Nixon, Ehrlichman & Fisher on Encyclopedia Judaica and U.S.-Israel Relations

2:02:40This is the presidential seat.
2:03:09Well, we wish you well.
2:03:23Arrest someone.
2:03:30Tomorrow night we turn to death, pal.
2:03:39This is not too bad.
2:03:41Wow.
2:03:57I must say that I know that we've come out there to give the bowels to bureaucracy that we have.
2:04:02It's a much fine work of staff that we appreciate.
2:04:05We appreciate your kind attention.
2:04:11These are the top three.
2:04:13Thank you very much.
2:04:15Thank you.
2:04:29I'm sorry.
2:04:40I have to bring this encyclopedia in.
2:04:42If I can have Max come in right now and convince him to take a picture, then we'll bring Pastor Robbie in and they can do their presentation.
2:04:53No, that's not going to happen.
2:04:56If we bring Max in first, then that just crowds me.
2:04:59That's supposed to be the plan.
2:05:02No, sir, but it will preclude the plan of execution.
2:05:17I got your school memo, or your, you know, the long piece this morning.
2:05:25And I've got a meeting with Mitchell and Richardson and Schultz this afternoon.
2:05:33They'll give me a chance to get the thing on track in the proper direction.
2:05:39You've got a tight end of the line.
2:05:41No, I don't.
2:05:43What time do you have to leave?
2:05:453.30.
2:05:46Yeah, yeah.
2:05:56Have you seen this before?
2:06:16Are you in there?
2:06:18I'm in there.
2:06:18I thought you were.
2:06:20I looked at the index and said, where are you?
2:06:26By our spaces.
2:06:34The work that goes into this are unbelievable.
2:06:41Oh, it's got to go in the end.
2:06:43The way I like your speech, Mr. President, I like your speech.
2:06:51Oh, all right.
2:06:52When you made that first speech, you had all the tough names over here.
2:06:58Yeah, yeah.
2:07:03Well, it takes some time for the work to end, so we hope.
2:07:10At least we can't go any further.
2:07:12If you're going any further, the only other step is to take a surrender.
2:07:15We can't do that.
2:07:16You can't oppose the economy.
2:07:19It's got a problem, but you can say that if they agree to resign, that's fair, honestly.
2:07:31Oh, that's where we were.
2:07:32Okay.
2:07:33Come on in.
2:07:35Mr. President.
2:07:36Mr. President.
2:07:38I'd say, you know, Mr. President, my old friend, Carson.
2:07:40And I meet my young friend.
2:07:43Yeah.
2:07:43Mr. Chairman, so can you say a few words about Mr. Elliott, the chairman of the board of the competition out there?
2:07:55Very good.
2:07:56Yes.
2:08:04Oh, that's a good one.
2:08:06That's a different one.
2:08:08That's a great one.
2:08:34For me, I'll take it back.
2:08:37Thank you, but you get right in here if you will.
2:08:43Here we are.
2:08:44No.
2:08:45That's the first dog.
2:08:49This is the first one.
2:08:50This is the president.
2:09:03This was written in tradition.
2:09:06It was published and accomplished here.
2:09:13It was written yesterday.
2:09:14Oh, all right.
2:09:27done at universities or... No, you know, in your house, you know, that's... Yeah, yeah.
2:09:32Of course, you have pieces done by...
2:09:35If I may add, this is the unique and one of the greatest philosophy of Jewish work that has been on the table in this century.
2:09:50And...
2:09:522,500 scholars from all over the world, many of them from the United States, have participated.
2:09:58I don't want to sound US people, but there's a lot of reasons for this kind of work.
2:10:07What people say that we choose are the people of the book.
2:10:12In this sense, this book is about the people of the book.
2:10:18We try here to show our heritage,
2:10:22and tradition, our history, and our culture.
2:10:28And we believe that we are contributed to the civilization that lives by the doctrine of humane liberty, by the ethic of man's equality, by the ideal of peace, and by the principles of democratic government.
2:10:49We also think, Mr. President,
2:10:51that our two countries share the same common heritage.
2:10:57You, the most powerful nation of this world, that under your leadership has strived so relentlessly to strengthen those countries that their freedom is threatened.
