Nixon, Fitzsimmons & Colson on International Brotherhood of Teamsters

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Names and numbers are often wrong; speakers are not identified. Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

Download transcript (.txt) · JSON data

Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).

No money left.

And I think we were given an ashtray or... Those ashtrays had a purpose.

An ashtray.

They were for their wives.

Okay, do you want me to interrupt on this?

No.

Colson.

All right, all right.

Good to see you.

What's the art?

Yes, all right.

Nice to meet you.

It's good.

I don't know.

I'm in America.

Not in the war.

The what?

The war.

The war, right.

You've got to beat these guys up, Mr. President.

Yes, sir.

You did.

Come on over to us.

This has been this.

If you mind sitting here in this chair.

I think you all should know that the church, other than the city, the church, all the time, other distinguished guests come in here.

Before you get into the story of this, you know, to...

throw the weight around about that, I should remind you.

One of the most recent was sat in that chair and hung.

That's not the average.

So, don't feel too good about that.

I'd like to do that, the vaccination.

Get ready.

I ate more this morning.

Oh, you did?

Yeah.

You met the people who were all there?

Yeah.

That's why we .

Keep the east coast .

Well, I appreciate your work on that.

It's a miserable job.

And I look forward to the day when we can have those darn controls off.

They can't stay.

They can only work beyond for a certain time.

And then they just gotta let the market take care of these things.

Don't you agree?

I agree with you wholeheartedly.

What about your own contracts?

You don't have anything that's, I trust, that's coming up?

Yes, we have.

Vice President Sessom has got that Chicago contract, which it seems a couple of my associates on the board wants to contest.

The Ray's contract fell in between, his dates fell in between ours and Max's for three months.

How many of you are socialists?

I shouldn't be asking this.

You're going to have to board.

We've checked into a week.

You know what I mean?

I think the less controversy we can have over these things, the better.

Better right now.

I mean, particularly in the retroactivity business.

The one out there on the west coast was just a little more, I mean, small because it had gone on so long, you know what I mean?

And I don't know, I don't blame Bridges.

I really think it's true, you know, as long as what you were talking about, he thought the radicals took over.

He told a lot of them.

This is the last time I get to hear you.

Well, I just want to say while you're here, we have lunch.

And I'm very grateful for the, above all, for the support that has been given to basically

so much to the administration, but basically to the country in terms of this whole area of foreign policy.

I'm not surprised at that, because I remember going clear back to the days that they backed up mine as well and had great respect for it.

Like, well, it's an imposing pattern, but by God, he was a patriot.

I think that was a patriot time.

You might go on and see a great deep gravel truck with a Nixon stare on it, and a guy waving to him, goodbye, all right.

But apart from that, what's the most important thing really is that we need people at a time when there's many softies in this country who have a vigorous dedication

principles of what is the basic character that we need.

And your thoughts on every issue that has come up in terms of a strong America or a weak America, an America that's going to surrender, an America that's going to see something true, you call us to come out on the right side.

And I appreciate it.

Your statement was excellent the other day.

One of the few guys.

We've got to say this for George.

I mean, he's been a private .

and had been very good at this in this particular case.

He got away with it, but in his heart, I don't think he would have felt like this MacGyver or anything, huh?

Couldn't be.

You can't buy the concepts.

That's right.

And all the things made me a little sick to my stomach as far as I'm at today's show, and I see this.

Dave, let me just make this statement.

Who's Dave?

He's with Mr. Sixty-one.

He's with Mr. Sixty-five from the office.

Are you dangerous?

No, no, no.

No, no.

Okay.

He's one of those friends.

He's the...

I see.

He's the...

He's begging us to come into the team.

He's in my office maybe at the end of the day.

You're pretty good.

Was he supporting the... Ray, he got up at this time.

I had to miss that because I had to catch the play.

Don't get it wrong.

I read the play this morning.

He said, what's his name?

The high monkey, monkey, monkey.

Are you cute?

What the hell are you?

He says that he sat there and told us that he was for a coalition government as far as the thing was concerned with independence.

They didn't want no communist in government.

And he made that statement.

Well, that bum told me the same thing when I left Washington Monday.

I met him on the plane going back to New York.

He told me the same thing.

And I tore into him a little bit on the way back.

And I said, how the hell did you get that money?

They don't have anybody but the people they think are their friends.

As far as the coalition government, no, they don't have a coalition government.

