Secret White House Tapes

413–17

About this recording

413–17
  • President Richard M. Nixon
  • H. R. Haldeman
  • Gerald R. Ford
  • White House operator
  • Wilbur D. Mills
  • Stephen B. Bull
  • Henry A. Kissinger
  • UNKNOWN
February 23, 1973
Conversation No. 413-17

Date: February 23, 1973
Time: 3:35 pm-4:40 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President met with H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman.

Haldeman's talk with Patricia R. Hitt
-Hitt’s knowledge
-Appointment to ACTION
-Easing out
-Rogers C. B. Morton [?]

-Peter M. Flanigan [?]
-Peace Corps
-VISTA
-Hitt’s reaction
-Robert H. Finch
-Political opponents

The President talked with Gerald R. Ford between 3:38 pm and 3:44 pm.
-10-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Mar.-09)
Conversation No. 413-17 (cont’d)



[Conversation No. 413-17A]

[See Conversation No. 43-194]

[End of telephone conversation]

Wilbur D. Mills
-Press conference and press release
-Timing
-Surcharge
-Selected imports
-Trade legislation
-Staff recommendation [?]
-President’s phone call to Mills
-President's conversation with George P. Shultz and John D. Ehrlichman

The President talked with the White House operator at an unknown time between 3:44 pm and
3:47 pm.

[Conversation No. 413-17B]

[See Conversation No. 43-195]

[End of telephone conversation]

President's schedule

Donald C. Alexander [?]
-Ohio
-Qualifications
-Harvard law, Yale undergraduate

Charles W. Colson’s role

President’s knowledge [?]

Ehrlichman’s role
-11-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Mar.-09)
Conversation No. 413-17 (cont’d)



Herbert G. Klein
-Talk with Haldeman
-Trip to California
-Meeting
-Possibilities
-Newspaper division

The President talked with Mills between 3:47 pm and 3:53 pm.

[Conversation No. 413-17C]

[See Conversation No. 43-196]

[End of telephone conversation]

Surcharge
-John B. Connally
-Political motivation

Alexander's appointment to Internal Revenue Service [IRS] position
-Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] background check
-Support from Shultz, Ehrlichman, Colson
-Compared to George H. W. Bush
-Ehrlichman
-Administration’s expectations
-Background
-Newspaper
-Editor, Harvard Law Review
-Yale University
-Academic honors
-World War II service
-European theater
-Academic honors
-Comparison to Elliot L. Richardson
-Tax background
-Criticism
-Head of IRS
-12-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Mar.-09)
Conversation No. 413-17 (cont’d)


-Support for IRS appointment

Executive appointments
-Diversity

Advisor to President
-Part-time
-Guidance for staff

Staff changes

Anne L. Armstrong
-Spanish-speaking related work
-Ehrlichman [?]
-Office staff
-Diversity
-Male staff members
-Duties
-Haldeman’s relationship with Armstrong
-Compared with Finch
-Additional staff
-Competence of staff members
-Pamela Powell
-Ongoing projects
-Youth business [?]
-New Majority activity
-Bicentennial
-Organizing public activities
-Entertainment
-Youth night
-Work with Julie Nixon Eisenhower
-Management style
-Productivity

John A. Volpe [?]

White House staff
-Management
-13-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Mar.-09)
Conversation No. 413-17 (cont’d)


-Costs
-High level
-Political appointments [?]

Sub-Cabinet officers [?]
-Meetings with President
-Stephen B. Bull
-Charls E. Walker
-Camp David
-Undersecretaries
-Work ethic
-James F. Oates
-Veterans

Prisoners of war [POWs] function
-Scheduling
-Public relations

Letters
-Preparation
-Endorsement of resolution
-Subsidies [?]
-Batch prepared for March, April
-Statement on Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR] visit

Office of Economic Opportunity [OEO]
-Job Corps
-Public relations
-Reaction
-Speech
-Caspar W. (“Cap”) Weinberger
-Announcement on OEO
-Timing

Harris poll on issues
-Results
-OEO [?]
-Phase III wage-price action
-14-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Mar.-09)
Conversation No. 413-17 (cont’d)


-Public support
-Lack of confidence
-Prices
-Gold
-Budget issue
-Economic issues
-Haldeman’s agreement with Shultz’s view
-Consumer Price Index [CPI]
-Food prices
-Importance

Price controls
-Action
-Delayed results

William J. Baroody, Jr.
-Citizens committee
-Taxes
-Prices
-Actions
-Control
-Offensive stance
-Opposition
-Congressional, press relations
-Academic community
-Effects
-Need for villains, civility
-Vance Hartke, Edward M. (“Ted”) Kennedy
-Press
-New York Times

Campaign financing [?]
-Contributors [?]
-George H. W. Bush

Press relations
-Economic issues
-Poor
-15-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Mar.-09)
Conversation No. 413-17 (cont’d)


-Inflation
-Greed [?]
-Prices
-Supermarket
-Public interest in President’s economic program
-Trip to the People’s Republic of China [PRC], February 1972
-Cultural exchanges
-Ping pong team
-Acrobats
-Opening of trade office
-Michael J. (“Mike”) Mansfield
-Announcement of PRC trip
-Effective results
-Vietnam War settlement
-Effective results
-POWs return
-Strategic Arms Limitation Talks [SALT] agreement, Leonid I. Brezhnev’s visit
-Public relations value
-Charles H. Percy’s media profile
-Responses

Phase III wage-price actions
-Bureaucracy
-Expansion
-Inflation
-Prices and wages

Israel
-Libyan airline shoot down
-Public apology
-1972 Olympics incident
-Moshe Dayan
-Explanation
-George H. W. Bush [?]

William L. Safire
-Preparation of draft
-Death of Shelley A. (Scarney) Buchanan’s father
-16-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Mar.-09)
Conversation No. 413-17 (cont’d)


-Patrick J. Buchanan

Stephen B. Bull entered at an unknown time after 3:53 pm.

Meeting with Shultz, John D. Ehrlichman, Charles J. DiBona, and Henry A. Kissinger

Bull left at an unknown time before 4:40 pm.

Kissinger entered at an unknown time after 3:53 pm.

Telephone call from McGeorge Bundy

An unknown man entered at an unknown time after 3:53 pm.

Refreshments

The unknown man left at an unknown time before 4:40 pm.

Bundy
-George W. Ball
-Organizing
-Initiative
-Principles

PRC
-Kissinger’s message from President
-Visit
-Chou En-lai
-Dr. David K. E. Bruce
-Ambassador
-Chiang Kai-shek
-John H. Holdridge

Bundy
-Telephone call

Economic affairs
-Diplomatic exchange with PRC
-17-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Mar.-09)
Conversation No. 413-17 (cont’d)


-Bush
-Ball
-Bruce
-Bipartisan support
-Leo Cherne

North Vietnam troops in Laos and Cambodia
-Laotian government
-US bombings
-Targets

William H. Sullivan

William J. Casey, William J. Porter [?], William P. Rogers [?]
-Skills

Kissinger left at an unknown time before 4:40 pm.

Shultz and Ehrlichman
-Talks with Haldeman
-Polls on public perception of economic issues

-August 1971 New Economic Program
-Problems

Haldeman left at 4:40 pm.
Secret White House Tapes |

413–17

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