1. Home
  2. Research
  3. Almanac

January 23, 1969

Introduction

This almanac page for Thursday, January 23, 1969, 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: Wednesday, January 22, 1969

Next Date: Friday, January 24, 1969

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.

    Announcements

    • Council for Urban Affairs (5 Weekly Comp. Pres. Doc. 161, January 23, 1969)
      Announcement of Creation and Membership of the Council.

    Appointments and Nominations

    Executive Orders

    Statements by the President

    • Council for Urban Affairs (5 Weekly Comp. Pres. Doc. 160, January 23, 1969)
      Statement by the President Upon Signing Executive Order Creating the Council.

    Swearing-In Ceremonies

    • Secretary of the Interior (5 Weekly Comp. Pres. Doc. 162, January 23, 1969)
      The President's Remarks at the Swearing In of Walter J. Hickel.

    Checklist of White House Press Releases

    The releases listed below, made public by the Office of the White House Press Secretary during the period covered by this issue, are not included in the issue.

    • Biographical data on Alexander P. Butterfield, Deputy Assistant to the President.

    Digest of Other White House Announcements

    Following is a listing of items of general interest which were announced in the press but not made public as formal White House press releases during the period covered by this issue. Appointments requiring Senate approval are not included since they appear in the list of nominations submitted to the Senate, below.

    • The President appointed Alexander P. Butterfield to be Deputy Assistant to the President.

    Nominations Submitted to the Senate

    Does not include promotions of members of the Uniformed Services, nominations to the Service Academies, or nominations of Foreign Service Officers.

    • CHARLS E. WALKER, of Connecticut, to be Under Secretary of the Treasury.
    • PAUL A. VOLCKER, of New Jersey, to be Under Secretary of the Treasury for Monetary Affairs.
    • BARRY JAMES SHILLITO, of Ohio, to be an Assistant Secretary of Defense.
    • FRANK J. SHAKESPEARE, JR., of Connecticut, to be Director of the United States Information Agency.

    Nominations Withdrawn from the Senate

    • ROBERT W. KOMER, of Virginia, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to Turkey, which was sent to the Senate on January 9, 1969.
    • ALBERT W. SHERER, JR., of Illinois, a Foreign Service Officer of Class One, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, which was sent to the Senate on January 9, 1969.
    • EMORY P. ROBERTS, of Maryland, to be a Member of the Board of Parole for the term expiring September 30, 1974, vice James A. Carr, Jr., which was sent to the Senate on January 16, 1969.
    • JAMES P. ALGER, of Utah, to be Judge of the District Court of Guam for the term of 8 years, vice Paul D. Shriver, resigning, which was sent to the Senate on January 9, 1969.
    • DAVID G. BRESs, of the District of Columbia, to be United States District Judge for the District of Columbia, vice Joseph C. McGarraghy, retired, which was sent to the Senate on January 9, 1969.
    • WILLIAM M. BYRNE, JR., of California, to be United States District Judge for the Central District of California, vice Peirson M. Hall, retired, which was sent to the Senate on January 9, 1969.
    • CECIL F. POOLE, of California, to be United States District Judge for the Northern District of California, which was sent to the Senate on January 9, 1969.
    • HAROLD BAREFOOT SANDERS, JR., of Texas, to be United States Circuit Judge, District of Columbia Circuit, vice Charles Fahy, retired which was sent to the Senate on January 9, 1969.
    • PATRICK V. MURPHY, of New York, to be Administrator of Law Enforcement Assistance, which was sent to the Senate on January 9, 1969.
    • RALPH G. H. SID, of Hawaii, to be an Associate Administrator of Law Enforcement Assistance, which was sent to the Senate on January 9, 1969.
    • WESLEY A. POMEROY, of California, to be an Associate Administrator of Law Enforcement Assistance, which was sent to the Senate on January 9, 1969.
    • THEODORE R. McKELDIN, of Maryland, to be a Commissioner of Indian Claims Commission, which was sent to the Senate on January 9, 1969.
    • WILLIAM HILL BROWN, III, of Pennsylvania, to be a member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for the term expiring July 1, 1973, which was sent to the Senate on January 9, 1969.
    • HECTOR P. GARCIA, of Texas, to be a member of the Commission on Civil Rights, which was sent to the Senate on January 9, 1969.
    • All the postmaster nominations still pending in the Senate which were submitted to the Senate since the 91st Congress convened and prior to January 21, 1969.

  • 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.

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

  • Argued

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.

    President's Personal File

    The President's Personal File is essentially a President's secretary's file, kept by Rose Mary Woods, personal secretary to the President, for two purposes: (1) preserving for posterity a collection of documents particularly close to the President, whether because he dictated or annotated them, or because of the importance of the correspondent or the event concerned and (2) giving appropriate attention–letters of gratitude, invitations to White House social events, and the like–to members and important friends and supporters of the Nixon administration. This generalization does not describe all the varied materials of a file group which is essentially a miscellany, but it does identify the reason for the existence of the file group's core. Visit the finding aid to learn more.

    • Memoranda from the President, Box 1, Memos--January 1969
      • Memo; The President to John Ehrlichman re: Head of ESA. January 23, 1969. 1 pg.
      • Memo; Rose Mary Woods to Bob Haldeman re: Polling, incl. attachment. January 23, 1969. 2 pgs.
      • Memo; Rose Mary Woods to John Ehrlichman re: John Johnson, Jimmy Byrnes, "Kitchen Cabinet" reunion, incl. attachment. January 23, 1969. 2 pgs.
      • Memo; Rose Mary Woods to Bob Haldeman re: Agnew's project with regard to the Booklyn Navy Yard, incl. attachment. January 23, 1969. 2 pgs.
      • Memo; Rose Mary Woods to Bob Haldeman; John Ehrlichman re: Planning. January 23, 1969. 1 pg.
      • Memo; The President to Don Hughes re: Facts about White House rooms. January 23, 1969. 1 pg.

  • The White House Press Office during the Presidency of Richard Nixon was responsible for daily communication with the White House press corps. Ronald L. Ziegler was the Press Secretary to the President for Nixon's entire term in office from January 1969 to August 1974 and Gerald Warren served as the Deputy Press Secretary. The office held daily briefings for the press and produced the White House’s press releases. Visit the finding aid to learn more.

    • White House Press Releases, Box 1
      • FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JANUARY 23, 1969
        Office of the White House Press Secretary

        THE WHITE HOUSE

        President Richard M. Nixon today signed an Executive Order officially creating the Council for Urban Affairs, a cabinet level advisory group presided over by the President and in his absence by Vice President Spiro T. Agnew. Dr. Daniel Patrick Moynihan is executive secretary of the Council.

        The executive order was signed in the Cabinet Room of the White House at 10 a. m., preceding the first meeting of the Council.

        Members of the Council are the President; the Vice President; the Secretary of Agriculture, Clifford Hardin; the Secretary of Commerce, Maurice H. Stans; the Secretary of Labor, George P. Shultz; the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, Robert H. Finch; the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, George W. Romney; the Secretary of Transportation, John J. Volpe and the Attorney General, John N. Mitchell.

        Non-permanent Council. members present at this meeting were the Director of the Bureau of the Budget, Robert Mayo, the President's science advisor, Lee A. DuBridge, Charles B. Wilkinson, Special. Consultant to the President, and Richard Nathan, Assistant Director, Bureau of the Budget.

        White House staff members attending were Dr. Moynihan, Assistant to the President for Urban Affairs; John Whitaker, Secretary to the Cabinet; Stephen Hess, Deputy Assistant to the President; John R. Price, Counsel to the Assistant to the President for Urban Affairs; and Ronald Ziegler, Press
        Secretary to the President.

        The Council was created to advise and assist the President with respect to Urban Affairs and will be called upon to perform other duties as prescribed by the President.

        Specific responsibilities of the Council include assisting the President in the development of a national urban policy, promoting the coordination of federal programs in urban areas, encouraging cooperation between all levels of government and encouraging local. decision making.

        Also the Council will ensure that policies concerning urban affairs shall be cognizant of programs affecting urban, suburban and rural areas. The Council will seek constant improvement in the delivery of public services to citizens, foster the decentralization of government, encourage voluntary organizations in dealing with urban concerns and meet with and assist the President during emergency situations or under conditions threatening the maintenance of civil order or civil rights.

        # # #
      • FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JANUARY 23, 1969
        Office of the White House Press Secretary

        THE WHITE HOUSE

        STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT ON SIGNING THE EXECUTIVE ORDER CREATING THE COUNCIL ON URBAN AFFAIRS

        The establishment of the President's Urban Affairs Council is an historic occasion in American government. Half a century ago the Census of 1920 revealed that a majority of Americans had come to live in cities. But only decades later did the American national government begin to respond to this changed reality. By 1960, 70% of the population was urban and today probably 73% is.

        For all this, the American national government has res ponded to urban concerns in a haphazard, fragmented, and often woefully shortsighted manner (as when the great agricultural migrations from the rural South were allowed to take place with no adjustment or relocation arrangements whatever). What we have never had is a policy: coherent, consistent positions as to what the national government would hope to see happen; what it will encourage, what it will discourage.

        Having a policy in urban affairs is no more a guarantor of success than having one in foreign affairs. But it is a precondition of success. With the creation of the Urban Affairs Council we begin to establish that precondition: the formulation and implementation of a national urban policy.

        # # #
      • FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JANUARY 23, 1969
        Office of the White House Press Secretary

        THE WHITE HOUSE

        EXECUTIVE ORDER

        ESTABLISHING THE COUNCIL FOR URBAN AFFAIRS

        By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and statutes of the United States, and as President of the United States, it is ordered as follows:

        Section 1. Establishment of the Council. (a) There is hereby established the Council for Urban Affairs (hereinafter referred to as "the Council").

        (b) The President of the United States shall preside over meetings of the Council. The Vice President shall preside in the absence of the President.

        (c) The Council shall be composed of the following:

        The Vice President of the United States
        The Attorney General
        Secretary of Agriculture
        Secretary of Commerce
        Secretary of Labor
        Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare
        Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
        Secretary of Transportation

        and such other heads of departments and agencies as the President may from time to time direct.

        Sec. 2. Functions of the Council. The Council shall advise and assist the President with respect to urban affairs and shall perform such other duties as the President may from time to time prescribe. In addition to such duties, the Council is directed to:

        (1) Assist the President in the development of a national urban policy, having regard both to immediate and to long-range concerns, and to priorities among them.

        (2) Promote the coordination of Federal programs in urban areas.

        (3) Encourage the fullest cooperation between Federal, State, and city governments, with special concern for the maintenance of local initiative and local decision making.

        (4) Ensure that policies concerning urban affairs shall extend to the relations of urban, suburban, and rural areas, to programs affecting them, and to the movement of population between them.

