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became very much her organization, and, in fact, I thought at one time that she was getting ready to run for national office and was using the presidency of the Red Cross as a launching pad. Unfair--I don't have any evidence that she did that. But she's very politically inclined. A very charming and very able woman. But she had her own agenda.

So I have no connection with the Red Cross--occasionally one of the chapters will ask me to come out and talk or something of that kind, but, you know, it rolls on. In fact, I'm not sure I can even tell you who the chairman of the Red Cross is. It's a political appointment. Maybe Hillary [Clinton] hasn't made up her mind. I don't know. Because this would be a very political appointment.

My six years, with Nixon and Ford, I had no problems at all. I didn't want any money from them, because I wanted the independence. And that wasn't my idea; that was something that Harriman had instituted and I carried on. But I got brought into that within twenty- four hours after I was out of CBS. And it was a good thing, because I didn't have time to think about what I left behind me; and as I've probably indicated in earlier tapes, I didn't leave in a very happy atmosphere anyway from CBS.

That changed as time wore on, but that was in large measure, I think, because the chairman and some of the executives--basically, the chairman--had no great sympathy for the stand I took against the government on “The Selling of the Pentagon.” That fight, which we won-- and fortunately, I think, for television news today, we did win--but Paley was not happy about that. And shortly after I left I was told by one of the members of the “inner circle” that at a meeting he said that as he looked back on it, it was a big mistake that I made the fight that I did.