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Conversation 692-004

TapeTape 692StartThursday, March 23, 1972 at 5:03 PMEndThursday, March 23, 1972 at 5:17 PMTape start time01:03:36Tape end time01:19:02ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Ziegler, Ronald L.Recording deviceOval Office
AudioNARA Description

On March 23, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the Oval Office of the White House from 5:03 pm to 5:17 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 692-004 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 692-4

Date: March 23. 1972
Time: 5:03 pm - 5:17 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Ronald L. Ziegler.

     National economy
          -Pay Board
                -Press coverage of George Meany's resignation
                      -United Press International [UPI]
                      -Associated Press [AP]
                -Leonard Woodcock's resignation
                -Labor representation
                -Meany's resignation
                      -The President's statement
                           -Cost of Living Council [COLC] meeting
                           -George P. Shultz’s statement
                           -Press coverage
                                 -Length of statement

     The President's schedule
          -Forthcoming press conference
                -Length of press conference
                -International Telephone and Telegraph [ITT]
                -Ziegler’s talk with Patrick J. Buchanan
                -George C. Wallace
                -Edmund S. Muskie
                -Arthur K. Watson
                      -J. William Fulbright's statement
                      -William P. Rogers's testimony regarding role

     ITT case
     -Press conference, March 24, 1972
           -Peter M. Flanigan
                 -Ronald L. Ziegler's statement
                      -Thomas F. Eagleton
                      -Flanigan’s possible statement
                      -Richard W. McLaren
                      -Executive privilege
           -John N. Mitchell
           -Justice Department

White House press relations
     -The President’s forthcoming press conference
          -Timing

National economy
     -Meany's resignation from the Pay Board
           -The President's statement
                -Tone
                      -Ziegler’s view
           -Public views
           -The President's statement
                -Compard to draft
                      -Shultz
           -Meany’s previous meetings with the President and Shultz
           -John B. Connally's forthcoming statement on Today
                -Wire services

Forthcoming press statement
     -The President's previous meeting with Marshall Green
          -Green's previous trip to Asia
                -The President's People's Republic of China [PRC] policy
                -Green’s forthcoming appearance on Meet the Press

Watson
    -Attacks by Congressmen
    -Actions on airplane
    -Ziegler's conversation with Rogers

The President's schedule
     -Press conferences
           -Timing
                 -East Room
                 -Forthcoming trip to the Soviet Union
     -Camp David
           -Radio speech
           -Ziegler's possible statement to the press
                 -Pay Board
                 -Domestic issues
                 -Forthcoming trip to Canada
                 -Hussein ibn Talal [Hussein, King of Jordan]
                 -Domestic issues
                       -Revenue sharing
                            -Welfare reform
                            -Environment
                            -Congressional action
                                 -Democratic National Convention

Ziegler left at 5:17 pm.
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.

