Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 618-025
Date: Monday, November 15, 1971 at 12:50 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President)
Recording device: Oval Office
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/618-025

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] I had a fascinating conversation with George Allen in which he reminisced about his relations with Truman.
[0:17] He said that, quote, Truman really wasn't very smart, that he was a very kind man, and hard, and had said many things publicly in a partisan way that he really didn't mean.
[0:22] He said that an individual who was intelligent but who got to Truman in the last could usually affect his decisions.
[0:27] That was the reason that Acheson, who was a very intelligent man, very persuasive, had such enormous influence on policy while he was president.
[0:52] Acheson had influence which was, for the most part, the Marshall Plan, etc., for the good.
[0:54] He told Tom, he had Ed Flynn, the other guy in writing, leaders,
[0:56] all got together and determined that whoever was nominated as vice president in 1944 would be the next president, and that Henry Wallace couldn't be the man.
[1:19] The way they handled the thing was to control the appointments with Roosevelt through Watson, who was an appointment secretary, so that the only people who saw Roosevelt could talk politics were people
[1:27] get rid of Walsh.