Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 834-008
Date: Friday, January 5, 1973 at 2:22 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); David, Edward E., Jr. (Dr.); Bull, Stephen B.
Recording device: Oval Office
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/834-008

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Just one time.
[0:07] All right.
[0:31] With regard to the issue, I think that we all .
[0:33] But I am confident that there hasn't been anyone that has been able to be, in fact, represented specifically.
[0:51] and still represent the position of the president.
[0:56] You're the best man we've ever had.
[1:00] I respect for all.
[1:02] I'm sorry you don't want to do the ADC.
[1:07] I think you could do a great job there.
[1:10] And yet, maybe you should.
[1:11] Maybe even you don't know what you should do.
[1:16] I don't know.
[1:17] You've got to make your own determination.
[1:21] With our new organization, you know, it seems to me that you, that you've been a, thank God, this is the best opportunity we've had for science.
[1:35] But I understand you've got a position coming up.
[1:38] I hope it is.
[1:38] I hope you make an opinion on it.
[1:41] Well, you never know when it's enough, of course.
[1:44] But it's very
[1:50] I can speak, having been in the private sector for eight years.
[1:55] You're worth a lot.
[1:57] Don't understand.
[1:58] Don't suspect.
[1:59] If you get a little too old, a little older, you wouldn't be.
[2:03] A little younger, you wouldn't be.
[2:04] But you're right at the age that you've got to be right now for the next ten years.
[2:11] My father told me that.
[2:13] It's a company called Gould Incorporated, which is a merger of the old Gould National Battery Company and Clevite, which is a Cleveland-based automotive parts and electronics company.
[2:29] And the thing that intrigued me most about those two firms was that it's a combination of very high technology and sort of medium-level technology.
[2:38] And most of the, that's the combination I think is going to take us all in the process.
[2:43] Your position is exactly the same as my position.
[2:46] That's the same as my position for research and development planning.
[2:49] And I'll also be president of their laboratory, Google Laboratories.
[2:52] And it's suburbia-based with people out of Chicago.
[2:55] Do you like that part of the country?
[2:58] I've never lived there, but I think people will like it.
[3:02] Chicago is a vital city.
[3:04] It really is.
[3:05] I've always wanted to come to Chicago.
[3:07] I've never lived there either.
[3:09] But there's a certain, you know, they have a gutsy,
[3:16] If he doesn't have the softness that you've got in some of the eastern areas, I don't mean that there aren't very strong people in the east, too.
[3:26] Chicago has a really down-to-earth, go-ahead type of business leader and education leader and so forth.
[3:34] I think you'll like it.
[3:36] I think you'll like the atmosphere there.
[3:40] They're nice.
[3:41] They're good people.
[3:42] Well, I hope so.
[3:43] I think it's going to be interesting.
[3:45] Where do you live?
[3:45] I'm in the area as well.
[3:46] Where do you live?
[3:47] We have a great children's place, but I think we'll live in Barrett.
[3:51] Barrett?
[3:51] I haven't heard of that area.
[3:52] I haven't seen it.
[3:53] Beyond O'Hare.
[3:53] About 20 minutes beyond O'Hare.
[3:55] Oh, yeah.
[3:56] Oh, that's a good area.
[3:57] I haven't seen that.
[3:58] It's sort of very much like Virginia.
[4:00] 741 is not like Virginia.
[4:01] Yeah.
[4:02] Yeah.
[4:03] Like the... Is it a new kind of development?
[4:06] Not really.
[4:06] It's been there for some years.
[4:09] It was a small town.
[4:10] I thought it was an independent part of Illinois, but I don't think it's a very...
[4:16] It's, oh, maybe 20 minutes from Elk Air Air Force, 40, 50 minutes from that.
[4:21] Is your office in Chicago?
[4:22] It's very near O'Hare, so... Oh, oh, that's great.
[4:26] You don't have to go on, do you?
[4:28] Right, right.
[4:31] Mr. President, I think we'll, if I can give any help to you, in that position.
[4:35] Well, we have, I told John and that, you know, there are times that we are going to have assignments that are not cool.
[4:52] but involved, where we want people that know what government is and can follow up and carry out.
[4:59] It's also that it will be helpful to you.
[5:00] I mean, what I mean is that when somebody is standing there and he goes out, it's good for you to keep your context in here.
[5:11] You know, it's good also for you to do something to take you away from that.
