Conversation 483-019

TapeTape 483StartTuesday, April 20, 1971 at 4:20 PMEndTuesday, April 20, 1971 at 5:14 PMTape start time03:51:47Tape end time04:42:28ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob");  Mitchell, John N.;  Dean, John W., III;  White House photographer;  Ziegler, Ronald L.;  [Unknown person(s)];  White House operator;  Morrison, SueRecording deviceOval Office

On April 20, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, John N. Mitchell, John W. Dean, III, White House photographer, Ronald L. Ziegler, unknown person(s), White House operator, and Sue Morrison met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:20 pm to 5:14 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 483-019 of the White House Tapes.

Conversation No. 483-19

Date: April 20, 1971
Time: 4:20 pm - 5:14 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with H.R. (“Bob”) Haldeman, John N. Mitchell, and John W. Dean, III; the
White House photographer was present at the beginning of the meeting

     Supreme Court decision on busing

           -Questions
           -Chief Justice Warren Burger
           -Administration's school aid program
           -Impact
           -Approach
                 -Take credit or distance administration
           -Implications
                 -Local options
           -Statement

     Mitchell's trip

     Photo

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[Previous PRMPA Personal Returnable (G) withdrawal reviewed under deed of gift 02/07/2020.
Segment cleared for release.]
[Personal-Returnable]
[483-019-w006]
[Duration: 44s]

       John N. Mitchell’s house
              -Charles G. (“Bebe”) Rebozo

       John N. Mitchell’s trip
              -Fishing
                     -Bonefish

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     Supreme Court decision on school busing

     Mitchell's visitors

     Supreme Court decision on busing
          -Implications
               -De jure
          -Application
               -Los Angeles County case

      -De jure
      -Gerrymandering
-Unanimity
      -Burger
-Implications
      -Racial balance
            -Necessity
-Opinion
-Charlotte-Mecklenburg case
-Incidents of racial balance
      -Walter F. Mondale
      -Abraham A. Ribicoff
-Guidelines
-Equity proceedings
-Dual school systems
-Previous decisions
-Neighborhood schools
-Desegregation/racial balance
-Non-contiguous school districts
-Charlotte-Mecklenburg case
-Future impact
-General principle
      -Resegregation
      -Washington, DC
-Possible effect on South
      -Cities
      -Neighborhood schools
      -School districts
      -The courts
-Department of Health, Education, and Welfare [HEW]
-National Association for the Advancement of Colored People [NAACP]
      -Jack Greenberg
      -Joe Brown
-Elliot L. Richardson
      -Power under Title VI
      -School districts
            -Compliance under court order
      -Procedure
-HEW "zealots"
      -Non-contiguous districts
      -Racial balance
-Whitten amendment

          -State legislatures
          -Racial balance

Ronald L. Ziegler was present at an unknown time after 4:20 pm.

          -Leonard Garment and Dean
          -Administration's legislative proposals
          -Possible administration statement
               -Local school board responsibility
               -Local school authorities
               -District courts
               -HEW
               -De facto segregation
               -White House involvement
          -Possible comment by the President
               -President’s view
               -Burger
          -Administration's position
               -Resignation to court decision
          -Possible administration statement
               -Spending for busing
               -Administration’s attitude
          -Ziegler's possible statement
               -Possible wording
               -Changes
                      -Local school authorities and district courts
                      -Compliance with Court's mandate
               -Possible public effects
                      -Conveys administration’s attitude
               -Burden on local school authorities and district courts
               -Justice Department/HEW
          -Ziegler's possible statement
               -Local school district obligations
               -District Courts
               -HEW/Justice Department
               -Public interpretation
               -Compliance with the law
          -Administration's position
               -Obligation to follow law of the land
               -Local school districts and district court responsibilities
          -Ziegler's possible statement
               -Federal enforcement procedure requirements

          -HEW/Justice statutory responsibilities
     -Federal role
          -Edward L. Morgan
          -HEW's responsibilities
          -Redrawing of school district lines
          -Administration's policy
                 -Arguments/controversies
          -HEW's position
     -Ziegler's possible statement
          -President’s view
                 -President's statement March 24, 1970
                 -Law of the land
                 -Constitutional precepts
                 -President's statements on busing, neighborhood schools
          -Law of the land
          -Justice/HEW's statutory responsibilities
          -Local school district and district courts responsibilities
          -Justice/HEW powers
                 -Whitten amendment
                 -President’s March 24, 1970 statement
                 -Desegregation of school systems
          -Context
          -Law of the land
          -Administration's position
          -Press conference
          -Law of the land
          -Context
          -Compliance
          -Enforcement of desegregation
          -Local districts/district courts
          -Relevance of past decisions
          -Law of the land

The President's schedule, April 21, 1971
     -Meeting with Graham B. Steenhoven
          -US table tennis team
     -Vice President Spiro T. Agnew

Supreme Court decision on school busing
     -Burger
The President's schedule
     -Picture of the President and Mitchell

               -Phyllis Slocum [sp?]
          -Meeting with Republican Senators

     Desegregation
          -Burger

Haldeman and Dean left at 4:42 pm.

Ziegler left at an unknown time before 4:59 pm.

