1. Home
  2. Research
  3. Almanac

October 7, 1971

Introduction

This almanac page for Thursday, October 7, 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: Wednesday, October 6, 1971

Next Date: Friday, October 8, 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.

  • 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.

    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.

  • 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, October 7.

      President spent the day holed up at the EOB getting ready for the TV speech tonight. We had considerable discussion on the phone, and I was over there several times. First of all, on the problem of the appointments to the Wage Price-- Wage and Price Boards. A number of our people who we had suggested have turned it down. He agreed to go with Scranton as Chairman of the General Board, even though he was concerned that his public image may be too flabby for this. He agreed to consider Levy as chair of the Pay Board and agreed that Rumsfeld should take it on as the Director of the Cost of Living Council, which wonder of wonders, Rumsfeld later in the day agreed to accept.

      The big concern during the day was the upcoming Senate vote on the federal pay raise and the fear that we might well lose it. As it turned out, we won it quite handily, and our crew did a superb lobbying job on it. That, plus the wholesale price index that came out this morning with the first drop in six years in industrial prices, set the framework very well for the speech tonight.

      President called Moynihan on the phone during the day to talk with him about the Herrnstein article from Atlantic Monthly that Moynihan had sent in to him. It discusses IQ and racial relationships, and the President made the point that it was important for him to know these things and then do everything possible to deny them--that is, the genetical-- genetic-racial problem. And he commented on Muskie's point, that he was right, if you look cynically at the polls, that a lack would hurt; but no leader must say that, or say it regarding a Jew or a Catholic or anyone else, or else you'll encourage latent prejudice. It's clear that not everybody is equal, but we must insure that anybody might go to the top. Moynihan recommended Bunche for the Medal of Freedom to the President, and he sort of finessed that. He told Pat to give a kick to the Education and HEW people on the first five years program and the need to get going on connecting school with work, at the high school level, with vocational education.

      We got into some discussion of the LA Times instigating the Immigration Service investigation of Ramona Foods in order to screw up Mrs. Banuelos' confirmation, and the President called the Attorney General and ordered him to hit the LA Times for their racial violations and to fire Rosenberg, the District Director. He shook Mitchell up a bit, because this is the first time he's really pounced on him directly with one of those very firm instant orders.

      Colson was in later in the day with some reports on shifts in the Harris Poll, showing the President ten points ahead of Muskie in the current trial heat, versus two points only a week ag--a couple of weeks ago. The speech tonight went very well and got good reaction from our phone call people, although many felt that it wasn't specific enough to handle all the problems; that, we expected, and should do no long-range harm. Connally will handle that in his press conference tomorrow when he follows up on the details.

      End of October 7.
    • 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. II, Organization and Management of U.S. Foreign Policy, 1969-1972

    The NSC System

    • 163. Memorandum of Conversation, Washington, October 7, 1971

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, NSC Institutional Files (H-Files), Box H–209, National Security Decision Memoranda, NSDM 2. Confidential. Drafted by Thomas Pinckney.

    Vol. XI, South Asia Crisis, 1971

    South Asia Crisis, 1971

    • 157. Analytical Summary Prepared by the National Security Council Staff, Washington, October 7, 1971

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, NSC Institutional Files (H-Files), Box H–082, WSAG Meeting, India–Pakistan, 10/7/71. Secret; Exdis. No drafting information appears on the summary. Transmitted to Kissinger on October 7 under cover of a memorandum from Samuel Hoskinson and Richard Kennedy that indicated they had prepared it. (Ibid.)

    • 158. Analytical Summary Prepared by the National Security Council Staff, Washington, October 7, 1971

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, NSC Institutional Files (H-Files), Box H–082, WSAG Meeting, India–Pakistan, 10/7/71. Secret; Exdis. No drafting information appears on the summary. Transmitted to Kissinger on October 7 under cover of a memorandum from Hoskinson and Kennedy that indicated they had prepared it. (Ibid.) The summary is undated; the date used is from the covering memorandum.

    • 159. Minutes of Washington Special Actions Group Meeting, Washington, October 7, 1971, 3:10-3:50 p.m.

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

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

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

    Vol. XXVIII, Southern Africa

    Regional Issues

    Vol. XXIX, Eastern Europe, 1969-1972

    Finland

    Vol. XXIX, Eastern Mediterranean, 1969-1972

    Cyprus

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

    Oceans Policy

    • 409. Memorandum of Conversation, Washington, October 7, 1971, 10:00 a.m.

      The Spanish Ambassador to the United States Arguelles recounted his recent discussion with the Spanish Foreign Minister Lopez Bravo concerning Spain’s straits policy, which was at odds with U.S. policy.

      Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Files 1970-73, POL 33-8. Confidential; Nodis. Drafted by Landau. The conversation was held in Johnson’s office at the Department of State.

    Vol. E-5, Part 1, Documents on Sub-Saharan Africa, 1969-1972

    U.S.-African Policy

    • 17. National Intelligence Estimate 70–71, Washington, October 7, 1971

      This NIE, “Troubles in East Africa,” examined growing domestic problems, communist activities, and other issues in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Zambia, and discussed the outlook for those counties and the implications for external powers.

      Source: Central Intelligence Agency Files, NIC Files, Job 79R–01012A, Box 421, Folder 1. Secret; Controlled Dissem.

  • 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)