Nixon phone call with Connally on Economic Policy and International Trade

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Mr. President.

Hello.

Secretary Connolly.

Mr. President.

Yeah.

Well, how'd you get along in the West?

Well, I think very well, Mr. President.

Right.

You kept you awful busy, didn't they?

Yes, sir.

We've been awfully busy.

I thought we had a very excellent meeting night before last at the...

at the Pacific Union Club.

Yeah, that's a hell of a powerful group.

And they had about 100, 105 of the top people there.

Yeah, that's the movers and shakers.

That's right.

Yeah, no question about it.

That is a powerful, powerful group.

That's like your petroleum club and all that.

It's the same kind of a thing.

But they had them all from, you know, R.J. Miller to Mariner Echols to Otto Miller of the Standard Oil and the top, the very top crowd in the

in the bay area and uh then the bankers i had a press conference here yesterday morning that i thought went uh very well at least in the press accounts and then my speech at the american bankers association and i guess they had uh oh gosh i guess five uh six thousand people

Oh, but they did.

And so everything's going very well.

Fine, fine, fine.

Incidentally, I don't think we ought to be a bit concerned about the stock market coming around.

Those bastards are just playing their usual line of wait and see.

Oh, I'm not worried about it.

Don't you agree?

Best things have to come up at the right time.

That's right.

Don't you agree, or do you have some other... Oh, I'm not the least worried about it, very frankly.

I think they are being...

I think it is reflecting an uncertainty, not a damn thing you can do about it, to list pay board and price commissioner.

But even when it is done?

And once they're involved, it's going to go down some more.

Yeah.

Because some of their decisions in granting exemptions and granting these pay raises are going to bring it down probably more and create further uncertainty.

But I don't think that's going to happen.

But then what happens is that when the...

Senate passes our tax bill and that goes and then people start to buy in the Christmas thing It'll start moving up because it's all there John, but everybody everybody Begins to say that's moving up now.

You just hear it everywhere.

The psychology is that isn't the job?

That's right today back yesterday for an hour.

Yeah, and He says it, you know, he says you feel it.

He says it's there and we ought to be concerned about it Right

Let me tell you one thing I want to talk to you about briefly, because it involves your Japanese troop.

I'm seeing Kishi tomorrow.

Yes, sir.

Now, I'm going to give him a couple of tidbits on the Voice of America thing on Okinawa.

I mean, that's easy to get.

I mean, they're having a problem with that, and we'll get rid of that station.

We don't want it anyway.

We need it.

And something on the land in Okinawa.

But...

Of course, they have built up his trip as if he was going to come over here and work out the surcharge thing.

I see.

Now, I think what I should tell him, that you, on your trip, will be prepared to discuss it, and I'd like to know what he has in mind.

and listen to him, but that you'll be prepared to discuss it, and then when you return, we will be prepared to make a decision or something like that.

Now, I'll be very loose, but do you have any other thoughts as to how to handle him?

Naturally, he'll go right back to his brother Sato and all the rest and tell him everything.

So how do you want us to play the Japanese?

No, I think that's right, and just say that we will discuss it, and of course,

I assume that we're going to go ahead and lift it on textiles, but we sure can't.

It seems to me we can't agree to do it with respect to Japan generally until we have this realignment, until we have a lot more things out of them.

So we sure can't give them the surcharge just for textiles.

We can give it to them on textiles.

Well, that they know already.

Which they know.

What they're really after is to get it on some other things.

Well, I think it depends.

I think you just listen to him.

I think what they're prepared to say to you is that they're willing to revalue it to the extent of about 15%.

Yeah.

They may be willing to make some trade concessions, and they may be willing to make some contribution.

Well, I'll tell them.

What I'm going to tell them is that you are my representative, and you will be there to discuss these things very frankly.

You naturally won't make a decision while you're there, but your views will have very great weight when you return, and I would appreciate their talking very frankly to you.

That's what I thought I had in mind.

Well, I think that's fine.

