Nixon, Laird & Haig on Domestic Policy and Wage-Price Freeze

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I'll tell you how much I appreciate this.

I'll have it.

Let me get Warren here first to see what time he needs now.

You're not going to talk to the press.

No, no, no, no, sir.

No, we've got a little bit.

We've got, I think, about 30.

Well, I want to see what they want.

Sit down.

I'll sit down.

Are you free tonight?

That'd be.

Well, the thing about it is my wife is coming back.

She's coming back from New Orleans.

She's been down there.

She doesn't know this announcement is going to be made right now.

She knows that I'm going to do it.

But I think I ought to meet her at the airplane.

She's been at 530, and I think I ought to meet her.

I think I ought to meet her.

Where's Laura?

She's in the office again.

I asked her.

Yeah, I'm sorry.

I didn't tell you.

I think I should meet her.

Oh, no, no, no.

That's all right, Ted.

And if you don't bother with those congressmen today, then I better do.

It just happens that I'm supposed to be the Republican policy committee.

That would be an awful good thing.

What time did you have to leave to meet her?

Well, I should leave probably around 4 o'clock.

What time did you have to meet with the Republicans?

No way we're going to fight it a lot, but I can handle that, and I'll just handle that by not telling them about it.

Well, label it red, and they won't be pleased.

It's not about domestic policy anyway.

It's going to be on the defense budget.

So we'll see.

Well, what I have in mind here now is that, as I told you, is that we have also triumphed.

We're going to take a walk out there, let him shoot the picture out there, and we'll be in motion.

Now, approximately when do you want that picture?

1130?

Yes, sir.

And after that, then Mel will come into the room and talk to you.

Now, what you want is not going to be, I don't want him fully ragged.

No, that doesn't matter to me.

I know.

If you come up, I'll get up in the water and get back to you.

I will.

And would you want to say something to the press out here?

No.

No sound.

I don't say a word.

You've got the announcement.

I do.

The President's got an announcement.

Well, you had the announcement.

I distribute that now.

You see, I would distribute the announcement now to say that the President's been meeting with Secretary Lerner since 11 o'clock or so.

You know what I mean?

They can have a big picture after that.

Right.

And also, you could find out that he had a long meeting with the Secretary on that.

What did he say?

That.

Exactly.

We said we had two hours.

An hour and a half.

That's closer to the truth.

It was an hour and a half.

Yeah, it was an hour and a half.

Oh, we'll say it was an hour and a half.

Yeah, it was about an hour and a half.

So that's the background for it.

Yes, sir.

All we did was to walk out.

So we had three people take a picture.

And then we'd be walking through there.

And they'd come out and shoot us.

Okay, very good.

All right, thank you.

You know, that's quite a reflection on the, I thought I would say, responding to your charges.

Neither of the papers, neither of the papers carried that story.

I know, and I'm going to hit them again today.

That's unbelievable.

I'm going to hit them again.

They were the devil and I'm going to wire them.

You see, it's the Kennedy thing.

That's right.

The, uh,

I'm going to end that again today and have some more information for them on that.

What more information?

Well, just to

done throughout since 1945.

And that they're not involved, they did not involve organized crime.

No, sir.

At all.

All of these are national security tests.

The organized crime things are entirely there.

The entire number of these are national security tests only.

All right, fine.

Good luck.

Well, I think the important thing is to

great sense of command.

In other words, that's a charge, right?

And the second thing is you may be asked, I don't know about you, I don't know about the organization, I would recommend that you say, well, you're having some colds out at the Veterans Conference.

I mean, how would they say to you?

I didn't think I could talk to him before that.

No, but I talked to him.

He's aware.

He's been the director.

He's the director.

That's right.

That's his title.

Yeah.

Yeah, director.

And he was speaking about 11 o'clock out there.

Right.

But your title and function is somewhat different.

Right.

And I think it's good to keep it so that it looks like it's a little different operation.

That's right.

So that we're getting on substituting all of them.

Right.

The situation was very good.

I talked to Mike Mansfield.

You know, Mr. President, I had to talk to Mike because of my friendship with him, and I did about half an hour ago.

Right.

And I talked to Jerry.

Yeah, I talked to him.

Well, you see, you, Scott, and Jerry had come to talk to me about four weeks ago to put the heat on me.

