Nixon & Haldeman on Supersonic Transport (SST) and Aerospace industry

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I don't know what you're talking about.

Well, it never means that far.

Hey, what's this going to be?

I'm not going to take it on the other person.

.

How many would that be?

All right.

I don't know, Frank.

I don't know.

He's trying to work right inside.

So, I mean, has he seen everybody else?

I mean, there's a lot of people out here who want to know, so I mean, he's seen another lot.

Okay, maybe he's... Another man.

And I'll hurry him up.

Yeah.

They're concerned about going much, you know, running others too long.

It's one of those that you can go for six hours.

That's what we have been doing.

Yes, and our plan is for them as a group to go to the crowd staffer at the school.

Which we're going to have a lot to do with our people going there.

So, just so we know why we're going all out.

And our timing is successful.

Well, first, I don't think they will.

Second, if they did, there's no reason for us to have a bunch of guys come out and say we gave them everything we wanted.

They're just going to block them out.

Either way, I think it's just a well-earned investment.

We've been talking about the question of what we're going to do in California in some way, trying to take some steps on a broader basis than simply the SST, but to look like we're taking some leadership action in the space of technological scientific

areas because, of course, the SSD brings that much more focus on everybody's .

And in the debate between whether we should grandstand or whether we should have something substantive, I'm arguing for grandstanding.

There's concern that we shouldn't have a meeting unless we can actually accomplish something.

It seems to me that maybe at this point it's a good idea to have a meeting just to show we're having a meeting and that you're

worry about it, even though you don't have any answers.

If you're calling all the experts in to try to develop answers, you're correct.

And then, I mean, there's no answers.

See, all Schultz's other people don't understand that because they basically are so honest.

No, this is just Seattle.

It's a wake.

It'll be refocusing in Orange County if there's a concern.

And San Antonio County if there's a concern.

And on Frankston.

And it spreads across the country to Gee, but it might also be in other parts of the country, though.

So it seems to me we have a little time as well that we maybe ought to move on some this week while it's still on.

I don't know what the hell we can do if that's what they're working on.

We have some things in California that are better done.

It seems to me we can do the same right here.

Yeah, I think you could have them.

Back to the SST.

I don't think you just have a meeting.

No, sir.

You just have a meeting concerning the...

not unemployment on scientists, but aerospace.

It sort of cuts their head at SST.

Yeah, decats and everything else.

We've got a trend thing that they're looking at that I think is what was concerning you on the SST, that we've got to look at how those guys are smart on the SST victory.

They'll move fast to cut the space budget by a couple billion dollars or something.

And probably, and we'll do that.

Because on a popular basis, I don't think we had any support at all in the country for the SST.

There was no way to get it.

And the same with space now.

Out there reaching the moon, the space program has less than 50% support.

See, we're carrying two very tough roles.

We lost the pioneering technology now.

And now it's just hunger and

Is that any money?

We just have to fight for it the best we can.

If we lose it, we lose it.

We may be running against it.

I'll go take a look at this.

Then I'll get some markers.

You don't even want to blow it away.

And Anderson being at the top of the roll, must be really going to let that guy shut down any possible chance of a thing for that other golden marketer Cooper.

I'll have to pay in a moment.

Now this newspaper thing, they have a set of ways to make remarks.

I don't have any time for coming down there.

Let me see.

Client or preparer or somebody.

Just let me see Bob.

I mean, all handage is, you know, welcoming remarks.

We see we're going to easily change it.

Do you want to just walk in and say nothing else?

It's not a workshop.

.

They should know what you're doing.

Yeah, they're...

They're still...

They've still got... Discussing.

Doing the doom footage to show us what they're showing them.

What are they showing them?

What kind of footage?

Retreat.

I don't get it.

There's a story, you know, about setting up an artillery... Oh, I think I saw that.

...at EMC.

A story doesn't always just die immediately.

This one can't.

You know, their film takes two days.

So they'll get out.

