief of Staff (Haldeman)1
[Omitted here is discussion unrelated to Chile.]
Flanigan: Do you want Korry to get a post badly enough to force it down Rogers’s throat?
Haldeman: We’ve got to force it. Korry’s got to have a job.
[Page 527]Flanigan: I got him a job at—as a—
Nixon: Why? Is he open to—
Flanigan: —a consultant to OPIC.
Nixon: —something?
[14 seconds not declassified]
Haldeman: He’s also, though, strongly backed by the right-wing, for some reason.
Flanigan: That’s right.
Haldeman: Irving Kristol—
Flanigan: Bill Buckley.
Haldeman: Bill Buckley, and people like that.
Flanigan: Yeah.
Nixon: [Unclear]
Haldeman: A lot of the conservative intelligentsia.
Flanigan: Well, we can either do something with him like let him be a consultant to the Overseas Private Investment Corporation—which we’ll just tell them that they got to keep him on as a consultant through the end of the year—which is a nothing job. Or, if we wanted, give him something like Ceylon, which is open, you’d have—you would just have to lean on Bill, because Henry can’t do it, and I can’t do it. He’s just—maybe Bob can do it, but he [Rogers] said, “No.”
Nixon: You’ll have to do it.
Haldeman: Bill has flatly said, “No”?
Flanigan: He’s told this fellow he’s out. They’re not going to buy it. Time is up.
Nixon: Why? Because Korry—?
Flanigan: I guess because Korry loused this up. He thinks that since he was a Kennedy fellow and brought in by Kennedy, we don’t have any obligations, and because he’s, I’m told, he recommended taking some of these economic things out of State when he was asked to, some time ago. And I, frankly—
Nixon: Yeah. Well, Korry—Korry’s the guy who writes memoranda, and all that sort of thing, and he raised hell when he was in Ethiopia about the State Department’s Africa department. He was right.
Haldeman: The problem is if he isn’t given gainful employment for the next year, he’s going to turn to his trade, which is writing. And the best thing for him to write is something we just—
Nixon: Whether and how we—how we screwed up Chile?
Haldeman: We just don’t want him to write until after the election.
Flanigan: Well, if that’s all it is—
[Page 528]Haldeman: Henry’s viewpoint is we’ve got to keep the guy employed through the election. After the election, he couldn’t care less.
Flanigan: Well, supposing I tell Brad Mills he’s just got to keep him on as a consultant, but get him out of town?
Haldeman: Will Korry stay as a consultant? Will he—? Is he willing to accept that?
Flanigan: Brad Mills runs this Overseas Private Investment Corporation—
Nixon: Yeah, OPIC. [Unclear]
Flanigan: —and he’s got him now till April 1st, at our request. He likes Korry. He thinks Korry’s good.
Nixon: Will Korry be interested—
Haldeman: If Korry will keep it, then, if he—
Nixon: I’d rather keep him there.
Haldeman: If he’ll settle for that, that’s better.
Flanigan: All right.
Haldeman: There’s no point in wasting—
Nixon: Yeah.
Haldeman: —an ambassador’s post on him.
Nixon: And then we don’t have to press it with Bill, if we can do that.
Flanigan: Right.
Nixon: And tell him to make it helpful. I’ll tell you what you do. Have him make a study in there of that business of what Connally’s thinking about: How do we—how do we get the raw materials of the world all lined up for the United States? Brilliant.
Flanigan: Sure.
Nixon: Why not? You ever meet Korry?
Flanigan: Never met him.
Nixon: You’ve got to admit that he’s smart as hell. Very imaginative, very—I mean, he’s articulate, and somewhat emotional, and so forth. But he’s way above the average State Department—
Flanigan: Maybe the thing to do is—
Nixon: Most of the ambassadors are as dumb as hell.
Flanigan: Maybe the thing for me to do is to let Brad Mills pay him and use him, since I have to get people—
Nixon: [Unclear]
Flanigan: —detailed to me. If he’s good enough, then, and—
Nixon: He could be a big help.
Flanigan: —reliable enough, ask him to work for me.
[Page 529]Nixon: He could. He could. I think he could work for you. I think he can certainly come up with some grand, damned imaginative stuff.
Flanigan: All right.
Nixon: Damned imaginative stuff. But you meet him first.
Flanigan: All right.
Nixon: You get him in, and you better meet him sometime, because he’s damned impressive.
Flanigan: All right.
Nixon: Korry is no slouch. I know him well.
Flanigan: Good.
[Omitted here is discussion unrelated to Chile.]
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Summary: Nixon, Flanigan, and Haldeman discussed possible jobs for Korry.
Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, White House Tapes, Conversation 654–1. Sensitive But Unclassified. According to the President’s Daily Diary, Nixon, Flanigan, and Haldeman met in the Oval Office from 5:18 to 6:05 p.m. (Ibid., White House Central Files) The editors transcribed the portion of the conversation printed here specifically for this volume.
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