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Conversation: 254-004

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Start Date: 28-May-1971 3:00 PM

End Date: 28-May-1971 5:01 PM

Participants:

Nixon, Richard M. (President)Ehrlichman, John D.Shultz, George P.Sanchez, ManoloWhite House operatorBull, Stephen B.Peterson, Peter G.White House photographerButterfield, Alexander P.

Recording Device: Old Executive Office Building

Full Tape Conversation Start Time: 00:05:17

Full Tape Conversation End Time: 01:22:03

254a.mp3

254b.mp3

NARA Description:

On May 28, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, John D. Ehrlichman, George P. Shultz, Manolo Sanchez, White House operator, Stephen B. Bull, Peter G. Peterson, White House photographer, and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:00 pm to 5:01 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 254-004 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid:

Conversation No. 254-4

Date: May 28, 1971
Time: 3:00 pm - 5:01 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President met with John D. Ehrlichman and George P. Shultz

Manolo Sanchez entered at an unknown time after 3:00 pm


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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 26s ]


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5

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Sanchez left at an unknown time before 3:10 pm
                                             3

                            NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

                                     Tape Subject Log
                                        (rev. 9/08)



[The President talked with the White House operator at an unknown time between 3:00 pm and
3:10 pm]

[Conversation No. 254-4A]

[See Conversation No. 3-179]

[End of telephone conversation]                                      Conv. No. 254-4 (cont.)

     Proposed statute on executive pay

[The President talked with Stephen B. Bull between 3:10 pm and 3:11 pm]

[Conversation No. 254-4B]

[See Conversation No. 3-180]

[End of telephone conversation]

     Executive pay
         -Assistant secretaries
               -H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman
               -John B. Connally
                     -Staff needs
                           -Department of Transportation [DOT]
         -Position levels
         -Arthur [F. Burns?]
         -Salaries
         -Connally
         -Pay increase for government employees
               -Public opinion
               -Level 1
               -Deputies
               -Amount
               -Timing
               -Level 1
               -DOT
               -Connally
               -Press
               -Number
         -A commission
               -Level 4
                                        4

                    NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

                               Tape Subject Log
                                  (rev. 9/08)



     -Amount
     -New positions
     -Considerations
     -Department of Treasury, Department of Commerce
     -Office of Management and Budget [OMB]
     -Super grades
     -Connally
     -Level 3, level 2                                         Conv. No. 254-4 (cont.)

Technology
    -Studies
          -National Aeronautics and Space Administration [NASA], saline water, breeder
                reactor
    -Peter G. Peterson
          -Meetings with outside groups
    -Technical issues
    -Bernard Freer [?]
          -Del Shriver [?], Peter M. Flanigan
          -Government research and development [R&D]
          -Gayford [?] Commission
                -Purpose
                -Recommendations
          -A possible new commission
                -Gayford [?] Commission
                      -Report
                      -Shriver
    -Saline water
          -William E. Kreigsman
                -Arthur Loeb [?]
                -Atomic Energy Commission [AEC], Office of Science and Technology
                      [OST]
          -Admiral Lewis L. Strauss
          -John A. McCone
          -Lyndon B. Johnson
          -Saline water
          -AEC
          -Department of the Interior
          -NASA
                -Funding, bureaucracy
          -Peterson
                -Assessment of report
                -Bell and Howell experience
                                              5

                          NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

                                     Tape Subject Log
                                        (rev. 9/08)



                -Johnson
                      -Olsa Island project
                            -Baja California
                            -Problems
                            -Effect
          -NASA
                -Energy (breeder reactor, desalinization)
                -Discontinuation of moon shots                           Conv. No. 254-4 (cont.)
                      -Staff
                      -Timing
                      -Staff
                      -Announcement
          -Department of the Interior
          -Breeder reactor
          -Ehrlichman’s conversation with McCone
                -Shriver
                -Staff
          -McCone
                -Breeder reactor
                      -Shriver
                      -Peterson
                      -Reaction of John O. Pastore
                            -Antiballistic Missile [ABM]
                      -Possible meeting with President, Peterson, Shriver, and Shultz
                      -Time

Sanchez entered at an unknown time after 3:11 pm


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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 6
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 12s ]


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 6

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Sanchez left at an unknown time before 3:48 pm
                                         6

