Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 8 › Conversation 008-093
Nixon phone call with Finch on Mexican-American appointments
Sunday, September 12, 1971 · 4:37 PM–4:55 PM ET · White House Telephone · 18 min
AI Summary
President Nixon and Robert Finch discussed a range of political and administrative strategies, including the scheduling of appointments for Mexican-American officials to coincide with Mexican Independence Day. They also coordinated a public relations campaign involving Cabinet wives to promote the administration’s economic initiatives and price controls on television talk shows. Finally, they reviewed recent political successes with the film industry guilds and reaffirmed the administration's stance that court-ordered busing in the North should be distanced from federal policy.
- Mexican-American appointments
- Economic policy
- Cabinet wives
- Busing
- Public relations
- Film industry guilds
Audio
Transcript (AI-generated)
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They were.
Hello.
Yes, sir.
Hi, Bob.
Are you home?
Yes, sir.
I was glad to see all the members of your staff there today at church.
Well, I was there.
Oh, you were, yeah?
I saw Professor Howard Hill.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, he was good.
That's quite a performance he puts on.
Isn't he something?
That fellow is, of course, a
He's got a great gift, hasn't he?
Yeah, he does.
He does it just the way he always preaches, like B.B.
tells me in Key Biscayne.
He developed this.
He's a lawyer, and he does it just like before a jury.
And he's really something.
And doesn't that girl, she's a lovely thing, isn't she?
Yes, she comes across beautifully.
It was a very nice thing, and everybody was talking.
I'm grateful how pleased they were that Pat would open up the upstairs.
That was a nice touch.
Yeah.
Where is she going?
She was just over here.
She's going back to Paris.
Oh, yes.
UNESCO ambassador.
That's right.
She's UNESCO.
That's right.
She's a good gal.
Yeah, and she's been very loyal all the way through.
You're darn right.
You're darn right.
So they just had a few people there.
Well, how's Pearlie getting along?
She's still her old hostess with the mostest.
Well, her big kick right now is the drug thing, and so I'm going to get her together with Jaffe.
She's raised a hell of a lot of money and has been having a hard time trying to find out where to use it and so on, so I'm going to have to put her with Jaffe and we'll get her underway.
Good, good.
Well, we'll get the Treasurer and the Swearer in here in Washington.
We'll make a hell of a thing out of that.
I suggest... And you know, if we have the Treasurer and Bob, and when you figure the Treasurer and Sanchez, those are the two top Mexican appointments in history, aren't they?
Well, I wondered if it would be a little heavy-handed.
I asked Dwight to kick it around with his group.
The 16th is Mexican Independence Day.
That's a hell of a thing for them, you know.
That's September.
and i don't think it'd be at all inappropriate rather than that you go through the usual nonsense of having the mixer ambassador and some of the other things that they suggest inhale just have sanchez then to be sworn and wait a minute the 16th damn it i'm afraid connelly's going to be gone then though you see he's got to be here yeah when it happens he simply has to be here what day of the week is it well you could swear sanchez on the 16th and build that up a lot more i can do sanchez without uh
Yeah, I could do that on the 16th, sure.
Sure.
And maybe have the Mexican ambassador present.
Would that be a good idea?
I think it would be a nice touch.
And we could have a couple of the others.
We could have Ramirez and a couple of the others.
Right, and then get a double boycott and then give him a treasure.
Then when Conley gets back, we go with Banuelos.
Right.
Well, we've got some good appointments, and they're good people.
Do you have a feeling we can do a little good in that group?
I think it's wide open.
I just don't know.
You know, I...
For the dollars we're talking about, we're going to go so much further with this bilingual stuff and a few good programs and appointments.
Appointments there, these guys respect it a hell of a lot more.
And it goes to the community a lot faster through the burials than it ever does in that just great leaden mass of the blacks because they're going to vote anyway.
They kind of expect it as a...
The Mexicans know that they're entitled to it, but they've never had much.
But the blacks, you see, you...
They say, well, my goodness, we've appointed black admirals and black secretaries and black this and that and other thing.
There ain't a hell of a lot more we can do.
I've got one more black thing that I may be able to do that's...
How was the, as you probably know, I'm, we're having, you probably guessed, the reason I'm having the women cabinet wives tomorrow, I mean the women cabinet, the wives of the cabinet, is that I have decided that on this economic initiative that we ought to really enlist quite a women's group.
In other words, they're the budget keepers and all the rest.
And I think the cabinet wives, that's good symbolism, don't you think so?
I sure do, and I think, again, there are three or four of them, including Lenore and Carol and so on, who are awfully good speakers.
Well, no, on television.
That's what I mean.
Just talking about this thing and traveling with us can really make these points on these women's talk shows.
They do have women's talk shows, don't they?
They sure do, in every major city.
Good.
Carol and I did a little thing for Roger Ailes at the Watergate, which then we ran through Metro Media.
And we started talking about the fact that you would come to the wedding and the stuff that women like.
Great stuff.
And Carol works in the stuff about how she's so glad to see Price is being held.
Also, you might even say standing up the labor union leaders.
