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Oral Roberts / Richard Nixon tape


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I've been reading OR's autobiography (it's actually not a bad read) and he has a section on the presidents that he has met.  He tells this story how Sen Dewey Bartlett keeps pestering him that he needs to go meet with Nixon.  OR, a Democrat, is no fan of Nixon so he declines until Bartlett states that Nixon needs advice on how to better talk to people via TV.  OR agrees and tells the story of their meeting in the oval office.

 

This got me to thinking...there has to be a recording.

 

Here is what I found so far.  There is indeed a recording and more to the story.   The month prior to meeting Nixon, OR opened one of the nights of the 1972 Democratic Convention in Miami with prayer.  Billy Graham who was helping Nixon and his re-election campaign behind the scenes had recommeded that Nixon meet with OR because of his huge TV ratings and draw in middle America.

 

So with that knowledge, it's pretty funny to listen to OR try and help Nixon better relate/empathize with the people he is speaking to and all the while Nixon is just playing politics and must be thinking "Is this guy going to speak highly of me to his millions of viewers or not?"  OR does get in a good commercial for ORU towards the end and even floats the idea of Nixon coming to dedicate a new building (Mabee Center?).  The two sign bibles for one another and pray for each other at the end (Nixon's prayer for OR is redacted however).

 

Whitehouse memo -- Graham/Roberts: LINK

 

Conversation No. 768-22 Date: August 14, 1972 Time: 1:15 pm - 1:44 pm Location: Oval Office The President met with Oral Roberts and Wallace B. Henley; the White House photographer was present at the beginning of the meeting. AUDIO

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Something tells me that Tricky Dick would have much preferred RR over OR..... :wasntme:

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Thanks for the audio of the Nixon-Roberts meeting. I had read about the meeting in his autobiography but listening to the tape was intriguing.

 

I remember years ago in Research Seminar class at ORU, Dr. Paul Chapell saying that OR's letters to his partners were on a 6-8 grade reading level. It was interesting to hear OR say on the tape that the comprehension level of the average American was 7th grade (he said that several times to Nixon).  I've heard our newspapers are on a 6th grade reading level. Anything higher than that, people will not buy the papers.

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