Nixon, Dively & Hess on White House Conference on Youth

4:35This is Chris Garcia from California.
4:39Yeah.
4:40Yeah.
4:42Now, Cameron is here.
4:51Right here.
4:53I'm aging. 33.
4:5533 minutes.
4:56You carried it well.
4:59Mr. President, we'd like to take a picture.
5:02All right.
5:04I'd like to hear this.
5:05I'd also like to present the iPod folks first.
5:08I'll talk to you about that.
5:13I've got a copy of this document.
5:15So we've got over here, I think the picture's getting better.
5:19Let's see, you stand on my left, and if you get on my right, like this, the rest bounces, and I think you get on my right, too, Steve.
5:29If I'm, you should be there.
5:30I hold him, kind of like this.
5:35It all looked awkward.
6:17Of course.
6:34Very.
6:36Yeah, yeah.
6:43Oh, yeah.
7:00Thank you.
7:25Now let's get to the...
7:46We'll get another picture with all of you looking at our own pictures.
7:49We need you to stand back.
7:51Here, listen.
7:52We've got black heads over there.
7:53I want to get a picture.
8:00I need a picture.
8:01Perfect, sir.
8:03Bring it back.
8:04Yes.
8:05One year ago.
8:33It's a very expensive thing.
8:59Yeah, these are very expensive.
9:01We got caught by them and we tried to reduce the quality of this money.
9:07We use these because it won't go over across campus much.
9:10We'll go back to them.
9:16So we'll break it up together with the Congress.
9:20Eric, can I start?
9:33That's all we have to do.
9:33We don't have to sit down for five minutes.
9:36I've got a little camera here.
9:38I want to see Steve, because he's going to be working.
9:44I don't know him, Steve.
9:46You didn't know him?
9:48Yeah.
9:49Senior golf coach.
9:53Yeah.
9:55We'd like to give you a copy of the report.
9:59Maybe you can take it along.
10:17Yeah, I will.
10:21This is a smart thing.
10:22You've got those water cans.
10:28We think it represents some of the concerns of the young people, and this is basically, I can only speak for myself as chairman of all of them.
10:42The conference and the year that has followed it has particularly, not so much the document, the federal response, but the effort on the part of your administration and the federal government to look at what was said on this department, starting with the secretary.
11:00has been very helpful.
11:02Well, as you know, we took all of your recommendations and spread them all over the government.
11:06So the response is basically one that should be relevant to the matters that you raised rather than simply one prepared here.
11:19So it got them to think about some of the problems.
11:21Well, that was to see if it's correct or not.
11:24No, no.
11:24If I wanted to point out another thing,
11:26these three delegates who are in our chairman and vice chairman, vice chairwoman, elected by their colleagues in Estes Park, did something quite unusual.
11:39And we gave them budget.
11:43It was $152,000 for the following fiscal year.
11:48And they advised us on how best to spend the money.
11:52And it came out about one-third to run a small office, three people.
11:57About one-third to print the reports, make a film, and so forth.
12:01And about one-third
12:04for grants, demonstration grants, of other young people doing things that were in keeping with the spirit and the recommendations that came out of this park.
12:13Who determines the grants?
12:14They determine the grants.
12:15We have a committee of 11 of us.
12:17The grants were announced through your office today.
12:22And we think, speaking for Helen and Chris,
12:29through these grants that we can focus additional attention on problems, such as one I'm interested in, the Asian majority.
12:36These grants will allow the University of Michigan to study the Asian majority, what's happened in Michigan
12:46That's been recommended nationally.
12:48It's of course a problem which has to be a question of the state and federal relationship, but you're pretty high on it as I understand it.
13:00I haven't read them all.
13:01I'm correct in that I understand it.
13:02We've appreciated the support you gave to the governor in the report.
13:07That's just one of the things that you might do, which I'm sure you've already thought about.
13:11I think you might appear for both platforms.
13:16on that issue.
13:17You can do that.
13:18They'll, what's your name, Steve?
13:21I can assure you the Republican platform committee will hear you then.
13:26I'm sure Democrats naturally will have a chance to protect our office by this non-partisan group.
13:32Go to the platform committee.
13:33If you can get a position
13:35that you believe should be included, it would be quite unusual.
13:37It would be the first time that either national platform, well, I guess national platforms have had it before, you know, like the Asian Aero World and that sort of thing.
13:46We had that in ours in 68, as I recall.
13:48But you see, if you get something highly substantive,
13:52And just as a suggestion, why don't you come and take a look at that and see if you could help where you were with it.
13:58And you are a true guest.
14:00He said you can.
14:01Why don't you go through your entire, you know, your attempts to pick out the things that you think might well be in a party platform.
14:08And then go down before the committee.
14:11And, you know, if you've ever attended a platform commission, well, that would be interesting, too.
