Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 4 › Conversation 004-046

Nixon phone call with Ehrlichman on Economic Policy and Public Service Jobs

Friday, June 4, 1971 · 8:56 PM–9:02 PM ET · White House Telephone · 6 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Ehrlichman, John D.Conversation004-046 on Tape 4 (tape position 02:12:56–02:18:41)StartFriday, June 4, 1971 at 8:56 PMEndFriday, June 4, 1971 at 9:02 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 004-046 ↗ · National Archives Catalog, NAID 417188759 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and John Ehrlichman discuss economic strategy and legislative planning following Ehrlichman's meeting with John Connally and Peter Peterson. A key proposal involves extracting public service job provisions from H.R. 1 to create a separate, expedited bill that demonstrates proactive governance in response to potential vetoes. They also evaluate public relations strategies regarding unemployment statistics and express caution about a planned Congressional presentation by Peterson regarding import quotas, fearing it may commit the administration to unintended economic policies.

Audio

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NARA Description

On June 4, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman talked on the telephone from 8:56 pm to 9:02 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 004-046 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 4-46

Date: June 4, 1971
Time: 8:56 pm - 9:02 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with John D. Ehrlichman.

     Ehrlichman's previous meeting with John B. Connally
           -George P. Shultz, Peter G. Peterson
           -Short term problems
           -Possible response to possible veto of public service jobs
           -Legislative strategy
                -H.R.1
           -Wilbur D. Mills
           -Budget concerns
           -Tax increase, goals, labor unions
           -Domestic Council

     National economy
          -Unemployment
          -Public relations
          -John F. Kennedy
          -Connally's opinion
          -Peterson's forthcoming presentation to Congress
                -Import quotas

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Yeah.
Mr. Alecman, Mr. President.
Hello.
How'd you get along with Connolly?
Oh, fine.
We had about an hour and 45 minutes.
George was out of town, but Pete Peterson went over.
Yeah.
And we talked all around short-term problems and then long-term problems.
And I thought it was very helpful.
Does he have any...
Ideas about the short-term problems.
That's the main thing now.
He was skeptical of any short-term reaction.
We have come up with one idea that I've got my people working on for a response to the veto problem on public service jobs.
And that is to lift the public service jobs section right out of H.R.
1.
which is something that we've already approved and advocated, and put it in a separate bill and send it up to the Hill with a message the same day that you veto the other one.
What does that provide?
Well, it actually provides more jobs.
It provides something like 400,000 is the estimate.
Now, statistically, that's not going to make a whole lot of difference.
You mean in the rate?
In the rate.
But it shows action.
It shows action, and it shows commitment to the concept.
And also the fact that we're trying to do more than they... That's right.
That's what I want to do, is to say this provides not enough, and we want more, and we need to act specifically on this problem.
This you could do and still be faithful to everything that you've done up until now.
Yeah.
Because it would simply be Wilbur Mills' own...
of the the language that he and the committee have already approved none which have already had hearings right so we could get speedy action yeah and it has the advantage then of going into effect sooner than the provisions of hr1 which would be a year delayed now our budget friends are going to have trouble with that because it means we'll be spending some of the money uh
In fiscal 72 instead of 73, we'll find the money someplace else.
It doesn't matter in 73.
Right.
72 is the time to spend it.
73 will be too late.
Well, I have them working on this.
I don't know what technical problems there might be in it, but I think it's, in concept, the best thing that we're able to come up with so far.
And both Peterson and Connolly seem to think that it was good.
Mm-hmm.
We talked quite a lot about goals, about problems of tax increase, about picking a villain.
Looks to us on very short consideration, like maybe the unions are the target.
And it was quite a ramble, as we put all over the map.
That's all right.
We'll do a little thinking about it, and then we can...
Some of it will be reflected in the presentation that we make to the Domestic Council on Tuesday.
Right.
But it'll be veiled and cut quite a bit.
Right.
I'm going to try and give them quite a bit of time for just free discussion.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, actually, in terms of the economic thing generally, while it is on sort of a plateau,
day, the unemployment thing, it is really not a significant thing as of this point, you know what I mean?
You can't take a tenth of a percent and say, well, that's a lot.
Of course, they say it's the highest in nine years.
Well, the way you should say the highest since Kennedy.
Connolly's feeling is that we ought to simply drum fire home
the highest highest employment figures a lot of people were employed a lot of new people were employed nobody was laid off and that it was a matter of simply unprecedented numbers coming into the market and just keep pounding on that he said really apart from apart from public service jobs your alternatives are all very profound in terms of controls and so on very bad
And he just felt strongly that we shouldn't be stampeded at this point.
Not at this point.
Okay, fine.
There is one question that came up this afternoon with regard to Pete's presentation to the Congress.
When he puts that show on for the Congress, that is going to pretty much cast a die in terms of... Quotas?
Well, something.
You know, economic war of some kind or other.
because the congressmen are only going to read the black, bold type.
And I just raised the question without knowing the answer as to whether we're really satisfied that we've got to take that jump right now and that we're ready to take it.
You mean you wonder whether we ought to do it to the Congress?
I just wonder whether Pete has really had a chance to think through.
He's got an excellent statement of the problem.
Did you raise that with him?
Well, I will tomorrow.
I think you better, but we haven't invited him yet, have we?
I think so, but it isn't irretrievable.
We could postpone it.
Oh, sure, sure.
I think we might.
I just have a little concern about whether we aren't taking the first step of a long journey without knowing where we're going here.
Yeah, and what we're going to do about it.
Right.
Yeah.
I'm going to have lunch with him tomorrow, and I'll talk to him about it.
Fine, fine.
Okay, John.
All right.
Thank you.

Also recorded on June 4, 1971

  • 004-037 5:17 PM · 23 sec — Edward R. F. Cox, White House operator, and unknown person(s) talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 5:17 pm and 8:03 pm.
  • 512-028 5:59 PM · 27 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the Oval Office of the White House at 5:59 pm.
  • 004-041 8:03 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone from 8:03 pm to 8:05 pm.
  • 004-042 8:05 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 8:05 pm and 8:25 pm.
  • 004-043 8:25 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods talked on the telephone from 8:25 pm to 8:27 pm.
  • 004-044 8:27 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 8:27 pm and 8:56 pm.
  • 004-045 8:27 PM · 15 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 8:27 pm and 8:56 pm.
  • 004-047 9:03 PM · 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger talked on the telephone from 9:03 pm to 9:08 pm.

All 61 conversations from June 4, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 004-046, June 4, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives (NAID 417188759). Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/004-046 (accessed October 31, 2026).