Nixon with unidentified visitors in the Oval Office on Economic Policy

1:16All right.
1:18Let's see.
1:19It's not only required bold leadership ready to take bold action to help support the greatness of the great people.
1:36We must create more and better jobs.
1:38We're going to take that action.
1:40You know about that?
1:41Yes, sir.
1:41It sounds like it.
1:43That will be the first.
1:46That will be the first.
1:50Oh, yes, sir.
1:50Yeah, I know what you're talking about.
1:55Well, we'll toss it around.
2:09I'll be showing you underneath the camera, like you're driving your personal camera.
2:12Your hand goes down and I go up.
2:33In the event that we have any difficulty, we will be going to this gentleman here, and this gentleman is going to be able to respond.
2:36I'm sorry.
2:36I guess I should sit here again for a second.
2:38Yes, sir.
2:38Well, let's see what we can do.
3:08All right, if you'd like to sit around the road for a bit, and then we'll get outside, please.
3:10We'll have up here pretty soon.
3:11You have two minutes to air now.
3:11Pretty good stuff you had here, didn't you?
3:12Yes, sir, I did.
3:12That's okay.
3:37which is the only one that's coming.
3:38How was the wedding?
3:38Yeah, it was great.
3:38I want to thank you for the gift.
3:39Lovely.
3:53Who wants to do it?
3:53Who's going to take the same one?
3:54Who are you?
3:54Chris Rippin.
3:55Well, there's a cranky style out there, boy.
3:55I'm not worried about it, Mr. President.
3:56There's a lot in those places.
3:57There's a large club among that press corps.
3:58What is that?
3:58I don't know.
3:58It's a group.
3:59Huh?
3:59It's a group.
3:59It's a group.
3:59It's a group.
3:59It's a group.
4:00It's a group.
4:00It's a group.
4:00It's a group.
4:00It's a group.
4:31Mr. President, you will see the tally lighting just a moment before I actually drive in.
4:33We have 30 seconds to air and about a minute and 15 seconds to start the elevator.
4:50It might tend to go on.
4:50You know, it's going very wrong in here, but it's going on with the red light.
4:52That's why they have new directors.
4:53Yes, sir.
4:53They come here.
4:53Yeah.
4:53It's not what's in there.
4:54I'm going to freeze it tonight.
4:54Oh.
4:54Yeah.
4:55I hope you don't have one on the way.
4:55I mean, a race.
4:56We're now on the air.
4:56The mayoralty will be coming to you in 35 seconds.
5:2830 seconds now.
6:00Good evening.
6:02I have addressed the nation a number of times over the past few years on the problems of ending the war.
6:06Because of the progress we have made toward achieving that goal, this Sunday evening is an appropriate time for us to turn our attention to the challenges of peace.
6:19America today has the best opportunity in this century to achieve two of its greatest ideals.
6:26to bring about a full generation of peace and to create a new prosperity without war.
6:33This not only requires bold leadership ready to take bold action, it calls for the greatness and great people.
6:43Prosperity without war requires action on three fronts.
6:48We must create more and better jobs.
6:49We must stop the rise in the cost of living.
6:52We must protect the dollar from the attacks of international money speculators.
7:00We are going to take that action, not timidly, not apartedly, and not in piecemeal fashion.
7:07We are going to move forward with a new prosperity without war, as defense of great people, all together and along a broad front.
7:15The time has come for a new economic policy for the United States.
7:22Its targets are unemployment, inflation, and international speculation.
7:26And this is how we are going to attack those targets.
7:30First, on the subject of jobs.
7:33We all know why we have an unemployment problem.
7:37Two million workers have been released from the armed forces and defense plans because of our success in winding down the war in Vietnam.
7:44Putting those people back to work is one of the challenges of peace, and we have begun to make progress.
7:52Our unemployment rate today is below the average of the four peacetime years of the 19th century, but we can and we must do better than that.
8:02The time has come for American industry, which has produced more jobs at higher real wages than any other industrial system in history, to embark on a bold program of new investment
8:14of production for peace.
8:17To give that system a powerful new stimulus, I shall ask the Congress, when it reconvenes after its summer recess, to consider as its first priority the enactment of the John Goodall Act of 1971.
8:33I will propose to provide the strongest third-term incentive in our history to invest in new machinery and equipment that will create new jobs for Americans.
8:45A 10% job development credit for one year affecting as of today, with a 5% credit after August 15, 1972.
8:52This tax credit for investment in new equipment will not only generate new jobs.
8:58It will raise productivity.
9:00It will make our goods more competitive in years ahead.
9:05Second, I will propose to repeal the 7% excise tax on automobiles effective today.
9:13This will mean a reduction in price of about $200 per car.
9:18I shall insist that the American auto industry pass this tax reduction on to the nearly 8 million customers who are buying automobiles this year.
9:28Lower prices will mean that more people will be able to afford new cars, and every additional 100,000 cars sold means 25,000 new jobs.
9:41Third, I propose to speed up the personal income tax exemptions scheduled for January 1, 1973 to January 1, 1972 so that taxpayers can deduct an extra $50 for each exemption one year earlier than fine.