with the pay board will continue but upi said this is a fight to finish we intend to win it win it the president said dp has applied not going to
Well, that's representative of any special interest torpedo and sink effort to control inflation, so that's a good word.
Yes, sir.
They did a fight to the finish of the high-end just before I came in.
That's good to know.
It also has the finish of the idea of fighting media.
Right.
Fight to the finish?
We can fight to the finish.
Woodcock is not going to be on.
I figured he would.
He had an announcement at about 4 or 5 today.
It was so funny.
He blasted us, too.
God, he blasted us.
It's all right.
I think it's a good thing, also, reading the fact that he represents 17% of the workers.
Woodcock, they all have 20%.
And they don't represent all that.
I mean, there's a hell of a lot of better members they don't agree with, but it's in me.
Well, I think the devices work pretty well, don't you?
Absolutely.
They've been walking around.
Now, George, I want to just very briefly, not the film, I think they'll use that film on Jubal Charlotte.
Well, we might get it along with it.
I'm sorry I didn't time it, but I think it was less than two.
287 words.
It was less than, I don't know, a few minutes.
Of course it did, but I think we used 140 words.
It was about two minutes, a quarter of a minute.
And it may have been too long, but I couldn't really cut it any less.
I couldn't cut it any more.
That was the right length.
I think also that, of course, I'll cut that out.
It took time, but we were referring to the statement.
Yeah, yeah.
That was the idea.
But the fight to defend the main thing.
Also that the people were trying to demean the wrong.
They did well.
No leader, no matter how powerful the president is, can put himself above, you know, and he has pretty good lines.
Yeah.
Now there's a call tomorrow with the president.
Three o'clock.
Sure.
So I have three.
I think we'll give them 30 minutes, probably, enough tomorrow.
I plan to be very brief in the answer tomorrow.
I guess the Russian side of the idea, and all that crap, I don't know.
I'll take some time to answer the questions.
Pat and I talked about that.
Not Wallace.
Pat, you said if I could gain something by getting a different kind of Wallace than Muskie, then screw it.
In the memo we sent, I stated my view.
There's also this Watson thing.
I don't think you should touch that either.
The Secretary... Why don't you say I have confidence in him?
You have confidence in him.
Now, they may get into the question of...
Fulbright's came out of the committee hearing and said, but I don't think you should get into that so much.
The secretary feels that he has committee good shape not to move to, I'm giving you his view, not to move to a congressional hearing on it.
what he told them, that Watson was a contact point and a communications link, and that there weren't going to be an extensive negotiation there.
And if there were extensive negotiations, well, then there would be specialists involved.
Specialists involved?
I mean, they're a kind of sort of ambassador.
But if they asked about the Watson thing, I think you could just refer that to the White House statement.
It really didn't have anything to add, except you have confidence in it.
It was as good as I thought it was going to be.
Right, and he will continue in his role as we initially announced.
See, that would be the launch of this government.
Now, have you covered planning
What have you said about that?
Well, I had a question on Flanagan.
I said, well, Mr. Xavier, answer that question.
I responded to the Flanagan thing when Eagleton took him on.
And it's got pretty heavy play.
And I expressed your confidence in him that he's being wrongly attacked and so forth.
But I didn't relate it to... Is Flanagan going to make a statement?
There's not much pressure for him to do it now.
See, what I've said, what we've said, the position we've held on long is that McLaren has covered his involvement, and he'd be willing to respond in another appropriate way.
Would the president invoke executive privilege if he was called gentleman?
That question's not before us.
They haven't asked him to come.
If he was asked, I'm sure executive privilege would apply.
Uh, but, uh, McLaren is on it.
I think so, because the Flanagan thing is not...
He has indicated to you the confidence that I have in Mr. Flanagan here.
That's what I thought.
I think that the more I can throw out the questions I don't want to answer, by throwing them off to you, the better.
Or Mr. Mitchell, for example, is covering that.
The Justice Department.
I have nothing to add.
Mr. Mitchell has done this tonight.
I think though this device, when we have a really good story, is a way to do it.
Do you think so?
Yes.
And the film always comes off very well, I think.
Yeah, but going out and getting them right at 4 o'clock with a good, sharp, hard-headed stick, that'll make the news.
Now, that's better on than if I go out and make a speech.
Don't you think so?
It's a very good idea.
A 15-minute speech about me, and I don't belabor the goddamn thing.
It'll get it across.
It fights the fish.
You know what I mean?
I may have delivered a little too hard on it, but I don't know.
No, I don't think so.
It won't come over.
I think you were very, you did not appear angry or too, but you appeared firm, but relaxed.
And I think the presentation on that was good.
We need sometimes a little anger, too, I suppose, from people.
I don't think that people support me necessarily.
Well, I don't think so.
He has, you know, some support in the labor ranks.
But the people out in the country, you know, they support the president who's trying to get something done versus the guy who's trying to undercut or attack the president.
Really, most attacks against the President have a Boomerang-ian effect on an attacker, to a great extent, because the American people, most people don't like this.
I was generous with him.
I said, I respect him as a powerful leader, organized leader.
That's as far as I would go.
They had earlier said that they had something in which I rejected.
George Shultz wanted me to say that I respect him for his great service to the country and times past.
Why don't they meet up that way?
Don't you agree?
Screw it.
He's going to be hit.
Hit him.
No, he hits us.
He's insane.
He respects us.
All right.
We'll just stay right out there.
We're just going to fight him.
We're going to fight him.
It's going to be a fight to the finish.
And they've got a fight to the finish line.
Yeah, that's an interesting one.
And a torpedo attack.
A torpedo attack.
Could I continue?
The other thing, too, that people can't help but overlook is the fact that you had breakfast with me.
You've had ongoing breakfast with me.
The guilt was over the day before.
So the effort on your part to communicate with the man has been there, and then he walks out and makes a blatant statement.
That's good.
That morning show gets quite a play.
Yeah, right.
I loaded two of them.
Would you point out that it's been an hour of green?
That's a very, very, very good.
but it's been very, very important on the reaction of China to this issue.
And I know, I know, I know, I know that in these, in these countries, there's going to be a lot of people, a lot of people, a lot of people, a lot of people, a lot of people, a lot of people, a lot of people, a lot of people, a lot of people, a lot of people, a lot of people,
You know, that's stupid Watson.
Why anybody that's, you know, who's an ambassador or a senator or a congressman is the same.
Of course, those guys are very, very nice.
Our poor ambassadors will pay for a lot of jail and horror houses.
Sure.
It's horrible.
You know what I mean?
Sure.
After one of those guys who became common this fall.
Uh, he's, uh, he won the last house of the sheriff's general's office.
It's unfortunate, though.
Oh, okay.
He was on a public airplane.
I mean, on a... On an airplane.
And the head of the store, Mr. McCree, didn't hear anything from him.
Well, apparently the report is that he was stuffing money in her.
Exactly.
But the Secretary told me that just in a phone call...
But he's doing something again?
No, but he has done this before.
The Secretary told me... Not since he's been ambassador?
Not since he's been ambassador, apparently, years ago.
And the Secretary says people know that too, so that's just a conflict of faith.
Okay.
Well, I think tomorrow is a good idea.
Good idea is a good way to wind up the week.
And then I set us up for going to my East Room conference just two weeks from now.
Right.
And then two weeks from now will be a good time.
I'll get a chance to do one East Room then, and I'll follow up with another East Room about three weeks just before the Russian trip.
That'll be the time.
That'll be good.
Get a mark, catch a mark.
I don't want to get you into something.
I'm glad it's working.
The radio is speaking up.
Better not say that.
Better not say that.
Well, I would indicate that I'm not there to work, though.
What do you want to cover this time?
What I can say is President spent the weekend at Camp David.
He had a number of papers to go over.
He had a number of things that he had to put aside briefly while in a payboard situation.
He's a
It's a domestic area, right?
We're working with domestic policies and beliefs.
Why don't you say beliefs?
Say some speeches.
That really spooks.
Then you can say, when is the Canadian?
April.
Well, it comes the next weekend.
You understand?
You don't want to say it.
You say it's going to be on domestic matters, on domestic matters that we involve the whole domestic program.
You say it's going to be on private matters.
You say it's going to be on the government sharing, the federal reform, the environment.
So at least it would be, you know, it would be most useful to
believes that we're almost at Easter recess, but no action on the major initiatives that the President has recommended.
I don't know if you could say that one or two, why don't you put that out there?
No action on the major initiatives the President has recommended, or at least they're working on a program for, to prop the Congress into action before they have to adjourn for the Democratic convention.
The time is running out.
The time is running out.
This Congress has got to...
It's spending its time.
It's got to be caught up in things.
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