Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 469 › Conversation 469-004

Nixon & Shultz on Economic policy and John B. Connally

Thursday, March 18, 1971 · 4:46 PM–5:00 PM ET · Oval Office · 5 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Shultz, George P.Conversation469-004 on Tape 469 (tape position 00:14:51–00:20:44)StartThursday, March 18, 1971 at 4:46 PMEndThursday, March 18, 1971 at 5:00 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 469-004 ↗ · National Archives Catalog, NAID 417176223 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and George Shultz discuss the administration's economic management strategy, including the roles of Cabinet members and key economic advisors like Arthur Burns. They coordinate upcoming meetings with Treasury Secretary John Connally and review the effectiveness of the Domestic Council's economic subcommittee. Nixon emphasizes the need for patience regarding economic growth trends, tasking his team with evaluating the state of the economy by mid-April rather than reacting prematurely to monthly data fluctuations.

Audio

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NARA Description

On March 18, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and George P. Shultz met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 4:46 pm and 5:00 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 469-004 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 469-4

Date: March 18, 1971
Time: Unknown between 4:46 pm and 5:00 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President talked with George P. Shultz

     President’s schedule
          -Meeting with John B. Connally
                -Previous meeting with Arthur F. Burns
                -Connally

     Paul W. McCracken

     Cabinet members
          -George W. Romney
          -John A. Volpe
          -Maurice H. Stans

     Congress

     Burns

     Stans, McCracken

     Quadriad

     Domestic Council
         -Subcommittee on Economics
               -Attendees
                    -Burns
                    -James D. Hodgson, Stans, Romney

     Consumer Price Index briefing, March 19, 1971
         -Hodgson
         -Location

     Economy
         -Timing of improvement
              -President’s view

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 1 minute of this recording (about 12% 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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Yeah.
Yeah.
Hello.
Hi, Charlie.
I thought you should know I'm going to see John Connolly at quarter to five.
He's sitting at the top of the bar every day.
So we'll do a little conniving, and then we'll talk in the morning about where we're going from there.
But we won't make any decisions, but I just... John is pretty clever, if I heard what he's thinking.
I called on the phone just now.
I found that he was in a meeting.
He couldn't talk, so maybe it was the meeting, too.
And who's having it?
Oh, boy.
Oh, we're cracking it.
It's a part of the problem, George, is there, you know, some of those folks are very best of intentions, you know.
One of the part of things they don't know a hell of a lot about yet, you know what I mean?
They know only bits and pieces of it.
But, you know, around the end, around people, it's the same as part of the reason that Maury is sort of frustrated there in Congress.
But at meetings held by loose investigation officers.
Well, the best thing to do is to just find out directly from Sam what the codeine is on.
That's the situation for the board of a crack.
One last.
I'll get a hold of him and ask Sam.
That's the way to go.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, one thing, of course, as you know, we've had before, now we're down pretty much in the quadrant, but we haven't been.
That meeting of the Domestic Council was supposed to have a subcommittee on the, you know, on economics, but it has yet to meet, maybe for a while.
Maybe that's what they're talking about now.
Of course, that didn't include Arthur.
Yeah, that's the way it, on the other hand, on the other hand, too, Hodgson should be in such a way.
Remember, we had Hodgson's in the stands, we brought them home.
Yeah.
And Robinson said, what, that there were several meetings or one of these.
Indeed.
Power.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We'll have to find out.
We'll have to find out.
Well, anyway, who's got his abridging on Samaritan crisis next tomorrow?
I see.
I see.
Then have Hodgson ask, answer questions.
No, I know him.
Our friend over there.
Gold sign.
I think so.
Put a statement out and then come over here.
Well, this is also interesting.
There.
Well... Actually, you only have a couple of months.
My view is in a couple of months, when I say that, March, April, by April 15, it will take a harder look at the money.
If it should start to move, which it very well could, it could gallop ahead pretty good, couldn't it?
That's right.
Well, I have a concern, of course, that the economists quack, quack all they want to it.
just so things continue to move upwards some.
Now, we don't want to throw away the game plan just because of, let's say, one month, the month of February, right?
I'm referring to the growth side.
February's going to be down, and March is still out.
The jury's still out on it.
So about the 15th of April will be the time to do it.
Okay.

Also recorded on March 18, 1971

  • 469-001 4:42 PM · 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:42 pm to 4:46 pm.
  • 469-002 4:46 PM · 8 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Alexander P. Butterfield, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, and John D. Ehrlichman met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 4:46 pm and 5:00 pm.
  • 469-003 4:46 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 4:46 pm and 5:00 pm.
  • 469-005 5:00 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 5:00 pm and 5:03 pm.
  • 469-006 5:03 PM · 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Ronald H. Walker, and Rose Mary Woods met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 5:03 pm and 5:25 pm.
  • 469-007 5:04 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 5:04 pm and 5:25 pm.
  • 469-008 5:04 PM · 41 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 5:04 pm and 5:25 pm.
  • 469-009 5:25 PM · 58 min — President Richard M. Nixon, John B. Connally, and Rose Mary Woods met in the Oval Office of the White House from 5:25 pm to 6:22 pm.

All 13 conversations from March 18, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 469-004, March 18, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives (NAID 417176223). Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/469-004 (accessed October 31, 2026).