Conversation 051-012

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 Do not cite this transcript as authoritative.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.

I just want to say that I appreciate the opportunity to have you all here, and also to have the experience that you sent down, and I don't know, I'm not familiar with the general things, but there's nothing like having a sense of reckoning, so I just want to say thank you.

Do you want to take any questions you want to ask?

Do you have any questions?

I'm working with the Chairman of the Congress of Black Lives, Congressman Charles D. Smith, in connection with the desire of Congressman D. Smith

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. President.

On May 9th, it's actually the formal copy of our state numbers on the treasury, the signs on each old box.

This is the address.

And I also want to say this to the President and all the other people.

His self-disbelief is a very, very deep condition in large numbers of citizens.

Those being subjected to intense hardship and denial of basic rights and suffering for such a long time as a result of certain current policies.

And although we call ourselves

In this light we use the Latin expression to mean mutually regarded.

I was in confrontation with some other presidents, black congressmen, not to the confrontation between a Republican state and a presidential college, between the executive branch and the legislative branch.

Our attitude is that this is a moment of opportunity for us to personally and candidly debate on deep understanding, intimate knowledge, about the legitimate grievance of this barred section of the American States in the United States of America, and the basic rights of the people who live around it.

It should indicate that even though it's disgusting to me,

substantial majority, but which all of us are elected to.

We are a predominantly black population, but our constituency is also pretty white.

We have all nationality backgrounds, Indian, Spanish, American, citizens of Asia, and steps here.

Located in our border areas are suburbanites and inner-city dwellers and families and individuals as well.

There's a collection of four main places as well.

The gentleman in front of the telephone is the Colossal that represents this area.

So from this picture, it should be easily understood why our concerns and allegations

As members of Congress do not stop at the boundaries of our districts, our attention also must be national and international in scope as well.

We think also it is a singular significance that the leaders of national and local civil rights and human rights organizations and hundreds of private citizens from all walks of life

that ask us to express their general and specific concerns, and they share our hope that this is not a pro-form, a one-time, a constant change.

In the light of a stable behavior, this must be only the beginning

are continuing to change, and permanently changing through persistent and far-reaching action.

The harsh conditions under which also the poor life of our U.S. Americans are forced to live.

So we recommend that at the end of this meeting, we agree on some measures before we go and continue to interrupt the meeting.

of this Congress?

Was it the black, poor, oppressed era?

And in fact, was it the inequality of this country that the government must have, through its way, the attainment of certain accomplishments?

We cite these categorically as communication policies, dealing with nations which reflect racial overtimes,

We want to make a decent living for all employable persons or agencies.

We want to provide dignity to those who are not available.

Decent housing for our families, equal access to the total housing, fair and impartial justice, adequate protection against drug abuse and crime, enforcement of civil rights and other constitutional guarantees.

through a vigorous affirmative action, a fair distribution of public funds to support business and community development, and democratically representative participation in determining how tax dollars will fit in our schools.

Of course, the guarantee of ample health care for all citizens of the federal government.

structural bias to federal standards and guarantees and programs financed by federal funds, and anticipation at all levels by members of our communities in the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of our government.

And finally, Mr. President, these current needs have a significant value.

On the distance map of the platform you are getting over, already fall on the middle track.

And it is our demand, this is our, the United States military forces are relating something to the forces that are being withdrawn properly from all regions of that area.

We are not here, Mr. President, primarily to cite what might be considered disappointments from the past.

We're here to try to present the first of a series of constructive proposals for the need of our communities for making

America in the 70s was a whole and a healthy nation.

We were fully aware of the power of the presidency and the progressive change.

Every sector of our society tends to look to the White House for change, the direction that our national society is taking.

When those views seem negative or contradictory or half-hearted to the public, that takes them to the evidence of disinterest or disagreement on the part of the public policy makers.

The equality of all Americans is to be a reality as we must have it in order for the world to express its convictions one way or the other.

Every official in each federal department in Washington, in the regional offices of the states, and other governors, and other county officials, and local school boards must understand clearly the direction in which any administration is headed.

So the recommendations which follow, or purpose in our study, which is based on opinions volunteered by organizations and individuals involved in the country,

We do not claim that these recommendations represent a comprehensive agenda of needs for legal actions.

We do believe that they represent more than

narrowing a good beginning.

In the days, weeks, and months that lie ahead, we hope to remain in touch with you in terms of your administration on this.

In discussing these recommendations, we believe that you will be focused

on accreditation that can be taken immediately as well as on legislative programs that can be used to assess these trends upon the nature and the intensities of the support they receive from our partners.

We're going to back them up, Mr. President.

We're going to deal with the California State Department offices.