2:11:13We, a small country embattled for the last 23 years,
2:11:19But our roots are 2,000 to 4,000 years deep.
2:11:25And I want, Mr. President, to thank you especially for your support for the cause of the Greenpeace in the area, for making it possible for this to defend itself, by itself, as long as peace has not been achieved.
2:11:44And I would like to convey to you the gratitude of the people
2:11:53Thank you very much.
2:11:56I'm grateful for your silence.
2:12:01If they want to... Oh, they've got this covered.
2:12:04They would like to have a picture of me passing through this petition.
2:12:10It's on.
2:12:10All right.
2:12:11This is a little side question.
2:12:15I apologize for that.
2:12:24President of the United States of America.
2:12:43That's where we came from, and we came from all the nations of the world and the congregations that were made by the people of the Jewish States of this nation, our region.
2:12:52As a consequence, I would consider this to be part of the American history, not just Jewish history.
2:13:04That's what I feel about it.
2:13:04As far as our, what you said about our general policy to a different country,
2:13:14What we've done in Europe is also our own.
2:13:16I mean, there's peace in that part of the world, and survival, and strong, and independent states.
2:13:24And part of the interest of the United States is also in the United States.
2:13:31So we're going to be sure to come back soon.
2:13:44You've got to get it together.
2:13:45You've got to get something together.
2:13:46You see, we had bookmarks today.
2:13:49These were made of steel here and there.
2:13:59Would you like a short summary?
2:14:23That's fantastic.
2:14:26How many years?
2:14:27Five years.
2:14:28Five years.
2:14:28Thirty percent of the documents are done in the United States.
2:14:31If I had a dollar in the U.S., 60 percent is read and 10 percent is read.
2:14:36Maybe you're kidding, I suppose, but the rest of you will believe me.
2:14:39First of all, you know, I honor and forget I had a very interesting experience in 1966 or 7.
2:14:43I was blind on the morning.
2:14:47I was upset.
2:14:51I was going down there, and I felt there were Asians and African-Americans.
2:14:57And I was dragging a person in the stories, and he said, Taurus, would you come back?
2:15:01And I said, I'm just going to share about that.
2:15:05And he says, there's a group of people here.
2:15:08He says, there are people in the Jewish state, and there's a Martian unit.
2:15:11And I went back and I think there were 40 of them, the Martian units I remember.
2:15:14And one of them was here.
2:15:17So I just realized that there is a movement of the White Sackers.
2:15:20There was a donation there of the American people.
2:15:24And I found that going down the aisle, they were very important people, and all they couldn't afford to tour was in some port to the east.
2:15:36So you find this there.
2:15:39Well, we appreciate it very much.
2:15:43I don't know.
2:15:43I don't know what it is.
2:15:46That's another thing.
2:15:52Well, Mr. President, good to see you again.
2:15:53Good to see you all, Mr.
2:15:54Ambassador.
2:15:54Thank you.
2:15:55Thank you.
2:15:58Well, we're honored to be here, and I'm honored to be in the company of OSHA, and I understand you're going to present one to the whole of Minnesota.
2:16:06Well, I'm honored to be on behalf of our country.
2:16:10Thank you.
2:16:11Well, thank you.
2:16:11We'd be glad to see you again.
2:16:15Yes, yes, sir.
2:16:16He's your man.
2:16:17How do you treat him?
2:16:20Perfect.
2:16:20I do have to get it out fast.
2:16:23You know, I have some nice people out there.
2:16:26Very, very much so.
2:16:27I can put it on the line for you.
2:16:31Do you have another copy for the...
2:16:47Bye, John.
2:16:47Bye, Max.
2:16:49Good to see you.
2:17:18No, no.
2:17:19No, no.
2:17:22No.
2:17:25I just had an accumulation of things here.
2:17:28I'd better sit before I left.
2:17:30I'll be back tomorrow night, but some of these are...
2:19:29The member, just before he went out of office, Johnson appointed Kappel and a small commission to look at executive salaries and judicial salaries and congressional salaries.
2:19:43The question is up now as to whether you should do this or not, and my feeling is that you ought not until after the election even appoint a commission.
