On February 22, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, H. E. Sanders, Mrs. H. E. Sanders, Henry C. Cashen, II, David N. Parker, Raymond K. Price, Jr., and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 1:01 pm to 1:12 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 455-014 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 Do not cite this transcript as authoritative.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.
Son, how are you?
I'm happy to see you.
Well, I'd like to go to my wife.
Yes, I see you.
So nice of you to receive us.
Well, I hope many of you.
Let's go get a nice picture for your family.
Oh, do you like it?
Do you like that?
That's incredible.
Thank you.
Okay, sit down.
Thank you, sir.
It's certainly a very anxious time.
And this is us.
Our team is old, and we need to rapidly think we have something to be interested in.
Whether it's April to 30, we would like to revisit the list before Saturday.
We'd like to take some and make a little progress.
We feel that we would have a lot to offer you, and we know that you would be good by industry, and especially in the field of the environment today.
I think it would be a good place as a suggestion for you to...
And I know that this is great, but this is my job.
I was with you a few weeks ago on your briefing on the reorganization in the tribe.
And did you know George Ford?
I'm a small independent operator.
I do not own any of my own forests.
I depend on local things.
And we have a program going in the south now, this third forest, that we think is going to be the greatest place that I've come from.
In the south, there's about 200 million acres of forest land.
About 17 million acres are owned by the federal government and other forms of agencies of the government.
Then there's about 30 to 40 million owned by big industry.
That leaves about 140 million acres of land in the South that is owned primarily by small landowners.
There's some large landowners, but primarily entirely small landowners.
Now the industry lands and the federal and the government lands, but they're properly centralized, are growing more timber.
than the private lands.
And our program is to take and stimulate the growth of the Temple on the 140 million acres that are owned by private owners.
We feel, by the private owners, I say, we feel by the year 2000,
that we can double the worth of temper in the South, et cetera.
You know, a lot of people don't realize that the South is a high-quality country.
I've been a schoolmaster on it for years.
They don't really travel through their country.
It's a magnificent country in terms of its temper and everything.
You know, it's a green part of the country.
It's a green as it can be in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee.
Mississippi is pretty easy to do.
It is pretty easy.
And it's fine that you're, I think it's a great program.
It fits into the environmental program.
That's the Everglades.
We ought to try to save us here.
We've got to save us.
Some, say some.
Yes, sir.
I'll tell you, we'll, we'll follow some of these programs.
Yeah, we'll follow what?
Some of these, these programs that they have to lead with.
There's people entitled to these things.
Sure, sure.
But on the other hand, it doesn't make any sense to be quite candid about it.
This idea that nothing should be cut of soil.
That is why you're going to have a whole place grow up like a jungle.
And so what it is is just proper management of our resources.
We need to develop the kind of program.
I think the industry makes a great deal of sense.
In effect, you take the offensive on this and don't let the government come in and try to push you.
We go the last way.
I agree with you on that.
I basically am a man of understanding.
And we are about to get you around.
Now, for example, we feel how far service needs more push to grow.
We are exactly what you recommended in June, our push to the part to grow more temple.
We did this in the South.
I left it with this caption.
A small rediscovery of our plans.
I know you're a busy man, but I assure you I'd love to have you look it over.
This will take you out of the old room as well as in a few ways.
I'm glad you're going to have such a far-sighted
Well, the South is a great part of this country, and I hope that we've done this administration a good job.
All right.
schools in which the majority of the children are white.
In the North, only 28% of all black children go to schools in which the majority of the children are white.
So in other words, the South, the people that have been kicking around for so many years, is doing a better job of trying to handle this terribly difficult problem in the North, because the South basically is a wall-binding part of this country.
That's what it really is.
The South, not only is it wall-binding, the South is also intensely patriotic.
The best support that I've had
The other thing about the South is this.
The idea is the South don't care about the beauty of the country and all the rest.
The South looked back for too long.
I think any Southerner would say that.
It was true when I was a kid, too, from 34 to 37.
I was looking back, 100 of us back.
But now today, the South not only looks back with such good pride to what it's accomplished and how it's served, it looks forward.
The South is moving in a very progressive way.
That's why it's attracting industry.
That's why it is
making, frankly, such an armistice.
You go to Atlanta and look at that city.
It's a great, bustling, powerful city.
And the reason is, the Southerners got on the ball.
And the result of these balls, we don't consider the South a second-rate, second-class part of the country, not necessarily.
I have some more things I want to tell you.
We've got a report that I might say to you, but it's going to get too late.
There are some in the Navy.
We have one of the finest naval air stations in the world, a Russian, really new player.
It's sitting pretty at the end.
But he's not a piece of it.
He's a line officer.
He's going on the Albany.
Yes, Albany.
See, it's a line officer.
You brought me here.
I brought you something to do.
A pine cone produces seeds for the growing trees.
This pine cone, I hope, will produce some seeds to grow in the natural forest.
So it's a type act that I want you to have.
You don't want to see it.
I have one there.
I very, I just hope you bring you one for me.
I'll change it.
It's so hard, but it's so nice and very nice.
Thank you so much.
You're on the seat.
We'll give you a lift.
Oh, thank you.
Oh, thank you.
I will.
I just want to tell you, I'm not going to let you use that gun for what you're getting.
That's right.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.