On November 5, 1971, Stephen B. Bull, Julie Nixon Eisenhower, Charles R. Jonas, Charles C. Campbell, Earl Yarborough, James Anderson, Michael Arnett, Lupe Barrientes, Deborah Boykin, Keith Frantz, Ronda Gill, Arthur Gillmore, Rosetta Gonzales, Kevin Hall, Gerald Hart, James Kamner, Karl Karanz, Paul McDowell, Phillip Mann, Linda Martin, Margaret Pietuszka, Dimitri Rotow, Linda Saathoff, Antoinette Thornton, and Scott W. Tschirgi met in the Oval Office of the White House from 10:33 am to 10:59 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 615-011 of the White House Tapes.
Transcript (AI-Generated)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 Do not cite this transcript as authoritative.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.
Can I move?
Yes, I will.
Can you go over here, Sam?
Go up this way.
We've got two other lobbies down the stairs.
This one.
Okay.
Go right up to the outside stairs.
Oh, okay.
All right.
All right.
All right.
All right.
All right.
We don't want them on everything.
I don't want to get blocked off.
All right.
All right.
I thought it would be all the way down.
God, he's not going to wait for me.
I don't think that's where he's going.
I don't think that's where he's going.
You can get it all now or...
Here we go.
I will have...
And, uh, one of the things that we want to do is to make sure that you have a clear name and that you're going to pay very well.
The customer, the customer always takes care of you.
And, uh, we also want to make sure that, uh,
Now what I do is I put the rock in here
I was also a little old.
Anyway, I wanted to come to Congress.
As a matter of fact, I wanted to lose my age and get a great story on it.
So, read us through Congress.com.
Wherever that happens to be, you have to be able to compare it to the earth and to raise the whole level by your own determination to see the best you can in the earth.
Also, I'd like to say a word about how exciting it really is to be downtown where you are and how much you have to look forward to it.
This may sound rather unusual, but it's actually exciting.
write in the press, or see my followers, and say this is a real terrible time for people to grow up now.
We have a middle, we have a war, because we are, uh, we have the power to destroy the world.
We have various powers to generate death, to raise your debt, you know?
Well, without being polyamorous, I just don't buy that at all.
I think this is a very good time to be alive.
It's a very good time to be alive in America because of what we can do.
It's a wonderful time to be young.
It's a time when your country needs you.
I'm sure all of you study physical science and certainly using a wonderful car to
that they used to do for a living, and also for contributions for those who did not represent the World War I, in various volunteer organizations.
And it's a big picture on the sand.
On the sand, pointing at these fingers, saying, it's your country.
Remember that big picture?
It's so advanced and used so often.
And I can say that
Fortunately, I can say we hate you not for war, but we hate you for peace.
The war that you have engaged is being ended.
It will not affect any of you, in my opinion.
Keeping the peace after that is not easy, but my generation of peace-making
I think it's possible.
I think there's a chance.
But a peaceful world, a peaceful nation is not enough, as all of you know.
I think peace in the absence of war can be very, very, very uninspiring, very unchallenging.
Peace is an opportunity.
It's an opportunity to do things, to do things for people, to make this America a better country, to solve the problems that we have
the problems of the environment, the problems of the relations between the races, the problems of education and health and all that.
There's so many exciting new challenges, and I don't think there's a war that we now can hold our attention to.
And so, as young Americans, I can say, this is an exciting time to be alive.
To be alive here in America today.
Because what happens in America, more than any other country in the world, will determine where the peace survives.
that will determine whether people in lands far away that you will never see most of you, whether they are going to have a chance.
I've been to the United States, I've been to Germany, I've been to Uganda, and they have many problems.
It's a big country.
It is, because it's big, because it has many problems, a poor country.
We have helped 9,000 dollars worth of aid over the past 20 years.
It's worth doing, because you cannot have a world which is half rich and half poor.
There must be a world in which all people have a chance, a chance to live well.
I also met yesterday, after this one, the president of Ghana.
Ghana was the first country, as you know, black African country, had a penance, except for Liberia, which of course had its own penance for over a hundred years.
And this young man,
President Lucio was talking about Ghana and its problems, and how much America could help, and how much we had help.
And I then thought at this meeting I was going to have with you today, and I thought, being young in America today, and how much it meant.
The fact that first, you're growing, unfortunately, in a generation when
We have a very good chance to have peace, no war.
No generation, no generation in this century has had a whole period of peace.
They're going to have it.
That's what we're trying to do.
But that's only the beginning.
In addition to that, what we need is a peaceful challenge.
We need a substitute for war.
War is a terrible thing.
War calls for sacrifice, however.
It calls for great efforts.
And what we have to have is peace.
It calls for the same sacrifice, the same effort, to build and to destroy.
That's why I hope all of you will remember the rest of your lives.
You're going to be the builders.
The builders of a good peace, a peace for America, a peace for the world.
Compassionate to other countries and to other people, people less fortunate than yourselves.
People always ask me, what's the difference between young people and old people?
Well, of course, my daughter, Julie, is older, so we can always talk about the differences.
And she teaches me a lot, too, but I don't think she teaches me very much.
But nevertheless, whatever the case might be, the difference is age.
Well, you can work longer.
You've got more light power.