I couldn't leave it in better shape.

Good.

all right that's where i handle that archer is there i'm not having arthur uh the son of a betcha if he's not playing ball at the moment we're just keeping on the on ice for a while all right that's what your view was yesterday i don't i don't see he wouldn't normally be invited to something like this and i just don't see any reason for reaching out and getting him no sir no sir you have to handle him when we return when we return sometime we have some quadriads and we'll gabble around about some of these things but

the morning paper carried the story that the american bar uh the qualifications committee had turned down uh i know nothing about him but yeah if this is true i'm astounded after being a member of the house of delegates for 20 years remember the board of governors i'll tell you why it happened uh it shows you why we can't we're going to really take them on on it and i'm going to make the announcements

I mean and I can't tell you what they are yet until we get some clearances by 11 to 11 30 or 12 apparently we'll have something this afternoon by five or six for you anyway and John Mitchell was just shocked first with regard to the woman they said she is the best probably the best qualified woman

to be a judge that we have found, but they have found 11 to 1 that she was not qualified to be in the Supreme Court.

So we are really off the hook on the woman.

Don't you think so?

Oh, hell yes.

Yeah, put it on the bar.

And also refer to the fact that it's a stacked jury, because it's 11 to 1.

I asked Mitchell, I says, any women on that?

He said, nope.

That's great.

How do you like that?

That's great.

And we'll let them have it.

And as, of course, you know, I'm not keen on a woman anyways.

I know it.

That's that.

Now, with regard to Friday, just to show you what these bastards are up to, since he was suggested, and here's a very, just a lawyer's lawyer type of guy, never has been in anything, never made a speech, he's only represented school board and so forth as a lawyer, because the law school deans and others barraged this goddamn committee

And they're meeting, of course, in New York City, which is accessible.

They turned him down because of his views on civil rights.

Isn't that incredible?

Now, I understand, John.

Not because he was not qualified to be a judge, not because of anything else, but because of his civil rights.

Now, for Christ's sakes, they take a nutter moron like Thurgood Marshall and put him on.

They take Arthur Goldberg, who was totally on the side of labor, a labor lawyer, and put him on.

But here, lawyers determine that because he takes a view, which is

A reasonable view, they don't have to agree with the civil rights, they don't approve them for the court.

And they put it on that basis.

By God, I'm going to stick it to them again.

Well, that's good.

Probably by tonight.

I hope you will on that one.

They'll be good men.

I'll point a couple that they're going to have a hell of a time turning down.

Well, that's great.

But isn't that something?

It really is.

That really is shocking.

We're going to get that around, too.

The ABA has hurt itself with this, though, I'll tell you.

I would think so.

Well, it seems to me on both of these that you really got them.

Yeah.

In a very difficult...

Turned down a woman because she was a woman.

Yeah.

Turned down another guy because, a fine lawyer, because he happened to disagree with them on civil rights.

That's really unbelievable that they'd do that.

That's right.

But anyway, everything's fine, and just keep well and get ready for your trip.

We'll see you on Tuesday, huh?

Yes, sir.

I'll be back Tuesday.

I just talked to Patman.

I've got to testify Wednesday.

God damn, they just insist I come.

I tried to get out of it, but they just will hear nothing of it.

So I've got to go Wednesday and testify on this.

Boy, that way they drag us up.

economic uh bill and uh yeah so uh i see i see wilbur mills and i can come earlier if you need anything but no no no no that tuesday's just fine because i'll i'll be uh well uh i see wilbur gave us an f in economics yeah he sure did he's clever well he uh

I thought he was considerably partisan in his speech before the press club.

But, you know, that always happens.

You get these candidates for office and get them before a lot of press people, and they think they've got to make news and be cute and news.

So I guess you just take it.

Right.

We'll take it.

Not react to it.

We'll take it and whip them.

All right, sir.

Okay.

Goodbye, sir.

Nixon phone call with Connally on Economic Policy and International Trade

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on October 21, 1971

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