Conversation 880-015

TapeTape 880StartThursday, March 15, 1973 at 3:56 PMEndThursday, March 15, 1973 at 4:17 PMParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Sanchez, Manolo;  Young, Donald E.;  Cook, Richard K.;  Coghill, JackRecording deviceOval Office

On March 15, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, Manolo Sanchez, Donald E. Young, Richard K. Cook, and Jack Coghill met in the Oval Office of the White House from 3:56 pm to 4:17 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 880-015 of the White House Tapes.

Conversation No. 880-15 (cont’d)

                                                                  Conversation No. 880-15

Date: March 15, 1973
Time: 3:56 pm-4:17 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Donald E. Young, Jack Coghill and Richard K. Cook. The White House
photographer was present at the beginning of the meeting.

       Introductions

       Middle East
            -Staying out
                  -Comparison with Alaska

       Photographs
            -Congratulations
            -Arrangements

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[Begin segment reviewed under deed of gift]

       1972 election
            -Development of issues
            -Young’s campaign
                   -Bush country
                        -Percent of vote

[End segment reviewed under deed of gift]
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Manolo Sanchez entered at an unknown time after 3:56 pm.

       Refreshment

Sanchez left at an unknown time before 4:17 pm.

       1972 election issues
            -Young's opponent
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                 NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
                                (rev. June-10)
                                               Conversation No. 880-15 (cont’d)

                -Emil Notti
                -Opposition to President
           -Young's campaign
                -Revenue-sharing
                      -Bureaucrats
                      -Community action program
                            -Expenditures
                            -Lyndon B. Johnson
                            -Aid to poor
                            -Administrative costs
                            -“Trickle-down theory”

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[Begin segment reviewed under deed of gift]

      Young’s campaign
          -Personal appearances
                -Rotary Clubs, Lyons Clubs, Chambers of Commerce
          -Radio talks
          -Television [TV] coverage
                -TV companies
                      -Statewide network
                      -Anchorage
                -Edward M. (“Ted”) Kennedy’s advertisements
                      -President’s budget cuts
                -Walter J. Hickel’s advertisements
                      -Counterattacks
                            -Notti
                            -Gun control
                            -Peggy Begich’s reaction
                                   -Thomas Begich
                                   -Michael Gravel, Kennedy
          -Gravel
                -Re-election
                      -Defeat

      Alaska politics
           -Ted Stevens
                  -Appeal
           -Gravel
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                NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
                               (rev. June-10)
                                              Conversation No. 880-15 (cont’d)

                -Appeal
                -Opinion of Senate colleagues
          -Governor’s office
          -Young’s campaign
                -Funding
                       -Contributions
                             -Republican national Committee [RNC]
                             -Ed Terrell [?], Mary Ellen Miller, Chuck Bailey
                             -Young’s control
                                   -Robert C. (“Bob”) Wilson
                                   -Anchorage
                -Coghill’s role
                -Victory
                       -Publicity
                             -George H. W. Bush
                             -Issues
          -Special nomination
          -Governor’s race
          -President’s appearance
          -Spiro T. Agnew’s visit
                -Value
                       -Fundraising
                             -Anchorage
                             -Committee to Re-elect the President
                             -State Republican party
          -Democrats
                -Splits
                -Notti
                       -Primary
                             -Senate, lieutenant governor
                             -Divisions among democrats
                                   -George S. McGovern
                                   -Henry M. (‘Scoop”) Jackson
                                          -Visit to Alaska

[End segment reviewed under deed of gift]
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          -Native land claims settlement
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      NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
                     (rev. June-10)
                                    Conversation No. 880-15 (cont’d)

      -Use of power by Alaska natives
             -Pipeline
             -Wealth
-Pipeline
      -Necessity for country
      -Courts
      -Support in Alaska
      -Opposition
             -Federal employees
                   -Support for environmental groups
                         -Sierra Club
-1972 election
      -Environmental issues
             -Danger of extremism
                   -West
                   -World War II
-Environment
      -Strip mines for coal
             -Joe Usabelli [?]
             -Seeds and revitalization
      -Initiative by private enterprise
      -Court rulings
-Pipeline
      -Domestic Council
      -Environmentalists in administration
      -Administration's legislation
             -Delays
                   -Court situation
             -Pressure from Cook
-Young’s congressional committee assignments
      -Gerald R. Ford
      -Interior
      -Merchant marine
      -Fisheries
      -Subcommittees
      -Armed services
-Congressional delegation
      -Rapport with White House
      -President's support for pipeline
             -Announcement to constituents
             -Importance of fight compared with achievement
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                  NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
                                 (rev. June-10)
                                                Conversation No. 880-15 (cont’d)

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[Begin segment reviewed under deed of gift]

       Young’s meeting with George H. W. Bush
           -Young’s schedule
                 -Pan American Airlines
                       -Polar route
                       -Fairbanks
                       -New York
                 -Republican programs

       1972 election
            -Young’s victory
            -Democrats
                   Washington Post

       1974 congressional election
            -Illinois
                   -Chicago
                   -Jesse L. Jackson
                   -George W. Collins
                   -Lindy Boggs
                   -Solid Democratic districts
                   -Age of Congress members
                         -Republicans
                         -Craig Hosmer
                               -Heart attack
                         -Bob Price
                               -Texas
                         -Retirements
                               -Republicans
                                     -Compared with Democrats
                                           -Age
                   -Candidacies
                         -Young’s victory
                               -Nick Begich
                               -Marginal seats

[End segment reviewed under deed of gift]
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                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
                                  (rev. June-10)
                                                 Conversation No. 880-15 (cont’d)

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       Youngs's children

       Travel allowance
            -Congress
            -Young’s residence
                   -Arctic Circle

       Photographs
            -Copies

Young, Coghill and Cook left at 4:17 pm.