9:55This increase in consumer spending power will provide a strong boost to the economy in general and to employment in particular.
10:07The tax reductions I am recommending, together with this broad upturn of the economy, which is taking place in the first half of this year, will move us strongly forward for a goal this nation has not reached since 1956, 15 years ago.
10:23Prosperity with full employment in these times.
10:28Looking at the future, I have directed the Secretary of the Treasury to recommend to the Congress in January new tax proposals for stimulating research and development of new industries and new techniques to help provide the 20 million new jobs that America needs for the young people who will be coming into the job market in the next decade.
10:50To offset the loss of revenue from these tax cuts, which directly stimulate new jobs, I have ordered today a $4.7 billion cut in federal spending.
10:59Tax cuts to stimulate employment must be matched by spending cuts to restrain inflation.
11:08To check the rise in the cost of government, I have ordered a postponement of pay raises and a 5% cut in government personnel.
11:19I have ordered a 10% cut in foreign economic aid.
11:21In addition, since the Congress has already laid action on two of the great initiatives of this administration, I will ask Congress to amend my proposals to postpone the implementation of revenue sharing for three months and welfare reform for one year.
11:36In this way, I am reordering our budget priorities so as to concentrate more on achieving our goal of low-income.
11:50The second indispensable element of the new prosperity is to stop the rise in the cost of living.
11:57One of the cruelest latencies of the artificial prosperity produced by war is inflation.
12:02Inflation robs every American, every one of you.
12:06The 20 million who are retired and living on fixed incomes, they are particularly hard-earned.
12:13Homemakers are hard-earned to balance the family budget.
12:17And 80 million American wage earners have been on their treadmill.
12:22For example, in the four war years between 1965 and 1969, your wage increases were completely beaten up by price increases.
12:32Your paychecks were high, but you were no better off.
12:37We have made progress against the rise in the cost of living.
12:41From a high price of 6% a year in 1969, the rise in consumer prices has been cut to 4% in the first half of 1971.
12:46But because this is the case and our fighting is unemployment, we can and we must do better than that.
12:54The time has come for a decisive action, action that will break the vicious circle of spiraling prices and costs.
13:07I am today ordering a freeze on all prices and wages throughout the United States for a period of 90 days.
13:15In addition, I call upon corporations to extend the wage price freeze to all dividends.
13:22I have identified a cost of living council within the government.
13:25I have directed this council to work with leaders of labor and business to set up a proper mechanism for achieving continued price and wage stability after the 90-day freeze is over.
13:38Let me emphasize two characteristics of this act.
13:42First, it is temporary.
13:44To put the strong, vigorous American economy into a permanent straitjacket would lock in on fairness.
13:50It would stifle the expansion of our free enterprise system.
13:57And second, while wage price freeze will be met by government sanctions if necessary, it will not be accompanied by the establishment of a huge price control bureaucracy.
14:11I am relying on the voluntary cooperation of all Americans, each one of you, workers and partners and consumers, to make this race work.
14:22Working together, we will break the back of inflation, and we will do it without the mandatory wage and price controls that crush economic and personal freedom.
14:34The very dispensable element in building new prosperity is closely related to creating new jobs and holding inflation.
14:42We must protect the position of the American dollar as a pillar of monetary stability around the world.
14:50In the past seven years, there's been an average of one international monetary crisis every year.
14:56Now, who gains from these crises?
14:58Not the working man, not the investor, not the real producers of wealth.
15:03The hangers are the international money speculators.
15:08Because they thrive on crises, they help create them.
15:12Recent weeks, the speculators have been waging an all-out war on the American dollar.
15:19The strength of a nation's currency is based on the strength of that nation's economy.
15:23And the American economy is by far the strongest in the world.
15:28Accordingly, I have directed the Secretary of the Treasury to take the action necessary to defend the dollar against speculators.
15:32I have directed Secretary Conley to suspend temporarily the convertibility of the dollar into gold or other reserve assets, except in amounts and conditions determined to be in the interest of monetary stability and in the best interests of the United States.
15:43Now, what is this action?
15:45It's very technical.
15:58What does it mean for you?
16:01Let me lay the rest, the bugle of what is called devaluation.
16:08If you want to buy a foreign car or take a trip abroad, market conditions may cause your daughter to buy slightly less.
16:18If you are among the overwhelming majority of Americans who buy American-made products in America, your dollar will be worth just as much tomorrow as it is today.
16:26The effect of this action, in other words, will be to stabilize the dollar.
16:33Now, this action will not win us any friends among the international money traders, but our primary concern is with the American workers and with their competition around the world.
16:47To our friends abroad, including the many responsible members of the International Banking Committee who are dedicated to stabilizing the flow of trade, I give this address.
16:58The United States has always been and will continue to be a forward-looking and trustworthy trade department.
17:06In full cooperation with the International Monetary Fund and those who trade with us, we will press for the necessary reforms to set up an urgently needed new international monetary system.
17:17Stability and equal treatment is in everybody's best interest.
17:22I am determined that the American dollar must never again be a hostage in the hands of international speculators.
17:35I think one further step to improve our balance of payments and to increase jobs for Americans.