The vice-chairman for our office, Mr. President, will verbalize this.

Thank you.

Mr. President, I'm supposed to cover three topics, manpower and one, rights and equality.

The caucus has strongly considered these three topics and returned the biggest recommendations.

Within the framework of the Comprehensive Manpower Planning Program, we're very disillustrated to provide

permanent job creation program.

And in particular, they just included a federal job creation program in the public service fields, which would provide a minimum of 500,000 reported jobs during the next six months of operations, and 600,000 during the second six months.

Specifically, we also directed

The tension we've had is that the teenage unemployment that's on the road is a very critical problem in the communities we represent.

The black teenage unemployment today is in excess of 40%.

It's very urgent.

It means it's doubling.

the number of such jobs that will be made available on a basis of a continuing opportunity.

We hope that these jobs will not be essentially a means of cooling things off for a few months, but that they will be part of a long-range manpower program.

I take on the question of the jobs that we are discussing, that it should be made very clear that we reject the concept of transitional jobs

with low quality, period of time, and without built into them self-improvement and supportive services such as education, child care, transportation, or health.

On the question of poverty, we urge the administration to abandon any plan now or two years hence which would weaken

programs that are now operating, many of them we've released very successfully, under the autism of opportunity.

We do not approve of the idea of fragmenting these programs and selecting them in ten or more different agencies and departments under a broader planned government reorganization.

The Office of Economic Opportunity was originally conceived in 1964 as a coordinating agency.

The Executive Office, one which was very close to the President, the one which would speak to the poor.

In regards to their total needs, we believe that this agency should continue to target in these total efforts the needs of poor people

involved him in planning operations and in decisions.

He believed that his need now was even greater than last year.

Indeed, it again raises the recent reports who believe that poverty has increased rather dramatically in the past year, secondly in the areas which we represent.

These briefly are the three topics that I was supposed to cover.

I think that a concise one gives the opinions of our colleagues.

I now present to you, gentlemen, your assistant.

Mr. President, my special area is centered around the problems of the black veterans in this country.

The accumulation of voluminous complaints on the part of these veterans in the military, both abroad and at home, now intensifies, I believe at this point, the establishment of a

Civil Rights Division and the Department of Defense to make sure that black soldiers do get equitable justice both in the military, abroad, and at home.

The co-question about is that many of us have been receiving

So many complained and they said, any case indicates that this is a problem that cannot be smacked onto the road.

You must be very concerned about what is really going to happen to these people and protect them to their land and in front of them.

This is a question of justice.

Some have not been affected.

Secondly, I feel that it's very important that in some way the Department of Justice and State Department and the Defense Department have some kind of coordinated effort in handling the complaints of the black folks, of all my darlings, of Mr. President.

I cannot express to you my deep concern about this because of the fact that being a member of the

Veterans Affairs Committee in the United States House of Representatives, I am constantly in contact with this current problem which is escalated day by day and those are the two points that I wanted to address myself to communicate with you.

Thank you.

I'm just going to ask one question.

You presented that to the department in terms of Johnson's recommendation.

We don't have anybody on the fence here.

I should have had somebody on the fence here.

I'll take that.

And also, I know you've got a recommendation to stay here, and I'll take those myself.

I didn't have time to get to that.

I have all, most of my domestic people here, but I'll take the defense against myself and the state of Franklin.

And God, you can follow through on those two, because they're well-known.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. President, on the last point that we met with Mr. Laird some eight or nine months ago,

We're in the process of working on it.

We had one meeting for about 15 times on this subject because it includes more than just the black members of Congress.

Many other members have camps and bases that are highly volatile.

John, can I ask, was Assistant Secretary Roger Kelly in that session?

I can't remember if it was like working backwards on that.

If you would permit, Mr. Chairman, the recommendations that we spelled out in terms of our objections to LEAA, to the lack of black judiciary appointments, particularly in the south.

crime bill, the crime control bill, the no-knock and the preventive detention features that we deplore, I don't think I need to elaborate on the implementation of the Civil Rights Commission reports and problems particularly in Mississippi.

I'd like to let Leonard Witten speak for himself, and if I could use

My minute and a half or whatever's left to just make a couple of points that seem to me very necessary to be said here.

First of all, our document is not meant to be comprehensive.

It is not a laundry list.

There are many other things that could have been added.

I want to re-emphasize the point that the chairman has made, that for this meeting to have any success whatsoever, it is positive upon us.

The notion that we would re-meet is impossible, and 60 minutes giving 30 minutes to the president and 30 minutes to 13 members of Congress, that we could do anything but

It's more the basis for beginning to work together in some kind of real depth on these questions.

