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August 2, 1971

Introduction

This almanac page for Monday, August 2, 1971, pulls together various records created by the federal government and links to additional resources which can provide context about the events of the day.

Previous Date: Sunday, August 1, 1971

Next Date: Tuesday, August 3, 1971

Schedule and Public Documents

The Daily Diary files represent a consolidated record of the President's activities. Visit the finding aid to learn more.

The President's day began at The White House - Washington, D. C.

The Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents made available transcripts of the President's news conferences; messages to Congress; public speeches, remarks, and statements; and other Presidential materials released by the White House.

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Each Public Papers of the Presidents volume contains the papers and speeches of the President of the United States that were issued by the White House Office of the Press Secretary during the time period specified by the volume. The material is presented in chronological order, and the dates shown in the headings are the dates of the documents or events. In instances when the release date differs from the date of the document itself, that fact is shown in the text note.

To ensure accuracy, remarks have been checked against audio recordings (when available) and signed documents have been checked against the original, unless otherwise noted. Editors have provided text notes and cross references for purposes of identification or clarity.

The Federal Register is the official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other Presidential documents.

No Federal Register published on this date

The Congressional Record is the official daily record of the debates and proceedings of the U.S. Congress.

Archival Holdings

Any selection of archival documents will necessarily be partial. You should use the documents and folders identified below as a starting place, but consult the linked collection finding aids and folder title lists and the collections themselves for context. Many documents to be found this way do not lend themselves to association with specific dates, but are essential to a complete understanding of the material.

Selective document listing

President's Office Files

The President's Office Files consists of materials drawn together by the Special Files Unit from several administrative subdivisions within the White House Office. It is the handwriting and sensitive papers sent to the Staff Secretary that now comprise much of the President's Office Files. Visit the finding aid to learn more.

Among Pat Buchanan’s duties was the compilation and coordination of background briefing materials for Presidential and a few Vice Presidential press conferences. The briefings—for both the larger, announced press conferences and the smaller, informal ones held in the Oval Office—related to a widespread number of topics and were in the form of probable questions which the White House staff members anticipated news reporters would address to the President. Along with the questions, were answers recommended by Buchanan, other members of the White House staff, and the heads of major departments of the government.

The briefing books are primarily in the form of potential questions and suggested answers (often with heavy annotation by President Nixon), along with associated memos. A listing of briefing books is below, with indication of whether President Nixon annotated the book or not. Each book has an index to the potential questions with direct links to the National Archives Catalog. You should consult the full digital folder for suggested responses, President Nixon's annotations, and other documents and topics not covered by the index.

Foreign/Domestic August 2, 1971 (Annotated)

Citation: Foreign/Domestic August 2, 1971; box 4; White House Central Files: Staff Member and Office Files: Patrick J. Buchanan; Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, Yorba Linda, CA

Consult the full digital folders ([1 of 2] and [2 of 2]) for other briefing materials not in the form of prepared questions and answers.

The H. R. Haldeman Diaries consists of seven handwritten diaries, 36 dictated diaries recorded as sound recordings, and two handwritten audio cassette tape subject logs. The diaries and logs reflect H. R. Haldeman’s candid personal record and reflections on events, issues, and people encountered during his service in the Nixon White House. As administrative assistant to the President and Chief of Staff, Haldeman attended and participated in public events and private meetings covering the entire scope of issues in which the Nixon White House engaged in during the years 1969-1973. Visit the finding aid to learn more.

  • Transcript of diary entry (PDF)
    Monday, August 2.

    This was a big news day, with the Lockheed vote coming out in our favor in the Senate by one vote. The President spent a lot of time before the vote calling Senators to try to line up the ones that Connally thought were winnable. Carl Curtis, he thought he had gotten, and he turned out voting against us. The President made the pitch to him, as to all the others that he had been talking with Reagan who was really uptight about this. That if we lost the vote, it would be critical to our chances in California in '72, and that was the appeal the President made to each of them. He also called: Goldwater, who said he couldn't support him because he had already been out publicly on the other side of the issue; and Aiken, who waffled, but said he would at least stay out of the debate on it, but couldn't vote with us probably, because it didn't provide anything for Vermont. Boggs, who said he would go along with us if Roth would, but he had a problem with the papers there in Delaware. Connally worked a lot of them also. The net result was that we got Boggs and Roth, but none of the rest, and won the vote by 49-48.