     Supreme Court decision on school busing
          -De facto segregation
               -Ruling
          -Dual school systems
          -The South
          -The President's position
          -Garment
          -Hypocrisy
          -Opinions within administration
               -Richard A. Moore
               -Public reaction

     The President's schedule, April 18, 1971
          -Drive through Washington with Julie Nixon Eisenhower

     Supreme Court
          -Possible resignations
          -Burger
          -John Marshall Harlan
               -Tenure
               -Mitchell's conversation with Burger
               -Herbert Brownell
               -Burger
          -Republican
          -Harlan
          -Burger
               -Hill case
               -Legal opinions
          -William O. Douglas
          -Hugo L. Black
          -Thurgood Marshall
               -Health

Mitchell's trip to Florida
     -Meeting with Marshall and Whitney M. Young, Jr.

Florida
      -President's meeting with American Society of Newspaper Editors [ASNE], April 16,
            -Mitchell and Charles G. (“Bebe”) Rebozo's call to the President
            -Television

Influence of television
      -Impact on nation
      -President's speech on Southeast Asia, April 7, 1971
      -Lieutenant William L. Calley, Jr. case
      -President's visit to California
      -Laos
      -President's speech on Vietnam
      -President's People's Republic of China [PRC] initiative
            -Significance
                  -”Doves”
            -Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR]
      -Economic report
      -Stock market
            -Rise
            -Number of stockholders

National mood
     -Psychology
     -Mitchell's meeting with Lee R. Nunn
     -Nunn's trip to Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois, West Coast
           -Popular attitude towards the President
           -Columnists
     -Polls
     -Press corps

The President's meeting with John L. McClellan
     -McClellan's views regarding the President's supporters
          -Democrats
     -McClellan's support for the President
          -Mrs. Norma McClellan

The President's schedule

          -James O. Eastland

     Eastland
           -James C. Wright

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[Previous PRMPA Privacy (D) reviewed under deed of gift 02/11/2020. Segment cleared for
release.]
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[483-019-w003]
[Duration: 8s]

       James O. Eastland
             -James C. Wright
                     -Personal habits
                            -Drinking
                                    -John N. Mitchell’s opinion

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     James O. Eastland
          -Support for the President
               -Votes

An unknown person entered at an unknown time after 4:42 pm.

     Refreshments

The unknown person left at an unknown time before 4:59 pm.

     Jack N. Anderson

Haldeman entered at an unknown time after 4:42 pm.

     The President's schedule
          -Meeting with Eastland and Roman L. Hruska
               -Mitchell
               -Executive Office Building [EOB]
               -Hugh Scott

     Scott

     Eastland
           -Louisiana
           -Support for the President

     Southern Democrats
          -Eastland
          -McClellan
          -Richard B. Russell
          -Spessard L. Holland
          -David H. Gambrell
          -Lawton M. Chiles, Jr.

     Republicans
         -McClellan's criticism

     Schedule
          -Upcoming meeting with Republican Senators
          -Supreme Court decision of school busing

     The President's schedule, April 21, 1971
          -Morning
          -Afternoon

     Mitchell's schedule, April 21, 1971
          -Secretary Sue Morrison

The President talked with the White House operator at an unknown time between 4:42 pm and
4:59 pm.

[Conversation No. 483-19A]

[See Conversation No. 2-13]

[End of telephone conversation]

     The President's schedule, April 21, 1971

The President talked with Sue Morrison between 4:59 pm and 5:01 pm.

[Conversation No. 483-19B]

[See Conversation No. 2-14]

[End of telephone conversation]

     The President's schedule
          -Meeting with Steenhoven
          -Mitchell
          -Meeting with national 4-H Club leaders
          -Meeting with Henry A. Kissinger

     Morrison
          -Maiden name

     Harry S. Dent
          -Schedule
          -Location

     Supreme Court decision on school busing
          -Impact
               -Supreme Court
               -The South
          -HEW
               -Possible shake-up
               -Elliot L. Richardson
               -Robert H. Finch
               -John G. Veneman
               -Lewis H. Butler
               -Unknown name
               -Order
               -Morgan
               -Dean
               -Morgan
                     -Requirements
               -President's position
               -Butler
               -Bureaucracy
               -Richardson
               -Finch
               -Richardson’s possible response
                     -Non-contiguous zoning
                     -Busing

           -Administration’s position
               -School authorities' obligations
               -Plans for District Courts
               -HEW
                     -Plans for school districts
                     -Consultant role

Mitchell's schedule, April 21, 1971
     -HEW
            -Richardson
     -Meeting with the President
            -Richardson
            -John D. Ehrlichman
            -Timing
            -Richardson
            -Ehrlichman

Supreme Court decision on school busing
     -Possible administration initiatives
          -Leadership on issue
          -Credit for decision
          -Blacks

Southern blacks
     -Support for administration
           -1968 election
     -White liberals
     -Possible response to Supreme Court decision on busing

Desegregation
     -Effect of integration on black colleges
     -Black schools
     -Black teachers
     -Separate society
     -Gradualism

Supreme Court decision on school busing
     -President's position
           -Staff meeting
           -Law
           -Demagoguery
     -Instructions for Ziegler

     The President's schedule
          -Upcoming photo with Mitchell
     The President's schedule, April 21, 1971
          -Meeting with Haldeman and Mitchell

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[Previous PRMPA Personal Returnable (G) withdrawal reviewed under deed of gift 02/07/2020.
Segment cleared for release.]
[Personal Returnable]
[483-019-w004]
[Duration: 23s]

      The President’s schedule, April 21, 1971
             -Meeting with H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman and John N. Mitchell
                    -Politics
                            -Finance
                            -Questions
                                   -John N. Mitchell
                    -Discussion prior to meeting
                            -Dean Burch

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An unknown man entered at an unknown time after 5:01 pm.

