Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 7 › Conversation 007-133
Nixon phone call with Hardin on Economic Policy and Wage-Price Freeze
Sunday, August 15, 1971 · 10:24 PM–10:33 PM ET · White House Telephone · 7 min
AI Summary
President Nixon and Secretary of Agriculture Clifford M. Hardin discussed the immediate public and international reactions to Nixon's wage-price freeze speech delivered earlier that day. They reviewed key economic components of the new policy, specifically focusing on agricultural exemptions, the 10% import tax intended to pressure Japan into revaluing the yen, and the implementation of investment tax credits. Nixon emphasized the necessity of secrecy regarding these plans to protect the price of gold and instructed Hardin to maintain a vigorous enforcement stance.
- Economic Policy
- Wage-Price Freeze
- International Trade
- Import Surcharge
- Agriculture
- Currency Revaluation
Audio
Transcript (AI-generated)
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There you are, sir.
Hello.
Hi, Mr. President.
Hi, Cliff.
How are you?
Oh, just fine.
I thought that was a great speech.
Well, it sort of shook him up a little.
We'll see you at the cabinet meeting tomorrow, huh?
Yes, by all means.
Right.
Well, we had to do this.
Oh, they're going to take the initiative.
Two or three things that I didn't have enough background on to have a deal for.
Listen, this is so complicated.
Eighteen minutes, I was covering the most comprehensive thing that's been said in 40 years.
Yes, I know.
And so...
Incidentally, one thing you should know, all unprocessed things are out, for example.
No agriculture products are covered in the grease.
Oh, yeah.
That's at the farm level.
Oh, we couldn't possibly do that tonight.
You can't.
How about retail?
Retail?
Oh, hell yes.
It's growing all the way.
Yeah.
But we should.
But we don't control at the farm level, you see, which I think is fair enough.
You ought to emphasize that.
What's the reaction going to be to the 10% import tax abroad?
Abroad?
Or it'll shake them up, but it'll only make the Japanese revalue the yen.
They should do it.
Try them for it.
You think they'll force them?
They'll do it.
Oh, they've got to.
They're not going to sell Americans.
They're going to sell their cars to Americans, you see.
We want to force them.
That's why we did this.
It's a strong action.
I'm in strong favor of it.
And that's consistent with the GATT rules, too, isn't it?
Yes.
We do it under GATT rules, and we're going to remove it if they change their exchange rate.
So is that affected immediately?
As of today.
As of the 10% tax on imports?
As of today.
Only, of course, those items that are affected by GATT.
Like, for example, it doesn't affect any of the farm products.
Well, they're under gas.
I know, but none of them have taxis.
We don't protect most of the final products.
No, we don't have taxis.
We, so you mean the car, etc.
Oh, yeah, there's an ad valorem tax on can hands and things like that.
Right, right.
It would affect them.
That's good.
Yeah.
This is a bargaining position.
Now, what do you think this will...
put some of these striking people back to work?
I guess.
I'm thinking about the long-term in the West Coast.
I'm not sure of that.
They're such radicals, but the others will all have to go back to their jails.
And that means any settlements that have been made that are not yet in effect are affected?
Are affected.
And all the escalators are frozen.
The automatics stopped them three years ago.
They're all frozen.
Yeah, shifted.
Yeah, well that's no problem.
This government thing here has been pretty good.
That's right.
I've been amazed at how it's targeted in this region.
Or at least lower grade.
That's right.
Well, no, I think you've got the initiative now.
You shook them up, at least.
Well, practically everything anybody's been seriously advocating, you had him in one form or another.
Some will say we should have done it earlier.
Some say we should have done it more.
We should have had the breeze longer.
But on the other hand, they're going to have a heck of a time.
Well, I haven't had the benefit of the discussion you've been having, but I've been puzzled with retail sales up as well as they are.
They still have lots of savings.
They are moving very well.
It's psychological.
It's the way the media is reporting.
Actually, the economy is moving very well.
This will give it a kick.
It'll move much faster right now.
As I said, you're the strong upturn already.
This added to it.
Say, on this tax thing now.
Which one?
Well, on the investment tax.
The investment tax, the new job.
Yeah.
Is there any kind of a Royal America twist that you can put on that?
Raising the cabinet meeting was John Connolly's first very useful piece of help.
I don't know of it.
There must be.
There must be.
Sure.
This would be a good place to play around with that a little bit.
Right, right.
You know, we've been discussing it for a year and a half.
We'll raise it tomorrow as we get in there, because I want all these questions raised.
See, we did all this project.
The reason we couldn't tell anybody else was because it disregarded me.
You know, the credibility of gold, the price of gold, had to be kept.
Otherwise, all hell would break loose.
That's why Connelly and all the rest of us were lying.
We didn't think we were going to do anything.
We knew we were going to do it.
We decided this 60 days ago.
Now, the gold thing, is that going to have the effect of the devaluation?
No.
No.
No.
It hasn't.
They'll call it that, but the devaluation will only affect Americans who travel abroad or who buy foreign products.
It has no effect.
Well, sure, I understand that.
And so it really doesn't matter.
And also, what we're really trying to do more than anything else is make the Japanese devalued again.
If they do that, then they're going to be happy doing it.
What's Paul McCracken say, 25% undervalued now?
Yeah.
We'll have him in the cabin.
It's so complicated.
Well, this is exciting.
Well, we've got the ball.
Yeah, yeah.
There's like this, just like we did in China.
Yeah, I think there's going to be electric across the country.
There'll be some things we haven't thought of that'll happen.
And how it works.
I talked to Arnold Weber a while ago about staffing up to enforce the trees.
That's what it takes to do anything.
And I presume you want to be vigorous on that.
Absolutely.
Particularly at the beginning.
If somebody violates the beginning, possibly right away.
The legal basis is clear.
Oh, totally.
Right.
Good.
Well, we'll have fun.
You'll have fun tomorrow.
Oh, it's going to be a great day.
All right, Seth.
Thank you for calling us, Fred.
NARA Description
On August 15, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Clifford M. Hardin talked on the telephone from 10:24 pm to 10:33 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 007-133 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 7-133
Date: August 15, 1971
Time: 10:24 pm - 10:33 pm
Location: White House Telephone
The President talked with Clifford M. Hardin.
Wage-price speech
-Hardin's reaction
-Cabinet meeting
-Agricultural exemptions
-Retail control
-Retail import tax
-Japanese
-General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade [GATT]
-Farm products
-Items protected
-Effect in the United States
-Current strikes
-Retail sales
-Investment taxes
-Application to rural America
-Cabinet meeting
-John B. Connally
-Quadriad meeting
-Gold
-Devaluation
-Japanese
-Paul W. McCracken
-Compared to speech about the People's Republic of China [PRC]
-Hardin's talk with Arnold R. Weber
-Staff
-Cabinet meetingAlso recorded on August 16, 1971
- 007-130 10:21 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 10:21 pm.
- 007-131 10:22 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods talked on the telephone from 10:22 pm to 10:23 pm.
- 007-132 10:23 PM · 22 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 10:23 pm.
- 007-165 10:23 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 10:23 pm.
- 007-134 10:33 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 10:33 pm.
- 007-135 10:33 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Julie Nixon Eisenhower, and [Dwight] David Eisenhower, II talked on the telephone from 10:33 pm to 10:37 pm.
- 007-166 10:33 PM · 1 min — the White House operator and unknown person(s) talked on the telephone at 10:33 pm.
- 007-136 10:37 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 10:37 pm.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 007-133, 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/007-133 (accessed October 12, 2026).