I might put that in a little, stick that to them, but they've got a, I can't say it, but
The American people are very, you know, the only people lower than politicians in approval are labor union leaders.
I saw that.
I've been for it all along.
There's outside of the few of our captive friends.
Fitzsimmons and Brennan.
Yeah.
Incidentally, we're getting a hell of a payoff on this thing we did for the movie industry.
at Carlton Heston the other night.
He mentioned it, yeah.
And a variety on Saturday.
Let me ask you about... Nixon has done more for the movie industry than any other president in history.
In fact, he's the first administration that's ever done anything to try to save the industry because in earlier years it was plush and so on.
And then it goes on that vein.
And then Walsh and all of the 40 guilds
are for the disc thing, and they're not going to lobby.
They're going after Meany on that thing because, goddammit, their ox is being gored.
You know, Colson was telling me, he'd just been to Boston, and that there's a hell of enough people about busing up there.
He thinks Muskie's made a mistake in coming out against my position on busing.
He says up there, where there are only 2% of the people of Massachusetts are black, but the blacks are against it and the whites are against it, and they're picketing, and all hell is breaking loose.
Same thing in San Francisco.
Well, now, here you've got a situation where any busing in the North, Bob, can't rub off on us.
because it is not, it has nothing to do with what we do, right?
Absolutely, and I've been asked about that time and again, and I've said there's one dollar that's going into any court-ordered plan.
And also, basically, we have to remember that in the northern states, these are not HEW plans, are they?
Sure are not.
They're court-ordered.
Because they're court-ordered, and they're on de facto and not de jure.
That's right.
And I think... Are there plans that the boards themselves come up with because that's the way they're trying to read those stupid court decisions?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, we can... We've got to handle that.
I feel that...
Thank you.
NARA Description
On September 12, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Robert H. Finch talked on the telephone from 4:37 pm to 4:55 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 008-093 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 8-93
Date: September 12, 1971
Time: 4:37 pm - 4:55 pm
Location: White House Telephone
The President talked with Robert H. Finch.
[See Conversation No. 278-26]
Finch's location
-Home
******************************************************************************
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 3s ]
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5
******************************************************************************
White House church service
-Finch’s attendance
-Professor Howard Hill
-Reverend Ben Haden
-Charles G. ("Bebe") Rebozo
-Key Biscayne
-Lawyer
-Norma Zimmer [?]
-Thelma C. (“Pat”) Nixon
-White House residence
******************************************************************************
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 6
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 7s ]
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 6
******************************************************************************
Louise Gore
-Paris
-United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization [UNESCO]
Ambassador
-Drugs
-Dr. Jerome H. Jaffe
**********************************************************************
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 2m 53s ]
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
**********************************************************************
Appointments
-Mexican-Americans
-Romana Acosta Banuelos
-Phillip V. Sanchez
-Swearing-in
-Dwight L. Chapin
-Mexican Independence Day
-September 16, 1971
-Mexican Ambassador
-Sanchez
-John B. Connally’s schedule
-Sanchez
-Mexican Ambassador
-[First name unknown] Ramirez
-Banuelos
-Connally
-Bilingual
-Appointments
-Barrios
-Blacks
-Mexicans and Blacks
**********************************************************************
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 2m 14s ]
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2
**********************************************************************
Economy
-Cabinet meeting
-Wives
-Budget keepers
-Symbolism
-Lenore L. Romney
-Carol (Crothers) Finch
-Women's talk shows
-Carol and Finch's talk for Roger Ailes at the Watergate Hotel
-The President’s attendance at unknown wedding
-Prices freeze
-Labor union leaders
-Pubic approval
-Compared to politicians
-Frank E. Fitzsimmons
-Peter J. Brennan
-Movie industry
-Charlton Heston
-Gregory Peck
-President’s aid
-[Forename unknown] Walsh
-Guilds
-George Meany
**********************************************************************
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 2m 3s ]
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3
**********************************************************************
Busing
-Boston
-Colson’s trip
-Colson's talk with the President
-Upheaval
-Edmund S. Muskie
-Opposition to President’s plan
-Massachusetts population
-Percentage of blacks
-Blacks and whites reactions
-Picketing
-San Francisco
-North
-Administration responsibility
-Court ordered plan
-Funds
-Department of Health, Education and Welfare [HEW]
-Court orders plans
-De facto, not de jure
-School boards
-Interpreting court decisions
**********************************************************************
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 3m 25s ]
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4
**********************************************************************Also recorded on September 12, 1971
- 008-088 4:31 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 4:31 pm.
- 008-089 4:31 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 4:31 pm.
- 278-023 4:31 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 4:31 pm.
- 278-024 4:31 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 4:31 pm.
- 008-090 4:35 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 4:35 pm.
- 008-091 4:35 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 4:35 pm and 4:37 pm.
- 008-092 4:37 PM · 16 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 4:37 pm.
- 278-026 4:37 PM · 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Robert H. Finch met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 4:37 pm to 4:55 pm.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 008-093, September 12, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/008-093 (accessed October 9, 2026).