On March 9, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:10 pm to 2:30 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 322-036 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 Do not cite this transcript as authoritative.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.
What we're going to do at 3 o'clock is we're going to order to speed up the investigation of the airline.
I don't have all the details, but apparently there's an order that's going to go into effect in a couple months where additional men are assigned to
to check people as they go through.
So this will speak to why did the recent era .
The other thing that I mentioned to you yesterday, we were asking about blocking and so forth in relation to China trade.
And I talked to Henry.
They feel that we should just make a blunt statement that there were no discussions held by the President about any other U.S. representative in China on behalf of any private U.S. officials or related to any specific transactions that the President of the U.S. official's efforts in China were aimed at establishing a principled trade which could lead to opportunities later on.
So I'm very much drawn to that point.
It's really about an IoT
Anderson testified this morning.
Mitchell was supposed to testify today, but I didn't see him.
What are you getting at?
I'm doing a big thing.
I'm doing a big thing.
I'm doing a big thing.
I'm doing a big thing.
I'm doing a big thing.
I'm doing a big thing.
It works both ways, you see.
Now, policemen don't want to be called.
They don't want to be called.
They don't want to reveal their source of evil.
That's right.
Correct?
That's right, sir.
So basically, the executive privilege of policemen is that they are not allowed to go in before they're committed.
They're going to testify in a positive way, and they've got to also be subject to questions in regard to everything they write.
I don't know whether you've gotten out of that.
I want to be sure that it's gotten out this week so that there's no question in the country and in the Supreme Court as well.
Have you already made the point that the president is looking for action rather than mission?
And if you refuse to fight also, there's another way that there's a lot to talk about in our society.
The President is trying to find a way to act on those things, and act swiftly.
The problem with most of the talk, most of the remedies that have been suggested today, is that they would do nothing about the subject of us now, or even in the next school year.
And the President is, you could say, has made considerable progress.
and develop a new formulation, a new approach, which will enable and encourage us to be able to do something about the struggle.
stopping what he considers to be deadly metal for the purpose of breaking down the deadly metal effects on education.
I want to be sure that it comes through loud and clear that I wasn't against Buster, but too, that I am making progress towards finding a solution.
The President is looking for a solution on an issue
And we're looking for a solution now, rather than a solution that you can talk about now, but will not come and will have no effect for months or even years from now.
And we're finding that solution.
You covered that pretty well.
I have one thing that I'll push this today, but also tomorrow.
One thing that I know would perhaps force this out of here
would be if I could say today that you intended to release your decision in the form of a written statement.
That would be new.
I am committed.
Yes, yes, you can say that.
I'll say I decided today.
You can say that the president talked to the president, and now he's decided that the subject is so complex, and so, so complex, and affects the nation.
and education throughout the nation in such a broad way that he is now in the process of preparing not only a remedy, but preparing a major presidential statement similar to the approach, similar to the statement that he used and so forth.
It will be working.
In fact, he is making progress with the remedy already, and he will be working on it.
Finally, he will be trying to reach a final decision on the remedy, but also working on the statement, in which he hopes to put it in context, in a proper context, and
better understanding of what it's about.
Along with my recommendations.
Along with the recommendations.
Not only the recommendations, but I'm just going to do a constitutional deal.
That's something we're working on.
It is not an issue that you're setting along with me on the whole subject.
I mentioned this to John.
With Friday, we're going to need the time, I'm sure.
I'm sure.
I noticed that a rather interesting thing was sort of what I would call the question, must you protect your society, the society that has the potions marked in the circle, and other health must be not hurt by it.
Right.
This is about secondary.
They do their best to cover it, but I think the networks are pretty rough on it.
Very rough.
But the columnists...
In fact, until you confess,
He had another defensive statement today.
He just said, you know, he said, I'd rather have real victory than moral victory.
But it came over the wires.
The interpretation was that Muskie was still defensive over his poor showing.
And you have to chide a newsman for their interpretation.
So he had to come in the way.
Thank you.
in the hopes of the establishment that they begin must be in a position of being unchallenged.
I'm a front runner for the nomination.
I've been very certain.
Yes, I agree.
And I don't hear how a lot of people seem to feel it now, the trade-off.
But this is exactly where it's the best position.
Because they'll fight amongst themselves.