     The President's schedule
          -Picture with Mitchell

The unknown man left at an unknown time before 5:14 pm.

     The President's schedule

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[Previous PRMPA Personal Returnable (G) withdrawal reviewed under deed of gift 02/07/2020.
Segment cleared for release.]
[Personal Returnable]

[483-019-w005]
[Duration: 32s]

       The President’s schedule
              -April 22, 1971
              -Time for discussion of unknown subject
              -Harry S. Dent [?]

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The President, Mitchell, and Haldeman left at 5:14 pm

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.

I guess we are on the same line, I'm just saying.
Well, should we not use this?
Uh, no.
This is the one I think it is.
There's some questions there.
Number one, we should not hang on to Chief Justice.
Number two,
that we want to be identified with our school aid program.
This may or may not be a plus.
So it all depends on how you want to approach this.
Whether you want to take credit for the court decision or whether you want to say the court has decided that now it's up to the school boards to implement it.
Is this yours?
Yeah.
Is that how I got it?
Yeah.
Press the Q button.
How are you?
Not fine.
Well, you have a good trip, I hope.
Yes, we do.
Sit down over here.
We're going to sit here because they want to take a picture of us and size the day.
You come back and you've got the goddamn bussing.
I understand.
That's nice.
We have that and a few other things.
And a few people visiting us in Washington.
I don't mind the visitors, but the bussing.
Maybe before you get together, you want to settle the bussing thing.
Ron said, yeah, I don't mind that guy.
So, Ron, what are you doing?
Really, Mr. President, I think that you can't just not be boring.
Well...
Is it covered in jury?
That's the big one.
That's right.
It's a jury case, not a de facto case.
It would not apply necessarily in California.
No, it would not be a case unless you found someone...
and the dexterity of action there, which is the location of schools, or gerrymandering, deltox, things like that.
But really, as you can imagine, the unanimous decision to have the Chief Justice write the opinions, you know, it was a hell of a lot of negotiations going into this, and Congress has come out of it.
The important thing is that we are not faced with this de facto question.
And we are not faced with racial balance.
Why not?
I thought it had racial balance in it.
No, it says racial balance is not a necessity.
They did say in the opinion, which was the Charlotte Mecklenburg thing, that the district judge could consider as one of the ways of accommodating this, the incidence of racial violence, and then went on to say that it wasn't a racial violence case because he didn't come out with racial violence.
But a racial balance is not a legal requirement.
That's what really Mondale and Rivikoff were opting for in their pitch up in the
the basis of it that you interrupted just a minute, John, is that they have put the cases in the nature of an equity proceeding in the courts, where the courts are to use their equity powers to make sure that in these dual school systems that they are desegregated, and where the
goes further than has been thought of in the context of previous decisions and the activities of desegregation.
They specifically rule out neighborhood schools.
And they specifically say that if it's necessary in this equitable procedure to obtain desegregation, say with desegregation instead of racial balance, you should use non-continuous school districts.
So those are really the two areas where they've gone further than what we have been opting for.
And of course, as they point out in the Charlotte Mecklenburg case, they used more busting before to keep the school district segregated than they did to desegregate it so that they couldn't complain about the requirement of busting in order to bring about a desegregation.
As a matter of fact, which is important for the future, well, there's one other general principle they laid down, and that has to do with the fact that once you, quote, desegregate a school business district, you're not required every year to keep some semblance of racial balance that you brought about in your desegregation.
and that you're not required to worry about re-segregation, which is one of the problems of .
So that the general principle of that is that you don't have this constant .
And the net effect of it is, according to our early assessment, is that probably the majority of the school districts in the South would be in compliance with this
that are some of the major cities that are not.
And this is where the major problems will come.
Because they stake in the neighborhoods rules and continue to result in moving discussions back and forth as to whether to desegregate it or should go further.
And of course, depending upon the nature of the case,
five or six hundred school districts in the south are still in the courts under court orders where the courts will now take this decision as a guideline and come up with new plans or modified plans for the fall term in 71.
Those are supposed to be pretty drastic, I think.
I don't believe too many of them.
We haven't made an analysis on them.
But I think where the pinch will come upon us is if HEW starts to decide, and I notice that both Jack Greenberg of the NAACP and Joe Brown in their statements about the decision,
Both of them went to the fact that now Richardson's got the powers under the title of Secretary of the Party.
Does he have the powers?
No.
Well, he has the power.
If a school district is not in compliance with the court order, he has a procedure by which he's supposed to cut off funds.
Yes.
We haven't done that, and this is what they're trying to do is force us to a new position.
So as I said, the important political aspect and practical aspect of this is to make sure that the zealots over in HEW just don't run down and start redrawing every damn line and make it non-continuous in order to get more racial balance.
That's where our problems will come.
Also, by the court reflection all over the place on the subject matter, the net result of the opinions of my initial reading is that the witness amendment is out.
