Nixon phone call with Rumsfeld on US economy and Wage and price controls

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Yeah.

Hello, Don.

Yes, sir.

How are you?

I called to tell you that, uh, to wish you a Merry Christmas and, uh, to tell you that I thought you did a fine job on your press thing.

Well, thank you.

And, uh, the, uh, it just, uh, I just hope you can continue to get out now, man, and make some good positive news with that typical upbeat Rumsfeld style.

We've had a great year, you know, if you think about it, the past months.

Well, we've been, we've had, you know, natural ups and downs, we always do, but I know Henry, he's all worried about India-Pakistan.

I said, now, Henry, look,

We can't be responsible for everything that goes on in the world.

And on that, we just thank God it's over and West Pakistan is safe.

And I went further and I said, I've talked to quite a few people in the last week.

I've never heard anybody raise the subject.

It's too bad, but I'm afraid they don't care much about it in this country.

I think that's true.

It isn't like Vietnam or Israel.

There are no Indians in this country or Pakistanis.

I think there is a good deal.

And also, they wanted us to stay out of it, too, I guess.

We've got a couple of weeks coming up, too.

Yeah, these meetings were a good idea, but they certainly filled the schedule.

I talked to Bob Alden this week, suggesting that if there's an opportunity to come, given the public interest in the

economic matters, but if periodically you could be involved from a leadership standpoint, it would kind of balance out some of the triplets.

Well, I'm going to do a program with rather an hour with the CBS.

Yes, sir.

I heard that yesterday.

And my guess is that he will take, I would think, at least a third of it on that.

I just don't know, but you never know what these people are going to ask about.

What's his name for it?

They did.

Don't worry, we didn't pick him.

No, he's their white-ass man, and I guess they're trying to build him up, but it's all right.

Let him have a little...

He doesn't have an easy manner like the Cronkite does, or Severide.

On the other hand, it might be just as well to have somebody that's a bit of bracy, you know, by contrast.

That's the way I feel about it.

I never worry about that.

The minute you get a soft question, it's a bad one.

You need them hard.

You've got to have them press you.

They've got to press, and it's got to look as if it's credible, too.

That's right.

Now, we'll have some opportunities, particularly after these trips, you see.

Then comes all the, well, the whole State of the Union this year is domestic, so that's good.

The Vietnamanos, another Vietnamanos we made, that'll be routine.

So after the 3rd,

or after the Senate meeting, we then sort of turn domestic until I leave for China, which is a full month.

I think that'll be pretty good.

I do, too.

And I just hope the hell the economic news turns out to be pretty good.

Looks like we had a pretty good Christmas sale, don't you think so?

Retail sales.

I've been watching that, but...

Checked around the country, and it's very strong.

Yeah?

Rob Fincher was telling me yesterday that it was particularly strong in Southern California, you know, at a period where we have high unemployment, but he says there are

Retail sales are 25% above last year there.

For some reason, they just soared in that area.

That's curious, isn't it?

It is.

Well, the feeling's good.

What do you hear?

I think people's attitudes are basically confident, and it's being reflected in their spending.

They are more confident, aren't they?

They really are.

And you know, really, when you come down to it, Don, the wage price thing has worked.

Now, in looking to the future...

It can't work this well, but my gosh, if we had ever thought of having a two-tenths month, three months in succession, we'd have thought you're out of your mind.

That's right.

It's really fantastic.

And that's going to affect the children as you keep moving along.

Sure.

If we can keep it at about, not two-tenths, but around three-tenths next month, next year, that's really, that's great.

Sure is.

And I think we will.

Three-tenths to four-tenths is livable.

Well, we're going to keep on lifting the controls on some of these.

Right, oh boy.

It's unmanageable like we've been doing.

What about rents?

What should we do about rents?

Well, Tom Curtis has come in with some recommendations that go pretty far, and we've announced some of them, and they've been received fairly well.

We've got some plans for January and February after these.

that the program that's in place now is settled to actually decontrol.

And one thing we'll do is we'll decontrol luxury apartments.

Then we'll probably decontrol all rents in cities where the vacancy rate is, say, above 7% to show that there's competition.

That's right.

Like Los Angeles.

It's silly to have rent control.

My God, they've got so many vacancies.

And Florida.

That's the way I feel.

To hell with it.

In a city where they've got a lot of vacancy, why should we be messing around with it?

Excellent idea.

So that'll probably be the way it'll go on radio.

And I would do it with the decontrol with as little fanfare as possible, you know, just get it done.

Because when you do decontrol, and it's a big story, then people think, oh, they're giving up.

But just sort of slip it in on a weekend or sometime when there's another big story.

Let it be a secondary story.

The more you can handle those stories, the stories in this place you can't win on.

So the thing to do is to sort of, the best way is to make very little publicity, except about the overall good figures, if you've got any good figures.

Don't you agree?

Yes, sir.

I think maybe we'll do that when you leave for China.

That'll be the biggest news in town.

That's a good idea.

Okay.

Well, have a good Christmas and don't worry about anything over the weekend.

Just watch football games.

Okay, I'll do it.

We're delighted to be in your... Oh, incidentally, did you see, when they asked you, did you see Brian's song?

No.

You know what I'm talking about?

No.

The Piccolo story?

No.

Never even heard of it.

Well, the Chicago Bears in 1965 and 6 had this...

Halfback, Brian Piccolo, who played with Gail Sayers.

Piccolo got cancer and died.

He and Sayers were close friends.

ABC had made a movie of it, an hour and a half movie, and it is, I saw it last night at the White House.

It is the most beautiful movie.

It's very emotional and corny in many ways.

But I'm having it put on at the White House Monday night for anybody in the White House family that would like to see it in the theater here.

And I would urge you to bring your children.

It is a beautiful story.

It is the best story on race relations.

It'll do more good on race relations than anything I have seen in years.

It's that good.

It shows how Sayers and Piccolo room together.

And, you know, really, and how Sayers saw him through to his death and all that.

But you be sure to come see it.

We'll do that.

Okay.

Very good.

Okay.

Have a good trip.

Nixon phone call with Rumsfeld on US economy and Wage and price controls

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on December 24, 1971

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