So all I can say to you is that there is an atmosphere of oppression and racism in this country that it seems to me with all respect is not deeply felt enough by the administration and the White House.

And it seems that it's our responsibility

to try to bring to you as clearly and as accurately as we can our impressions on this very important subject.

And the question of our foreign relations

We mentioned South Africa, specifically with Mozambique and those related areas which are, there's a great struggle for freedom going on in Africa.

Worth mentioning, it isn't because we're not interested in bringing those countries in which there's fighting going on between Portugal and France.

There's the Xenia situation in which Portugal's invasion has changed.

was prevented from the kind of censorship the U.S. should have done because the United States, which as we told you, is a very serious and critical matter with three of us, four of us, just having returned from Africa in the last 30 days.

Now, Mr. President, many have suggested to me and I've been in continual arguments with people who have said to us we shouldn't even be at this meeting.

I think we'd be less than candid not to present an alternate point of view.

Many in the black community view this as a kind of a meeting in which we're kind of gas rhetoric between each other, and that we're some one or both groups are going for the political mileage, and we would best

have served our true and genuine interests of the black community and the nation by declining the meeting I've had on three occasions to publicly have to argue in defense of us meeting after a year's attempt.

And so I want to say that our credibility is on the line in this meeting as well as everyone else here in this room.

Now the question, some immediate questions of the system of justice in this country is deplorable.

Jesse Jackson said to me the last thing when he called me, tell the president about blacks in jail.

He doesn't mean just the black people that have gotten put in jail through miscarriages of justice, but the entire legal system.

from the way it starts in the courts, to the prosecutors, to the police, to the penal system.

It's really one complex in our society that all of us have to begin to look to in a very real way.

Finally, I got a call from Richard Hatcher, the mayor of Cary, going out of the office today about the terrible pressure that they're under.

And it's not bipartisan.

It's not a Republican versus Democrat system in which they are being systematically prevented from registering black voters in the number of ways that you documented in the past that the Justice Department involved themselves in it prior to the election.

There are ways, of course, we know that that can be done.

And finally, the last item was the question of

that to me sums up the dilemma that black people in this country are up against.

Because a fellow that decided a black man in Detroit, Richard Henry, our brother Henry, formerly Richard Henry, lived in my district, worked for the federal government,

who is now the head of the Republic of New Africa, who moved to Mississippi to set up a community that had the intention of removing itself from the American scene.

Jess called in twice in my office today, and then another girl from Mississippi called in.

about the fact that the Mississippi State Police, 30 miles offside of Jackson, Mississippi, are preventing them from having a two-day celebration in which they promote the land that they bought for Mississippi and the activity going on in their community.

And that the police, there's violence going on there now.

They're calling us desperately for help.

And it seems to me, Mr. President, to symbolize the dilemma of black people in America.

They can't agree, they can't separate.

They're caught in a tremendous vice in which they're trying in their own ways to do whatever they think is rational.

And we've got these kind of pressures here, a group that's going out there with the intention of having nothing more to do with us.

And on the other hand, frustrated black youth that are telling us, don't meet.

There isn't any point in meeting.

And so we have pressures coming at us in a variety of directions that we hope this meeting will be the first of a series

of coming together where we can sincerely lay aside partisan considerations and deal with the problems that have been put to you on this agenda.

Thank you.

Mr. President, I'm glad that your representative from the State Department is not here so that perhaps you can get the full impact of the concerns of what at one time was considered to be a conspiracy of genocide.

Since the explosion of the drug addict population has now overflown to the white majority,

It's no question that we can no longer deal with problems of crime, injustice, military, health, education, job opportunity, or job training, unless we concern ourselves with what is happening with the inflow of drugs into the United States.

I'm a former Assistant United States Attorney at nine committees in the House of Representatives that are concerning themselves with the brothel drug addiction.

And one of them is the Select Committee of Crime, which I serve as a member.

And all the intendants point to the fact that 80% of the drugs that can be identified as coming into the United States

of being grown in Turkey and processed in southern France.

And yet, those of us who recognize the history of this country see your representatives going there and dealing with the mayors of these small towns.

And yet, hundreds of thousands of people, black and white, brown and yellow, are dying because they don't have the opportunity to fully enjoy the American dream and attempt to take the drug as a method of escaping from the problems that we have to face.

It is our general opinion, and I haven't heard anything to the contrary, that Hickman was a strong commitment

where this thinking was convenient to use as economic strength and secondly as military strength in the past, that we could bring a halt to this condition which is killing off American youth and many of our adults.

And what has happened in the thinking of so many people is that in an attempt for America to resolve the problem, our scientists have gone to the methadone program.

