Conversation No. 865-28

Date: February 28, 1973
Time: 4:25 pm-5:46 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Roy L. Ash, George P. Shultz, John D. Ehrlichman, and H. R. (“Bob”)
Haldeman.

       Greetings

       Statistics

       Governor’s meeting
             -Nelson A. Rockefeller
                    -Death of Winthrop Rockefeller
             -Revenue sharing
                    -Partisanship
                    -Fait accompli
                    -State budgets
                    -Ash
                    -Misinformation
             -Health, Education, and Welfare [HEW] telegrams on library funding
                    -Congressional appropriations
                    -Caspar W. (“Cap”) Weinberger
                                      -28-

             NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                               Tape Subject Log
                                (rev. Mar.-09)
                                                      Conversation No. 865-28 (cont’d)


               -Governor of South Dakota Richard S. Kneip
               -Special revenue sharing budget
                      -Library programs
                             -President’s support

Revenue sharing
      -Program cuts
              -No bid [?] programs
              -Ronald W. Reagan
              -Categorical programs for special revenue sharing
                      -Congress
              -General revenue sharing
      -Budget limits
              -Social services cuts
              -Weinberger
                      -Regulations
      -James T. Lynn, John J. Gilligan
              -Community development, housing

Congressional relations
      -Budget
              -Abstract
              -Fact sheets

Budget
         -Human resources compared to defense budget
              -Changes during President’s administration
              -Social Security
              -Effects on foreign policy, defense
                      -Wheat exports
                             -Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR]

Governors’ meeting
      -Marvin Mandel
      -General revenue sharing
             -President’s statement
                    -Kenneth R. Cole, Jr.
                    -Ehrlichman, Bryce N. Harlow
                                      -29-

           NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                              Tape Subject Log
                               (rev. Mar.-09)
                                                      Conversation No. 865-28 (cont’d)


                     -Special revenue sharing
                            -Efficacy
                            -Formula
                                    -Advice of governors
                     -Previous talks with governors
                            -Foreign policy
                                    -Vietnam

Governorships
      -Parochial atmosphere
      -Role and function
              -Rockefeller, Reagan
                      -Political aspirations
              -Budget
                      -Revenue sharing
              -Compared with Shultz’s role
              -State of the State address
                      -Sacramento, California; Albany, New York
                      -Press coverage
                      -Publicity
              -Special revenue sharing
                      -Expanded role
                      -Compared to categorical grants

Governors
      -Press relations
              -Vietnam issues
              -Time, Newsweek
                      -[Arnold] Eric Sevareid

President’s talk to governors
       -Previous talks
                -Foreign policy
                       -Middle East, Cambodia, Paris peace, Vietnam
       -Trade
                -Trade missions
                       -Farm states
                       -Exports
                                      -30-

            NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                               Tape Subject Log
                                (rev. Mar.-09)
                                                     Conversation No. 865-28 (cont’d)


                      -Mandel
                      -People’s Republic of China [PRC]
                             -Liaison office
                             -Chou En-lai
                             -Exchange program
                             -Henry A. Kissinger

PRC
       -Clouse and Peabody [?]
              -Trade mission
                     -Textiles
                             -Centralization
       -Economic capability
              -Compared with India, Africa

Latin America
       -North, South economic development
               -Brazil
       -Africa
               -Southern Africa

Congressional testimony
      -Shultz
              -Treasury budget
              -Ash
      -Appropriations committees
              -Funding compared with implementation
              -Taxes

Congress
      -Lobbying
            -Farmers, special interests

Poll on budget cuts
        -Stewart J. O. Alsop
                -Kissinger
        -Congress
        -Sindlinger, Harris
                                             -31-

                  NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                    Tape Subject Log
                                     (rev. Mar.-09)
                                                          Conversation No. 865-28 (cont’d)


                   -Questions
                   -William J. Barody, Jr.
                   -Federal spending
                   -Inflation
                   -Taxes
                   -Charles W. Colson
             -Haldeman
                   -Gallup
                   -Impoundment

