Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 285 › Conversation 285-045

Nixon & Colson on Economic Policy and Inflation

Thursday, October 7, 1971 · 4:12 PM–4:27 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 9 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Colson, Charles W.Conversation285-045 on Tape 285 (tape position 04:30:29–04:39:56)StartThursday, October 7, 1971 at 4:12 PMEndThursday, October 7, 1971 at 4:27 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 285-045 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Charles Colson discuss political strategy, focusing on public support for the administration's economic policies and the labor front. They review the declining poll numbers of potential Democratic challenger Edmund Muskie and analyze the effectiveness of using constituent letters to bolster the President's upcoming speech on inflation. The conversation concludes with a focus on maintaining messaging control and political momentum in anticipation of further congressional and public engagement.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 5 minutes of this recording (about 52% of it) is represented by only a few words. Listen to the audio rather than relying on the text below; a corrected transcript is queued.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Hello.
Hello.
Well, they sure did well in the Senate, didn't they?
I just called McGregor.
And McGregor's done a fantastic job.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
A quote from a couple of letters from the workers tonight, supporting the way the state sets it up.
I just wanted to be a nice needle.
What?
Sure.
I think a lot of this stuff, believe me, is going to interrupt the touch.
And I'm correct in not picking him up.
I won't do it.
They have to.
Yeah.
Yeah.
When we do, we all make an open answer.
Yeah.
Picked up.
Picked up.
Yeah.
How?
I'm not concerned about where it is.
It just starts creeping down.
Yeah.
They have to compensate.
They won't just leave it up there.
They can play it and leave it there.
What about the airplane truck to the States?
A lot of that maybe you have to deal with that.
Damn it, I could deal with that across the country.
I was speaking on the labor front while I was microberting at a settlement.
I think the fact that I had to crack them on tap hardly allowed people to walk.
Because they think I'm getting labored.
Yeah.
Yeah, wow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You don't care about that?
Yeah.
No.
Closer.
No.
Sure.
He's doing fine.
And the muskie is really drunk.
Well, that confirms Gallop.
Remember, Gallop had the muskie doing no better than the other two last time.
In fact, both Gallop and Harris now showed the cannabinoid in the shade better than anybody else.
4,739.
He got the muskie back on.
He said they have no reason.
He just thinks he's not at the point.
They're going to have it.
They're going to have it.
They're going to have it.
They're going to have it.
They're going to have it.
They're going to have it.
Prove the idea that he was dumb to say.
You know, as a matter of fact, many probably would prove it, except for Frank Washington.
You know, he was dumb to say.
And he just said something too honest.
I'll tell you what happened when he got in there.
He got in there and he just talked to these people.
And he said, get out.
He got them.
You've got a good campaign to get them crawling way out.
And mail to the people.
We had to put something in on Trump.
I tried to keep it out, but they all agreed they had to because of the Congress.
They all pissed on us.
But I put it, I described it as with all profits instead of only a few.
So if the market people squeal about it, they'll squeal about it.
Excellent idea.
How do they like, care about it?
Right.
And who's doing it?
Well, they're all doing it.
And really this is, if you've got to have control, it's a man-villain.
It's a high degree of responsibility.
You've got to have the leadership.
You've got to have the flexibility.
You're in the labor people's role.
It's pretty good.
The other thing I have in here, when we no longer need everybody to get rid of it, I'm just putting it in that straight state.
That's it in here.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I've got something in this speech, which I just, I had an hour ago.
It's only been, the speech will be only 14 minutes long, which I think is an awfully good line, but I quote from people all over the country.
I have four excellent letters.
paragraph each, which is good.
These are all people that were at wage increases and had to give them up.
That's a great quote, you know.
Yeah.
Now, oh yeah, I'll just say that.
For example, here's what I read.
After I read the letters, I said there, this is sort of my talk, I said I want to thank thousands of people who've written similar letters.
I know how much it means to me here in the post-American to put their contribution about their personal life value into question.
I want to thank you too.
Thank you.
We began this battle against inflation for the purpose of winning.
We are going to stay in it until we do win.
Yeah.
That's me.
Take care, Richard.
He's going to have to hedge his bet a little.
Maybe he's going to try to screw us on the counter.
Quite a chance.
The Harris thing, frankly, to go over 50%, even if it's only 51-48 or something like that, approval is bad.
Ralph, I've got to go over to greet the press.
I mean, the Congress.
Right, right.
Yeah, thank you.

NARA Description

On October 7, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 4:12 pm to 4:27 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 285-045 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 285-045

Date: October 7, 1971
Time: 4:12 pm - 4:27 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with Charles W. Colson.

**********************************************************************

       Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, NARA Online Public Access Catalog Identifier: 597542

[Previous PRMPA Personal Returnable (G) withdrawal reviewed under deed of gift 07/22/2019.
Segment cleared for release.]
[Personal Returnable]
[285-045-w001]
[Duration: 9m 8s]

[See Conversation No. 10-140]

**********************************************************************

Also recorded on October 7, 1971

  • 010-138 3:43 PM · 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Clark MacGregor talked on the telephone from 3:43 pm to 3:48 pm.
  • 285-042 3:43 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Clark MacGregor met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:43 pm to 3:48 pm.
  • 010-139 3:48 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 3:48 pm and 4:12 pm.
  • 285-043 3:48 PM · 14 min — President Richard M. Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 3:48 pm and 4:12 pm.
  • 285-044 3:48 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 3:48 pm and 4:12 pm.
  • 010-140 4:12 PM · 15 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson talked on the telephone from 4:12 pm to 4:27 pm.
  • 285-005 4:27 PM · 6 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 4:27 pm and 4:30 pm.
  • 078-004 4:30 PM · 23 min — President Richard M. Nixon and bipartisan Congressional leaders, including Wallace F. Bennet, Robert C. Byrd, Allen J. Ellender, Robert P. Griffin, Jacob K. Javits, Russell B. Long, Michael J. ("Mike") Mansfield, Jack R. Miller, Hugh Scott, John J. Sparkman, Herman E. Talmadge, William Proxmire, John G. Tower, Page Belcher, John W. Byrnes, Gerald R. Ford, George H. Mahon, Albert H. Quie, Wright Patman, William L. Springer, [Thomas] Hale Boggs, John B. Connally, Paul W. McCracken, George P. Shultz, John D. Ehrlichman, William E. Timmons, Richard K. Cook, and Eugene S. Cowen, met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 4:30 pm and 4:57 pm.

All 106 conversations from October 7, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 285-045, October 7, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/285-045 (accessed October 6, 2026).