And this methadone program has, in my district, Central Harlem, and certainly in other inner cities, have created now a new type of addict, a methadone addict.

Methadone is being sold by addicts who have some unique feeling that they're not on hardcore drug.

And it seems to me that more and more white America is saying, let's legalize the drug because we can't deal with the problem.

Mr. President, our people have fought on the cotton fields and on the tattered fields.

We think that this problem is important enough as a health problem, as a national security problem, to be dealt with in international crises and not one that just powerless people are up against.

And in that connection, I'll be only too happy to find out the names of your persons that are working toward a solution of this problem so that I can turn over all of the evidence that has been collected by the various committees and even your Department of Justice.

to substantiate that a crime is being committed against this country and serving against the largest segment of this country that can't fight back.

And while we don't put confidence in the rumors of genocide, I think your statistics records might indicate that when you go to your jails, when you go to your courts, you'll find that 70 to 80 percent of the defendants are in charge of violating state and federal law.

in the sense of possession and sale of hard drugs, of black and non-white.

And I think you acknowledge that 70 to 80 percent, which can be substantiated, and I say this as a former prosecutor, and I think you will agree with me that black and Puerto Ricans are not the ones that import drugs into the United States.

They are the ones that the overwhelming majority of addicts themselves are pushing in order to further their addiction.

So, it is our plea, and we sincerely believe that within the State Department, within the power of your office, that there's no need for the multi-amount of bills that are in the legislature now that you do have the power, and we just implore your good graces to use it as you would if it was an actual crisis, and I think it's reaching that.

You know we've been working on it.

We have

I hope so, Mr. President.

I can't hear you back.

I don't know if it gets back or not.

It doesn't make enough money for it.

It was our students I wanted to work with.

But we've had no problem with our southern farmers in the area of subsidy.

And I don't think this nation has a problem exercising powers with nations that are unfriendly to us.

And I think that this is the height of unfriendliness when they allow this thing to happen.

So I just don't believe that the Secretary of State should have to sit down with the mayor who wants to say, I have too much confidence in my country.

Mr. President, as you should well know, I believe that it is more impactful in the area of housing as far as black folks are concerned than in any other area.

Every man around this table

one of the very good citizens in my district and in their district, and he's what is called a black tax, a black tax in housing.

That's the extra margin of profit that goes to people in real estate when they sell or rent the blocks.

And I think those who espouse this point of view are racism in housing.

are emboldened and encouraged when we hear statements coming from the administration.

Statements that are ambiguous on occasion or statements relating to fear by forced integration.

I think those statements are often interpreted to me

that it's right, just, and proper to go right ahead and close any black taxes in real estate when black people will seek to rent or seek to buy.

So in the area of housing, we have a whole host of recommendations.

I call yours specific attention to the beauty.

Not because they are more impactful than the others, but because immediate action by me can be something to reduce the problems associated with these two recommendation areas.

The first is, we call for the immediate release of all this supplemental fiscal year 1971 funds of $150 million for housing for public housing.

As you well know, this money was appropriated and it's been embargoed and these funds have frozen and been presumed by your office.

And in light of the situation that lets black folks be exploited at every level in the field of housing, it's only fair and decent and honorable to release these funds so that we can go into the area of public housing.

Second recommendation is the implementation of the Immigrant Relocation Act to ensure that an adequate stock of low and moderate income housing for displaced persons has been available.

You're offered by immediate action to move in this area.

All too often the problem is men and black folks are moved.

There is no place for them to go because of the racism that's extant in this country.

The know-how for them to move into this result is that they're forced into other black areas of density increases and we find instant slums being created because of what was presumed to be desirable efforts initially.

Those two, Mr. President, with one question that I would like to put to you and I would hope that you would respond to it later on at some of this juncture.

We understand your request for a legal opinion on the authority of the federal government to intervene in situations where subverting or other jurisdictions receives permitting of low and moderate income housing.

We have this situation in Maryland and in multiple counties around the city of Baltimore.

Before we leave, if you would please share with us and with the public the legal opinion you've received on this particular matter.

I think it would be very helpful to us.

Mr. President, this document which we've given to you this afternoon, we treat one section as being federally used to state and local government.

In this particular section, we urge you, Mr. President, to have a much broader concept of revenue sharing other than

revenue-sharing bill being proposed by you.

As Congressman, many of us during the past session in Congress have sponsored and supported and voted for bills in the area of additional aid to education, housing, urban renewal, sewage facilities, health and education.

Past bills, which of course you sought them to be during the past term.

We're not here to rehash past instances, but there's a myriad of problems which confront large urban areas, which we represent.

We're unable to think in terms only of revenue charity as being operational expenses, money for operational expenses to be given to these large cities.

