894-016b

Conversation No. 894-16

Date: April 12, 1973
Time: 4:00 pm - 5:27 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with John B. Connally.

Thomas G. Corcoran
-Benjamin Disraeli
-William Pitt
-Horace Walpole
-Gift to President
-Books
-Walpole
-Disraeli
-Appearance
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. February-2011)

Conversation No. 894-16 (cont’d)

-Service in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration

-Age

-Family

-Profession

-Law

-Clark M. Clifford

-Clients

-Washington gossip

-Relationship with Samuel J. Ervin, Jr.

-Relationship with Eastman [?]


President’s forthcoming energy message to Congress
-Deregulation of new gas
-Connally’s assessment
-Connally’s conversations

-Charles J. DiBona

-William E. Simon

-John D. Ehrlichman

-Research

-US Congress

-DiBona

-Leak of Bill to Connally
-Connally’s political advice

-Merits [?]

-Congressional consultation

-Max M. Fisher

-Alaska pipeline

-Rogers C. B. Morton

-Congressional bill

-President’s political assessment

Inflation
-Prices
-Beef
-World diet

-Rice

-London price

 -27-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. February-2011)

Conversation No. 894-16 (cont’d)

-Japan price

-European price


President’s forthcoming energy message
-Influence of big business
-Consultations
-Connally

-Whip

-William Simon

-Fisher

-Alaska pipeline

-Tariff program

-Independent refiners

-Presidential assessment

-US refining capacity

-Research

-Coal

-Nuclear energy

-Coal

-Environment

-Suspension of Environmental Protection Act

-Utilities’s use of coal

-Sulfur content of coal

-Environmentalists

-Automobile emmissions

-William D. Ruckelshaus

-Opposition to automobile manufacturers

-Mileage of Cadillac’s

-Price of gasoline

-Presidential work experience

-Availability of gasoline during Depression

-Gasoline industry


National economy
-Watergate
-Maintenance of boom
-1971
 -28-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. February-2011)

Conversation No. 894-16 (cont’d)

-Recession and inflation
-Boom
-Unemployment
-Percentages
-Retail sales
-Anti-inflation program
-Effects
-October, 1974
-Popular opinion
-Curbing inflation
-Need for freeze
-Trouble spots
-Wall Street

-Attitudes

-Relationships of problems

-Expectations of companies who went public

-Stocks
-Deflation of prices
-Securities and Exchange Commission’s [SEC’s] change in commission
procedures

-Stock sales

-Costs

-State of business

-1969 – 1970

-H. Ross Perot

-Volume of business

-Commissions

-Fear of possible tax bill

-Congress

-Minimum tax

-Capital gains taxes

-Presidential veto

-Estate tax

-Tax rates

-Wall Street’s fears

-National psychology
-President’s action on meat prices
 -29-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. February-2011)

Conversation No. 894-16 (cont’d)

-Effects

-Labor negotiations

-Export of beef

-Europe

-Brazil

-Exports

-Brazilian inflation

-Argentina

-Europe

-Ireland
-Japan
-Importation rates
-Comparison with lumber, commodities
-Selective price controls
-Congress’s intentions
-Economic Stabilization Act

-Price freezes and rollback

-Congressional votes

-Wright Patman

-Connally’s conversations with George P. Shultz and Simon

-Administration’s reaction

-Labor contracts

-President’s assessment

-Price freezes

-Bubble

-President’s long-term focus
-Consumer confidence
-Cars
-Meat
-Fear of unemployment
-Marie Antoinette
-Quality of White House staff in management of economy
-Shultz
-Telephone call to Connally

-John T. Dunlop

-Simon

-Herbert Stein

 -30-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. February-2011)

Conversation No. 894-16 (cont’d)

-Connally’s assessment
-Connally meeting with Shultz and Simon

-Characterization of the economy

-Public relations

-Lack of communication

-Pierre Rinfret

-Ehrlichman

-Phase I and Phase II

-Salesmanship
-Presidential appearance
-Connally
-Shultz
-Simon

-Stein

-Appearances

-Eliot Janeway’s predictions

-Impact

-Interest rates

-Bankers

-Arthur F. Burns
-Shultz
-James L. Robertson’s resignation from Federal Reserve
-Robert C. La Holland, staff director
-Qualities
-Support from Burns and Shultz
-Burns

-Relationship with Connally

-Treasury Department

-George W. Mitchell
-Qualities
-Age
-John C. (“Jack”) Sheehan
-Appointment
-Support for President
-Age

Presidential politics
 -31-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. February-2011)

Conversation No. 894-16 (cont’d)

-Ages of Ronald W. Reagan and Nelson A. Rockefeller
-Gen. Charles A. J. M. deGaulle, Konrad Adenauer
-Chou En-Lai
-Proper age

Proper age for Congress

-Norris Cotton

-Ideology

-Patman

-Vietnam
-Characterized
-Influence

Appointment to the Federal Reserve

-Sheehan

-Attributes

-Unidentified man
-University of California [?]
-Loyalty
-Holland

-Burns


Sub-cabinet officers

-Reorganization

-William P. Clements, Jr.

-Characterized
-Loyalty
-Elliot L. Richardson

Sheehan

-Loyalty


Manolo Sanchez entered at an unknown time after 4:00 pm.

Burns

-Money supply

 -32-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. February-2011)

Conversation No. 894-16 (cont’d)

Sanchez left at an unknown time before 5:27 pm.

William McChesney Martin, Jr.

