Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 8 › Conversation 008-024

Nixon phone call with Ehrlichman on Wage and price freeze and John Connally

Monday, August 16, 1971 · 9:54 PM–9:59 PM ET · White House Telephone · 5 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Ehrlichman, John D.Conversation008-024 on Tape 8 (tape position 00:35:44–00:41:01)StartMonday, August 16, 1971 at 9:54 PMEndMonday, August 16, 1971 at 9:59 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 008-024 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and John Ehrlichman discuss the positive reception of a briefing led by Treasury Secretary John Connally regarding the administration's recent wage and price freeze. They review the successful Cabinet turnout and evaluate the effectiveness of Arthur Burns and the Vice President’s involvement in promoting the President's vision. Additionally, the pair touches upon antitrust concerns involving ITT and Richard McLaren, as well as the performance of Cabinet members like George Romney during recent proceedings.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 2 minutes of this recording (about 37% of it) is represented by only a few words. Listen to the audio rather than relying on the text below; a corrected transcript is queued.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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.
Yes, sir.
How'd the briefing go?
I thought first grade.
Connolly was tired, but he rose to his subject, I'll tell you.
And he wound it up on a very rousing note.
Did he?
Yeah.
Very interesting angle that he had.
He said, read the last two or three pages of the president's speech and think about him sitting
the early hours of the morning in his cabinet, Camp David, thinking about this country all by himself.
He said, this will give you a little of the flavor of the president's conviction, the depth of his conviction, the concern he has about the future of this country.
He says, it's only if you understand how that speech was written that you begin to get a true appreciation for the
the quality of his sincerity and the depth of his concern.
Isn't that good?
He's really got a touch.
He sure has.
There was an interesting little by-play.
The vice president complimented him on his president.
And the adroit manner in which he handled a number of questions.
And he said, I might say,
particularly the adroit manner in which you handled the question about your possible nomination as vice president.
You got a great laugh.
Well, that was good.
They seemed to have a good spirit.
Oh, very good.
Excellent.
Excellent.
And I think the, I heard a lot of comments from people afterwards, and they were uniformly impressed with Arthur Burns.
Good.
Who did a very good job.
Good.
So I think it was worth doing, and we got an enormous turnout compared to other sessions that we've had at that same group.
Considering it was the summertime, I'm very gratified.
It was good for them.
They all feel part of their team.
Big play, part of a cause bigger than themselves, that sort of thing.
They need to feel that.
good situation yeah oh he really really challenged good good good i understand that uh you got a chance to talk to john mitchell a little bit about our antitrust problem yeah he said he's good oh he did fine yeah i told him the light of what we're doing here he said it violates all the laws we have
I don't know if it violates all of the law.
No, my information is that it definitely does not.
And that's a very valid distinction.
McLaren, of course, is really a menace.
It's over.
Well, but this was an insidious gun.
It was really worthy.
It was so perfect.
Yeah.
And John doesn't have time to get into his own depth, but he takes it pretty much as they advise him.
But this may be a turning point.
Well, having, you see, having taken the move you made some time ago, John, all these just-done, not-turned-down attempts at an American company to be competitive in the world, you need a big company, not a big steel company.
Very good.
Well, that's good.
Fine.
Yeah, I'm particularly appreciative of your coming over.
I think that really sets the tone for the thing.
Well, I should have lifted it up.
Well, it was, it was, I don't know, very, you know, that's really done the cabinet a good thing.
That's a good shot.
How did the, how did the cabinet perform this morning?
Did Romney have anything to say?
Oh, yes, he did.
It's sort of hard for Romney and Stanley, frankly.
We really feel they should have been there.
And they couldn't be there.
If we ever started a freight boat, if you had to stand, you're going to have to watch how it's going to go.
And, you know, we got everybody there, and we wouldn't have kept it up.
And also, we'd never gotten through it.
But it's all right.
It's whatnot.
Housing.
Housing.
Yeah.
It's a foreign auto bill.
Right.
I don't think that's what we're talking about.
Okay.
All right, sir.
Goodbye.

NARA Description

On August 16, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman talked on the telephone from 9:54 pm to 9:59 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 008-024 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 8-24

Date: August 16, 1971
Time: 9:54 pm - 9:59 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with John D. Ehrlichman.

     John B. Connally's briefing
          -The President's speech on wage and price freeze, August 15, 1971
                -Writing
                     -Camp David
                     -President’s conviction and concern
          -Spiro T. Agnew
                -Connally's press conference
                     -Vice Presidential nomination
          -Response
          -Arthur F. Burns
                -Performance
          -Turnout

           -Signature

     John N. Mitchell
          -Talk with the President
               -Anti-trust
                     -US laws
                     -Richard W. McLaren
                     -International Telephone and Telegraph [ITT]

     Connally's briefing
         -The President's appearance

     Cabinet
          -George W. Romney
          -Maurice H. Stans
          -James D. Hodgson
          -Romney
          -John A. Volpe
          -Romney
               -Housing

Also recorded on August 17, 1971

  • 008-016 9:07 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods talked on the telephone from 9:07 pm to 9:10 pm.
  • 008-017 9:28 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 9:28 pm.
  • 008-018 9:34 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 9:34 pm.
  • 008-019 9:35 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John K. Andrews, Jr. talked on the telephone from 9:35 pm to 9:38 pm.
  • 008-020 9:38 PM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 9:38 pm and 9:40 pm.
  • 008-021 9:39 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone from 9:39 pm to 9:40 pm.
  • 008-022 9:40 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and William L. Safire talked on the telephone from 9:40 pm to 9:42 pm.
  • 008-023 9:42 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 9:42 pm and 9:54 pm.

All 48 conversations from August 17, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 008-024, August 17, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/008-024 (accessed October 12, 2026).