We'd like to use, for instance, Mr. President, the fact that there's something that you can do today, that in our total concept of revenue sharing, general revenue sharing, something that could be done by executive order today.

That's the release of the $800 million that's now been frozen in already appropriated funds.

This includes some $200 million for mass transit, $200 million for water and sewer grants, $200 million for urban renewal.

In addition to this, we think that the revenue sharing also takes in the concept of treating the present unemployment situation in this country.

We strongly urge you

emergency public service employment bill.

If I were to just cite to you two of the large urban communities which represent this table this afternoon, say Detroit has just recently had to lay off 600 employees and now has 2,600 vacancies in their city hall.

Cleveland, the mayor there has had to lay off 1,500 employees within the last three months.

And additionally, Mr. President, oftentimes when you refer to the unemployment situation in America today, you make reference to the national average of 60%.

We would call your attention to the fact that the Department of Labor Statistics from 1970 showed that in large urban poverty areas, the young black man ages 16 to 19, that average nationally was 35%.

The last quarter of 1970, it was 42.2%.

These are figures that we have to deal with, regardless of the average of 60%.

We urge you in this section on the question of welfare, nationalization, and reform.

We say to you that we do not see welfare nationalization, welfare reform as being a substitute or an alternate for a relative sharing deal.

We see these as being necessary in addition to some form of financial aid to citizens.

We propose to you a change in the formula which you have in your bill.

You deal, of course, with 1.3% of the taxable personal income.

We take the figure 1.5%, which is 0.2% above your figure, taking the general revenue sharing presidency.

We recommend that you take 1% of this taxable personal income and let it be distributed to all welfare dispersing units on a basis reflecting the proportion of national welfare costs paid by that unit.

I think then we're treating the needs of our large urban centers where they have a large welfare cost.

Then we take the 0.5% of the taxable personal income

and have it distributed to all local humans who did not share in the above distribution.

with reference to a cut-off figure of some 50,000.

Cities with a population of under 50,000 would not participate.

We do this because under the population formula which you used in your bill, let us cite four examples here.

We see many areas of the country where they don't have the need or the problems that we're in front of them, benefit from

from the kind of a formula which you have.

I take Rose Point Woods, Michigan.

Under your formula, they receive $129,000.

Under our formula, such a community would not receive any benefits.

Palm Beach, Florida receives $333,000.

Wellesley, Massachusetts receives $439,000.

Beverly Hills, California receives $811,000, almost a million dollars.

We think that under the formula which we have and the computation we've made, if I had to cite just four cities, it would benefit much Korea from the utilization of the formula which we have.

Baltimore would go from $14 million to $30 million.

Chicago from $47 to $113 million.

Los Angeles from $34 million under your formula to $94 million under ours.

St. Louis from $15 million under your formula to $20 million under ours.

The last point we make in the section document is that you have already taken recognition of the fact that Title VI is going to be applied to these funds that go into the states and cities without any strings attached.

But we feel, additionally, that since Title VI is, in essence, a declaration of national policy, does not many times get to the pragmatic situation of discriminatory action in many localities around the country.

And Title VII, which also has NFP or employment opportunity provisions, ought to be made applicable to any such financial assistance given to cities or states.

I have one question.

What is the position of the caucus opposed to this program?

I suppose it's a mixture of what I've heard.

That's going to change the rest of the business.

Well, if you're going to be covering somebody else's line, I can go to welfare, and the balance is welfare.

They don't want to go to the other side.

Yes, sir.

I couldn't.

I know you mentioned the national switchboard.

I didn't go into the other side.

I know someone in Alberta had something else.

I understand.

Yes, sir.

You're correct.

Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, could you make it clear that the caucus position paper is a general compendium of these victory recommendations?

I understand on many of these issues, you're not going to all come up with these things.

They might come back to this.

I don't think they're going to.

So I don't like this provision.

I don't like this provision.

I understand.

I mean, but I just wanted to, before we got through to see what it was, I just kind of don't feel it completely one way or another.

Because that's something we're going to be finding a bullet on within another couple of months.

More so than we presently hope.

Is that right?

So HR1?

Yes, sir.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Mr. President.

In the document, we will do some rather specific recommendations with respect to foreign policy in the Congress of the Chinese.

You're a foreign affairs attorney?

Yes, sir.

Congressman Connors mentioned a few others that we haven't included in the report.

But I'd like to come to the critical issue that I'm sure you're just as much aware of as we are.

And that is the question of America's involvement in China.

The point that I'd like to make here is that blacks in America are extremely concerned about America's involvement in Indochina.

But we have submitted the same reasons that other Americans are concerned about Indochina people who wish to have peace in Indochina, who wish to have peace in the world.

