Conversation: 413-017
Prev: 413-016 Next: 413-018Start Date: Friday, February 23, 1973 8:35 PM
End Date: Friday, February 23, 1973 9:40 PM
Participants:
Nixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob"); Ford, Gerald R.; White House operator; Mills, Wilbur D.; Bull, Stephen B.; Kissinger, Henry A.; [Unknown person(s)]Recording Device: Old Executive Office Building
NARA Description:
On February 23, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Gerald R. Ford, White House operator, Wilbur D. Mills, Stephen B. Bull, Henry A. Kissinger, and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:35 pm to 4:40 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 413-017 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid:
Conversation No. 413-17
Date: February 23, 1973
Time: 3:35 pm-4:40 pm
Location: Executive Office Building
The President met with H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman.
Haldeman's talk with Patricia R. Hitt
-Hitt’s knowledge
-Appointment to ACTION
-Easing out
-Rogers C. B. Morton [?]
-Peter M. Flanigan [?]
-Peace Corps
-VISTA
-Hitt’s reaction
-Robert H. Finch
-Political opponents
The President talked with Gerald R. Ford between 3:38 pm and 3:44 pm.
-10-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. Mar.-09)
Conversation No. 413-17 (cont’d)
[Conversation No. 413-17A]
[See Conversation No. 43-194]
[End of telephone conversation]
Wilbur D. Mills
-Press conference and press release
-Timing
-Surcharge
-Selected imports
-Trade legislation
-Staff recommendation [?]
-President’s phone call to Mills
-President's conversation with George P. Shultz and John D. Ehrlichman
The President talked with the White House operator at an unknown time between 3:44 pm and
3:47 pm.
[Conversation No. 413-17B]
[See Conversation No. 43-195]
[End of telephone conversation]
President's schedule
Donald C. Alexander [?]
-Ohio
-Qualifications
-Harvard law, Yale undergraduate
Charles W. Colson’s role
President’s knowledge [?]
Ehrlichman’s role
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. Mar.-09)
Conversation No. 413-17 (cont’d)
Herbert G. Klein
-Talk with Haldeman
-Trip to California
-Meeting
-Possibilities
-Newspaper division
The President talked with Mills between 3:47 pm and 3:53 pm.
[Conversation No. 413-17C]
[See Conversation No. 43-196]
[End of telephone conversation]
Surcharge
-John B. Connally
-Political motivation
Alexander's appointment to Internal Revenue Service [IRS] position
-Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] background check
-Support from Shultz, Ehrlichman, Colson
-Compared to George H. W. Bush
-Ehrlichman
-Administration’s expectations
-Background
-Newspaper
-Editor, Harvard Law Review
-Yale University
-Academic honors
-World War II service
-European theater
-Academic honors
-Comparison to Elliot L. Richardson
-Tax background
-Criticism
-Head of IRS
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. Mar.-09)
Conversation No. 413-17 (cont’d)
-Support for IRS appointment
Executive appointments
-Diversity
Advisor to President
-Part-time
-Guidance for staff
Staff changes
Anne L. Armstrong
-Spanish-speaking related work
-Ehrlichman [?]
-Office staff
-Diversity
-Male staff members
-Duties
-Haldeman’s relationship with Armstrong
-Compared with Finch
-Additional staff
-Competence of staff members
-Pamela Powell
-Ongoing projects
-Youth business [?]
-New Majority activity
-Bicentennial
-Organizing public activities
-Entertainment
-Youth night
-Work with Julie Nixon Eisenhower
-Management style
-Productivity
John A. Volpe [?]
White House staff
-Management
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. Mar.-09)
Conversation No. 413-17 (cont’d)
-Costs
-High level
-Political appointments [?]
Sub-Cabinet officers [?]
-Meetings with President
-Stephen B. Bull
-Charls E. Walker
-Camp David
-Undersecretaries
-Work ethic
-James F. Oates
-Veterans
Prisoners of war [POWs] function
-Scheduling
-Public relations
Letters
-Preparation
-Endorsement of resolution
-Subsidies [?]
-Batch prepared for March, April
-Statement on Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR] visit
Office of Economic Opportunity [OEO]
-Job Corps
-Public relations
-Reaction
-Speech
-Caspar W. (“Cap”) Weinberger
-Announcement on OEO
-Timing
Harris poll on issues
-Results
-OEO [?]
-Phase III wage-price action
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. Mar.-09)
Conversation No. 413-17 (cont’d)
-Public support
-Lack of confidence
-Prices
-Gold
-Budget issue
-Economic issues
-Haldeman’s agreement with Shultz’s view
-Consumer Price Index [CPI]
-Food prices
-Importance
Price controls
-Action
-Delayed results
William J. Baroody, Jr.
-Citizens committee
-Taxes
-Prices
-Actions
-Control
-Offensive stance
-Opposition
-Congressional, press relations
-Academic community
-Effects
-Need for villains, civility
-Vance Hartke, Edward M. (“Ted”) Kennedy
-Press
-New York Times
Campaign financing [?]
-Contributors [?]
-George H. W. Bush
Press relations
-Economic issues
-Poor
-15-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. Mar.-09)
Conversation No. 413-17 (cont’d)
-Inflation
-Greed [?]
-Prices
-Supermarket
-Public interest in President’s economic program
-Trip to the People’s Republic of China [PRC], February 1972
-Cultural exchanges
-Ping pong team
-Acrobats
-Opening of trade office
-Michael J. (“Mike”) Mansfield
-Announcement of PRC trip
-Effective results
-Vietnam War settlement
-Effective results
-POWs return
-Strategic Arms Limitation Talks [SALT] agreement, Leonid I. Brezhnev’s visit
-Public relations value
-Charles H. Percy’s media profile
-Responses
Phase III wage-price actions
-Bureaucracy
-Expansion
-Inflation
-Prices and wages
Israel
-Libyan airline shoot down
-Public apology
-1972 Olympics incident
-Moshe Dayan
-Explanation
-George H. W. Bush [?]
William L. Safire
-Preparation of draft
-Death of Shelley A. (Scarney) Buchanan’s father
-16-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. Mar.-09)
Conversation No. 413-17 (cont’d)
-Patrick J. Buchanan
Stephen B. Bull entered at an unknown time after 3:53 pm.
Meeting with Shultz, John D. Ehrlichman, Charles J. DiBona, and Henry A. Kissinger
Bull left at an unknown time before 4:40 pm.
Kissinger entered at an unknown time after 3:53 pm.
Telephone call from McGeorge Bundy
An unknown man entered at an unknown time after 3:53 pm.
Refreshments
The unknown man left at an unknown time before 4:40 pm.
Bundy
-George W. Ball
-Organizing
-Initiative
-Principles
PRC
-Kissinger’s message from President
-Visit
-Chou En-lai
-Dr. David K. E. Bruce
-Ambassador
-Chiang Kai-shek
-John H. Holdridge
Bundy
-Telephone call
Economic affairs
-Diplomatic exchange with PRC
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. Mar.-09)
Conversation No. 413-17 (cont’d)
-Bush
-Ball
-Bruce
-Bipartisan support
-Leo Cherne
North Vietnam troops in Laos and Cambodia
-Laotian government
-US bombings
-Targets
William H. Sullivan
William J. Casey, William J. Porter [?], William P. Rogers [?]
-Skills
Kissinger left at an unknown time before 4:40 pm.
Shultz and Ehrlichman
-Talks with Haldeman
-Polls on public perception of economic issues
-August 1971 New Economic Program
-Problems
Haldeman left at 4:40 pm.