Nixon, Shultz & Weinberger on George Wallace and Assassination Attempt

2:54:27Well, with regard to this business, the least of our concerns is on Soviet spy, very simply enough.
2:54:39That's what I think.
2:54:41The other things are going on, so anything you want to get on with it?
2:54:46They recouped Besson.
2:54:47They opened the road between Birmingham and Besson.
2:54:55Well, I don't know how seriously they'll try to hold it, but if you remember that Besson was besieged for four weeks before they lost it.
2:55:04And it was a big headline when it was lost.
2:55:07It's a good headline in the Washington Star.
2:55:09Saigon, truth retakes.
2:55:18We'll see you later.
2:55:21What is the situation tonight?
2:55:24I'll call you.
2:55:28Thanks, everybody.
2:55:37Hi, how are you?
2:55:40Yes.
2:55:45It's a hell of a thing.
2:55:47Did you have a chance to talk to him?
2:55:51Well, let me come directly to the point.
2:55:53It doesn't involve any more money for us.
2:55:58It doesn't involve any more money for us.
2:56:09When I had John and I planned on this for a year, I think he only agreed to come three years because of very strong personal considerations.
2:56:19The year ended in December of last year.
2:56:24I got in and I talked to him and he was telling us, you've got to stay on.
2:56:30I said, you've got to stay on for the rush.
2:56:33I'm just wondering, you had any report on the walls and walls?
2:56:37No.
2:56:37He was shot?
2:56:38No, he was shot in the arm and in the abdomen.
2:56:42Alabama, yeah, probably is.
2:56:44An Alabama state trooper was shot.
2:56:46His secretary, Ms. Thompson, was shot.
2:56:49What was that?
2:56:49A machine gun.
2:56:51He had a Smith & Wesson pistol.
2:56:54Black or white?
2:56:55White.
2:56:56About 35.
2:56:57What is he?
2:56:58He was caught.
2:56:59Oh, yeah.
2:57:00He was caught.
2:57:01Wallace had to be serviced.
2:57:03Yes.
2:57:03One of the agents was shot.
2:57:05Yeah.
2:57:05What was the struggle?
2:57:07What...
2:57:09I don't know.
2:57:10Who is the guy?
2:57:14He had Wallace weapons on and all that sort of thing.
2:57:23Wallace's condition is.
2:57:25And that's...
2:57:27there's an unconfirmed report from the doctor who treated him on the scene and said he had no pulse but that doesn't necessarily okay anyway the thing is uh we're considering that i think we probably recommend that you not do this movement because you'll be out there trying to press and i don't think you want to be um
2:57:52We're trying to find out what happened.
2:57:54There's nothing wrong with him, and that's one thing.
2:57:56Well, if he's living, I don't think there's a problem doing it.
2:58:00I mean, I shouldn't.
2:58:01I mean, the point is, if he's in the hospital and so forth.
2:58:06Yeah, you sent your physician over to check on him and to offer the services, but that's the word.
2:58:12He's right here.
2:58:14There's no problem if he's living.
2:58:15You know what I mean?
2:58:18Do you think so?
2:58:19Because it's shocked, you can't cancel something.
2:58:23No, that's right.
2:58:23We've got to get a statement out by you before that, so we've got something covered.
2:58:29You mean he dies while I'm there?
2:58:31No, I mean a statement on the shooting.
2:58:33Oh, sure.
2:58:34So that's being prepared now?
2:58:35Yeah.
2:58:39That'll be encouraging.
2:58:43Well, anyway, so my arrangement with Senator Connolly was that he would leave.
2:58:50We're going to announce it tomorrow at the
2:58:57He will also, in his own voice, as he did last week, make a query and make no doubt escalation into it.
2:59:05That's good.
2:59:06The political thing is no problem.
2:59:08He's not going to say it right now.
2:59:10I mean, he's going to say it right now.
2:59:12It's a great loss and so forth that had to happen.
2:59:16So I'm naming George as Secretary of the Treasury.
2:59:18I'm naming you as Director of the OPM.
2:59:20And then you're the pick of you and George.
2:59:22So we have George as the guy who did the budget.
2:59:27I mean, it's your system, so that's all there is to it.
2:59:30That's all you want?
2:59:31You should be the first to know.
2:59:32We were going to try to tell you before you got here, but I couldn't lie.
2:59:34I got somebody for 15 minutes to take an hour.
2:59:40Well, anyway, it's something that, of course, I mean, you have a very great response.
2:59:45You work very closely with your member of the Troika, Quadrat, and all that jazz.
2:59:50It's like the most important bunch of people.
2:59:55be just tough politically.
2:59:59The economy would be a great loss.
3:00:00But on the other hand, he had a point in one sense that he said, as the campaign approached, he would be in an increasingly difficult position if he wants to be political.
3:00:11As Secretary of the Treasury, it's very difficult.
3:00:18Well, maybe he can think of some way to be helpful on the outside.
3:00:23I wouldn't be surprised.
3:00:24That's a great mark of confidence, Mr. President.
3:00:26I appreciate it very much indeed.
