Nixon, Haldeman & Colson on 1972 election and Inflation

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Well, here's the box.

Thank you very much.

There are deep black issues that we're discussing here today.

There's just not any letters there.

I mean, you do the best you can.

There are various things we can really do that are politically effective.

And if they ever go to make an issue, probably they don't.

I've got some.

I do not believe that the British Labour Party example is on all fours.

I mean, the British Labour Party situation

service.

The only issue is economics.

Fortunately with us, this is the one thing Bobby just got to hammer home to the price group, you know, and I'll campaign it.

Fortunately with us, the foreign policy issue and the defense issue is another major issue.

Plus, I would hasten to add, the whole issue of law enforcement

The price rise was a much worse problem to them because their income wasn't going up to me.

Our price rise is not a real problem because if it comes to an exception, our price is going to fall down and so forth.

The thing we have to remember is that this could just be to do as much as we can to have the issue be ours rather than theirs, to get the hell off of ours, except for handling it in a subsidiary way.

One thing on the planet, may that economy of ours be in good shape up to that, and our key state law

But no, on inflation, we have gone down enormously since January in the accessibility that animal inflation has.

It's down to where we're now negative, where in January we were 10, 15 points positive.

That was closer to the opposite.

That's right.

That's why I stress that point about this.

If there's any dramatic action, it just suddenly restores people's confidence that you're doing something.

You've got to take it close enough.

I didn't study it.

The difficulty with it.

It's really hard.

As we have done better with inflation, we need to work with the public.

In other words, the problem with inflation is that it's been 4.5% since it was in January.

It's now down to 2%.

We get too damn excited about it.

They don't mean a thing.

The reason they go back is what they say then is prices soar again this month, and they understand that.

Our figures never go up.

They always get out of money.

Well, what figures do you have?

When they say price index down, nobody knows what you're talking about.

When you say prices soar, people know exactly what you're talking about.

I must say, I think,

Even saying that we've done well in these fields means it's probably bad, potentially bad, because it means you think you've done well enough.

I'm not sure if that is totally correct.

I think we have no choice but to take the record as it is and do as well as we can with it.

I don't know how the hell we can do it without running into the problem.

Well, I overstated it yesterday because I wanted to shake things a little bit.

Because Shultz is the guy who a month ago said to me, what we want to do is freeze food prices at the retail level for the month of September and October.

And now the economists, they're the purest instincts that are coming out of me, and they're not being political.

Well, I'm sure...

a total loser.

He said, well, we need to remove the tariffs on farm products.

He tried first, they're very small.

And they wouldn't affect the price level one iota.

And the second, they would bribe the goddamn farmer and hurt the wall.

Jeez, people, there is, oh, I can do these fights.

And there are the producers of the wall.

And it would make absolutely no effect on the consumer.

The consumer wouldn't know.

It wouldn't affect the price of one thing.

That's one action we can't really take.

The only thing that today, you know, you've reached a point where the only thing that consumers do understand is that during the freeze last year, things worked.

They didn't pay more during the freeze.

I'm quite fortunate, Chuck, it's worked now.

When you look at the...

The food price issue is, the food prices are, every month, like last month was nine-tenths of one percent.

The month before it was two percent.

The food prices have, I must say, it was on the table.

It's not a great change for the CPI.

I don't agree with it either way.

It hurts.

It's like the deaths in Vietnam.

You get down to two one week and then you have four the next week.

They say deaths double in Vietnam.

Well, I think all of it was a good discussion.

We'll get out of it.

Try to get something out of the way.

Yeah.

I'll spread around.

Well, Schultz, Mr. President, will be the one who, in the final analysis, if you make a good political case to him, will... Are you sure?

Yeah.

Stein is much more of a... That's his job.

Yeah, and he should be.

He's more of a theater director.

Captain's very political.

He can show how something will work.

Yeah.

Schultz is defeated.

Schultz, I want to go over all that Harris statement that Harris left with us yesterday.

Really, it's quite interesting.

Yes, sir.

Okay.

Bush is a hell of a good man.

But he should never get up there, and the question's got to come up.

Let me say, I mean, you know, in my opinion, Kevin Locke is sort of a shallow fall.

But damn it, he was defending the United States position over and over and over again in the U.N., and that against the Russians, and despite the Secretary of State.

That was why he became the vice presidential candidate.

Now, George, of course, is out there in New York being inserted into this sort of thing, and he may think, well, Jesus, there's Walt and I, and all these other people, and people are being corrupt, and we're not even making an asset about kicking the ass out of the new FDUF.

Don't you agree?

The morning you called Bush, I wish I had seen it before you called him, because he was on a stage show and put on a spectacular performance.

He was whacking Pauline Frederick to the back of his hand, just saying, now wait a minute, let me explain.