We're concerned about our involvement in Indochina as blacks, certainly because the war is being waged.

on the basis of what should be on the backs of blacks, other racial minorities, poor and working class blacks.

These blacks believe that our government in China is an extraordinary human and economic dream, perhaps one of the greatest in the world of China.

And the third is

We consider it at this point a major tragedy that a great deal of our funds are being directed into.

Guilt, risks, wars, death and destruction.

While the private concerns of 25 million blacks, millions of other racial minorities, and millions of other poor and destitute people were screaming for help in the country, that's when you need programs that are, at this point, 100 funded or not even addressed as yet.

And the same is black that we want, we swear we will try to end the war in China.

Black very much had this country to succeed actively on the course of peace.

In fact, this country moved away from the extraordinary amount of revenue going into war and militarism, and turned those funds, redirected those funds into desperately needed programs that affect the lives of substantial numbers of human beings, and still affects the black community in a very dramatic way, trying to deal with problems.

15 million hungry Americans, 50 million impoverished Americans, millions of unemployed Americans.

And we've been preoccupied for a long time with staying technologically with other major powers.

We, in fact, have dropped behind educationally in many, many other areas of the country.

is concerned about being competitive with respect to human questions, human rights, human resources, and dealing with critical property.

The awarding of times and villages is very, very key to that, because as long as we continue to spend extraordinary amounts of revenue on war and death,

And people in this country, blacks in this country, are certainly going to continue to be in these situations of pain and sorrow that often affect American things.

So we're asking you as the Chief Executive Officer of the country, a set of times, we're saying here in this document,

Some of us would like to see the media withdraw.

Some, a little more graphic, withdraw this year.

We'll make a statement as a joint group that we'd like to see an end to the war, hopefully by the end of this year, certainly by the end of the 92nd Congress.

We'd like to see us start to use millions of dollars that new programs, militarism, to start dealing with critical and vital domestic programs.

Let me say that, in fact, I should say a word on this subject, because at least once in this event, all of what I've heard today has actually been over.

but I think it is important to note, I know this is the outset of my conversation, but this is a Republican question.

There are all kinds of things in Congress.

The problem of war, peace, whatever, it's not never going to be nothing.

We all know that.

We're all confused as to how we get it and how we can best preserve it.

I need to point out that I'm being an all-partisan, but as the Republican Vice President, I went to Washington on the 16th of January.

There was no Americans in Vietnam in combat.

And no Americans were killed in Vietnam.

None.

When I came back as President, eight years later, there were 550,000 Americans in Vietnam.

30,000 were killed.

We were spending approximately $26 billion a year.

There was no plan whatever, after eight years of democratic administration, no plan whatever to reduce the number.

As a matter of fact, quite quickly, Senator Montgomery, last year, said that there would be no withdrawal until the beginning of the withdrawal, which was dropped sometime in the year 1969 or early 1970.

I did not say that clearly.

My predecessors in office, they, I know, are certain that it's too old.

It's a hard thing because it does sign a letter to somebody whose child is killed or is next to a chemist.

But I think you should know that while we haven't gone as fast as some of you would want to make some corrections, the amount of money has been cut in half.

The number of men has been cut in half.

The number of cash increases is five times as great per month as we came in, as it is now.

And in April, I will be making another announcement, which will, I think, be no different than perhaps your typical approval by all of you British.

I can simply say this, I know what's happening.

Everything that I have done,

The program to train the South Vietnamese, the operation in Canberra, and one objective, not to expand the war, not to prolong, not to increase American captains, but to reduce our captains to make it possible for us to withdraw.

Pray the Lord for that.

Concentrate the great energies, the money, and the lives of these people for peace and purposes.

I know Congressman Ruffin spoke very eloquently on this in your campaign.

I know everybody else who does that.

I want you to know we all feel the same way.

But I assure you, we're going to meet the goal.

And we hope you still listen to your campaign.

I would say, while we may not have done as well as we thought, we've made some progress.

It's a lot better to have half as many that are spending half as much.

And we're just as close as we can.

We're doing better.

I told you that.

Mr. Chairman, I have one question for the mayor.

If we were to turn it over into his time, I didn't want to interrupt you.

in reference to the African section of the foreign policy statement about Africa that we had some time back today.

Can I get my statement about Africa, Mr. President?

We feel very strongly that after this turn, more assistance is needed from the United States.

The same kind of assistance is meant to be enjoyed by every other person in the world who is able to do it.

Follow World War II with me.

The city is a massive aid to the market plan, and it will be built in the 60s.

In the 60s, the lines of progress received and funded for the benefit of Latin America and the Middle East, and continues to receive a significant significant amount of resources in the U.S. from the people, and it's now at its turn.

