{"conversationCode":"077-003","tapeNumber":77,"conversationNumber":3,"identifier":"37-wht-conversation-077-003","startDateTime":"1971-09-24T13:53:00.000Z","endDateTime":"1971-09-24T15:03:00.000Z","startDate":"24-Sep-1971","startTime":"9:53 AM","endDate":"24-Sep-1971","endTime":"11:03 AM","dateCertainty":"certain","timeCertainty":"estimated","participants":"Shultz, George P.; Friedman, Milton; [Unknown person(s)];","description":"On September 24, 1971, George P. Shultz, Milton Friedman, and unknown person(s) met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 9:53 am and 11:03 am. The Cabinet Room taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 077-003 of the White House Tapes.","locationCode":"CAB","recordingDevice":"Cabinet Room","latitudeEstimated":38.8975,"longitudeEstimated":-77.0374,"chronCode":"Cabinet","chronRelease":"Cabinet Room Release","chronReleaseDate":"16-Oct-1997","aogpRelease":null,"aogpSegment":null,"lastModified":"2015-07-27T17:04:10.235Z","findingAid":"Conversation No. 77-3\n\nDate: September 24, 1971\nTime: Unknown after 9:53 am until 11:03 am\nLocation: Cabinet Room\n\nGeorge P. Shultz and Milton Friedman [?] met\n\n     [General conversation/Unintelligible]\n\n     Work\n\n     Legal action\n\n     Foreign trade\n          -Wheat deal [?]\n                -Terms\n                -Post-1969 action\n          -Meeting with Peter G. Peterson\n                -Unilateral action\n\n     The economy\n          -Proposed October 15, 1971 action\n\nAn unknown man entered at an unknown time after 10:29 am\n\n     The President’s schedule\n\nShultz, et al. left at 11:03 am","filename":["077-003-splice.mp3"],"tapeStart":"","tapeEnd":"","participantsList":["Shultz, George P.","Friedman, Milton","[Unknown person(s)]"],"prevCode":"077-002","nextCode":"077-005","tapeTranscriptFile":"077a.mp3,077b.mp3","transcript":[{"start":5146.79,"end":5149.25,"text":"Well, I'll talk to you guys."},{"start":5149.35,"end":5150.76,"text":"I've got to go."},{"start":5169.87,"end":5178.6,"text":"Uh, first, if we could, there's some other way to do it other than bending the anti-axe, but a lot of lawyers are looking at every area, and there are only two or three, one of them."},{"start":5178.74,"end":5178.82,"text":"Okay."},{"start":5191.25,"end":5192.39,"text":"You said it right."},{"start":5192.57,"end":5196.92,"text":"It will be made here in a year and we don't know how long it's going to be."},{"start":5203.83,"end":5204.35,"text":"Our own people ."},{"start":5204.39,"end":5204.35,"text":"."},{"start":5204.41,"end":5204.35,"text":"."},{"start":5204.43,"end":5204.35,"text":". ."},{"start":5291.07,"end":5293.09,"text":"I want to say that it's a beautiful day for some of the nice things."},{"start":5293.11,"end":5294.07,"text":"But there's a lot of work to be done."},{"start":5294.09,"end":5295.01,"text":"And we've got to tell you to be in time."},{"start":5295.03,"end":5295.47,"text":"We've got to tell you."},{"start":5295.49,"end":5296.05,"text":"We've got to tell you."},{"start":5296.09,"end":5296.61,"text":"We've got to tell you."},{"start":5296.67,"end":5297.35,"text":"We've got to tell you."},{"start":5297.37,"end":5297.83,"text":"We've got to tell you."},{"start":5343.28,"end":5344,"text":"in special relations with ."},{"start":5344.06,"end":5344.58,"text":"This is America, where we ."},{"start":5344.62,"end":5345.36,"text":"We've been talking about ."},{"start":5345.4,"end":5345.9,"text":"So I should do that ."},{"start":5345.96,"end":5346.48,"text":"And they built their base ."},{"start":5346.56,"end":5347.48,"text":"And so I said, I should build ."},{"start":5347.52,"end":5348.14,"text":"So you protect your base ."},{"start":5372.42,"end":5376.4,"text":"But I just wanted to have this back-up, because the key to that is that, for sure, you know, uh, it's an honor to have the, uh, this is the first time this has happened."},{"start":5376.43,"end":5377.27,"text":"I'll be talking about it in a few hours."},{"start":5377.28,"end":5378.41,"text":"I'm actually going to have to do that in a few weeks."},{"start":5378.43,"end":5379.51,"text":"I'm going to have to do that in a few weeks."},{"start":5379.53,"end":5380.47,"text":"I'll be talking about it in a few weeks."