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This file contains materials relating to James Callaghan, Ken Clawson, Edward Kennedy, John McLaughlin, Richard Nixon, Donald Rumsfield, Ron Ziegler, Tom DeCair, and Ron Nessen.
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1671273
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Press Secretary Briefings, 9/24/74
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1671273
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Press Secretary Briefings, 9/24/74
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This file contains materials relating to James Callaghan, Ken Clawson, Edward Kennedy, John McLaughlin, Richard Nixon, Donald Rumsfield, Ron Ziegler, Tom DeCair, and Ron Nessen.
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Ron Nessen Files (Ford Administration)
Ron Nessen's Press Briefing Transcripts
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White House (Washington, D.C.)
Conference on Inflation
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1974
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Digitized from Box 2 of the Ron Nessen Files at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
This Copy For
#34
NEWS CONFERENCE
AT THE WHITE HOUSE
WITH RON NESSEN
AT 12:10 A.M. EDT
SEPTEMBER 24, 1974
TUESDAY
MR. NESSEN: This is my first briefing, and
since I hope I am among friends, we have taken down
the bullet-proof podium and put up something simpler.
Before we start, let me tell you there is a
photo session in the Oval Office at 12:30 with the
Patrolman of the Year and ten runner-up patrolmen, and
we probably are not going to be through here, although
I hoped we would be, but probably won't. Somebody will
take the pool in. The pool has been posted and they
will go out the side door and into the Oval Office.
There is a lot of stuff today, so I want to
go through some of it before we get to the questions.
We are not going to have any radical changes
here for the time being, but we have started one new
thing this morning which you have probably noticed, and
that is that we gave you a packet of routine announce-
ments, nominations, appointments and so forth. We
plan to do this on a regular basis ascelose to 11:00
as we can every morning.
These materials will be for immediate release,
so when you get them you can go and file your stories.
Obviously you may have some questions on them, which
we will answer in the main briefing. This will give you
a chance to get started on the routine stuff while you
are waiting for me.
I am sorry about this morning, but I do feel
that you would probably rather wait a little while for
me and make sure I know the answers to your questions
than to have me come out here on a timetable and not
know the answers. So that is going to be the policy we
are going to follow.
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Q
Can I ask a question about these routine
announcements?
MR. NESSEN: Yes.
Q
On these things we have here that the
President accepted --
MR. NESSEN: Wait a minute, Les. I thought you
mean the procedure of the routine announcements. Let me
get through all the stuff and then we will go to ques-
tions. There is a lot of stuff to do.
Q
Ron, will you still be trying for a
briefing at 11:00?
MR. NESSEN: We may want to officially move
the briefing to 11:30, but we haven't decided yet. We
will have the packet of routine announcements at 11:00.
Now let me go to the announcements of today.
We made an announcement yesterday late in the
afternoon when we got back from Detroit, and I want to
call yourattention to it in case some of you were not around
to see it.
We released the text of the President's
letters to the Chief of State of Honduras, and a review
of the assistance that the United States has made
available to the victims of the hurricane there. I
am not going to take time to read that letter, but
it is available and there is also some background
material available.
Quickly through the President's schedule for
today which is posted, he was in the office at 8:00. He
met with the staff members. Then he went over to speak
at the Washington Hilton, as most of you know, to the
International Chiefs of Police.
The staff members who met with him today
included General Haig, General Scowcroft, and myself.
At 12:30 the President will greet the Patrolman
of the Year and the runners-up. This year's Patrolman
of the Year is Paul Skillings of St. Paul Minnesota.
Have we got a list of the others posted? We
will have if we haven't already done it.
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At 3:30 this afternoon, the President will
meet with the Advisory Committee on Federal Pay. Now
this is a meeting at which the Advisory Committee will
present to the President the recommendations on the
amount of the Federal employees' pay increase to go
into effect October 1. This is provided for by law.
This evening at 5:30 the President will host
a reception in the Residence for about 150 aides to
the Republican Members of the House and Senate. The
President wanted to host this reception to recognize
the important work that these Congressional aides do
in the Government process.
