Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 7 › Conversation 007-118
Nixon phone call with Haldeman on Wage-price freeze and Economic policy
Sunday, August 15, 1971 · 9:30 PM–9:39 PM ET · White House Telephone · 8 min
AI Summary
President Nixon and H. R. Haldeman discuss the immediate public and political reception of the President's televised address regarding his new economic policy, which included a wage-price freeze and import surtax. Haldeman reports generally positive feedback from political figures, business leaders, and the media, noting that the speech successfully projected strong leadership and a willingness to combat inflation and international economic instability. The two men also review the initial television network coverage and coordinate the gathering of further reactions to assess the administration's momentum.
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Transcript (AI-generated)
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Hello.
Yes, sir.
I've covered it.
You've got them completely dumbfounded.
18 minutes.
18 minutes on the nose, right.
I think the speech just came together beautifully.
We were trying to get a little emotional.
very hard to do that i think at the end it had a little yep what was your feeling yeah i think it did and i think you got you know you and you did at the beginning too gosh the piece case just came through beautifully well you at the piece case and at the end talking about the challenge right the challenge of this see that was all the stuff i wrote yeah go on there's no question about that i think that that you'll have
The overall effect is going to be, for the guy who just sat there and watched it, is going to be the total confusion as far as the substance is concerned.
He's just going to say, my God.
Well, that's it, Melissa.
If you think that's confusion, you should have seen it before we cleared it down.
That's as simple as it could be put.
Well, of course it is.
When you cover that much... Yeah, go ahead.
No, when you cover that much ground, there's no way to be simple enough.
But you may get the impression we're going to fight jobs, fight inflation, fight the international speculators.
Absolutely.
That makes a lot of sense.
You've got the international speculators.
No, I think you've got the feeling that we're going to fight.
There's some bad guys around.
You're going to do something about it.
They're hurting our dollar.
We're going to put it together.
There's a very good competitive...
kind of feel to that part, as well as your wrap-up at the end, where you sort of put forth the challenge, right?
I think the little lines are the only thing I added to it.
The thing about the guy in 75.
Yeah.
I think they'll remember that.
Yep.
Yep.
I don't know whether that's not true or not.
Oh, no, I think it did.
I think it did.
No doubt.
Okay, well give me a report what you want
Okay, well I've got a few here now.
They can let the call in here too now.
Okay.
Any cabin officers you can call.
Okay, fine.
Fine.
Yeah, what do you have?
Yeah, Margaret J. Smith says it's tremendous.
Takes the wind out of the opponent's sails.
Excellent.
They called her.
They may have checked her.
Some guys, I can't tell which are incoming, which are outgoing.
Bob Packwood says that wage and pricing will be popular in Oregon, that surtax on imports is good, auto tax is very good, if the manufacturers are returning to the people, which of course you have.
People won't understand the international monetary problems.
The 10% charge on imports is most important of all indefinite costs.
Puts a burden on Congress, that's where it should be.
And that's fine.
He wound up by saying it was a hell of a speech.
More speech, more meat in this speech than anything in the last five years.
Howard, uh, Baker, no, is it Busey?
Oh, Busey.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He says, uh, after the initial shock on the stock market, the reaction will be very constructive.
We had to have it.
Amen.
The plans for balance of payment, absolutely necessary.
His actions are late, but good.
Cliff Jones, the state chairman of Pennsylvania, very impressive, glad no price control bureaucracy, drastic action, but it's needed, very forcefully done.
John Rawlins, excellent, bold action, much needed, although it's going to cost him money on 15,000 used cars he's got.
Lloyd Waring and Kidder Peabody said the speech was terrific.
The President renewed our faith in him as a leader.
He assured us the road ahead will definitely be a plus and he will gain the mutual respect not only of Americans but of those countries around the world.
Gus Levy says it was great.
Carl Portsimer says that he liked it very much.
Good appeal to the consumer.
Unhappy about the remarks concerning prosperity only and more time.
Great remarks concerning the excise tax and personal tax.
90-day freeze is not long enough.
Why is he unhappy about prosperity?
I don't know.
It's true.