14:17I was on the...
14:21And in 1948, when I was a freshman congressman at that time, I was elected the second time in the primary, so I was just going into my second term.
14:36But I appeared before the platform committee in Philadelphia, and it's extremely interesting.
14:43Another thing that will be associated too is that the platform committee provides a very good public relations device, CD, and conventions.
14:54They will have massive television coverage and platform committee, of course, you know, means for a week.
15:01before the convention begins, a week to 10 days, and I'm not saying they will report what you said, but they are going to mind.
15:11And there will be questioning and there will be debate and all that sort of thing.
15:17It may be a good idea to consider re-interviewing.
15:20What are you going to do when you finish college?
15:45Well, right now I'm planning to go to Stanford to go to counseling psychology.
15:50You mean for graduate work?
15:51Yes.
15:51Yeah.
15:52Uh-huh.
15:53To Stanford.
15:53I see.
15:54Are you a Californian originally?
15:54No, except for when I was young.
15:55I grew up in California most of the time, if I can remember.
16:00Yeah.
16:00Practically.
16:01Sure.
16:01It was like my wife.
16:02She was born in Nevada.
16:03Moved to California when she was a month old, so she kind of went to Europe.
16:11You're already working, right, sir?
16:13I'm working now.
16:14You're right, right.
16:15Yeah, I know that you have a background in the service.
16:20You've, uh, let's come, uh, if we, uh, if we all volunteer, Ernie, come and get one.
16:33We hope.
16:33What are the contentious issues out of the way?
16:35Talk about other things.
16:38We're down pretty low in the draft now, though.
16:49But the thing I would hope is that all of you would learn, I remember
16:59I had the opportunity to attend, well, like, conventions I had been to for years ago when I first was out of college.
17:09I mean, conventions, it's always a good experience just to go, just to be there with all the people and the excitement.
17:15But the most, there are two things that I remember that all people remember is that, first of all, that the people that you meet, that you know, you develop friendships and
17:26not only friendships, but you develop that dialogue that will go on for the rest of your lives.
17:31And that's very important.
17:33And there are people that you've met that you've never really met and wouldn't have met in the Navy or anyplace else.
17:37That's number one.
17:39Some of them will agree with you, some of them will, but I've had people that I've met in conventions through those years.
17:46The other thing is to try to see that it just doesn't end up being important.
17:53This White House Library and the Library of Congress is vitally full of, if you will, thousands of reports, White House conferences on it.
18:09So, education, health, and a number of things that just collect dust, dust, dust.
18:17Some things happen sometimes, but the hard thing is to, of course, follow through.
18:24And I think Steve, Steve very much had this in mind.
18:32He's our expert.
18:34We hope that both of the grants which were issued and also the fact that you have gone a step farther than this report will not be one of those again.
18:45One good way, as I say, to
18:48to say that it is the platform committee because you will have to know what the situation will be later.
18:52But there you reach both parties.
18:56You reach the Congress, the senators, as well as the executive branch.
19:01And you might reach the country if you get a little play through those papers.
19:10Excuse me, Mr. President.
19:13All right.
19:22Those streets are, you've heard of the Dwarf streets, these are very young streets.
19:24They're sometimes five years old.
19:25And I said, there's a lot of them there.
19:26And I told them, there's a lot of the Chinese in there.
19:27And I said, yeah, we love the Dwarf here.
19:29There's a little display on the right.
19:30I said, there's something that says Dwarf in there.
19:32He said, there's probably, you know, half the right there.
19:48And he said, yeah.
19:49How's everyone doing today?
19:50Good luck to you.
19:51I wish you the very best.
19:53This federal response has been very good.
19:58You were very responsible as a group of leaders here.
20:05And I think it was a very representative group.
20:07And we also get pushed by our staff here.
20:10They're all young.
20:11Only you can take the portion.
20:16No, no, 34?
20:19I see Churchill across the aisle.
20:26He was 34 already.
20:28Goodbye.
20:29Good luck to you.
20:30Have a good time in Miami and wherever it is you're called in San Diego.
20:36Okay.
20:46I see.
20:46I had forgotten.
20:47We were giving them the books.
20:50With Steve Hess, do you want to give him a money book?
20:52Do you want anything inexpensive?
20:53And a little Apollo viewer for the children.
20:55We have a little Apollo viewer for the children.
21:22Well, here they are.
21:26One, two.
21:28Well, how are you?
21:29I'm glad to see you.
21:33You've got a nice family picture.
21:38How would you like that?
21:39You've got to have it anyway.

Nixon, Dively & Hess on White House Conference on Youth

AI Summary

Audio

Transcript (AI-generated)

NARA Description

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on April 13, 1972

Cite this conversation