                      NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

                                 Tape Subject Log
                                    (rev. 9/08)




Technology
    -Breeder reactor
         -Shriver, Peterson, Dr. Edward E. David, Jr., Flanigan, McCone meeting
               -Scheduling

Peterson dinner meeting, June 2, 1971
     -Ben W. Heineman                                          Conv. No. 254-4 (cont.)
     -Dr. Edwin H. Land
           -Polaroid
     -Patrick E. Haggerty
     -Unknown person

Cancer program
    -Political considerations
    -Bureaucracy
    -James C. Fletcher
          -Experience in artificial heart and kidney work
    -Roy L. Ash
    -[Forename unknown] Norton
    -Biological and social sciences
    -Daniel P. (“Pat”) Moynihan
    -Dr. Arnold A. Hutschnecker
          -Work on violence
    -Peterson’s approach

National goals
     -Peterson dinner

Proposed group on domestic R&D
     -Shriver
          -David
          -Flanigan
     -Purpose

Cancer program
    -Department of Health, Education, and Welfare [HEW]

Rogers C. B. Morton

Antitrust
      -Peterson
                                                7

                           NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

                                      Tape Subject Log
                                         (rev. 9/08)



                -An option paper

Bull entered at an unknown time after 3:11 pm

     Peterson’s schedule

Bull left and Peterson and the White House photographer entered at 3:48 pm
                                                                        Conv. No. 254-4 (cont.)
      Photo arrangements
            -Bell and Howell camera
                  -Japan

The photographer left at an unknown time before 4:51 pm

     Peterson’s dinner meeting
          -Jack J. Dreyfus, Jr.
          -Land
          -A Polaroid official
          -Dreyfus

     Antitrust
           -Peterson

     Shriver and Flanigan
          -R&D for domestic programs
                -National Science Foundation
                -A list
          -McCone
          -Shriver

     Antitrust
           -Ralph McLaren
           -Administration policy
           -Peterson, Flanigan, Lee Whitten [?] meeting
           -Administration policy
                 -President, Courts
           -Domestic
           -Foreign
                 -Peterson or Flanigan
           -Justice Department
           -Martin C. (“Marty”) Anderson [?]
                                         8

                     NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

                                Tape Subject Log
                                   (rev. 9/08)



David R. Young, Jr.
     -President’s signature
     -Work for Henry A. Kissinger

Textiles
Shoes

President’s schedule                                      Conv. No. 254-4 (cont.)
     -Bull
     -A 5:30 meeting

Textiles and shoes
     -Labor position
           -Quotas, investment abroad, jobs

Shoes
     -Foreign action
          -Common Market
     -Legislation on trade
          -Flanigan
          -Europeans
          -Italians
          -Spaniards

Oil
      -David
      -Taiwan

Japanese
     -Okinawa

Korea
     -A meeting
     -Exports
          -Industry
               -Roger Milliken
          -Department of Commerce

Economy
    -Steel quotas
    -George [P. Shultz?]
          -Testimony
                                   9

               NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

                          Tape Subject Log
                             (rev. 9/08)



          -Investments
          -Wages and prices
-Labor
      -Protection
            -Japan
-Peterson’s conversation with unknown man [George Meany?]
-Quotas
-United Auto Workers, American Federation of Labor-CongressConv.
                                                              of Industrial
                                                                  No. 254-4 (cont.)
      Organizations [AFL-CIO]
-Concern for jobs
      -Labor’s position
      -Trade
      -An unknown man
-Goals after Vietnam
      -Jobs
      -Future
      -Republican House leaders
      -American position
      -Japan
      -Future
-Revenue sharing
      -Public opinion
            -Ehrlichman
      -Compared with moon shots
      -Public opinion
-David
      -Desalinization work with Peterson
-Goals
      -Creating new and better jobs
            -Markets
            -Social aspects
            -Desalinization and breeder reactor
            -Political and social aspects
                  -Ehrlichman
                  -William L. Safire
                  -John A. Scali
                  -Richard A. Moore
                  -New jobs
-Investment capital
      -Japan’s percent of Gross National Product [GNP] compared to US
            -Industrialized countries
      -Labor
                                            10

                      NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

                                  Tape Subject Log
                                     (rev. 9/08)