-Responsibility for economy

-Federal Reserve

-Responsibility

President’s veto


White House party for Congressmen
-President’s veto
-Party for Congessmen
-Budget controls
-Popular opinion on government spending
-Opposition to increases
-Higher taxes
-Higher prices
-Conflict of ideas
-Aid for physically disabled
-Aid for poor
-Smaller government
-Caspar W. (“Cap”) Weinberger

Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) dismantlement
-District Court’s decision
-Appeal

National Aeronautics and Space Administration [NASA]
-Alabama
-Continuance of NASA

Universities

-Financing

-Number of professors

-Stanford’s money-raising program


Government spending and higher taxes

-Programs

 -33-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. February-2011)

Conversation No. 894-16 (cont’d)

-Spending

[First name unknown] Clements
-Board chairman of Dr. Pepper
-Dallas salute to Prisoners of War [POWs]
-Leslie T. (“Bob”) Hope
-Press coverage

-Columbia Broadcasting System [CBS]

-American Broadcasting Company [ABC]

-Missing in Action [MIA] families

-State Governors


White House dinner for POWs

Dallas salute to POWs
-President’s schedule
-President’s opinion of POWs
-Invitation from Clements

Watergate
-Ervin Committee

-Administration’s plan for handling

-Facts of Watergate

-Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] reports
-White House staff involvement
-Involvement of Committee for the Re-election of the President [CRP]
-Jeb Stuart Magruder’s knowledge
-John N. Mitchell’s involvement
-President’s conversation

-Investigation

-Mitchell

-H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman

-Charles W. (“Chuck”) Colson

-Mitchell’s involvement

-Campaign security
- G[eorge] Gordon Liddy

-Donald H. Segretti

 -34-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. February-2011)

Conversation No. 894-16 (cont’d)

-Campaign activities

-Dick Tuck

-Mitchell’s involvement

-Bugging reports

-Magruder’s possible testimony

-John D. Ehrlichman’s negotiations with Ervin and Howard H. Baker, Jr.
-White House staff testimony
-Colson
-John W. Dean III
-Haldeman
-President’s response to break-in
-Haldeman’s involvement
-Response to break-in
-Conversations with President
-Actions of burglars
-Lawrence F. O’Brien
-R. Spencer Oliver
-Public exoneration
-Ehrlichman’s negotiations with Ervin, Baker
-Campaign activities
-White House resolution for Watergate problem
-Grand Jury testimony
-Haldeman

-Conversations with Richard Kleindiest

-Dwight L. Chapin

-Gordon C. Strachan

-Segretti

-Magruder

-Mitchell

-Ervin’s interests
-Possible testimony by Haldeman before Ervin Committee
-John J. Sirica’s sentences
-Colson lie detector test
-Effects
-Mitchell and Magruder
-White House legal counsel
-Herbert W. Kalmbach’s involvement
 -35-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. February-2011)

Conversation No. 894-16 (cont’d)

-Leonard Garment
-Characterized
-Communication with lawyers for Mitchell and Magruder
-White House investigation
-Direction

-FBI and Department of Justice

-Decision on Haldeman’s possible testimony

-Grand Jury

-Magruder’s testimony

-Consultation with Garment

-Perjury charges

-Ehrlichman’s negotiations with Ervin
-Witness schedule

-James W. McCord, Jr.

-Haldeman, Colson, Dean

-Haldeman
-Possible public statement
-Conversation with John Connally
-Public statements
-Involvement
-Possible statement

-Chapin and Segretti

-Tuck

-Reasons

-Fear of violence by Democrats
-Republicans’ actions in campaign
-Democrats’ violence
-Effectiveness as public servant

-Connection between Segretti and Watergate

-Departure

-Dwight D. Eisenhower and Sherman Adams
-Effect on Presidency
-Current situation
-McCord’s possible testimony
-Effect

-Garment’s evaluation

-Republican leadership response

 -36-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. February-2011)

Conversation No. 894-16 (cont’d)

-Possible statement by Haldeman
-Possible testimony by Haldeman
-Executive privilege
-Effects
-Possible testimony of Liddy

-Liddy’s secretary

-Garment

-Outside lawyer

-Thomas E. Dewey

-Herbert Brownell

-Role

-Timing

-Charles A. Wright

-McCarthy hearings

-Joseph N. Welch
-Haldeman

-Lowell P. Weicker, Jr.

-Focus of investigation

-President


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[Begin segment reviewed under deed of gift]

Connally’s schedule

-Meeting with Charles G. (“Bebe”) Rebozo


Connally’s political affiliation
-Current political situation

-President’s influence

-Effect on Watergate

-Delay of decision
-1976 Presidential race
-Edward M. (“Ted”) Kennedy
-Robert S. Strauss
-President’s support for Republican candidates
-Connally
 -37-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. February-2011)

Conversation No. 894-16 (cont’d)

-Nelson A. Rockefeller
-Ronald W. Reagan
-Age
-Spiro T. Agnew
-Agnew’s chances
-Honor of the Presidency
-Lies
-Connally
-Election against Kennedy
-Strength
-President’s support for Connally
-Switch of party affiliation
-Watergate Issue
-Implications
-Connally’s talk at Shreveport, LA., luncheon
-Democratic National Committee [DNC]
-Political ambition
-Watergate

-Duration and extent of investigation

-President’s involvement

-Haldeman

-Timing of change

[End segment reviewed under deed of gift]
*****************************************************************


Rebozo

-Howard Simons

-Jamaica


President’s schedule

-Easter weekend

-Florida


John Connally’s schedule

-Sheikh Ahmed ZakiYamani

 -38-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. February-2011)

Conversation No. 894-16 (cont’d)

-Saudi Arabia

-Oil


Connally left at 5:21 pm.