        (5) Seek constant improvement in the actual delivery of public services to citizens.

        (6) Foster the decentralization of government with the object that program responsibilities will be vested to the. greatest possible extend in state and local government.

        (7) Encourage the most effective role possible for voluntary organizations in dealing with urban concerns.

        (8) Meet with and advise the President on the occasion of emergency situations, or conditions threatening the maintenance of civil order or civil rights.

        Sec. 3. Administrative Arrangements. (a) A person designated by the President shall serve as Executive Secretary of the Council. The Executive Secretary shall perform such duties as the President may from time to time direct.

        (b) In compliance with provisions of applicable law, and as necessary to effectuate the purposes of this order, (1) the White House Office shall provide or arrange for supporting clerical administrative and other staff services for the Council, and (2) each Federal department and agency which is represented on the Council shall furnish the Council such information and other assistance as may be available.

        Sec. 4. Construction. Nothing in this order shall be construed as subjecting any department, establishment, or other instrumentality of the executive branch of the Federal Government or the head thereof, or any function vested by law in ◊-r assigned pursuant to law to any such agency or head, to the authority of any other such agency or head or as abrogating, modifying, or restricting any such function in any manner.

        RICHARD NIXON

        THE WHITE HOUSE,
        January 23, 1969.

        # # #
      • FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JANUARY 23, 1969
        Office of the White House Press Secretary

        THE WHITE HOUSE

        Dr. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Assistant to the President for Urban Affairs, today announced the appointment of six members to his staff.

        Appointed by President Richard M. Nixon were Stephen Hess, Deputy Assistant to the President for Urban Affairs and five staff assistants to the President for urban affairs: Richard Blumenthal, Christopher C. DeMuth, Michael C. Monroe, John Price and Leonard S. Zartman.

        Hess, 35, was staff assistant to President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1959-1961. During 1961 he served as assistant to the minority whip of the United States Senate, Thomas H. Kuchel. Hess was a fellow of the Institute of Politics of the John F. Kennedy school of government, Harvard University. Hess is the author or co-author of five books, including "The Republican Establishment," with David S. Broder, and "Nixon: A Political Portrait," with Earl Mazo. During the 1968 Presidential campaign Hess traveled with the Republican Presidential candidate.

        Blumenthal, 22, is a former reporter for the Washington Post and former assistant to the president of the Washington Post Co. He also taught English in a District of Columbia high school. Blumenthal was graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University. He was editorial chairman of the Harvard Crimson.

        De Muth, 22, worked on Senator Charles Percy's campaign during 1966 and was Chicago community liaison for the senator during 1967. During the summer of 1968 DeMuth was coordinator for the congressional campaign of James Farmer. DeMuth is a former secretary of the Ripon Society, has studied at the Kennedy Institute of Politics, Harvard University, and was graduated from Harvard in 1968.

        Monroe, 31, served as press relations director under communications director Herbert G. Klein during the 1968 Nixon-Agnew campaign. Prior to joining the Nixon campaign he was appointed editor of a trade publication just acquired by Cowles Communications. From 1966 to 1968 Monroe was an assistant editor at Cowles Magazines for Industry. Monroe handled the public relations program for Evreux Air Base from 1962-1964 and was editor of the newspaper from 1964-1966. Monroe spent two years in the United States Air Force's Security Service command. He did his undergraduate work at Morgan State College, majoring in business administration.

        Price, 30, practiced law in New York for two years prior to joining Dr. Moynihan's staff. He was a staff member of the Kennedy-Javits Development Corp in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, New York. Price worked on the Nixon-Agnew staff with Leonard Garment after the Miami Republican Convention. He is a former chairman of the national governing board of the Ripon Society. Price received his law degree at Harvard University, attended Oxford University in England as a Rhodes scholar, studying economics of developing countries and diplomacy, and was graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Grinnell College.

        Zartman, 42, has just resigned his position as an attorney for Eastman Kodak Co. He was with the firm for four years. Prior to joining Kodak Zartman was an attorney with Nixon-Hargrave-Devans and Doyle. Zartman is a member of the board of the YMCA, Rochester, New York; director of the Civic Music Organization, Rochester; and president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, also in Rochester. Zartman did his undergraduate studies in history at Yale University and received his law degree from Columbia University.

        # # #
      • FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JANUARY 23, 1969
        Office of the Press Secretary

        THE WHITE HOUSE

        The President today released the following statement regarding the appointment of Dr. Arthur Burns:

        Today I am pleased to announce a major appointment. Dr. Arthur Burns, a long-time friend and trusted advisor, has agreed to join the White House staff as the Counsellor to the President. Dr. Burns will have Cabinet rank.

        He will head up a small group whose prime responsibility will be the coordination of the development of my domestic policies and programs. Dr. Martin Anderson, one of my Special Assistants, will serve as his deputy. Dr. Burns' role will be that of a generalist, dealing with a broad province of legislative and executive actions.

        Besides being a brilliant scholar with a world-wide reputation in economics, Dr. Burns is an able administrator who has been in charge of the National Bureau of Economic Research for many years.

        Dr. Burns will, of course, work closely with members of the Cabinet, Dr. McCracken, Mr. Harlow, and others on the White House staff.

        # # #
      • FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JANUARY 23, 1969
        Office of the White House Press Secretary

        THE WHITE HOUSE

        BIOGRAPHICAL DATA ON ALEXANDER P. BUTTERFIELD, DEPUTY ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT

        Born at Pensacola, Florida on April 6, 1926, the son of a career naval aviator.

        Mr. Butterfield lived most of his early years in California. His permanent (legal) residence is 272 I Avenue, Coronado, California

        During high school years (in Norfolk, Virginia; Coronado, California; and Delafield, Wisconsin) he served as president of his freshman, sophomore, and junior classes; was elected student body president; sat as a member of the Southern California Student Representative Assembly; won nine varsity letters in major sports; and in 1944 graduated cum laude, receiving top honors in English and history. Most of Mr. Butterfield's adult life has been devoted to federal service, as an officer in the U.S. Air Force. Throughout his military career he resided in 13 states in the Continental U.S. ; also Hawaii, West Germany, Libya, Okinawa, Thailand, Republic of Vietnam, and Australia. A rated command pilot and parachutist, his more significant military assignments were as: wingman on the famed Europe-based American jet aerobatic team, The Skyblazers; aide to Commander Fourth Allied Tactical Air Force, Central Europe Command (NATO); an Air Force Academy instructor; senior aide to Commander in Chief Pacific Air Forces; Commanding Officer of a jet fighter squadron in Vietnam, where he flew 98 combat missions; Military Assistant in the immediate office of former Defense Secretary McNamara, where he handled White House-Defense projects of special Presidential interest. It was while in this Defense post that Mr. Butterfield gained a familiarity with much of the machinery of government. Called upon to personally coordinate a multitude of Defense matters at the highest levels of other federal departments and agencies, he became involved in a wide variety of actions -- ranging from fuel-oil import studies and measures to insure the security of Presidential aircraft to racial issues and programs for the handicapped. Probably most notable among his accomplishments during this period were his interdepartmental direction of Cuban Brigade affairs (relating back to the Bay of Pigs event), and his preparation of DOD' s official testimony on our Dominican Republic involvement, delivered by then Under Secretary Cyrus Vance, to the Fulbright Committee. Mr. Butterfield was also charged with preparing the Defense Secretary's monthly report to the Cabinet. For these and other efforts he was highly commended by Vance, former Presidential Assistant Joe Califano, and Vice President Humphrey.

        His last military assignment was as Commander in Chief Pacific Representative and Senior U.S. Military Representative in Australia.

        A full Colonel upon retirement from the Armed Forces, Mr. Butterfield was a qualified F-111 pilot. In a 20-year span he logged 4700 hours in jet fighter-type aircraft and just over 7500 total flying hours.

        He is a graduate of the Armed Forces' most senior service school, the National War College, and holds BS and MS degrees in International Affairs.

        Mrs. Butterfield is the former Charlotte Mary Maguire of Washington D. C. and Coronado, California. T:here are three children: Alexander, Jr., 17; Susan Carter, 16; and Elisabeth Gordon, 13.

        # # #
    • White House Press Conferences, Box 55
      • News Conference #9 at the White House with Daniel P. Moynihan, Assistant to the President for Urban Affairs; and Ron Ziegler, Press Secretary, January 23, 1969, 12:38 P.M. EST. 9 pgs.
        NEWS CONFERENCE #9

        AT THE WHITE HOUSE

        WITH DANIEL P. MOYNIHAN, ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT FOR URBAN AFFAIRS, AND RON ZIEGLER, PRESS SECRETARY

        12:38 P.M. EST
        JANUARY 23, 1969
        THURSDAY

        MR. ZIEGLER : The Council on Urban Affairs has just concluded. The meeting began at 10:05 and concluded at 12:15.

        The Executive Order which the President has signed this morning at 10:00 and Mr. Moynihan's staff announcement and the release by Dr. Moynihan was issued in the bins this morning.

        We will also have a statement by the President which was made immediately after the signing of the Executive Order. That is being run off now and should be available in this room shortly.

        The meeting was organizational in tone. I would like to present to you Dr. Moynihan to discuss other content of the meeting.

        DR. MOYNIHAN: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

        It might be useful if I simply read the President's statement which is only three paragraphs, which you will have, to give you some feel of the occasion. He said it in a very simple statement.

        "The establishment of the President's Urban Affairs Council is an historic occasion in American government. Half a century ago the Census of 1920 revealed that a majority of Americans had come to live in cities. But only decades later did the American national government begin to respond to this changed reality. By 1960, 70 percent of the population was urban and today probably 73 percent is.

        "For all this, the American national government has responded to urban concerns in a haphazard, fragmented, and often woefully shortsighted manner (as when the great agricultural migrations from the rural South were allowed to take place with no adjustment or relocation arrangements whatever}. What we have never had is a policy: coherent, consistent positions as to what the national government would hope to see happen, what it will encourage, what it will discourage.

        "Having a policy in urban affairs is no more a guarantor of success than having one in foreign affairs. But it is a precondition of success. With the creation of the Urban Affairs Council we begin to establish that precondition: the formulation and implementation of a national urban policy."

        As Mr. Ziegler said, this was primarily an organizational meeting. We talked about some of the internal arrangements of the Council.

        But the most specific thing that happened was the appointment of a group of subcommittees to deal with what he termed near-term issues; that is to say, matters which administrative or legislative action is required very early on and for which he assigned a Cabinet officer to chair each of the committees -- a varying number of Cabinet officers to serve on them.

        I think in the interest of saving them the harassment that comes from people who have good ideas about the world's problems, I will just mention the name of the Chairman of the Committee.

        MR . ZIEGLER: Gentlemen, make notes on this. We don't have this run off yet.