17:42As a temporary major, I am today imposing an additional tax of 10% on goods imported into the United States.
17:54This is a better solution for international trade than direct controls on the amount of imports.
18:00This import tax is a temporary action.
18:02It isn't directed against any other country.
18:04It's an action to make certain that American products will not be at a disadvantage because of unfair exchange terms.
18:15When the unfair treatment is ended, the import tax will end as well.
18:20As a result of these actions, the product of American labor will be more competitive, and the unfettered edge that some of our foreign competition has will be removed.
18:32This is a major reason why our trade balance has eroded over the past 15 years.
18:40At the end of World War II, the economies of the major industrial nations of Europe and Asia were shattered.
18:48to help them get on their feet, and to protect their freedom, the United States has provided, over the past 25 years, $143 billion in foreign aid.
18:57That was the right thing for us to do.
19:02Today, largely with our help, they have regained their icon.
19:08They have become our strong competitors.
19:13And we love their success.
19:16But now that other nations are economically strong, the time has come for them to bear their fair share of the burden of defending freedom around the world.
19:25The time has come for exchange rates to be set straight and for the major nations to compete as equals.
19:35There is no longer any need for the United States to compete with one hand tied behind her back.
19:45The range of actions I intend to propose tonight on the job front, the inflation front, and the monetary front is the most comprehensive new economic policy to be undertaken in this nation in four decades.
19:58We are fortunate.
20:00To live in a nation with an economic system capable of producing for its people the highest standard of living in the world.
20:08A system flexible enough to change its ways dramatically when circumstances call for change.
20:15And most important, a system resourceful enough to produce prosperity with freedom and opportunity unmatched in the history of nations.
20:28The purposes of the government actions I have announced tonight are to lay the basis for renewed confidence, to make it possible for us to compete fairly with the rest of the world, to open the door to new prosperity.
20:44But government, with all of its powers, does not hold the key to the success of a deal.
20:52That key, my fellow Americans, is in your hands.
20:56A nation, like a person, has to have a certain inner drive in order to succeed.
21:02In economic affairs, that inner drive is called the competitive spirit.
21:05Every action I have taken to do it tonight is designed to nurture and stimulate that competitive spirit.
21:14It helps us snap out of self-doubt and self-discouragement.
21:18It snaps our energy and erodes our confidence in ourselves.
21:24Whether this means stage number one and the world's economy or resigns itself to second, third, or fourth place, whether we as a people have faith in ourselves or lose that faith,
21:38Whether we hold fast to the strength that makes peace and freedom possible in this world, or lose our grip, all that depends on you, on your competitive spirit, your sense of personal destiny, your pride in your country, and in yourself.
21:57We can be certain of this, as the threat of war recedes, the challenge of peaceful competition in the world will greatly increase.
22:06And we love competition, because America is at her greatest when she is called upon.
22:16As there has always been in our history, there will be voices urging us to shrink from that challenge of poverty, to build a protective wall around ourselves, to crawl under a shell as the rest of the world moves ahead.
22:29A few hundred years ago, a man wrote in his diary these words, Many thinking people believe America has seen its best days.
22:44That was written in 1775, just before the American Revolution, the dawn of the most exciting era in the history of mankind.
22:58And today, we hear the heckles of those voices preaching the gospel of gloom, gloom, and defeat, saying the same thing.
23:07We have seen our best heckles.
23:11I say, let Americans reply, our best days lie ahead.
23:20As we move into a generation of peace, as we blaze the trail toward the new prosperity, I say to every American, let us raise our spirits, let us raise our sights,
23:33Let all of us contribute all we can to this brave and good country that has contributed so much to the progress of mankind.
23:42Let us invest in our nation's future.
23:46And let us revitalize that faith in ourselves that built a great nation in the past and that will shape the world of the future.
23:58Thank you.
24:08Thank you, sir.
24:08We're there.
24:08Keep that up there so we can see it.
24:09Thank you, sir.
24:34No, he's off.
24:35He's still on the couch.
24:38You're on the phone.
24:56How do you find the chatter when you take your call?
24:57Oh, it's fine.
24:58I see.
24:58There you go.
24:58You have no word of it?
24:58Your last call, I believe it had to do with the chatter from your head when the light directed behind you.
25:01Yeah, I see.
25:01It was like this.
25:02This way, it was fine.
25:02There's a little bit from your hand to this one.
25:03Yeah, that's terrible.
25:04Thank you very much.
25:04You can't do that.
25:05Thank you very much.
25:06Thanks.
25:52Yes, sir.
26:51Thank you, boss.
26:52There are any words on the program with my wife, but the ABCs are special.
26:53I mean, I'm sitting here.
26:54I don't see them on the telephone.
26:54You should be on that detail.
26:55Well, I say goodbye.
26:55Goodbye.
27:31You're gonna be nice.
28:03Oh, my God.
28:03Oh, my God.
28:56I'll be there almost every day.
32:23I'm sorry, I didn't think you were losing your mind, sir.

Nixon with unidentified visitors in the Oval Office on Economic Policy

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on August 16, 1971

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