As well
as providing funds for clandestine operations and assassinations,
the new heroin crusade promised to fulfill a cherished
political objective of the Nixon administration: the
recruitment of celebrities into the Nixon camp. In 1969,
immediately after he assumed office, President Nixon
had attempted to mobilize the disc jockeys of the nation
into an antimarijuana campaign, which would give his
administration considerable exposure on the nation's
airwaves. Art Buchwald, the noted humorist, invited
the leading disc jockeys to the White House at the president's
request. Egil Krogh, coordinator of the event, explained,
"Murray the K came and Cousin Brucie came and others....
We asked them to incorporate into their hip language
between the playing of hip tunes sort of an antidrug
theme.... They tried to tell us that perhaps they weren't
the best vehicle for ... an antidrug pitch." The
president was slightly more successful in recruiting
Art Linkletter into his anti-LSD campaign, after the
entertainer's daughter committed suicide in 1969. An
Air Force plane was sent to fly Linkletter from California
to the governors' conference in Washington in December,
1969, and after an emotional session with the assembled
governors, Linkletter agreed to head a national advisory
council on drugs.
Now the White House Sought
a more charismatic celebrity according to Krogh, and
in December. 1970, Elvis Presley, the rock star, was
brought to the White House to cooperate in the drug
program. Egil Krogh described the encounter between
Presley and the president: "Elvis showed up at
the northwest gate of the White House with velvet pants
and his silk shirt opened to his waist.... He wanted
to tell the president how strongly he felt [about the
drug problem] because he loved his country ... but he
said he'd also like to have a BNDD badge, because he
collected badges.... His gift to the president was not
appropriated .44 Colt automatic pistol with bullets....
He went into the president's office and it had to be
the most bizarre meeting I'd ever seen.... He said,
'Mr. President, I really believe in what you are doing,
I love my country, I love my family, I think law enforcement
is great.'. . . The president suggested that he use
an antidrug theme in his songs and Presley responded
by showing the president his badge collection, and asked
the president for a BNDD badge. The president shook
his head in disbelief ... and Presley ended the interview
by suggesting that they keep this meeting secret. Nixon
responded, 'Absolutely! Don't tell anybody; preserve
your credibility at all cost.' " Elvis later received
his BNDD badge, but the White House staff decided that
he would not make an appropriate campaigner for the
president.
It was not until the spring
of 1971, when the White House strategists were writing
the scenario for a national heroin crusade, that the
appropriate celebrity was found-Sammy Davis, Jr. John
Ehrlichman broached the subject to President Nixon on
May 28. The details of that discussion, transcribed
by Krogh for the President's File, note, "It is
suggested that the President consent to an interview
with Sammy Davis, Jr. on the subject of drug abuse as
an introduction to a ninety minute drug abuse television
special M.C.'d by Sammy Davis, Jr. and participated
in by well known musicians and actors" Ehrlichman
cited the advantages of such a connection, saying, "in
view of the fact that Davis will be taking over a number
of talk shows over the next four months, the administration
would get continuous mileage out of the fact that Davis
is involved with this production. Furthermore, Davis
could be asked to bring a live production to our troops
in Viet Nam and in NATO countries." (Donald Rumsfeld,
then ambassador to NATO, had sent Egil Krogh a memorandum
a few days earlier mentioning that President Nixon had
suggested sending "Art Linkletter ... to do a world
tour of military bases . . . linked with the drug program
because he could talk so effectively about his daughter
and the problem.") Ehrlichman finally persuaded
the president to use Sammy Davis, Jr., by arguing, "As
a result of this special, the President could cultivate
a friendship with the top artist for 1972 campaign purposes."
To further the plan,
President Nixon personally met with Sammy Davis, Jr.,
on July 1, 1971. According to the memorandum on the
meeting, Davis said that he was "honored and thrilled
to be with the President." Nixon quickly came to
the point and said, "As a celebrity the country
would listen to [your] caution about drugs much quicker
than they would to the cautions of politicians.... Kids
would be turned on by [you]." He further assured
Davis that the administration was for kids and it was
not trying to repress them. Knowing that Davis was interested
in the fate of black colleges, Nixon added, "The
Administration is behind black colleges and has thus
far given more than a hundred fifty million dollars
to them." As the discussion continued, Nixon showed
progressively more venom toward the elite." He
said that "the elite of the United States are least
capable of governing the United States," and then
paraphrased Tolstoy, saying, "Every individual
is basically two people; he has creative and destructive
instincts.... The secret in life is to sublimate the
destructive instincts, for the same energies that can
build can destroy." Davis, obviously impressed,
agreed to help the president-although he had no way
of knowing at the time exactly what it would entail.