There is a name for this solar establishment which, knowing the old person, he experienced.

We decided to emphasize this as we go back.

I read your section on this because I didn't hear of the concern, but she added to the precedent leading out to the Portuguese.

I find in my conversation with the African leaders in the state yesterday, they preferred to have U.S. on the other hand, the European leaders and other involved countries have been playing their role.

Do they think it's a good view of having countries that haven't farmed in all the other races that now, as they're participating in the evening, are good heads, I guess?

No, I don't think so.

I think one of the things that I admire is the variety.

I don't really care where the money still comes from.

And without, without, without, without, without, without, without, without, without, without, without,

I know you're on there.

We've got a session going on.

Go ahead.

It's about an hour.

Mr. President, if you have some players here, put them all in.

Yes, Mr. President.

Do what you can.

Mr. President.

There are two members of the committee .

The Wells version is covered in gold.

It's covered already.

It's out in the book.

I mean, I just don't understand.

The recommendation is on it.

It goes to your attention.

I don't understand.

Well, let me go ahead.

Well, perhaps at this point, Mr. President, I want to make some general comments, and then we can follow up your comments.

Well, first, let me say that I would commend all of the other

I agree, I understand it's not a law in the U.S. and it's not necessarily in the census.

And that lets us express the sense that we have, that we should have to do a sacrifice as any of you who have taken a class at all have.

I mean, any of you in the administration, I will note, since it covers a great number of beings, it requires

In order to get responses, it requires action from various fields.

For example, Secretary Brown is here, but we've got State of Defense that are not represented by OC.

Those particular sections of legal State of Defense are there.

We do not have judiciary representatives here.

We do not, but I will count on you as a lawyer.

I'm sorry, I got you.

Mr. President, I'd be pleased to make that my responsibility.

Congressman Connors and I have had many years of your own association together.

I have some ideas on what to do with this.

And then, of course, Mr. President.

So I will say that these people here that I have, of course, George Schultz, I have a number, I have to do with money.

He's the man that has the money.

representing specific departments have asked, one, to attend, and two, having heard the oral presentations, now to follow up on each of the specific areas.

You all are aware of the fact that there are places that we can

and make some progress and other things.

There are others where it may not be possible to

That's all there is to the problems that we've had.

The main point I want to get across to our members is that, somebody said at the outset, that we should not have a more confident democracy.

And that is my vision of that.

On the other hand, I also appreciate that Canada, which I spoke to,

I want you to know that if you want your concerns to be expressed,

I would like to see my personal reaction to the recommendations that come up from each of the cabinet people.

I'd like to ask a couple of them to say a word if they would like, because the Department has suggested that we target

But I would like to say that before we go to that point, as members of the Congress are interested in, and I think Charlie suggested this at the outset, is how do you follow through?

Now, there's two ways.

One, if we have here the people and they follow through and then they make a decision.

In terms of our congressional relationships, we've got the Raiders office.

You also want to come to the White House, because the White House, of course, has to know what we have here.

Bob Hinch now runs the White House.

I do want you to know that he is that good.

I, I will be very happy to be in Clark with you and with Charlie, you see, as, as a, as a, as a, as a, as a, as a, as a, as a, as a, as a, as a, as a, as a, as a, as a,

that we were able to make some releases.

You can't always go into that instance.

And George Schultz, having heard some of these concerns expressed here, where we have a situation where our funds are appropriated, our spending levels are placed, and where we have funds tied up, that's what you're talking about here.

You need to know where you go, who you talk to.

We go to the streets sometimes, but the streets, there isn't any purpose in responding to that.

So if I could take a moment, could I ask George, would you like to say a word in a personal way as to how your office would like you to work on appropriating these matters with the students that you've got?

Well, let me say, first of all, he's a nerd man in life.

He knows state government.

He knows federal government.

And he's a budgeteer.

He has to be a budgeteer.

He's a man also who knows these problems.

He comes from the San Francisco area.

Knows the problems of the city.

He's concerned about the problems of the city.

George Schultz, of course, is the overall head of the office.

But he's half the man that he was.

Over 500,000 subsidized housing units.

This is an area where we don't get much credit because the tremendous housing shortage nationally.

But again, we welcome your...

health in a number of areas where we really didn't need it, also in terms of managing these housing units and some of the others.

I guess, maybe I'll let you finish, because I don't know, I mean, a little bit of discipline, which you say is a critical area of achievement.

Of course, more housing is being produced in many ways.

They're preaching this.

On the other hand, to the best of my knowledge, we have not penetrated that ring around black cities, which remains as a sort of solid wall.