        DR. MOYNIHAN: First, on the future of the Poverty Program and the Office of Economic Opportunity, the subcommittee is to be headed by Secretary Finch;

        Secondly, on the Model Cities Program, it will be headed by Secretary Romney;

        Third, on Minority Business Enterprise, to be headed by Secretary Stans;

        Fourth, on Welfare, to be headed by Secretary Finch;

        Fifth, on the question of crime, the general area, to be headed by Secretary Mitchell;

        Sixth, the subject of voluntary action, to be headed by Secretary Romney;

        Seventh, the subject of internal migration, to be headed by Secretary Hardin. As you know, the Secretary of Agriculture is a member of this committee.

        Eight, a question of surplus food and nutrition, to be headed by, again, Secretary Hardin;

        And, finally, a mass transit, to be headed by Secretary Volpe.

        Then the President finally appointed what you might call a staff committee to work out an interim committee. I will tell you what it is supposed to do. It is a committee on the transition of the peacetime economy at the end of the Vietnam hostilities. This will be chaired by the Director of the Budget, Mr. Mayo, who is a member of the Cabinet but not a member of this Council. He reported this morning.

        The purpose of this group is a very interim one: To suggest to the President and to advise the President on what, parenthesis, if any , standing arrangements for this transition should be made.

        Obviously, this response to the report is in the Economic Report this year produced by President Johnson' s Cabinet, the Coordinating Committee of Economic Planning for the End of Vietnam Hostilities.

        That is all that I have to say to you.

        Q Were any of these subcommittees given a time to report next?

        DR . MOYNIHAN: Yes, sir. The President indicated his priorities. But I believe I would have to keep that to ourselves in case we never get the work done. There is such a pile on everyone's plate at this moment. He asked that the next meeting of the Council be two weeks from now, although for a period thereafter it will meet weekly.

        Q Mr. Moynihan, you spoke of these subcommittees as being near-term issues. I wonder if you could tell us a little bit about the near-term issues involving Model Cities and internal migration?

        DR. MOYNIHAN: There are some administrative decisions to be made about Model Cities right away in the new Government. Internal migration is a long-term, near-term issue. It is a matter in which I think the President has interest in developing policy at this point in the legislative cycle in his Administration rather than something you could say you would like to get done for the budget, say, for 1971.

        Q Is this a question of whether or not the program will be continued or cut back? What is the issue there on the Model Cities?

        DR. MOYNIHAN: As you know , the Model Cities is uniquely an interdepartmental arrangement. It is just going into its second phase. I don't want to, in describing the work, describe why the committee had to be set up. Model Cities is now, for the greatest number, coming out to the point where plans are submitted and now a second stage is being funded. I believe three or four cities were funded -- Seattle, and then I think Bob Woods put out a few more. I know he put out Boston. There are decisions to be made about that.

        As you know, Model Cities began in around 14 cities and it is now 146, or something like that.

        Do you want to go forward? There are 14,000 cities in America. How many should be Model Cities? That kind of a decision has to be made.

        Q Is there a question on the Poverty Program here? You say future of the Poverty Program and OEO.

        DR. MOYNIHAN: Yes. The question is very simply that the legislation expires on the 30th of June. President Nixon must decide what to do. To do nothing is a decision.

        Q Were there alternatives discussed?

        MR. MOYNIHAN: No , there were no alternatives discussed.

        As you know, in his State of the Union Address, President Johnson said he felt that the Poverty Program needed to be reorganized. And there are -- I think it is no secret-~- some Advisory Committee Reports with various proposals that were prepared under President Johnson, but they lie before President Nixon as well, official reports that go on for different arrangements. This is just very clearly a question on which the President will want advice as to what to do.

        Q What are some of the possibilities for policy in the internal migration? What form will this take?

        DR. MOYNIHAN: I am afraid I must not discuss something that I don't know anything about. This is obviously a question of whether or not the Federal Government should concern itself with impending movements of population brought about by technological change. This has typically been a problem of rural to city migration -- again I don't want to say more than I know -- but typically it has been technology fostered by the Federal Government that brought on the migration. The Federal Government traded many of the influences, but then typically disassociated itself with the consequences. I should think Secretary Hardin will want to consider that.

        Q Would this also go into the matter of ghetto to suburbs or people moving out of the ghetto? Would that also be part of this, what this is getting into?

        DR. MOYNIHAN: I don't know why it wouldn't. Secretary Hardin is chairman of it.

        Q Are any reports due in two weeks? Is that why you are skipping a week?

        DR. MOYNIHAN: The President has not put any date on any report.

        Q On the Model Cities question, Mr. Moynihan, is one of the questions before that subcommittee whether to keep moving into the second phase of the program? Can cities which have completed or are about to complete their planning -- is that up in the air, too?

        DR. MOYNIHAN: I would assume that such a question is obviously before the committee, yes, with no presumption one way or the other. This is a new set of Cabinet officers. I think it is fair to say Model Cities requires the loyalty of a Cabinet, not just of a Cabinet officer. That is one of the
        issues.

        Q Do you foresee the development of a substantial legislative program coming out of these various subcommittees which you spoke of?

        DR. MOYNIHAN: I could not properly say. I don't know the answer.

        Q On the subcommittees, are there also members of the council?

        DR. MOYNIHAN: The subcommittees are composed exclusively of members of the Council.

        Q Will they have staffs?

        DR. MOYNIHAN: The Urban Affairs Council will serve as a secretariat as the NSC does, and then we will presumably typically draw people from the departments themselves.

        Q For example, then, one subcommittee chairman may very well be on three or four subcommittees as a member?

        DR . MOYNIHAN: I am sorry to say that is so. I am sorry for them. There is simply no way of avoiding it.

        Q Under Mr. Stans' subcommittee on minority business, are we talking here about black capitalism?

        DR. MOYNIHAN: That is obviously one of the items. But the President did make it very clear that his concern in that area was not confined to the black enterprises, but to the Mexican-American enterprises, which he mentioned, and the general area of groups that are more distinctive and less well off in this country; and the generality to encourage private business enterprise and to facilitate private business enterprise.

        Q Could you go a little into voluntary action -- what is covered by that?

        DR . MOYNIHAN: I would willingly respond if I were able. But the President has spoken many times of his interest in those para-governmental social enterprises that are associated with voluntary organizations in America -- churches, civic organizations, trade unions, and such.

        There was a member of one of the Task Forces that was organized after the election, headed by Mr. Cornell, on voluntary action. Governor Romney was very much interested in this and this was an important element in Governor Romney's administration in Michigan. He cared a lot about this.

        The question of how do you convert voluntary efforts -- I believe Cornell said at one point in our Task Force that there were a million voluntary organizations in America. It seems a bit too many, but that is another thing. There are a lot of them.

        When they can be directed in some conversion and concerted manner, it appears that there is an enormous potential for social change and social benefit. Governor Romney has found it to be such in Michigan and hopes to see what can be done on a national basis.

        Q Mr. Moynihan, it has been reported this morning that President Johnson felt that the Anti-Poverty Program was handicapped by ''kooks and sociologists''. Do you have any feelings on that?

        DR. MOYNIHAN: I hasten to point out that I am a political scientist.

        Q During the campaign, Mr. Nixon talked a great deal about jobs. You also have. Is that not included among these committees -- jobs and employment? What are your plans for looking into that?

        DR. MOYNIHAN: · The President made it very clear that this was not an exclusive list of concerns. These are things immediately in one way or another either pressing us or on which he is considering making some special moves.

        The issue of jobs, at least at this immediate moment, is not one of legislation. It really is much more one of fiscal and monetary policy and also budgetary policy.

        It is precisely in those areas that I think it is being dealt with, although again I want to make this clear: Not being on this list does not assume it won't be in the council's concerns. It will be very much in the council's concerns.

        If you wanted to discuss in an effective manner the problem of internal migration, you are talking primarily about employment.

        Q Did you and the President discuss short-term goals?

        DR. MOYNIHAN: Not at this meeting, although the President indicated that that kind of speculation, howsoever necessarily tentative and probably wrong, would nonetheless be part of the concerns of this council.

        Q If you want a measure at some point of whether you are getting anywhere, what is the yardstick?

        DR. MOYNIHAN: That is precisely the question. The Executive Order establishing the council speaks in terms of a national urban policy and of priorities therein.

        I think it is his intention that there should specifically evolve some notion of where you want to be a year or two years from now. This is awfully crude, you know. Doing it is mostly an exercise of learning of how little you know how to do it. But I think this is clearly in the President's mind. And throughout this conversation, the implicit assumption that this was the enterprise afoot was present.

        Q You have not yet established any of these goals?

        DR. MOYNIHAN: I am not going to establish them anyway.

        Q Has the President?

        DR. MOYNIHAN: I think -- as you find in some of the statements in his Inaugural Address -- it was clearly in a very large sense goals : The goals of racial unity in the country, those of full employment, those of rebuildinq our cities. These were clearly , if I may say so, eloquently stated in the President's Inaugural Address. Translating them into a program is an enterprise, as you well know.

        The goals really, I think, usually end up not in terms -- for instance, the United States is for peace in the world. But that doesn't necessarily tell the Secretary of State what to do when he gets up in the morning.

        There are, somewhere in between programs and large objectives, the specific things, given the constraint of specific time. That is pretty vague language, isn't it?

        Q One of the purposes of the council as outlined in this Executive Order is to advise the President on the threat or urban unrest and such.

        Can you tell me if you are going to create any type of organization to do this?

        DR. MOYNIHAN: I believe the language on the occasion of threats to civil order and civil rights can be read. It is the last of eight objectives stated in the duties the council is directed to perform, which is to cope with and advise the President on the occasion of emergency situations or conditions threatening the maintenance of civil order or civil rights.

        You asked are we going to set up any mechanism to deal with that. The answer is we don't presently contemplate that. We have been in this building two days.

        Q To put it in a different way, in the event of civil unrest, rioting and such, would your organization act as a control center or correlator for information?

        DR. MOYNIHAN: The language is to "advise" the President. That can mean many things. You asked in the event of civil disorders. I can be very explicit in saying that this is also concerned with the situations which are threatening civil rights.

        Q Could you give some examples -- on what level you are dealing with?

        DR. MOYNIHAN: As much as I hope there would be no such situations, I would prefer not to give examples.

        Q To what level would you go down to in dealing with specific violations of civil rights -- to the individual level?

        DR. MOYNIHAN: No, I think this does not pertain to the day-to-day prosecution.

        Q Is this like a goal of peace in the world or are you going down to individuals?

        DR. MOYNIHAN: I think any of us who has watched our nation over the past decade has seen occasions where the deprivation of civil rights was taking place not in the context of one individual in a rather obscure situation, but rather of one in which there was a genuine confrontation of groups involved.

