American Experience

John Ehrlichman on "the big play"

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For Richard Nixon, the big play was almost always in the foreign policy area. And it was almost always something that was going to change the face of the world. And he saw himself as being ready. As constantly having the little things, the minutiae pushed away so that he could handle, he could focus, on the big decision that had to be made. And there were some big decisions, like the incursion into Cambodia turned out to be a big decision. He knew that was a big decision before it happened. He took me aside and he said, I'm going to be out of the play for ten days here. I won't be able to handle any domestic decisions for ten days. So come back this afternoon and tell me all the things that need to be decided for the next ten days and then I won't be able to see you because I'm going to be focusing on this business in Vietnam. We're going to try and bring it to a head.

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