It's not going to come on.
And everybody sees that loss.
The racists are going to bring him up to 100.
I would hope he gets number two because if he drops too much, then he may just slide all the way out of the ring and then he will force someone else up under him.
Well, I don't know.
You've got to get Hubert into that.
Well, that's the other thing.
If Humbert goes number two, we put Muskie.
That's right.
If Humbert gets number two, then that would put him on the second cover.
That's right.
Or if you can't hear against Muskie in Wisconsin.
That's right.
If, on the other hand, Muskie gets number two, I think Muskie can take number three now without any problem.
He's sitting for all that importance.
Most of the Democrats assume they're not going to get too well in the South anyway.
They're going to create a question of the delegates not feeling like they should be left there.
Long ago, a student walked into a rally and he had a chicken.
He said, I want to give you this because you refused to debate John Lindsay.
He said, because you're afraid of John Lindsay.
You're afraid to meet John Lindsay in the bay.
You know, I'm not afraid of John Lindsay.
As a matter of fact, I've never met him before.
He reached out and shook hands with the chicken's leg and said, hello, how are you, John Lindsay?
This came over on camera.
Oh, sure.
But I mean, you know, he was a kid who was shrunk away in the back.
But all the stuff that happened with
You know, he had to behave himself a little bit to be a viable national candidate because he's smart enough.
But, uh, never.
Why?
I didn't know he was a used to it.
I think he loved it.
Kill him.
Even if you kill him, you make him look like a paper tiger.
We might do well down there.
Because there's television.
And television is the best way to manage your questions.
You know, I hear so many people say that.
I feel it, though.
As a matter of fact, they're on the second place right now.
Jackson will do a little better.
He may come up as very strong in that area.
And I think Lindsey will do.
I think Lindsey Jackson.
I don't think he's going to show up.
I'm not too sure about the movie.
I don't know.
I just, I don't know.
In fact, there's television we'll have.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Well, and time.
See, it's one of these other states, like the boat in New Hampshire.
He's been up there since I was a two-year.
Nine o'clock.
It's a boat together.
It's a boat going to Florida.
It comes across, and it's just surfing in that boat.
Okay.
You're a woman.
Run and run, and I'll tell you, 11 of them in Florida.
Yeah.
Well, it seems to me that it's played very well.
Absolutely.
I wanted to check that.
I think that may be a typo in the news summary.
I can't believe that anybody... No, that was a disappointing victory.
I think it was a typo.
I made a note to check that.
I think he meant a disappointing victory for Muskie, because I haven't seen him anywhere.
You got that impression?
Not at all.
No way.
Some attempts to go down.
But everything I've seen, everything I've read, even the comparison between the 78 and the 79 or 79, there was no opposition.
If you've got any kind of opposition, it is finance.
There's always 30% of it.
It always goes there.
I'm not going to get into it.
Yes, sir.
That makes it out of there.
It sure does.
You can look at it from that big thing.
Nothing happened there.
I don't think much happened.
I stood back amongst the crowd and was dealing with enthusiasm.
Which I don't know if you could sense in the big hall up front.
You know, guys on chairs.
Well, I, of course, don't think Dr. Morgan read the speech before he delivered it.
He never does.
Some of those things, you know, I don't know.
I don't know about the speech, but, you know, I mean, it was just a gap between the top and the bottom steps, and the other thing just turned terrible, I think.
Some of those other terms.
Use a strong word.
It was a good speech, but it was not a real speech.
They're forests, those people.
It's good to go by.
And they're one of those type people, aren't you?
There are a lot of those type people out there.
Sure.
In this country.
You mean they're blue-collar?
Yes.
Not that much.
And, you know, the insurance salesmen and those types in the smaller cities.
Sure.
Bookkeepers.
Yeah.
Supervisors.
I think it's just as well, because otherwise I'm right in the middle of this other controversy.
And when I go before the press, which I'll leave this as soon as we get a break on, I'll just say, well,
Let's cover that.
I don't have anything more to say.
See, the other problem yesterday, too, or today, would have been you couldn't really get into ITT.
There's nothing more to say on China.
That's right.
And there was really not a major lead coming out.
So the fear was that what you would say, for example, even with no comment on ITT, would be the lead incorporated into that story.
that there was absolutely no evidence at all.