    Bill Rogers announced our policy on China in the UN, and both the rail and steel strikes were settled, and that was announced today. So all in all, there was quite a lot of action. Also a great deal of internal activity. Ehrlichman met with the Vice President, who told him that his problem was not so much with Ehrlichman, as it was his concern that he was not involved in the final decision process. He thinks that under his particular circumstances, he should be handled differently than other Vice Presidents have been, and he made a plea for the President to cut him in on the decisions. He continually-- that’s the end on this tape. Continued on the next one.

    [End of tape reel AC-11(B)]

    [Begin tape reel AC-12(A)]

    Continuing August 2, 1971. The VP apparently continually came back to the point of China and raised the question of how you'd feel if the President winked at his National Security advisor when the subject of China came up and then said that he couldn’t get into a discussion about that, that we had some things going on, but he couldn't talk about them. He feels that the President should have confided in him. Then he came back to the welfare decision and felt that he had not been personally consulted by the President, although he admitted that his inputs were in. John says he really let his hair down, that he says he has no ambitions, that it's way too early to decide on a running mate, that it's embarrassing to be confronted by the press on things he knows nothing about. He disclaimed any attack on Ehrlichman, but admitted he'd gotten off on the wrong foot when Ehrlichman frustrated his hiring of Lyndon Johnson's advance man back at the beginning of the Administration. He's never felt on a good basis since then and agreed it should be more informal. He also said he had decided not to appoint a director of intergovernmental relations, and that he was going to have C.D. Ward run it, which would be another disaster.

    The President had a session with Ehrlichman and Morgan on the Austin school busing case and told them that they've got to get the point across that our filing an appeal does not in any way mean an endorsement of the HEW plan, or any other plan, for busing. Ehrlichman pointed out that there's a question of what's being appealed, and that we've got to make it clear that we have to do this according to the Supreme Court. John suggested that Shultz and Morgan go down to Austin and explain the thing. The President agreed with this and said they must specifically say that this appeal does not in any way endorse the HEW plan, that there are better ways to handle this, and that HEW's is not a good plan. The President then raised his question of a constitutional amendment. John said it's possible, but there's a better alternative in the Emergency School Aid Bill, because we can put a House amendment on regarding no use of funds for busing. The President said we should take the initiative, and we propose the amendment. We should lead, not follow the House. His concern is how to make the issue clear that we are against busing. He thinks that we may have something so fundamental that we have to have a constitutional amendment. He agreed with John that we could hold this until next September or put it in the Republican platform in August. In any event, he wants to do the House amendment to the floor bill, after Congress comes back in September.

    He had a long session with Connally this morning, as a result of which he wanted to meet with--he wanted Connally to meet with Shultz, and then he wanted to meet again with Connally this afternoon, which he did, having Connally interrupt his Mitchell meeting. As a result of that, he met again for a long time tonight with Connally and Shultz. The net of this is a huge economic breakthrough, based on the international monetary situation, which would provide for: closing the gold window, a floating of the dollar, a wage and price freeze for six months in the United States, a reinstitution of the 7 percent investment tax credit, and the imposition of a 10 percent import tax quota. These, Connally feels, would be self-balancing measures to control the economy, both the inflationary side and on the import side, as well as to meet the international monetary situation and get us away from being the victims of the foreign governments that are arbitrarily floating their currency and leaving us hanging.

    The President, in deciding who to meet with tonight to try to arrive at a decision on this, felt definitely it should be Connally and Shultz, and then he on and off weighed the question of adding Peterson. He dismissed the idea of McCracken, Volcker, or Burns. This becomes a rather momentous decision, and it will be interesting to see what develops. Mitchell appears to be basically in favor of it, and Connally is pushing hard for it. Shultz will put some brakes on, but I'm not sure he'll be able to be effective.

