Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 18 › Conversation 018-076

Nixon phone call with Connally on Economic Policy and National Service Program

Wednesday, January 12, 1972 · 9:26 PM–9:42 PM ET · White House Telephone · 16 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Connally, John B.Conversation018-076 on Tape 18 (tape position 03:30:22–03:46:01)StartWednesday, January 12, 1972 at 9:26 PMEndWednesday, January 12, 1972 at 9:42 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 018-076 ↗ · National Archives Catalog, NAID 417192245 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and John B. Connally discussed a range of administrative and economic concerns, including a warning to keep Herbert Stein's public statements aligned with the administration's economic control strategy. They agreed that the Cabinet committee should focus on increasing the competitiveness of U.S. products rather than dwelling on potential failures or labor disputes. Additionally, Nixon requested that Connally develop a proposal for a national youth service program, which would provide non-military alternatives for civilian service at local, state, or federal levels.

Audio

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NARA Description

On January 12, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and John B. Connally talked on the telephone from 9:26 pm to 9:42 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 018-076 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 18-76

Date: January 12, 1972
Time: 9:26 pm - 9:42 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with John B. Connally.

     Dr. W. Kenneth Riland
          -Connally
          -Qualities
          -Idanell B. (“Nellie”) Connally
          -Thelma C. (“Pat”) Nixon

     William D. Eberle
          -Japanese
               -Tuna

******************************************************************************

[Previous archivists categorized this section as unintelligible. It has been rereviewed and
released 12/22/2017.]
[Unintelligible]
[018-076-w001]
[Duration: 4s]

     William D. Eberle
          -Japanese request

******************************************************************************

     William D. Eberle
          -Japanese request
                -Connally’s instructions
          -Trip to London
          -Japanese

     Herbert Stein
          -Political judgment
          -Speech
                -Decontrol

                 -Discussion
     -Cabinet committee meeting
          -Inflation
Show the rest of the log (43 more lines)
          -Labor opposition
          -George P. Shultz, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Nathaniel Samuels
          -Legislative strategy
                 -Oil import controls
                 -Construction trades
                 -Trade council
                 -Davis-Bacon Act
          -Connally’s conversation with Shultz
                 -Council of Economic Advisors [CEA]
                       -Competitiveness of US products
     -Arthur F. Burns
          -Talks with Connally
                 -Labor
     -Possible talk with the President
     -Shultz
          -Agreement with Connally

Economy
    -Controls

The President’s schedule
     -State of the Union speech
     -Stein, Connally, Quadriad

Connally's conversation with Louis P. Harris
    -Public confidence in Administration
           -Bombing
           -Economic issues

Government service for youth
    -Possible duration
    -Unemployment
          -Democrats
    -Alternatives
          -Environment
          -Local, state, federal government civilian service
          -Police
    -Social and political benefits of program of national service

     Budget
         -Deficits
         -Burns's views on money supply
         -Tax cuts

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 9 minutes of this recording (about 58% of it) is represented by only a few words. Listen to the audio rather than relying on the text below; a corrected transcript is queued.

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.

Download transcript (.txt) · JSON data

Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).