Their stuff's always a couple days.

So they'll ride it through the weekend.

Once you get to next week, I don't know.

Unless they come across the DMZ here.

It's not likely.

But I think you can't do anything about a light play this week.

Yeah.

.

Is there any other scene, sir?

Yes.

It's been fired.

You can say it's lost.

Okay.

This idea of trying to get them to do some specific things, we got them pretty good.

In other words, instead of our reacting to them, throw some stuff at them and let them react to us.

It would be perfectly normal to be bothered.

The main problem, even in the universities of the present time, is teaching is so non-fulfilling that they don't give them enough to do.

I mean, if professors work, they know how to do it.

If they're scared, they know how to do it.

And they're excited and interested and they learn something.

But as it is, they're all, it's like the church today.

People used to go to church to get spiritual satisfaction.

Now they go there and want to hear about, what do we do about the ghetto?

And so people, you see my point?

And if the university is looked upon as primarily a place where kids go, where we be activists, then forget it.

They're not going to learn.

They're not going to be educated to get out.

Plus the fact that they don't, they've just been astonished.

Our daughter's in Sanford's home, and we have a friend of hers here in the University, and he's going to stay with us.

Both of them, it's absolutely clear, they don't have anything to do most of the time.

When I was in college, when you were, you worked your ass off.

I mean, I thought the problem was trying to get time to go to a boogie once in a while or something like that, or go to a dance.

And here, they have

Both of these kids are both so they don't have to work very hard.

They get all A's and they go to the lectures, but there isn't any work to do in between.

And she has to.

They only take 14 or 15 units, which means they only meet in not many class hours a week.

And they have dang little homework to do.

That's the curious thing.

She needs to do hours of work in the library.

She can't go to the library.

That's what I wondered about.

That was sort of the best thing we ever did.

You know, you learned the discipline of the library.

You learned a lot from it.

And it seems now that they don't have any of these pass-fail courses where they, you know, they work and in effect cop out.

And she wasn't feeling well one day.

It was the day of a final, so she called the professor.

And she didn't have to take the final.

And he gave her an A anyway.

And that's, to me, is utterly ridiculous.

She would have gotten an aid fund, but why the hell didn't she have to take it?

And if she was sick, why didn't she have to take it the next day?

And just call a professor.

Well, how did the boys feel about us?

I hope they're not too discouraged.

No, they're not.

They're not done about it.

What they're looking at is how we move now to position ourselves best.

And there is a strong feeling there, incidentally, which somebody may raise with me, that you should not cancel a California trip.

That you should go ahead and go simply because it looks good for you to be out in the country and that that's the way to be out without running arrest.

Yeah, which isn't the same thing.

I have a comment about what you've done.

What you've done on the facility there.

You can't set up a room and have meetings and working, running.

You're on a warming trend starting Monday.

Have you got a forecast beyond this one?

Because it might be worth looking at that.

If it's going to get good as the week goes on.

I mean, what's the, what's the, I think that's a, sounds like an argument for the purpose of making a trip, rather than an argument for the trip does the purpose.

There's several arguments.

One, that the trip does the purpose, because we did that.

We worked up, you know, a series of things that would have been damn good.

things out there and showing the booby industry concern, the aerospace industry concern, and we're working on an agriculture thing that I don't think would have worked out.

A couple others.

The question which is one we've got to be aware of, you can't bring your life by it, but you've got to be aware of is the use of the Western White House facility.

And the fact that we've gotten there that we ought to move the government to fairly frequently so that we justify staying there.

And I think somebody else has a question in the district of Ferris City.

We have the SST vote, and they don't take the trip that you were going to take.

Why do they announce it?

The public doesn't know.

The press here doesn't know.

Because we were working with groups out there.

You can certainly explain.

We had not scheduled any events.

You can certainly explain to the press because of the weather.

I can put it in the street if you want to do that.

I didn't get too much flack off of the press.

