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November 15, 1971

Introduction

This almanac page for Monday, November 15, 1971, pulls together various records created by the federal government and links to additional resources which can provide context about the events of the day.

Previous Date: Sunday, November 14, 1971

Next Date: Tuesday, November 16, 1971

Schedule and Public Documents

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

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

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

    Digitized versions can be found at HathiTrust.

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

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

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

    No Federal Register published on this date

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

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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, November 15.

      The staff meeting this morning got into the continuing resolution problem again, and right after the meeting, I got with Shultz, Weinberger, and MacGregor for a long session on trying to work out what we do. The problem is that tonight is the expiration and legally we can't go ahead with expenditures on OEO, foreign aid, Defense, military procurement and District of Columbia operations. The option is either to get an agreement from Mahon and Ellender and go with their assurance that they'll make this legal retroactively; but the problem is we get trapped. Continued on the next tape.

      [End of tape reel AC-15(B)]

      [Begin tape reel AC-16(A)]

      Continued. I was going over the problem on the continuing resolution and the fact that if we go along with Mahon and Ellender’s assurance that they’ll make it legal retroactively, we get trapped in that the President has to sign the ultimate bills even though some of them may be candidates for vetoes, but he'll have to sign them in order to make his actions in the interim legal.

      The President asked me to get Connally's view on this, and he said we should take the hard line. That first, we are in an indefensible position: if we violate the law and box ourselves in, we'll be forced to make decisions that we should not make. Second, we have a breakdown in government operations. The Senate is acting irresponsibly. We have to run against Congress anyway. We should hit a few obstructionists for venting their anger in an irresponsible way. A tangible positive ingredient is the President as a strong decisive leader. He has to draw the distinction, praise the House, and so forth. The problem here is that, if we take the hard line and they don't go with the continuing resolution, then we have to cancel expenditures or halt expenditures as of midnight tonight; and on that basis, the government will, in effect, collapse, and that then becomes blamed on the President.

      Shultz called Ellender from our meeting and basically showed him down. He came up afterwards with the fact that Ellender has a very hard strategy. He'll give us all kinds of commitments on making it legal, and he volunteered a five day continuation. Basically he's burned up because the House is going out for ten days, and he wants to put their feet to the fire and force them to pass the authorization bills. Also he wants to hold the President to the fire and force him not to veto. So we agreed that we couldn't go along with the five day extension. The net result was the President called in the big four leaders plus the four chairmen and ranking members of Appropriations of both houses and really laid the law down to them very firmly. As a result of which, Ellender backed off, agreed to pass a continuing resolution by Wednesday, and on that basis, we're going ahead with expenditures.

      The President got into a discussion with Flanigan and me this morning on appointments -- several key ones, particularly Federal Reserve, where Connally wants Earl Coke appointed. The President wants to have someone close to Connally, that Connally can control, rather than Arthur controlling him. He's not worried about it being a Democrat, if the guy will do the job. Flanigan suggested Congressman Stuckey, which appealed somewhat to the President. On NATO, he likes Mansfield, Sprague or John McCloy, who Henry is exploring at the moment. Another possibility there would be Walter Thayer. Also he bought Hoyt Amadon for Japan, with Thayer as an alternative and George Champion as a possibility.

      He then urged that we push on getting Mitchell to go on Stans right away, so that we can move Peterson over to Commerce, which he feels is essential in spite of the Attorney General's desire to try to put someone in that we can make some political hay out of. Later, he had Ehrlichman in on budget and general domestic plans. He said he wanted to do a poll that would determine whether the public would favor a sales tax if the funds were to be used for education or for adequate defense or for reducing property tax. He said he's inclined to go for the 4 percent valueadded tax -- not for new initiatives, but basically use it to balance the budget. He told John to set up a meeting with Ehrlichman, Shultz and Connally and the President to sit down and decide on the budget as a fundamental political decision. He wanted Ehrlichman and Shultz to brief Connally first. The President made the point that if Connally isn't briefed ahead of time, he's wrong half the time on his decisions, just as the President is wrong half the time. He explained to John that there's going to be a problem in terms of the President's time in the future, because he's got three foreign meetings before China, and from February on, he's dead regarding time availability, because he's got to spend all the time planning for China.

      This afternoon we had a Cabinet meeting that started while the President was still meeting with the Congressional group, so Rogers presided since the Vice President was in California. It was a total disaster since the principal agenda item was John Volpe first reporting on his Transpo '72, which is a transportation exposition at Dulles airport, and from there he went into a report on his recent trip to Europe. Each presentation went about 20 or 25 minutes and was incredibly dull. The President arrived before the second Volpe presentation. Then following that, he tried to ease into a farewell thing to Hardin, which was rather awkward, and Hardin walked into the middle of it with a display of marijuana poppies and a few extraneous matters. The President did finally get around to telling Cliff he was presenting him with his chair, and told a little story about Nebraska football and the fact that Hardin had recruited Bob Devaney which was what made Nebraska number one. Then Hardin gave a little speech about how things aren't as bad in the Corn Belt as everybody's saying. He came up with some recommendations on how the President could deal with the farm people, and on that rather straggly note, the Cabinet meeting ended.

