Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 10 › Conversation 010-135

Nixon, Safire & Acker on Phase II and Inflation

Thursday, October 7, 1971 · 1:03 PM–1:20 PM ET · White House Telephone · 2 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); White House operator; Acker, Marjorie P.; Safire, William L.; Nixon, Richard M. (President); White House operator; Acker, Marjorie P.; Safire, William L.Conversation010-135 on Tape 10 (tape position 04:18:20–04:20:06)StartThursday, October 7, 1971 at 1:03 PMEndThursday, October 7, 1971 at 1:20 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 010-135 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon consulted with speechwriter William Safire regarding the drafting of an upcoming speech on Phase II economic policies. The discussion centered on the political risks of incorporating a proposed phrase about "price reduction psychology" and "windfall profits" to combat inflation. Fearing that opponents and labor unions might weaponize the language, Nixon and Safire ultimately decided to adopt a more ambiguous, "fuzzier" presentation for the address.

Audio

Download MP3 · 2.4 MB

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

Download transcript (.txt) · JSON data

· Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).
Just one minute.
Please.
Sapphire, please.
Yes, sir.
There you are.
When you get half of it done, send it over and I can start reading it.
Mr. Sapphire.
Yeah, Bill.
Yes, sir.
Just a minute, Rose.
Just a minute.
Marge.
Yeah.
I think I should put in, and I'm not going to put it in the written text.
I'm going to say it.
But where we say, because it puts more balance into it, where we say that we are, we have just, we live in an inflation psychology.
Everybody just assumes that prices will go up, you know?
It's time for some price reduction psychology.
When there are windfall prices, profits, prices should come down.
That doesn't bother you, does it?
Well, that's a nice quotable line for somebody that uses ammunition.
Ammunition on windfall?
Yeah.
In other words, any good profits at all will be called windfall by whatever attacking it.
The trouble is labor will get them.
If we don't get it, then prices.
Well, it may be.
I'm afraid the whole thing is subject to that, though.
But, well, maybe that just gives them one thing that they can't.
I hate to give a little short, horrible line that they can use as a slogan.
And we've got it in there, of course, that prices should come down, the policy of the price.
But what the hell, maybe we better not put it as sharply.
Okay.
I would think a fuzzier presentation would be better.
All right, fine.

NARA Description

On October 7, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, White House operator, Marjorie P. Acker, and William L. Safire talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 1:03 pm and 1:20 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 010-135 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 10-135

Date: October 7, 1971
Time: Unknown between 1:03 pm and 1:20 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with the White House operator.

[See Conversation No. 285-26A]

     Request for a call to William L. Safire

[The President conferred with Marjorie P. Acker in the background]

     Acker's schedule
         -Text of draft

[End of conferral]

The President talked with Safire.

     Phase II speech, October 7, 1971
          -Acker
          -Inflation
                -Prices
                      -Problem with wording

Also recorded on October 7, 1971

  • 010-131 12:48 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and William L. Safire talked on the telephone from 12:48 pm to 12:51 pm.
  • 010-132 12:51 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 12:51 pm and 1:02 pm.
  • 285-023 12:51 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 12:51 pm and 1:02 pm.
  • 285-024 12:51 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 12:51 pm and 1:02 pm.
  • 010-133 1:02 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 1:02 pm.
  • 010-134 1:02 PM · 18 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Marjorie P. Acker talked on the telephone from 1:02 pm to 1:03 pm.
  • 285-025 1:02 PM · 17 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Marjorie P. Acker met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 1:02 pm to 1:03 pm.
  • 285-026 1:05 PM · 8 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Marjorie P. Acker, White House operator, and William L. Safire met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 1:05 pm and 2:43 pm.

All 106 conversations from October 7, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 010-135, October 7, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/010-135 (accessed October 6, 2026).