Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 372 › Conversation 372-010

Nixon & Ehrlichman on 1972 Election and Economic Policy

Wednesday, October 25, 1972 · 9:25 AM–9:36 AM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 13 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Ehrlichman, John D.Conversation372-010 on Tape 372StartWednesday, October 25, 1972 at 9:25 AMEndWednesday, October 25, 1972 at 9:36 AMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 372-010 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and John Ehrlichman met to coordinate the administration's public messaging for the final weeks of the 1972 campaign, focusing on forthcoming speeches regarding farm, urban, and economic issues. They specifically strategized on how to frame George McGovern's economic policies as detrimental, instructing administration spokesmen to emphasize the negative impacts of his platform on taxes, prices, and unemployment. Furthermore, they discussed legislative strategy regarding pending bill signings and mandated that agency officials move beyond superficial budget trimming to pursue substantive cuts in major federal programs following the election.

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 1 minute of this recording (about 8% 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.

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I think we'll do the fire speech on Friday and get out of the way.
The fire speech is not where it should be national.
I think he would have that urban thing ready for Saturday.
If we could do Farm on Friday and Urban Saturday that would be a great double play.
That would be really great.
In terms of the London people, the Sunday papers, I really think that's going to be crazy from this point on.
We talked about that last year.
I'm not too concerned about that, about your elements and all that sort of thing.
I'm really more concerned about the good of the speakers and what they have.
We can, we are really, really the way this is developing, we can get, we can get an answer.
You see we're doing pretty well.
I don't have anything to do with the suggestion that I made, so I'm going to keep it out and speak for myself.
I think it's tense.
I think it is, too.
Those simple things, I'll build it any way they want around here.
That's one of those two.
Well, our problem's been that our economic spokesmen, Stein, Schultz, Rooksfeld, and to a lesser extent, Ritterfair, Ritterfair say anything.
But those three, I'm afraid we don't want to attack.
So I'm going to have them in, and we're going to set them.
They don't get to say three things.
That's all.
Three things.
They will, from a government budget, will raise taxes like the percentage of what I'm going to say.
His policies will raise food prices, use a percentage by 20% or something like that.
And his economic policies of income redistribution, again, will cause a recession and increase unemployment.
In other words, predictorism.
I don't think you should do it.
I know.
I don't want to attack him.
That's why I don't want to.
That's on a state high road, church of the household.
That's why I sent him back on the field conference.
Well, the record said that he got in a few good looks this morning.
I'm glad you put him on.
I haven't seen him, but I'm glad you got him.
Now, on the bills, so what's going on?
Well, tomorrow, with most of them, signing of Andy's bills, so that is tomorrow, Thursday, before I do it.
And we're not going to do supplemental preparation.
We're going to do it Saturday.
So that tomorrow's story is mainly cuts, ethos, and the signings are perfunctory.
one appeal from Weber to you on this aging bill.
It's, you said you'll sign it.
It's only an authorization.
I'll sign it.
And he's got a lot of technical, I've got a lot of technical objections to a hell of a lot of these veterans bills.
God damn it.
It played in the press, on television, news magazines, as coupled with the Congress failure to adopt the spending law.
It played that way in all the stories, and so it's associated with spending.
So I think you're, and you know it's McGovern, it's not hitting him some, at all.
He knows you mentioned it.
It is his issue, but I think because it's associated
Alright, let's start editing.
So, these guys will get out now and bring back for a week on the negatives.
Just the negatives?
Yeah.
And increase the total.
It would be higher taxes, higher prices.
Now, the program on the
I just don't want there to be any conversation around what these cuts are going to be.
the last meeting in White River was not to be trimming around the edges, but to get to the heart of some of these programs, and to cut the heart of them.
And so he's going back with that approach now.
I would think that in the first week after the election, we could do some serious stuff
I think we there, I think a lot of symbolism and also willing to answer.
is we've said to them, all right, now, go on back and get a different set of mind about this.
Go to the heart of some of these programs.
And don't just come to us with all the fringe stuff that you've got.
I saw a lot of the international education.
Exactly.
Exactly.
That's right.
And the NIMH and the NIH and all that.
Some of those were national science foundations and all that stuff.
He's back to that now.
We've got to get at those lengths, and we've got to just tackle the hell out of them.
Okay, you meant 4K.
Well, I think in two weeks' time, he'll be ready to talk to us.
Jesus Christ, too.
What about HUD, too, in those two weeks?
Well, on that stuff, Bob and I have done a fair amount of work on this rearrangement idea.
I've got one young lawyer at work.
I'm not the right guy.
He thinks I'm too young.
No, well, he thinks I'd job him at the end, I'm sure.
But either he or I could do this.
He or I.
Clients.
No, I know it.
We've got a big client with you.
All right.
Clients.
Clients.
we just want to say we we're not claiming we're pure dynamic and honest reporters got it not done it's double standard yeah yeah well i'll tell you people i'm sorry police what they're doing with radio and things it's okay correct but my point is let's just let's load let's load it okay that'd be great yeah absolutely
That's exactly why I mean that farms should not be for something you pay again.
But it's great for the right side of the table, okay?
And the farmers, they don't want to farm on earth.