},{"start":5423.02,"end":5423.92,"text":"Yeah, later that, it's spooky."},{"start":5423.94,"end":5426.24,"text":"Then it's, yeah, and it's a big, big, big, big, big, big, big,"},{"start":5444.21,"end":5445.27,"text":"A very plain story."},{"start":5445.41,"end":5448.34,"text":"It was an unsolved problem that had to be straightened out."},{"start":5448.41,"end":5451.76,"text":"His answer was, politically, the government could not do anything."},{"start":5451.86,"end":5459.04,"text":"And I said to him, Mr. Minister, you are saying to us that the only course the United States can take is the unilateral one."},{"start":5459.12,"end":5464.57,"text":"And he began to crawl back on that, and he said he thought it was a horrible thing for us to do."},{"start":5464.59,"end":5466.35,"text":"That's where the conversation went."},{"start":5466.47,"end":5467.87,"text":"And it was a questioner."},{"start":5467.97,"end":5470.53,"text":"And it was a questioner."},{"start":5470.63,"end":5471.97,"text":"And it was a questioner."},{"start":5472.71,"end":5476.91,"text":"Well, no, I live with this too long, Dave, to get soft on it at this point."},{"start":5476.93,"end":5486.32,"text":"I know you, I want to be sure you have, as I asked the direct speech you sent me, to give a little number on the points that you've given over to you before the meeting, so you just have it back."},{"start":5486.34,"end":5486.6,"text":"Oh, good."},{"start":5486.62,"end":5492.82,"text":"Now, on the, on the October 15th action, I hope the President does it on October 15th, and I hope he doesn't give me the time to do it."},{"start":5501.15,"end":5504.61,"text":"I'd like to see him do it as part of his own authorship."},{"start":5504.63,"end":5506.11,"text":"Well, if he doesn't, then it is."},{"start":5506.23,"end":5510.93,"text":"I mentioned Bill, I mentioned the L.A. community group, and he didn't take the bill, he didn't take the list there."},{"start":5510.95,"end":5513.58,"text":"But the thing of it is, we have the President's direction."},{"start":5513.62,"end":5513.96,"text":"This is it now."},{"start":5514,"end":5514.56,"text":"I think we're done."},{"start":5533.85,"end":5534.73,"text":"I will have you in the service."}],"transcriptBoundary":{"start":5147,"end":5534,"startMethod":"llm-alignment","endMethod":"llm-alignment"},"transcriptConfidence":"high","transcriptSource":"bigtape","originalFilename":["077a.mp3","077b.mp3"],"spliceSource":{"spliceType":"bigtape","sourceFiles":["077a.mp3"],"cutStart":5145.5,"cutEnd":5535.5,"adjustedStart":5145.5,"adjustedEnd":5535.5,"boundaryMethod":"llm-alignment","confidence":"high","splicedAt":"2026-10-27T04:37:16.990Z"},"aiSummary":{"text":"George P. Shultz and Milton Friedman met to deliberate on economic policy, foreign trade strategies, and the potential legal implications of forthcoming administration actions. The discussion centered on specific trade matters, including wheat deals and unilateral actions coordinated with Peter G. Peterson, alongside preparations for a significant economic policy announcement scheduled for October 15, 1971. The participants examined legal alternatives to current regulatory constraints while also briefly addressing scheduling matters for the President.","topics":["Economic Policy","Foreign Trade","Wheat Exports","Legal Strategy","Peter G. Peterson","Regulatory Policy"],"generatedAt":"2026-04-06T07:50:14.934Z"},"topicSlugs":["economic-policy","foreign-trade","wheat-exports","legal-strategy","peter-g-peterson","regulatory-policy"],"audioDurationSec":390,"audioFiles":[{"file":"077-003-splice.mp3","bytes":6240197,"durationSec":389.98,"bitrate":128009,"missing":false}],"audioIsShared":false,"audioProbedAt":"2026-10-27T04:37:16.990Z","transcriptPrev":{"segments":7,"replacedAt":"2026-09-18T05:42:02.788Z"},"audio":["https://nixon.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/audio/077-003-splice.mp3"],"url":"https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/077-003","nixonLibraryUrl":"https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/white-house-tapes/077/conversation-077-003","license":"Public domain (U.S. Government work). AI-generated fields (transcript, aiSummary) are provided as-is without warranty."}