2:19:52No, absolutely not.
2:19:54You're running a deficit, and we're talking about salary increases.
2:19:57We're in this whole business of the 5 to 5.5 percent.
2:20:00Right.
2:20:01All right.
2:20:02There's plenty of time actually after the election.
2:20:06So, okay.
2:20:06Anybody have a question over there?
2:20:09All right.
2:20:10Now, Bob tells me that if you want to do the EEOC thing, it could come through with cease and desist.
2:20:19And I think we better start passing the word.
2:20:2146 to 48 is the total time.
2:20:23Well, you'd be sustained.
2:20:24There isn't a question about it.
2:20:27The one danger in passing the word at this time is that if the Southerners end, we'll not filibuster.
2:20:32They'll lay back and say, let the President take the heat.
2:20:35I thought you said it was past the time.
2:20:40Well, now, let's see.
2:20:41No, no, no, it's come out of committee.
2:20:46It's come out of committee, and it's... Now, remember, that was the Dominick Amendment to go strictly the court route, and it was defeated.
2:20:55But they have not yet adopted the cease and desist.
2:20:58See, it's still before them.
2:21:01And Irvin and others are threatening to unfilm us around here.
2:21:03Let them unfilm us.
2:21:04All right.
2:21:05All right.
2:21:05Well then, we'll pass the word that... Dominic event is the right thing, that's what I mean.
2:21:10All right.
2:21:11Okay.
2:21:11This just feels as strongly about it.
2:21:13All right.
2:21:14Well, it's hard times.
2:21:15Then, then if... Look, you get the shit you've got to be held anyway by Hensburg.
2:21:22Yep.
2:21:22Yep.
2:21:22Okay.
2:21:23Okay.
2:21:24But you know, of course, let the Southerners take the heat.
2:21:26All right.
2:21:27Let them unfilm us from here on out.
2:21:31I don't want to have any idea that we supported it on this.
2:21:35Absolutely.
2:21:36Absolutely.
2:21:37Not balls out.
2:21:40There was no question.
2:21:41In fact, there hasn't been any question where you've been on this for two years.
2:21:44In the last Congress, same thing.
2:21:50Okay.
2:21:51And I mentioned to you that I have your memo on constitutional amendment.
2:21:55And...
2:21:56I'm going to talk to Morgan about it.
2:21:58I am flexible to this point.
2:22:01Either that or legislation.
2:22:02Yeah, we can have it.
2:22:04But we can know we cannot sit here in our mom's shelter hoping and praying that nothing happens.
2:22:11It won't go away.
2:22:12Well, it is not going to go away, but the real problem that I see with garments and the other targets, and Christ is the same theory, well, let's wait until he gets to the Supreme Court.
2:22:22John, we're stuck with that court.
2:22:23That's the next
2:22:26until the next court does it and then put in an amendment.
2:22:29We are screwed and tattooed.
2:22:31We've got to do it before it gets to that damn court.
2:22:34Because I don't trust the court on this.
2:22:37I've been learning more about this.
2:22:43It's a very, very broad subject.
2:22:45And you're right, it involves housing as well as schools.
2:22:52If you have a constitutional amendment that only affects busing,
2:22:56It's like trimming, you know, 2% off the end of the road.
2:23:00It's got to be fundamental.
2:23:02And I think the presidential thing to do, once you start down this road, is to offer a constitutional amendment that goes through the whole problem.
2:23:13And that...
2:23:14I don't know how long it's going to be written.
2:23:16Well, that's the trick.
2:23:17I think what I want to do is get a couple of very bright people, take them off to Camp David,
2:23:24Right.
2:23:25Sit there and .
2:23:28Well, I'm not sure we can, I'm not sure we can usefully spend a whole week on this, but if we get up there in the middle of the week and just spend a few days talking, working it out, working on the language,
2:23:40It may be that we can come up with something that will do this.
2:23:43It's going to involve reading the things that we've already said on housing and schools to make sure that we know what's behind this.
2:23:50What is Ron May up to at the moment?
2:23:52Well, he is up to taking a five-city tour to talk to city and county and suburban government people.