        Q Dr. Moynihan, Mr. Nixon has asked people in the past to study the possibilities for the Office of Economic Opportunity and I believe I am correct that you already have considerable amount of material in hand.

        Would you say that just generally speaking the burden, the weight of what you already have in hand and what has been done already favors dispersing the Office of Economic Opportunity or placing its various functions back in already-existing or older agencies?

        DR. MOYNIHAN: I would say just this one thing: That there clearly has arisen a present disposition in favor of locating in the on-going established departments those activities which have been developed in OEO and proven successful and can most usefully be moved to the perhaps more peaceable environs of a permanent department.

        I was on the task force that drafted this legislation. It was 38 years ago, I think, or something like that. As this was always in our mind, I would like to make it very clear to you that the primary reason the Office of Economic Opportunity is in the Executive Office of the President -- don't hold
        me to these figures -- but something like 80 percent of the employees of the Executive Office of the President are in OEO.

        It has been for decades now, generations now, a very clear feeling in the Bureau of the Budget, and it has been a feeling that professors of government reiterate -- the Hoover Commission reiterates it -- that the Executive Office of the President should not be an operating department. It should be a policy advisory, management and such. Therefore, when OEO develops an operation that is an attractive and good program, precisely from the viewpoint of the standard administrative practices of the American Government, that becomes a time that it should be located in a fixed operating department. There is no presumption beyond that.

        Q Is that the President's view? What you are saying in effect is that OEO should become a Cabinet-level organization?

        DR. MOYNIHAN: No. That is not the President's view. We had a lot of materials. Is there any sort of presumption in these reports that have been made -- most of which have been made -- from previous administrations?

        I said, "Well, yes, I do think this idea of this spin-off notion is a very commonly accepted one." I will try to explain that the basic administrative theory behind spin-off is that the Executive Office of the President is not an operating department.

        Q Would you say that this Urban Affairs Council would be assuming the sort of braintrust ideas of the OEO, that the actual operating should go to the Budget, that you then would do the thinking?

        DR. MOYNIHAN: I wouldn't assume that. I would never assume who will do the thinking or where. It is a most amazing event. It usually occurs where it is least expected.

        Q I mean as an organization.

        DR. MOYNIHAN: And most unnoticed. There is a difference as to a Cabinet committee. The Urban Affairs Council is essentially a committee of the Cabinet as is the National Security Council. I will leave it at that.

        Q Dr. Moynihan, will these subcommittees be acting under some inhibition or restriction to stay within the 1970 Budget?

        DR. MOYNIHAN: I think in general they are not, no. These are Cabinet committees. They advise the President on anything they wish to do. The function of the Cabinet Officer is to tell the President what he thinks ought to be done. In that respect, they have no inhibitions. There is
        prudence which Cabinet Officers tend to acquire.

        Q Could you tell us who is on this committee of Mr. Mayo's for planning after Vietnam?

        DR. MOYNIHAN: This is purely a staff committee. It is purely an advisory function about formal arrangement. It consists of Mr. Mayo, Dr. McCracken, Dr. DuBridge, myself, and as he finds time from his other duties which he always does, Dr. Burns.

        Q Why is the Director of the Budget rather than Mr. McCracken heading that committee?

        DR. MOYNIHAN: There is no special reason. Mr. Mayo is a member of the Cabinet and sort of ranking in that respect. This is a committee to try to suggest what arrangements should be made on a more permanent basis.

        Q Mr. Moynihan, some of these programs which are obviously being evaluated by the Urban Affairs Council are parts of or consist of on-going programs now established in the agencies represented on the Council.

        Are any of these changes in these programs -- for instance in HEW or HUD -- such that they have to first get the Urban Affairs Council clearance before the respective secretaries go to the Hill, or is this more of an advisory and philosophical study?

        DR. MOYNIHAN: These are efforts to prepare for submission to the President proposals which will be legislative proposals. In the end, the President alone decides these matters, as he delegates to others the opportunity to decide  lesser ones. I think time will work that out.

        MR. ZIEGLER: Thank you, Doctor.

        That statement by the President will be available right through the door after the conclusion of the briefing.

        END (AT 1:05 P.M. EST)
      • News Conference #10 at the White House with Ron Ziegler, January 23, 1969, 1:05 P.M. EST. 2 pgs.
        NEWS CONFERENCE #10

        AT THE WHITE HOUSE

        WITH RON ZIEGLER

        1:05 P.M. EST
        JANUARY 23, 1969
        THURSDAY

        MR. ZIEGLER: The President has on the schedule for this afternoon a 4:00 p.m. meeting with Secretary Kennedy, Paul McCracken, William Mcchesney Martin, and Robert Mayo of the Bureau of the Budget.

        Q Do you expect anything out of that?

        MR. ZIEGLER: No, there will be no report out of there.

        Q Is this a meeting of the Quadriad?

        MR. ZIEGLER: That is correct. I think it dates back to the Eisenhower Administration. These gentlemen will have a general discussion and review on the current economic and financial conditions.

        Q Where is Stans? Wasn't he named to the Quadriad?

        MR. ZIEGLER: Secretary Stans -- I don't know his location this morning.

        Q Will he be at this meeting?

        MR. ZIEGLER ~ No. The gentlemen who will be at the meeting are the ones that I announced.

        Q Is this Quadriad going to meet regularly, and if so, how often?

        MR. ZIEGLER ~ I don't have a frequency of the meetings of this group yet. I think it will depend upon what the President desires. I don't have that information at this time.

        Q Does that mean that Stans is now off the Quadriad?

        MR. ZIEGLER: I don't have information on that. These four gentlemen will be at the meeting. I will check on that for you.

        Q Ron, do you have any appointment for Dr. Burns yet to the Government? He is on a government committee here?

        MR. ZIEGLER: No. We are going to straighten all of that out probably at 4:00.

        The President transmitted to the Senate today the following nominations:

        Charls E. Walker, Under Secretary of the Treasury;

        Paul A. Volcker, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Monetary Affairs;

        Frank J. Shakespeare, Jr., Director of the USIA;

        And Barry James Shillito, to be an Assistant to the Secretary of Defense.

        THE PRESS: Thank you.

        END (AT 1:10 P.M. EST)
      • News Conference #11 at the White House with Dr. Arthur Burns, Counsellor to the President; and Ron Ziegler, Press Secretary, January 23, 1969, 4:19 P.M. EST. 8 pgs.
        NEWS CONFERENCE #11

        AT THE WHITE HOUSE

        WITH DR. ARTHUR BURNS, COUNSELLOR TO THE PRESIDENT, AND RON ZIEGLER, PRESS SECRETARY

        4:19 P.M. EST
        JANUARY 23, 1969
        THURSDAY

        MR. ZIEGLER: For those of you who do not know Dr . Burns, I would like to introduce Dr. Burns.

        The President will release today the following statement which will be available after the briefing. The statement is regarding the appointment of Dr. Arthur Burns. It reads:

        "Today I am pleased to announce a major appointment. Dr . Arthur Burns, a long-time friend and trusted advisor, has agreed to join the White House staff as the Counsellor to the President. Dr. Burns will have Cabinet rank.

        "He will head up a small group whose prime responsibility will be the coordination of the development of my domestic policies and programs . Dr. Martin Anderson, one of my Special Assistants, will serve as his deputy. Dr. Burns' role will be that of a generalist; dealing with a broad
        province of legislative and executive actions.

        "Besides being a brilliant scholar with a world-wide reputation in economics, Dr. Burns is an able administrator who has been in charge of the National Bureau of Economic Research for many years.

        "Dr. Burns will, of course, work closely with members of the Cabinet, Dr. McCracken, Mr. Harlow, and others in the White House staff."

        Carroll Kilpatrick has pointed out that he is also a successful Vermont farmer.

        Dr. Burns.

        DR. BURNS: Gentlemen, I have no speech to make. I will try to answer your questions.

        Q Can you be any more specific about your duties other than you are a generalist on the domestic front?

        DR . BURNS: Let me perhaps say a few word, by way of definition, of my functions.

        Let me go back historically, if I may, Mr. Nixon, as you know, was very active in these halls not too many years ago. Mr. Nixon recalls very vividly what happened in 1953 when Mr. Eisenhower assumed the reigns of the Government.

        Mr. Eisenhower and his Cabinet were eager to improve conditions in the country in economic spheres and in the social spheres and were very eager to carry out the changes in the sphere of government organization.

        But preparatory work had not as yet been done on a significant scale , and as a result very little legislation of a major character was passed in 1953. It wasn't until the end of 1953 that a major legislative program was developed.

        I think that the year 1954 was perhaps Mr. Eisenhower's best year, legislatively. It was a very fine program, a very comprehensive program of legislation which was carried out then.

        Mr. Nixon, while the campaign was on, remembering this experience, was eager to get machinery started so that he could move ahead a little faster once he assume the reigns of government in the event that he was elected.

        So Task Forces were organized before the election. By now most of them have been submitted.

        Then, right after the election, President Nixon asked me to assume the responsibility of drawing up tentative plans for legislative and executive action in 1969.

        I submitted a report to Mr. Nixon on January 6, which was a tentative report. I promised to submit another and fuller report on January 20th -- and, actually, I did submit that report on January 21.

        Then I found myself drafted for the position that has been described to you. In this position, what I will attempt to do, of course, is to carry forward the beginnings of the legislative and executive program presented in this report.

        New plans for legislation will be developed.

        Of course, I will try to work not only along a horizontal dimension -- that is , in enlarging the sphere for possible legislative action -- but also along a vertical dimension; that is to say, try to carry out, with the assistance and cooperation of others within the Executive establishment, these plans and policies so that they will be implemented.

        The objective of my little unit will be to maintain a continuous inventory of plans for legislative and executive action, and that inventory will record the successive stages of implementation.

        Q Dr. Burns: is this a new position -- Counsellor?

        DR. BURNS: To the best of my knowledge, it is.

        Q Does it indicate, the way you describe it, Mr. Nixon may be thinking of a rather ambitious, full, legislative package in this first year?

        DR. BURNS: President Nixon, of course, is hopeful. But I wouldn't read too much into the title. I think the title is intended to convey simply the fact that I will not be involved, or I hope I will not be involved, in hour to hour crises. And such things do happen in the White House.

        Q The way you put it, you talked in terms of 1953 and President Eisenhower feeling that he couldn't get started early enough in the legislative area. Does that mean that President Nixon wants to get started early and has a lot of legislative proposals he would like to make?

        DR. BURNS: President Nixon is very hopeful of presenting a significant legislative program to the Congress.

        Q Dr. Burns , can you tell us -- and Mr. Anderson will be working with you -- how many other people will be working with you?

        DR. BURNS: At present, it will be a very small staff. Tom Cole, who used to be with Senator Tower, and a young assistant professor at Columbia University, Mr. McCain, will be working with me. I have another man in mind, an attorney. But he, as yet , has not joined my unit.