    The Mitchell meeting was primarily on politics. We discussed several states. In Ohio, it was agreed that we would adopt a policy of no stand-ins in the primaries, and that this would apply to all states but had to be done, in order to apply it to Ohio. In Iowa, we decided the problem of Governor Ray versus the Lt. Governor is not worth worrying about, and we should do nothing now. In California, it was agreed that we need a Chairman with more zip than Firestone that we've got to get Finch out of the state and keep him out. That led into a decision on Rumsfeld, to leave him in the White House, but for the AG [Attorney General] and me to talk to him to see if we can't get him more productive. We then discussed Secretary of Agriculture, and Mitchell strongly recommended Louie Nunn. Both he and the President feel that Bellman would not be good. Connally came in then to report on his meeting with Shultz, and he agreed that Nunn would be good for Agriculture. One other item, in their economic thing, is to defer HR-1 and save $4 billion that way. They'd put it off for a year.

    After Connally left, we had some discussion with Mitchell on the VP problem and the need to keep him credible, especially if we're going to try to get him off the ticket. Ehrlichman, Shultz, and I had our regular Monday night dinner meeting. We discussed the international economic thing and a few other odds and ends. Then Shultz left for his meeting with the President. John and I discussed polls and PR. Nothing was decided.

    End of August 2.
  • Original audio recording (MP3)

The National Archives Catalog is the online portal to the records held at the National Archives, and information about those records. It is the main way of describing our holdings and also provides access to electronic records and digitized versions of our holdings.

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Nixon Library Holdings

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National Security Documents

The President's Daily Brief is the primary vehicle for summarizing the day-to-day sensitive intelligence and analysis, as well as late-breaking reports, for the White House on current and future national security issues. Read "The President's Daily Brief: Delivering Intelligence to Nixon and Ford" to learn more.

The Foreign Relations of the United States series presents the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity. Visit the State Department website for more information.

Vol. V, United Nations, 1969-1972

Chinese Representation in the United Nations

Vol. XIII, Soviet Union, October 1970-October 1971

Between Beijing and Moscow: Summit Announcement, July 19-October 12, 1971

  • 306. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon, Washington, August 2, 1971

    Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 716, Country Files, Europe, USSR, Vol. XV. Confidential. Sent for action. Johnston forwarded a draft of this memorandum to Haig on July 28. In his covering memorandum, Johnston noted that the memorandum for the President contained detailed information on the location of participating companies: “There are some in Michigan, but not in Gerry Ford’s district. Hugh Scott seems to have a near-monopoly on this project.” “As soon as our general relations with the USSR allow us to adopt some more abstract definition of our participation, i.e. the foundry,” Johnston suggested, “we should do so to reduce the awkwardness of having the President decide on specific firms in particular locations.” Kissinger wrote the following instructions in the margin: “Remind me to call Gerry Ford. Directive to Stans should go Monday [August 2] a.m. Call Peterson to keep informed.” (Ibid.) A notation on the memorandum from Kissinger indicates that the President saw it.

Vol. XIX, Part 2, Japan, 1969-1972

April-October 1971: Change and Reassessment

  • 84. Summary Paper Prepared by the Interdepartmental Group for East Asia, Washington, August 2, 1971

    Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, NSC Institutional Files (H-Files) Box H–182, National Security Study Memoranda, NSSM 122 [2 of 3]. Secret. The Chairman of the NSC Interdepartmental Group for East Asia and the Pacific, Winthrop Brown, sent this study to Kissinger on August 2. (Washington National Records Center, RG 330, OSD Files: FRC 330–76–197, Box 67, Japan, 092, SRG Mtg. material) For NSSM 122, see Document 72.

Vol. XXIX, Eastern Europe, 1969-1972

Yugoslavia

  • 229. Intelligence Information Cable, Washington, August 2, 1971

    Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 733, Country Files—Europe, Yugoslavia, Vol. II Aug 70–Aug 71. Secret; No Foreign Dissem; Controlled Dissem; No Dissem Abroad. Prepared in the CIA and sent to agencies in the Intelligence Community. A notation on the cable reads: “HAKed.”

Vol. XXXII, SALT I, 1969-1972

From SALT Announcement to Summit Announcement, May 27-October 12, 1971

Vol. E-7, Documents on South Asia, 1969-1972

Afghanistan, 1969-1972

  • 340. Telegram 4745 From the Embassy in Afghanistan to the Department of State, Kabul, August 2, 1971, 0946Z

    Ambassador Neumann met with King Zahir and pointed up the problems he felt the new Government would have to address, particularly with regard to the economy.

    Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Files 1970–73, POL 15–1 AFG. Confidential. In telegram 4797 from Kabul, August 4, Neumann reported that he raised the same issues in his initial conversation with Prime Minister Zahir. (Ibid.)

The Kissinger telephone conversation transcripts consist of approximately 20,000 pages of transcripts of Kissinger’s telephone conversations during his tenure as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (1969-1974) and Secretary of State (1973-1974) during the administration of President Richard Nixon. Visit the finding aid for more information.

Digitized versions can be found in the National Archives Catalog.

Audiovisual Holdings

The White House Tapes are sound recordings of President Richard Nixon's telephone conversations and of meetings held in the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room in the White House, the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building (OEOB), the Lincoln Sitting Room in the residence section of the White House, and several locations at the Presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland. These recordings document many of the major events and decisions of the Nixon Administration from February 16, 1971 to July 18, 1973. Visit the White House Tapes finding aid to learn about the taping system's operation and archival processing.

Old Executive Office Building

Oval Office

White House Telephone

The White House Photo Office collection consists of photographic coverage of President Richard Nixon meeting with prominent social, political, and cultural personalities; speaking engagements and news conferences of the President and various high-ranking members of the White House staff and Cabinet; Presidential domestic and foreign travel, including Presidential vacations; social events and entertainment involving the First Family, including entertainers present; official portraits of the President, First Family, and high-ranking members of the Nixon administration; the 1969 and 1973 Inaugurals; the President’s 1972 Presidential election campaign appearances (including speeches) and other official activities of the White House staff and the President’s Cabinet from January 20, 1969 until August 9, 1974 at the White House and the Old Executive Office Building; other locations in Washington, DC, such as The Mall; and the Presidential retreats in Camp David, Maryland, Key Biscayne, Florida, and San Clemente, California. Visit the finding aid to learn more.

Roll WHPO-6926 Photographer: Schumacher, Karl | Color or B&W: B&W

  • Frame(s): WHPO-6926-03-08, Blind visitors in front of the White House. 8/2/1971, Washington, D.C. White House, South Portico Stairs. blind visitors.

Roll WHPO-6928 Photographer: Kightlinger, Jack | Color or B&W: Color

  • Frame(s): WHPO-6928-03-05, Pat Nixon standing with representatives of the Dunbar School of the Blind. 8/2/1971, Washington, D.C. unknown. Pat Nixon, adults, children.
  • Frame(s): WHPO-6928-06-20, Pat Nixon spending volunteer project time with a group of "inner-city" children on the Sequoia yacht. 8/2/1971, Washington, D.C. The Sequoia yacht. Pat Nixon, adults, children.

The White House Communications Agency Sound Recordings Collection contains public statements that took place between 1969 and 1974. Visit the finding aid to learn more.

F - Secretary of State Briefings

  • WHCA-SR-F-017
    Press conference by Sec. Rogers. (8/2/1971, State Department)

    Runtime: 20:00

    Production credits: Audio feed supplied by State Department; Recorded by BAC (initials of WHCA engineer)

    Original Format: 1/4-inch reel-to-reel audiotape. Original source type: Original.

G - Cabinet Officer Briefings

  • WHCA-SR-G-130
    Press briefing by Secretary of Labor James D. Hodgson on the railroad strike, with Ronald Ziegler. (8/2/1971, Press Center)

    Runtime: 25:00:00

    Production credits: Audio feed supplied by WHCA; Recorded by JMC (initials of WHCA engineer)

    Original Format: 1/4-inch reel-to-reel audiotape. Original source type: Original.

H - White House Staff Member Recordings

  • WHCA-SR-H-420
    Press briefing by Herbert Klein and Clark MacGregor. (8/2/1971, Press Center, White House)

    Runtime: 41:25:00

    Keywords: Press conferences, news conferences, interviews, media

    Production credits: Audio feed supplied by WHCA; Recorded by JMC (initials of WHCA engineer)

    Original Format: 1/4-inch reel-to-reel audiotape. Original source type: Original.

Context (External Sources)

The Vanderbilt Television News Archive is the world's most extensive and complete archive of television news. They have been recording, preserving and providing access to television news broadcasts of the national networks since August 5, 1968.

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