2:24:05and saying to them, the central cities have gone to hell, everybody's abandoning the housing in the central areas, so in effect you've got to think of the total city, and you've got to assimilate this housing in the suburbs.
2:24:17And I spent two and a half hours with him yesterday afternoon, and I'll see him again, and we'll get him positioned.
2:24:28But he's not terribly bright on this.
2:24:33He's not thinking politically.
2:24:35And he's got a great call with him.
2:24:38And they're all cranking him up.
2:24:40And he doesn't have any more idea of where he's ultimately headed down this road than the man in the moon.
2:24:45He's got a whole sack full of problems.
2:24:49And he's running out to talk to people about it, which is a hell of a thing to do in a political year.
2:24:53Well, I'm not so sure.
2:24:55I don't know what the hell he's going to say as to what other calling is.
2:24:59But my guess is he probably wants to run for vice president.
2:25:01What do you think?
2:25:04You know, you never, I never want to under judge her.
2:25:07I don't want to investigate what Romney thinks he's going to do.
2:25:09That's right.
2:25:10I just don't have any, I've thought about this.
2:25:12I can't imagine what it would be unless he's going to go home and run for mayor of Detroit and fix Detroit after some.
2:25:18I agree.
2:25:20I just can't imagine what it would be.
2:25:23Well, my feeling is that maybe, maybe we just have to take it.
2:25:29I mean, I just, I mean, I just feel in the house, I'm so strong in here.
2:25:34Hell, even the Jews are against you.
2:25:36Even the Jews!
2:25:38You know, I've just received a surprise.
2:25:40Even the Jews.
2:25:41Well, Rizzo has that pretty well in mind.
2:25:44And, of course, we've got that.
2:25:45You've got to stop my understanding.
2:25:49Well, in this Long Island thing, of course, you've got the Jews just really up in arms about public health issues.
2:25:55Yeah.
2:25:55But, with Romney,
2:26:04I kept saying to him, he's talking about abandonment and foreclosures and mobility and all this.
2:26:10I said, you're talking about race.
2:26:12You're talking about race prejudice.
2:26:15And he wouldn't admit it.
2:26:17And then he went off on another big excursion.
2:26:18I said, Mr. Secretary, look what you're talking about here.
2:26:20You're talking about people not wanting to live side by side.
2:26:23I said, it doesn't have anything to do with economics.
2:26:26He said, well, over half the people in low and moderate income housing are white.
2:26:31And I said, well, why doesn't that half that bothers people?
2:26:33It's the other half.
2:26:34And I said, you're really talking about race.
2:26:36And you're going to find cities.
2:26:38And you're going to talk about integration of the suburbs in five cities in an election year.
2:26:44I can't believe it.
2:26:47And he said, no, I don't know what I'm going to talk about at all.
2:26:50He said, I'm going to talk about the stranglehold on the core cities because of the balkanization of the municipalities around.
2:26:57And I said, no, you're not.
2:26:59What it all comes down to, really, when you say the words or not, is race.
2:27:03Well, he began seeing that, and I said, do me one favor.
2:27:08Don't talk to anybody else about this record until we get a chance to talk further.
2:27:13And he said, well, all right, that's what he said.
2:27:15So we're going to talk first of the week some more.
2:27:18We'll keep working on it.
2:27:19Well, he's a wild man.
2:27:20There's just no way of knowing on him.
2:27:22Well, he's got so much energy and drive and ambition.
2:27:25He needs a product.
2:27:26And he needs to be pulling something.
2:27:30He needs to be in charge of something.
2:27:32There's a goddamn thing to put him in charge of that I know of.
2:27:35Well, not without having a keeper.
2:27:38How the hell was he governor?
2:27:41I think Van Dusen probably was governor, if the truth were known.
2:27:45And of course the governor isn't pretty all that great of a coach.
2:27:48No, no.
2:27:49You have a budget and that's about it.
2:27:52And Van Dusen engineered the new Constitution up there, if there's any questions about that.
2:27:55And I think he's programming Romney.
2:28:01So, and I'm sure Romney left... Well, the thing is, John, is that I, the reason I wrote that program,
2:28:14is so that you will really be under no illusions as to my own philosophy.
