Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 18 › Conversation 018-044

Nixon phone call with Price on State of the Union and John Connally

Monday, January 10, 1972 · 3:56 PM–4:05 PM ET · White House Telephone · 8 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Price, Raymond K., Jr.Conversation018-044 on Tape 18 (tape position 01:24:01–01:32:01)StartMonday, January 10, 1972 at 3:56 PMEndMonday, January 10, 1972 at 4:05 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 018-044 ↗ · National Archives Catalog, NAID 417192181 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and speechwriter Raymond K. Price, Jr. discuss the strategy and themes for the upcoming 1972 State of the Union address. Following consultation with John Connally, Nixon decides to emphasize a theme of "consolidation" and domestic policy implementation rather than introducing new legislative "shockers." The pair agrees to a "two-track" approach, utilizing a shorter, thematic speech accompanied by a more detailed written message to Congress to address the existing legislative backlog. Nixon schedules a trip to Camp David to focus on drafting and refining these materials.

Audio

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NARA Description

On January 10, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Raymond K. Price, Jr. talked on the telephone from 3:56 pm to 4:05 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 018-044 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 18-44

Date: January 10, 1972
Time: 3:56 pm - 4:05 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with Raymond K. Price, Jr.

[See Conversation No. 313-21E]

     Greetings

     State of the Union speech
           -Progress
           -First draft
                 -Length
                 -Programs
                        -Agriculture, elderly
                 -Themes

                -Endurance
                      -Forthcoming 1972 campaign
                -Appeal to conservatives
     -Organization
          -The President's talk with Connally
                -Value Added Tax [VAT]
          -Intergovernmental relations committee
                -Congress
     -Themes
          -Consolidation
     -Congress
          -Burden of work
                -Tax reform
                -Government reorganization, revenue sharing, welfare reform,
                       environment, elderly
     -New proposals compared to consolidation
          -Possible tone of speech
          -Appeals to Congress in election year
                -Politics
                      -Bipartisan action
                -The administration's initiatives
                      -Economic program
                            -International monetary program
     -Amount of time for preparation

The President's trip to Camp David
     -Schedule
     -Preparation of speech

Organization of speech
     -Subjects
           -Indian affairs, the environment
           -Agriculture
           -Aging

