Easy NixonAbout

Conversation: 501-024

Prev:  501-023 Next: 501-025

Start Date: 19-May-1971 3:50 PM

End Date: 19-May-1971 4:28 PM

Participants:

Nixon, Richard M. (President)Kissinger, Henry A.Butterfield, Alexander P.Ziegler, Ronald L.Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob")Bellmon, Henry L.Tower, John G.Hardin, Clifford M.Whitaker, John C.MacGregor, ClarkFlanigan, Peter M.

Recording Device: Oval Office

Full Tape Conversation Start Time: 04:25:50

Full Tape Conversation End Time: 04:59:30

501a.mp3

501b.mp3

501c.mp3

501d.mp3

NARA Description:

On May 19, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, Alexander P. Butterfield, Ronald L. Ziegler, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Henry L. Bellmon, John G. Tower, Clifford M. Hardin, John C. Whitaker, Clark MacGregor, and Peter M. Flanigan met in the Oval Office of the White House from 3:50 pm to 4:28 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 501-024 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid:

Conversation No. 501-24

Date: May 19, 1971
Time: 3:50 pm - 4:28 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Henry A. Kissinger.

     Strategic Arms Limitation Talks [SALT] agreement
           -Gerard C. Smith
                 -Meeting with Kissinger
                 -Response
           -President's meeting with SALT delegation
                 -President's role, delegation's role
           -Announcement
                 -Length
                 -Anatoliy F. Dobrynin
                                               49

                            NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

                                       Tape Subject Log
                                          (rev. 9/08)



                -Length
                -Wording
                -Length
           -U. Alexis Johnson
                -Meeting with Kissinger
           -Announcement
                -Wording
           -Significance

Alexander P. Butterfield entered at 3:53 pm.

     President’s schedule

Butterfield left and Ronald L. Ziegler entered at 3:54 pm.

     Charles H. Percy Amendment
          -Prospects

     SALT negotiations
         -Announcement
              -Wording
                    -Breaking deadlock
                    -Effect on other negotiations
                    -Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR], People's Republic of China
                         [PRC]
              -Presentation
                    -Television delivery
              -Location

H.R. (“Bob”) Haldeman entered at an unknown time after 3:54 pm.

                      -Rose Garden, Press Room

Haldeman left at an unknown time before 4:07 pm.

                 -Wording
                 -Length
                       -Dobrynin
                 -President’s formulation

Ziegler left at an unknown time before 4:07 pm.
                                               50

                             NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

                                      Tape Subject Log
                                         (rev. 9/08)



           -Meeting of SALT delegation and National Security Council [NSC]
                 -Melvin R. Laird
                 -Significance
                 -Cancellation
                       -Call to Smith
           -Smith's response to the announcement
           -Meeting with SALT delegation
                 -Smith                                             Conv. No. 501-24 (cont.)
           -Adm. Thomas H. Moorer's response
                 -Anti-ballistic missile [ABM] agreement
           -Smith's response to the announcement
           -Announcement
           -President's meeting with SALT delegation

Henry L. Bellmon, John G. Tower, Clifford M. Hardin, John C. Whitaker, Clark MacGregor, and
Peter M. Flanigan entered at 4:07 pm; the press was present at the beginning of the meeting.

     Greetings

     President's schedule
                 -Haldeman
                 -Malik Faisal ibn Abd al-Aziz al-Saud’s [Faisal, King of Saudi Arabia] visit
                      -Dinner
                      -Meeting with President in 1967
                      -Rogers

Kissinger left at 4:07 pm.

     Charles McC. Mathias Amendment vote
          -Time

     Photo arrangements

     An unknown man

     Drought relief
         -Amount
               -Losses
               -Timing
         -[Unintelligible] [Camera noise]
         -Florida
         -President's information about weather
                                        51

                     NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

                                Tape Subject Log
                                   (rev. 9/08)



     -[Unintelligible] [Camera noise]
     -John B. Connally
          -Letter to Hardin
     -Delay
     -Palm Springs
     -Effects
          -Foreclosures
                 -Texas                                       Conv. No. 501-24 (cont.)
     -Amount of assistance
          -Texas and Oklahoma
          -Fiscal year 1972
     -Southwest, Texas, Oklahoma

Agriculture
     -Operating and ownership loans for cattle
           -Ceiling
                 1960 level
                 -Bureaucrats
                 -Orville L. Freeman
           -Needs of farmers
           -Borrowing problems
                 -John Ehrlichman, Caspar W. (“Cap”) Weinberger
           -Future loans
                 -Farmers Home Administration
     -Importance of agriculture
     -Loan problems
           -Farmers Home Administration
                 -James V. Smith
           -Flanigan's role
           -Connally's conversation with President

Economy
    -Interest rates
          -Connally
          -Arthur F. Burns
          -US dollar, Deutsche mark
          -Federal Reserve
                -Short-term and long-term rates
                -Changes
                     -Connally’s conversation with Burns
          -Short-term rates
          -Importance
                                               52

                          NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

                                       Tape Subject Log
                                          (rev. 9/08)



                      -Compared to budget
                -Movement
                -Milton Friedman's article "The Mark Crisis"
                      -Willy Brandt
                            -German economy
          -Home building
                -Mortgage rates
                -Preston Martin                                     Conv. No. 501-24 (cont.)
                      -Meeting with Flanigan, May 19, 1971
                            -Mortgage rates
                            -Savings and loans
                                 -Incoming funds level
                            -Housing starts
          -Max M. Fisher
          -George W. Romney
          -Importance of interest rates
                -Building levels
                -Farming
          -Possibility of over-building
          -Interest rates
                -Martin
                      -Meeting with Flanigan, May 19, 1971
                            -Predictions of housing starts levels
                -Federal Reserve

     Drought relief
         -President's previous speech
         -Timing
         -Amount
         -Southwest, Minnesota
               -Hubert H. Humphrey
               -Minnesota, Texas
               -Humphrey

     Congressional votes
         -Mathias Amendment

Bellmon, Tower, Hardin, Whitaker, and Flanigan left at 4:26 pm.

          -Results of recent votes
          -Mathias Amendment
          -Abraham A. Ribicoff, Birch E. Bayh
                                               53

                             NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

                                       Tape Subject Log
                                          (rev. 9/08)



           -Kenneth E. BeLieu, William E. Timmons
           -Senators supporting Administration
                -John Sherman Cooper
                      -Mathias and Michael J. Mansfield Amendments
           -Possible future developments
           -[Forename unknown] Johnson
                -Efforts
                                                                     Conv. No. 501-24 (cont.)
MacGregor left at 4:28 pm.