On December 23, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, Charles W. Colson, White House operator, Joan Hall, and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 1:40 pm to 2:40 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 310-017 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 Do not cite this transcript as authoritative.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, I think we'll wind up the first business on the last day.
Well, I think we've got to let everybody out tomorrow.
That's what I'm going to do at this point.
It's a good idea.
Everybody, I think, is never going to take an hour.
It's all they want.
Some of us will have to be relevant to kind of watch at the heart of things because it's likely to put a heavy heart into it.
I think the judgment on that is right, because we try to be different when we run fast.
We raise more questions than necessary.
Actually, the caveat was in the computation warrant.
You know, he can't hold any position higher than me.
I think that's going to be a great deal of pressure for him.
How are you working with him?
I don't know.
I've been very hard on him since before.
You know, I called him and asked for advice.
I told him that I'm going to go back to the department this year.
I think he's got it on board.
I wouldn't say he's indicated he wouldn't.
Well, it's done.
It's done.
I think it's, you know where I put it, I don't know what you're going to say, but even though we're going to catch Steve, the person who's with him, I think it was simple.
We won't catch him.
I think the mood of the public would be that, well, he served his time, he was a son of a bitch, his wife was sick.
There was a commotion.
The public must have left murderers out.
Vietnam, escapees, you know, and all that.
What the hell?
Make sure we don't let this guy.
It was interesting.
I just forgot it, but I went back and checked.
When he was let out a few weeks early, the network coverage was very, very similar.
They portrayed him as a model prisoner, as one who was banging his head.
The society very quietly believed that his wife was very ill.
Touching scenes on television.
Going back to his home.
Visiting his wife.
He was 100,000 feet away.
Well, she's still seriously ill. That's what we're finding out.
We're getting that out very early.
Christmas Day, I didn't know.
On the other end of the scale, going to see what was in the last week.
Whoever takes a load off me,
very authoritative decision to do that.
He now is totally satisfied that he can deliver anything that he wants to here and here.
He's grateful to those who are helping him.
A lot of these people are very enthusiastic, but also, probably this one man is some deliverance to the state, certainly to New York City, certainly to the city of New York.
And he said there's just lots of people who can get more than 100%.
I don't know, because he's basically off on that.
Yeah, he's loyal to the Senate, but he feels about it in a bad way.
And he said that he's the most powerful vice president in terms of political power.
What it fits us to do is to get a gathering together at some point a few months from now, just to find a way to
And some of us would meet with them to sort of find out what they can do in this quiet time.
I don't know.
Very quiet.
And I think from the way he's gone, we're going to find a great deal of very enthusiastic work that will be done there if I can do that.
That's a total craft.
Incidentally, this is amnesty.
It doesn't restore a civil right.
It's not a part.
It's not much.
It is, come to think about it.
Now, basically, what it is, is letting the person that is keeping all of us, they're all of us, there's all of the restrictions on us, we would then accept that he isn't confined.
I think a good case would be that he's confined, is continued confinement, would not do it.
Good, all right, done and out, whatever.
So look back, no, so I think it was very .
We're continuing to get a damn good reaction to the Tuesday night, Monday, Monday, Tuesday, Monday, Monday, Monday, Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday.
He's in between someone who's close enough to hear, but also someone who's more compassionate, right?
So what reaction do you have from West Coast?
And I was just going to tell you, he's absolutely super nice.
A number of people have come up to him.
He's brought a lot of compassion.
He's just, he probably did a home run all the way.
You haven't gotten a single negative comment.
You've gotten a lot of positive comments.
Interesting that different people selected at different lengths that they liked it better.
And everything had sort of a different impression.
But very good.
A close-up of the most revealing look at you as an individual that he's yet seen.
Forcefulness, firmness, very decisive.
He said it was the next thing I know it's a person.
The thing that I think came through to most people was probably the hard work.
They let some complain about the choppings.
The average person would care no way about John C. He wouldn't care if he went to death or not.
He can't be on the ground.
I just thought he was trying to put a hell of a statement.
Well, liberals are up for war.
The reason that he...
The reason that he got hit...
If we got very good reviews, I wouldn't be mad.
Huge bullshit.
Because we never get good reviews.
I know.
We got grudging reviews.
That's one good thing, boy, we didn't have to think.
Thank you.
You know, I had Teddy write back to me today.
I had him stand right back at me when I signed that paper.
I heard about it.
You pulled a political coup, and I was quite sure, and I showed Teddy.
We should have, because I couldn't have 15 members of the House of Representatives sitting there at 130.
They had to stand around for me some of the day.
But the fact that you started the sign for that, and then said, we're the House of Representatives, brought the man, and then said, you can go about it, all I want to get is a picture of you.
That point will not be missed by the president.
No.
That was very, very well done.
Particularly with Teddy.
Yeah, well, sure.
He stood directly back in there.
He's smart as hell.
He never misses a beat.
He plants his feet in there and nobody's going to move him.
That other project is now pretty well completed.
What do you mean?
American?
Yes, sir.
It came out quite well.
It came out as a really newspaper reprint.
But any reactions to, oh, where did those reactions come from?
You know, or they'll forget about it.
Oh, it's a good thing.
Others like this have served.
Somebody gets to have a word about people.
People go through it.
It's kind of people.
Oh, well, I've had those people.
I've seen it just in the last few weeks.
It's starting to work.
I don't know.
I don't know what happens.
You know, this is one of Agnew's problems.
It isn't that he's lazy, but he's just weak.
Agnew, I put it back to you, Agnew is a good old dog.
He does extremely well.