Draft for the President

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Names and numbers are often wrong; speakers are not identified. Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Hello.
Mr. Price.
Sir.
Hi, Ray.
Hope you caught up in your sleep.
I did think you've done a lot of fine work here.
I just, but I thought I'd just let you, you know, have your head for a while and then we'll come back.
How's it stand now?
Well, I'm still working on it.
I'm still having trouble with it.
I didn't quite get, couldn't quite get back in gear yesterday.
Uh-huh.
Except for some headway.
And I still like that basic theme that I was developing there.
Yeah, that theme, I think, is a good one.
I think I read the first draft, of course.
I'd read it before, and I think it's a lot of things.
I think we're going to have our usual problem on length, and it may be that we can make considerable cuts by referring to the opus, and that we...
almost sentence by sentence, we need a program with regard to agriculture, and I have set it forth.
We need a program with regard to the elderly, and I have set it forth.
We need a program with regard to the, you know what I mean?
I mean, it's laundry list, but maybe that's about the way to do it.
But the theme, it seems that my recollection is that on such things, if you get one theme that
that is caught, you know, that catches on, and that maybe that's as much as it can come out of such a speech at this point.
Isn't that what you feel, is that you're trying to get a sort of a central theme that will last?
One that will last and that will, I think, be... A basis for our... A tune to the mood and that...
and that plays into the campaign.
Yes, yes.
So we're running against the 60s and yet at the same time reaching back to the old principles which are very important to the conservatives.
I'm not sure that the, it may be that the theme
It's hard to know quite how to put it, whether it should be, I mean, you could do it one of two ways.
You could state it at the beginning and then try to put everything, put the laundry list and all in relation to the theme.
Or you could go through the, you know, what is left.
It seems to me that I was talking to Connolly a few minutes ago and we are, you know, we're going to, we're not going to advance the,
value added as a finished program we're going to say we're looking into it and you know the committee on government intergovernmental relations and the school committee and the rest and so forth and so on and we asked the cooperation of the congress in this historic venture so i said to john i said you realize john we're not really going to have anything strikingly new and i said
What do you think of that?
He said, well, he said, that's probably all right.
He said, we've got to remember that we have an awful lot on the plate.
We have a lot to digest and that we should say this is a time for consolidation, for moving forward and not to come in with some new shocker.
Also, there's the realistic point that in terms of the Congress, the Congress simply doesn't have any room to do anything more at this point.
And it's an empty gesture and totally political to throw it up and say, I asked the Congress this year to enact, to have tax reform.
Well, I'm just using that as an example.
When the Congress has government reorganization, it has revenue sharing, it has welfare reform, it has programs for the environment agency or whatever else we've got there.
Now that, I don't know.
I don't know what's...
how that's at least his feeling and it was and it was mine too i may have led him into it but but he has put a very good political judgment and he did not feel in other words that it was fatal to the to the speech not to have a new striking initiative you see so uh
There's where we are.
I think we have a strong case, and now is the time to act on all the proposals that are before them.
Yes, we have proposed that 1971 and 72 were years of proposal.
This is the year for acting on those proposals.
and say it with very good grace, not in anger or bullwagging the Congress, but that I realize the Congress has great responsibilities.
I realize it's an election year.
I realize it's difficult, but let us, in those areas where we can, put partisanship aside, and the best politics is to do what is best for the country, and what is best for the country is...
The best politics is always to do what is best for the country.
And there's, if we fail to act, that we will be held responsible.
And that if we do act, there will be credit enough for everybody.
And that this is, we cannot get this through without the cooperation of Democrats as well as Republicans.
And these are areas which I think are above politics that require, in which we can act together.
just as the Congress acted with high statesmanship on our economic program and on the international program, our international monetary is going to act, we trust.
So we'll act on this one.
But coming back to it, let me say I'm working on a lot of doodads anyway.
Do you want to just take another, what would you like to do, take another day?
I'd like to if I could.
All right, fine.
What I'd like to do, I'd like to perhaps go to Camp David tomorrow after I finish my main round, say 3 o'clock or so, and then spend the night and the day there sort of getting stuff done.
How does that sound to you?
Does that give you a time to get something pulled together?
All right, fine.
I mean, so before you leave for Camp David?
Yeah.
Yeah, I meant tomorrow, say, around, say, around, I was thinking around, oh, say, 3 o'clock.
Mm-hmm.
That's when I'd have to leave.
I mean, I would plan to leave so that I could get a full evening's work.
And does that sound like a reasonable...
Yes, it does.
And then pull together what you think you can and...
And we're trying to get down to the hard stuff.
Good.
All right.
I think this two-track thing can work very well, too.
Having a long written message, which you put a lot of things in that you wouldn't get into a state of the engine.
That's right.
And it leaves a lot of freedom here to make this a short speed.
We can talk about that.
We might even have one long paragraph.
I have covered the problem of Indian affairs, the relations of our Indians with the environment, you know what I mean, all of them being important.
I know the reason you have to put, I saw that you had a fairly long section on agriculture and a long section on the aging.
Which would have to be shortened.
I understand that, but I think that we could shorten them both and still make them powerful and say that the...
But the two-track thing at least is new, and it's a way states of the Union should be done in the future.
It seems to me.
All right, shall we, why don't you try, we'll say 3 o'clock tomorrow.
All right, sure.
Fine.

Also recorded on January 10, 1972

  • 018-040 3:31 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and William F. ("Billy") Graham talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 3:31 pm and 3:42 pm.
  • 313-021 3:31 PM · 46 min — President Richard M. Nixon, William F. ("Billy") Graham, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, White House operator, Raymond K. Price, Jr., Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, and Melvin R. Laird met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 3:31 pm and 5:11 pm.
  • 018-041 3:34 PM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 3:34 pm and 3:42 pm.
  • 018-042 3:34 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and William F. ("Billy") Graham talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 3:34 pm and 3:42 pm.
  • 018-043 3:42 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 3:42 pm and 3:56 pm.
  • 018-045 4:06 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Vice President Spiro T. Agnew talked on the telephone from 4:06 pm to 4:08 pm.
  • 018-046 4:08 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 4:08 pm and 4:12 pm.
  • 018-047 4:12 PM · 15 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Melvin R. Laird talked on the telephone from 4:12 pm to 4:27 pm.

All 87 conversations from January 10, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 018-044, January 10, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives (NAID 417192181). Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/018-044 (accessed October 28, 2026).