The President met with Chief of Staff H.R. "Bob" Haldeman∇ and National Security Adviser Henry A. Kissinger∇.
[85:35 on 619B]
President Nixon: Got to have [Governor Ronald W.] Reagan∇ [R-California] in tomorrow morning. I want to tell you [unclear]--
Henry A. Kissinger: I'm having breakfast with him.
President Nixon: Jesus Christ, we're--well, it's worth it. It's worth it.
H.R. "Bob" Haldeman: No, that's--every power there is, properly spent.
President Nixon: Henry, you're the important one there. You're the--tell him how tough Amchitka was, that the President got--and exaggerate. Tell him the mail on Amchitka, which it was, was a--
Haldeman: You don't have to exaggerate.
President Nixon: --thousand to one.
Kissinger: Well, hell--
President Nixon: A thousand to one that we received.
Kissinger: I can testify to the fact--
Haldeman: To 50 for--
President Nixon: [Unclear] and 50 for it.
Kissinger: You said to me that if--unless--that if the Supreme Court voted against it, you'd go ahead anyway, unless it were unanimous.
President Nixon: That's right. I decided that morning.
Kissinger: You said that to me that morning.
President Nixon: Of course, because the Supreme Court had no goddamn right to determine this. And I was perfectly prepared to go through, and all hell would've broken loose, and I would have done it.
Kissinger: Of course, these goddamn scientists, not one has now admitted that there was any mistake.
President Nixon: That's right.
Haldeman: No, but the press has. That's one where we did get the point--
President Nixon: Has the press?
Haldeman: Yes, there's been quite a bit written, about the, "Ho, ho, ho, what happened to the all the smart-asses who said that the world is coming to an end?"
Kissinger: Yeah.
Haldeman: There's been a lot of gloating.
[Discussion turns to the Middle East.]