3:00:27Well, it's a tough job, and you've had one of the toughest means jobs that I've had.
3:00:30You know, being director of the budget is tough, but after all, you've got a satisfaction knowing it's important.
3:00:43Yes, it is important.
3:00:44And how this will be important, so...
3:00:49There you are.
3:00:49Do you get any payments?
3:00:50Do you get any payment increases?
3:00:51He gets a thousand dollars on a level three to three or level two.
3:00:56He gets a couple thousand dollars, I think.
3:00:57About a thousand dollars.
3:01:00A couple thousand.
3:01:02Twenty-five hundred.
3:01:04Does he get a car?
3:01:05He's already got a car.
3:01:07That's not fair.
3:01:07What does he get that he doesn't have now, then?
3:01:13The office.
3:01:15His office is the best office.
3:01:18Well, I would hesitate to have you say it, Mr. President.
3:01:23Why the hell should you take his office?
3:01:26Well, because he has a great desire to serve the public and to do what he wants to do.
3:01:33Serve the President.
3:01:35And everybody will know that Weinberger has really been unleashed now.
3:01:40We've unleashed Weinberger in many ways.
3:01:43Well, that's very unleashing.
3:01:45When you look at these in Shanghai, somebody said that was an empty cannon, not an unleashing white burger.
3:01:51You'll go after him.
3:01:53Well, it is.
3:01:54As you may be interested to know, Secretary Conway came over to the opening of our spring here for the budget.
3:02:04and gave a point of view about how the budget should shape up and the importance of people working on the budget, bringing you a real alternative in terms of a tight budget that would not make it necessary to have taxes go up.
3:02:21And that could only be done by the people in the budget work.
3:02:27And I think he really did our people a lot of good and gave them a lot of help.
3:02:33We have to have that kind of a budget.
3:02:34I'm totally aware of it.
3:02:36That's going to require vetoes.
3:02:37It's going to require- Very good.
3:02:39I must say that the information that this was the kind of fiscal policy we were going to pursue was presented to the business council in a very general way by Herb, and they took it very well.
3:02:50They were very delighted.
3:02:52The business council either wants that or expands it.
3:02:54Well, one of the two, yeah.
3:02:56Those bastards are never going to get it.
3:02:58At this point, they understand what might be coming.
3:03:01Don't count them.
3:03:03No, no.
3:03:04That is the most pusillanimous group of military people I've ever met.
3:03:09They were very big on price controls a while back.
3:03:12Yeah.
3:03:13Price controls.
3:03:14What are you going to do about it later?
3:03:16Yeah.
3:03:16All right.
3:03:17What are they going to do?
3:03:20They'd like some cars.
3:03:21Mm-hmm.
3:03:25No, they are really a sad lot.
3:03:27I mean, they're wonderful men.
3:03:28I mean, nice people.
3:03:29They play tennis, golf, bridge.
3:03:32They swim.
3:03:33They go to the right places.
3:03:36Nassau at the right time of year.
3:03:38Palm Springs and all the rest of them.
3:03:42You know, they're not gutsy.
3:03:44Kendall is very unusual.
3:03:45He has guts.
3:03:46Yeah, he's over there because we recommend him.
3:03:48It's an incestuous inbred group.
3:03:50Most of our members have got about as much steep character as the college president, and I need his college.
3:04:05There was never any doubt about George, Tommy, and I agreed.
3:04:11And Tommy and I also talked about you at the release.
3:04:26We decided this a month ago.
3:04:28I couldn't tell anybody.
3:04:30Nobody in the staff.
3:04:32We had to keep it quiet.
3:04:35I killed all of them.
3:04:40But it was a unanimous choice.
3:04:44Two of us, three of us.
3:04:48Thank you, Mr. President.
3:04:48Thank you for speaking to that.
3:04:50It was a funny little story.
3:04:51I don't know whether it will come out in Russian translation, but it's true.
3:04:55The Russian, after his meeting with Kissinger, was telling a Russian story about the...
3:05:08He was expressing his contempt for the educated elite
3:05:14He said, there was this peasant who had his boy at school, the boy had gone to school, and they went out to the barnyard and saw two chickens.
3:05:25The boy said to his father, there are three chickens.
3:05:29He said, what way do you mean three chickens?
3:05:30He said, there's one chicken there, and one chicken there, and there's one chicken inside of one chicken.
3:05:40And he said, look, since that's all you learned in college, my mother did this chick and I did this chick, and you can have the third chick.
3:05:52You've got a whole nation of resources.
3:05:55Anyway, so much for the professor group and Professor Schultz, and now we've got Secretary of the Trade.
3:06:02The stock market went down 50 points.
3:06:04But don't sell, no.

Nixon, Shultz & Weinberger on George Wallace and Assassination Attempt

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Also recorded on May 15, 1972

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