I don't know.
Maybe he doesn't like it.
They don't like it.
90-day freeze not long enough.
Good fighting speech and the timing was great.
Mayor Lowe of Memphis, Tennessee is feeling that it's long past the time for strong action.
He likes the President's efforts against inflation to encourage more jobs and thinks the American people will go along with these actions.
From what he can tell, the President is taking acts which will involve minimum bureaucracy and maximum fiscal responsibility.
He expects special interests will be hurt, but on the whole, he thinks it's timely and shows strong leadership.
He likes the heck out of what he heard.
Okay.
So we've got those.
Let's see, here's a couple more.
Senator Aiken.
It's pretty good for him.
He says, I think it's all right.
It's quite a handful.
Sounds like the right direction.
Something had to be done.
Awfully glad he's doing it.
I'm going to take a look at it in detail.
Wages and prices, I said I've won this for several years.
Ann Anderson sounded very good to me.
Of course, I want to study each point.
I'm not very much of an international dollar issue man.
I think we should increase Social Security.
Senator Boggs, great action, great job, great message.
He wants to praise the President for his courage.
We'll have a good effect on labor and industry.
We'll reestablish the confidence of the people.
We'll receive favorable congressional action.
Senator had a call from a farmer down in the state of Delaware.
He was very pleased with what the President had to say.
There's quite a bit of, on the networks, the commentary was all that Congress, the anticipation that Congress would definitely
take favorable action on all of it.
How are the commentators so far?
Have they got a focus on it, or do they play it fair?
No, they played it straight and went into early detailed type stuff on trying to analyze it.
ABC is still on.
They've got McCracken on.
And they're interviewing McCracken, and he's getting all his stuff over.
The NBC had a panel of both Kaplow and Irving Levine and Chancellor and they talked about it as a revolutionary series of movies by a Republican.
That's CBS does.
And very surprising.
How about Connelly?
How did he do it?
I haven't talked to him yet.
They're trying to analyze the specifics of the proposal.
Let me know.
Give me a call.
Okay.
Sure.
All right.
NARA Description
On August 15, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone from 9:30 pm to 9:39 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 007-118 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 7-118
Date: August 15, 1971
Time: 9:30 pm - 9:39 pm
Location: White House Telephone
The President talked with H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman.
Wage-price freeze
-The President's speech
-Length
-Impact
-Challenges
-Changes
-Jobs
-Inflation
-International speculators
-Cabinet
-Reaction
-Margaret Chase Smith
-Robert W. Packwood
-Oregon
-Surtax on imports
-Automobile tax
-Congressional burden
-Howard Busey (?)
-Effect on Stock market
-Balance of payment
-Clifford L. Jones, Pennsylvania State Republican chairman
-John Rawlings
-Lloyd B. Waring, Kidder-Peabody
-Gustave L. Levy
-Carl Horsheimer (sp?)
-Mayor Henry Loeb, Memphis, Tennessee
-George D. Aiken
-J. Caleb Boggs
-Labor and industry
-Call from Delaware farmer
-Television commentators
-Networks’ half hour shows
-American Broadcasting Corporation [ABC]
-Paul W. McCracken interview
-National Broadcasting Corporation [NBC]
-Herbert E. Kaplow, Irving R. Levine and John W. Chancellor
panel
-John B. ConnallyAlso recorded on August 16, 1971
- 007-119 9:39 PM · 16 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 9:39 pm.
- 007-120 9:39 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford talked on the telephone from 9:39 pm to 9:44 pm.
- 007-121 9:44 PM · 32 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 9:44 pm and 9:46 pm.
- 007-122 9:46 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John B. Connally talked on the telephone from 9:46 pm to 9:50 pm.
- 007-123 9:50 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 9:50 pm.
- 007-124 9:50 PM · 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon and William P. Rogers talked on the telephone from 9:50 pm to 9:55 pm.
- 007-125 9:55 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 9:55 pm.
- 007-126 9:56 PM · 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John N. Mitchell talked on the telephone from 9:56 pm to 10:02 pm.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 007-118, August 16, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/007-118 (accessed October 23, 2026).