           -Plant modernization
                -Public opinion
                -Congress
                -Entrepreneurs
                -Public opinion
                -Effect on jobs
                -Building trades
           -Tax break for businesses                            Conv. No. 254-4 (cont.)
                -Labor’s position
                      -George Meany
                      -Productivity study
                -Great Britain
                -R&D
                -Labor’s position

Antitrust
      -Peterson’s meeting with Ehrlichman
            -Regulations
      -A study on Japan
            -R&D
      -High technology
            -Effect on international competition
            -Public opinion

Goals
     -Need for planning
     -Dwight D. Eisenhower
     -Charles H. Percy
     -John F. Kennedy
     -Long-range plans
          -Business
          -Space program
          -Japanese, Soviet, and Office of Price Administration [OPA] methods
          -Public opinion
          -Economists, scientists, businessmen
          -US
                -Space, defense
                -Bernard Shrever [?]
                -Bicentennial
                -Technology and social plans
                -David, Council of Economic Advisers [CEA], Shultz
                -Shrever
                                              11

                          NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

                                      Tape Subject Log
                                         (rev. 9/08)



                -Credibility
                      -Follow-up
                      -1972
                -Dr. Arthur A. Fletcher of Labor Department
                      -Pollution program
                            -Interim goals and monitoring
                -Interim goals
                -”Soft sciences”                                       Conv. No. 254-4 (cont.)
                      -Environment, health, social programs
                -Space programs
                -Necessity for bi-partisan group
                      -President’s role
                      -Outside groups
                      -Press
                      -Youth
                      -1972
                      -Democrats
                      -John W. Gardner
                            -Position on Vietnam
                -President’s role
                -Need for publicity
                      -President’s photos with Congressional leaders
                      -Business Week
                      -US News & World Report
                      -Possibility of speech by President
                            -President’s concession speech in 1960
                                  -Kennedy
                            -Television or radio series

[Machine noise - 4 seconds]

                          -Theme
                          -Johnson’s “Great Society” speech in Ann Arbor
                          -Theme
          -Proposed personnel
               -[Name unintelligible]
               -Haggerty
               -Heineman
               -Ash
               -Charles L. Shultze of Brookings Institute

[Machine noise - 3 seconds]
                                        12

                     NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

                                 Tape Subject Log
                                    (rev. 9/08)




          -Unknown man
          -Heineman
     -Advice to President
     -Kissinger, Shultz

Camp David
     -Possible meeting of Peterson’s group                Conv. No. 254-4 (cont.)
     -Domestic Council staff
Meetings
     -Budget
     -International events
     -Dates
     -Budget

Safire

Fiscal Year [FY] 1973 budget
     -Policy
           -Taxes
     -Meetings

Peterson’s group
     -Future of US

Arthur B. Laffer

US future
     -Liberals
     -Possible discussion with press
     -Productivity, motivation

Blue-collar wage bill
     -Public opinion research
                                             13

                           NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

                                     Tape Subject Log
                                        (rev. 9/08)



******************************************************************************

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 3m 21s ]


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2                                              Conv. No. 254-4 (cont.)

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[The President talked with the White House operator at an unknown time between 3:48 pm and
4:51 pm]

[Conversation No. 254-4C]
[See Conversation No. 3-181]

[End of telephone conversation]

     Union positions
         -Public opinion

[The President talked with Alexander P. Butterfield between 4:51 pm and 4:52 pm]

[Conversation No. 254-4D]

[See Conversation No. 3-182]

[End of telephone conversation]

     Unions
         -Public opinion
               -Railroads
               -Construction industry
               -A poll by Opinion Research Corporation in New York
                     -Legislation
         -Situation
         -President’s position
               -Oil and steel industries
         -Germany and Britain [?]
         -Administration position
                                              14

                           NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

                                      Tape Subject Log
                                         (rev. 9/08)



              -Right to work, Davis-Bacon Act
         -Davis-Bacon Act
              -Construction trades’ position
              -Operation
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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4
[National Security]                                             Conv. No. 254-4 (cont.)
[Duration: 1m 6s ]


     BRITAIN


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4

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     US position
         -Unions

     California meeting

     Camp David meeting
         -Purpose

     Peterson’s schedule

Ehrlichman, Shultz, and Peterson left at 5:01 pm