On March 22, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson talked on the telephone from 3:24 pm to 3:29 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 021-133 of the White House Tapes.
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 Do not cite this transcript as authoritative.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.
Well, the old man walked off.
Yes, he did.
Yes, he did.
I think he's made a very unwise move, but I just heard your statement from Ziegler read it to us.
I just stepped out of Schultz's office where we've been meeting, and I think it's excellent.
Well, the thing Schultz had prepared was just too bland.
Oh, I told George that.
We have to hit it very hard.
He can't do that, and you've got to hit him hard every day you can.
Exactly.
Use words like sabotage for men.
Group representing only a small percentage of the 80 million American workers.
That's exactly right.
Things like that.
Doesn't George understand that now?
He does now.
You've got to hit it.
I've got George now stiffened up considerably.
Right.
He understands that we ought to hit him again tomorrow.
Very hard when you have the opportunity, or...
when we announce the new board, which Connolly's on his way over here to meet with.
Which we've got to announce quickly.
I hope tomorrow, at the very latest.
The big question, of course, is Fitzsimmons.
He has now issued a public statement that he will stay on the board.
The difficulty is that having just one man on the board from Labour is not good.
Well, what we've just proposed, or what we're presently considering, Mr. President, is a public board, and one man who's a Labour expert, and one man who's a
business expert, but not having it tripartite, in other words, having it wholly public, but you could then have FITS redesignated as a public member.
There are some advantages in keeping him publicly split.
We don't know on Woodcock.
Woodcock is meeting presently with his people.
He'd probably follow Meany, I think, don't you think?
Well, he's going to be in a very tough spot, because Fitz has a lot of leverage over him.
But by the same token, he's political.
Political as hell.
He's solidly musky, and he delights in embarrassing us.
Sure.
Or thinking he is, I really question whether he does.
I think this gives you just that... We've been worrying about how to get you on the right side of the issue.
And I think Manny has put us precisely there, that you're talking about we're not putting the selfish interest ahead of the public interest.
You won't tolerate that.
And public interest is where we are, on prices and wages.
And just hardline that very hard.
Well, we've got to continue to hardline that, and continue to fight it.
Well, we'll have some recommendations for you before the afternoon is out on the composition.
You know, we've gone through this exercise before.
Yeah, we're supposed to have had a plan.
Well, we have one.
I have one in my office which I've just sent for, and we will have that and review it.
We've agreed on it once before.
Right.
And have something to propose to you.
Right, right.
The meanie posture, I just really can't understand him.
I think you're right that he's...
The arterial sclerosis has got him living in another era.
It really does.
He's just wrong in the public mood.
Well, we have to make him appear wrong.
We can't let him out there thumbing his nose, basically.
Well, in more ways than one, this is going to be a real break for us.
cpi comes out tomorrow which is now six tenths of one percent that's not as bad as it could have been oh hell no we were expecting uh stein was expecting something on food well six tenths is about what it was but uh that's just an aberration upward two-thirds of it two-thirds of it are food prices and uh well we gotta have something to say about food prices tomorrow too tomorrow you will just have to maybe that's a reason that's it yeah that's uh an option i think meanies
In Meaney's statement, he blasts food prices, and the fact that they're not subject to controls, which is going to have the farmers up in arms, you know, you start that traditional hostility between the unions and the farmers.
Well, of course, on this point, though, Meaney is...
Very much in the public side, Chuck.
Yes, indeed.
People want food prices controlled.
They don't give a goddamn about the farmers.
They're on the meaning side on this one.
Yeah, they just want, they don't want to keep paying more in the super rights.
Damn right.
And we've got to be there on that side, too, so.
Oh, absolutely.
Pour that to Schultz a little and say, how do we do, what do we do about food prices other than just jawbone?
Yeah, well, let's... See, I, because I just assume take a little heat from the farmers, too, at this point.
Well, you can.
You can afford to, because they're so damn happy.
I mean, they're... Well, we'll take some heat from them.
We just have to say that.
We're going to have to, everybody's going to have to tighten the belt a bit.
I think, as a matter of fact, it's the time that you can get away with it, because they've had several good months now, and they're out of that problem they were in last summer, so that we can afford to do this.
And I think if you're fighting Meany, the farmers are for you anyway.
Well, we hope so.
Okay.
That's the best part.
We'll be back to you, sir.
Thank you.