You cannot hide behind a witness amendment.
You just cannot.
Or can state legislatures.
legislate in the area against busting a racial balance and anything like this if they are required to carry out a desegregation plan and elimination of the dual school system.
Yeah.
And you just don't say anything about it.
It's too complicated.
Well, I've got one other point which you have to say something.
Well, I don't think so.
There's one other point that has been made by John, which the more I think of it, the more I'm against, and that is the tightness decision with your legislation.
It's up there.
It's not against the legislation, but along the decision.
Well, then so, then we should have decided.
If a statement is required, there is, in my opinion, a simple approach to it.
I'm going to start off with two initial premise.
Number one, the court has acted, and it is now the responsibility of the local school courts and district courts to carry it out.
Now, if we say the court has acted, this will mean that we don't particularly care about the decision.
We can start that introduction in a different way and say this landmark decision has come down from the court.
In other words, never.
The court is active.
We're doing it reluctantly.
The court is active, and then we go on to the point that it's now the obligation.
Just say that now that the court is active, it is the obligation of all concerned to all the... Let's get the local school authorities and the district courts in there and get them away from us, because that's what... That's the obligation of the local school districts.
The local school authorities, the local school authorities, the local school authorities in the district courts carried out the demand.
No, they tried to pressure you on H-E-W.
In other words, you don't think it's a great decision.
It's not a landmark decision.
We're not interested in anything.
It's a terrible decision, actually.
Well, as I know they felt they had to go this far in order to get around this job.
Well, it's a great decision in some respects to get away from that day of faculty.
They could have been worse.
But I think any possible... We don't, from the White House, have to get into any degree of discussion on the aspects of the... Well, I don't even have to handle that.
But what they're looking for from the White House, and we'll press on, is
Okay, this is a Supreme Court unanimous decision.
What is the President's view of it?
Was he pleased by the decision that... Oh, Warren Burger?
I'm not pleased with this decision.
No, I'm not pleased with this decision.
The court has acted in a judge's face.
That's it.
We're resigning.
So, you didn't hear that, did you?
No, I didn't hear that.
Well, let's all do that, too.
I can count on you for a day or a while until someone...
Do we respond to that?
And would you go back and look at that statement, Ron?
I think you were pointing out that we fudged that enough.
It's fudged from the degree that I just read it, which is the president
It does not feel that money should be spent on buses and so forth in order to achieve racial balance.
There are more important things to spend money on.
So if there's a great area to move... Well, this has not covered the fact of the thing.
What I want you to do is to just...
I want you to, depending on how you're advocating the pleasure of this decision, approval of this decision, only the fact that the College of Courts actually did something wrong.
So just put it that way.
The first paragraph of this, can I just read this to you and see what the impression is?
What is the reaction, Sigler?
The Supreme Court's decision represents an important clarification of the law relating to the disaggregation of the dual school
justice of the court and court's unanimous opinion will, of course, be followed by the executive branch.
Period.
I don't think we need either of those two in the first sentence at all.
Because now that the court is active, it means that you're not going to make...
I would simply say that the Court is active in this field, and that's that.
Now that the Court is active in this matter, it's important that the limited number of
The districts that are not in compliance with the courts will move through the local school authorities of the district courts to comply with the court's decision.
That shows that we're, number one, not in a- Move through the appropriate, what did you say, move through the-
Well, your hospital statement was a lot better from something coming out of here, John.
It says the same thing.
You just said the court is now acting as the obligation of the local school authorities and the district courts to carry out an intent.
That's the other subject.
I like that better.
It is now the obligation of the local school authorities to carry out an intent.
Now, that local school is a local school.
You don't see it in the district courts.
Well, Mr. President, the city said so.
And actually, most of these districts are under the jurisdiction of these courts.
All right.
The local schools are under the district courts, which have jurisdiction in this matter, to investigate that matter.
Carried out the mandate of the court.
Carried out the mandate of the court.
As this will have the effect, number of effects, number one, it'll be construed as we're not happy with the decision, which I think is correct.
Number two, it'll point out the fact that the court
has placed the burden and responsibility on local school authorities and district courts and not here in the Justice Department or in HEW to see what this has done.
This court has decided, in your opinion, does deal with that particular problem rather than what the District Department or the HEW just deals with this.
This, no, when it started, this court's decision, the court's decision, I should say this, that we first recognized relates to the obligations of local school districts and district courts.
This language that you're leaning in with is going to be interpreted as
the federal government's not going to do anything.
What you're doing is mitigating the one substance that you've always had in your statements, and that is the law of the way it should be.
