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November 24, 1971

Introduction

This almanac page for Wednesday, November 24, 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: Tuesday, November 23, 1971

Next Date: Thursday, November 25, 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.

  • 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.

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)
      Wednesday, November 24th. The President had a super solid schedule of meetings today as a result of restacking the schedule to set up for early departure. Although it was all to no avail, because he then postponed the departure until 5:00, so he could have a second meeting with Connally this afternoon. All of this mainly on budget, domestic, and foreign policy, with Ehrlichman and Kissinger in on parts of the meetings.

      He had Stein and Shultz in for a quick discussion, and then went out and announced that Stein would be replacing McCracken as new Chairman of the CEA.

      He agreed to move on Taft-Hartley on the dock strikes in the West--, East Coast and Gulf ports and told Shultz to put that into motion. In talking with Stein, he told him he's got to be mean. And he's got to work with Shultz and Connally, and should bring, and he told Shultz to bring Stein into the international economic group, the little group of Shultz, Connally, Kissinger, and now Stein.

      I had to call Rogers today to tell him we were going to drop the Latin American trip, and that turned out to be no problem. He was all for dropping it. Also, volunteered the fact that he doesn't want to go to Russia, even though he discussed that with me earlier as his idea of advancing the President's Moscow trip. He now thinks that there's no need to do that, but he will, however, have to sign the Berlin agreement at some point, and that when he does that, he and Gromyko could talk at that time about any plans we wanted them to cover for the Moscow trip.

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      DECLASSIFIED - E.O. 13526, Sect. 3.4: by MS, NARA, June 12, 2013
      Audio Cassette 16, Side A, Withdrawn Item Number 11 [AC-16(A) Sel 8]
      Duration: 38 seconds

      He said he’d had a long talk with Dobrynin, and that the Russians are very anxious to have a trip a success. That they were concerned on the Eisenhower trip and the Kennedy trip, and so on in the past, and they didn't want any repeats. So they would go all out to make sure this one worked out as well as possible. He also told Dobrynin that there could be no European Security Conference next year until after the election. And then he suggested to me that if we don't get a Berlin settlement we could announce at the Moscow summit that there would be a European Security Conference in 1973, which would give us some carry over value out of the conference.
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      On the plane out to California this evening, the President had me in. He had talked to Colson on the phone and was concerned because we had tentatively, he and Connally and the group, had tentatively decided to go ahead with the federal pay increase, allowing them to have 5.5 percent retroactive to January 1 to avoid a 6 percent increase in June and another 6 percent in October. Colson thinks that that might indicate that we're not holding the line on pay increases and might just look like we're rolling over for the union. So the President wanted Ehrlichman to think that over and discuss it with Connally. And the President's view was that, having taken the Meany step, he shouldn't indicate any give now and that, in any event, it wouldn't satisfy the federal employees anyway. The real question is the psychological effect of the President agreeing to raise pay and the detrimental effect on holding the line against pay increases. This being a bad time to do something like this, our best position now is to be very tough. The President said he didn't have a very strong feeling, but he was wondering about it.

      We now have the letter in hand confirming his selection as Time: Man of the Year. So he's agreed to do an interview with Time, but wants to make it as late as possible, to, so that it'll be as timely as it can be.

      End of November 24th.
    • 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. 

    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.

  • 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

    • 204. Memorandum From the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers (McCracken) to President Nixon, Washington, November 24, 1971

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Agency Files, Box 216, Council of Economic Advisers. No classification marking. The memorandum is Tab A to a December 1 memorandum from Hormats to Kissinger that summarized three reports on foreign reactions to the international aspects of the New Economic Policy. McCracken’s November 24 note sending Kissinger a copy of this memorandum noted that he was sending it to Kissinger “because my major impressions from this meeting seem to center more in the political than in the economic domain.” Tabs B and C were papers from the Department of State.

    • 205. Telegram From the Embassy in Belgium to the Department of State, Brussels, November 24, 1971, 1810Z

      Source: National Archives, RG 59, S/S Files: Lot 73 D 153, Box 124, Morning Summaries. Confidential. Repeated to Bonn, Bern, London, Luxembourg, Paris, Rome, The Hague, Tokyo, USOECD, and USEC.

    • 206. Telegram From the Embassy in Germany to the Department of State, Bonn, November 24, 1971, 2045Z

      Source: National Archives, RG 59, S/S Files: Lot 73 D 153, Box 124, Morning Summaries. Confidential. Repeated to Brussels, The Hague, London, Luxembourg, Paris, Rome, USEC, and USOECD.

    Vol. XI, South Asia Crisis, 1971

    South Asia Crisis, 1971

    • 197. Backchannel Message From the Presidentʼs Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to the Ambassador to Pakistan (Farland), Washington, November 24, 1971

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 426, Backchannel Files, Backchannel Messages, 1971, Amb. Farland, Pakistan. Top Secret; Sensitive; Exclusively Eyes Only. Dated November 24, but an attached memorandum from Haig to Kissinger indicates that it was sent on November 25 at 1233Z. (Ibid.) Haig signed for Kissinger, but a copy in another file indicates that Kissinger revised and cleared the telegram. (Ibid., Box 643, Country Files, Middle East, India/Pakistan, July 1971)

    • 198. Minutes of Washington Special Actions Group Meeting, Washington, November 24, 1971, 9:29-10:05 a.m.

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, NSC Institutional Files (H-Files), Box H–115, WSAG Minutes, Originals, 1971. Top Secret; Codeword. No drafting information appears on the minutes. The meeting was held in the White House Situation Room. A briefer record of the meeting, prepared by James Noyes (OASD/ISA), is in the Washington National Records Center, OSD Files, FRC 330 76 0197, Box 74, Pakistan 381 (Jan–Nov) 1971.

    • 200. Telegram From the Embassy in the Soviet Union to the Department of State, Moscow, November 24, 1971, 1525Z

      Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Files 1970–73, POL 27 INDIA—PAK. Secret; Immediate; Exdis. Repeated to Islamabad, New Delhi, Dacca, USUN, Calcutta, London, and Tehran.

    Vol. XXIX, Eastern Mediterranean, 1969-1972

    Cyprus

    Vol. E-4, Documents on Iran and Iraq, 1969-1972

    Iraq 1969-1971

    • 294. Telegram 213299 From the Department of State to the Embassy in Iran, Washington, November 24, 1971, 1758Z

      The Department critically analyzed the rosy assessment of internal Iraqi affairs recently published by a Lebanese journalist.

      Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Files 1970–73, POL IRAN-IRAQ. Confidential. Repeated to Amman, Ankara, Brussels, Beirut, Jidda, Kuwait, London, Moscow, Paris, Tel Aviv, and Cairo. Drafted by Edward G. Abington (NEA/ARN); cleared by Albert A. Vacarro (INR/RNA), Joseph A. Presel (EUR/SOV), Miklos, Seelye; and approved by Atherton.

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

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

  • 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)