Of course he worked on the Hill for 25 years,
so he knows the value of these aides.
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Q
Is that open coverage?
MR. NESSEN: We don't have that yet.
At 5:30 this afternoon, the President will
meet with the British Foreign Minister, James Callaghan.
He is here in the United States, as you know, to attend
the U.N. General Assembly session. This will give
the President and the Foreign Minister an opportunity to
exchange views on American and European relations and
other international interests of common concern. Secretary
Kissinger had breakfast with the Foreign Minister this
morning.
Q
Excuse me, Ron, that is so fast we can't
take it down.
MR. NESSEN: I am sorry. I thought you had
this.
Mr. Callaghan is in the United States for the
U.N. General Assembly. It will give them an opportunity
for an exchange of views on American and European relations
and other international interests of common concern.
Q What was the time on that?
MR. NESSEN: I am used to trying to get all
the news in in 30 seconds, that is why I read so fast.
(Laughter)
Q
What was the time on that meeting?
MR. NESSEN: 5:30.
Q
Doesn't that conflict with the reception?
MR. NESSEN: I am sorry, 4:30. I misread my
own schedule. It is 4:30.
Q Which one?
MR. NESSEN: The Callaghan one. I have a couple
of personne announcements this morning.
Q
On Haig and Rumsfeld?
MR. NESSEN: One of the better kept secrets in
Washington, I think, only after my own appointment.
The President asked me to announce today that
he will appoint Donald Rumsfeld as Assistant to the
President to coordinate White House operations. Ambassador
Rumsfeld will have Cabinet rank, and he will assume his
duties here on Friday. The President is very pleased that
an individual of Donald Rumsfeld's stature and wide-ranging
experience has agreed to take on this important assignment
in the White House.
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#34
Prior to becoming the U.S. permanent repre-
sentative on the Council of the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization in February of 1973, he served from 1969
to 1973 as Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity,
as Counsellor to the President, and as Director of the
Cost of Living Council.
From 1962 to 1969 he was a Member of Congress
from the 13th district of Illinois, and we will have a
more complete biography of Don Rumsfeld for you.
Q
Ron, are you avoiding purposely calling
him Chief of Staff?
MR. NESSEN: Let me finish the formal announce-
ments and we will get into it if you have questions about
the appointment. I can't imagine that you would.
For the time being, Donald Rumsfeld will continue
to serve as NATO Ambassador. The President plans to nominate
a successor at NATO very soon, but I don't have a name
for you today.
As Assistant to the President, Mr. Rumsfeld will
succeed General Alexander Haig, who will be departing this
week for a short vacation, and then he takes over command
of American and NATO forces in Europe.
I have one announcement in connection with the
Press Office staff. I want to tell you that I have only
been here a few days, and I am just learning the operation,
or trying to learn the operation. I don't have a full
grasp of it yet, but all the people in the Press Office
have been asked to stay in place.
I am announcing the President's appointment of
Tom DeCair as Assistant Press Secretary to the President,
and I couldn't agree with it more.
Q
What was he before?
MR. NESSEN: Actually, this appointment of
Tom was made about three weeks ago, and we have had some
other problems here, and didn't get around to announcing
it until today.
Q
Ron, when you say all the people on the
press staff, we were told by Jerry terHorst that that
includes a certain clergyman.
MR. NESSEN: Could we get to that later, Les?
I will talk to you on that later, but let me finish the
formal announcements.
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Q
Could you do it before the pool leaves?
I would like to be here for the answer.
MR. NESSEN: Tom is going to work as kind of
a personal assistant to me. He is going to deal with
special projects and long-range planning and, for the
time being, since I am trying to get a hold of the
office and the paperwork involved, and he has been around
a while, he is helping out to administer the paperwork
and administer the office.
Q
He is a Diane Sawyer?
MR. NESSEN: Well, he doesn't look like Diane,
and that's the problem. (Laughter)
One other announcement. The President is
accepting with sincere regret the resignation of Jerry W.
Friedheim as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public
Affairs. In accepting the resignation, the President
expressed his thanks to Jerry for his valued counsel to
three Secretaries of Defense during his five years as
Deputy Assistant Secretary, and then Assistant Secretary
of Defense.