NARA Description

On October 25, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 9:25 am to 9:36 am. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 372-010 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 372-10

Date: October 25, 1972
Time: 9:25 am - 9:36 am
Location: Executive Office Building

The President met with John D. Ehrlichman.

        Forthcoming speeches
            -Radio Address on the American Farmer
                -The President’s view
                     -Veterans speech
            -Raymond K. Price, Jr.
                -Television speeches
            -Urban speech
            -Radio Address: One America
                -Sunday press coverage
            -Crime speech
            -Veterans speech
            -Environment speech
            -Urban speech
            -Education speech
            -Tax, spending, and economic issues
                -Herbert Stein, George P. Shultz

        George S. McGovern’s economic policies
           -White House Response
                -Raised taxes
                -Higher prices
                -Recession
                -Food prices
                -Increased unemployment
                -Administration economic spokesmen
                     -Stein
                     -Shultz
                     -Donald H. Rumsfeld
                     -Pierre Rinfret
                     -Coordination
                     -Stein

                 -New York speech
        -The President’s view
            -Stein’s recent New York speech
        -The President’s role
            -Compared with the President’s statements on Vietnam
                 -McGregor’s statements

The President’s bill signings
    -Supplemental appropriations
    -Public relations effort
        -Veto of tax increase
    -Congressional cooperation
    -Aging bill
        -Caspar (“Cap”) Weinberger
        -Veterans bill
        -House Resolution [HR] 1
    -Water bill
        -The President’s previous veto
             -Statement of an unknown man to the President
                  -New York
             -Press and media coverage
                  -Spending limit
                       -Ehrlichman’s briefing
        -McGovern’s response
             -Economic policies
             -Administration action
                  -The President’s view
                       -Taxes, prices, unemployment, welfare
    -John B. Connally
    -Spending cuts
        -1972 election
        -Bureaucratic studies
             -Confidentiality of findings
        -Weinberger
             -Nature of cuts
                  -Trimming compared with cutting
        -Employment
             -Government employees
        -Education
        -National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH]
        -National Institute of Health [NIH]

                 -National Science Foundation [NSF]
                 -Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD]
                 -Ehrlichman’s work with H.R. (“Bob”) Haldeman

        Clark R. Mollenhoff
            -Herbert G. Klein
            -The President’s view
            -Haldeman’s forthcoming conversation with unknown person

        The President’s forthcoming speeches
            -Ehrlichman’s staff
            -Farm issue
            -Urban issues

Ehrlichman left at 9:36 am

Also recorded on October 25, 1972

  • 032-031 9:05 AM · 19 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 9:05 am.
  • 372-006 9:05 AM · 18 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 9:05 am.
  • 372-007 9:05 AM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 9:05 am and 9:18 am.
  • 032-032 9:18 AM · 16 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Edwin M. Schwenk talked on the telephone from 9:18 am to 9:19 am.
  • 372-008 9:18 AM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Edwin M. Schwenk met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 9:18 am to 9:19 am.
  • 032-033 9:19 AM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 9:19 am and 10:09 am.
  • 372-009 9:19 AM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 9:19 am and 9:25 am.
  • 372-011 9:40 AM · 27 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 9:40 am to 10:08 am.

All 59 conversations from October 25, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 372-010, October 25, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/372-010 (accessed October 9, 2026).