Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 43 › Conversation 043-200

Nixon phone call with Safire on Labor relations and George Meany

Monday, February 26, 1973 · 6:03 PM–6:07 PM ET · White House Telephone · 4 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Safire, William L.; Nixon, Richard M. (President); Safire, William L.Conversation043-200 on Tape 43StartMonday, February 26, 1973 at 6:03 PMEndMonday, February 26, 1973 at 6:07 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 043-200 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and William Safire discussed strategies to manage labor relations following recent economic discussions involving George Shultz and union leader George Meany. They agreed to avoid escalating tensions and to adopt a positive public posture regarding wage guidelines. Additionally, they reviewed the bureaucratic friction between the National Security Council and budget officials concerning the funding of economic aid to Hanoi. The conversation concluded with plans for the President’s upcoming press conference, which Nixon viewed as a routine necessity for addressing current news cycles.

Audio

Download MP3 · 5.2 MB

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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).
Yeah.
Come on, Mr. President.
Hi, Bill.
One thing I think we probably need here, and maybe you're working on it, is the thought that may come from Schultz's, you know, and Bill Mopp's meeting today.
Exactly.
I've just been on the phone with Schultz.
And this fellow, Meany's rejoinder.
We don't want to escalate this into a hell of a fight or anything like that, not at this point.
Mm-hmm.
So would you give it some thought?
I mean, I don't, and...
Well, I just spoke with George about it, and he completely agrees with you that he doesn't want to escalate.
He wants to accentuate the positive.
And he's dictated a suggested Q&A, which I'll shoot into you in a few minutes.
Why don't you work it over?
Yes, that's what I plan to do.
Yeah, right, right.
And then he'll also send in tonight a kind of an assessment of the situation memo, so you'll know the substantive stuff going on in the background.
I'll get you that, the straight, understandable answer.
There's no, it's just basically get me, I'm not so interested in an answer, but as to something I can say positively that will be helpful in the thing, you know.
He's already answered, and so we'll have to, we'd like to make a point on it if we can.
But the strategy is not to allow a wedge to be driven between you and Labor.
think so absolutely uh uh and frankly as i read all the stuff that uh you know media's quoted as saying um that's uh you know uh talking to his boys isn't he and uh you know he opposes guidelines on principle but if one one were necessary now he says eight percent make more sense at five
Still, he signed the agreement that says, you know, responsible wage behavior will be like last year.
Right.
And, you know, one of those guys put their names down.
Yeah, and they've been very cooperative, and we expect to be in the future.
We'll work with them.
There will be flexibility, of course, and so forth and so on.
Fine.
Fine.
Okay.
Okay, I'll get that to you in a minute.
No, no hurry on it.
No hurry, because I've got the rest of the stuff to digest.
I got you.
And there's one other item, and that is A to Hanoi.
and the budget people are fighting the nsc people on you know where it comes out of uh and they should have an answer tonight the basic idea is that they'll take the money out of the uh foreign assistance and defense uh budget of course and uh there's all kinds of uh scratching on how they're going to do that well that's uh they don't need to do precise because uh
We're going to say and then do what's necessary.
What the hell.
So don't let them, well, that's right, let them go through the exercise.
That will do no harm.
That will do no harm.
All right.
And this is all, the rest of it's in fine shape.
It's a strange one, though.
You know, usually you can say this is the way the conference is going to go in 90 times out of 91.
You're right.
But on this one, it could go.
We're just, frankly, this one, we're just having it for the sake of having it, frankly.
I mean, there isn't any need.
in terms of the news and everything.
I mean, they're getting all, Jesus Christ, I mean, there's news, news, news, you know, and answers.
And so we'll just put the bullet in.
I think they need to sort of ask the questions and get the answers, and we'll get to them.
I think there will be a lot of attention paid to your mode, you know, the contrast, if you want to set it between the last one and this one.
Well, we'll make sure to confirm.
Okay.
Good luck.
Right there.

NARA Description

On February 26, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon and William L. Safire talked on the telephone from 6:03 pm to 6:07 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 043-200 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 43-200

Date: February 26, 1973
Time: 6:03 pm - 6:07 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with William L. Safire.

[See Conversation No. 413-33A]
                                            -115-

                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

       Economic and budget issues
            -Briefing paper
            -George P. Shultz, John T. Dunlop, George Meany
            -Shultz’s view
            -The President’s possible responses
                  -Safire’s view
                  -Labor
                        -Meany’s view
                               -Wage controls
            -Economic aid to Hanoi
                  -Source of budgetary expenditure
                        -National Security Council [NSC]

       The President’s press conference
            -The President’s view

Also recorded on February 26, 1973

  • 043-197 5:21 PM · 50 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 5:21 pm.
  • 413-029 5:21 PM · 15 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 5:21 pm.
  • 413-031 5:22 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 5:22 pm and 5:36 pm.
  • 043-198 5:36 PM · 21 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Thelma C. ("Pat") (Ryan) Nixon talked on the telephone at 5:36 pm.
  • 043-199 5:36 PM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 5:36 pm and 6:03 pm.
  • 413-032 5:36 PM · 23 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Thelma C. ("Pat") (Ryan) Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 5:36 pm to 5:37 pm.
  • 413-033 5:40 PM · 1 hr 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, William L. Safire, Henry A. Kissinger, and Stephen B. Bull met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 5:40 pm to 7:15 pm.
  • 043-201 6:07 PM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 6:07 pm and 7:47 pm.

All 20 conversations from February 26, 1973 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 043-200, February 26, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/043-200 (accessed October 2, 2026).