Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 287 › Conversation 287-004

Nixon & Haldeman on Economic Policy and Phase II

Monday, October 11, 1971 · 9:05 AM–10:28 AM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 9 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob")Conversation287-004 on Tape 287 (tape position 00:12:42–00:21:20)StartMonday, October 11, 1971 at 9:05 AMEndMonday, October 11, 1971 at 10:28 AMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 287-004 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and H. R. Haldeman met to discuss media reactions to his economic policies, the political landscape surrounding potential congressional critics, and the internal handling of upcoming policy announcements. Nixon provided specific instructions for preparing for an imminent, highly confidential summit announcement, emphasizing a need for secrecy comparable to his approach toward China. Additionally, the President directed his staff to streamline the development of economic talking points by coordinating Herbert Stein, William Safire, and George Shultz while minimizing John Connally's involvement in the preliminary drafting phase.

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Transcript (AI-generated)

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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uh the uh
Of course, generally speaking, on the economic side, it's pretty fair, and I'm sure that they do say it's fungible and so forth and so on.
That is, that I've noticed it there.
I have a feeling, though, that there's an attitude in some of the networks, spot checks, and I don't understand that.
I bet there are going to be a lot of the workers and the animus against it.
I mean, anything.
That's just wrong.
What do you think?
They must have gone out and selected people that were delivered to Congress.
What I mean is that we know that if they change the summit, they just can't find everybody to get space to do what we're trying to do.
Don't you agree?
We'll get our polling today.
Well, I'm interested in what they'll show.
It's not going to show if it's pretty, but it will show if it's wrong, whether it's important.
I think, don't you agree?
Damn right.
Which one did you... Manfield and Mills both were very screwed politically when that came on.
Before, Muskie came out against it.
And I don't think Manfield and Mills did it because they liked it.
I don't know.
Here's one that you say that time has .
That's good.
All right.
You know, they're building it for two reasons, as I said about .
That's all right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's a good thing, wasn't it?
You can get a certain tip, certainly a different view from Pastore and you are Newsomery.
Newsomery is one of the, I would say, balanced about 60 percent, maybe 40 percent.
Yeah.
Well, they should answer those kinds of questions.
The thing tomorrow is going to be a hell of a surprise to these boys.
Nothing.
Well, I had to get Henry over the head with that damn hard thing to tell people.
I didn't speak to him enough.
No.
No, no, I haven't even prepared the questions on it.
And he and I don't have any, and I'm just gonna have to field that one by myself.
I don't want Patrick to know.
I don't want Sigrid to know.
You're gonna have to open that up.
This is just passing down, don't tell anybody about it.
Colson doesn't know, you know, I didn't tell him.
Nobody knows.
Yeah, well, it's very good, you know, it's the way we did China, and it's the best way.
But they all feel fine now.
He's prepared the economic stuff for your plan.
Well, he hasn't.
The message about the economic stuff hasn't come.
Could I ask you to do this on Pat's economic questions?
He's asked exactly the questions that may come up.
But the point is that I think he ought to go to Stein.
then he could also get some support from SAFIRE on it.
In other words, on the economic questions.
I do not want him to submit the questions to Conway.
We just can't work Conway like that, Bob.
You know what I mean?
And also, Conway won't come up with anything.
This is what he wants.
Stein should do the... Stein and SAFIRE together can come up with these questions.
And Schultz.
Schultz is a question that we don't want.
In other words, Schultz can do it for substance.
And Stein, okay.
Now, they'll know, for example, can it succeed without the support of labor?
You see, that's basically what's on those things.
And then just the way to clear it with Connolly is not clear at all, this is not a speech, but to check his press conference to be sure that it is not out of tune with his press conference.
But I don't want to run over his things with Connolly, you see.
We'll have talked to the living council and the legal power over in Texas and pay for it and so you can.
Now that's just, Connolly's already commented on that, see.
That's the way I want this handled.
I think he better get with Stein fast.
And with these specific questions, because Boyd kind of really observed it on the front, but with the need of policy for a large wage increase, we've already won out of Richard Byrd to cause contraction and so forth.
We need to know that.
Stein and Schultz really are the two that can tell you what to do.
A lot of the day, if there's any real fussy thing, ask Connolly, but only that.
The Meany Woodcock thing, Schultz should answer that.
but the powers, review boards, cross-border accounts, a little bit of pay board.
I'd like to further as much of that as possible.
And also, to the extent possible, we ought to find out when they're going to be ready to go.
See, when they will hear from the labor guys.
See, I can dodge a lot of things just on the ground.
Tell me this, the Banuelos, then how's that coming?
Is she going to go up for, where's she taking Wender all the way now?
I don't want any goddamn crack on that.
I mean, I just want to be sure about that.
I couldn't tell from the news.
Is everybody sticking, calmly sticking in the ranks?
And the Senate, there's no, let this poor woman be crucified or not, or something.
Some immigration guy went out and hit her in.
He's going to be done in over his good.
But with her, what did I say?
He said, well, at the conference, he's going to want to be hurt because some of the economy should be in the farms.
And what did I say?
How's the effort been coming?
Project?
We couldn't be sure about it.
They had been meeting, marrying Midnight Oil among the establishment, and all of a sudden, they were listening.
They were waiting.
They were waiting.
They were waiting just to know.
But as far as I know, the bestseller project was underway.
They were carefully taking the bookstore and not buying the public direct.
That's right.
Great.
Great.
My God, we've got to get it to our people.
We've got to get it to all of us.
Well, you know, we've got the plan.
Good.
Good.
Incidentally, I know there's something here with regard to Bogey.
Maybe, you know, I'll go to someone and tell him to deal with it.
He's been told not to.
I can't do it.
What can he be told?
But I've got another dinner sometime.
Good.
Good.
Okay.
Bye, Bob.

