President Nixon: Hello?
Bob Haldeman∇: Hello?
Nixon: Well, I just told Pete Flannigan that the Dow's at 932, you know.1
Haldeman: Is it?
Nixon: Yeah, it went up 5 points today on 19 million —
Haldeman: Ya. Yep.
Nixon: — and the A.P. and the Star I know said on ‘moderately active trading.' Good God, 19 million shares. But, uh, so now it's two points above what it was when we came in. And I told him, by God, that he ought to get ahold of Regan2 and a lot of those clowns up there, and they ought to write a little note or say something or . . . you know.
Haldeman: Darn right.
Nixon: Gee whiz, I mean they, they're having it pretty good, you know.
‘'‘Haldeman: Trading was, [has] been what, 3½, over 3½ billion shares?
Nixon: Yeah.
Haldeman: Since below.
Nixon: Yeah. So that's, uh . . .
Haldeman: Now that's interesting. Yeah.
Nixon: Those boys on Wall Street don't bet on anything unless they think it's moving up, too, so it's an indication of their feeling about — of confidence, I mean, the whole confidence factor people have been talking about.
Haldeman: Yeah.
Nixon: But, uh, it's going to be hard for these financial writers and the rest to come around, because they all, you know, were so bear-ish. Now, uh, but that 932 is sort of a historic landmark.
Haldeman: It's sort of a nice touch for Bill Casey . . .
Nixon: You're right.
Haldeman: . . . [take] him over to the SEC3.
Nixon: Right. OK, were you able to check any of the thing out that I, you know, on an individual basis that I asked you about today, about, uh . . . I'm just working on the press conference thing now.
Haldeman: What? Oh, you mean on how to approach it?
Nixon: Yeah.
Haldeman: No, I haven't.
Nixon: Yeah, well. Well you can —
Haldeman: — start a whole siege on them tomorrow.
Nixon: Fine, fine, you can talk to some. And I think it's important to get, uh, have Dole∇4 on this. Was he there when Connally∇5 made his pitch to the cabinet? Was he at that thing or not?
Haldeman: No.
Nixon: Maybe you ought to get —
Haldeman: I don't, well, no.
Nixon: Yeah
Haldeman: I don't know.
Nixon: Maybe you ought to get Dole in on this business of the personal thing on the presidency.
Haldeman: Right.
Nixon: That could add a lot to his speeches.
Haldeman: I talked to him some after we talked, and we're going to get together and go over. He's very intrigued with that, and he had the idea but he wanted to talk about some approaches to it.
Nixon: He should talk about courage and . . .
Haldeman: Right.
Nixon: . . . sticking to his guns . . .
Haldeman: Right.
Nixon: . . . all that sort of thing, and that this is working, and things are going up and, you know, just talk confident as hell.
Haldeman: Yep.
Nixon: That's what we need at the present time and Dole is, it's good to see him about every couple weeks, it's not a bad idea, just get him in, 15, 20 minutes.
Haldeman: The point, then, he can go out on the basis of that, you know, and really go for that and sitting in the cabinet meetings and sitting in the leadership meeting.
Nixon: Yeah. Yes, sure, he can do that. And then, of course, uh, he's got to, he ought to, in the morning, start on a little plan of getting MacGregor∇6 and the rest, uh, all on a programmed, I just, I talked to Colson∇.7 He's gonna work on Brooke8 and some of these other people, you know, that are, uh, tell ‘em to just hold their fire a little while. Just give us a little time.
Haldeman: Yeah.
Nixon: 'Cause some of these guys'll, the Chinese thing'll worry ‘em and, uh, that, uh, other things. They may think there's more going on than really is.
Haldeman: Yeah.
Nixon: But, uh, I think we need, I need some hard, I don't think we've gotten much in the Senate there yet, you know, he just, whether he's really thought it through or whether we have thought it through in terms of, there should be more than four senators. There should be six or seven, you know, real good, tough senators that are with us. Right?
Haldeman: Yeah, we've got ‘em. I didn't want to get into it with Dole standing there, but we've got the, uh, the group that they want to bring in, you know, is this Senate group —
Nixon: Mmm-hmm.
Haldeman: — and that's, uh - Nixon: Well —
Haldeman:—Goldwater∇,9 Bellmon,10 Tower,11Baker,12 Dole, Gurney,13 William E. Brock 14 and Taft15 —
Nixon: Good.
Haldeman: — and then, they also would like to add to that—
Nixon: Bring them in Saturday morning.
Haldeman: — the other solid group, which is Allott,16 Boggs,17 Curtis,18 Hansen19 and Miller20
Nixon: Have all of them come? Miller, too? Yeah?
Haldeman: Even Miller. Miller has voted 90 percent or better —
Nixon: We want him to —
Haldeman: — on all the tough, key votes.
Nixon: We want him to hold firm on this thing, you know.
Haldeman: And see, those five are all up for election.
Nixon: Right. That's a good one to bring in, then. Bring in that —
Haldeman: Allott, Boggs, Curtis, Hansen and Miller—
Nixon: Because they're up for election, bring them in.
Haldeman: — are the ones who are up who have been total loyalists.
Nixon: Mmm-hmm.
Haldeman: And, uh, then, of course, Tower, who's a hundred percent.
Nixon: Right.
Haldeman: And, uh —
Nixon: Good.
Haldeman: So that —
Nixon: Were you able to get anything done on the Texas grain thing today or that, uh . . ?
Haldeman: I don't know whether they've got any more done or not, I'll have to —
Nixon: But you're riding that hard, 'cause I —
Haldeman: Yeah.
Nixon: I don't want to be — I want to be sure that . . . Connally's concerned that we just be sure we appear to be activists and not just sort of waiting and, you know.
Haldeman: Yeah.
Nixon: Demagogue it a little, you know?
Haldeman: Yep.
Nixon: That's a good deal and they'll . . . just don't leave it Lincoln21 to do the right thing; we want to say the right thing, now, huh?
Haldeman: Yep.
Nixon: OK, fine Bob, thank you.
Haldeman: Yes, sir.
1 Peter M. Flanigan∇ was a White House aide. (↑)
2 Donald T. Regan (↑)
3 SEC stands for Securities and Exchange Commission. William J. Casey was Nixon's appointee as chairman. (↑)
4 Bob Dole was a Republican senator from Kansas. (↑)
5 John B. Connally was secretary of treasury. (↑)
6 Clark MacGregor was White House congressional liaison. (↑)
7 Charles W. Colson was a White House political operative. (↑)
8 Edward W. Brooke was a Republican senator from Massachusetts. (↑)
9 Barry Goldwater was a Republican senator from Arizona. (↑)
10 Henry L. Bellmon was a Republican senator from Oklahoma. (↑)
11 John G. Tower was a Republican senator from Texas. (↑)
12 Howard H. Baker was a Republican senator from Tennessee. (↑)
13 Edward J. Gurney was a Republican senator from Florida. (↑)
14 William E. Brock, III was a Republican senator from Tennessee. (↑)
15 Robert A. Taft, Jr., was a Republican senator from Ohio. (↑)
16 Gordon L. Allott was a Republican senator from Colorado. (↑)
17 J. Caleb Boggs was a Republican senator from Delaware. (↑)
18 Carl T. Curtis was a Republican senator from Nebraska. (↑)
19 Clifford P. Hansen was a Republican senator from Wyoming. (↑)
20 Jack R. Miller was a Republican senator from Iowa. (↑)
21 Gen. George A. Lincoln, office of emergency preparedness director. (↑)