Nixon White House Tapes ›Tape 11 › Conversation 011-055
Nixon phone call with Shultz on Wage and price controls and George Meany
Tuesday, October 12, 1971 · 9:58 AM–10:04 AM ET · White House Telephone ·6 min
AI Summary
President Nixon and George Shultz discuss the positive reception from labor leaders, specifically George Meany, regarding the administration's wage and price control proposals. Nixon briefs Shultz on his decision to have Henry Kissinger inform Meany of the upcoming announcement concerning the 1972 Moscow summit, aiming to secure labor cooperation and mitigate potential opposition. The President emphasizes the importance of controlling the narrative and instructs Shultz to release the official statement immediately to avoid it being leaked prematurely from labor meetings.
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Transcript (AI-generated)
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Hello.
Hello.
Mr. President.
Yeah.
Jim and I are back from our meeting with Beeney.
Bill Ussery met with Leonard Woodcock and Larry Silberman with Fitzsimmons.
And the general tone of all the discussions was,
was fine.
And we...
Mean he's two?
Mean he's two.
Did you show him he started off belligerent?
He started off a little belligerent and by the time he got through he was reminiscing about the war labor board and so on the way he does.
Now we showed him the statement and it turned out your thought of putting your initials on it was very important to him.
He wanted to say, well whose authority is this on?
and what you do and i said well we discussed this and i talked about it with connolly and then jim and i went in and talked with the president about it and president read it over and we talked about it quite a bit and when we got through he initialed it and i showed him the thing and i let him make a xerox of that so he had your initials on that right and he will use that in his meeting right now we had i won't say anything then maybe
today if I'm asked.
I may not be asked because of the announcement I'm going to be making, but we'll see.
But what do you suggest?
Well, I think that the line that we talked about yesterday is a good line to put it back up on the high ground.
On the high level.
Not to get yourself into the business of who is going to tell you what to do.
In other words, the idea that we have a three-part program here and that we're going to continue on this road and we trust that labor will cooperate, something like that.
And if they say, do you have any report back on the meeting that Johnson and Schultz had?
They know you were there.
Oh, yeah.
There were presses all around that building.
And I think a good line on that is that labor will speak for itself and we'll find out.
All right, fine.
Now, which office are you in at the present time?
I'm in the White House.
Yeah.
Are you by yourself?
Jim and Larry and Bill, I'm sorry, are here.
Could you step to another phone for a moment?
Yes, sir.
Yes.
I don't want you to
go beyond this, but I don't want you to tell any of them because this must be a total, it's embargoed at 12 noon.
But I think you should know that I just had Henry call Meany and read this to him, not knowing what had happened in your meeting, mainly because Meany was so angry when we did not
inform him in advance on the China thing, and I thought we'd better inform him on this one.
This is the announcement that will be made simultaneously in Moscow and Washington the 12th of the day.
The leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union in their exchanges during the past year have agreed that a meeting between them would be desirable once sufficient progress has been made in negotiations at lower levels.
In light of the recent advances in bilateral and multilateral negotiations involving the two countries, it has been agreed that such a meeting will take place in Moscow in the latter part of May 1972.
President Nixon and the Soviet leaders will review all major issues with a view towards further improving their bilateral relations and enhancing the prospects for world peace.
So you can see that'll be the lead.
I should say so.
That's wonderful.
Now, we call Meany.
Henry and I talked a little about it.
And he said, Meany will go up the wall.
And I said, he'll go up the wall a hell of a lot more if right after, if we do have success in getting him to go along, we hit him in the face with it like a wet fish with this.
I said, you call him.
So he read him the announcement.
He didn't take long on it and told him that this involves our play with the China and involves the Mideast and Vietnam and the rest, and that Henry wants to come over and brief him on it.
just as soon as it's convenient after he's finished all these things.
So you can see the point is that we just, I don't know whether to work or not, he may still blast it, but at least I think we may have muted him a bit.
Very good.
And it's good that he knows.
I mean, the old man will feel that we're sort of playing ball with him a bit.
Oh, I think as we were talking yesterday,
information and advances, nine parts of people's agreements to something.
It's just amazing.
Sure.
They like to feel that they're part of it and so forth.
Well, I'm glad to hear that.
I would certainly be good if we could get them to come.
I suppose, though, that the danger you foresee is that they may come up with, I mean, that idea of trying to negotiate.
In other words, making an offer to us as to what it is.
I hope that you laid that out pretty clear.
I
I don't really think we can have a negotiation with them, George, on this.
I think they may do that.
It's likely.
No.
I think they may take this and say, well, we've got this understanding and it conforms to what we want, and so we'll cooperate.
Although I hesitate to predict too much.
I think we are likely to get attacked for capitulating to Libera.
And we're going to call some industry people and tell them about this statement and see if we can get some of the press to call a few people like Jim Roach or whatnot.
Well, as a matter of fact, rather than capitulating, this is simply a restatement of what we'd already stated, isn't that true?
And Connolly agreed to this now, didn't he?
Yes, he agreed to it.
And we'll put this out right away.
Otherwise, it'll wind up coming out of the labor meeting, and we want to have it come out of our own.
Put this out.
Put this out.
Right.
All right.
Good, George.
Good job.
Thank you.
NARA Description
On October 12, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and George P. Shultz talked on the telephone from 9:58 am to 10:04 am. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 011-055 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 011-055
Date: October 12, 1971
Time: 9:58 am - 10:04 am
Location: White House Telephone
The President talked with George P. Shultz.
[See Conversation No. 288-11D]
Wage and Price controls
-Shultz and James D. Hodgson
-Meeting with George Meany
-William J. Usery
-Leonard Woodcock
-Larry Silberman
-Frank E. Fitzsimmons
-Meany
-War Labor Board
-John B. Connally
-Hodgson's and Shultz's meeting with the President
Economy
-The President's handling vis-a-vis press
-Hodgson's and Shultz's meeting
Shultz's schedule
-Hodgson, Silberman, Usury
Kissinger's conversation with Meany
-Announcement of the President's intention to attend a summit conference in Moscow
in May 1972
-Rationale
Economy
-Labor
-Press
-Administration position
-James W. Roach
-Administration's relations
-Connally
-Ronald L. ZieglerAlso recorded on October 12, 1971
- 011-056 10:04 AM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 10:04 am and 10:14 am.
- 288-012 10:04 AM · 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 10:04 am and 10:14 am.
- 011-057 10:14 AM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and George P. Shultz talked on the telephone from 10:14 am to 10:16 am.
- 288-013 10:14 AM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and George P. Shultz met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 10:14 am to 10:16 am.
- 011-058 10:16 AM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 10:16 am and 10:31 am.
- 288-014 10:16 AM · 37 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 10:16 am and 10:31 am.
- 288-015 10:16 AM · 14 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 10:16 am and 10:31 am.
- 288-016 10:16 AM · 59 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 10:16 am to 10:31 am.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 011-055, October 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/011-055 (accessed September 18, 2026).