On September 22, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and George P. Shultz met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 5:17 pm to 5:31 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 279-029 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 Do not cite this transcript as authoritative.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.
Hello.
Hi, George.
Well, what do you want me to say on the economy from the optimistic standpoint tomorrow night?
In any particular...
I don't want you to hit the Q&A thing, but of course, we'll probably get a lot of great numbers on this.
In particular, if we already put a puppy on the hills.
How do you feel?
Particularly, you're quite aware of the lack of confidence in the leader class.
The call has got the businessmen.
I, for example, I think we see, we hear a lot of that.
Of course, you're saying something like, suddenly you're showing too much of something on the lot, but you don't tell us a whole lot, do you?
I'm curious.
But we...
I feel that.
But that's what Conway, of course, says to me.
He runs into it.
Some of the congressmen and senators report back when they come back.
They're really curious about the whole thing.
It's a hard one to figure out.
I don't know how much it weighs.
It's down.
It's still going.
I feel that.
Yeah, this figure, this month, I currently didn't have it.
They sure have gone up.
Well, what I mean is they deserve it.
Yeah, that'd be easy.
All the time.
All right.
Yeah.
I get it, of course.
Sure, hang on.
I'll get it.
And, yeah.
You get that by the face.
I don't want too long a statement.
I'd rather just say that Congress is going to cover it next week, myself.
And whatever I should say should be very general.
Very general.
Because, you know, we have too many people muddying the water.
Here's to that.
I'll be conciliatory, but I'll say that the Secretary's going to address those issues next week, if he's willing.
If he's willing to allow that to be said.
But also, as I understand it, Henry said that you're going to be here tomorrow at 9.
But after you meet, you give me a paragraph that I can throw in, throw out when I get the question.
So I can be just a little conciliatory, but I don't want to be very sensitive to it all.
It's very, very...
I was thinking this starting September 30th.
Next week, there's no reason to try that because everybody's going to be tied up with those damn bankers.
There's no IMF.
But by the time they leave town, then I probably can go on this.
Do I stay the week?
No, we don't.
Go out there.
It's still not lost half part, is that correct?
Should be.
All right.
Because it's not ruined because it's being resurrected.
All right.
Just do it.
Do it.
That's much better than when you do it.
Or a cigarette.
It's much better than having it over there in that shot.
On this, uh, on this incident that we faced, too, uh, you see, I, I'm going to talk about it any time, but I, the way I look, I see it.
You see, I'll be in Detroit tomorrow, and then I'll be in Alaska, and then Montana, and then Oregon in the morning, and then the weekend.
When I get back, you know, I'll be, you know, I'll be flying all day Monday.
So then on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
So it seems to me that if everybody can be ready by the 30th, I told Colin that weekend, I told him that we'd like to open the weekend.
So that's pretty good, that's pretty good planning.
I know you're on the ground.
Great, great, great.
Oh, sure, on the way back?
Oh, yeah.
Well, it doesn't matter.
In fact, if you like, if you like, you can bring that.
You can come along with people who could like you.
It's fine doing it.
Bring him, too.
Bring him.
It'd be a nice trip for him.
It'll be empty if you'd like to come.
And then he can come, and then you and I can talk on the way back, and I can give you the life that I have.
Fair enough?
I know, I know, but let's skip it.
Let's...
Well, I need to get a feeling about what maybe the options are because, you know, we'll have to sell our gear on it.
And I know, I know the problems.
You know, that's fine.
That's fine.
We'll have a very long flight coming back.
Six, seven hours.
We have a chance to talk.
So it'll be good.
If you would, and I'll see you if you want to make a sign, we can do it.
Good.
Good.