And that was the third point that I made in that short statement there.
I think what you said was striking first.
That's all for your guidance.
But I think that the, as the President has said, now the court is active.
The court is active.
What is this, the U of M?
Now the President has said now the court is active.
This is the obligation of everybody concerned.
The expulsion of the land is very important.
Now the court is active.
This is the law of the land.
There's that view coming from it.
That's right.
It's the responsibility of the whole school district.
I don't understand the point that you want me to make at the end.
If I'm asked, well, are you saying by this statement that it's the law of the land, it's an obligation to local school districts and district courts to carry out the mandate, are you saying there's no federal enforcement procedure required here?
Well, uh...
I think Ron, for your purposes, to just say, well, of course, ATW, Justice Department, will continue to carry out their statutory responsibilities.
I'm trying to get into a dialogue as to where they are.
Well, this doesn't modify any of the steps, Roy.
This is acceptable and clearly acceptable.
There's no limitation on the floor or discretion.
Yeah, I see.
All right.
Is that right?
Correct.
It does not modify what Justice Ritchie does.
Yeah, well, let's understand one thing, Bob.
You're to get Richardson in.
Needs to be told who was to handle this board market.
The evidence is published.
It's gone now.
All right.
Whoever it is, whoever should be assigned on this, I mean, is to watch out.
ATW is not to do anything in this field except what is ultimately required, right?
That's what you want.
And this is what we're going to have to do.
If they start down here redrawing all these lines, we're just going to get them over this situation and send this to this one, that one, and the next one.
We've just got to stay away from it as far as we can and let the courts, the school authorities do their own.
Now we're going to obviously get into some arguments and controversies and physically.
So I have the idea is not to have AGW out in front of the target.
I would like to suggest that the President doesn't have to be pleased or displeased with the decision of the Supreme Court.
That's what I can take.
Of course, I don't comment on Supreme Court decisions as being
Good decisions or bad decisions.
Once the decisions are made, they're the law of the land.
He referred to his April 24 statement, or March 24, where he didn't analyze the law.
He didn't make any commentary on it.
The Supreme Court has the final determination as to what the law of the land is.
It's not the court's fault.
This is the law of the land.
And he said that they did stick with the constitutional precepts here.
Is that true?
Oh, sure.
I know it's hard.
I'm not afraid of it.
I'm not afraid of it.
I'm not afraid of it.
John, how does this compare with what the president said about busing and how does this compare with what the mayor of the school said about busing?
In discussing this with the president and the attorney general, nothing is going to be stirred by going back and discussing what the president said in terms of analyzing the laws that existed before.
This is the law of the land and will be the law of the land.
There were
Watch the Supreme Court is spoken at.
He's the law of the land.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
I believe in it.
Well, they say, well, now what about your obligation?
I think you can say that this, well, you've got to remember this specific case, I think you should say, does deal with, doesn't deal with the Justice Department of the H.E.W.
You're not going to respect their powers other than so far as it gets into the application of a witness, but...
If there was a line that I could throw in there, would you feel it?
Well, if I could say that the President, as he pointed out in his March statement, very clearly indicated that his record is long then, that he is for desegregation in the school system and for desegregation occurring within our society.
In other words, to make a statement like that would take a little combativeness out of them.
I see no reason to.
That, Ron, that gets into the context.
It borrows trouble.
This is not about that.
I mean, desegregation, I know it's hard.
I know the Constitutional Act is collective.
But my point is, I think the idea that this is the law of the land, there have been differences of opinions in the past on this matter,
Now the court has spoken, this is the law of the land, it's up to everybody to pay the law of the land, just as simple as possible, period.
And I got to hear, I just simply say that's always our position.
The law of the land must have been finally determined, must be faithfully executed and carried out by all concerned.
It's the idea, this is what I was saying this morning, that I wasn't going to comment on it because we haven't had a chance to look at it.
Well, they'll say now we haven't had a chance to look at it.
I said, quite frankly, yes, it's our decision.
that there have been a variety of opinions in the past, and nothing would be served by talking about the past.
It's the law of the land, and it's up to everyone to... Ron, by the extent of that short statement with the contents of it, you get both sides.
But now that the Court has spoken, everyone has to say, well, that's that day of Supreme Court again.
The Court's hard for that, and yet you go on to the point that it is the law of the land, you have to comply with it, so that may put you on the side of those who are going to enforce desegregation.
Now that the court has acted in obligation to the by-election hall, just that you start with that, now that the court has acted in the obligation of all concerned to the local districts, District 4, yeah, just go over this, we don't get into all other concerns and so forth, but what about the decisions that have passed, what about the meetings that have passed, those are not relevant.
I mean, the President, as the President has always said,
Once the court is active, that's the law.
Who?
Who?
Stein?
Oh, is he coming in?
The manager?
Yes, sir.
Is that clear to the vice president?
Yes.
I know exactly what you mean.