They simply mean that they want one.

There's never been a coalition government with the communists.

The communists didn't take over.

That's right.

You just got one.

You can't have a coalition with the communists.

You know that.

You've got to throw them out.

We just went through that license that we put on.

We're going to try to be relevant as much as we can.

We're going to work with some of the problems that they're having in the Netherlands, France, where the cops just run into the border.

That's crazy.

Are you in the world?

Is that what it is?

Well, I believe it's better to be in an accident.

I don't know what else is better than that.

But that's the other thing.

Speaking of the ILO, that's one thing.

We're giving them.

They're actually living our money.

But that's...

That was so that we could find out what it did.

Well, let me say one thing that I want you folks to have in mind, you know, in politics or whatever.

I think it's very, very bad for Trump and the Lakers to be in the pocket of one political party.

I think it's a mistake for the Lakers always to go to Democratic candidates.

That's sort of the main point is that as long as I'm trying to do in this administration where we have our doors open to everybody that wants to support our principles, and that's the reason that I'm very fortunate to have this relationship.

I remember the first time he came in, he came in and we just had a picture taken of the flag.

This is before you were elected.

Anyway, we want to have a, we don't want this impression in this administration.

pro-big business and AI labor and all that sort of thing.

And the only way we can do it, frankly, is to have a good relationship with the major leaders and put them right on the table.

That's what we'd like to have.

Bets and I have got a good personal relationship.

What I want to do with the vice president is to hear it right from me.

— 2 min 24 s with no transcribed speech —

He's a great guy.

You know, the thing I've always wondered about is that I don't know whether there are problems, and I'm not trying to get your business right, but it seems to me that the construction trades, the building trades, the teachers have got so much in common that they really ought to be

I bet.

I don't know.

We are in Chicago.

You are.

You work close to the... We are.

We are.

They're a great bunch of guys.

Those are...

I heard that you had with Pete Brennan in New York over the years.

It's been terrific.

In fact, we were just talking about it this morning.

I don't know him.

I've met him.

Rocky knows him well.

He's a pretty good fellow, too, isn't he?

Yes.

He's the head of the center.

He's president.

He's president of the building trade.

The building is in Chicago.

Oh, yes.

We were in King Hill about 200 years ago when he came and his wife's daughter.

I was driving a car accident.

I don't remember too many years.

I was 77 years old, but he was bigger still alive.

He was a real American.

They tried to get me to, excuse me, let me just tell them my name.

I was around here, got a little jittery with Life magazine.

And CBS was...

As for his resignation, I was going to give him political liability.

I threw him out of the office.

I said, look here.

I said, there's an old sheriff, 76, but I said, as long as he feels he can lose the job, as long as I can't do the job, I'm not going to drag him out.

He's going to go where he wants.

It wasn't a great thing, but it was a great way to go.

But I stood up for him.

My son said, in a bragging way, it was the right thing to do.

By golly, I don't believe that when a man is under fire, particularly, I tell you, I would never go against him.

Now, if a guy is under fire, you should not talk about it with him.

Yes, but when a man like that who's cared for 50 years of his life for the service of this country is under fire by these left-wingers, my God, that could just make me dive, dive in harder.

But you think it's right?

Oh, I think it's right.

All those names are so bad, they're nothing but what I think of them.

We got a good man.

It's a temporary appointment, but I'm sure he was a good man.

Ray, I got to know him.

He was Admiral Radford's administrative assistant as well, by age, I mean.

And Radford was tough, strong.

If you know old Chief Cameron, the kind Chiefs used to say, I recognize him, I'm a pretty amazing man.

And Pat Gray, I don't know if he's a young officer, but he's steely.

Very big.

A guy you can talk to.

He'll run a bureau well, I'm sure.

You can chat in case something follows necessarily.

I guess Ted Gray and Patty.

And any time there's any problems that they want to discuss with me, you can talk to me.

Very confidential.

He's a first class.

He basically is a first class man.

He'll be totally non-political, totally fair.

And you can talk to him.

I can show you.

He's from Atlanta, isn't he?

Yeah, yeah.

He's from Connecticut.

In fact, they were thinking that years ago, after the Navy was going through the politics, he's a lawyer, and he didn't, well, in a sense, he didn't want to be a dictator in general.

But you'll like him, he's just, he's your, he's basically not going to be hard on you to follow.

