Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 348-006
Date: Wednesday, July 19, 1972 at 2:00 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Colson, Charles W.; Rizzo, Frank L.; Haig, Alexander M., Jr.; White House operator; [Unknown person(s)]
Recording device: Old Executive Office Building
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/348-006

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:12] Hello?
[0:18] Hello?
[0:18] Hello?
[0:18] Well, I just wanted to thank you for that really marvelous statement you made yesterday.
[0:27] By golly, you're really a nut-cutter.
[0:27] Well, actually, that was really great.
[0:30] I was so pleased.
[0:33] We were just talking this morning with Chuck Colson and some of the other fellows, and they were all ecstatic.
[0:37] They said, boy, that Rizzo knows how to fight.
[0:40] Yes.
[0:42] Yeah, I was going to ask you.
[0:45] I hope you're not getting too many brick bats.
[0:53] Yeah, yeah.
[0:54] No, of course.
[0:54] Oh, sure, you're going to catch that shaft, your friend's shaft, you know.
[1:07] Yeah, yeah.
[1:07] Oh, boy.
[1:07] Well, I'll tell early when we get at that.
[1:08] We won't let him do that.
[1:15] Well, I'll tell you all about it.
[1:42] You've got our boss.
[1:44] So what's this?
[1:47] Yeah, 150.
[1:55] Yeah, well, that's right.
[2:07] Sure, sure.
[2:08] Well, I'll tell you a great, but another thing that's really great is that it's, you know, helped nationally.
[2:10] The fact that you're the mayor of a third-largest city, and that bill is ringing out across the country, and that's the fourth-largest city in history.
[2:13] But that really has an effect, and also has a great effect on the Italian, you know.
[2:15] And we, you know,
[2:16] I'm just very grateful I want you to know that.
[2:31] Yeah.
[2:31] Yeah.
[2:33] Yeah.
[2:33] Uh-huh.
[2:33] You already have operating engineers, right?
[2:39] And a very strong mess.
[2:40] Are they really?
[2:41] In the Philadelphia area?
[2:42] Correct?
[2:43] Well, they're strong men.
[2:47] I've seen one on big cranes and the rest.
[2:55] A lot of them are Seabees, remember?
[3:00] I knew the Seabees, and as I served with the Navy unit in the South End of the Pacific and Solomon Islands, and I knew a lot of Seabees, and a lot of them are operating engineering members.
[3:07] That way, yeah.
[3:07] Great.
[3:23] Yeah.
[3:41] That's enough.
[3:42] That's all we need.
[3:42] Right.
[3:42] Great.
[3:42] Great.
[3:43] Great.
[3:43] Yeah.
[3:43] Yeah.
[3:44] Right, incidentally, that's right, and that's why I think the way you played it is so you get a second flight of the Apple was great.
[3:51] Let me tell you that you may not have thought that we do these things here.
[3:54] Did you know you were on all three networks last night?
[3:58] Yes, sir, sir, so would I.
[4:01] Can I, yeah, can I ask your advice about something?
[4:09] I'll tell you two, one thing.
[4:11] Cardinal Crowe has agreed to give the benediction that I think the 9th of December
[4:14] You know, that's a very important one, and I thought that was a good thing, don't you think so?
[4:29] In Miami, right?
[4:30] He has already, he's gotten approval, and he's come to it, so I was pleased.
[4:33] The second thing is something I just want to ask you about for private.
[4:35] There's a new Italian prime minister.
[4:36] He's a, he is fortunate, he's a patriotic good friend of ours.
[4:38] He's a centrist rather than on the left, like some of them have been.
[4:50] And we're trying to build a hub, and he wants to come over to see me.
[4:55] As a matter of fact, he's a defendant on the floor of the Italian Senate.
[4:59] So I'm going to do it.
[5:00] He will be coming here either in August or September.
[5:02] I mean, middle of August or middle of September, depending upon when it all works out.
[5:05] When he comes, I'm going to have a dinner.
[5:06] And also, I'm probably going to have a sort of a
[5:07] After dinner, around 10 o'clock, over at the Kennedy Center, the fair, where we'll have a basically big musical thing, you know, in honor of him, where we can invite lots of people.
[5:30] Now, naturally, I want to have major Italian leaders around the country.
[5:32] I'd actually like to have you come and give us a lift.
[5:33] Now, here's the point I want to ask you about, and I ask you about it as a friend and as a law enforcement man.