The difficulty, John, as we all know, is that we should never have started down this miserable road.
And I think it's worth it to have this choice.
Sir, I thought you knew that we're running straight to the end of your meeting.
What side are you on?
I didn't know that you were going to find movies in there.
All right.
When you read the question, I wonder what was on the picture of the Attorney General.
Well, the Attorney General has spoken, but the only difficulty is we'll have to do it at 5 o'clock because of those bad senators coming in here.
So if I go back, we can have a picture.
Yeah, we'll take it.
I'll step out there.
If I go back, I was going to say, we all know John, just to try to see this room, is that old band.
And this desegregation has been bad.
Not everybody knows it, but you can't turn it around.
And so burgers have to go along with it, I understand.
But I want to press the part of us that's present, that if they had gotten into this state, thank God for that.
We have all the country.
Well, they didn't get a chance to get into it, did they?
Oh, yes.
They took copies of it.
Did they?
Yes.
Did they specifically rule it out, did they?
Oh, yes, they did.
Oh.
Well, that's good.
But I don't see... Good, good.
I don't see how they could waffle from it.
Just take a look at the... You can see it, right?
What they did, I believe, was in connection with other kinds of governmental action.
The dual school system is not very effective.
The dual system.
I get it.
In other words, they're in the South, basically.
I agree with everybody that doesn't have anything to do with this other stuff.
You know, really, I mean, as I said, we had in government and some of the other bills over here were the best, and they shouldn't have me talking about a landmark decision, grave decision, Supreme Court.
No, sir.
I don't, first of all, how can they be so hypocritical?
I don't believe it.
I would agree with that, but we started cutting that out early this morning.
They're all that way, you know.
Let's get out in front and take advantage of it.
This is our desegregation program.
There isn't any votes.
What the Christ are they talking about?
I'm talking about people like Dick Moore and people like this that get out in front.
Yeah.
This is our program?
Yes.
Oh, well, on the theory that now that the court has decided, we ought to get the credit for it.
Credit?
Jesus Christ, the country will solemnly be up in arms about this.
You agree?
I'm sure they will.
And, incidentally, a lot of other people in the country.
And, you know, you go around, John, you drive around.
I worked here around Washington Sunday with the Jews this year.
Sure, there were hostilities going on in the country.
Jesus Christ, I mean, I think this is gross, but it is awful.
White's are bad enough, but it is unbelievable.
And to take a nice, clean, white, little, five, six-year-old girl and put her in a school like that?
Well...
No, sir.
I must say, there's no chance any more of those judges are going to resign.
We haven't heard of any yet, but Warren keeps his ear to the ground up there, but he doesn't sign any readings.
You know, Harlow's going to have to go.
That's important.
It's too bad.
I mean, he laughed at the Dewey thing when I saw him.
You know, he just looks like Ed walked over, doesn't he?
Absolutely.
Because I don't know why he doesn't set himself on fire if he handles those cigarettes and matches.
I'll tell you what, why doesn't he move on?
He really should.
I don't know.
He better give us a crack at that one because, you know what I mean?
I've talked to Warren, but he ought to move.
I think that Warren does, and he said that at the right moment, he's got to speak slowly.
Excuse me, Warren didn't say that.
Warren said that he would talk to Herb Brownell about it.
Herb would know.
Well, Herb, of course, was close to Harlan.
Put him in there.
And Warren and Berger thought that it would be better to Herb Brownell talk to him.
That's right.
We've got to do it at this standpoint.
We've got to get one Republican judge in that damn place.
Another Republican judge.
I mean, that isn't innocent, but at least it holds one.
But certainly, you know, Keenan Harlan has some peculiar ideas in some of these areas.
Yeah, he says it was the law that was tearing him away from our philosophy.
I know.
I remember he was against us in the Hill case, but nevertheless,
He's a little bit offbeat.
Yeah, he's a little bit ragged.
Particularly with his legal theories.
Now, the other thing I was going to say is Douglas is still feeling well, unfortunately.
Black is still feeling well, unfortunately.
Travis attacked.
Yes, and Thurgood Marshall, apparently, is...
He always held the background.
Partially, not all of them.
He's still got some long trouble with the... We went down to see what the...
I'm so glad you left Florida.
My God, that was a good idea.
I think the, uh, I, uh, I know you worked while you were down there, but you know, uh, you live in a different world there, don't you, John?
Absolutely.
He's just away from his thing.
I was, I was just thinking, I don't know what you ran into, but he called me the night of that night.
They understand.
He couldn't have gone on television a week after the other one.
They couldn't believe it.
They were frightened.
They couldn't be frightened.
But...
There was an enormous, this country goes through great agonies and ups and downs because of the enormous influence of television.
And, my God, it's hard to realize, but about three weeks ago, this was before I made my speech on April 7th, well, just before California, when I was in California, remember, there came the tax case.
And that turned out to be a break, in a way, because people let off steam.
But you remember everybody was squealing about it.
The Laotian, the bad weekend in Laos, when the boys came out, although it turned out to be a pretty good operation, it turned out that, as you've noticed, they haven't attacked since then.
The casualties are starting to go down.
Everything's happening the way they want, nevertheless.
Countries sick of the war, they want to get off and so forth, some of the hawks are deserving of their 21st of June provisions.
Then came Cali, then came the April 7th broadcast, then came that silly little break on China, which is enormously important for reasons that the doves don't realize.
