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Edward KocheEdward Koche
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clipping from the Village Voice where Nat Henthoff attacks me, calls me ‘Smoky Bear; for having made a speech at the corner of Sixth Avenue and 8th Street waiting for you to come and my talking about you and having said when you finally came and I'm introducing you, ‘I give you the next President -- I mean Senator...' And that's all in this clipping.”

And he takes the clipping and he starts to read it -- it was a yellowed clipping, which I happened to have because at that time I kept clippings for future reproduction in political campaigns. I don't do that now, but it was a very worthwhile clipping.

From that moment on, that whole interview changed, changed completely. He was a friend. I said to him, “I hope you run.” He said, “No, I'm not going to run. I want to speak about the war, and if I ran, I couldn't speak so frankly. I want to talk about how in error Johnson is, so I'm not going to run.” I said, “I hope that you do run, and if you do, I will be with you. I will support you. But meanwhile I am running, and I have been told by the peace groups that they want me simply to run on a peace platform, and I can't do that. My opposition to the Vietnam War is one issue, a major issue, but it will not be the only issue in my campaign. I'm running on a whole host of things that I've been involved in, and that's how people know me.” He said, “I agree with you completely. If you run simply on a single issue, you'll lose.” He said, “I will help you, and I will raise money for you.” I said, “I didn't ask you to do anything for me,





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