I think you probably all know Jerry, and he
is joining AMTRAK in their public affairs department. I
do not have a successor to announce at this time.
Are there any questions?
Yes, Helen?
Q
When exactly does General Haig leave?
And the President is high in his praise of Ambassador
Rumsfeld. Does he have anything to say about the
service of General Haig?
MR. NESSEN: General Haig is still here, and is
only going on his short vacation before he goes over
to the new duties, and I am sure you will hear something
from the President about General Haig before he leaves.
Q
Will there be a farewell ceremony?
MR. NESSEN: We don't have any plans yet to
announce.
Q
Ron, are you deliberately avoiding Chief
of Staff? Will Don Rumsfeld be the Chief of Staff without
portfolio?
MR. NESSEN: Don is going to have the respon-
sibility for the administration and the coordination
functions that General Haig has performed for the
President.
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Q
Will he be a funnel like General Haig
has been?
MR. NESSEN: I don't know what you mean by
a funnel.
Q
Will everyone have to go through him
before they get to the President?
MR. NESSEN: I think you probably know that
this President wants to have access to a lot of people
and does have access to a lot of people. He gets
advice from a number of his senior counsellors and
advisers and he gets advice from outsiders, too.
But there does need to be a coordination of
the activities of the senior advisers and all the
senior advisers are equals. Also, the coordinator has
to make sure that best use is made of the President's
time.
Q
Ron, I amnot sure what you mean when you
say he will continue to serve as NATO Ambassador, even
after he comes here Friday. Is he going to commute
between Brussels and Washington?
MR. NESSEN: No, I think he will have to go
back to Brussels at some point because, as you know,
Ambassadors have to have some time to sort of say
farewell in an orderly way, and he will also have to
make sure his successor understands the job, and to
brief his successor. The successor should be named
shortly.
Q
Ron, can I rephrase the question? I think
the transition plan indicated that the new Alexander
Haig, if you will, should not have the centralization
of power in his desk that Haig and Haldeman had before
him. Now, will Rumsfeld have the power that his two
predecessors did?
MR. NESSEN: I think Don is going to organize
that job, obviously, in his own way. It is a Ford
White House now; it is not a Nixon White House. Don
and the President will work out how they want the job
organized.
MORE
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Q
If I could ask these questions I
referred to before. First of all, you have different
degrees -- the President today accepted with regret
and grateful appreciation and here's one with deep
regrets for dedicated service. Here's one, a special
sense of regret, with regret, and then with regret
and appreciation.
Is there any significance or is this just
the writing techniques of variety?
MR. NESSEN: There is no significance.
Q There is no significance. The second
question, then, is all of the people on the press staff --
Jerry terHorst -- we have had two Press Secretaries that
say that Father McLaughlin is going. Is he still here
as of this morning?
MR. NESSEN: Wait. You have to add a third
Press Secretary who says Father McLaughlin is going.
Q Could you give us a date because we
have been told this 11 times. You know, I would really
like to ask the last Father McLaughlin question. When
is he going?
MR. NESSEN: I heard you say that to terHorst
a couple of weeks ago.
Q
I know, but McLaughlin is here and
terHorst is gone. (Laughter)
McLaughlin's secretary said this morning
there are no plans for him to leave. Now this leaves
something of a credibility gap.
Ron, if you could give us a date, I would be
so grateful.
MR. NESSEN: I would like to make you
grateful, Les, but I can't give you a date. He will
be leaving soon.
Q
Well, Ron, levity aside, what is the
problem?
MR. NESSEN: He will be leaving soon, Jim.
Q That is the problem? Can you elaborate on
this for us at all, as to why there should be this
difficulty or confusion, or whatever it is?
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#34
MR. NESSEN: For guidance, obviously I have
just come aboard here and I am trying to get ahold of
the administration of the Press Office, which is quite
large.
This is for guidance. What transpired before
in terms of the tenure of McLaughlin and the others, I
am now trying to find out, and as soon as I do find out, we
can make some progress.