On August 20, after Sammy Davis,
Jr., had agreed to go to Vietnam for the administration,
Jeffrey Donfeld sent a memo to various agencies of the
government stating that Davis "will integrate into
his show the anti-drug items which are of special importance
to our government. I would therefore like to ask you
to submit to me brief vignettes or brief messages or
even anecdotes which will get across messages of particular
concern to your department. Officials of the government
responded to the White House by writing sketches for
Davis. John Ingersoll suggested such anecdotal situations
as the following:
A known drug abuser appears
at a large conference on drug abuse prevention. His
dress was extreme in the hippie sense and he insisted
on taking the floor to criticize all printed information
available to the public. He was particularly incensed
by an Ad Council piece entitled "Diagram of a Drug
Abuser" . . . he took it apart item by item. What
was cynically amusing was that he personally mirrored
every fact he challenged. He wore dark glasses, his
nose was noticeably red, he sniffed at every verbal
pause, he was emaciated, and wore a long-sleeve hippie
costume. He lit a cigarette with hands shaking so badly
that he had to hold the match with the other hand. He
closed with the impassioned statement, "I say they
should tell it like it is. . . ."
Ingersoll also enclosed a "tongue-in-cheek
quiz" and a "Laugh-In format" for a film
entitled Pot Is a Put-On. The Defense Department suggested
"incorporating a comedy routine around one of Davis'
more well known themes, "Here Comes De Judge,"
but, more modest than the BNDD, it also suggested employing
the talents of "a professional comedy writer."
While Sammy Davis's October
trip to Vietnam was being planned, the White House attempted
to arrange a television show for Davis, with presidential
participation, on drugs. To sponsor this program, Jeffrey
Donfeld approached Ira Englander, of the Hoffmann-La
Roche pharmaceutical company (which manufactures Valium),
and Perry Lieber, the president of the Hughes Sports
Network (Hughes being a long-time supporter of President
Nixon's campaigns). Although both showed great interest
in the Nixon-Sammy Davis program, they were unwilling
to provide all the funds for production costs. Donfeld
thus stated, in a rather pessimistic memorandum to Egil
Krogh, on October 21, 197 1, "Unless someone on
Chuck Colson's staff can come up with the production
costs and arrange for network time, this project may
never be launched." Colson, however, showed little
enthusiasm for raising money for the television spectacular
especially since it would be to the credit of Egil Krogh
rather than himself. All President Nixon eventually
received from the Sammy Davis connection was a loving
embrace on television at election time The lack of a
slush fund to finance such activities as the Sammy Davis
special concerned John Ehrlichman. Donfeld had suggested
in an earlier memorandum that "there is a feeler
by the drug industry to donate funds to a drive to be
used in the fight against drug abuse." Although
the government was restricted by law from accepting
these funds for a specific purpose, Donfeld suggested
that "if a foundation existed, we could recommend
that such profits go there." Ehrlichman became
interested in the idea of creating such a foundation,
not only for the funds which it would attract but because
it would increase the president's visibility on the
antidrug issue. He thus recommended to Nixon that '
"in order to firmly and continually place the President
in the forefront of those concerned with drug abuse,
it is suggested that the White House encourage the establishment
of a drug abuse foundation to which the President would
have close association. The concept is similar to Franklin
Delano Roosevelt's association with the March of Dimes."
The president immediately approved the idea of creating
a March of Dollars for a national drug foundation, and
assigned the project to Egil Krogh. In his June 30 (1971)
proposal for creating the foundation, Krogh estimated
"that three million dollars would be available
from industry sources as feed money. It is reasonable
to assume that the foundation could raise twenty-five
million dollars over three years. These funds would
not come from traditional political sources." In
asking for direct presidential involvement on the board
of directors of the planned foundation, Krogh noted
that "drug abuse is of paramount concern in the
public mind.... Presidential involvement would crystallize
support on a positive issue." Since presidential
involvement meant in practical terms being photographed
by the press, Haldeman approved the 1. photo opportunity
... in a location other than the White House, such as
the National Press Club." Bruce Kehrli, another
White House public-relations strategist, commented on
the proposal, "Although ... it isn't the ultimate
solution in terms of substance, it should provide a
hype for the P.R. side of the drug abuse issue, since
the President's initiative [June 17, 1971] got only
moderate coverage because of the breaking of the New
York Times [Pentagon Papers] story." This promising
project, however, was jettisoned when Tex McCrary, who
was to be the fund-raiser for the foundation, inadvertently
told a journalist about the plan to raise money from
the drug to wage the heroin crusade. As Donfeld pointed
out in a February 4, 1972, memorandum, "Once it
becomes known that we are courting the pharmaceutical
industry, the integrity of the project is impugned,"
and he recommended that "someone turn off McCrary."
Even though by this time Gen. William Westmoreland and
Tricia Nixon had been mobilized for the March of Dollars,
Haldeman decided reluctantly to "turn off"
the foundation idea.
As it turned out, narcotics
did not prove to be as great a lure for attracting celebrities
and finances as the Nixon strategists had hoped.
As the 1972 election
approached, and corporations contributed, illicitly,
tens of millions of dollars to the Nixon reelection
campaign, and celebrities joined the political bandwagon,
the "celebrity file" was closed.
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