Conversation No. 556-5

Date: August 6, 1971
Time: 11:39 am - 12:02 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Leslie C. Arends, Gerald R. Ford, Robert P. Griffin, Hugh Scott, and
William E. Timmons; the White House photographer was present at the beginning of the
meeting.

     [Rudolph A. Peterson]
          -United Nations [UN]

     Press

     Congressional session
         -President’s appreciation

     John B. Connally
           -Recent press conference
                -Comments
                       -President’s opening to People’s Republic of China [PRC]
     Instructions for griffin
           -Automobile industry
                -Prices
                -Taxes
                       -Need for Congressional cooperation
                              -Wilbur D. Mills
                       -Discussion with the President and Connally
                       -Foreign competition
                       -Budget
                       -Charles E. Chamberlain

     [Photograph session]
          -Unknown person’s trip to New Orleans

     Economy
         -Possible actions
              -Political effect
                    -Republican National Committee [RNC]
         -Meeting with Senators
                                            15

                     NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

                                 Tape Subject Log
                                   (rev. 10/06)
                                                                    Conv. No. 556-5 (cont.)


     -President’s press conference
     -Possible action
           -Effect
                 -Business and labor
           -Enforcement
                 -Analogy to Office of Price Administration [OPA]
           -Arthur F. Burns
     -Retail sales figures
     -Home sales
     -Unemployment rate
           -Full-time workers
           -Part-time workers
           -Michigan, California, Illinois, Ohio
           -Gordon L. Allott
                 -Draft
                       -Time limitation
                       -Bill
                             -Cloture
                                  -Timing

Congressional action
    -Michael J. Mansfield
    -Appropriation bill
          -Department of Health, Education, and Welfare [HEW]
          -Employment
    -House Resolution [H R] 1
          -Family assistance
    -Campaign spending bill
          -Jurisdictional dispute
                -Interstate Commerce, House Administration, Ways and Means
                      Committees
                -Carl B. Albert, Harley O. Staggers, Mills, Wayne L. Hays
                -Bill
                      -Interstate

US concerns
     -President's trip throughout country
           -Ohio and New York
           -Generation of peace theme
                 -Public reception
                 -Vietnam
                                         16

                     NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

                                 Tape Subject Log
                                   (rev. 10/06)
                                                                  Conv. No. 556-5 (cont.)


                      -Casualties
                            -Current figure compared to previous one
     -President’s recent press conference
           -Unemployment
                -Relationship to Vietnam War
     -Economy
     -Foreign policy
           -Pentagon Papers
                -Effect on PRC trip
                      -Henry A. Kissinger's role
                      -Need to maintain secrecy
                -Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR]
                -Great Britain
                -France
                -Japan
                      -Okinawa
                -Negotiations
                      -Confidentiality
                      -Foreign visitors
                      -Senate
                      -Strategic Arms Limitation Talks [SALT]
                      -Berlin
                      -Vietnam
                      -PRC
                      -Press
                            -PRC
                      -Lawyer-client privilege

Scott’s forthcoming trip to USSR
      -Possible meeting with Aleksei N. Kosygin
            -President’s recommendations
                  -PRC
                  -Confidentiality of channels
                        -State Department
                        -SALT
                        -Berlin
                        -Mutual and balanced force reductions
                  -President’s possible visit to USSR
                  -PRC

Foreign policy
                                        17

                    NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

                                Tape Subject Log
                                  (rev. 10/06)
                                                                    Conv. No. 556-5 (cont.)


     -The President’s record compared to previous administrations
          -Franklin D. Roosevelt
     -Goals
          -Timing
                -Griffin’s campaign
                -Vietnam
                -Economy
                      -Employment

Economy
    -Employment
         -Survey
    -Public opinion
         -Foreign policy compared to domestic policy

Foreign policy
     -Vietnam war policy
           -Public support
     -PRC
           -Public support
     -Recommendations for Congressional speeches
           -Vietnam
           -PRC
                -Taiwan
                      -United Nations [UN]
                -US goal
                      -Averting threat to peace
                            -Long-term benefit
Economy
     -Inflation
     -Unemmployment
     -Administration’s intention to act
     -President’s recent press conference
     -Connally
           -Contact with Congressmen
     -Automobile sales
     -Trade
           -Most Favored Nation [MFN] status
                -Romania and Bulgaria
                -Vietnam War
                -Romania
                                              18

                            NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

                                        Tape Subject Log
                                          (rev. 10/06)
                                                                        Conv. No. 556-5 (cont.)


                             -Nicolae Ceausescu
                       -Bulgaria
                 -East-West trade
                       -Vietnam War
                       Kama River truck plan contract with Mack Trucks, Inc.
                             -Kissinger
                             -President’s approval
                             -Peters G. Peterson
                             -USSR
                                   -Middle East
                 -Kissinger's briefing
                       -Griffin, Ford, and Arends

     Gift
            -Golf balls

Arends and Timmons left at 11:59 am.

     HEW appropriation bill

     Busing
          -Administration's position
          -Blacks

     Lockheed vote
         -William V. Roth, Jr. and J. Caleb Boggs
               -Connally
               -President's call to Boggs
               -Clark MacGregor
               -Peter M. Flanigan
               -Dow chemical

Ford, Griffin, and Scott left at 12:02 pm.