Nixon, Haldeman & Colson on National Economy and Wage and Price Freeze

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The only thing wrong with that is it's so good that they don't carry it.

The book is very heavy.

I bet you they don't.

Is he in his office?

Let's just bring his office over here.

Is he back?

Peaceful recognition.

We love the structure of our economic system.

We have more response to the needs of our people than we have all of us today.

But nevertheless, that's what we haven't had in January.

That's why the fall was so important to have the big calling program in January, you know, for new ventures for America, the peace field, the new NASA.

more jobs, 20,000 jobs, and that's where we'll start getting that thing with these measures, and they're defensive on that.

Well, you sure bought your time to do it.

You've knocked them out of the ballpark for now.

The statistics for the rest of this year don't make any difference.

No.

Another great thing that Conley said, he was asked, does this mean that the prices in the supermarket will not go up yet?

Yes.

which is true, of course, but that's a good point to get out to them.

He knows when to say yes, and then he knows when to go a little longer, which is what he really took on, this part where they were asking him about his June 27th.

He says, I don't think it's responsible to suggest that there's credibility

I mean, just knocked it right out of the Treasury Department.

Why do they constantly, excuse me, say these matters?

Because that's one way they think they can destroy it.

It's honest that they say there's a credibility gap here.

First of all, we should have said that.

It's like Johnson County, Johnson created a real credibility gap.

And if it gets them all oppressed and hired, yeah, it's a thing the press has never forgotten, never will.

Well, the point is, I don't know if it pays off the problem or not.

Goddamn press.

lost his ass twice.

They lost it on China.

They lost it on this, and they're going to lose it again next month.

It's all right.

That's right.

It's good.

Did you see Newsweek's all-knowing couple?

Well, Henry Hubbard came in last night.

He said, when the president sees that Periscope thing, tell him, he said, sure, tell him, Ron, he said, not to, you know, laugh at it,

He said, because we pulled it out of most of the editions, but it's in the Washington edition.

That's what I told you, right?

They said if you go to the freeze, that you won't do it until the plate's ready.

Where is it?

But, guess those goddamn, that's the thing that, when I got, earlier when I talked to Riley, that drives me crazy.

They supposedly don't do this, man.

And he works supposedly as something that they don't answer.

He does it all the time.

It's a stocking trade.

He gets up and says, the president tonight will announce a wage price stabilization order.

He didn't, but I think that's the kind of thing he had to do.

And if you do it right, he's well done.

You know, Todd is currently retired.

I want to overwork myself.

Colson, please.

You know what happened?

29.7 million shares.

A little bit later.

33.7 on 20 million shares.

And they haven't opened since.

So we can't do any auto stuff.

This is the one that'll go right through the road.

Why?

They're not trading auto stuff.

The TV, the TV, the cameras, the three networks that are covering the floor of the exchange.

Are they?

They think it'll be a big day?

Yes, sir.

It's likely to be.

Jesus, we've got those records.

Why don't you call him and ask him which day it was?

The first hour, the biggest hour, the biggest hour, yeah.

It's over 20 minutes, and he'll get it.

He can still get it, but he's calling him to get it done last year.

I'm sorry, but he's coming, isn't he?

Frank Stanton told me, he said, it was the most sensational hour he had ever seen on television.

But Tom, Tom is, he is going to take 10 to 11 minutes.

I don't expect him to repeat that.

It was a very large hour, most of Tom's press conference.

He said the most sensational hour.

That's the hour he ever watched on television, yeah.

He said it was just superb.

Very, very good.

He should be somewhere.

It was a good confrontation.

That was like the best press conference we ever had.

I thought he handled the $1 or $5.

It might be worth $6.

Oh, that's sensational.

Somebody asked him, what about the poor college students traveling around Europe?

They've got $5 in their pocket per day, and how are they going to manage?

And Connolly said, well, no problem.

You've got a hard question tonight.

I'm tempted to vote on the whole fact that he would use an old issue.

And I said he was going to do, I said, Derek's positive, and he doesn't have that piss on him now.

I've never been watching.

There wasn't a doubt that he was going to do something like this.

Well, there was a doubt that he was going to do something like this.

You know, he's been very turned on.

Stan has been very turned on.

Is he?

And he said they had all of the executives in at 10 o'clock this morning.

So he didn't do anything.

So he had to press it.

Well, it's just, I'll tell you though, it looks damn good on the surface.

Hello?

John, I got some very good reactions to your thing, but let me have Chuck Colson tell you what he just said.

Frank Stanley, would you like to hear it?

I just admitted that I'd always wanted to meet him in person, but he was the one that's turned on me.

He turned on me the entire hour, which was one of the most exciting I've ever acknowledged in any of this, that he was just thrilled that I had the opportunity to carry him.

And I won't tell you about it tonight, especially after what he said about how many people he's very much in love with.

and he said, he's an annoying guy, and he said, I want to hear from you, because I wouldn't know where to cut any portion of that.

He said, that was just a sensational video, and I was like, just do that.