        Q Could we have Mr. McCain's full name?

        DR. BURNS: It is Wesley McCain.

        Q Dr. Burns , could you define the description given to us by Mr. Ziegler of at a Cabinet level position what, precisely, does that mean? Are you going to be a member of the Cabinet?

        MR. ZIEGLER: For a frame of reference, for example, Robert Mayo, of the Bureau of the Budget is at Cabinet level.

        Q Dr. Burns will sit regularly in Cabinet meetings?

        MR. ZIEGLER: That is correct.

        Q You sat in the Cabinet meeting yesterday, didn't you?

        DR. BURNS: That is correct.

        Q Ron, you can sit with a Cabinet, but that doesn't make you Cabinet level.

        Q Are these people such as Mr. Mayo and Dr . Burns now in fact elevated to Cabinet rank?

        DR. BURNS: I would interpret it as follows: They are placed in Cabinet positions at pay considerably lower than the Cabinet members.

        Q Dr. Burns, you said that you wanted to carry forward the beginnings of the legislative program which suggests that the job you have may only be a temporary one. Do you see it as such?

        DR. BURNS: In speaking of beginnings, what I meant which I submitted to the President I regard
        beginning. It is the kind of job that is never completed, you know.

        What the ending might be , I wouldn't know. I think the program for this kind of thing is ended when the government comes to an end.

        But to me it is a beginning. The document is quite long. Some suggestions are very specific. Some are for immediate action and some suggestions are quite vague and in governmental jargon they call for further study.

        Q You won't say your job is a job to help President Nixon during the first few months of his Administration? In other words, this is a permanent arrangement?

        DR. BURNS: I don't know my future.

        Q Dr . Burns, do you know when the program will go to Congress?

        DR. BURNS: I think it will be several weeks. That would be my judgment. The President still has to decide whether or not he will present a State of the Union Message.

        Q Dr. Burns, to what extent will your job involve following through on the departments to make sure they are going to do what the President wants them to do?

        DR. BURNS: I don't expect to follow through, really; except on very major things. As a Cabinet Secretary, that will be his responsibility.

        Q You are not in the oversight business?

        DR. BURNS: No.

        Q Dr . Burns, can you tell us something about whet is in this report?

        DR. BURNS: I can tell you this: First of all, it is confined to the domestic sphere. I have stayed away from foreign policy except insofar as foreign policy has domestic implications.

        The report is organized around 18 major headings. One heading is Electoral Reform, another heading is Government Organization, a third heading is Federal Expenditures, a fourth
        heading is Federal Taxation, a fifth heading is Federal Debt, a sixth heading is Federal Credit Programs. Still another heading is Science and Technology. Still another is Education. Still another is Business Regulation, et cetera. There are 18 major topics.

        Q Could you go on with this list, sir?

        DR: BURNS: Another would be Resources and Environment, Health Care, Welfare Policies, Manpower Policies, International Economic Policies.

        Q Can we get a copy of the report?

        DR. BURNS: I wish I could distribute copies.

        Q Civil Rights, Doctor?

        DR. BURNS: That is a sub-heading, yes. It is treated in the report. My headings are arbitrary, you understand. I have extensive cross- referencing.

        Q Civil Rights is a sub-heading under what full heading?

        DR. BURNS: I happened to have treated it under Manpower Policies. But that is simply for the convenience of classification.

        Q What would be your relation, Dr. Burns, to the Council for Urban Affairs? Are you going to leave that area entirely up to them?

        DR. BURNS: I am involved in that area. I will be meeting with that Council regularly.

        Q What are some of your immediate recommendations? You said you had immediate recommendations.

        DR. BURNS: Those are recommendations which have gone to the President and he, in due course, will decide whether to accept them or to modify them. And if he does accept them, to share his recommendations with all of you.

        Q In what areas are they?

        DR. BURNS: They are scattered.

        Q Does your listing of 18 headings imply that you have recommended some action in each, or in some do you say no action is needed?

        DR. BURNS: Yes.

        Q There is action recommended under each of these headings?

        DR. BURNS: Yes.

        Q Is there legislation under each of these headings?

        DR. BURNS: Sometimes legislative, sometimes executive, and much too frequently the recommendation is that the subject is terribly complicated. I wish I knew more. In due course I will know more. But in the meantime somebody else had better get busy. I try to designate who that somebody should be and study the subject.

        Q Did you have the benefit of the Task Force reports?

        DR. BURNS: I did have the benefit of Task Force reports. I had the benefit, of course, of the President's political commitments, promises, speeches, et cetera, of the campaign, and the benefit of the Republican Platform, the benefit of suggestions made by Congressional leaders, the benefit
        of volunteer suggestions from many citizens over the country, and perhaps had an idea or two of my own.

        Q Dr. Burns, you had said it would be several weeks, you thought, before the legislative program would be coming. Will this be coming in a whole package or will it be one thing at a time?

        DR. BURNS: I think the first question is, really, whether or not there will be a State of the Union Message. That decision has not yet been made.

        If there is a State of the Union Message, it will probably come 30 or 40 days from now, such a Message would be in the nature of things not only dealing with the nation's condition, but also would recommend legislation to the Congress. In the meantime, there will be various actions,
        undoubtedly taken by the President. How things will be spaced out, I really don't know.

        Q Is there any kind of priority setup?

        DR. BURNS: At the moment, no. But that is, of course, the first thing we are going to work on.

        Q What is the significance of your being an economist primarily and getting this job?

        DR. BURNS: I don't know that I can answer that question. Perhaps it might help to say that I started out late as an architect and then became interested in law. But before I left the University, I got involved in economics and I have been with that specialty ever since. In the meantime, I have learned a little about government as well.

        Q Will you be advising the President on economic policy or will you leave that field to others?

        DR. BURNS: My range is very much wider than economics, And economic policies being handled so competently I don't think I will need to spend much time or energy on that. However, I would not be discharging my responsibilities if I stayed out of this sphere of economics. I will be in
        there inevitably.

        MR. ZIEGLER: Thank you , sir.

        Q Ron, the significance of the question on the State of the Union is becoming pretty apparent. What are the factors that are going into that decision? Where is the decision and what stage is it in?

        MR. ZIEGLER: The stage is to make a decision as to whether there will be one.

        Q What are the factors that are going into the decision?

        MR. ZIEGLER: Beyond what Dr. Burns indicated, I wouldn't want to add to that. As you know, we have been here for two days. There has been a lot of discussion on a lot of subjects. I think these discussions will have to continue. Out of this I think will evolve a decision as to whether the President will make a State of the Union Message.

        Q If you had a State of the Union Message, you would be under greater pressure to package everything at one time, whereas if you do not, you could send it up in stages when it is all completed.

        MR. ZIELGER: Again, that is what I was indicating. There are a number of factors that go into making this decision. You could go down the line. I wouldn't want to point to any specific factor that would make the decision.

        Q When would you expect that the President might feel ready to make some further generalized public· statement about his programs and policies -- in a speech, or a television appearance?

        MR. ZIEGLER: Anything I would say on that would be simply my speculation on it.

        Q We would be glad to have that.

        MR. ZIEGLER: I wouldn't be in a position to give that to you. We have had discussions on these things. But no firm date or even target date has been made. I am not referring to a press conference.

        Q Ron, in terms of the White House staff hierarchy, where is Dr. Burns? Is he on the same level as the five assistants to the President or above or below?

        MR. ZIEGLER: No, he is, of course, on the highest level in the White House.

        Q Is he in the highest level all by himself?

        MR. ZIEGLER: No.

        Q He is the only White House staff man who is of Cabinet rank. Is that correct?

        MR. ZIEGLER: That is correct. As to Cabinet rank, as I referred to earlier, Bob Mayo, as I indicated earlier, is at Cabinet level.

        Q Mayo is Cabinet rank.

        MR. ZIEGLER: But Mr. Mayo is not on the White House staff.

        Q Ron, in other words, Dr. Burns is the ranking member of the White House staff?

        MR. ZIEGLER: Yes. I think you could draw that conclusion.

        Q Is his office going to be in the White House?

        MR. ZIEGLER: His office is in the EOB.

        Q One of the interpretations that might be made out of this prospective State of the Union Message could apparently be that Mr. Nixon has already found some areas wherein there are going to have to be changes apparently, important changes, from such things as the budget, from
        the State of the Union of the out-going President. Is this one of the determining factors?

        MR. ZIEGLER: I wouldn't want to point to any specific thing in discussion on the State of the Union Message.

        Q I have trouble delineating between Dr. Burns' functions and those of Dr. Moynihan. Since Dr. Burns is the ranking White House staff man, does that mean Moynihan is no longer President Nixon's main adviser on domestic matters?

        MR. ZIEGLER: Ted, I know it may be difficult. Dr. Burns I think spelled out his role very clearly. There is a statement outside the door for you which restates it.

        Dr. Moynihan's position I think is clear, too. He is the Executive of the Council on Urban Affairs, which is a more specific thing than Dr. Burns' responsibility of developing thoughts and points of view on overall programs for the Administration that go beyond only urban affairs. Of course, the thinking of Dr. Burns and Dr. Moynihan will mesh together.

        Q Ron, can you tell us what Mr. Nixon was discussing with Mr. Martin, Mr. Burns and Mr. McCracken at the meeting this afternoon?

        MR. ZIEGLER: I think I mentioned that this morning.

        Q Dr. Burns wasn't there.

        MR. ZIEGLER: No, Dr. Burns was there.

        Q Is the President supposed to swear in the Secretary of the Interior sometime soon?

        MR. ZIEGLER: Yes. I have an announcement on that.

        Q Could we get Dr. Burns' salary?

        MR. ZIEGLER: I don't know his salary. I can get it for you. But I really think that he probably hasn't even discussed his salary level.

        Q Could you answer that question I asked?

        MR. ZIEGLER: The group that is meeting in the President's Office now is discussing matters of economic problems, immediate economic problems, which has been traditionally done by that group.

        Q Is Mr. Stans in there?

        MR. ZIEGLER: No.

        Q You said you were going to explain why this afternoon.

        MR. ZIEGLER: Traditionally, the Secretary of Commerce has not sat on this group and Mr. Stans is the Secretary of Commerce.

        Q Yes, but he told us he was going to be one of the group.

        MR. ZIEGLER: The group traditionally is made up of the Treasury, Director of the Budget, Chairman of Economic Advisors and McChesney Martin has been added to this group.

        There will be another economic group which Mr. Stans will sit in on and this will be announced at a later time.