      End of November 15.
    • 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. XI, South Asia Crisis, 1971

    South Asia Crisis, 1971

    Vol. XIV, Soviet Union, October 1971-May 1972

    Announcement of Summit Through the South Asia Crisis, October 12-December 1971

    • 12. Conversation Among President Nixon, Secretary of Commerce Stans, Secretary of State Rogers, and the President’s Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs (Haig), Washington, November 15, 1971

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, White House Tapes, Oval Office, Conversation No. 617–18. No classification marking. According to his Daily Diary, Nixon met Stans, Rogers, and Haig in the Oval Office from 5:21 to 5:55 p.m. The editors transcribed the portion of the conversation printed here specifically for this volume. In a November 11 briefing memorandum for a meeting Kissinger was to have with Stans, scheduled for November 12 but cancelled, Sonnenfeldt suggested to Kissinger: “You might want to stress again that it [Stans’ trip] is to be exploratory rather than conclusive, that he is to hold out the promise of greater trade but not to make specific promises.” In particular, Stans was to be advised to say or do nothing that implied a commitment to seek Most Favored Nations legislation or Export-Import Bank loans or guarantees, both of which Sonnefeldt suggested were the President’s prerogative. Should Stans meet with Kosygin or Brezhnev, he “should mostly listen and generally stay away from political subjects.” (Ibid., NSC Files, Box 213, Agency Files, Commerce (1971), Vol. II)

    Vol. XVII, China, 1969-1972

    China, October 1971-February 1972

    • 172. Memorandum of Conversation, Washington, November 15, 1971, 12:08-12:49 p.m.

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 522, Country Files, Far East, China, Vol. IX. Top Secret; Sensitive. Kissinger and Shen met in Kissinger’s office. The time of the meeting is taken from Kissinger’s Record of Schedule. (Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Kissinger Papers, Box 438, Miscellany, 1968–1976, Record of Schedule) On a November 17 covering memorandum prepared by Holdridge, Kissinger indicated that he did not want further distribution of this document. Henry Chen, Political Counselor at the ROC Embassy, relayed a summary of this meeting to Charles T. Sylvester (EA/ROC) on December 1, to which was attached an unsigned December 10 note, which reads in part: “This one is marked for a very restrictive distribution because we know from earlier conversations with them that the Chinese were told by Kissinger to hold the information very closely and the implication was clear that State should not be informed.” (Memorandum of conversation and covering note; National Archives, RG 59, Central Files 1970–73, POL CHINAT–US)

    Vol. XXI, Chile, 1969-1973

    Cool and Correct: The U.S. Response to the Allende Administration, November 5, 1970-December 31, 1972

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

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

    Vol. XXIV, Middle East Region and Arabian Peninsula, 1969-1972; Jordan, September 1970

    Persian Gulf States

    • 107. Telegram From the Embassy in Iran to the Department of State, Tehran, November 15, 1971, 0803Z

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 602, Country Files, Middle East, Iran, Vol. IV. Secret; Priority; Exdis. It was repeated to Brussels (Priority) for Ambassador MacArthur, London (Priority), Dhahran, Jidda, and Kuwait.

    Vol. XXXII, SALT I, 1969-1972

    Narrowing the Issues, October 19, 1971-April 18, 1972

    • 212. National Security Decision Memorandum 140, Washington, November 15, 1971

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, NSC Institutional Files (H-Files), Box H–208, National Security Decision Memoranda, NSDMs 101–150. Top Secret; Nodis; SALT. Copies were sent to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the senior members of the U.S. SALT Delegation. Haig initialed the NSDM, indicating that he saw it.

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

    Western Europe Region and NATO

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

    India and Pakistan: Crisis and War, March-December 1971

    Vol. E-16, Documents on Chile, 1969-1973

    Cool and Correct: The U.S. Response to the Allende Administration, November 5, 1970-December 31, 1972

    • 91. Memorandum Prepared in the Central Intelligence Agency, Washington, November 15, 1971

      Summary: This memorandum outlined the state of the compensation controversy for expropriated U.S. businesses, the current political situation in Chile, and the ways in which other Latin American nations viewed the U.S.-Chilean relations. It argued that U.S. attempts to ensure adequate compensation for nationalized properties would strengthen Allende’s position in Chile and throughout the rest of Latin America and concluded that no military coup appeared imminent.

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 776, Country Files, Latin America, Chile, Vol. VI. Secret; No Foreign Dissem. The memorandum was prepared in the Office of National Estimates. Nachmanoff sent it to Kissinger under cover of a November 16 memorandum, which is printed in Foreign Relations, 1969–1976, vol. XXI, Chile, 1969–1973, Document 273.

  • 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)