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July 31, 1972

Introduction

This almanac page for Monday, July 31, 1972, pulls together various records created by the federal government and links to additional resources which can provide context about the events of the day.

Previous Date: Sunday, July 30, 1972

Next Date: Tuesday, August 1, 1972

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.

    Digitized versions can be found at HathiTrust.

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

    No Federal Register published on this date

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

Archival Holdings

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

  • Selective document listing

    President's Office Files

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

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

    • Transcript of diary entry (PDF)
      Monday, July 31.

      We left first thing this morning for Louisiana for Ellender's funeral. The trip went very well. The President got a great reception. Lots of crowds on the streets. Governor met him and said he was for him. Senator Eastland told him that he'd carry every county in Mississippi. The Sheriff said that he'd clean up in Louisiana, as did the police chief, etcetera. He had plenty of time on the plane to chat with the Louisiana Congressional delegation and pick up some political points there. He had quite a discussion with me on general political and Convention plans. He's concerned about California, where he thinks we have our major problems. First, the economy; second, Reagan; third, the fact that it's youth-oriented; but all wrapped up mainly into the fact that of the failure on our part to launch a Democrat Independent campaign there. That ours is a Goldwater-type organization instead of what it should be. He emphasizes that California is the most important state for Connally to work in.

      Got into some problems of who goes to the Convention, especially regarding the Pat Nixon staff. Also, the family's obviously pressuring him to get out and shake hands with the delegates and all. He wants to look for something, after the acceptance speech, along that line. He wants some work done on Ed Cox's schedule to use him with the suburbanite elites, upper-class colleges. Use his arrogance, not put him into middle America. He wonders if he ought to go to Wilkes-Barre to look at the flood damage and express some more concern. He was following up with me on whether the men got over to photograph the Ft. Wayne stuff. This comes out of a report that Clawson gives me from an FBI contact of his, indicating that McGovern has an illegitimate daughter who he fathered while he was in high school or college, with the records all very specific in Ft Wayne. We're trying to get pictures of it to have on file, although we have no intention of using it.

      He felt he should not go on this press conference if Eagleton is taken off of the ticket; is anxious to get MacGregor's staff meetings and so on started and get people fired up.

      Bobby Griffin raised the point with him that, in our canvassing, we need to locate Wallace people and pick them up, as well as Nixon people. Also that we ought to hit the auto manufacturers, to get them to hire people now. They're making enormous profits out of enormous sales, but instead of hiring new people they're running a lot of overtime, which doesn't help us on unemployment.

      When we got back, we had an economic political meeting with Shultz, Stein, Weinberger, Ehrlichman, and Colson to discuss the basic economic issues on the basis that the experts know we're in good shape but the people don't. The problems are on inflation, particularly food prices, tax reform, unemployment, and the general area of expansion of the economy. On food prices, the consumers blame the processors and the middle men, so a month before the election we should look for some way to impose a freeze on that segment of the food business. We can't do it earlier because it won't work and we don't want people to find that out. We need to make an all-out assault on the spending ceiling on the basis that it assures against a tax increase. The President feels two fronts need a political play: prices, of food only, to show concern; and taxes, to indicate that we have a tax program. He urged that Weinberger or someone take all of McGovern's votes while he was in the Senate, add up what they would have added to the budget. Say this would have meant so much in increased taxes. That he's the biggest spender in Congress, that he voted against price controls.

      Instead of just defending us, we have to kick the hell out of McGovern. We have to find something we can do on the control side of the processor. The problem of bragging on what we have done shows that we're for the status quo, and this may not be salable. We need to force the debate to be on McGovern's economic program, not on our record. This shows the need though, to talk about our issue, foreign policy, instead of getting people talking about the economy. The best we can do is to avoid the negative as much as possible.

      The President met after that with Connally alone for quite a while, then called me in. Connally made the point that it's vital, until McGovern and Eagleton make their final decision and McGovern gets a new candidate if he throws Eagleton off, that we make no news whatever. For instance, there should be no announcement of Connally's committee, no news from MacGregor, etcetera. Wallace's announcement on Saturday, for instance, made no ripples, because McGovern and Eagleton were dominating the news.

      Then, this evening, McGovern and Eagleton had their meeting. Came out of it and, at about 9:45, had a press conference that was carried on CBS radio. McGovern announced that, while he was fully satisfied that Eagleton's health was great and he consistently supported Eagleton, that they had made a joint decision. That health was not a factor, but the public debate of it was diverting attention again from the national issues and that the paramount need for the Democrats is unity and a full discussion of the issues. That the debate regarding Eagleton will divide, so the best course is for Eagleton to step aside. With nothing but best wishes, he's agreed to campaign, and I welcome his help, etcetera. Eagleton said that he was jointly in agreement that he should withdraw, that it wasn't an easy decision, that thousands of people had phoned, written, and so forth, but that he will not divide the Democratic Party, which already has too many divisions. His personal feelings are secondary to the need to unify the Democratic Party and elect McGovern president. "My conscience is clear, my spirit is high, this is definitely not my last press conference. Tom Eagleton will be around for a long, long time, and I will be working for McGovern in the meantime." Then he said no one could have been finer, more considerate, more generous in his concern than George McGovern, and so on. McGovern then said that he will consider the Vice President choice very carefully, has no one in mind at this point. He won't discuss the VP tomorrow night. He's requested free time on all three networks at 9:00 tomorrow night. He says he'll discuss the campaign to date at that time, which should be an impossibility. At that point, I called the President to report to him, and missed a good chunk of the press conference. The rest of it just babbled on on how heartrending a decision it was, and explaining away various factors. Nothing of any importance.

      End of July 31.
    • Original audio recording (MP3)

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

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    Nixon Library Holdings

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National Security Documents

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

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

    Vol. III, Foreign Economic Policy; International Monetary Policy, 1969-1972

    International Monetary Policy, 1969-1972

    Vol. XXIII, Arab-Israeli Dispute, 1969-1972

    Proximity Talks and the Backchannel: Separate Department of State and White House Negotiating Tricks

    • 302. Telegram From the Department of State to the Interests Section in Egypt, Washington, July 31, 1972, 1801Z

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 658, Country Files, Middle East, Middle East Nodis/Cedar/Plus, Vol. V. Secret; Priority; Nodis; Cedar Double Plus. Drafted by Anderson; cleared by Kissinger, Sisco, and Atherton; and approved by Rogers.

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

    United Kingdom

    Vol. E-5, Part 2, Documents on North Africa, 1969-1972

    Algeria

    • 33. Memorandum of Conversation, Washington, July 31, 1972

      In an official démarche, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Newsom discussed with Minister Abdelkader Bousselham the hijacking of a Delta Airlines aircraft by members of the Black Panthers, who had been paid a million-dollar ransom.

      Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Files 1970–73, AV 12 US. Confidential. Following his 1968 flight from the United States to avoid imprisonment for an assault conviction, Eldridge Cleaver, Minister of Information for the Black Panthers, founded a headquarters in Algeria. On June 3, two Black Panthers had demanded and received $500,000 in ransom after hijacking a Western Airlines flight, a sum which the government of Algeria returned to the airline. The Government then released the hijackers to the Black Panthers in Algiers.

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

    Digitized versions can be found in the National Archives Catalog.

Audiovisual Holdings

Context (External Sources)