Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 016-076
Date: Thursday, December 9, 1971 at 7:42 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Colson, Charles W.
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/016-076

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:01] Hello?
[0:03] Yes, sir, Mr. President.
[0:04] Everything all right in your front today?
[0:05] Well, good day.
[0:06] Busy day.
[0:07] Isn't that a good day with the tax bill?
[0:11] Oh, marvelous.
[0:12] And it'll go through the Senate like Grant took Richmond.
[0:15] Sherman through Georgia.
[0:18] No, we don't say that.
[0:18] Oh, nothing like that.
[0:19] No, that's a, that's superb.
[0:20] And I, I, your veto message, I just think is marvelous, eh?
[0:24] Elliot, awfully hard.
[0:27] All right.
[0:29] Well, he's a good soldier.
[0:30] I don't think we'll have a problem with him.
[0:32] We checked it out.
[0:35] Well, I've known him for almost 20 years, and he's damn good that way.
[0:43] I mean, he'll fight hard, but once he has a decision to make, he stays with it.
[2:26] He took off yesterday after the critics of the Pakistan-India policy.
[2:34] I don't think our Democratic friends are in a good way to bear it.
[2:38] No, I don't.
[2:39] I don't.
[2:39] I think we've got to keep the pressure on the way we're doing it.
[2:44] Kelly's got another backgrounder set up for the column this weekend, and I think that's important because we have to keep knocking down the Marvin Kelp and...
[2:53] You know, it's an amazing thing.
[3:07] I asked for a mail count, a telegram count, to see what we got.
[3:16] The networks have given us 10 minutes to lead every night.
[3:17] We had, as of yesterday, something like 80, as of last night, something like 80 communications, either telegrams or letters.
[3:21] I compare that with
[3:22] And it just shows you that really the public doesn't care.
[3:31] And they can watch it night after night, and they can see the banner headlines every day for a week, and there's no impact.
[3:42] It's just one of the, I think there would be a hell of an impact if they thought we were on the verge of getting into it.
[3:45] But this way, it's so distant.
[3:48] And damn few people, I'm convinced damn few people read into the fine print with it.
[3:52] The State Department said this or said that.
[3:59] I really just don't think it counts a lot much.
[5:34] uh we've had a fascinating response to mrs mitchell's visit to sears well i know that was big but well the citizens committee has had now communications from all the major chains and they're completely run out of material i think that i guess it's about half the total numbers store outlets in the country have now pledged to carry that logo in their advertising with signs in the window
[6:03] It's been a phenomenal response.
[6:25] This is Rockefeller data yesterday.
[6:26] It's got the front page of the New York Daily News, and it's filled with a carbon copy of Mrs. Nixon's data.
[6:28] So that's been damn helpful.
[6:29] Business attitudes are good.
[6:30] Mr. President and I still keep getting very healthy reports, and I think the market reflects this.
[6:32] Yeah, the market's holding us very well.
[6:32] It sure is.
[6:33] It's withstood a lot.
[6:34] Well, every day they start out with profit.
[6:46] They drop five or six points.
[6:47] Then before the day is over, it bounces right back up.
[6:48] So I think the confidence factor is coming back in.
[9:06] Well, we've had a few things that we can sort of keep in the works that I think will help in that regard.
[9:29] Got a very good result out of your pension plan yesterday.
[9:30] Is that a good plan?
[9:30] I've got a next one for you.
[9:31] And we had in all of the groups that are affected, labor groups, the business groups, the doctors, the lawyers, the ABA, the...
[9:34] some of the public interest groups.
[9:49] We haven't had them all in for briefings the last few days.
[9:54] Reactions to that have just been sensational.
[9:55] That may be a much bigger issue than it appears on the surface, because you know, you're talking about... Well, it's a pocketbook issue.
[10:01] It's something that people...
[10:01] It's very meaningful to people that they have a means of providing for their own retirement.
[10:03] So it should be great for the change.
[10:04] Well, that's weird.
[10:11] We've decided we want to do some work with the mutual funds and insurance companies.
[10:22] They ought to go out now and start selling.
[10:23] That's right.
[10:23] And promote this.
[10:23] Promote the legislation.
