Secret White House Tapes

698–2

About this recording

698–2
  • President Richard M. Nixon
  • Ronald L. Ziegler
  • Stephen B. Bull
  • Henry A. Kissinger
  • Frank E. Fitzsimmons
  • Charles W. Colson
  • George P. Shultz
March 30, 1972
Conversation No. 698-2

Date: March 30, 1972
Time: 3:13 pm - 4:40 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Ronald L. Ziegler.

Press briefing
-Railroad strike
-Sheet metal workers
-Railroad Emergency Act
-George P. Shultz
-Memorandum
-Documents
-Emergency Board
-[James D. Hodgson]
-The President's signature
-Work stoppage
-Carl B. Albert
-Wage and price freeze
-Ziegler's unsuccessful attempt to telephone John B. Connally
-Ziegler's talk with Herbert Stein
-Administration's response
-Connally
-Arthur F. Burns
-Council of Economic Advisors [CEA]
2

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)



-Stein
-Inflation
-Program
-Goal

Stephen B. Bull entered at an unknown time after 3:13 pm.

The President's schedule

Bull left at an unknown time before 3:17 pm.

Weather
-Spring
-Flowers

Press briefing
-The President's schedule
-Meeting with Frank E. Fitzsimmons
-The President’s previous breakfast with George Meany
-Photograph
-Purpose
-Labor situation
-West Coast dock strike

Henry A. Kissinger entered at 3:17 pm.

Press briefing
-William J. Porter
-Vietnam negotiations

Ziegler left at 3:19 pm.

Foreign policy
-Kissinger's meeting with Anatoliy F. Dobrynin
-Soviet trip
-Polish stopover
-Cable from Warsaw
-Leonid I. Brezhnev
-Compared to the President’s trip to Romania
-Soviet response
-Domestic considerations
-US-Soviet Summit
-Vietnam
3

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)



-The President’s previous telephone conversation with Kissinger
-Withdrawal deadline
-Prisoners of war [POWs]
-Military aid
-North Vietnam
-South Vietnam
-Timing
-Offensive

Bull entered at an unknown time after 3:19 pm.

The President's schedule
-Meeting with Fitzsimmons

Bull left at an unknown time before 3:24 pm.

Foreign relations
-Kissinger's meeting with Dobrynin
-Vietnam
-Withdrawal deadline
-Soviet and US military aid
-Economic aid

The President's schedule
-Meeting with Fitzsimmons
-Kissinger's meeting with Harold J. Gibbons
-Gibbons
-International Brotherhood of Teamsters

Bull, Fitzsimmons, Charles W. Colson and Shultz entered at 3:24 pm.

Greetings

Introductions
-Kissinger

International situation
-Kissinger’s possible briefings of Fitzsimmons
-Soviet summit
-National defense
-Meany
-The People's Republic of China [PRC] trip
-Gibbons’s previous trip to North Vietnam
4

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)



-Soviet summit

Kissinger's meeting with Gibbons
-Possible comments by North Vietnamese
-Gibbons’s comments on Today show
-POWs

Kissinger's briefing of Fitzsimmons
-Timing
-Soviet summit
-Arms control
Golf

Kissinger left at 3:27 pm.

The President's forthcoming meeting with Brezhnev

Photograph

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

Labor situation
-Fitzsimmons
-Pay Board membership
-Cost of living

Oliver F. (“Ollie”) Atkins entered at an unknown time after 3:27 pm.

Photographs
-Atkins

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

Labor situation
-Meany's resignation from the Pay Board
-Effect on the President's labor relations
-Unions
-Construction workers
-Teamsters
-American Federation of Labor - Congress of Industrial
Organizations [AFL-CIO]
-White House role
-Meany
5

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)



-Fitzsimmons's advice
-Peter J. Brennan
-AFL-CIO
-Meany
-Resignation from the Pay Board
-Unions
-Rank and file
-I[lorwith] W[ilbur] Abel
-Fitzsimmons
-Henry M. (\"Scoop\") Jackson
-Candidacy for presidency
-Leonard Woodcock
-Establishment of the Pay Board
-Woodcock
-Walter P. Reuther

An unknown person entered and left at an unknown time before 4:40.

Refreshments

Labor situation
-Meany
-Woodcock
-Loan of money
-AFL-CIO
-Rubber workers
-Steel workers
-Teamsters
-Peter Bommarito
-Abel
-Fitzsimmons
-United Auto Workers [UAW]
-Collateral
-Property
-Manchester Union Leader
-AFL-CIO
-Endorsement of Edmund S. Muskie
-New Hampshire primary
-Florida primary
-Illinois primary
-Nomination
-Abel
-Floyd E. (“Red”) Smith
6

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)



-Woodcock
-Nathaniel Goldfinger
-Pay Board
-Meany resignation
-Woodcock resignation
-Fitzsimmons
-UAW
-Meany resignation
-Colson's talk with Fitzsimmons
-Food prices
-Meany's relationship with the President
-National security
-Fitzsimmons's remaining on the Pay Board
-Reactions
-Polls
-Letters of congratulation
-Examples
-Albert E. Sindlinger
-Call to Fitzsimmons
-Public opinion
-Industry
-Connally
-Reduction of food prices
-Retailers
-Connally's meeting with food chain executives
-C. Jackson Grayson, Jr.’s forthcoming meeting with middlemen
-Meany
-Control of profits
-Economic Stabilization Act
-Fitzsimmons's statement
-Andrew Biemiller
-Compromise
-Wages and prices
-Controls
-Democratic controlled Congress
-Legislation
-Inflation
-John F. Kennedy administration
-Lyndon B. Johnson administration
-End of Vietnam War
-Economic implications
-Economy
-Fitzsimmons
7