This transcript was generated automatically by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite this transcript as authoritative. Consult the Finding Aid above for verified information.

Now sit down and talk to me a little about it.
It's an interesting issue developing that campaign, Mr. President.
Tell me, what do you plan to do with that?
But you must have done it.
And I used it over and over again.
People like that.
You're on the right track.
It's the thing that we've got to show results.
You're on the right track.
You know, the idea of getting the money back from the people that, well, as a matter of fact, what you're really saying is, I was thinking about this, you know, the action program, which is what we owe.
We have spent $2 billion, in your first newsletter, you should point this out, $2 billion, $300 million in that program since Johnson's, where it ends.
No.
That's a lot of money to go, that's supposed to go to poor folks.
You know what happened to them?
80% of that money went to bureaucrats.
It trickled down, that's what you call it, trickled down there.
It trickled down through layer after layer after layer of bureaucrats.
So the poor folks got 20%.
Now that's not enough.
What we want, our programs, rather than putting $2 billion, $300 billion, let's put the $2
They brought...
Ted Kennedy on television.
And he came on and he called Alaska, you know, I want you good people in Alaska to know that my friend in Malawi, and he went on about your cuts and what a devastating thing this was going to happen.
And so we had our people posted, and we noticed that they put three spots, three five-minute spots a day starting on a Tuesday.
in all of these stations.
And so I said, well, Jim, we've got to find out what that spot is.
So we found out what the spot was.
We went down.
We got Wally Hickel.
And we cut a tape with Wally Hickel locally.
This was a Madison Avenue.
Oh, there he is.
And Wally came back on.
And he came back on, and he says, Ted Kennedy is for Amonati.
But Ted Kennedy is also for...
he says, somebody leaked that.
Somebody leaked it.
Well, it's public record, you know, all of the scheduling.
We're going to, we're going to be in.
Well, you know, I know that's right now.
That's
Senate colleagues.
This is our big challenge right now, President.
Not only that, but we also have a governor.
74,000.
74,000.
Well, that's pretty good.
How did you raise them?
Did you raise them?
No, mostly personal contributions.
A lot of little books, some very inside ones.
We have 10,000 women in the congressional committee.
Well, they've come in with a lot more than that.
The National Congressional Committee came in with $10,000 in cash, then they raised $8,000 for us, and then they brought Ed Terrell, who is my director right under me, and then we had Mary Ellen Miller, who did the VIP program.
So, really, we had a good team.
And then the National Republican RC came in, and they brought...
Russell Wilson employees.
We brought them in, and we put them in the back room, and I took them through the state and introduced them, and I said, all right, now these people are from Anchorage.
They're Anchorage-based staff people.
And as far as the majority of the troops, they're Anchorage-based staff people.
Because, see, I was born and raised up there.
You know something?
I think that we ought to get this story pulled.
How do we get it done?
I love you.
I don't even know whether a presidential appearance helps.
It helps only in the sense that
It's just not good.
Just not good.
I agree.
The only thing that we really need is like when Vice President Agnew came up there, it was a great boost to us because it filled a coffer in July.
And it was, he came through, he came into Anchorage and Fairbanks and raised $35,000 for it.
to the state party.
And it really helped because that's what we put the mechanics of the party together.
Naughty?
We'll have a field for that.
Yes, sir.
We want to hold your seat.
We want to hold your seat.
May I say, Naughty will run for the seat.
He'll run for...
Good night.
Good night.
I think that he was probably looking down the road a little ways.
You see, the problem that you have is that the native land settlement thing is going to create a tremendous amount of cash flow in that segment of our society that we have to be aware of and we have to look down the road for it.
No, I'm talking about the native land claims settlement.
We need it.
Oh, the country needs it.
That's the point.
That's it.
You use that.
That's it.
We need this land.
The country needs it.
The country needs it.
We need it desperately.
And I don't know what the courts need.
Well, the last word.
Oh, I'm told you have a kid in us.
We've got a few government employees that are against it.
And they're mostly government-orientated.
or the ones that are, the ones that are, your people, or not your people, but the federal employees are the ones that are involved in the friends of the earth.
See, we used in our campaign the relationship of Alaska to the West and to turn the clock back 100 years.
The thinking on the environmental end of it was as great 100 years ago as it is today.
We would be a great nation.
We wouldn't have been able to have brought back the wars of World War II.
And we related it into this and said, you've got to have reasonableness in all of this.
You can't overdo it one way or the other.
in that area, have come down out of the hills and are in these pits, and here's these trucks going by, and it just shows you what a little bit of initiative could be done on private enterprises.
And they're not a penny of government money.
You know what the situation is.
I know that.
Thank you.
Well, what we need is we want to make sure that we have a good rapport between the congressman and the White House so that we can make sure that some of the announcements...
The people will ask for you to agree over what we are.
And I said, that's fine with me.
I'm sure glad that you got George Bush for it.
I sent him.
I think that we're going to get this thing turned around.
Thank you very much.
is that we cover every base with the best man we can, just like we put Don in against Nick Begich, and we knew that if we really can't beat the Begich, you know, then we won.
Something happened.
And the thing is that in a lot of these places, if you have marginal places, if you just run the same guy with the philosophy that he's building, he's there.
It's right.
I think the committee should, there's a congressman coming up, or he just chatted for you, you know, pick up that, and we'll put a show on.
You know, because they're going to investigate the first congressman ever served in a congress that resides on the north side of the United States.
It's a purposeful thing.
Keep it.