I CBS NBPS 2020 M Stree t, N. W. Hasbinglo·: , D. C. 2003G as broadcast over the CBS Tc levis i. on Network and tlle CBS Radio Ne b·i'Or k Sunday, October 27 , 1968·- 6:30-7:00 P!'·J. EST GUES T:. RIGIARD M. NIXON Republican Candidate fo.1~ President NE\•;6 CORR"ES PONDENTS: Martin Agronsky CBS Ne'i·iS David Broder 'l'he v7ashington Post ,John Hart CBS News DIREC'J.'OTI: Robert Vi ta:re lli PRODUCE RS: Sylvia v7esterman an::'l Prentiss Childs ·.: NOTF: TO EDri'ORS: PJ_ease c recl:it any rruote s or excerpts from this CBS R::Jd:io and T~·d evis ion pro9ram to "Face t he Nation." P RESS CONTACT: Ethel Aaronson - ( 202) 29G-1234 , 1 .0 you .0 1 HR. AGROF:SKY: l"i:C. Nixon, President Johnson today accused ( '1 co N ,......0 2 of making ugly and unfair distortions of An:3r i can defense po.,. N 0 N 0 0 own pcace-rnak.ing efforts. Do you feel that, 3. 3 sitions and of his 0 c 0 .S!a. 4 despite your own moratorium against i t , tl1e peace negoti ations 5 };ave now been brought i nto the polj tical c ampaign? 6 MR. KIXON: I c ertainly do not , b ecause I made it very cle2r 7 that anything I said about the VLetnam negotiations , t hat I 8 would not discuss wh at the negotiators should agree to. I 9 believe that President Johnson should have absolute freedo:11 o f 10 action to negotiate what he finds i s t l!e proper ~~ ind o f settle- 11 ment. And, under the c ircumstances , no one on t he outs ide 12 should s a y that he should agree to this or tha t. 1~at would -J :::> a.<· 13 wean that the enemy would wait for the president i a 1 candida tc 14 to be elected rather than negotiate with the President vie 've 15 got. 16 ANl'JOUNCER: From CBS Ne\v York., in color , FACE THE NATION , a 17 sponta ne ous and unrehearsed news interview with Richard N. 18 Nixon, Republican Candida te for President. Mr. Ni.xon vii 11 b e 1 9 questioned by CBS Ne\·;s Correspondent Joh n Hart, David Brode r , , and CBS N 20 Nationa l Political Re porter for The Hasl; ington Post 0 8 N u 21 News Cor respondent !1ar tin Ag r ons ky. ci c 0 0c 22 ;-5 NR. AG RONSKY : Mr. Nixon, t he President obv ious ly fee ls that ui 23 ;i ~ ~ 24 when you raised t he possibili t y , though you said you did n ot ·,:;; ll ~ 25 be lie ve it yourself , that the psace negotiations \•:ere being 2 oO •'> 1 lin!-::ed to an effort to elect Hubert Humpbrey , that the "i co N ,....,..:> 2 President clear ly feels thut , in raising that , you yourse lf N 0 ·0~ ne {J oU.a ti ons in to tll e ~", 3 ended your moratorium on bri n<Ji ng pe ace c "0 0."' 4 poli tica 1 campaign. Holi would you res pond to that? 5 MR. NIXON: I would respond to it by pointing out that the 6 President reads the nev-1spapers , as I do, and t here has been a 7 grea t deal of discussion ~- in f~ct , there was a UPI r eport 8 frCY.n 'V·7ashington indicating tl1at there Y.ias a lot of s peculation, 9 that there were insiders on the White House staff ,,,h o v-.re!:'e at- 10 t empting ·to \• 7 ork out some sort o f a settlerr.ent and tbat the 11 Pres ident was going to be used for t hat p urpose . It wou ld 12 seem t o me that I was be:ng quite rc~spons ible in naj_Jing tl:;at 13 and making it cleur that I did not share t he vie\•iS o f thos e 14 that thought the President would use tr·ese negoti.a t ion::; po- 15 litica lly. Incidentally, I d on 't. I thin~ President Joh nson 16 wants to bring t his war to an end. I thi nk he would like to 17 have a b omb ing pause, providing it isn ' t going to cos t Arne rican 18 lives , tha t it will s a ve l ife rather than cos t it. I don 't 19 go a l ong with thos e that think that he is going to play politics N t hat stateme nt and I would think the 0 20 with this. I made 0 0 N u 21 Pres ide nt would be thanking me rather than at tacking JT,e . 