And he noticed very, I thought it was on the best of his privacy, and I tried to tell you, it was a gift from a friend of mine, and I said, I want you to do this.

giving him a good smile and turning the questions against him.

I just think it's absolutely brilliant.

That's the first moment I've ever seen him, one hour first hand, since I was 13, and still the last person he's ever seen.

What I wish he had died, all his life's ever been.

No, Ron, but it was just absolutely beautiful.

And we need to take an old car that didn't curl like Frank Stanton.

Turn it on at one of these, just go over to it.

So I don't want to go over to Jeff, but he's standing around.

You know, see what's up?

And I just met, and I'm not Mr. Stanton.

Mr. Stanton, I just wanted to say, I thought there was a good conversation here.

And, uh, I think you handled it very well.

I particularly enjoyed the way you responded to that final question, which we, it might be worth saying, too.

Tell me, was the first time I ever seen Dan Shore like that?

And I also liked your moment of choice thing with, uh, to Dan Shore.

First time you had all the choices you were able to challenge, you know?

Now, I thought it was...

The meeting happened.

The other thing, too, I think, where you made it clear to the president not to move, but to take individual steps.

Now, what do I make of it?

Well, I think it's important to tell us, because I'm happy to be able to sit down and talk about some of the things that we've done in the past.

This is a reality change today.

And now we've got to be quiet on the surface.

We've got to be quiet on the surface.

Okay, get off my desk.

Okay.

He did do that moment.

I'm glad it didn't start with about three or four of them on us.

Good morning, I'm going to set a place in the nation.

That's the way to go.

Do you think they need to be treated with horror on us?

Horror?

Jokes?

Okay, we're on.

But they're ready to get a little bit too cocky, these bastards.

I can come out again.

It should be about next month.

The next press conference will be in February.

Hold on, hold on.

Before I come out in six months or not.

But the press conference will be the next one, 630.

I'll send a person to go with it.

You know one thing, Chuck, I didn't mean that to be.

That's your business here.

It knows that.

It's a very easy game.

They better get going now.

They're trying to get a little confidence.

Well, the reactions have surprised me, Mr. President.

The reactions have surprised me that they had been as enthusiastic as they had been.

I thought they'd be good.

I thought they'd be mixed.

Yeah, I thought it would be something.

Yeah.

Well, they're so pessimistic about Christ.

And where do they see this marketing?

This really is a pet market.

Yeah.

That tells all the people sitting around who don't know whether this is good news or bad news.

They're not sure whether to believe that the TV people are not.

The stock market blows its lid, and everybody thinks, Jesus Christ the President did it.

Of course.

They see it in the terms of the last hour, which made a problem.

They've got to get something in terms of it.

At this point, they have to be.

They make today is 28.2.

What was the rate of that?

February 9th this year.

Yeah, that's what we're going up.

We can go up much, but go ahead.

What's the rate of the game?

They're checking that.

20 million shares.

There must have been a huge block there.

How about your own big block you're selling?

You know what I mean?

Who the hell would be selling it?

What big blocks would sell it?

You know what this is?

This is focused on the market.

It's also, it's also, they've got to have funds or have this ground they're on.

Because I don't think people would be wanting to sell it.

The Specialists will build inventory on daylight.

That's what it essentially really means.

You have 20 million shares with two hours to go.

You're about to break the record.

Yeah.

20 million shares.

Unless they close the exchange.

I don't think they'll close it because those guys like to set records too.

Well, they're making money.

You can resale it.

Yeah, except the paper pile's out and all of a sudden it falls apart.

That's okay, I'll keep it open.

I'm afraid Bill Casey will go up there.

Oh, funny.

Hi, how are you?

You keep busy today, are you?

I saw that.

How about the roast?

It's pretty important.

The question was, what is the record gain?

Do you know?

Okay.

That was one.

Okay, do you know what day it was?

The day after your dinner?

Well, not necessarily, you haven't cooked.

Yeah, what's the volume of the record?

No, I've got that thing.

What's the record size?

Right.

That was in February, wasn't it?

Harrison anticipated this, didn't he, sir?

Harrison, $40.

And I didn't even think about it.

He said $3 million.

There are no blocks today, are there?

And I have 40 points.

I didn't tell you that last night, because it sounded so good.

They asked the thing.

He couldn't say it.

Gregor isn't here.

He said he had to pay through this one, I think.

He says, I got it.

I read it.

He said it won't close.

He said it won't necessarily psychologically affect people.

This might improve the thing.

What's your view on the concept?

He's ready to start selling off now.

He said it's a problem.

He's dropped below that.

That was 35, which is a dramatic change.

I mean, the only person who's going to go out that really drags the process over already is him.

Yeah.

The confidence in him would be a company.

Yeah, I'm sure they are.

The excitement on it, the novelty on it.

People don't have to understand it.

This would be impressive if it got away with it.

It was.

Okay.

Okay, buddy.

Right over.

Okay.

Just keep the flag flying.

It's beautiful.