I mean, there's nobody out there that worries too much about the little things and not enough about the big things.

Nobody in the country is aware that they're going to worry about the big things and not too much about the little things.

The big things are not really affecting how we feel and all that sort of thing.

It's not just running around spinning our wheels for purposes.

That's all.

That's the chariot.

PR games.

Are they leaving?

We know for sure the 7th or 8th.

We don't know for sure.

But their plan is to adjourn on the 7th, the Congress, or to recess in both houses, which is a Wednesday.

As I understand it, they meet on Wednesday.

They do not meet on Thursday.

They will then be gone that, the balance of that week, which leads to Easter that Sunday.

It's the 11th, you know.

And then the Senate reconvenes on the 14th, which is one week after they recess.

The Senate will be in session, the House will not.

That's right.

The House does not come back until the 19th or 20th.

Monday or Tuesday.

That's a very good reason for doing it.

It's true.

I would like to do it, but I don't want to do it while the house is gone.

The reaction afterwards, that's the purpose.

I might have to do it.

I think you may have to do it Monday.

Tuesday.

Tuesday, you're the OAS.

I'm not OAS.

It's Tuesday.

This is vehicle six, that's the only way back.

We can still, in a way it's better to have them out, we can still get, we can program reaction and get the ones we want.

with advance notice and we can say we're doing it while they're here.

I was thinking of a day afterwards of having the valedictorian day would be Tuesday and then you can come and make a few reactions on Wednesday and then leave.

But the hell with the congressional reaction.

We promised we'd get the adverse reaction too.

We're doing it this way.

We can get the adverse reaction anyway, but better off not.

It's harder for them than very much some of our people here, you know what I mean?

I think Wednesday's the best we can do.

That's right.

That is going to have a massive impact anyway.

It's going to be, it's sort of a slow bottoming out process, not a back up thing, because it is, you're not, that's right, you're going to do a little more than they expect, but not enough more that it's going to, you're not going to have to anticipate so then any different things of whatever you do is going to be, well, it's mainly just semi-distance.

Well, it's mainly getting the views through to the people of what you're doing again.

You get a view through to the people and also at least silence for a while those who say, well, you're not going to have another withdrawal.

I mean, they created that a frame.

You don't have one for a year.

You really haven't received one in the other 150,000.

But it's not going to have much of an effect.

And we aren't going to see much of an effect on the columnists and pundits and stuff.

And the effect is a direct personal effect on people.

You're talking to a hell of a lot of them.

Would you say that will have an effect on people?

A lot of people will be reminded of the fact that it is being visible in all those groups.

And that will have an effect.

We're not concerned about affecting columns, but it will have some effect on people.

Not a massive, but significantly significant.

Although we didn't sell it.

I'm afraid this physical thing may be listening to a barring.

That'd make it bad.

It really isn't.

It used to be bad.

It's not a problem.

Well, apparently it had just recently come upon it because it's been called the I.A.L.

Hernia.

In just a few days, you'd be scared.

You know, one of those things.

I.A.L.

Hernia.

I was playing the same.

They vary, but he killed him, for sure.

Might have killed him anyway.

They killed him better off than he killed him.

But you know, doing something, yeah, doing that.

I'm not sure I get the California argument.

Well, I see your point.

It's been announced, so we can't split.

That may be the best thing, just go to Florida this weekend.

Why don't you put it on the base until it's raining out there?

No.

Well, there's always a little rain on Saturday.

It's pretty goddamn cold, though.

It's very warm, and it's 64 degrees.

No, probably 63, 65 on Saturday.

It's 68 to 71 on Sunday and Monday and Sunday.

Question?

I mean, that was one factor.

They were weighing all the factors.

It was mainly the positive thing of it's a good thing to be out there.

Yeah.

Gives the attention away from here.

Gets you doing props.

To be frank, I thought it would be greeted with a feeling that it was better for you not to be going at it.

You can't win.

No, you don't.

Maybe you shouldn't.

You know what?