[5:18] We ought to give you their perspective.
[5:25] Actually, the way we have that, we have that very much in mind.
[5:30] Sometimes we've got some, you like to travel, I know.
[5:35] Yes, I do.
[5:36] You do a little foreign travel.
[5:40] I'd be glad to do whatever that you see.
[5:45] Tell me this, do you, what about the energy that you use?
[5:49] Do you have an interest in that particularly?
[5:53] Very much so.
[5:55] The one thing I would like for you to do, if you would, is to mention that earlier, if you have not already.
[6:03] We're going to have to set up that energy.
[6:04] It's one thing we did not handle in the reorganization because it covered too many things.
[6:09] And it's the one thing we're going to retain someplace in the White House, someplace.
[6:15] It will require a great deal of outside
[6:20] operations and so forth.
[6:22] Seems to me that you would be arguing on that.
[6:25] Your company is not in that, though.
[6:28] Well, everybody is in it, but not centrally.
[6:31] It does have this battery.
[6:34] What do you mean?
[6:35] I'm not saying that, but...
[6:37] But you're interested in the subject.
[6:39] I'm very interested in the subject.
[6:42] Well, we, being a little bit modest, we had a very strong hand in preparing the first energy message.
[6:49] And we've had a strong hand in this one.
[6:52] The RD program that goes with it was really the product of our office and Dick Balsizer in particular.
[7:01] But my own personal interest has been there, too.
[7:02] In fact, this is, I've made several speeches on the subject.
[7:06] And I think it's pretty well recognized.
[7:08] Well, you've been...
[7:12] You know they haven't formalized it yet, but I know, I told John that I thought there should be an outside, you know, a group of experts outside of the government, not disturbing people.
[7:29] And he'd be ideal.
[7:31] Absolutely ideal.
[7:34] Okay.
[7:35] We can...
[7:39] That's what we were calling it.
[7:41] I think there may be another area that perhaps is not quite as obvious now, but maybe there will be some help to be given.
[7:48] This is Senator Kennedy's activities on the Hill with respect to science, which I look on as being very bad.
[7:56] and deleterious to science.
[7:58] I don't know.
[7:58] I don't even know what they are.
[8:00] Well, he's trying to establish a Civil Science Systems Administration, sort of like the analogy of NASA, which is in the NSF.
[8:08] It's a bad concept, and probably the worst place they could put it, even if it such as existed.
[8:15] And it's a political ploy.
[8:17] It's getting a lot of support.
[8:20] I'm very, very anxious to do whatever I can to help do that.
[8:26] And then there's the Office of Technology Assessment, which is a congressional analog or congressional correspondence to the GAO on the technology side that was set up last year by my statute.
[8:40] And I look on that as being a political opinion.
[8:45] Senator Kennedy is at the head of that.
[8:48] So you're going to, I think, be bleak as the MIT crowd is.
[8:51] Well, I wouldn't be surprised if it's the heart of your understanding of what he did to himself.
[8:55] He doesn't know.
[8:56] It's the Massachusetts group, by the way.
[8:58] It's what?
[8:58] It's the Massachusetts group.
[9:02] And I just think that's very bad.
[9:02] It's a sign very bad for the country.
[9:04] And I'd be more than happy to do a review.
[9:07] Do you express your views on that to whom it's very important to wear a review?
[9:14] I don't know if everyone's aware of my particular views.
[9:16] I've never discussed it with anyone.
[9:18] But I have expressed it to various people in our shop.
[9:31] Okay.
[9:32] I have a couple of questions for you.
[9:37] That's for your wife.
[9:39] I know she did a survey on all the things we can.
[9:42] And those are the only other people who have a large account.
[9:48] So, uh, so, uh, Sam, you know, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they,
[9:59] Thank you very much, sir.
[10:01] That's all you have.
[10:01] All you have to remember is love.
[10:03] I really like that.
[10:04] I love that name again.
[10:05] She's a little bit bigger.
[10:08] She's a little bigger.
[10:09] She's a little bigger.
[10:10] She's a little bigger.
[10:11] She's a little bigger.
[10:13] She's a little bigger.
[10:14] She's a little bigger.
[10:15] She's a little bigger.
[10:17] She's a little bigger.
[10:17] She's a little bigger.
[10:19] She's a little bigger.
[10:19] She's a little bigger.
[10:22] She's a little bigger.