        END (AT 4:40 P.M. EST)
      • News Conference #12 at the White House with Ron Ziegler, January 23, 1969, 4:40 P.M. EST. 3 pgs.
        NEWS CONFERENCE #12

        AT THE WHITE HOUSE

        WITH RON ZIEGLER

        AT 4:40 P.M. EST
        JANUARY 23, 1969
        THURSDAY

        MR. ZIEGLER: This afternoon, Mr. Nixon spent his time on staff work, meeting with members of the staff, and also Mrs. Nixon and Tricia, who were making a further tour of the White House, spent some time in his office.

        This evening the President will meet with General Cushman who was here for the Inauguration. General Cushman is a former military adviser to the President. He was his military adviser when he was Vice President.

        Q What is his first name?

        MR. ZIEGLER: Robert. He is the Marine Corps Commander in Vietnam for the III Corps.

        They are close friends and this is a personal meeting.

        Q That is tonight?

        MR. ZIEGLER: At 6:30. That is the only thing on the President's schedule.

        Q Is this an appointment for dinner?

        MR. ZIEGLER: I think they are going to meet in the Mansion.

        Q Ron, was this the first time the President has seen his office?

        MR. ZIEGLER: To my knowledge, it is the first time. Gerry Van der Heuvel can probably firm that up for you.

        Secretary Hickel will be sworn in tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. in the East Room. There will be full coverage available.

        Q Who is going to administer the oath?

        MR. ZIEGLER: It is my understand that the Chief Justice will do that.

        We have a list for you when you walk out the door of all Postmasters nominations still pending in the Senate which were submitted to the Senate since the 91st Congress convened prior to January 21, 1969, which will be withdrawn together with other nominations."

        Q Are there judgeships in there, too?

        MR. ZIEGLER: Yes, there are.

        Q Do you know how many there are in total?

        MR. ZIEGLER: There are 141 Postmasters who will be withdrawn.

        Q How many judgeships are there?

        MR. ZIEGLER: You can get that off the list.

        Q Are they Democrats and you are going to submit Republicans?

        MR. ZIEGLER: No. The purpose for doing this is that the President wants to have an opportunity to review without prejudice and on a case-by-case basis each of these appointments.

        There is, of course, a possibility that some will be renominated. It is interesting because I was curious about this. When President Kennedy took office, 1,243 Postmasters were withdrawn -- that is, nominations to the Senate.

        Q How many of those were resubmitted, Ron?

        MR. ZIEGLER: I don't have that figure.

        Q Will the President's review be on a nonpartisan basis?

        MR. ZIEGLER: Of course it will not be prejudiced as indicated.

        Q Is there any other schedule for tomorrow?

        MR. ZIEGLER: Other than the Hickel swearing-in, I have no other schedule to announce.

        I have one other announcement. We are following the traditionally-established rules for the briefings. I think you are all aware of this. This, incidentally, includes a tape recording. When we have a silent picture opportunity in the Oval Office or in the Cabinet Room and we like to have a reporter pool to observe that photo session, there will be no tape recorders in those meetings or in the briefings following the established briefing rules that have been in existence long before I got here.

        Q Ron, have you discussed the possibility of the President holding a news conference?

        MR. ZIEGLER: Yes.

        Q What has he said on this subject?

        MR . ZIEGLER : We have had full discussions on it. We will be moving right along on that.

        Q How soon might we look for a press conference?

        MR. ZIEGLER: I don't have a date for you.

        Tim, who handles the television and a lot of it, said that reels and technicians should be here by 9:30 in the morning and set up in the East Room.

        Incidentally, many of you were not in New York when I announced the appointment of Jerry as Deputy Press Secretary. I think most of you met Jerry. But if you haven't, this is Jerry Warren. He will be available and working with us on a daily basis.

        Jerry is formerly the assistant managing editor of the San Diego Union. He was, prior to leaving the paper, in the newspaper business for a number of years.

        Q Did he know Herb Klein?

        MR. ZIEGLER: Yes, he did.

        The briefing is concluded.

        THE PRESS: Thank you.

        END (AT 4 : 50 P.M. EST)

  • 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)
      Thursday, January 23.

      Our first morning staff meeting with President, Harlow and Ehrlichman for about 45 minutes. Mainly regarding schedule and general operations. President still getting the feel of the whole thing - but remarkably well adjusted.

      Then the first meeting of the Urban Affairs Council and the first major breakdown of the staff system. Moynihan wanted the President to sign an Executive Order creating the Council - with pictures, etc. But he didn't pre-staff the order so we ended up with the Council members cooling their heels in the Cabinet Room, while Ehrlichman calmly reviewed the order before approving it for President.

      In the afternoon, several sessions with Harlow and Ehrlichman, and one with Pete Flanigan to report on Ambassadors and commission appointments.

      Called Goodpaster to discuss possibility of Cushman as number two in CIA - he agreed to it.
    • Handwritten diary entry (JPG)

  • 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. 

    The Catalog searches across multiple National Archives resources at once, including archival descriptions, digitized and electronic records, authority records, and web pages from Archives.gov and the Presidential Libraries. The Catalog also allows users to contribute to digitized historical records through tagging and transcription.

    Nixon Library Holdings

    All National Archives Units

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.

    • President's Daily Brief of 23 January 1969 [consult link for visuals and extent of redactions]
      The President's Daily Brief

      23 January 1969
      19

      I. MAJOR PROBLEMS

      MIDDLE EAST
      The British are in the midst of a full review of their Middle East policy. They told our embassy that their goal is to maintain their "respectably even-handed" position between the Soviet Union and the Arabs on the one hand and the US and Israel on the other. Their reply to the latest Soviet proposal accepts one or two Soviet ideas and rejects the rest.

      The British say they are waiting for a US lead on the French proposal for four-power meetings in New York.

      * * *

      The Soviets and the Egyptians are working out final details on their annual trade agreement. It will not be signed until next week, but Cairo press leaks indicate that trade will be about $360 million both ways. (The figure for 1967, the latest we have, was $306 million.) Soviet exports will stay at about the same level, but Egyptian exports--rice, cotton yarn, textiles, and for the first time industrial goods--will rise significantly, including payments in kind for about $48 million of Egypt's large debt--somewhere in the neighborhood of $850 million--to the Soviet Union.

      The principal plus for the Egyptians in what otherwise seems to be a trade deal favorable to the Soviets is Moscow's undertaking to ship 500,000 tons of wheat-about one-fourth of Cairo's annual requirement. Last year Moscow supplied very little wheat, the import of which always eats heavily into Egypt's limited foreign exchange.

      EUROPE
      [REDACTED]

      Both the Italians and the Canadians have informed the US that they are moving toward the establishment of diplomatic relations with Peking. Canadian Foreign Minister Sharp told Ambassador Linder on 22 January that contacts with the Chinese could be expected in a few days. The Italians told the US Embassy in Rome the same day that Foreign Minister Nenni would soon make public Italy's intention to recognize Peking.

      This could have a bandwagon effect within Western Europe. The Belgians might eventually follow Italy's lead, and Austria may join in as well. West German Foreign Minister Brandt apparently is thinking of making a new attempt to work out a trade agreement with the Chinese.

      Western European countries that already have diplomatic relations with Peking include Britain, France, the four Nordic countries, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.

      SOVIET AFFAIRS
      Soviet authorities have taken the wraps off the story of the Red Square shooting incident today only to the extent of admitting that it happened and describing the assailant as a lunatic. Evidently no leading officials were hit, but there is a very good chance that the shots were aimed at them rather than at the cosmonauts. Television coverage of the subsequent award ceremony in the Kremlin showed a messenger at one point delivering notes to Brezhnev and secret police chief Andropov. Andropov later handed a note to Brezhnev who was described by television viewers as reading it with a "grim" expression.

      The Soviet leaders are not likely to take this shooting episode lightly and may well move quickly to tighten domestic security. There have been no reports of previous attempts upon the lives of the present members of the Politburo, but an incident in June 1967 in which a man blew himself up in Red Square, killing and wounding several bystanders, caused considerable consternation in high circles.

      [REDACTED]

      * * *

      Yesterday's return to Prague of two ultratiberal leaders, who before the invasion last August had held high posts in the Czechoslovak Government, has further antagonized the Soviets. Former deputy premier Ota Sik, the "father" of Czechoslovakia's far-reaching economic reform, and writers' union chief Eduard Goldsteucker had been living in exile and have been labeled traitors by Soviet and Czechoslovak conservative politicians. They are still members of the party central committee; today they took their seats in the new Czech national parliament. The leadership had been under Soviet pressure to drop them from both posts. Now Prague will be forced to defend them in the face of Soviet displeasure.

      Both men are immensely popular, especially among dissident youth and intellectuals. If the Dubcek leadership should bow to Soviet pressure to purge them, a new source of serious domestic friction could develop. Presumably they will be asked to use their prestige against potentially explosive anti-Soviet demonstrations this weekend.

      The situation in Prague today was quiet but tense.

      * * *

      The annex today discusses some of the background of the Czech crisis.

      VIETNAM
      President Thieu, supported by Vice President Ky, has laid out his preliminary views on how the allies
      ought to try to steer the Paris talks.

      On 21 January at the first of what will now become a series of weekly consultation meetings, Thieu concurred with Ambassador Bunker that the talks should focus first on the restoration of the Demilitarized Zone. This, he thought, would be a good test of enemy "sincerity."

      Thieu urged that the talks should then consider the infiltration problem and the rest of South Vietnam's borders, which would automatically raise the issues of Cambodia and Laos. Speaking in support of Thieu, Ky emphasized that the problem of verification of respect for these borders would be of fundamental importance.

      Both men seemed unenthusiastic about taking up the problems of withdrawal and cease-fire immediately after the DMZ. They expect, however, that the Communists will want to get into these subjects as quickly as possible and proposed that the allies agree to a cease-fire only as part of an agreement on withdrawal, regroupment, and verification.

      Thieu emphasized his willingness to give priority to developing joint positions with the US on substantive matters. He agreed that a joint military working group be set up to support the consultations between himself and Ambassador Bunker.

      * * *

      On 22 and 23 January allied forces had a hard fight in the central highlands between Kontum and Pleiku. This engagement, the latest in a series of clashes in that area, resulted from allied efforts to interfere with an enemy buildup there. The Communists periodically attempt to assemble forces for attacks against allied special forces camps strung out along the central highlands and to overrun montagnard villages defended only by irregulars.

      II. OTHER IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTS

      NIGERIA
      [REDACTED]

      UNITED KINGDOM - RHODESIA
      Both the British and the Rhodesians apparently think another round of high-level talks is in the offing, but the chances that they can negotiate a settlement to their long dispute are even dimmer than they were during the last round in November. Since then, the Smith regime in Salisbury has thumbed its nose at London on several minor points. It has also decided to hold referendums in April on proposals to declare Rhodesia a republic and to inaugurate constitutional changes similar to the apartheid
      structure in South Africa.

