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Robert McNamara: If you publish, you'll get the very worst of him, the Colsons and the Ehrlichmans and he'll crush you.
Kay Graham: I know, he's just awful, but I...
Robert McNamara: [Interrupting and getting extremely angry] He's a... Nixon's a son of a bitch! He hates you, he hates Ben, he's wanted to ruin the paper for years and you will not get a second chance, Kay. The Richard Nixon I know will muster the full power of the presidency and if there's a way to destroy your paper, by God, he'll find it.
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Roger Clark: What if we wait? What if we hold off on printing today. Instead we call the Attorney General and we tell them that we intend to print on Sunday. That way we give them and us time to figure out the legality of all of it, while the Court in New York decides the Times case.
Ben Bradlee: Are you suggesting we alert the Attorney General to the fact that we have these documents, that we're going to print, in a few days?
Roger Clark: Well, yes, that is the idea.
Ben Bagdikian: Yeah, well, outside of landing the Hindenburg in a lightning storm, that's about the shittiest idea I've ever heard.
Fritz Beebe: Oh boy!
Ashle Dawson
Extended Reading