2:28:21That's very helpful, right?
2:28:23And why I reached a conclusion, and it has nothing to do with race.
2:28:27Right.
2:28:27God damn it, if, as I, and you should keep that, and pass it around.
2:28:31No, sir.
2:28:32That's all I need to say.
2:28:33I understand.
2:28:34I want you to show that you can, on either end of the spectrum.
2:28:38Yeah, with red, it would just blow the poplar off.
2:28:40Now, the point that I make is that
2:28:44that we, that with full, with absolutely, John, full recognition of the problem, total compassion, total understanding, and no prejudice, whatever.
2:29:01I mean, I'm telling you about them and the Black Swords.
2:29:04They are in my neighborhood.
2:29:05They don't bother me a bit.
2:29:07I never care.
2:29:09All of that, I know that
2:29:13You've got to deal with the country as it is, and you cannot pull it faster than it's ready to be pulled.
2:29:19And I constantly get back to one of our little boys around here who was at the party when he didn't cry, and he said,
2:29:27Lincoln was probably the most pragmatic president we've ever had.
2:29:30The Emancipation Proclamation was war-making.
2:29:34Exactly.
2:29:34He didn't have anything to do with slavery.
2:29:36He was a war-maker.
2:29:37And incidentally, everything he did was that.
2:29:39You know, did you know that his amnesty thing was a war-making issue?
2:29:43Yep.
2:29:44I read a lot about him.
2:29:47Now, of course he is held up.
2:29:49He wasn't that who went through hell and a horrible captain.
2:29:55And he marvels in compassion and magnificence and his humor.
2:29:58And he believed in all these things.
2:30:00But he put the human first.
2:30:01Now, I don't put the country first.
2:30:04The country, I don't think, John, I don't think at this point, going in terms of education, going in the cold,
2:30:13there's only one ingredient i'd add to what you said there and that is that this court now cannot be you can't view that court without adding the ingredient of professionalism that these guys are our lawyers and that they follow the law and they take it very seriously and that the the
2:30:40track that you can trace of where the cases are taking us.
2:30:45If you follow that right down, you're exactly right.
2:30:48This court is going to do the thing that we fear it's going to do.
2:30:54And it's going to do it for some of the reasons you assigned, but also because if they're just lawyers and if they justify the law in a judicial way, that's where they're going to end up.
2:31:04Due to the fact that they cannot reverse
2:31:10They've always got to go with, and the president is there, but frankly, they are walking into the court with their decisions already written for them.
2:31:20You take this business about whether there's a better education than a biracial mix.
2:31:25Well, that's in the warp and woof of the cases now.
2:31:28It's inescapable.
2:31:31And unless the people announce a contrary doctrine, some way, we're going to have to live by that.
2:31:39And it's probably wrong.
2:31:41It's probably a mistake of fact.
2:31:45Well, it's the passion of all of us.
2:31:48I mean, we've got to realize that they developed that job.
2:31:51You know, all the do-gooders went down, and Browners, if we were here, and all that.
2:31:57Brown and all those other right spots came along here, and they had a story for each spot.
2:32:07And it became the law of the land under Warren.
2:32:11And not with Warren.
2:32:12It was the right of the boys who were in Clinton.
2:32:14And God damn it, it just probably isn't true.
2:32:17It probably isn't true.
2:32:19Even Coleman isn't sure anymore.
2:32:21He really isn't.
2:32:22Coleman's an honest man.
2:32:23Yeah.
2:32:24You know, when you come down to it, the scandal, of course, he was basically a Democrat.
2:32:31He has this fascinating theory.
2:32:33He says that
2:32:34When you say that separate education is inferior education, that's white racism.
2:32:43And he's so damn right.
2:32:45Because we don't say that white education is inferior.
2:32:48So it's separate only if it's black education.
2:32:51So that's white racism.
2:32:53They deny that even separate housing is inferior housing.
2:32:58That's white racism.
2:32:59It means that the Negroes basically cannot run their cities.
2:33:06They've got to make sure the whites can help run them.
2:33:09That's white racism again.
2:33:11Frankly, it has to do, if you apply it worldwide, let's face it,
2:33:16separate black states are not a good thing, John.