      [REDACTED] Rhodesians are likely to remain intransigent, and we believe Smith--with some characteristic vacillation enroute--will eventually turn his country into a white-supremacist republic.

      BEHIND THE CRISIS IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA
      The Czechoslovak leadership finds itself embroiled in a crisis situation because of its efforts to reconcile Moscow's requirement for "normalization" with the need to mollify the population by some liberal reforms. Various sectors of the population are not persuaded by the leadership's balancing act. Indeed they feel that Dubcek and his cohorts are giving in too much to Soviet pressures. Widespread fears that the political situation is going from bad to worse has forged a strong bond among workers, students, farmers, and intellectuals who demand that the Dubcek administration make no more concessions to Moscow.

      The first major confrontation between the reconstituted "realist" leadership and an increasingly disenchanted population developed in late December, when the position of National Assembly President Josef Smrkovsky was put in jeopardy. The widely popular Smrkovsky is the last remaining liberal in the leadership. The population, moreover, sees in his survival the last hopes of the liberal reform program that Dubcek initiated last spring.

      Regime conservatives and some moderates insisted that Smrkovsky be removed and that his post be given to a Slovak under a federalization plan designed to give the Slovaks near-equality with the Czechs. The populace, knowing that the Soviets want Smrkovsky ousted for his continuing support for reform and for his criticism of the Russians, threatened strikes and demonstrations on his behalf. [redacted]

      The Dubcek leadership, caught then as now between Soviet demands and popular reaction, came up with a compromise solution. They proposed that Smrkovsky take a half-step down to a newly created post of first vice president of parliament. The compromise appeared to calm matters, at that point, but the issue will not be finally resolved until a new federal assembly is elected next month.

      As the tension over the Smrkovsky affair subsided, a new struggle developed in early January over freedom of the press. Widespread speculation developed that the Dubcek leadership was about to establish firm control over Czechoslovakia's media. This issue has led the Dubcek hierarchy to the brink of a potentially very dangerous crisis, with popular tensions sharpened when a 21 year-old student, Jan Palach, set himself on fire in Prague's Wencesles Square to protest censorship and the continued existence of an illegal pro-Soviet publication.

      Czechoslovak students quickly hailed Palach as a martyr and between 18-20 January thousands of disaffected youths marched in the streets of Prague. They brought more demands-many of which the Soviets have already refused to the Czechoslovak leadership.

      The decision to give Palach a hero's funeral on Saturday is a risky one. The ceremony, which may draw as many as 100,000, will attract youths from all over the country who are intent on demonstrating in Prague. The leadership evidently judges, however, that it must align itself with the profound feelings aroused by the suicide or forfeit its dwindling rapport with the populace. Top party and government leaders, who met with university officials in an effort to pacify the students, must come up with some type of compromise satisfactory to the students--as they did in the Smrkovsky case--or face the possibility of more suicide attempts and demonstrations bursting out of control.

      In an effort to discourage further public gatherings, the popular and respected President Svoboda has warned that riots and strikes could cost thousands of lives and could bring down the Dubcek leadership. Premier Cernik branded some of the student actions "antisocialist" and said that the security police would have to clamp down on any anti-Soviet disturbances. Defense Minister Dzur has implied that the armed forces were ready to put down any outbursts. They have the capacity but we are not sure of their will to act vigorously in case of need.

      The students, who still have strong support from the workers and the intellectuals, met with trade union officials this week to coordinate protest activities. The student actions have thus far been nonviolent, but the authorities can no longer count on this to continue.

      The Soviets, meanwhile, have not been satisfied with Dubcek's pace toward "normalization" nor his regime's inability--or unwillingness--to impose the necessary controls over the society or to reassert the leading role of the Communist Party in the manner prescribed by Moscow. The Soviets have charged that "anti-socialist forces" are trying to exploit the situation in Czechoslovakia. Moscow is keeping a close eye on the situation; and has implicitly warned the Czechoslovak leadership that it must take stern action to quash further disturbances. The implication is that if the Dubcek leadership cannot control the situation, the Russians will.

  • 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. II, Organization and Management of U.S. Foreign Policy, 1969-1972

    The NSC System

    • 17. Memorandum for the Record , Washington, January 23, 1969

      Source: Central Intelligence Agency, Job 80–B01086A, Executive Registry, Box 7, Folder 223, NSC Review Group Meeting. Secret. Drafted by Smith on January 25.

    The Intelligence Community and the White House

    Vol. XII, Soviet Union, January 1969-October 1970

    Initial Contacts, January-April 22, 1969

    • 4. National Security Study Memorandum 9 , Washington, January 23, 1969

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, NSC Institutional Files (H-Files), Box H–129, NSSMs, NSSM 9. Secret. Also ibid., NSC Files, Box 364, NSSMs 1–42. Secret.

    Vol. XLI, Western Europe; NATO, 1969-1972

    Western Europe Region and NATO

    • 3. National Security Study Memorandum 9 , Washington, January 23, 1969

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, NSC Institutional Files (H-Files), Box H–129, National Security Study Memoranda, NSSM 9 (1 of 6). Secret. This NSSM covered all regions of the world. The eight-volume response, forwarded to Kissinger by Walsh on February 19, which included 117 pages on the countries of NATO and Western Europe in volume III, is ibid.

    • 4. Telegram From the Mission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to the Department of State , Brussels, January 23, 1969, 2225Z

      Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Files 1967–69, DEF 4 NATO. Secret. Also sent to the Department of Defense, all NATO capitals, Belgrade, Bucharest, Budapest, Moscow, Prague, Sofia, Warsaw, the Missions at Geneva and the UN, SHAPE, USCINCLANT, USDOCOSOUTH, and USCINCEUR.

    Vol. E-1, Documents on Global Issues, 1969-1972

    Oceans Policy

    • 333. Circular Airgram CA-406 From the Department of State to Multiple Posts, Washington, January 23, 1969, 1025Z

      The Department summarized U.S.-Soviet Law of the Sea negotiations held in New York on December 16-18, 1968, and enclosed a draft convention, dated December 20, which included a revised article on preferential fishing rights for coastal states.

      Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Files 1967-69, POL 33-8. Confidential. Drafted by Carter on January 17; cleared by McKernan, Springsteen, EA/J, Interior, and Defense; and approved by Meeker. Sent to Ankara, Athens, Bonn, Brussels, Copenhagen, The Hague, Lisbon, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Oslo, Paris, Reykjavik, Rome, Tokyo, and USNATO. Repeated to Canberra, Moscow, Ottawa, and USUN. The first two articles of the enclosed convention, negotiated ad referendum by U.S. and Soviet representatives in July 1968, are undated. The third article is dated December 20, 1968. No drafting information appears on the draft convention. The memorandum of discussion with the Japanese Embassy was not found attached.

  • 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.

    Box 1, Folder January 21-31, 1969 [1 of 2]

    • 8:50 AM, David Packard; Mr. Kissinger
      David Packard
      Mr. Kissinger
      1-23-69 8:50 AM

      P and K discussed NSSM 3. K said he would like to have Lynn on the group. P said he thought a representative from BOB should be on the task force. K said Pres has given Treasury impression that they are representative on these matters - he is sure he will not want to maintain that impression but will talk with him today and make the point. K said he would call P back about it.

      P said he had memo prepared which he will send to K as soon as he is confirmed. K said we have memo over here which Laird had asked him to ~ prepare before inag - said we will get it finished and get it over to P today so he could consider that in connection with his memo.

      K said we are faced with a deadline since there is an NSC meeting on this issue in the middle of Feb. Packard said he was sure they would have something prepared to talk about by the middle of Feb.

      jm
    • 1:00 PM, Secretary Laird; Mr. Kissinger
      Secretary Laird
      Mr. Kissinger
      1/23/69 1:00 pm

      In responding to Memo #1 (list of questions on Viet Nam) Sect. Laird will incorporate in one memorandum the responses and comments of SecDef, JCS, MACY, CINCPAC1 noting differences in answers to the questions. (This one memo will take the place of 5 different papers.)

      HAK agreed this would be the best way to do it.

      Sect. Laird said that sometime within the next week "this meeting" should be set up with General Wheeler, Sect. Laird, and Mr. Walske, the Special Asst. on Atomic Matters. He also thought Gen. Wheeler should be there. (He said Walske knows all the background on every change.)

      HAK said he thinks the Pres. wants all the Chiefs to be there -- it would be a good opportunity for him to meet them. Meeting has been agreed to in principle for next week, but no specific time yet.
    • 1:00 PM, Secy Rogers; H Kissinger
      Secy Regers
      H Kissinger
      1-23-69 1:00 PM

      Re Bonn appt - R said Tyler is retiring so he is out. K said Pres had mentioned name of Irving (?) - R said that was good possibility.

      Re Joe Kraft sotry - according to K's info it was put out by Russians. R said he called Kraft and asked him and Kraft said he got it from the Soviet Union representative. K said there is no truth to it. R said he told Kraft he thought a correction should be printed and Kraft said he would do so on Sunday. K said we should play it cool for a few weeks to see if they - the Russians - come up with political
      suggestion.

      R and K discussed AID project loans - both agreed that restudy should be made to put under NSDM procedure.

      R said "we ought to get John Brown - - Hopkins we don't want to bring."

      R said he thought we ought to talk, maybe a week from Saturday -- when we have the word about the NPT, and H agreed we should move on it pretty soon, and we ought to line up the Germans and a few others.

      R thought the statement (last night's) was good, and H said Pres was pleased.
    • 2:35 PM, Attorney General Mitchell; Mr. Kissinger
      Attorney General Mitchell
      Mr. Kissinger
      1/23/69 2 35 pm

      Mr. Mitchell noted his exclusion from NSC meetings, "which was wonderful for him." HAK said it is the President's intention to bring him in gradually, and wants him to be fully briefed, but reason he hasn't been at the meetings up to now is that the Pres wants to exclude some of the Cabinet members who are not statutory members, and in order to have a basis to do that, he has confined the list to statutory members. HAK will make sure Mr. Mitchell is kept informed--for example, there is some by-play in Paris which doesn't appear in reports and when it jells he will be in touch.

      Mr. Mitchell noted that 80% of this report that they bring over is opinions, not unsubstantiated, and if you were to run foreign policy of government, they would be making the foreign policy, He gets suspicious of some of the stuff.

      HAK said so is the Pres. We are dealing with it partly by not letting them participate in discussions, and at NSC we let them come in to give briefings. Mitchell asked if it were possible to include more facts than opinion in it and HAK said they will say that's what they are doing. HAK told Mitchell that if he reads one of these items that he questions, drop him a note about it.