He's never, you know, I don't mean that he's, he is not rocked, but in the matter, he's a rocker, but he just can't hold himself.
That's why.
He's not a very strong man.
But Agnew,
I mean, Adam looks better now than he did last year.
In the last, just by being two months, well, he's being more careful, first of all.
Yeah.
His attitude is 100% better.
Just 100%.
I thought it was nice you gave him that Christmas thing.
Yes, sir.
Because that's really getting him a presidential assignment.
Well, yesterday we had a mini-captain meeting.
Gunning heads of the interment agencies who were not even going to be when we gave them a local fish from under your funeral.
Yeah.
I was there the whole time.
At one point, Scali had another group of guys.
Is there, should something be done to finance one of those Democratic candidates?
Why don't we do one today?
I think there'll be some scattered blades, there'll be some Kennedy records.
Why not at least put this down?
I would say a postcard and mail-in with all the Democrats.
We'll have a ship right in the head of Canada.
So, man, here we go.
Let's do it again.
Hit every Democrat in the studio.
Now, that doesn't cost me much.
See?
There's an old postcard.
You just got a contrast.
That's right.
And we go to all of them.
Okay.
Yes, sir.
I'll break it down.
But it went to a list that we keep for about nine days.
I like that.
I like that.
I like that.
I like that.
It's proved something that many of us have known all along.
You know, all these candidates have worked and trusted you, and you'll always stick with our leaders.
What do people in various communities have?
I kind of love that.
All of these things over here, they're just, they're all around.
Rock and roll.
You know, even in this day, instant communication, word of mouth is,
Sure is.
Well, they use it on us all the time.
That's what they do.
They knock the presidency down.
That's why it's the main condition behind the question.
We, on the other hand, we've been doing some other remarkable things, and we've been in the wrong places.
We've gone from the Chinese and the Soviets and the Nazis, going from the Nazis to the... beyond that, to the... the other side of the... well, I mean, the big story, the big story.
And then another big story is the one, of course, the... the many summits that they did.
Yeah, exactly.
For what year is the product ?
I agree with that this is generally the local .
I think he brought balls there, didn't he?
Yes, sir.
I don't recall.
In fact, it's 28 or 30, May 31.
I don't know.
It was sold out right around.
But in May of 1948, he was a good citizen.
He was beginning to come up.
But this was his local home.
And we have a program laid out now over the next six weeks, which is really beginning to take hold, I must say.
And since that cabinet meeting, as you know, since the cabinet meeting, when we really kind of laid it out at the cabinet meeting, there are responses.
We have a schedule now where every cabinet officer is holding press conferences there, doing just what we asked them to do.
We don't see it in the Washington papers, but out in the country,
And Morton has a nice place big in the west.
And they're stepping up to it every day.
Three of them are doing press conferences today.
And then we checked the out of state, out of the city.
And they tend to play a couple of areas where that agency has an interest.
We've developed another technique which so far we haven't been taught that.
on the Spotmaster radio set up, and now we're getting a television set up in each department.
So the local radio stations can call in and take one night's recording until we get all of them.
Kevin Austin speaking here, he put some pretty cool stuff out there that he's yet to play, but we are getting an average on each department of about 300 radio stations, three productions a day.
Radio station, 300 calls coming in.
They had taken it down, playing it up.
So they were really doing a hell of a lot better job
That's true.
We can't continue with that.
I've looked over the next couple of months.
We've got enough things going.
And now, using these departments properly, we can get you a lot of that.
The second one would be to listen to a radio and pick up three cabinet members on a radio program.
This program now, which we used to have, commenting on newsreels, commenting on CPL, and that's right.
This, this helps keep, keep out chronic issues in here, and it does prevent the illness in the middle, and certainly in the middle.
So, you know, all of them, particularly the place that's the worst on our new hospital team, we believe, and obviously the question is strong.
Yes, sir.
That headline was really, I think, sort of unbelievable.
Yes, sir.
It's been a steady phenomenon.
I wonder what the hell's the reason for that.
It must be Lee Combs or Edith Ryder.
They get by at the end of the line.
So, you know, the tone of what you've been writing is sort of like the headline.
Yeah, the headline writers, yes, they have to do that.
Yeah, you'd read that Washington article and you'd say, well, I'll show you.
You'd read the New York Times this morning and you'd say, well, they are a very straight piece, sir.
Of course, they're pretty moderate.
What is moderate?
Well, it goes on and on.
It's never as high as it was.
No, it actually was remarkable very briefly.
So it didn't go up.
How do they figure their Christmas sales are coming?
I would think they'd be doing pretty well.
They've been 11.5% ahead of the year.
But the weather's good for Chapman.
I didn't think this would come.
And you're going to be all right.
The total sale was last week, the weekend of December.
It came for almost $10 billion, which shows that for the four most recent weeks, the average is just about 11%.
Is that good?
Yes, sir.
Interestingly, the durable goods are up 23%.
It shows that the people are buying.
more expensive items.
Which is also a good sign, because that gets into the, that creates a little bit of a, that creates a little bit of a hurdle that you care about.
That's something that just creates a little, a little bit of hope for the bank.
Well, I think that's, like, things are moving, they're, you know, moving forward.
I don't know if I can correctly sense the mood, Mr. Williams, but the people are now beginning to feel the economy is improving.
They feel better about it.
It's financially too much, and as that begins to seep in, and, you know, it's a self-fulfilling premise.
If you're okay with that, then of course.
If you're okay with that, then of course.
Well, have a good weekend.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Merry Christmas, and don't have any more to worry about.