[10:24] Put the Nixon stamp on it.
[10:24] The beauty of this is, you know, that plans like this have been kicking around for so long.
[10:26] Nobody really gets a great deal of the political identification for this.
[10:28] You now have, so that almost anything that you...
[10:31] Javits or anybody else now decides to come up with it, it's going to be the next pension.
[10:48] I really think that is a great, that property taxes are two areas where we really will be able to score in the constituency we need to.
[10:53] We'll keep the heat on the conservatives, Mr. President, to see if we talk to them.
[10:58] I made the call just last night, and I returned his call precisely along the lines that we discussed.
[11:11] I just told him to sit tight until he would come.
[11:14] He was very appreciative of you.
[13:44] We have a little bomb that we're dropping on the government this weekend, which we've been using Senate stationery to send out campaign contributions and solicitations.
[14:03] We kind of planted a little thing that will come off over the weekend that I think will be very helpful.
[14:06] I'd kind of like at the moment to...
[14:58] You asked me last week to get something out on where the kids go to school with Kennedy and Muskie.
[15:23] We got a hell of a good cartoon out, and a good story of Monday, which was picked up, shows Muskie and Kennedy walking side by side into a private school with a caption that says,
[15:27] that were getting around the country at that time.
[15:35] I was wrong when I told you this, but if you didn't have any insight, I think we would have said Kennedy or Corsair or Marlin.
[16:19] And I think that feeling is being reflected.
[16:32] Maybe I'm deluding myself, but as I read the columns on the economy, there's a lot less of the feeling of uncertainty, and there's a lot more of the emphasis on some of the positive stuff.
[22:11] Well, I haven't anything further on Meany's condition.
[22:22] I don't know whether at some point now it's pretty clear that he's ill, but you would want to think about doing something with him.
[22:31] Well, maybe when he's out of the hospital, wouldn't you?
[22:40] I told Bluffstone yesterday that he would ask about it constantly.
[23:03] Obviously, we're very concerned.
[23:04] No matter how difficult things have been, the President always respects the fact that he has put the country first in foreign policy.
[23:06] That message we'll get back on.
[23:07] I'm confident of that.
[23:08] Looks like we may get Rehnquist tomorrow with us.
[23:10] Are they going to have a, do you think the folks are going to work?
[23:19] I just, I don't know.
[23:19] I think that the best reason that it will is that they all are anxious as hell up there to get out.
[23:26] That may be the, that might be enough to get it across.
[23:30] I'm sure he's all right.
[23:32] He hasn't lost any folks that I...
[23:33] No, he doesn't.
[23:50] But it figures.
[23:50] Javits is a grandstander, you know.
[23:52] And he waited until the last moment and did it with typical Javits.
[24:00] And Bruxmar came out for him, which was a surprise.
[24:02] I think the count is about what we've just said.
[24:22] I don't think there are any surprises.
[24:23] Hudson did a very good job for us today up in the Congress.
[24:24] He really hit them hard on not having passed the emergency strike legislation.
[24:26] He played the blame for the problems the farmers have on the Congress and said that we may be back on Christmas Day asking for the legislation to end the strike, but they could have avoided the first place that they did.
[24:32] legislation that you recommended earlier this year.
[24:50] He really, we stiffened his back, and he really went up there and did a hell of a job.
[24:52] We'll have both butts in here.
[24:53] I just keep hitting at that one.
[24:53] I think that's in the Farmville case is very important.
[24:58] Oh, he started out in great shape.
[24:59] Just a marvelous shape.
[24:59] Back on Kennedy for a moment.
[25:00] I'm sure it'll be in large numbers, but apparently the latest communication to the British caused a hell of a number, I think.
[25:22] The British House of Commons erupted at the beginning of a wire, erupted in shouts of rage over Kennedy's remarks.
[25:25] And apparently some members of the Parliament got up and talked about Chappaquiddick, and some of the Labour members were...
[25:28] and booing the gutter politics, he's had to step into it.
[25:37] And he has an incredible way of...
[25:38] But he's appealing to that Irish.
[25:41] Yeah, he is.
[25:43] To the old hardcore Irish, that's the right way to do it.