2:33:19We should have the white colonials in there.
2:33:22That's a lot.
2:33:24And frankly, I agree with you.
2:33:26It is part of the law.
2:33:32the court will come down, they'll come down also for, don't underestimate the reasons I mentioned.
2:33:39Oh, I don't, at all.
2:33:40I don't.
2:33:41I'm sure you're right.
2:33:42You cannot read Washington here without becoming just a little bit liberal.
2:33:47But you take a guy like Powell, who has 50 years at the bar or whatever it is, and he'll be impelled that way as a matter of instinct.
2:34:00because of the present.
2:34:02Well, anyway.
2:34:04Let me see what we can do this afternoon in wheeling this Mitchell and Richardson and Schultz toward a work program to develop a constitutional amendment.
2:34:17And my inclination is to keep Morgan on this because he's so damn knowledgeable of the nuts and bolts.
2:34:27And then to try and find two top-notch lawyers to sit with us and develop this.
2:34:36I think from a political standpoint, there's a time-bombing, but also, the standpoint of the country, where we stand, it's...
2:34:50you have to do some things that are totally honest.
2:34:51And God, I don't know if I won't believe in this stuff, but I just do it.
2:34:56You know?
2:34:56I just, I just, well...
2:34:58I mean, like, for example, as I tell you, I, every time I speak in those speeches they prepare for me, we get increased food stamps by, uh, a factor of five.
2:35:09I practically puke.
2:35:11Three, but it's bad enough.
2:35:13Yeah.
2:35:14Or the last time.
2:35:15Whatever it is.
2:35:16That proved that we're great.
2:35:18I'm not really...
2:35:20Proves we're flexible.
2:35:22Proves that we're prepared and hungry, and so we're going to get a morsel of this in.
2:35:26So wouldn't it be better if tripling is good?
2:35:30Then wouldn't it have it a hundred times as much good?
2:35:33Meaning everybody would have gotten guaranteed annual lunch.
2:35:37Well, how would you feel about shooting for completion of this before you leave?
2:35:43Well, if you could, it would be great.
2:35:45I wouldn't anticipate you to do it that fast.
2:35:47Well, I see if we don't, we're liable to get overtaken by events.
2:35:53Okay.
2:35:54And Richardson and Mitchell are going to have to testify before the Seller Committee on constitutional amendments.
2:36:00Basically, I think that they may have to testify before the Lincoln recess.
2:36:07But if you would shoot for the 15th, which is the middle of the Lincoln, by the Lincoln's birthday, right at the time of the meeting,
2:36:13Well, I know you're going to have other things pressing you, but if we could shoot for that Florida weekend that you're down there to clean this up as a matter of your attention, we can develop it, I think, before you go.
2:36:30And let me ask you about the...
2:36:32It may be that I'm totally wrong, but the...
2:36:38Do you have any other view?
2:36:39Do you think we can just weather it?
2:36:41No, I'm coming.
2:36:42See, I've been doing almost nothing else.
2:36:45I've been doing almost nothing else but this and housing for the last week or so.
2:36:50And I've had a chance to try and think this through.
2:36:52And I've come to the conclusion that there is no way to do it in the courts.
2:36:58It would probably be very dangerous to go to the Congress for a law because they'd run away.
2:37:03There's no telling where they'd end up.
2:37:05the only way to really contain this is with a very well-drawn tight constitutional amendment and then say that's where we are and we aren't going to take any other form or version that's our form and we're for that and it would announce
2:37:34People think, well, Rubik said there's a bunch of goddamn racists in here and we do it all the time.
2:37:39So do you.
2:37:39No, I tell you what I would do is to put out simultaneously a kind of a white paper on that.
2:37:46Like ours?
2:37:47Exactly.
2:37:47And being totally honest about it.
2:37:50And saying this proposal finds its place in this context and we'll lay it all out and say the courts have run away, they're headed down this line.
2:38:02There are tough questions of fact in here.
2:38:04There are things that we don't know.
2:38:07There are passions running.
2:38:08There's only one way we know to get to the right result.