0 22 HR. BHODER: Mr. Nixon, you referred , in tha t origina l state- 23 ment , to unnarr.ed top officia l s , and now you say '-':;l ite House 2 4 insiders. Hho are you t alking al?oul? ~ 2 5 t11~ . NIXON: ·· o h , I a w t a l king about the peopl e within t he i·Tn ite 3 oD House s t a ff wlJO a r e sup p o:; ed to b e p r ivy to the various ne gotia-- "'N l "'!" co N ,.....oD 2 tions that a r e g o i ng on. I u.m no t goi ng into any de t a ils wi th N 0 N c 0 .$ 3 rega rd to tl1e me n tha t a J~ e inv olved . I am only r e ferring to 0 c 0 -" "- 4 the r eports tha t h a ve b ee n made . I am n o t g oing to ma ke any 5 c h arges a gainst any of Mr. J ol1ns on ' s perso na :)_ s ta ff. It is 6 appaxe ntly quite \\'e ll kn Oi·m tha t U .e y do supp ort Hube rt 7 Humphrey, perl 1a ps more enthus i a s tica lly tha n }-e doe s. 8 MR. HAR T : Mr . Nix on, you h ave r e pe ate dly, in your c an,p.:d .gn, 9 soid tha t you wo u ld n o t d o o r s a y anything to pull the rug out 10 from unde r Nr. Jo,ms on during the ne gotiations. And this wee k 11 you CJ.r·cused Hr . Humph r e y of h a ving the fu. s test and looses t. 12 tongue in Ame rican politics, saying that he is unable to mind · <(! 13 his tong ue while ne gotiations are going on. •1'\.;o cluys a f t e r you 0 ~< 3: 1 4 said that about Hr. Humphre y , you reve ale d thCJ.t part of tre 15 ne goti ations Mr. J· ohns on was now enga ging in conce rne d a 1 6 possible c e CJ. se-fire. \';'ell, if you \•iere Preside nt , would you 17 cons ider that reve latibn a kind of rug pulling? 18 MR. NIXO!<!: I would if it were a revelatibn but , as you certainl , 19 knO\·i, Hr. Hart , from rc<'lding t he p a pers and listening to CBS Ne ws , the c eas e-fire had been talked about for \·,-e eks before. "'0 20 8 N 0 21 Everybody kno;,,;s the reports out o f Par is , from .t-1:c . Barr iman and ci c' 0 j 2 2 the rest, t he two things -- t hey were talking about tie possi- i ~ ui 2 3 bility of a bombing halt and a possibility of a cease-fire. I z . ! . 2 4 \,l;as qnly re pea ti r1g ''iha t I hacl _he_ard on CBS and read in the Vl :..<: ~ 25 pa pers. 4 1 HR. AGR01-1SI<Y : I-1r. Nixon, I vwncle r if ,,.;e could end tl, .i.s 'i\'h olc ,...... 2 discussion on raisin<] this business of conne ctinCJ t}-e peace N 0 N "0 ,$ 3 ne gotia. t :L ons v-;i th the election o f Hr. Humphrey by as l\::Lng you ...c 0 ..c 0.. 4 this : VJhy , if you dic1n 1 t b e lieve it, did you raise it at all? 5 t.m. NIXON: Be cause it seen·,c c1 to me that , with all the specu- 6 lation that v;a.s going on, the sp2 cu1ation that there was about 7 to be a b6mbing pause and that it would be negotiated for po- 8 litical reasons , that it was i mportant for the roan most 9 inlimJtely involve d, I \·10uld be the man I suppo.s e who \·ias 10 suppose d . to be h armed by a bomb ing pause , a l thou~h I am not 11 sure that is the c ase . It \•ias impor tant for me to nai l it once 12 and for all. After-all, if the President is going to be able 13 to negotiate a settleme nt here , the ene my must not get the 14 impression that he has to n e ~otiute for political reasons. That 15 reduces his ability to negotiate. And , incidentally, talJ~in<J 16 about this loosest tongue thing, that John Hart referred to a 17 mon,ent ago, \vith regard to Hr.