Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 11 › Conversation 011-057

Nixon phone call with Shultz on Cost of Living Council and Economic Policy

Tuesday, October 12, 1971 · 10:14 AM–10:16 AM ET · White House Telephone · 2 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Shultz, George P.Conversation011-057 on Tape 11 (tape position 01:28:23–01:30:06)StartTuesday, October 12, 1971 at 10:14 AMEndTuesday, October 12, 1971 at 10:16 AMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 011-057 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and George Shultz discuss the need to maintain a unified administration front regarding economic policy following recent statements from John Connally. Nixon expresses concern that members of the Cost of Living Council, specifically George Romney, Maurice Stans, and Arthur Burns, might publicly dissent or criticize the administration's stance. Shultz agrees with the President's suggestion to have Donald Rumsfeld coordinate the message to ensure that business leaders and other officials understand the strategic importance of securing labor's cooperation on wage settlements.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Names and numbers are often wrong; speakers are not identified. Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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George, one thing that occurred to me is to keep our own COLC people from privately or publicly yapping around, publicly, except for Arthur Nunn would, but I wonder if maybe Rumsfeld could run this around.
Well, the only ones that I can think of that would be a problem would be Romney, Stans, and Burns.
What do you think?
Just to simply say that this was a statement that
that was developed from Connolly's press conference and the other briefings representing the viewpoint.
Don't you think it's a good idea?
Yes.
Let's have a united front of the thing.
And as far as the business thing is concerned, I'm not so, I mean, I don't, the capitulation thing doesn't stand up, George, unless they have built up an idea that we're going to do something that we never intended to do, but maybe they have.
Is that the point?
In other words, they may have thought that mean he was.
No, I think people are trying to reach conclusions too rapidly without thinking carefully about what is involved.
And I think anyone who really thinks about it would recognize that any time you can get labor to accept
a reasonable degree of responsibility for doing something about high wage settlements.
That's right.
That you have achieved something enormous.
Enormous.
For a while.
For a while.
I agree.
And that's what you've got to, let's get that around to a few people and so that we don't have the business people, you know, whining around.
Okay.
All right, sir.
Bye, George.

NARA Description

On October 12, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and George P. Shultz talked on the telephone from 10:14 am to 10:16 am. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 011-057 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 011-057

 Date: October 12, 1971
 Time: 10:14 am - 10:16 am
 Location: White House Telephone

 The President talked with George P. Shultz.

 [See Conversation No. 288-13]

        Cost of Living Council [COLC]
             -Arthur F. Burns
             -Donald H. Rumsfeld
             -George W. Romney, Maurice H. Stans, and Burns
             -John B. Connally's press conference

        Economy
             -Labor
                  -George Meany

Also recorded on October 12, 1971

  • 011-055 9:58 AM · 6 min — President Richard M. Nixon and George P. Shultz talked on the telephone from 9:58 am to 10:04 am.
  • 011-056 10:04 AM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 10:04 am and 10:14 am.
  • 288-012 10:04 AM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 10:04 am and 10:14 am.
  • 288-013 10:14 AM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and George P. Shultz met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 10:14 am to 10:16 am.
  • 011-058 10:16 AM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 10:16 am and 10:31 am.
  • 288-014 10:16 AM · 40 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 10:16 am and 10:31 am.
  • 288-015 10:16 AM · 17 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 10:16 am and 10:31 am.
  • 288-016 10:16 AM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 10:16 am to 10:31 am.

All 71 conversations from October 12, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 011-057, October 12, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/011-057 (accessed September 18, 2026).