They wanted to come to you, and I told them no.

And so I thought I had to talk to Jerry and to you because they thought that I didn't want them to think I was, you know, just didn't read about it.

Now, Mike was, you know, very friendly.

He even wanted to get his wife to call Barbara.

And I said, jeez, don't do it.

Where is she?

Why don't they all sit down?

Your situation is that you have lines across the aisle that are very, very good at submitting inspections.

And he was... What other?

Well, I talked to Jerry.

John Rhodes.

I talked to Johnny Burns.

Good.

Are others going to be covered today?

Timmons is...

I was going to say a couple of things.

Your role here, you are a counselor for the President of the D.C. for domestic affairs.

We put in an announcement that I've asked you to be in that role.

Now that leaves you in a way where you're not tied down to the day-to-day nitty-gritty which Cole and that bunch of very, very, well, you haven't found them very good in this respect.

Well, and I think it's better if I don't get tied down to the day-to-day congressional context, too, I suppose.

Oh, gosh, yes.

What we want to do is we're going to have to build temperance a little up, a little bit down.

Temperance does a great job.

And what Bryce said,

And Bryce is that animal.

Bryce is the best congressional animal.

You ought to be.

If I could do it so that I would be available to meet once a month with the Democratic caucus and the Republican caucus and formally on the Hill, I think that could take care of it.

And it doesn't bother me to go up there and sit down with all the Democrats and all the Republicans.

But you see, you know how they are.

It's like a flyer.

If they ever get you, Mel, if they ever get you...

figure they can get you, you know.

You'll be at CNN one night, you'll be at SOS another night, and you'll be with the, uh, the, uh, the Sam Devine group another day.

And they will just, frankly, wear you out.

And I don't want you to get in that position.

Well, that is, that's why I think it would be better if you limited to the caucuses.

Right.

You should be limited to the higher levels.

You can do, on a social basis, I think you could, uh, do what you want.

You'll know.

You ought to be at CNN currently.

They're all leaders.

Well, of course, those are the social things my wife likes to do.

Sure.

Those people.

Now, the other thing is, I think right at the present time, I want to emphasize strongly that we're really interested in, you're looking at the whole policy.

For example, look at the meeting, the leaders they brought up with you.

Well, should we compromise on this?

Should we compromise on that?

You can't indicate you're going to compromise before you have lost the battle.

And on the other hand, there are some areas where we may have to compromise.

And by failing to find a strategy in the back of our minds, we're in pretty bad shape.

Now, Mel will look at those problems if we think so very soon.

Yes, sir.

You've got to be particularly close to the edge, obviously.

And you'll get along with that.

Don't you think so?

Oh, I'm comfortable here.

But you've got to, you know, in other words, you're the bummer.

We don't have budget, anyway.

Another thing, you've got to be very close to the cap, because that's where most of the dough is.

And then, of course, you're very close to the commerce, labor, agriculture, and what else is there?

like OHUD and their invitation, all those are a different magnitude.

But I think the tougher the procedures will be in the area.

Well, I don't know what you could do there.

In terms of your staff, you'll have to work with Al about that.

I personally would think that the smaller your staff, the better.

If they get too big, they'll have you doing much more.

But you can have what staff you want.

Well, I don't need a lot of staff.

I think that'd be better to use the very bright lights.

I'd rather use the departments, too, is what you mean.

That's the stuff.

We want to use the cabin.

I think we have a meeting tomorrow at 10 o'clock.

And there'll be a couple of leaders meeting tomorrow.

I think 30 minutes is going to be on in Vietnam, I hope.

If we don't have it, we'll just have to shoot heavily on the Iceland business and

Have we already invited some leaders?

Yeah, right.

If we didn't move this morning, we couldn't have gotten them the way we wanted this afternoon.

It would be too late.

Gosh, I don't know what it's like to waste their time that much.

Well, remember, you had promised them a readout.

Yeah.

Well, I shouldn't have.

We're pretty confident we'll have it be about five minutes.

Yeah.

Well, if not, we'll tell them.

We'll let them cancel it now.

He could be there, and so forth and so on.

Do you think we ought to get Mel into this, uh, this, uh, weighted bracing, or is it, uh, at this minor issue there, I mean, it's just an armistice complex that could go wrong.