Q Ron, could you give us any idea of the
frequency with which President Ford communicates with
former President Nixon?
MR. NESSEN: There was a phone call last Tuesday,
a week ago today, in the evening, from the former President
to the President. It primarily dealt -- not in any deep or
substantive way -- with foreign policy. The former President
asked how were the SALT talks going, for instance, expressed
his support for Henry Kissinger's continuation as
Secretary of State, which President Ford said he agreed
with.
It was a brief conversation, ten minutes or
less, and as far as I can determine, that is the only
time that the former President has called the President.
The President called Mr. Nixon about two days
after he took office and that was a courtesy call. He
received a message of congratulations from the former
President after his initial speech to Congress and he
returned the call to thank him for the message of
congratulations.
Q
Was there any discussion Tuesday night
about pardon in that conversation, or was it strictly
dealing with foreign affairs?
MR. NESSEN: At the beginning of the conversation --
I don't want to get lost here now, because we have sort of
stopped this process in the middle. Let me come back to
that if I may.
We have talked of two phone conversations
so far, right? Now, the third phone conversation --
and these three were all initiated by the President --
was a few minutes before he announced that Nelson
Rockefeller was his choice for Vice President, and he
called to inform the former President of that. Those
are the three phone conversations initiated from this
end.
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#34
Q
No, I think there were only two. The
first one was from Nixon.
MR. NESSEN: I said a couple of days after
he took office responding to the message of congratulations
from the former President and telling him about
Rockefeller. That was three from this end and one
from the other end.
Q
Was the message from Nixon telegraphed
or telephoned? How did it arrive?
MR. NESSEN: I don't know.
Q
What was the conversation about a couple
of days after he took office?
MR. NESSEN: That was just a courtesy call.
Let me answer this. You don't care anymore
for the answer to your question, right?
Q
I would like to hear the answer to that.
MR. NESSEN: Well, let me answer that question.
It is a fair question.
At the beginning of the conversation of last
Tuesday, the former President made a brief passing
reference to a reaction to the pardon.
Q
Can you characterize what kind of reference
was made by the former President?
MR. NESSEN: I really think that I shouldn't
paraphrase or quote the former President's remarks.
Q
Ron, did he thank him for the pardon?
MR. NESSEN: I am not going to quote the former
President's remarks.
Q
Now, Ron, from these conversations,
particularly this last conversation which the President
had with Mr. Nixon, was the President able to make any
kind of judgment on the former President, the state of
his health?
Before, all he has said with regard to
Mr. Nixon's health, all he has known, I guess he has
gotten secondhand from the papers and so forth.
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He has had a firsthand conversation now. Has
he been able to make any kind of assessment on the
former President's health?
MR. NESSEN: I didn't ask.
Q
Do I understand you correctly to say that
there was no discussion between the two of them about
the pardon itself, but only a reference to the reaction
to the pardon?
MR. NESSEN: That is my understanding.
Q
A general reaction or his personal
reaction?
MR. NESSEN: You know I do want to stay away
from even paraphrasing the former President's remarks and
I think I will leave it the way we have left it.
Yes, Bill.
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Q
Ron, there seems to be a certain incon-
sistency here. You were perfectly willing to say that
he asked about SALT specifically and foreign policy,
but you are not willing to talk about it.
MR. NESSEN: Bill, I told you the subjects of
the conversations. They were SALT, Kissinger, and a passing
reference to the reaction to the pardon. I am not going
to quote the former President's conversation. I am not
going to quote the President's conversation either.
Q
Does Mr. Nixon consider himself an adviser
to the President on SALT and Kissinger?
MR. NESSEN: I think you will have to ask
the former President, Helen.
Q
Well do you think he took his advice, or
do you know whether he took his advice?
MR. NESSEN: What advice?
Q
Ford, did he take Nixon's advice to keep
Kissinger or something?
MR. NESSEN: I don't think it was advice. I
said he expressed support for Kissinger continuing.
Q
When?
MR. NESSEN: You will have to ask the former
President.
Q
The timing was very interesting because
the next day the President made a dramatic announcement
before the U.N. that he was going to stay on.