You know, I said, the record he said is 32.

And he said, that's plus or minus five cents, but it's 32.

And that was the day after his dinner.

He said, the record volume is 28,250.

That was in February.

And he said, but there was a 3 million shares to the Baker Block in that day.

He said, the previous high was 25 million.

And that's the real high is 25 million.

But he said, that doesn't make any difference because we'll clearly go through the 28.

Do you think so today?

And I said, well, you won't close the exchange now.

Well, they're 20 now.

The two hours you got.

They're bound to.

Unless...

And he said, it's $35,000 now.

What is the dollar?

Dow Jones was $35,000.

It was $34,000.

It was $33,000.

That one on the bottom was $35,000.

I said, well, it'll back off now when they'll start taking profits.

He says, how do I know?

I said, if I knew, I'd be rich.

And then he said the key to the stock market, what you've got to recognize is the key to the stock market always is confidence.

The president's speech is giving us all the confidence.

He says it may sell out.

They may take off $10 now.

But he said, so it takes off $10 today.

It started at the end of the month.

He said the confidence is there, and that's all that matters.

Now we've got to keep it there.

Keep this thing going.

Keep this one going.

We have the leaders meeting tomorrow.

I don't want the bastards in, but we'll look into that.

And soon, the Wildermills are calling first, and you agree to it until 1030 tomorrow?

Yes, sir.

We'll get a picture of that.

Yes, sir.

If you think so.

All right.

Now, look, Conley announced that you had gotten a general agreement from the Wildermills today, which was very good.

No, the Wildermills quoted something.

And he came out last night and said he would back the legislative program.

And he got by me.

Back again.

They'll go back to the goddamn blacks.

That's all they've got.

I don't think it will.

The blacks will let them have it.

The court in Alabama today ruled against Wallace.

Said his statements were meaningless from a legal standpoint.

He was just exercising free speech.

If they turn to the poor and the blacks, that's just marvelous, because one of the things that went over in your speech last night, at least in many calls I had, was, well, thank God, the welfare thing is out of the way.

I told you that poll in Vermont, which is on the radio, I guess it got picked up on the wires for yesterday.

That was one of the prevailing sounds.

Good thing.

Get rid of that welfare program.

A lot of people think some of those are

You didn't get rid of it.

That's a beautiful one because all the people that don't like it now think you've gotten rid of it.

The people that, the serious people that are for it, you can go back and say it was .

That's the argument there.

We've got on that, we've got a bad shot on the in the

since the, you know, next, last cutoff, because he hasn't dropped it.

He delayed it one year, and the point is, he proposed it two years ago.

Exactly two years ago in August of, August of, in August of 69, I made this program out in an actual television broadcast and asked the Congress to enact it.

For two years, they had said they were not going to.

And because of their delay, there is no way it's possible to be implemented.

And I was nine, but I was seven.

I may have had to be delayed.

Because the President has to be delayed, and he just is facing the reality that the Congress is delayed.

We're going to make this a budget.

We're not making that point.

We're going to make it for the people.

VTW says they can't get it up for a year anyway.

Now, I don't see what Congress has done to them.

Same with Revenue Check.

We've always been there to reflect the congressional reality.

That question's good.

That's good for your reading, too.

And it's something I talk to a lot of former members and share with me.

And I believe we're just recognizing the reality of it.

I recognize back in the way of show reality, of the congressional reality, that as we, we wish this, we fought for it, but we, the Congress, in its wisdom, is going to be flying with the water.

But there are, or we sure we can, places just the other way with all this, where there's only some fat.

I think, I think that's what the consumers,

Well, the surveys are likely to do the same thing, but it's really, you know, a substantial delay in that.

And the second thing I'd like, of course, is to cut the budget.

It's an apartment tax, so they like to cut budgets.

That, for example, a 10% cut in 4 and 8 probably is going to save us $200 million.

Isn't it?

Well, they might cut back.

They might, for example, blow out a better unemployment, I think, all over the world.

You know, John Brunner of the

Federal Employees Union.

What's your 5% cut in federal employees?

Why?

That was the only way they could make increases going up.

He said that could be handled easily.

We have no problem with that.

Let's freeze him.

He was a creep.

That's what it is.

You can carry that out in most places by hiring crews.

Bob, remember, now Bob, I want Schultz to understand this is an opportunity to get some deadwood out of APW, out of OEO, out of all these independent agencies, and out of HUD.

We can bridge some of those people.

Cut them.

Cut them 25%.

Because you're not going to be able to cut that BI percent.

That's right.

You just have to create some areas.

That's right.

And you've got to increase the plant in some areas.

Do you want to go ahead?

Like you said, like our comics and drugs.

Well, I've had more reasons.

John, I'm going forward.

I'll sit down with you.

But we expect them to leave, and not leave the area.

There's a lot of people there.

You should tell somebody about that.

You can be sure.

I don't know what you're talking about.

Nixon, Haldeman & Colson on National Economy and Wage and Price Freeze

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on August 16, 1971

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