ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, November 28, 1996 TAG: 9611290108
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A9 EDITION: HOLIDAY
DATELINE: COLLEGE PARK, MD.
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Concerned about re-election prospects, President Nixon and aides talked about secretly putting up money to finance an independent black candidate who would drain off Democratic votes in the 1972 election.
They said they could devote millions of dollars to the effort and even talked of paying the candidate ``an incentive bonus'' of $10,000 for every 1 percent of the total vote he pulled in.
``Put that down for discussion - not for discussion, for action,'' said the president as the plan was laid out in an Oval Office meeting with chief of staff H.R. Haldeman and special counsel Charles Colson on Sept. 14, 1971.
Nixon joined in speculating whether Jesse Jackson, Julian Bond, then a young civil rights leader, or Rep. Shirley Chisholm could be induced to make the run. Later talk focused on trying to convince Jackson there was a big demand for him to make the race.
Haldeman said he feared that if a party regular were chosen the Democrats could ``buy him off,'' and added: ``We're better off buying our own person.''
Like many schemes cooked up in the Nixon White House, it was more talk than action. Nothing apparently came of the idea, despite the initial burst of enthusiasm.
The discussions are heard on Nixon's secret tapes, part of 201 hours of conversations recently made public under a settlement between the National Archives and the Nixon estate, which had sued to keep them secret.
At the time of the discussions, Nixon had reason to worry about his 1972 prospects. Sen. Edmund Muskie of Maine looked like a likely and formidable Democratic rival, and George Wallace of Alabama was expected to mount a third-party candidacy that could take votes from Nixon.
Muskie ultimately pulled out; Wallace was crippled in an assassination attempt and the Democrats nominated antiwar candidate George McGovern, whom Nixon beat by a large margin.
On the tape, the discussion opened with Haldeman saying, ``I hope to hell the blacks do go ahead with a black candidate.''
``So do I,'' Nixon replied.
``Pat Buchanan has sent me a suggestion that may make a lot of sense,'' Haldeman said, referring to the Nixon speechwriter who ran for the presidency himself years later. ``He says if we're going to spend $50 million for the campaign, 10 percent of it - $5 million - ought to be devoted to -''
Nixon interrupted: ``A fourth party.''
Haldeman continued: ``to financing a black party.''
``Let me suggest this,'' Nixon said. ``Why not $5 million to finance Eugene McCarthy?'' At the time, the former Minnesota senator was considering an independent candidacy.
A moment later, Nixon said the campaign could finance both McCarthy and a black candidate. He said the Democrats had underwritten Wallace's gubernatorial primary in 1970, presumably to keep him viable as a threat to Nixon in 1972. ``They were crazy for Wallace to win that primary,'' Nixon said.
The topic came up again five weeks later. ``I think we may get something going,'' Haldeman reported. The president proposed underwriting Chisholm, who was planning on entering the Democratic presidential primaries, but Haldeman favored another course.
``The argument is that if we can launch a Jesse Jackson or somebody outside the party we're better off, if we can keep them bought,'' Haldeman said.
Nixon: ``Yeah.''
Haldeman presented a plan for persuading Jackson that a groundswell of support existed for a Jackson candidacy.
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