Q
Should we conclude from what you said
about reaction that they were talking about general
reaction?
MR. NESSEN: Bill, you know I am not a spokesman
for the former President. We had some queries about
this yesterday, and we made an effort to find out as much
as we could, and I don't think we ought to get any deeper
into quoting the former President.
Q
Ron, to follow up Helen's question, you
answered and said you will have to ask the former
President. We are paying $42,500 for a Press Secretary
out there in San Clemente, and our colleagues have been
left out in the 120° outside Annenberg's place. They
have to jump on butlers and so forth.
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#34
Why, if we are paying $42,500 a year for a
Press Secretary named Ziegler are we not getting our
money's worth? That is under President Ford's direction,
Ron. Can you give us any clarification on that? Why
isn't Ziegler doing the job of a Press Secretary, for
which he is being paid, or somebody out there?
MR. NESSEN: You will have to ask Mr. Ziegler.
Q
We can't get to Mr. Ziegler.
Q
Ron, do you know if the former President
in any of his conversations with President Ford complained,
as some members of his staff have, about the treatment
he is getting as a former President?
MR. NESSEN: I lost you there in the question.
Q
Do you know whether former President Nixon
complained in any of his conversations with President
Ford about the treatment that he is getting as a former
President? Some members of his staff have complained
rather bitterly about it. Ziegler had something to say
about it yesterday on television.
MR. NESSEN: Again, I don't want to be in the
position of quoting the former President, but let me
say that I don't know of any.
Q
Ron, one of the leading candidates, or
possible candidates, to run against Mr. Ford withdrew
yesterday, and we tried all day yesterday to get Mr.
Ford to address the subject of how he felt about Senator
Kennedy's withdrawal. Have you been able to get anything
out of him on that?
MR. NESSEN: No.
Q
Ron, is the courier plane continuing to go to
San Clemente with briefing material for the former
President?
MR. NESSEN: I think SO.
Q
What was the question?
MR. NESSEN: Is the courier plane still taking
the briefing material out to San Clemente, and the
answer is I believe it is.
Q
Ron, the first question is, did you ask
the President for reaction or comment on the Ted Kennedy
announcement, and my second question is, can you ask
the question, during these four conversations did the
President ask the ex-President on health and if the
President recalls what the response was?
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#34
MR. NESSEN: I will ask. And in response to
your first question, I talked to him about the Kennedy
withdrawal and he had no comment. I say no comment
not in quotation marks, but he just didn't have any
reaction to it.
Q
Ron, if the President goes to California,
is he likely to visit the former President in the
hospital?
MR. NESSEN: I don't know that.
Q
Since Ken Clawson is on your staff, what
was he doing in San Clemente last week?
MR. NESSEN: He is helping with the transition.
Q In what area?
MR. NESSEN: I don't know, but I will try to
find out.
Q
Is he still on the White House payroll,
and do you know how long he will remain?
MR. NESSEN: The answer to that is yes.
Q
And do you know how long he will remain?
MR. NES EN: I don't.
Q
Ron, could you get some information for
us on the procedures for briefing the former President,
and how often this courier flight goes out, and why it
is necessary to send a courier flight?
MR. NESSEN: I think Jack said last week they
go out every week or ten days, is that right?
Q
Is it a week or ten days?
MR. NESSEN: Whenever there are papers accumu-
lated to send to him.
Q
What kind of papers are these? Are these
NSC, foreign policy documents, or what sort of papers
are they?
MR. NESSEN: I thought all these questions
had been answered last week. I may be wrong.
Q
When Mr. Rumsfeld arrives --
Q
I am sorry, but let him answer this, would
you?
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#34
MR. NESSEN: The fact is that I don't know the
answer.
Q
Could you find out?
Q
I think that is where we left it last
week, that somebody was going to find out.
MR. NESSEN: How often do they go and what
are they?
Q
Yes, if they are just simply sending
papers out, why couldn't they send them in the mail.
Q
Ron, as long as you are making inquiries
on that kind of thing, would you endeavor to find out
how long this particular procedure is likely to continue?