[5:37] Frank Sinatra has been a great friend of Agnew's, and he's also been supportive greatly.
[5:54] And he's been, frankly, in a personal way, coming to me, and you know, he was just before Congressional Committee yesterday, and apparently he will handle himself extremely well, and so forth and so on.
[6:01] The question I ask is this.
[6:02] How would law enforcement people feel?
[6:03] He is the best man
[6:03] But I think he's the best man, really, to do the program because, you know, he's a big, he's a planner, he's a big name.
[6:16] He started a long course of people that condemned you of having schnauzer or not what you do.
[6:24] He said, all right.
[6:24] Yeah.
[6:24] All right.
[6:25] He just took...
[6:26] He took that, but then as far as you're concerned, if I ask him, and I've got a couple, it's okay if we have some, you don't think that, don't most of them feel that this mafia business is just one of those guiltless association things?
[6:41] That's what I thought.
[6:43] And he's very popular, too, isn't he, with the community?
[6:47] All right, well.
[6:50] All right.
[6:55] Well, I think we'll go.
[7:01] I just want to know, I don't know whether he can come or schedule, but I didn't want to ask him if he had any doubts about it, so we'll have his time.
[7:08] All right.
[7:08] Great.
[7:08] Well, it's sure good to talk to you.
[7:09] And incidentally, now, on that money thing, whenever you have a, you think the state, the site in Austinville, you've got to hold her up as hell, huh?
[7:15] Okay.
[7:15] Thanks a lot.
[7:25] Hello?
[7:43] Yeah.
[7:47] Hello?
[7:47] Yeah.
[7:47] Oh, I see.
[7:47] Well, I don't know.
[7:47] No, I'll see him when he gets in.
[7:48] I don't know.
[8:00] You know how it is.
[8:21] Looking back over these meetings, you can get encouraged about each other.
[8:23] Well, they blink.
[8:23] They blink and howl a lot.
[8:24] But a lot together.
[8:24] They discuss something.
[8:26] That means only another.
[8:26] Yeah.
[8:27] That's fine.
[8:27] Well, actually, they've got a hell of a tough decision right now.
[8:31] Right.
[8:39] Well, you, I'll hold the time.
[8:56] You let me in just so I know the arrival time.
[8:56] I'll be waiting.
[8:57] I'll see you here.
[8:57] Maybe you'll meet me.
[8:58] All right.
[8:58] Could you give me Mr. Franks and Dr. Lucia for a period of time, please?
[9:00] He was all over having it.
[9:21] Yes, sir.
[9:27] He was all over having it.
[9:30] No dresses, ma'am.
[9:40] Yeah, thank you.
[9:50] Aren't you?
[9:50] Very expensive.
[9:51] No.
[9:51] No.
[9:51] Well, it's pretty.
[9:51] Thank you.
[9:52] It's better than that, Mr. Wilson.
[9:55] I didn't even notice it.
[9:55] That's bad, too.
[9:56] I've missed lots of times.
[9:56] What Bowlby said.
[9:57] What Bowlby says about it is that it's something very, uh, it's the, it's the epitome of success
[10:00] He made it.
[10:26] He made it.
[10:26] And he made it not only in entertainment, but he made it in business.
[10:27] That's what's going on.
[10:28] Hello?
[10:28] Great.
[10:32] Well, if you get the number where he is, I'll talk to him.
[10:48] If not, I'll call his secretary.
[10:51] Yeah, we'll see if he can be reached at a number, and I'll call his man.
[10:58] In this case, better to go to him.
[10:59] He's around the corner.
[11:00] Oh, is he?
[11:01] He was there right after the hearing.
[11:15] That's a good way that Thomas knows the best, because I'm sure he is.
[11:17] He had, he feels pretty down.
[11:17] I talked to him, and I was in a plane, and the vice president said, yes, this one's true.
[11:19] I'm like, oh, jeez, if you're a co-op, you'd be the greatest in the L.A., you know.
[11:21] I didn't do that for people.
[11:21] I said, how many could I do?
[11:32] What's the matter with this little box, you know, the deal box?
[11:59] He is part of himself.
[11:59] The way he does it, he's part of himself.
[12:00] He's present in his meetings.
[12:01] When he gets drunk, he's over it.
[12:01] He's present.
[12:03] You're smart, though.
[12:13] You're going to be excellent.
[12:13] You're sober.
[12:14] You're human.
[12:14] You're important.
[12:14] You're wonderful.
[12:15] You have an excellent memory.