because of the Russians sometimes.
But the other thing is that, and then, of course, came the third, first quarter economic report, which any fair-minded person knows is something.
And also, John, you see the Dow at 948, that somebody thinks there's something right there.
23 million stockholders.
Yeah.
And my point is that I have a feeling that in the country, in the country,
that the psychology is a hell of a lot better.
I don't mean that it's, I mean, it's variable, but I have a feeling that the psychology is a lot better than a mom.
It's rather substantial.
I don't know anybody who, I believe that, and I had with Lee Nunn this morning, and he volunteered that.
Where has he been?
No, no, he's, this is not, not with Lee, not with Lee.
Lee's gone to work for us today.
Good.
In your office.
Yep.
Well, not my office.
I know him from citizenship.
He's been down to Kentucky, he's been to Ohio, he's been to Illinois, he's been on the West Coast.
He said that the people of the country don't have this depressed feeling about President Nixon.
It's always these bastards up here, you know, that read the column when he has it.
That's right.
But that's changing, you know.
We, uh, we, uh, we pull this thing very regularly.
The thing about it is that the Washington press corps, the
And another thing we had to realize is John McClellan was in here.
He was so goddamn mad at our own senators.
He says, why in the hell don't they get up and start defending the president more?
He said, you should know, Ray Long.
He says, because I get so mad.
I get to sit in the club and every time I say, oh, the Democrats.
He says, I'm a Democrat?
No.
But he said, you, he said, it's awful.
You know what it is?
It needs something else.
John, he's fabulous.
You know, he and his wife supported you down there.
They went around the closet and told all their friends.
And Norma, his wife, went on and said, I'm going to walk up first and see what Richard did.
And they're still saving.
So there's one other guy that does the same thing as Jim Eastman.
Has he been down here?
I don't know.
He's down there.
He's down there.
One afternoon.
But he is a great supporter.
He's the one I've done.
I've seen the rest of the patients.
But he's the one I've never had doctors, never asked.
But he's always voted with us.
He has voted with us on every major issue.
I'm going to have a little tea.
Or do you like a Coke tea?
Tea.
I'm pretty much all Jack Anderson.
Tea.
Didn't you know that there was some kind of stabilization that's going on?
No, I didn't know that.
I want to get Eastland and Bob, Eastland and Arrested sometime, just to get a final thought on one of the final thoughts.
Now there's another friend.
No.
Well, it might be a good idea.
What do you think?
I think it would be a good idea.
That would be very good.
Just support us, Lord, that you will be.
I just want to thank you for my God's support in this.
And God is a wonderful friend of this administration.
He's a God.
He's almost as strong for us as he is.
Almost.
that isn't worth getting in.
No, Joe, he's been fantastic.
You know, we're working also with the people down in Louisiana, and all of the moms grew up and died down there.
His son is now working with us.
He's as strong as a president, you know, as anybody in the country.
You know, the Spanish are great.
The quality is fine.
It's a shame that Dick Russell and I, especially Collin, both of their successors are rather weak-minded people, it seems to me, and Ralph, and they're both awful.
And I'll say, John, our Republicans are a weak damn lot, aren't they?
They disgust you.
Just as you were saying, McClellan, I go out and have lunch with him once every two weeks or so, and he starts at the beginning of that lunch, and he never lets up.
I'm the representative of the president.
Let me say this.
You've got to meet with these senators.
I like to think that John and I could talk and maybe be clear about the politics so that we can have a, we didn't expect to have this scam.
But what about that?
What is the schedule, Hanson?
You've got to do the politics.
Tomorrow's, what is the date?
Tuesday?
Yes, sir.
Tomorrow's Wednesday, you're clear.
Yes, I am.
Any schedules?
3 in the morning.
3 in the morning, and as a matter of fact, 3 after 4 o'clock.
Hmm.
Mr. President, in the afternoon at 4 in the morning, why don't we check to see what your schedule is.
I'm free both times.
See, Wednesday's the day that I keep free.
Right.
on Wednesday when we don't schedule anything, and he does on the other four days when we do.
Yeah, I wanted to see what the Attorney General's schedule was tomorrow morning.
Would you check it to see what you've got for him?
Between, say, 9 and 11, how's he looking?
He's free.
What's he doing before 9.30?
Nothing.
ACW staff meeting in the county.
He should not cancel that.
And he threw away the $90 million of his staff meeting.
Tomorrow I have it.
What is this thing here?
It's open at 11.30.
If you have a signal at 11.30, the thing falls back.
Well, let's see.
How long did you come over after the, after the, uh, that chat meeting?
After you've done the ECW meeting, would that be better time over there?
What was the air pressure?
4-H. 4-H, 3-3.
Andrew, you're clear at 4 o'clock until 6.
Tell me what's the schedule of the afternoon at 4 o'clock.
I'll be clear.
Because in the morning I've got to handle the office.
All right, you, you mark him off.
If you have any, you can work me in.
I will.
She's a great girl, but I didn't know her name was Markleson or something.
She got married somewhere along the line.
Oh, I always knew her as something.
What's her other name before?
She's right on the step by the top.
It was her name, I think.
Who did Morrison have?
Oh, well, I guess it's always been Morrison.
No, she's married.
That's her married name.
She had another name.
Morrison was her name in the campaign.
You know, John the, oh, and where is Dan?
You know, it's very important that we get a hold of him today to see whether he's here.
Because he was being, I don't know, he's going to catch hell.
Oh, this decision...
I think he's going to sit in the Senate this evening.
On this decision, old John?
God damn.
Well, we'll catch him for it.
Probably, but I was having no idea.