It's about the main thing.

It's not a new law.

It's a new law.

You know what I mean?

We all do that.

We all spend more time on these details that don't matter, and not enough of the things that do.

So what the hell?

We decided to do what we feel like.

You brought in the fact that they told the press.

I have never told the press anything.

I just believe that we've got to keep my running room.

I don't say there feels he's got to let the military police defend something.

He called me yesterday.

It's today, isn't it?

go on Wednesdays or Friday departures.

Which is, that's all he ever does.

He holds them, and they, see they already picked it up.

As soon as we start exploring anything, they get, they, their antennae go up.

I could go out for maybe four or five days.

I don't care to spend any time out there, frankly, unless the weather's good.

And even 70 degrees, the beach is goddamn cold.

I know.

That's what it was in December.

What would you think of going out Friday?

Yeah, we could do that.

But don't go off your floor.

No, and go reasonably light, and then do the rest on good sex, press on Tuesday.

Yeah, and Peter, come back.

We're going to Florida for weather staff.

Go down to Florida, we're going to State.

And be a couple of days in the afternoon, California, where you can cover the weather there.

And they've got to get rid of their houses and all that sort of thing.

Yeah, they don't have houses to make for this state of the town.

back here, and I think I will want to library, I can't name it anyway, and have to hold up somewhere where I can sleep, so yes, and yes, yes.

And if the weather's decent, current's good there, you can stay there, if it doesn't even come back.

This is almost a century's time.

Infinity, almost a century.

It's getting cooler.

It goes down to 70 on Monday.

No.

You've got waters.

You've put in the water there about any time from the beginning of this time of year.

73.

April.

April on the water is 70 degrees or more.

73.

Yeah.

It's warmer in the outside.

Yeah.

That's not true.

That's what we feel in the ocean out there.

Oh, I do worry about it.

to satisfy everybody who's going out there for three or four days and coming back.

It's not a bad idea to get the press conference out there working.

It's a long trip.

Well, it's a long trip for only three or four days.

Well, it's more than that, actually.

It's five days.

But if you did the press conference out there... On Tuesday.

I think I did it on Tuesday.

Then you ought to do a thing on Monday.

We do the press thing Tuesday, and I'm going to do it Monday.

I don't want to do something on the aerospace thing or something like that.

We've got to do it half-person.

No, do it on Monday morning, then get it over with.

Yeah.

It's getting easier to work with the press thing.

Do it Tuesday.

After the press thing, you can do things together, you know?

You can do something Tuesday afternoon.

You can do something Monday morning.

Monday, what I mean by narrow spacing, you're not trying to trigger anything, are you?

No.

It's been being in conferences sometimes where you bring some people in on a pure symbolism or an hour to talk to them, and you spend a little time, seven hours meeting with them.

Why don't you do that?

Good idea, 11 o'clock meeting.

We'll be ending at 11.

Well, we can still gimmick that sample a little bit, which is another... Saturday.

Or Saturday.

And you first get there.

Just do that Saturday morning and then lay off for the weekend.

Alright, Saturday's going to be bad weather anyway, so... How'd you do the aerospace team or something like that on Saturday?

I won't leave it on.

It all went on.

Let's do Goldwing Saturday.

Yes, sir.

I'll put this back on.

I'll let you know.

I better hold them up on cancel.

We shouldn't start wavering back and forth.

I thought of putting it back on.

I better hold up on cancel.

We should cancel this afternoon.

She said this morning.

She'll get a phone to hold up on the cancel.

I'll make a decision at 3 o'clock today.

Okay.

I think that's about right.

Nixon & Haldeman on Supersonic Transport (SST) and Aerospace industry

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NARA Description

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Transcript (AI-generated)

Also recorded on March 25, 1971

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Nixon & Haldeman on Supersonic Transport (SST) and Aerospace industry

AI Summary

Audio

NARA Description

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Transcript (AI-generated)

Also recorded on March 25, 1971

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