      Administration’s image with people
            -Shultz, Weinberger, Ash
            -Compassion
                    -Federal expenditures, spending
                    -Robert F. (“Bobby”) Kennedy
                           -Compassionate rhetoric
                    -Congressional testimony
                           -Weinberger, Lynn
                           -Hardhats
                                   -Taxes
            -Federal spending
                    -Democrats, Republicans
                    -Dwight D. Eisenhower, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson, John F.
Kennedy
            -Minority hiring
                    -President’s view
                           -Blacks
                           -Italians
                           -Mexicans
                           -Woman
                           -Symbolism
            -Weinberger, Ash
            -Responsibility compared to demagoguery
                    -Robert Kennedy, Edward M. (“Ted”) Kennedy

      Milton Friedman’s interview
             -Playboy
                                       -32-

            NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                 Tape Subject Log
                                  (rev. Mar.-09)
                                                    Conversation No. 865-28 (cont’d)


Dean G. Acheson
      -Present at the Creation
      -School vouchers
      -Minimum wage
             -Effect on poor
      -University of California
             -Tuition
             -Education subsidies

Veterans
       -Ash
       -President’s supporters

Farmers
      -President’s supporters
      -Legislation
             -Subsidies

Veterans
       -POWs
              -Press coverage
                      -Cartoons
                      -Raymond K. Price, Jr.
       -Legislation
              -Vetoes
              -Bureaucracy
       -Benefits
              -Appropriations
                      -Johnson
                      -Charles M. Teague
       -Power of lobby
       -POWs
              -Price
              -War critics
                      -Moral issue
                      -John V. Lindsay

Loss of faith in country
                                         -33-

              NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                  Tape Subject Log
                                   (rev. Mar.-09)
                                                             Conversation No. 865-28 (cont’d)


          -Upper class, universities
          -George S. McGovern
          -POWs’ return from Vietnam
                 -Press reporting
                         -United Press International [UPI]
                         -Programming

Press relations
        -White House press corps
                -Antiwar bias
                -Peter Lisagor
                -Dwight D. Eisenhower, Truman
                -Television [TV]
                -Downfall of Johnson
                -Attitude toward President
        -Press conferences
        -President’s statements
        -POWs
                -Press coverage
                -Popular perceptions
                        -Evanston, Illinois
        -Administration’s message
                -Bias
                -Cities, veterans, “Jobs for Veterans”
                        -News summary

Veterans
       -Unemployment
            -Memo from Price

President’s meeting with Ivy League presidents
       -Cambodia
       -Campus violence
              -University of California, Berkeley

Critics
          -Reaction to end of Vietnam War
                 -Intellectuals
                                          -34-

              NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                    Tape Subject Log
                                     (rev. Mar.-09)
                                                       Conversation No. 865-28 (cont’d)


                 -Congress, press

Intellectuals compared to manual laborers
        -Lawyers
        -Psychiatry
                -Seattle
        -Wives

End of Vietnam War
       -Arthur F. Burns

Glenn Olds [President of Kent State University]
      -Drug policy

Critics
          -Administration’s handling
          -Congress, press

Politicians
        -Washington Post, New York Times, Martin Z. Agronsky’s show

Social events at Blair House
        -Thomas W. Braden
        -Women
        -Kissinger
               -Cabinet officers

Executive reform
       -Shultz
       -Special revenue sharing
       -Program cuts
               -Budget
                      -Ash
       -Congress
       -Alsop
               -REAP [?]
       -Tax code
       -Water quality
                                      -35-

           NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                              Tape Subject Log
                               (rev. Mar.-09)
                                                      Conversation No. 865-28 (cont’d)


              -Muskie

Muskie
      -Linwood Holton

Executive reform
       -Camp David
              -Shultz

Partisanship
        -Congress

1972 election
       -Carl T. Curtis
              -Nebraska results
       -President’s victory
       -Electoral college vote
              -Compared to Johnson’s 1964 victory
              -Governor of Massachusetts [Francis Sargent]

Opportunities for President
      -Dwight Eisenhower
               -Budget
               -Reorganization
      -Revenue sharing
               -Centralization of power in Washington
                       -Franklin D. Roosevelt, Johnson’s administration
                               -New Deal, Fair Deal, Great Society
                       -State government compared to Federal administration
               -Property tax
                       -Advisory Committee on Intergovernmental Relations
               -Efficacy
                       -Ehrlichman’s briefing in Detroit
                       -Reports
                       -Publicity
                               -Graham Watt
               -Congressional hearings
                       -Special revenue sharing
                                                -36-

                     NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                          Tape Subject Log
                                           (rev. Mar.-09)
                                                               Conversation No. 865-28 (cont’d)



The President, et al., left at 5:46 pm.