I don't know of any other in which the public has moved

No modern income housing in those counties continues to change.

Well, you may ask me before the office, and I'll show you, a housing has achieved, in the last two years, a degree of distribution of that low and moderate income housing that was not true before.

And if I'm correct, and I think that I am, then it means that additional production seems to mean additional locking into the ghetto that it may be.

likely forward if any administration so desires.

You know my concern on this area.

But within the limits of what we've been able to do, we have been able to get a great distribution in the metropolitan areas.

I don't think it's as great as

hopefully going to be achieved.

But in any event, it's much greater than what's occurring.

And so now, going to the question of intervention.

As I think you know, this whole area is under very carefully reviewed by the Department of Justice and our Department of Review to make the right decisions about the policy character with respect to this question.

than the normal practice of the Department of Justice with respect to various areas, not to intervene before cases reach the appeal level.

And what policy will be developed here is not determined at this point, but should be resolved hopefully in the early days.

Mr. President, I wanted to remind everyone, President, if you'll forgive me, Congressman,

The President and the First Lady do have a 615 obligation, and it is now about 627.

And I appreciate that there have been a number of very blunt points raised.

And it may be that the members of Congress here, the President, feel the time limitation is not committed as to making a responsive answer on our thing at home.

But we will do so today, let me say it first.

As we've got, I should mention too, in addition to the conference, people at the table are a bunch of Bob's men.

We've got Bob Brown here, behind us, Glenn Garland.

I'll let you know who's this man here.

Several of our, Jackson and Jackson.

But I'm speaking here in the White House, so we've got Bob Brown, Glenn Garland.

Bob Fitch, Don Rumsfeld, and of course, George Shultz, quite awesome.

And in addition to Clark, whose responsibility is the liaison thing and arranging second meetings like this, I think what you're concerned about is the following, and you should be.

So let's see what happens.

Some of these things we can do, some of these things we may do partially, other things we may not be able to do, but we might be quite happy to do it.

Honestly, the main thing is like the whole legislative process.

I appreciate to get this question through effectively, because it's just .

Sometimes it's a tendency for any of us.

A very few may have given up on the system, and you have not given up.

This is a later audience, but I think the thing about this kind of meeting and this important assistance, while we're not in the same party, we are all active.

You all want it.

And that shows you.

And you can come in.

You can be heard.

I want that all to be understood.

You can be heard, but where we can't, we want to know.

But I, as I said, again, want to be honest about it.

You wouldn't want people coming in here.

But you would do everything.

I think there's been one great sin in many relations of whites and blacks in America.

But the greatest is that demagoguery means promising.

Promising, promising, promising, and then producing less and less and less.

And the era that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that

in the offices, where the action is, and you can be sure that you bring it up in those offices.

And if you know what I want, I'm going to answer it.

I can't always promise you get gas, but at least you get a proper consideration in the sales as well, and all the other things they ask for.

And that's why I think this meeting is very worthwhile to me.

You should always get the money.

I usually, you know, I get the question, how does this make sense?

I see the rest of your sentence

They, uh, they've got a sign that says they've been called back in the good old days.

I think Marty wouldn't even run a gold ticket since 1948 on a gold ticket, so I'm having them around too.

That is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is,

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

consumption of good citizens.

I know that.

I mean, I know that given, of course, the frustration, you know, sometimes there's a tendency for many of the white community to think of a very few

We may have given up on the system and you have not given up.

This is a later audience, but I think the thing about this kind of meeting that is important is just that while we're not in the same party, we are all active.

You all want it.

And Joseph chose you.

And you can come in.

You can be heard.

I want that always to be understood.

You know we can be heard, but where we can't, we want to be heard.

But I, as I said, we can't want to be honest about it.

You wouldn't want people to come in here and tell you to do everything.

I think there's been one great sin in many relations and fights and fights and murders.

But the greatest has been demagoguery and diplomacy.

Promising, promising, promising, and then producing less, and less, and less, and that.

The era that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that

I would like to be able to turn things to a pure turn.

I haven't done that in years.

It doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter what you like to get.

You can bring it down to the top.

You can sometimes be more effective and say,

in the offices, where the action is, but you can be sure that you bring it up in those offices, and they will know what I want.

I'm going to answer it.

I want you to be quiet.

I want you to be heard.

It's not my present decision that you get.

I can't always promise you yes, but at least you get proper consideration as to what all the others may ask for.

And that's why I think this meeting is important.

I see the rest of your sentence.

They, uh, got a sign that you made a call back in the good old days.

I think Marty wanted you to run a gold ticket in 1948 on a gold ticket, so I'm having them around, too.

That is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is, that is

Thank you very much.

Thank you.