My memory is--although this kind of thing may have been
done with former President Johnson--if a courier plane was
used, it wasn't used very long, and after that, these
things were done either by telephone calls or else at
very rare intervals a staff member might go down to
Texas.
The question is: How long do you plan to
continue to use a plane to take out this material.
Q Ron, when is the President going to activate
the Council on Wage and Price Stability? There was a report
that he is going to name the administrator this week. Is
that true?
MR. NESSEN: If you will give me a moment to
leaf through my notes, I will see if I have an answer
for you. We are going to try to get answers to things.
I think we will be ready to announce an
Executive Director of the Council on Wage and Price
Stability in the next few days, but I can't give
you anything more on that at this time.
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Q
Might that come during the economic
summit Friday and Saturday, for instance in the opening
remarks of the President to the assembled group, or any-
thing like that?
MR. NESSEN: I don't know that, Jim. In
the next few days, we hope.
Q
Can we expect when Mr. Rumsfeld arrives
that more former Nixon men will go out of the White
House pretty fast? In other words, can we expect a
faster house cleaning?
MR. NESSEN: They are each going to be handled
on an individual basis.
Q
Ron, going back to what you said on the
day you were named, which is that you would never
intentionally lie or never intentionally or knowingly
deceive, what sort of understanding do you have with
the President on that? What sort of guidelines or
assurances or whatever you want to call them, can you
tell us, that he has given you, and therefore us, on that?
MR. NESSEN: Well, all of the things I said to
you on that day I had said to him in my conversation with
him on the day before. And since he offered me the job
after hearing all those things, I assumed that he under-
stood why I was taking the job.
I must say, on a personal basis that in my
four or five days here, I have not encountered any problem
along that line and in fact I would say the access to
the President and the other senior adviers is greater
than I had anticipated. And they are, as far as I can
tell, keeping me informed of all the major things going
on here and, if I have questions, I am able to reach
them without any problem and get my questions answered.
Q
Ron, if this question has already been
asked -- I wasn't here yesterday -- forgive me.
MR. NESSEN: I wasn't here yesterday, either.
Nobody was here yesterday. We were all in Detroit.
Q
Fine. Then I can ask it. Based on the
words of Secretary Kissinger yesterday and the President
yesterday, certain Arab newspapers and other sources
are reading between the lines and extracting what they
call war talk. I wonder if you would address that.
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MR. NESSEN: Would you say the last part of
your question beginning with the war talk again?
Q
Yes, certain Arab newspapers are reading
between the lines of the Secretary's and the President's
speeches yesterday and interpreting between the lines
to discover what they claim to be war threat or war talk
by the leaders of this country, and I wonder if you would
comment on that.
MR. NESSEN: Well, I think the President's
speech and also Kissinger's speech speak for themselves.
I would say that the President's speech and the Secretary's
speech were candid and very practical speeches which
address the realities facing the world.
In connection with the reports you talk about,
I do want to call your attention to the paragraphs in
the President's speech in which he said that the theme of this
Administration's foreign policy is international cooperation
and that in the nuclear age there is no rational alternative
to international cooperation.
Q
As long as we are on that subject, Ron,
Secretary Kissinger in his speech in New York said again,
as he had before, that the world faced the possibility of
a depression and he specifically used that word "depres-
sion" as he has at least once before, and he used it
several times.
But the President told us at his last press
conference that there would be no depression. Can you
reconcile those?
MR. NESSEN: I don't recall what the context
of the Secretary's reference to depression was.
Q
It was that if the situation confronting
us on oil prices and inflation resulting from oil prices
was not solved, the world faced the possibility of a
depression, or words to that effect.
MR. NESSEN: I think we will have to let the
Secretary's speech stand by itself, Jim.
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Q
By itself, without reference to the
President's press conference?
MR. NESSEN: In those references that you made,
I think the Secretary obviously said what he wanted to
say. The President believes there won't be a depression.
As I recall the question to the President -- I don't
recall exactly the question, and I am not sure I see the
conflict between the two.