It's the government, isn't it?
I don't think so.
It's the court.
Well, if it is the court, will the South understand that?
Yeah, well, this is the Congress.
The Congress knows.
So, listen, why are you in the courts?
I took it away from A.T.W.
every time I could.
Well, I'll tell you, we're going to shape A.T.W.
up on the side and re-shape them up.
That's going to be an easy task to write about there, but it'll be easier to shape up with us than it would pinch.
I can just say yes and then do the other one.
I'm not sure that we can get past Panama and Butler and Russell.
Listen, it is an order.
It is an absolute cast-iron order as of today.
enough to know that those people screw us on this thing.
I don't know how we can get it around.
Do you think Morgan did very well before, didn't he, when he was hurt in that thing?
Yes.
He knows the issue.
He knows the issue well, and you know that John Dean, and you know how it could lead to it.
I think Morgan's tougher.
I would say that Gordon could do a much better job if he didn't have money and so much other stuff.
That's right, get him off of it.
This is more important.
Well, I really think it is.
I mean, he can do this too.
Just give him some help on the other thing.
Well, I don't know what it requires.
I'll tell you what, you sit down and talk to Morgan and see what is required.
And I don't know, I just want, I'd certainly like to have a one-step removal from me.
I shouldn't have to call in the likes of Butler and like that and say, you know what I mean, and get all over the bureaucracy.
But I don't know that we are just going to... All right.
Well, I don't think it should take too much time if it's nipped in the bud, so to speak.
But if somebody will sit down and talk with Elliot within the parameters of that, now look, we don't want to get your zealots over here started down the same road that we were before.
I was saying, if Elliot writes hurt on his own troops, which he is capable of doing, if Vince was not, we may not need all the struggle from over here anymore.
Well, except that somebody's got to program him, because otherwise if you leave Elliot by himself, he's going to say the court has spoken and we're going to come back and start non-contiguous zoning and busing and...
and get some of this further down the line.
And he doesn't have to do that, you say.
He does not have to do that.
Well, that's not required, is it?
I'm saying he does not have to do this as long as these cases are before the courts.
The courts, the first of all, as the lawyer said, it's the school of law.
His obligation is to do so.
School authorities will be required to present their plans to the district courts.
Now the district courts should follow up.
But AGW wants to step in and make up the plans.
Is that it?
That's it.
And of course that wasn't bad because what we did was we get into the courts and then the courts would call AGW on them as a consultant.
And if they'd act as...
I have a thought.
I have a thought.
You're going over to AGW tomorrow.
Elliot's going to be there.
In addition to the meeting report, you come over right after the rebellion.
You and Elliot and I are going to fight this thing out.
How about that?
Come over after that?
Yeah.
Would you do that?
In other words, haul Elliot over here right then.
Let's get it new.
Huh?
Would you do that?
Yeah.
And get Erlichman.
Get Erlichman and Steve Erlichman to be programmed.
I really want to get this.
I've got to write this.
I feel very strongly about this.
I feel frankly strongly because I don't want to have a revolution in Texas.
What's the date?
About 9.30?
It's 9.45.
See, he doesn't finish his meeting until 9.30.
But he and Elliot can work it in right over together.
And then we'll just have all the meetings about the same.
Well, I think this is good, because then when we talk to the General House, that's right, it's probably not strongly ideal, but we've just got to avoid this thing.
And John, you get to, as I go to talk to these Senators, you get to these fellows, you get to early on, let them know.
You see, Father, another philosophy, which we've hit in the butt as of today, there is a people held by many well-intentioned people.
Well, now the court has spoken that we should get out in front of them.
And that, I mean, in other words, that after all, that this is a landmark decision and that we should be out in front of it.
And in other words, that we've now got to say, let's get credit for it.
Now, what these people do not realize is there ain't no credit in this from anybody, in my opinion.
First of all, the Biden family won't give us any credit for it anyway.
Is that right?
I don't know.
Do you know that you get 37% of the black vote in the Senate?
That's not a lot.
That's not a lot.
That's not a lot.
and around them about these white liberals is going to have this with the Southern Blacks.
I'll bet you that those 37% of the blacks in the South wouldn't be happy with this decision either.
That's probably what's happening, John.
You know what integration is doing?
It's destroying the black colleges.
Because the good black kids and the good black teachers are going north.
It's destroying that.
It is destroying the black schools.
And look, the black teachers are not capable of teaching the whites.
They're not up to it.
And they aren't going to be for 25 years, maybe 50.
Right?
So what the hell is happening is the blacks need a separate society for a little more time.
Gradually, you know, working it in.
So I'm telling you, I'm not one of those rip-roaring around in this thing, and I'm goddamn well not going to do it.
And I want that problem at that time to be settled in the morning.
You saw it.
It's not my view.
Just say that we're going to go straight down the line, we're going to carry out the law, but we are not going to go beyond the law.
And we're not going to doubt about this thing.
It's going to be in the best words.
Right where it's in, you're going to put it to death.
We're on this tough.
That's great.
Let's go out there and take a look at that tomorrow.
And Bob, is there anybody else that you'd be in that meeting with?
Well, no.
You and John and I together.
Just the three of us.
Yeah, tomorrow.
Yeah, the political meeting.
All right, please step down.
you