Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 42 › Conversation 042-048

Nixon phone call with Buchanan on Economic Indicators and GNP

Thursday, April 15, 1971 · 4:31 PM–4:34 PM ET · White House Telephone · 3 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Buchanan, Patrick J.Conversation042-048 on Tape 42 (tape position 00:55:02–00:58:32)StartThursday, April 15, 1971 at 4:31 PMEndThursday, April 15, 1971 at 4:34 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 042-048 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Patrick J. Buchanan coordinate the collection of favorable economic data to highlight a positive turnaround in the economy during March 1971. The President emphasizes the need to isolate March statistics—such as retail sales, housing starts, and automobile production—from the broader, more moderate first-quarter figures to demonstrate upward momentum. Buchanan is tasked with delivering these reports to the President, along with a newspaper column by James J. Kilpatrick, Jr., which Nixon’s daughter, Julie, had recommended.

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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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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· Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).
Yeah.
Yes, sir.
I suppose those figures are not in because they aren't all in yet today, I guess.
No, sir.
I've got all the material you wanted.
The GMP figure.
28 1⁄2.
Oh, I've got all that material.
I was going to bring it over to you.
How about the retail sales?
Retail sales, right.
I've got all that.
Right.
I've got a number of others that are pretty good.
Tell me about steel.
I've got the steel memo right here.
Do you want me to bring it all over to you, sir?
Yeah, just a second before we talk about steel.
Okay.
Have you checked the competitive situation?
Yes, I have.
The U.S. had about 50% of the market back in 50.
We've had about a fourth of it in 65.
Now we've got only a fifth of it.
Profit margin is 2.5% of sales, lowest figure in the entire post-war era.
I've got all this written up, sir.
I've just been sort of looking for you.
Just a minute.
Let me see if there's one other thing you might want to look for.
March.
Oh, what I'd like to be able to do is to try to sort out, I told Ehrlichman a moment ago, to sort March out of the first quarter.
Now, because, and I think it's very important, for example, to be able to say that, and you might do a little checking on this before you bring it over here,
that retail sales in March was the biggest increase in blah, blah, blah, blah.
That, for example, let me put it in another context.
Looking at the first quarter, the first quarter was the biggest stock market
sale in their history, of course, by far.
But looking at March, March was the turnaround month.
See, the first two months were sluggish.
But March, retail sales, automobiles, housing starts, whatever the hell you are, I think it's that, if we could get anything there that sorts March out,
okay and makes it look like a very strong month you see because the the quarter the quarter will look moderate right but the the month of march if you look particularly at that you see the other thing is that the the story this morning in the papers related to an index that is not really a true prediction of the future industrial production industrial production moves very slowly and
it only moves once the retail sales and everything else you know creates the demand you see and as your demand goes up then they build more plant like plant and equipment predictions this year are very heavy that's because of what they expect in the future but industrial production is relatively low because it isn't needed but inventories are down well this is all complicated stuff but i don't even want to go into too much detail
I've got a lot of them.
Like the last 10 days of March, the rate of automobiles was 9.1 million, which is even higher than the first quarter.
And for the first 11 days of April, General Motors set a new record.
We've got that in there.
We've got March in for retail sales are up over 10% over a year ago.
Personal income in March rose at an annual rate of almost 9%.
These figures are in the ones I've got right now.
That's fine.
That's probably all I need.
Now, one other thing.
Julie was telling me on the phone last night that, and I...
that Kilpatrick had a very good column that she thought I should read, something in the paper yesterday in Norfolk or something.
Have you got any, Kilpatrick?
Right, an excellent one on your speech, you mean?
I don't know.
She said something about the speech or Vietnam or something.
I didn't.
Okay, why don't you let me... She wanted me to read it, so bring it over.
I'll put that one in there also.
Are you in your office, sir?
Yeah, you can come... No, I'm in the ULB.
ULB?
Okay.
You can come over.
Okay, fine, sir.
All right.

NARA Description

On April 15, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Patrick J. Buchanan talked on the telephone from 4:31 pm to 4:34 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 042-048 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 42-48

Date: April 15, 1971
Time: 4:31 pm - 4:34 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with the Patrick J. Buchanan.

[See Conversation No. 249-18]

     Economic indicators
         -Gross National Product [GNP]
         -Retail sales

          -Steel
                -Competitive situation
                -Profit margin
          -John D. Ehrlichman
          -Stock market
          -March
                -Retail sales
                -Automobile sales
                -Housing starts
          -Industrial production
                -Demand
                -Inventories
          -March
                -Automobiles
                      -General Motors
                -Retail sales
                -Personal income

     President's conversation with Julie Nixon Eisenhower
           -James J. Kilpatrick, Jr.'s column
                 -President's speech

Also recorded on April 15, 1971

  • 249-016 4:05 PM · 17 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 4:05 pm to 4:32 pm.
  • 249-017 4:05 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 4:05 pm and 4:31 pm.
  • 249-018 4:31 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Patrick J. Buchanan met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 4:31 pm to 4:34 pm.
  • 042-049 4:34 PM · 4 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 4:34 pm and 4:35 pm.
  • 249-019 4:34 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 4:34 pm and 4:35 pm.
  • 042-050 4:35 PM · 24 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull talked on the telephone from 4:35 pm to 4:36 pm.
  • 249-020 4:35 PM · 26 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 4:35 pm to 4:36 pm.
  • 249-021 4:42 PM · 8 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Patrick J. Buchanan met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 4:42 pm to 4:52 pm.

All 71 conversations from April 15, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 042-048, April 15, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/042-048 (accessed October 3, 2026).