      Mr. Mitchell said maybe at an appropriate time he and Mr. Kissinger could sit down and run over a few of these reports and make some notes along the above lines.
    • 3:40 PM, Mr. Chapin; Mr. Kissinger
      Mr. Chapin
      Mr. Kissinger
      1/23/69 3 40 pm

      Mr. Kissinger asked Mr. Chapin to tell the President that Saigon has accepted, with only the tiniest modification, the opening speech for the Paris meeting, which he showed him last night. H will be briefing the President on it fully tomorrow morning, but thought he might like to know about this.
    • 6:35 PM, Secretary General Galo Plaza; Mr. Kissinger
      Secretary General Galo Plaza
      Mr. Kissinger
      1-23-69 6 :35 PM

      Secy Genl said he had the Ambassadors together this morning to tell them in very general terms gist of meeting with President - nothing about Rockefeller. They were delighted to hear the President at some time would like to visit the Pan American Union - just waiting for him to come anytime he pleases. SecGen asked whether HAK thought it should be formal or informal - both agreed it should be informal.

      SecGen said he had contacted Nelson - HAK said both he and President had talked with him too. HAK thinks he is leaning toward doing it. Both agreed it would be good for Rockefeller, the country and the Government.

      jm
    • 7:30 ish PM, Mr. Flanigan; Mr. Kissinger
      Mr. Flannigan
      Mr. Kissinger
      1-23-69 7:30 ish PM

      F wanted to know what K thought of Pat Haggerty taking over NASA. Wanted to know if K had any interest in seeing him when he comes in. K said no. F asked if he should see Laird and K said yes. K said he would be glad to see Haggerty if F thought that would help to sell him on the idea. F said if it is necessary- he will ask K to see him. F and K discussed Bill Casey and Lindsay- for ACDA. K said he would rather have Casey but in all fairness would have to say Lindsay would do a better job.

      They talked about Juric (?) and K told F he was taking Guhin. Talked about DuBridge and his four jobs - wondered if National Scientific Advisory Committee could be separated. F asked about naming Guy
      Steever to that - K said quite conceivable but would be very unusual and would be commented upon.

      F and K talked about having lunch next week and if that does not work out, K said he did want to see him before he left.

      jm
    • 9:10 PM, Larry Lynn; Mr. Kissinger
      Larry Lynn
      Mr. Kissinger
      1-23-69 9:10PM

      K said he wanted to make sure L knew that he had committed him to Packard. K said he told Packard we would have paper for him by end of week, can L have it ready. L said yes. K said Saturday morning
      (or even Monday morning) would be fine. It was agreed that L would get paper to K and K would do cover memo.

      jm
    • 9:50 PM, Genl Goodpaster; Mr. Kissinger
      Genl Goodpaster
      Mr. Kissinger
      1-23-69 9:50 PM

      K said he would appreciate tomorrow G's judgment on set of questions of what goes into the SIG. G said he would be prepared to talk about it. On Contingency planning, K said he flatly said that goes to NSC and G agreed. Both agreed it was good meeting.

      G said he would be at Walter Reed in early morning - Haldeman had suggested he join Kat 9:00 meeting with Pres as the Pres wants to talk with both of them about #2 man at CIA. Since G cannot be present at 9:00, they will try to get another time tomorrow to see the Pres.

      Re SY problems - G had seen papers. on two but not on DD. K said he would get DD file so G could look at it tomorrow. They agreed they could discuss things to and from Westmoreland's office. G said from what he has seen so far, it would not cause him to hesitate. Suggested K might want to have fatherly talk with both of them.

      jm

Audiovisual Holdings

  • 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-0060 Photographer: Atkins, Oliver | Color or B&W: B&W

    • Frame(s): WHPO-0060-01-08, President Nixon signing an Executive Order establishing the Urban Affairs Council. 1/23/1969, Washington, D.C. White House, Cabinet Room. President Nixon (seated); L-R: George Shultz, Robert Mayo, John Mitchell, Arthur Burns, John Volpe, Robert Finch, Spiro Agnew, Clifford Hardin, George Romney, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Maurice Stans.
    • Frame(s): WHPO-0060-05A, President Nixon signing an Executive Order establishing the Urban Affairs Council. 1/23/1969, Washington, D.C. White House, Cabinet Room. President Nixon (seated); L-R: George Shultz, Robert Mayo, John Mitchell, Arthur Burns, John Volpe, Robert Finch, Spiro Agnew, Clifford Hardin, George Romney, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Maurice Stans.
    • Frame(s): WHPO-0060-06A, President Nixon signing an Executive Order establishing the Urban Affairs Council. 1/23/1969, Washington, D.C. White House, Cabinet Room. President Nixon (seated); L-R: George Shultz, Robert Mayo, John Mitchell, Arthur Burns, John Volpe, Robert Finch, Spiro Agnew, Clifford Hardin, George Romney, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Maurice Stans.

    Roll WHPO-0061 Photographer: Atkins, Oliver | Color or B&W: B&W

    • Frame(s): WHPO-0061-01A-07A, President Nixon signing an Executive Order establishing the Urban Affairs Council. 1/23/1969, Washington, D.C. White House, Cabinet Room. President Nixon (seated); L-R: George Shultz, Robert Mayo, John Mitchell, Arthur Burns, John Volpe, Robert Finch, Spiro Agnew, Clifford Hardin, George Romney, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Maurice Stans.
    • Frame(s): WHPO-0061-07A, President Nixon signing an Executive Order establishing the Urban Affairs Council. 1/23/1969, Washington, D.C. White House, Cabinet Room. President Nixon (seated); L-R: George Shultz, Robert Mayo, John Mitchell, Arthur Burns, John Volpe, Robert Finch, Spiro Agnew, Clifford Hardin, George Romney, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Maurice Stans.

    Roll WHPO-0062 Photographer: Knudsen, Robert L. | Color or B&W: B&W

    • Frame(s): WHPO-0062-01, Formal seated portrait of Tricia Nixon. 1/23/1969, Washington, D.C. White House. Tricia Nixon.
    • Frame(s): WHPO-0062-01-05, Formal seated portrait of Tricia Nixon. 1/23/1969, Washington, D.C. White House. Tricia Nixon.

    Roll WHPO-0063 Photographer: Knudsen, Robert L. | Color or B&W: B&W

    • Frame(s): WHPO-0063-04-37, Formal seated portrait of Tricia Nixon. 1/23/1969, Washington, D.C. White House. Tricia Nixon.
    • Frame(s): WHPO-0063-23, Formal seated portrait of Tricia Nixon. 1/23/1969, Washington, D.C. White House. Tricia Nixon.

    Roll WHPO-0064 Photographer: Knudsen, Robert L. | Color or B&W: B&W

    • Frame(s): WHPO-0064-02-03, Formal full length portrait of Tricia Nixon. 1/23/1969, Washington, D.C. White House. Tricia Nixon.
    • Frame(s): WHPO-0064-04-18, Formal seated portraits of Tricia Nixon. 1/23/1969, Washington, D.C. White House. Tricia Nixon.

    Roll WHPO-0065 Photographer: Kightlinger, Jack | Color or B&W: B&W

    • Frame(s): WHPO-0065-02A-06A, President Nixon meeting with Chairman of the Federal Reserve,William Martin, Secretary of the Treasury, David Kennedy, and Director of the Budget, Robert Mayo. 1/23/1969, Washington, D.C. White House, Oval Office. L-R: William Martin, President Nixon, David M. Kennedy, Robert P. Mayo.

    Roll WHPO-0066 Photographer: Kightlinger, Jack | Color or B&W: B&W

    • Frame(s): WHPO-0066-01A-14A, President Nixon meeting with Chairman of the Federal Reserve, William Martin, Secretary of the Treasury, David M. Kennedy, and Director of the Budget, Robert Mayo and Paul W. McCracken. 1/23/1969, Washington, D.C. White House, Oval Office. L-R: William Martin, President Nixon, David M. Kennedy, Robert P. Mayo, Paul W. McCracken.
    • Frame(s): WHPO-0066-13A, President Nixon meeting with Chairman of the Federal Reserve, William Martin, Secretary of the Treasury, David M. Kennedy, and Director of the Budget, Robert Mayo. 1/23/1969, Washington, D.C. White House, Oval Office. L-R: William Martin, President Nixon, David M. Kennedy, Robert P. Mayo.

    Roll WHPO-0105 Photographer: Knudsen, Robert L. | Color or B&W: Color

    • Frame(s): WHPO-0105-01, Formal seated portrait of Tricia Nixon. See also WHPO 0062 and WHPO 63. 1/23/1969, Washington, D.C. Tricia Nixon.

    Roll WHPO-0106 Photographer: Knudsen, Robert L. | Color or B&W: Color

    • Frame(s): WHPO-0106-01, Formal seated portrait of Tricia Nixon. See also WHPO 0062 and WHPO 0063. 1/23/1969, Washington, D.C. Tricia Nixon.

    Roll WHPO-0107 Photographer: Knudsen, Robert L. | Color or B&W: Color

    • Frame(s): WHPO-0107-01, Formal seated portrait of Tricia Nixon. See also WHPO 0062 and WHPO 0063. 1/23/1969, Washington, D.C. Tricia Nixon.

    Roll WHPO-0108 Photographer: Knudsen, Robert L. | Color or B&W: Color

    • Frame(s): WHPO-0108-01, Formal seated portrait of Tricia Nixon. See also WHPO 0062 and WHPO 63. 1/23/1969, Washington, D.C. Tricia Nixon.

    Roll WHPO-0109 Photographer: Knudsen, Robert L. | Color or B&W: Color

    • Frame(s): WHPO-0109-01, Formal seated portrait of Tricia Nixon. See also WHPO 0062 and WHPO 63. 1/23/1969, Washington, D.C. Tricia Nixon.

    Roll WHPO-0110 Photographer: Knudsen, Robert L. | Color or B&W: Color

    • Frame(s): WHPO-0110-01, Formal seated portrait of Tricia Nixon. See also WHPO 0062 and WHPO 63. 1/23/1969, Washington, D.C. Tricia Nixon.

    Roll WHPO-0111 Photographer: Knudsen, Robert L. | Color or B&W: Color

    • Frame(s): WHPO-0111-01, Formal seated portrait of Tricia Nixon. See also WHPO 0062 and WHPO 63. 1/23/1969, Washington, D.C. Tricia Nixon.

    Roll WHPO-0112 Photographer: Knudsen, Robert L. | Color or B&W: Color

    • Frame(s): WHPO-0112-01, Formal seated portrait of Tricia Nixon. See also WHPO 0062 and WHPO 0063. 1/23/1969, Washington, D.C. Tricia Nixon.

    Roll WHPO-0113 Photographer: Knudsen, Robert L. | Color or B&W: Color

    • Frame(s): WHPO-0113-01, Formal seated portrait of Tricia Nixon. See also WHPO 0062 and WHPO 0063. 1/23/1969, Washington, D.C. Tricia Nixon.

Context (External Sources)