You've got more stamina.
Staggering.
Young people have a great idea that you believe everything can be done.
And third, usually, usually I say, young people, not only believe everything can be done, but you don't take a negative attitude about the problems of the world, the problems of the country.
That doesn't mean you take a non-Christian attitude, or one that is.
It does mean that what you do is to say, well, here's a problem, but let's do something about it.
I would just say, finally, I have not suggested for one moment that I would hope any one of you would ever be satisfied with the way things are.
I hope you argue with your parents, with the older people about you, who are out there and say, well, we like the way things are done and we want to continue.
But you think the same things, aren't you?
I also want to remember this.
The greatness of this country is that we have a system that provides the methods
whereby you can change what you don't like peacefully.
You don't have to engage in violence.
You don't have to take the streets to violence.
What you can do is through the political process, you can change the century, change it for the better if you want to change it.
That's why I hope you all get into politics one way or another.
You can't all be president at the same time.
It can't all be run for Congress and be in the Congress.
It can't all be in government.
I wouldn't want all of you to be, because five-sixths of America's great productivity and wealth is created not for government, but for what people do in their volunteer and private capacity.
But all of you can't get to this country, to this world, from America.
And I can only say that, speaking of the older generation and the other generation,
It always, frankly, turns me off to read some of the articles on the other side that say, what a terrible young generation we've got today.
They're all golden.
They're all negative.
They don't want to build and so forth.
That's all nonsense.
Every generation has some good and some bad.
This generation is the best educated generation we've ever had.
It's as idealistic a generation as we were having.
It's a generation that is grateful for the future.
It's a generation that is ideally suited to build a peace.
A good peace.
A peace that is constructive and that generations to come will look back and say, how great you were.
And I do.
Yes, yes, yes, I was, uh, no, I, I, I lost with the student body, actually, but I, you know,
As President, I just want to say thank you to all the people out there, and all the people out in the city, and to anybody else out there.
Thank you for everything.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Yes.
Yeah, yeah.
What a wonderful person.
Yeah, he was, uh, he was, uh, he said, uh, I should put you on.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
We ought to be playing for the Colts.
Yeah.
Oh, well, I'm worried.
Well, I've got to be picking up some connections, if possible.
You know it?
I think there's going to be about 5,000, so if you're there, you can give me a wave.
All right.
I know that in that state you've got to be very careful not to meet with one of the other
Yeah, right over here, right?
You are pretty good at this.
Oh, sure am I.
Of course you win all the elections.
How are you?
Here I am in D.C. Oh, good.
I'm glad to have you.
I'd say to Mayor Washington, you know, Mayor, I just hope you run the city as well as your town on the Red Sea.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Great, why are you in Brown?
Kentucky.
Kentucky, yeah.
What city, Louisville?
Oh, yeah.
Oh, that's Albuquerque, Scottish.
Yes, sir.
Great, sir.
Now, let's see, let's go here.
Yes, well, a couple years ago, Ohio.
Yes, a little while ago.
Hey, yeah.
Yeah, I noticed your car.
It's good.
Where do you come from?
Yeah, here in East.
Oh, right.
I saw that sign.
Yeah.
Oh, yes.
I know.
We're glad to see you.
Yes.
Hi.
Oh, of course, I know that you are right.
I know.
Yes, I remember.
I had to wait out for it.
It was marvelous.
It was a terrific program.
It was a terrific program.
The people of Rojas, Kiwanis, and I know I was the only one that arrived here.
And I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I,
Thank you very much.
I'm just going to give you a tour of my offices.
Nobody else is here.
They've already seen quite a lot of stuff.
The office, she will show you.
This is the formal office.
I heard a private meeting like the other day on the Russian.
We met here in the apartment across the street from the meeting.
See this, sir?
And the mark of this is the seal.
And here it is.
That's the mark of this room.
So, uh...
She's a pretty good guy.
She's a pretty good guy.
She does it all.
Well, Mr. President, Charlie, it's great to see you.
It's great to see you as well.
Yeah.
I saw you were going.
Thank you so much.
We're delighted to have you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
It's all good.
Great.
Marvel.
Scouts call this swapping, so I got it.
I got it.
Well, great.
We're glad to see you.
Thank you very much.
We had a wonderful time.
Oh, yeah.
That's a lot, yeah.
I'll tell you what to do.
there, and Rumpstone also, Rumpstone's not even dead, so we'd be glad to talk, I'd like to know myself, because I know you went out there and worked with one of them.
Great, alright, let's present.
Right, let's present, yeah.
Yeah, right.
How do you work?
What is it?
Where are we?
Where else?
are actually 10 pounds.
And of course, at that time, we had a house on it, giving all the dough to Mr. Bull, and so forth.
We'll put him on our list, too, again.
I'll help you do that for Russia, if I have to.
Right.
Your student council, that place, that would be the student body officers and so forth and so on?
Yes, this is all the state organizations and all high schools, secondary schools.
All the same business.
That's great.
I'd like to find a group.
Mr. President, maybe you should shake your hand.
Sure.
We'll give you one of those tips.
All right.
Right now, the governor's office.
We're in our office.
Our marbles are the same way.
You'll see.
You'll see.
You'll see.
I don't know whether it worked, but you know it's that long.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you.