Secret White House Tapes

534–11

About this recording

534–11
  • President Richard M. Nixon
  • Sammy Davis
  • Robert J. Brown
  • Henry C. Cashen
  • Jeffrey Donfeld
  • White House photographer
  • UNKNOWN
  • George P. Shultz
  • John D. Ehrlichman
July 1, 1971
Conversation No. 534-11

Date: July 1, 1971
Time: 12:09 pm - 1:38 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Sammy Davis, Jr., Robert J. Brown, Henry C. Cashen, and Jeffrey
Donfeld; the White House photographer, members of the press and other unknown people were
present at the beginning of the meeting.

Arrangements for photograph

Anecdote

Presentation of gifts by the President
-Gifts for men, women
-Golf balls
-Dean Martin
-Vice President Spiro T. Agnew
-Golf

National Advisory Board of the Office of Economic Opportunity
-Commissioning ceremony
-Certificate

Photograph

Anecdote

Refreshment

Davis
-Purpose of meeting
29

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)



-Celebrity status
-Credibility
-Leonard Garment
-Drug abuse issue

Drug abuse and youth
-Effectiveness of a celebrity as spokesman
-Comparison to ministers, teachers, judges
-Celebrities as spokespersons
-Athletes
-Carl M. Yastrzemski
-Bart Starr
-John Mackey
-Effectiveness of arguments against drugs
-Morality
-Health of body and mind
-Performers
-John Barrymore

Youth
-Need for inspiration and leadership
-Self-help
-Opportunity

Charles B. Rangel
-The President's June 30, 1971 telephone call
-U.S.-Turkish opium agreement
-Rangel's recommendation
-Black Caucus
-Grandfather’s possible reaction
-The President's grandfather

Opportunity in the United States
-Leadership in the U.S.
-Middle and upper classes
-Sources of strength in the U.S.
-Strength through adversity
-Leo Tolstoy
-War and Peace, Anna Karenina
-Philosophy
-Destructive and creative instincts with each individual
-Sublimation of destructive instincts
30

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)



-Use of creative instincts
-Youth
-Use of energy
-Need to sublimate negative instincts
-Davis' discussions with youth

An unknown man entered at an unknown time after 12:09 pm
Conv. No. 534-11 (cont.)
The President's schedule
-James D. Hodgson, Elliot L. Richardson

The unknown man left at an unknown time before 12:29 pm

Youth
-Davis' conversations
-Use of energy
-Idealism

Education
-Black colleges
-Financial support
-The federal government
-Richardson

Entertainment field
-Davis
-Bob Hope
-The President's acquaintances

Richardson, Hodgson, George P. Shultz and John D. Ehrlichman entered at 12:29 pm

Introductions

Education
-Black colleges
-United Negro College Fund
-Funding performance

Willie Mays

Davis left at 12:31 pm
31

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)



Davis
-1954 meeting

Ribbon Cutting

Davis
-Membership in the \"rat pack\"
-Copacabana Conv. No. 534-11 (cont.)
-Performance with father and uncle

National Urban League
-Nixon as Vice President
-Picture with waiter
-DePaul University

Davis
-Background
-Effectiveness of anti-drug message
-\"David Frost Show\"
-Mai Britt

Welfare
-Federal assistance funds
-Follow-up to San Clemente meeting with Governor Ronald W. Reagan
-Nelson A. Rockefeller
-California
-Welfare laws
-Social Security Act
-Waiver requests
-Medicaid
-Payments for prescription drugs
-Work relief
-Able-bodied welfare recipients
-Work incentives
-Welfare reform bill
-H.R. 1 [Welfare Reform Bill]
-Implications of possible action
-Effect of refusal to work by welfare recipients
-Alternative proposals
-Russell B. Long
-Wage system
-Equal pay for equal work
32

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)



-Long's proposal
-Private sector
-Work relief
-California
-Equal pay for equal work
-Impact of concept
-Conditions
-Public opinion Conv. No. 534-11 (cont.)
-Reagan's reaction
-Sources of support
-Conservative, liberal reaction
-Long
-Reagan's preferences
-Industry and labor reaction
-Conservative reaction
-Waivers
-General Accounting Office [GAO]
-California waiver requests
-George Meany
-Political perceptions
-Reagan's position in California
-Referendum
-California budget
-Revenue sharing
-Possible referendum
-Effect of H.R.1 enactment
-Social Security Act
-Section 1115 authority for waivers
-Medicaid payments for drugs
-New York
-Rockefeller's proposed point system
-Job system
-GAO
-California
-Work relief
-Experimental programs
-Reagan
-Frank C. Carlucci
-Payment restrictions
-Family income levels
-Retention of money
-Encouragement of working
33

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)



-Funding
-Public service
-Appropriations
-Provision of jobs
-Purpose
-Unemployment, welfare rolls
-Veteran’s preference
-New York Conv. No. 534-11 (cont.)
-Experimental areas
-Expenditures
-California
-Work relief
-Massachusetts
-Unemployment rate
-California
-Coordination of effort
-Amount of funding
-Federal matching of funds to state expenditure
-Reagan
-Possible meeting to brief governor
-Richardson
-Ehrlichman
-The President's trip to San Clemente
-Discussion with Edwin Meese, III
-State Supreme Court
-Effect on compliance problems
-Correlation of cost-of-living increases to benefit increases
-Enjoinder against enactment of provision

Richardson

President’s schedule
-Steel strike

Ehrlichman and Richardson left at 1:12 pm.

Unemployment rate
-Pattern
-Milton Friedman's theory
-Arthur F. Burns' memorandum
-Beginning of recovery period
-Gross National Product [GNP]
34

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)



-Leading indicators
-Drop
-Prediction of timing
-Nationwide trends
-Total rate versus insured rate
-Breakdown
-Youth
-Married men Conv. No. 534-11 (cont.)
-Decrease in teenage rates
-Seasonal adjustments
-Factors
-Number of men called into military service
-Rate of decrease
-Effect of Defense Department cutbacks
-Seasonality
-Private sector expansion
-Statistics
-Youth entry into market
-Burns

Labor issues in the steel industry
-Talking paper
-Forthcoming meeting
-Focus of White House effort
-Industry, labor
-Activist role
-Avoid strike
-Steel industry’s hard-line stance
-National interest argument
-Collective bargaining
-Unions
-I[lorwith] W. Abel
-Economic impact
-Recovery
-Non-inflationary settlement
-Pension issue
-Impact of meetings, negotiations
-Recognition of problems
-Import controls
-Long-term and short-term effects
-Format of possible meeting
-The President's role
35

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)



-Schedule
-Shultz’s conversation with H.R. (“Bob”) Haldeman
-Paul W. McCracken, Herbert Stein
-Nathaniel Samuels
-J. Curtis Counts, Willie J. Usery
-Compartmented format
-The President's role
-Emphasis on the national interest Conv. No. 534-11 (cont.)
-Importance of settlement
-Effect of lengthy strike
-James M. Roche
-Constructive approach
-Contrasted with John F. Kennedy
-Steel crisis of 1961
-Shultz's recent meeting with Jack Greenberg
-Education meeting
-Approach
-Style of leadership
-Preparation of briefing paper by Shultz

Shultz and Hodgson left at 1:38 pm
Secret White House Tapes |

534–11

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