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)



-Experience in organized labor
-Length
-Purpose
-Representing workers
-Negotiation compared to confrontation
-Strikes
-Reasoning for remaining on the Pay Board
-Teamsters
-Membership
-Morale
-James R. (“Jimmy”) Hoffa
-Colson
-John N. Mitchell
-Understanding of Hoffa’s role
-Fitzsimmons's request to smoke
-Fitzsimmons's talks with Mitchell and Colson
-Talk with Fitzsimmons regarding future
-Schedule
-St. Louis
-Florida
-Josephine Hoffa
-President's previous contact
-Talk with Fitzsimmons
-Wage Board
-[William Loeb]
-New Hampshire
-The President
-John English
-Gibbons
-Fitzsimmons's election as President of the Teamsters
-Hoffa
-Tom Flynn, Secretary of the Treasury of the Teamsters
-Death
-Gibbons
-Possible election as Secretary of the Treasury of the Teamsters
-St. Louis
-Relationship with Hoffa
-Morris Shanker’s meeting with Fitzsimmons
-Hoffa's attorney
-Lewisburg Penitentiary
-Ray Sheskin [sp?] from Chicago
-Flynn
-Gibbons
8

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)



-Activity in the Teamsters Union
-Violation of clemency agreement
-Murray W. (\"Dusty\") Miller
-Activity in union
-1973
-End of restrictions
-Commitment from Fitzsimmons
-Josephine Hoffa
-Visit
-Hoffa's union involvement
-Hoffa's son
-Health
-Hoffa's union activities
-Joseph Diviney
-Einar Mohn
-Fitzsimmons's schedule
-Florida
-San Francisco
-Hoffa's union involvement
-Gibbons
-Miller
-Brother's death
-Allen Dorfman
-Fitzsimmons's meeting with Hoffa
-Health
-Meeting with Fitzsimmons in San Francisco
-Teamsters
-Election
-Growth
-Reputation
-Teamsters
-Hoffa’s resignation from presidency
-Fitzsimmons as president
-Change in constitution of the union
-Succession to presidency
-Hoffa
-Clemency restrictions
-Union involvement
-Central states conference
-Eastern conference
-Message to Hoffa
-Western conference
-Fitzsimmons
9

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)



-Southern conference
-Miller
-Presidency
-Fitzsimmons's authority
-Tucson, Arizona
-Meeting
-Western conference
-Fitzsimmons's speech
-Administration policies
-The President
-Success
-Fitzsimmons's speech
-Seattle, Washington
-Fitzsimmons's endorsement of a candidate for the presidency
-Lee Kearney [sp?]
-New York
-John V. Lindsay
-Unknown name [Mayo?]
-Unknown person
-Nelson A. Rockefeller
-Loeb
-New Hampshire
-Mitchell
-The President

The President's schedule
-Philip V. Sanchez
-Office of Economic Opportunity [OEO]

Economy
-Dock strike
-Harry Bridges
-Meany
-Thomas W. (“Teddy”) Gleason
-Fitzsimmons's speech in New York
-Theodore Kheel
-Bridges
-Gleason's support
-John M. Bowers
-Gleason’s support of Bridges
-William M. Chester, Jr.
-Bridges
-Agreements discussed
10

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)



-Job disputes
-Longshoremen
-Teamsters
-Pay Board
-Thomas E. Flynn
-Pay
-Fitzsimmons's advice
-James J. Reynolds [?]
-Pay Board
-Newspaper ads
-AFL-CIO
-Bridges's meeting with Fitzsimmons
-Chuck Belsa [?], Chester
-Bridges's communist associations
-AFL-CIO
-Meany
-Woodcock
-Smith, Abel
-Meany phone conversation with Fitzsimmons
-Council meeting
-Longshoremen strike
-Teamsters
-Garment workers
-Cement finishers
-Glass bottle blowers
-Pay Board
-Commitment to the President
-Shultz
-Meany's resignation
-Unknown person
-Connally
-Donald H. Rumsfeld
-Proposed meeting with the President
-Updates
-Fitzsimmons to Shultz
-Teamsters
-Bridges
-Shipping containers
-Guaranteed fund
-Charges
-Courts
-Possible longshoremen union consolidation with Teamsters
-Executive Board
11

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)



-Congressional leaders
-Meetings with the President
-Meany
-Pay Board
-Strikes
-Effects
-Anti-strike legislation
-John L. Lewis

Bull entered at an unknown time after 3:27 pm.

Ashtray

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

Labor situation
-Pay Board
-Meany
-Lewis

Columbia Country Club
-Fitzsimmons’s application
-The President
-Golf
-Shultz
-Fitzsimmons
-Mitchell

Gifts

Pay Board
-Fitzsimmons's request of Colson
-Fitzsimmons's call to Bob [last name unknown]

Golf
-Unknown man [Shultz?]

Fitzsimmons
-Colson
-Shultz
-Meeting with the President

Fitzsimmons, Colson and Shultz left at 4:40 pm.
12

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)
Secret White House Tapes |

698–2

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