I just wanted to know if you think you could probably do a good job expanding up on him, that's all.

I don't mean to criticize him, but I don't want him to feel that you can give an inch to the Walnut crowd.

That's the question.

It's very hard to imagine having an inch.

Oh, then it needs to be said that he's concerned.

Well, what?

They are for the U.N. when they take the United States around.

Don't you agree?

That's a really good point.

Do you watch all animal behavior?

And we need that.

But we need, like, a whole lot of heads.

We have a whole lot of heads.

That's what I'm trying to do.

Okay.

I don't think you have to attend all sorts of things.

Money is offered from all kinds of groups.

You have very close relationships.

You know whether you can take money from this group, and maybe there's foreign money too.

That's another thing.

We had that problem.

some of it you did and some of it you don't have.

But other people do, they do know him, and don't doubt that much.

But if you want to get up and say, I know that some Saudi Arabian oil man gave you 50,000 pounds.

Jesus Christ.

I'm going to say it.

I don't agree, but you agree with me.

He's probably got a lot of that in his background.

Because that's the kind of money candidates like McEverett attract.

But I just wanted to bring it up.

I wouldn't press it over too much.

I mean, I would, I think it's just as well to remember this is early, but as time goes on, wait for the opportunity.

Don't press it when there's not an opportunity.

It needs to be tolerated.

And I think it's just a few, maybe a couple of few weeks, and just go back and all that sort of thing.

Yeah.

Yeah, I did it last night.

I did it last night.

That's all right.

I can't give you any new codes now.

That's all right.

very well and so forth and drop it in and then they'll think maybe somebody's done some investigating or maybe he won't worry about it at all but it's just the other thing is it's like asking a witness in a case before the jury you ask him and ask questions and even though the counsel will answer it all of the judges without or of course not you've planted that seed in the jury's mind that's what you're doing because I like this

That's the question.

Right, sure.

And that's why we're working on it.

Which now there is a much larger number that's expected in the government.

It's created the possibility of... Do you see my point?

There's a couple of them.

all your time

only because you don't want to totally make anything, but only a highly sophisticated person, and then with your press man sitting there right with you.

And it's that, I think that's the main thing I want to get across.

I think it's the discipline, because I don't think McGregor would make such stupid comments as, you know, I'm not sure, or you disagree with him, I don't know what happens.

Yeah, McGregor does, there is a problem with McGregor's

Gregor says more than he should say.

He's got to keep, he knows, he realizes it afterwards.

Well, he likes to be with him.

He is with him.

Yeah.

I don't mind people coming with our friends.

That's the point.

Ken didn't have to run in the shop, though.

You say, in addition to talking to all of them in the White House, I had never met with Ken in my life.

He did not talk to all of them in the White House.

He saved them.

He talks the road.

And John feels very strongly that Cannon is a guy who is very much on our side.

He says he's a Cannon boss.

He says he is a boss.

Yeah.

That's the road.

He feels very strongly that.

He was the purpose we played Cannon.

And we did get fishing pointed out.

That's why I stand on the board talking to him.

I don't know him at all.

And I don't mean that he was trying to.

I meant, though, some of our people, without him knowing

We're giving things a chance.

Would you agree or not?

It wasn't all that bad.

I just want to watch in the future.

Particularly what I didn't like about it.

I don't like them attacking our staff.

I don't like them attacking our campaign tactics.

That's wrong.

That's a bad, bad thing.

Just don't do that.

That's Clark's biggest failure.

He did it when he came in here to the White House job.

about what a terrible job every, and he cut all the rest of us.

And Tim was saying how stupid all our congressional relations are, and then he was straightened out.

When he went over to the committee, he did the same thing to Mitchell.

And he doesn't do it intentionally.

It's a compulsive thing.

He doesn't realize he's doing it.

And I know that he does that.

But he doesn't.

He does it because he thinks it's building a positive.

He thinks that maybe that you've got to admit something

in order to say it's going to get better.

On the campaign thing, he says it was all screwed up and I went over there and they didn't have the budget worked out.

The states were all in disarray and all that.

What are you saying?

Is it John Mitchell was a stupid, lousy campaign manager?

He doesn't realize he's saying that.

I know, but it's what he said.

He doesn't do it.

He said it about...

He understands it.

I didn't realize either.

I thought he was going to press the button.

This was a back burner note.

I didn't take notes.

I think we should.

I take those.

I don't think anybody should just take a little tape recorder and say we're taking it for the archives.

I think we should.

I think we should just take everything.

Wait, hold on.

We take everything.

And I just take it there just for protection.

Yeah.

Well, I think we should.

There's no reason not to.

I think we should.

Nixon, Haldeman & Colson on 1972 election and Inflation

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on August 1, 1972

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