Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 011-064
Date: Tuesday, October 12, 1971 at 1:55 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Colson, Charles W.
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/011-064

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Mr. Colson, sir.
[0:05] Yeah.
[0:05] Ready?
[0:05] Yeah.
[0:05] Congratulations, Mr. President.
[0:07] Well, I thought that'd shake you up a little.
[0:11] Oh, Jesus.
[0:11] I went out and listened to your press conference, and I must say it was superb.
[0:16] I leaned over to hold him during it, and I said, how would you like to be managing Ed Muskie's campaign right now?
[0:21] God, you just...
[0:23] It's breathtaking, really.
[0:25] Well, you've got to give old... Henry just came in.
[0:28] You've got to give him a lot of credit.
[0:31] We're playing a game of tightrope back, but I'll tell you one thing, though.
[0:37] These people on the other side, when we got those congressional group in, I think Henry will agree, they didn't know what the hell to say.
[0:44] Well, there's not much they can say.
[0:47] You've so preempted the field next year with... Yeah, for a while.
[0:51] Of course, things can fall between then, but...
[0:53] And I said, I think it's good meaning he came along.
[0:58] He made his own conditions, but we don't care.
[1:00] Well, he tried to.
[1:02] Actually, the best thing that happened was that statement that we all worked on yesterday, we were able to release because even his self-serving reply to it, or his self-serving statement, doesn't have any credibility because what we laid out yesterday was exactly the terms we'd had from the beginning.
[1:20] We didn't give him a thing, but...
[1:22] I said that, too.
[1:23] Well... Did George Shultz tell you about his call?
[1:27] I called him.
[1:28] Oh, you called me?
[1:29] I called him.
[1:30] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[1:31] I called him and thanked him.
[1:32] Excellent.
[1:33] What the hell?
[1:34] Excellent.
[1:35] Incidentally, Henry called him and informed me about this announcement, did you know, too?
[1:41] Excellent.
[1:42] Just to keep him off balance.
[1:44] Well, that does.
[1:44] Well, he called...
[1:45] When he heard you had another statement this afternoon on labor, he called Shultz almost pleading...
[1:50] for you to accept his statement and not to repudiate it.
[1:54] So in fact, regardless of his outside bluster, he has come crawling to us.
[2:01] He was in a box.
[2:03] Some of the business people, we've got to just keep them on the box.
[2:07] It's just having him in the game is what's important.
[2:11] The business side, I don't worry about a bit.
[2:12] We can handle them.
[2:13] The thing that
[2:15] Even if this thing sometime blows up, which Schultz and others are convinced it will, I... Well, I'm not convinced it will.
[2:22] No, I'm not either.
[2:23] As Manny said today, if we can get the inflation down to three and a half, we'd be doing well.
[2:28] Mr. President, the thing that everybody loses sight of is that the biggest wage settlements are behind us.
[2:33] And that next spring, they're going to be a hell of a lot less anyway.
[2:38] And my point is that if we can make this thing work, even...
[2:43] just make it appear to be working.
[2:46] The results next spring, we're going to get the credit for it.
[2:50] And that's the big thing.
[2:51] But I think your announcement today on... Well, this will be a good stage for your meeting with Harris.
[2:58] He's coming in tomorrow.
[2:59] He's coming in to see you at...
[3:01] I'll bring him in at 4.30.
[3:03] I'll send you some background material.
[3:05] Good deal.
[3:06] We'll wait to see him then.
[3:08] God, you're riding awful high.
[3:10] Well, it's just, you never know what...
[3:12] people, but at least it'll disturb Muskie.
[3:16] Well, it's much more significant than that, really, Mr. President.
[3:20] Of course it is, and the point is that... Any jackass can see that, even the bastards at Harvard.
[3:26] Well, I tell you, if the...
[3:30] I can tell Henry's with you.
[3:32] If the election were tomorrow, or next week, or a month from now, I'd give them about three states at the most.
[3:38] Okay.
[3:40] Great, sir.