Well, he's obviously going to have a very major concern, but I've got, uh, done a lot

sign coming over after this session that we're going to have.

And would you also give John a copy?

I've talked to him.

What did he say?

Was he gruelingly thinking about it?

Yes, and he said he's really right on the fence on this one.

Which way does he go?

Yes, he tends to think that we're on a whole farm, but he also knows that we've got to take some action.

The question I was wondering about was

It's not an idea, but a 60-day freeze will do as much as we can possibly do.

Which means we're going to move back to a program of mortgage and controls, for instance.

Or whether to ride it out.

And let me give you the arguments in a nutshell.

Basically, the right economics, and predicting the right economics for next year is true.

Not to impose a freeze.

The difficulty is that

The Democratic caucus, they know it won't work.

They know that managing the movement, frankly, causes enormous problems, particularly with labor and coal mining.

It's very important.

Have you talked to Colin?

No, I didn't.

I should have called him.

Yes, sir.

I've talked to Bill Rogers in defense.

uh so that they don't have written on the ticker no it hurts

See, uh, see if there's somebody who has the cabin.

Huh.

All right, that's it.

All right, that's fine.

And, uh, for now, these are a very wonderful call for the next five minutes.

So, uh, the secretary's letter is going to be announced today as a promise to the president for the economic affair, uh, no, for, for, for domestic affairs, and that he will be attending the cabin meeting tomorrow.

Okay?

Just a minute.

We've already been called.

Yeah, but if you get that gun out of the way, it's going to kill two or three of us.

Yes, sir.

But, uh, so...

I should have called George and me.

What is the question?

What is your view of the moment?

Well, he's just shooting from the hip, which I think is the best thing to do, really, but...

I think that some action now is necessary just to show the movement.

Well, you see, the problem with that paper, I read it again just a few minutes ago.

That paper doesn't show any action.

It doesn't show any action.

That's more important, even if it doesn't work.

Well, the 60 days may not work, but the trouble is they're afraid that it will make things worse a few months from now.

But maybe it doesn't make that much difference.

You see, there'd be a psychological effect.

Well, the other thing I'm concerned about is we've got to check the attendance, whether the Congress is going to act anyway.

And if the Congress is going to hang a 90-day jury, which is totally unworkable, even if it reads on their office and the rest of it, honest, my goodness, we'd better preempt it.

I think it's better for you to preempt it.

See, they hang out on the death note, they say.

Well, that's a very important aspect.

That's an image check.

But mispress or something like that, I really think I should look at a little closer.

I don't know.

I don't start to get you.

But that's a gun.

That's a gun vertical.

Sure.

Hello?

Uh, hello, George.

Oh, no, this is, uh, the president.

Well, I got Mel here, and we have a very good announcement.

I think you're gonna like it.

And, uh, I'll put him on.

How's your dog?

Oh, yeah.

Well, when you get, uh, when you get better, we'll get you and Mel, and I'll pick a crack at it.

Okay.

Here he is.

George, how are you?

I'm coming back to government and I'm going to be Counselor-in-Present for Domestic Affairs.

I wanted to talk to you and let you know before this announcement is made.

I just felt better having you know before you picked up the reddit someplace.

I'd like to come on over and visit with you.

See, I'm sorry to hear that, George.

You shouldn't be doing that.

You ought to get your daughter out there.

Counselor for Domestic Affairs.

Yeah.

Right.

All across the board.

That's what I want to talk to you about.

And I'd like to talk to you about this wage price thing, which is going to be whenever you feel up to it.

You call me.

I'll wait.

All right, George.

Good to talk to you.

Bye.

That's all right.

That's good.

He's not feeling well, in fact.

No, he's not feeling well.

In fact, he already pulled a tendon to his back.

He's in real pain.

He's been in bed for four or five days.

But he was not discouraged.

He was comfortable.

Oh, yeah.

He was fine.

He thought that was good.

You know, we had a chemical problem there.

You know, he doesn't believe you should ever have a secondary liver.

He doesn't like the fact that we talked to him.

I did a few favors for him in the Congress in 1952.

We put in a

He thought it was a big thing.

It didn't mean a damn thing.

You know, these guys get carried away with it.