NARA Description

On October 11, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 9:05 am and 10:28 am. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 287-004 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 287-4

Date: October 11, 1971
Time: Unknown between 9:05 am and 10:28 am
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman.

     Economy
         -Networks
               -Reactions
                    -Bias
         -Polls
               -Phase II
         -Michael J. Mansfield
         -Wilbur D. Mills
         -Edmund S. Muskie

     Time magazine
          -John B. Connally
          -Spiro T. Agnew

     News summary

     Forthcoming US-Soviet Union Summit announcement
          -Henry A. Kissinger
               -Possible questions
               -Ronald L. Ziegler
               -Charles W. Colson
               -Compared with People's Republic of China [PRC]

     Economy questions
         -Patrick J. Buchanan’s view
               -Herbert Stein
               -William L. Safire
               -Connally
               -Stein and Safire
               -George P. Shultz
         -Press conference
               -Connally
               -Cost of Living Council
         -Stein
         -Shultz

                -George Meany, Leonard Woodcock

     Romana A. Banuelos
         -Appointment
         -Connally
         -New summary reports

     Edith Efron project
          -Best seller

     John A. Volpe
          -Schedule
               -Italian meeting

Also recorded on October 11, 1971

  • 011-025 8:52 AM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 8:52 am and 8:57 am.
  • 287-001 8:52 AM · 3 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 8:52 am and 8:57 am.
  • 287-002 8:52 AM · 3 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 8:52 am and 8:57 am.
  • 011-026 8:57 AM · 7 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John N. Mitchell talked on the telephone from 8:57 am to 9:05 am.
  • 287-003 8:57 AM · 6 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John N. Mitchell met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 8:57 am to 9:05 am.
  • 011-027 9:05 AM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 9:05 am and 10:28 am.
  • 287-005 9:05 AM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 9:05 am and 10:28 am.
  • 287-006 9:05 AM · 12 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 9:05 am and 10:28 am.

All 53 conversations from October 11, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 287-004, October 11, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/287-004 (accessed October 12, 2026).