Q
Some people were talking about depression
and the President said there would be no depression in
the United States. My question is: Based on the fact
that even though they may have been talking from
different viewpoints, the image goes out of the Adminis-
tration speaking with two voices on this quite important
matter, and I am wondering if there is a way in which you
choose to try to reconcile the Administration's two voices?
MR. NESSEN I don't accept your premise that it
is speaking with two voices, but if we can say anything
that will help you reconcile what you seeas a difference,
I will try to find it for you.
Q
What participation does the President have
in the energy meeting at Camp David this weekend, and
will that be open for coverage and so forth?
MR. NESSEN: Well, the President is not going
to the meeting at Camp David, and this is a meeting that
Secretary Kissinger is having, and I am going to have to ask
you to contact the State Department for the arrangements
on the meeting.
Q
All I wanted to know was, is he going
to attend?
Q
Will the President be sitting in for
the entire economic summit all day, both days?
MR. NESSEN: Yes.
Q
All day, both days?
MR. NESSEN: As you know, Saturday is a half
day, as you probably know, winding up at approximately
12:30 or 1 o'clock.
Q
When will the agenda for the economic
summit be given to us?
MR. NESSEN: It will be out in a day or SO.
Q
Will the same people handle this that
handled the pre-summits?
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Q
Ron, during the Arab oil embargo, very
strong words were used by both Secretary Kissinger and then
President Nixon, and Secretary of Defense Schlesinger about the
consequences to the world economy, and even possible military
consequences. Why does this President now think that
strong words about depression and about war will work on
the Arabs now when strong words did not work before
on the embargo?
MR. NESSEN: I don't know the answer to that,
Mark.
Q
Ron, the Times reports this morning rather
flatly that President Ford has chosen a gent named Albert
Reese, a Princeton University economist, to be the
Executive Director of the Council on Wage and Price
Stability, is that correct?
MR. NESSEN: I wouldn't deny or confirm that
name, Pete. We will have an announcement in the near
future, possibly this week.
Q
Ron, a week or two ago the President asked
Dr. Lukash to keep him posted on the condition of Mr.
Nixon's health. Can you tell us whether there has been
an updated report for the President from Dr. Lukash,
and can you say anything about it?
MR. NESSEN: I don't know, Russ, whether there
has been.
Q
Back on the oil subject, does the President
have in mind some kind of retaliation that the oil producing
countries failed to cooperate in the way he would like?
MR. NESSEN: I think we will just stick with
the words of the President's speech.
Q
Ron, specifically, is he considering the
possibility of asking the other industrialized nations
to raise the prices of their armaments and their, what
you might call heavy exports, heavy industrial exports to
the Arab nations; steel, construction steel, that kind
of thing?
Is he considering asking the other industrialized
nations to join him in a concerted program of raising
these prices if oil prices don't come down?
Q
What was the question, roughly?
MR. NESSEN: Roughly, the question was about
various kinds of retaliation that might be considered
if the oil prices --
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Q
I didn't use retaliation, I merely
asked --
MR. NESSEN: I thought you did. I certainly
don't want to use it. I thought you had used it.
Q
I think it was the previous question. I
merely wanted to ask whether the President is considering
asking the other industrialized nations to join in our
effort to raise prices of armaments and heavy industrial
exports to the Arab nations if oil prices are not
brought down.
MR. NESSEN: I think again I will have to call
your attention, Jim, to the portion of the President's
speech and the Secretary's speech in which they both
called for cooperation rather than confrontation.
Q
Ron, are you trying to get away from the
implications of the possibility of a confrontation which
was loud and clear in both speeches and has aroused
a lot of world concern, I would say, in terms of what are
their intentions? Are you ruling out war?
Q
Rule out war on your first day, will you?
(Laughter)
MR. NESSEN: That is a great start.
Q
It is very, very strong language. The
President said he was using doomsday language.
MR. NESSEN: Helen, I think we have to stick
with the language that the President used and that the
Secretary used and the additional comments that I have
made here today that it was a candid and practical
speech addressing the realities of the world. At the
same time, the President and the Secretary both
emphasized the need for cooperation because there is
no alternative to it.
THE PRESS: Thank you, Ron.
END
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