And that's what you want.

Joe, Joe T, was president, was a congressman, he, he believes in kind of a subtle stance, who was

I was telling them about the incident.

I very seldom go to St. Patrick's Cathedral, but we got an invitation from my wife and I to attend Mass that Sunday.

It was the beginning of the Charity and Educational Appeal that Sunday.

So we got this invitation to go, and Anita and I went, and you know how Anita is.

I've got a wife who's as timid as a...

Yeah, when we got in front of the leader room, I see these nuns picketing.

I said, yeah, I got sick of my stomach happening, see?

Well, I couldn't resist it.

We were a little out of here, and I said, wait for me on the steps.

And I just walked with one of them.

I'm just furious.

So I walk in the water and I'm just laced a little, see.

How ashamed I am of being a Catholic.

You should be ashamed of yourself and so on and so forth.

Well, we got to do this and a cousin is watching me and she's saying, Joe T., come on, it's getting close to 10 o'clock, you know.

Well, we couldn't do too much then, but then I was wishing I had some of my guys there to do a little calendar parade, if you know what I mean.

But we couldn't.

When you did the church march, none of these guys, five minutes in the car, I was there, the bishop had celebrated the ransom, thus he had his vote.

Cruel, right?

Those bishops and whatever it is, they think they're unique in places and whatever.

Just about five minutes before, Mets presented, Christ, they wrote about paper and they just laid themselves down.

I thought I had announced the list.

You announced it?

Announced it.

I ran out of the floor of the, of the, of the, of the, of the, of the, of the, of the, of the, of the, of the, of the, of the, of the,

You know, I can't understand it enough.

You know what happened to Mark Vietnam in 1954 with the Communist Party?

The Communist murderers started it, according to the Catholic bishop

When they, if they, if we were to just walk out and let them, and turn it over, it's obvious to the communists.

Can you imagine?

Go out there and turn it over.

But you see, my biggest problem is that we can't tell that to a lot of people.

That's it.

You know, this is what's bothering me today.

I'm not kidding.

See, this is what's bothering me.

I know how I feel.

But this is what's bothering me.

We can't do this.

How the hell do we settle?

How do we settle to it?

See?

Well, we're going to do it.

We're going to do it.

Where are we in this?

I don't think we can keep talking about meetings in one area.

We just can't let the counties take over, you know?

It just becomes a little problem.

We've just got to get some good groups the same way as the account of Beck and then .

You want to speak in the money.

Yeah.

There.

You hear that?

Down the beach.

.

Let me repeat that.

I appreciate it.

Give my hand to Rocky and we'll see where I go.

I got a present for you, please.

I was going to tell you another story, but this is the other day.

I had a little dinner earlier for the retired members of the House and Senate.

36,000 men.

One of them was John Sherman Cooper of Kentucky, very decent probably, a little soft on some things, but a good man, a good man with a good heart.

And he's a great story-teller.

He's from the hills of Kentucky.

And John has told a story about this old Kentucky couple.

They've been married 55 years.

And they were sitting out on the porch of their house.

And it was one of those lovely,

She says, you know, I'm proud of you.

She put her big hearing aid on one of her ears and says, what's that?

And he said again, I am proud of you.

I can't hear you.

He said, I'm proud of you.

Put her hearing aid on one of her ears and said,

On car YouTube.

That's pretty good.

Well, you can tell that with anything.

For your wives, this is the extra presidential ice cream.

It has a sealed bottom.

That's right.

For you, though.

Actually, it's a, it's a, you didn't know what I meant to say, but it's very indestructible.

Use it, use it.

For you folks, this is a, this is a little play on what we got.

What's the combination?

Switch play?

That's for the man.

Oh, you get a golf ball.

I'll get one more golf ball.

You were telling me that you had a real long butt.

No, when you get one that you know you can't make about 30 feet out, you said, Jim, I'm sorry to tell you, but the president told me that on this boat, you were to give me the butt.

Thank you.

Nixon, Fitzsimmons & Colson on International Brotherhood of Teamsters

AI Summary

Audio

NARA Description

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Transcript (AI-generated)

Also recorded on May 4, 1972

Cite this conversation

Nixon, Fitzsimmons & Colson on International Brotherhood of Teamsters

AI Summary

Audio

NARA Description

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Transcript (AI-generated)

Also recorded on May 4, 1972

Related conversations

Cite this conversation