2:38:14You see, we regret that the illusion, as far as I'm interested, maybe on the education side, and the rest of it, our new value added and all that sort of thing, that solves it.
2:38:27Well, it's one aspect.
2:38:28But this thing is like a diamond.
2:38:30It's got so many facets that one of the things you have to talk about is equality.
2:38:38You have to get the same amount of money to the black schools as you get to the white schools.
2:38:42And that's where this fits.
2:38:46But it doesn't answer the problem.
2:38:48It answers one aspect of the problem.
2:38:51But then you turn that thing over and there's another one.
2:38:54And you've got to go with that.
2:38:55And in order to get a totality of this thing, you've got to have a finance plan.
2:38:59There's no question about it.
2:39:01You know, we had an interesting reaction from the leaders of the union.
2:39:03George Shultz was probably pointing out that how we, in the super-greatness of this administration, with a 53% increase in business, we've seen 43% of this and 35% of this.
2:39:17Gordon Allen, who's supposed to be great, liberal and racial, he said, he said, he said, my God, there's a hell of a lot of people objecting to that, too.
2:39:24People who just serve.
2:39:26He said, why do you object?
2:39:27Because they aren't getting those promotions.
2:39:30You're giving them to the blacks who observe enough, which, of course, is true, John.
2:39:34That's not a need.
2:39:35We have to do it anyway, but you don't take television.
2:39:37They're television producers.
2:39:39They've got television.
2:39:40Every one of these groups has got a black and so forth.
2:39:43Some of them are up to it, some are not.
2:39:44Yep.
2:39:45garden is talking about the department of interior that's where he would hear and they're going over there sure that's interesting it's funny how these guys cringe when you say that ronnie acted like i touched him with a poker when he said when i said that yesterday yeah he'd love to talk all around it without
2:40:14without facing that.
2:40:15Well, okay, that helps with the timing.
2:40:19Now, on value added, I'm operating on the assumption that we want to be in a position to talk about real estate taxes during the campaign.
2:40:33Now, there are two ways we can be.
2:40:36We can have this stuff sort of in the oven with this ACIR study, and with nothing concrete out,
2:40:43and run clear through the campaign saying we had this idea and we've sent it over there and as soon as we hear back from these fellows then we're going to be ready to go.
2:40:54Or we can press ACIR and have it come out of there after the convention and before the election and have it under advisement through the campaign.
2:41:10The Vice President's strong feeling is we'd be better off to have it bottled up than ACIR.
2:41:17And he's pressing very hard to sort of keep it under wraps.
2:41:24I would ordinarily have had the opposite judgment, that it would be some advantage in having a bipartisan report on your table
2:41:33And then you could play it both ways.
2:41:35You could either campaign against it, if it were to your advantage, or you could pick it up and wave it around and say, this is mine.
2:41:42But all the time, talking about lower property taxes.
2:41:48It's a judgment call, and I need a little guidance as to how you see it.
2:42:00Well, I think that you ought to have a talk with Conway.
2:42:03All right.
2:42:04Tell him that we have these two judgments that he's ruling.
2:42:08Okay.
2:42:09Whatever you want.
2:42:13My own guess is, John, having the issue of reducing property taxes may not be as important.
2:42:25The risk...
2:42:27of the negative issue of a specific program of another kind of tax.
2:42:34Maybe it is correct in the sense that we've got to ask for a new tax reform.
2:42:41to get property taxes down and just talk all around them.
2:42:44In other words, I don't know whether we could live with that.
2:42:48But, you know, this is against my usual bent.
2:42:51I mean, I sort of prefer fighting the thing to the end of the program.
2:42:57Let's stick it out there and go on.
2:42:59It's so hard to get people to understand when you've got a media that is trying to destroy it.
2:43:07Yeah, yeah, yeah.
2:43:09Well, we're talking about this some to the media, and we're talking about it to congressmen now in the course of briefing on the CDA.
2:43:18And we get a pretty interesting reaction from the congressmen, who, of course, focus right in on the real estate tax and on the question of, is it regressive?
2:43:28What do we say to the blue-collar worker?
2:43:31And about the time you say to them, well, we know how to do this, and the blue-collar workers' taxes are going to go down, then they're really turned up.
