Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 353 › Conversation 353-010

Nixon & Colson on Economic Policy and Price Controls

Thursday, August 3, 1972 · 12:40 PM–1:10 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 7 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Colson, Charles W.Conversation353-010 on Tape 353StartThursday, August 3, 1972 at 12:40 PMEndThursday, August 3, 1972 at 1:10 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 353-010 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Charles Colson met to discuss administrative personnel assignments for a forthcoming Sequoia cruise and to analyze current economic conditions. They evaluated the political impact of rising food prices on housewives and considered various policy options regarding price controls and staples. Additionally, the President reviewed economic data, specifically examining recent revisions to business indicators and unemployment figures to better gauge the health of the economy.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 2 minutes of this recording (about 24% 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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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He likes to spend his mornings there.

They're riding on horses that are in his range.

He goes in and talks to people.

He sits in the drugstore.

Huh?

He sits in the drugstore.

Yeah.

Sorry?

He sits in the drugstore.

You're coming tonight to do this and that.

It's not I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I,

I don't know, I don't want to get, I've got a skeleton person.

That's right.

You've got to sort of separate out.

He is the head of the church.

What about Blackford?

Blackford is...

I wonder if it's great to look at how much of a way it creates that.

I like that.

Let me go wonder here at the end of the piece.

I will see.

Right around the end.

I should be able to see.

What?

I forgot about that.

I should be able to see.

Yeah.

I almost forgot about that.

I think we should have one next time.

Personally, I have a feeling

I thought we were going to have both.

I think that's what I thought about it.

I nailed maybe 10 minutes at this point.

It was just good.

I'd say 10 minutes, obviously, if they went through.

But it would be five and a half.

The main part I had to see implicitly last year, between June and July, when I was in the private sector, this year we came down and paid $5,000, $5,500 in June, $5,500 in July.

You know, we would, when you, right, we know, you know, I don't want to say, you know, the numbers, a lot of things to deal with, and all that stuff.

We were doing twice as much inflation, we were twice as bad, you know, because of food prices.

We kicked that around very extensively, you know, over the summer.

We didn't.

I think there are ways to do that.

Whatever it is, it's raised.

But there is a, I don't know if the company is doing it,

because we all want to know how much it is worth.

But there is a, there's several options.

The temple of Greece, and we're not certain, but there's eight.

And it's staples, so those people have to have the will.

And the hell with the prescriptions, which are so long, it doesn't matter.

But that's what upsets the housewife, because she doesn't have to buy it.

If she has to buy it, she has to buy it.

The other best way to do it is to please a whole lot of them.

But we're considering a lot of options there.

Anyway, and when you said the economy is moving up, I remember you asking out of California, I thought it was a paper of law.

I didn't say that I was going to be concerned.

But what concerned me was the leading business indicators

The baby had been down.

We got the doctor.

We don't want to revise the figures.

It wasn't defense one percent.

It was 1.4.

They revised the figures from two tenths up to 1.4.

And then in June, I was up at half a point.

We were getting misled a little bit there by our own dispassion.

You know, the girl in the

All right, thank you.

NARA Description

On August 3, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 12:40 pm to 1:10 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 353-010 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 353-10

Date: August 3, 1972
Time: 12:40 pm - 1:10 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President met with Charles W. Colson.

       The President's schedule
            -Forthcoming call to John B. Connally
                  -Connally's schedule

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

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 11m 19s ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

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

       Forthcoming Sequoia cruise
             -Colson, H.R. (“Bob”) Haldeman, Ronald L. Ziegler, Herbert G. Klein
             -Harry S. Dent
                   -Location
             -William E. Timmons
             -John A. Scali
             -Kenneth W. Clawson
             -Timmons
                   -Role on White House Staff
             -Casper W. (“Cap”) Weinberger
                   -Role on staff
                         -Colson’s view
             -Robert H. Finch, Klein, Ziegler, Frederic V. Malek, Donald H. Rumsfeld
             -Rumsfeld
             -Timmons
             -Weinberger

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

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 10m 3s     ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2

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

       Economy
            -Unemployment figures
            -Price increases
                  -Food prices
            -Herbert Stein
            -George P. Shultz
            -John D. Ehrlichman
            -Price freezes
                  -Options
                        -Food prices
                              -Meat
                              -Coffee
                              -Eggs
                              -Milk
                              -Vegetables
            -Upswing
                  -The President’s conversation with Colson in California
            -Business indicators
                  -May, June 1972
            -Unemployment
                  -Bureau of Labor Statistics

Colson left at 1:10 pm.

Also recorded on August 3, 1972

028-055 12:10 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull talked on the telephone from 12:10 pm to 12:11 pm.
028-056 12:11 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 12:11 pm and 12:12 pm.
353-006 12:11 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 12:11 pm to 12:12 pm.
028-057 12:12 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson talked on the telephone from 12:12 pm to 12:20 pm.
353-007 12:12 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Charles W. Colson, Rose Mary Woods, and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 12:12 pm and 12:37 pm.
029-069 12:20 PM · 11 sec — the recording device engaged at an unknown time between 12:20 pm and 1:10 pm, but the conversation appears to be blank.
353-008 12:20 PM · 13 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 12:20 pm and 12:37 pm.
353-009 12:37 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 12:37 pm.

All 62 conversations from August 3, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 353-010, August 3, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/353-010 (accessed October 1, 2026).