We put in the recognition, the union shop in the Republican platform in 1952.

Bill Green was president.

George was the vice president in charge of the plumbers.

That's a piece you took.

George thought that was a great deal because we were the first party that came out for the recognition, the union shop in their platform, even ahead of the Democrats.

Well, what about when we can start working again?

Well, I thought that I'd go full-time on the 15th, part-time until I've got to get my personal things back in shape again.

I took everything

And that'll take me.

But I'll be here tomorrow, and I'll continue now.

I had this dinner that Helmut Schmidt and George Labor are giving for me in Bonn on Tuesday night.

Which, you know, Helmut has been a longtime friend of the parliamentarian's group.

And he's going to present me with their highest award.

Excellent.

Yeah, you should, uh, you could...

I told the press that, too, that your team does need to be on the bench, and that you have some commitments, including this dinner for your money of an award.

And I'll speak at the change of command at the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean at that time.

You're gonna speak at the change of command, and at the presence of that, you'll be an NSC because of your previous experience as Secretary of Defense.

And so forth.

And, uh, however, your, your primary responsibility is to review the domestic areas.

and so forth, the Great Conference of Coal, and of course it was now Hague, and the National Congress, and so on.

They will try to, they will try to probably, I mean, they're a total obsession with water-gating and such, and they'll say, how much is it hurting, and do you think the President is involved?

I, I, I, I just, I think you could just say, I have total confidence in the President.

That's sort of good.

I think we've been diverted enough by this show up there.

I mean, let it go forward.

Let the courts proceed.

They're not going to comment on the rest of it.

That's what I have to do, and that's better.

If I get bogged down in that, the problem is we go at this thing, Mr. President, and just ruin the effectiveness that I can hear.

Look, I've seen lots of questions in this area, and I will simply say that

There's more important work I put that right

foreign and domestic people.

The President is doing it, and we are glad to be able to help in achieving these great goals for which he was elected.

That's important to get this.

The idea that we are not going to do it, but there is more important work to do.

That's the work you're here for.

If you could hit that, I will.

Well, I do appreciate you doing this.

Thank you.

Very, very interesting time.

We've got to have a little fun.

That's what I told you.

Oh, we've got to be on time.

We can't, we can't.

Don't go down.

No place.

Long places.

You know, the thing is that we have to realize that what we're in now is another political campaign.

That's what this is all about.

And so if they want to have a political campaign, they're going to have it.

And they're going to have it on our ground, too.

There's some advantages.

As far as my coming in at this particular time, we're going to go up.

We're not going down.

We're going up.

We better.

Well, I think we will, Mark.

I think the company is going to be just a little tired of that story and I don't think they get tired of any story.

That's your opinion?

Very much so.

Well, they're friends, yeah.

Your job doesn't mean too much.

You know, they're all out there.

I see Sarah there with her green dress.

But thank you all.

They go through breathing after breathing after breathing.

And I'll give you some promise over the last three months.

Ninety percent of the people you ask about this, I'm wondering, care about what we're doing with the Russians, what we're doing with our domestic programs.

We have a big deal with this.

He's got a whole bunch of cattle out there.

He's killing that.

Oh, sorry.

We're walking.

The main thing is to walk and look, you know, smiling, laughing, confident.

Fair enough.

In other words, we're out to meet these clowns.

We're not doing that.

So I think that the whole thing is common.

That's right.

I mean, did you, also you think that Malibu are peaceful?

You don't even tell us when you were the president.

No, no, I'm not concerned about that.

I think...

We'll have to get Mel on this energy thing, too, so he's aware.

Yeah, the energy thing.

You see, this is a broad campus here, but if you don't have a lot of money on that, I would, uh...

I think you could say that you're, well, I mean, you're better than domestic.

You've done a lot of work in the field.

The fact that, well, you did a lot for the National Security, but you also were interested

Oh, you might mention help.

Well, I can help.

But if you consider it a great challenge, and we have quite a lot of work to do for this country, it's time to get on with the work of the country.

It's time to get on with the work of the country.

It's time to tear ourselves away from the television sets and get on with the work of the country.

If they're ready any time of the time, we'll walk down the road.

Nixon, Laird & Haig on Domestic Policy and Wage-Price Freeze

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Also recorded on June 6, 1973

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