Hello.
I had just picked up the phone to call you, huh?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, I just wanted to know, did Ryland help you?
He sure did.
I knew it would help, and incidentally, I've given an order.
Next week, he'll be down on Wednesday, and he's to try you, he's to work on you and Nellie, too.
That's great.
But this fellow has got a great gift, you know.
There's no reason for us to be in traction and all that crap that people do, because...
you know, if there's something, you know, organically in that spinal system that he can fix up, have him fix it up.
Well, I'll tell you this, he really, in not over 15 minutes, I know, he really took my back problem completely out of me.
That's all really.
That's right.
Now go next week because, you know, that'll...
I'll have him checked next week.
Yeah, it's good therapy to have it.
And have him...
Give her a little treat with the belly, too, because that'll help her for the future, you see?
That's right.
Well, Pat has the same problem, and now you do that now, by all means, and that'll help.
Fine.
That's right.
I called you this afternoon, my brother, to tell you that I talked to Bill Eberle, and the Japanese were up to the rainbow team.
They, in fact, said they, you know, they weren't very close to coming to Asia, and everything's all good.
They were messing around, talking about peanuts.
Oh, I see.
What did you say?
Rainbow team.
I told him to call back and say, well...
If that's all they had to offer, we didn't want them to offer that.
Get the whole thing.
That upset him.
He said, what do you want?
He said, well, give me what we want.
Well, he told me.
Well, he said, call me tomorrow.
Call me tomorrow.
Right.
But anyway, Bill's got to go to London, and it'll be nice to meet you.
Right.
Right.
Well, we'll get the Japanese to give us everything they can, and that's that.
And that's all we can have to do.
They just try to be patient, you know.
Oh, boy.
They'll try to hang on, but they'll give in the end.
I think you will.
I really do.
And I'll be sorely disappointed if they don't.
I'll say you will, baby.
And I'll be surprised, because I really think they're going to do the best they can.
Right.
That's all I'm going to say.
Well, one other thing I want to say to you, and this may not be the plan to do it, but just as a little warning, and I'm reluctant to say this, but I don't know when something will come up.
I was sure if I were you, I'd watch Herb Stein's political advice.
Oh, I will, yeah.
I've seen them do two things the last couple of days that concern me when I'm not trying to do anything.
Tell me what they were.
Well, one, he made a speech in April yesterday, which may not have been his fault, in a fact saying, well, we're going to do control here very quickly.
Well, at a time when we're trying to keep the heat on.
That's right.
We ought to lead everybody's things as well as just, you know, next week and next month.
Right.
I agree.
Obviously, we want to keep control.
In fact, we can't if we don't want to talk about it.
Yeah.
Talking about it is the worst thing to do, but I don't think that was entirely his fault.
I think he's got a device.
But today, we had a meeting with Kevin to be, you know, economic.
And, uh, got me to go to the study and all the, uh, the, the exception, the proper deflation.
I was surprised.
It was hard to do, but it was good.
It's, uh, an opposite of slavery.
And that was, that was the way it all started out, was at a time when George Shultz and, uh, John Rumsfeld, I believe, and Pat Sandgill were pretty well established.
Yeah.
But it's, uh, it's just Georgia.
Well, basically, that's a cop-out, you know, to say, well, we're just blaming it on the labor union.
You know, even if it's true, my God, why start a study now in your cabinet committee that we obviously don't have to talk about when we go up and testify on the Hill and get into...
Oh boy.
This is not the time for all that.
That's right.
I know.
Yeah.
Yeah.
the Council of Economic Advisers off of the capitol.
It ought to be on the basis of how, uh, study how we can increase the competitiveness of American products.
And what we find is that the Council studies it all the time.
And I just, to get her a word of caution, no harm is done by either thing, and I'm not trying to
You know, part of that, John, may be Arthur Burns.
Sort of his line.
Yes, yes, it could well be.
He's trying to get off the hook on everything he does.
He made quite a decent amount of energy in that.
He thought this thing was going to blow up.
He had to be prepared.
He had to cope with labor.
He had to have alternative plans.
He didn't think it was going to work.
But he thought about it.
He said, if you want to do it, it's not going to work.
Well, I'll talk to him, but I'm not going to talk to him this week.
I'm going to let him wait a week.
What about Schultz?
Does he agree with you on this?
Oh, absolutely.
George was there.
George was shocked as I walked up to him.
I don't know if he's not Mexican, so he'll react to my language.
After I got back to my office, I called him.
I said, George, when you're about to speak, he said, I never heard of you.
I walked in, he said, cold.
I said, oh, so did I.
And I, you know, I just thought maybe you were in on it.
So I, you know, I didn't want to make you one of them.
But anyway, there's no harm done.
I don't want to make you.
yeah we're not going to we must uh move down to keep receiving harm isn't done but uh oh my yes to anticipate failure in advance and also to draw the sword in these people and to until it becomes necessary if we do i don't think
I have a feeling they're going to play, John.
Sure.
Right, right.
Well, I'll keep on top of it.
And in the meantime, I think that immediately after the State of the Union, then we ought to sit down with Stein, you and I, of course, the quadriad, basically, and we've got to lay down the law.
Don't you think so?
It probably would be, well...
That's right.
They all want to do things that will, whatever happens will prove that they were right later.
That's what it is.
That's right.
Yeah, I know.
I know.
Well, anyway... That's all I had.
I believe everything else.
Did I tell you I talked to Lee Harris?
I don't think I did.
No, no.
I talked to Lee Harris this morning, and he said that he was reflecting a greatly expanded degree of confidence in all of these demonstrations and the course of action.
Yeah, he shows some, as we would expect, some concern about the bombing and all that sort of thing.
That'll pass.
That'll pass in a couple weeks.
But the main point is, on the economic side, he feels good, doesn't he?
He does?
Good.
That's the way we've got to play it.
We mustn't be just a bunch of damn negativists.
Right.
Let me suggest that you should go along with the book.
Not to be quite as bad as you thought you were.
I can turn over your mind, but if you thought that you might add the key for those deep things that come up, boys and girls,
a year to a year and a half with the government first.
Now, that doesn't have to be the military.
Sure.
They might have to provide a service, but they have to be a 20-year, a year and a half, time of vacation is 23.
Sometimes they have to be a year and a half.
Oh sure, right.
Right.
Right, right, do that, do that.
Something like this is really captive, and I really don't think you can do that with us.
You're not forcing them to do it.
Particularly when it's not military.
That's right.
You're not forcing them into military.
They can do it in an environment.
They can do it in state government.
They can do it in local government, or they can do it in federal government.
That's right.
Federal government service.
They can do it in environmental field.
They can do it in police force.
They can do it in police force.
And, uh,
It appeals to me.
Yeah.
Do some, staff that out, will you?
Do some thinking, because we have to do this.
That's right.
And we have to, we have to slap it up in another way.
I know, we've had $20 billion since we came in.
That's right.
Right, right, right, right.
No, no, no, I'm just sitting here working anyway.
Ha, ha, ha.
Fine.
Well, thanks.
Okay.
All right.
Bye.

Also recorded on January 12, 1972

  • 646-005 4:34 PM · 1 hr 50 min — President Richard M. Nixon, George W. Romney, John D. Ehrlichman, John C. Whitaker, Manolo Sanchez, Stephen B. Bull, John N. Mitchell, Rose Mary Woods, and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:34 pm to 6:21 pm.
  • 646-006 6:21 PM · 16 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 6:21 pm and 6:23 pm.
  • 646-007 6:23 PM · 2 min — United States Secret Service agents met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 6:23 pm and 10:59 pm.
  • 018-071 7:30 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 7:30 pm and 8:09 pm.
  • 018-072 8:09 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler talked on the telephone from 8:09 pm to 8:11 pm.
  • 018-073 8:11 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 8:11 pm and 8:13 pm.
  • 018-074 8:13 PM · 27 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson talked on the telephone from 8:13 pm to 8:40 pm.
  • 018-075 8:40 PM · 16 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 8:40 pm and 9:26 pm.

All 13 conversations from January 12, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 018-076, January 12, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives (NAID 417192245). Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/018-076 (accessed November 2, 2026).