2:43:40At the same time, they're all very concerned about the deficit.
2:43:47And they think that this is a very, it's Republicans.
2:43:50And they think this is a very tough issue.
2:43:53And the new taxes are not very popular.
2:44:00One after the other.
2:44:02Well, I'll talk to Connolly and...
2:44:08then we'll try and set it up.
2:44:10I'm concerned about it, too.
2:44:12We all are.
2:44:12I don't like that.
2:44:13But on the other hand, our political opponents are in a hell of a struggle.
2:44:19What the hell are they doing?
2:44:20Mostly they want to increase domestic spending.
2:44:24Some of them say they want to increase defense spending.
2:44:27But that's a tough question.
2:44:28And they're feeling great pain on this.
2:44:30Great pain.
2:44:32Particularly with those inflation numbers coming down, like on Georgia's chart.
2:44:37You get the conservative Republicans saying, well, geez, everybody knows a deficit is inflation.
2:44:43And then you put that chart up there, and you say, well, look what's happening.
2:44:46It's inflation.
2:44:47You've just got to say that a deficit under local custody is not a temporary one, which is when you're at local custody.
2:44:54We talk jobs, and that seems to settle the thing down.
2:44:58This deficit is for jobs, not for inflation.
2:45:02Well, okay.
2:45:04Bicentennial.
2:45:07Philadelphia aside, Dave Mahoney, I think we're getting Dave some staff and some help in getting him geared in.
2:45:15He's got an interesting idea, and they've got a model of it over here across the street in their, on the square in their headquarters.
2:45:22It is to have... Oh, we're putting $4 million in these early years, $4 million a year, and it's...
2:45:31So we've got an appropriation, yeah, yeah.
2:45:35But they have a proposal for creating a bicentennial park in each of the 50 states and then booking shows, in effect, to go around to these things.
2:45:49There'd be auditoriums and there'd be displays and the heritage of America and of the state and that kind of thing.
2:45:57And then this would become a permanent facility forever with a hall and all that kind of thing, right?
2:46:05in some population center, not necessarily downtown, but accessible to a lot of people in the state, as a kind of a heritage of the Bicentennial.
2:46:15Big enough, with water and lakes and so on, so that it'd be a meaningful thing.
2:46:23Besides which, it'd be a hell of a public works program.
2:46:29It'd cost about a billion and a half, probably, to do it, plus the land.
2:46:34And we might be able to use some federal land for this if we get the law written right and move some of this land in other ways.
2:46:42All new.
2:46:46They would very much like to have you approve this.
2:46:48They'd like to have you come and see their model and all that.
2:46:51I'm not so sure that you should do either one at this point because I've asked for OMB to tell me what's wrong with this and they'll give us a list of
2:47:01negatives and we can we can shake it out but uh uh you'll be seeing dave i would guess here and there at the dinner or something and i said i would tell you about this proposal so you know what they're very interested in it and i'll be interested to see the evaluation so yeah that's in the works uh
2:47:31Wyoming?
2:47:33No, no, no.
2:47:35You'd have a five-state park there with Montana and Wyoming and Idaho maybe.
2:47:42Maybe at the junction of the boundaries or something of that kind.
2:47:45These things don't have to be right down.
2:47:48No, you wouldn't have 50 altogether, but you'd have every state participating in one or another.
2:47:55And it'd be totally federal money.
2:47:58to begin with, and then you'd turn it over.
2:48:03You'd have a focus for the show.
2:48:05You'd have a focus for the Bicentennial.
2:48:07People would take the kids.
2:48:09They'd go there for the day.
2:48:10It would not be overnight, as they envisioned.
2:48:14You'd have all kinds of things going on every day during the year.
2:48:19And, you see, you could cook a show
2:48:23that would hit 40 on one, you know, one week, depending on climate and so on.
2:48:32So there are some problems with it, obviously, but it's the best idea.
2:48:38I wonder if we're really thinking in modern terms with TV and everything.
2:48:50Well, they're going to do that, too.
2:48:53They're going to do a lot of that.

Nixon, Ehrlichman & Fisher on Encyclopedia Judaica and U.S.-Israel Relations

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