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Conversation 021-128

TapeTape 21StartTuesday, March 21, 1972 at 11:19 PMEndTuesday, March 21, 1972 at 11:45 PMTape start time04:28:52Tape end time04:54:26ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Colson, Charles W.Recording deviceWhite House Telephone
AI Summary

President Nixon and Charles Colson discussed a variety of political and administrative issues, including the status of Democratic-led ITT hearings and the potential resignation of George Meany from the Pay Board. The President emphasized his intent to take a firm stance against labor leaders if they chose to leave the board, prioritizing national interest over special interests. Additionally, the pair reviewed the media reception of recent White House initiatives, specifically praising the President’s aggressive rhetoric regarding inter-agency competition in drug control efforts.

ITT casePay BoardGeorge MeanyLabor relationsDrug Abuse Office and Treatment ActPublic opinion polls
AudioNARA Description

On March 21, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson talked on the telephone from 11:19 pm to 11:45 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 021-128 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 21-128

Date: March 21, 1972
Time: 11:19 pm - 11:45 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with Charles W. Colson.

     International Telephone and Telegraph [ITT] case
           -Typewriter
                -John D. Ehrlichman
           -Press
           -Congress
                -Hugh Scott briefing
                      -Policy committee Republican senators
                      -Hearings
                            -Democrats
           -Typewriter
                -Independent analysis
           -James O. Eastland
                -Jack N. Anderson [?]
                      -Press
                            -Blackout
                            -Letter
                                  -Scott
                            -Networks
                                  -Beard memorandum

     State Dinner for Nihat Erim
           -Mrs. and Mrs. Albert E. Sindlinger
                -Mrs. Sindlinger
                      -Parents
                           -Turkey
                -Pollster
                -Armenia

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 3m 21s ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

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     George Meany possible resignation from the Pay Board
         -Frank Fitzsimmons
         -Leonard Woodcock
         -Fitzsimmons’s talk to Colson
               -Meany
               -I[lworth W[Ilbur] Abel
               -Floyd E. Smith
         -Colson’s talk with George P. Shultz
         -The President’s view
               -Interest rates
         -Consumer Price Index [CPI]
         -Labor
         -Meany’s previous meeting with Shultz
         -Previous American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations [AFL-
               CIO] convention
               -Miami
         -Woodcock
         -Fitzsimmons
         -Wage Board
         -Polls
               -Herbert Stein
                     -Michigan opinion survey
                           -Sindlinger
                                -CPI

     Colson’s health

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 2m 47s ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3

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    Miami convention
        -White House investigation
             -Contributions
             -Corporations

    ITT case
         -Harold S. Geneen
              -Statement
                    -San Diego
                         -Beard memorandum

    Drug Abuse Office and Treatment Act of 1972 signing
         -Media coverage
         -Turkey
         -The President’s previous comments
              -Addicts
              -Government agencies
                    -Network coverage
                    -Public opinion
                          -Polls on drugs
                                -George C. Wallace
                                     -Florida

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 7m 31s ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4

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Transcript (AI-Generated)

This transcript was generated automatically by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite this transcript as authoritative. Consult the Finding Aid above for verified information.

Surviving well, as a matter of fact.
I think we're going to have a good week this week.
Haven't got any more on the typewriter thing.
No, Erlichman, I think, broke up the date as much as we had.
Yeah, yeah.
Things have turned a little bit, Mr. President.
The press, as you may have noticed, is...
A little more jumpy?
What did he tell them?
Until the Democrats make their case again, we're going to stop dealing with the president.
Good.
Democrats decided to call off any hearings.
They're going out for three days of hearings, yeah.
Monday, Monday and Tuesday.
All right.
From their standpoint, I think it's kind of stupid.
I think they're going out there for too long.
I know, because they have to have some reason to get the document, I know.
Did they work that out?
The Bureau is?
You know, I would certainly think, though, that the East...
I know, I know, they didn't.
I'm a bastard.
Just, it's a blackout.
For sure.
His permission, that's the most arrogant thing I ever heard of.
Right, right.
I thought you'd be interested to know that Sindlinger came, and his wife's parents were born in Turkey, so that was the best thing we could have done.
He was just tickled to death.
He's an interesting fellow.
Did you get to talk to him?
No, I couldn't, because, you know, I just had a hundred people.
I just saw him in the line.
But I mentioned the fact that he talked to you, and he was a great pollster, and I built him up.
You know what I mean?
I gave him half a minute.
But I know he was terribly pleased.
I knew his wife was from the Middle East.
I didn't know which country.
Well, that's right.
He's actually Armenian, but lived in Turkey.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Of course, I suppose that tomorrow we'll see Manny and his crowd jumping off the wage bar, huh?
Well, Fitzsimmons is not going to the meeting right now, and he will stay on the board no matter what.
In fact, he's staying in Florida.
Right.
He's defying me.
Good.
Woodcock, he thinks, well, of course, because Fitzsimmons got him.
But I think we've got to take them on if they jump ship.
The line that George had of
Well, just continue and leave a light in the window.
Bullshit.
They're not going to kick us.
I'm going to take them on for thumbing their nose at the government.
This is it for meaning.
Huh?
Well, his excuse will not be, in my opinion, will not be the...
I sent George over to see him today.
We've done our part, and boy, if he goes, believe me,
He thought he got a rip in Miami.
Wait till I take him on real hard.
I can praise Woodcock, Simmons, and them, this little group of willful men, for their special interest above the national interest.
Incidentally, I noticed an interesting thing from Stein, that the Michigan opinion survey is now beginning to get more in tune with Senlinger.
Isn't that interesting?
Yes, sir.
So maybe old Sindlinger hadn't been wrong after all.
Remember, we thought maybe he was crazy.
He's been right on in the market.
He's pulled every turn on the market.
Does he still show a high consumer base?
Yeah, he's up to, well, right now he's up to 137, 136 and a half, which is the highest he has been in years on the market.
I used to get it.
I'd never get it again.
You get it in your eyes, too?
Oh, it's horrible, horrible.
Don't bother with it.
We'll just outgrow it.
Take your 10 or 15.
What in the hell has happened to our investigation of those that contributed to the Miami Convention?
Did that come of abort like everything else I ordered?
Well, that came of abort largely because what they did in Miami was spread it so widely.
We do have your picture, but at the moment it doesn't prove it.
The biggest single attack that we have.
You know, the really good thing that that fellow, Janine, went on and said,
By God, it was a good business deal.
He's exactly right.
With three hotels, you know, there are not many hotels in the same area.
Three hotels, this makes it for them.
Yeah.
I thought our drug thing got more play than I realized it would.
It was beautiful, of course, because yesterday broke the day.
Today they probably gave a little too much.
They did.
They played it again tonight.
Well, I mean, that's in Turkey, which is a big industry.
They play both days together.
I think it's a good thing.
You're kind of saying it's a good thing.
It's a good thing.
Did they get that?
I put, you know, they prepared some comments for me, but it was so damn bland, you know, about compassion for the addicts, or about puke.
And I said, oh no.
So I just said, I said, your job is to knock the heads together of the 13 agencies.
And I said, all of it is competing between agencies as a credit.
An empire building is going to stop, and either you knock the heads together, and if they aren't knocked together, heads are going to roll.
Did that get over in television?
Yes, it did.
Don't you think that's a good line?
It's a marvelous line.
My man, he had this thing, and he came back, and he said it's real.
He said, my God, he said that was the real punchline.
And they carried it, and that was the one I watched.
And I heard that it was an old version, although I didn't know.
Well, I think you make that point right there.
Ja.
Mr. President, Mr. Butterfield?
Ja.
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