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Press Secretary Briefings, 6/12/75
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Press Secretary Briefings, 6/12/75
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This file contains materials relating to the Rockefeller Commission.
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Ron Nessen Files (Ford Administration)
Ron Nessen's Press Briefing Transcripts
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Vietnam
White House (Washington, D.C.)
Assassination
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1975
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1975
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Digitized from Box 10 of The Ron Nessen File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
This Copy For
NEWS CONFERENCE
#245
AT THE WHITE HOUSE
WITH RON NESSEN
AT 1:00 P.M. EDT
JUNE 12, 1975
THURSDAY
MR. NESSEN: Let's move on because it is getting
late in the day.
I think you know that the President had a meeting
in the Cabinet Room with a number of House leaders who
are involved in the current energy legislation, and we
put out a statement about that, and I don't really have
anything further to say about that meeting.
Then there was some staff meetings here, and then
the Rabin meeting which Dr. Kissinger has given you a
report on.
This afternoon there will be further staff
meetings in the White House. Secretary Schlesinger is
coming to see the President at 4:30. It is one of just
a periodic series of meetings with Cabinet members.
Tomorrow the President is going to take part in
the swearing- in of Stanley K. Hathaway as Interior
Secretary. It will be at the Interior Department shortly
after 11:00. There will be a note on the wire later
this afternoon telling you which entrance of the Interior
Department to go in. If you have a White House pass, a
Capitol Gallery pass, or D. C. Police pass, it will get
you in. I assume we will delay my briefing until people
have returned from the Interior Department.
Q
Where will it be? In the auditorium or in
the office of the Secretary?
MR. NESSEN: I think in the auditorium, Helen.
Q
Where was it when he swore in the rest of his
new Cabinet members? Wasn't it in the East Room?
MR. NESSEN: Morton was sworn in at Commerce.
Now, looking ahead to Saturday. As you know, the
President is going to Fort Benning for the 200th anniversary
of the Army and the Infantry. Tomorrow we will have the
detailed press schedule for you.
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Just to give you some idea, so you can plan your
lives, the check-in at Andrews will be 6:45. The press
plane leaves at 7:15, and I would anticipate that the
press plane will get back to Andrews at about 6:00.
Now you have a little package of announcements
today and they include the nomination of James F. Hooper,
of Columbus, Mississippi, to be a member of the Board of
Directors of the TVA.
The President is also appointing Douglas P. Bennett
as Director of the Presidential Personnel Office. He
succeeds Bill Walker, who some of you know, and who you
know was sworn in this week as the Deputy Special Trade
Representative.
The President also signed an Executive Order
relating to the withholding of city taxes by Federal
agencies; also, a letter transmitting to Congress the
Ninth Annual Report of the National Endowment for the
Humanities, and a proclamation designating Thursday,
July 24th, as a national day of prayer.
For Presidential memo fans, we have, due to
popular request, a memo from the President to the
Secretaries of State, Treasury and Defense, the Attorney
General and the Director of the CIA, requesting their
comments on the Rockefeller Commission report, and they
are available for you.
We also have a memo from the President to the
Attorney General directing him to look into any matters
that may bring about criminal charges against anyone. And
these have been both xeroxed and are available for you
right after the briefing.
That is the extent of my announcements for today.
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Q
Hathaway's swearing-in is in Interior?
MR. NESSEN: Hathaway is in the auditorium at
the Interior Department.
Q Ron, could I ask you about the Schlesinger
meeting with the President at 4:30? If I remember correctly,
he is to meet Rabin sometime around 5:30?
MR. NESSEN: Yes.
Q
Are you sure this is just a routine meeting
between the President and a Cabinet officer?
MR. NESSEN: As far as I know, it is, Peter.
Q
Can you check further? This does not quite
make sense.
We also heard that Rabin is going to meet
Schlesinger here. This is what they say at the Pentagon.
It may or may not be.
MR. NESSEN: Yes. I have not seen the agenda for
the Schlesinger meeting with the President. It is described
to me as a routine and regular meeting. I will look into
it further, if you want me to.
Q Would you expect the subject of arms shipments
or arms aid to Israel to come up at that meeting?
MR. NESSEN: I don't have any idea, Walt. I don't
know what the agenda of the meeting is, but I do recall,
one time, when everybody thought the Schlesinger meeting was
something other than what I described it as, it turned out
to be what I described it as, so, I have a halfway decent
record on Schlesinger meetings.
Q
If we could go to the interview for just
a moment -- you said you had issued a statement after
the President met with the House leaders. I was not here
then.
MR. NESSEN: It is here.
Q
Is it posted?
MR. NESSEN: Yes, it is in the racks.
Q
Could I go into it just a little deeper, if
you would?
MR. NESSEN: Sure.
Q
Yesterday, when the House voted to gut the
gasoline tax portion of the bill, it would seem, on the
face of it, at least, that it virtually destroyed any
chances of that bill resulting in meaningful energy
conservation. What was the President's personal reaction
when he was told about that series of votes that killed
the gas tax part of the bill?
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MR. NESSEN: Let me make two points about that.
One, contrary to some stories I have seen, the energy meeting
of this morning was scheduled, at about noon to 1:00, yesterday
afternoon, so the meeting was not in response to the House
votes on the gas tax.
Q
Why wasn't it on the schedule last night?
MR. NESSEN: I can't answer that, Walt, because I
don't know. But secondly, there is quite a long way to go in
the legislative process. The House is nowhere near finished
an energy bill, and then, there is still the Senate to go
through and the Conference Committee to go through. The
President does not want to comment at each step in the
process until he sees what emerges at the end of the line.
Q
But the President said, once Ways and Means
finished with its version, that it was weak and marshmallow --
if he did not use those words, at least Mr. Zarb did, and
presumably, he reflected the President's views. Well, if
it was a marshmallow then, what is it now?
MR. NESSEN: He just wants to wait and see what
comes out, after the other steps in the process.
Q
Ron, it occurred to me --- what if they tried
to get together something now? What are the options?
Congress obviously is not going to go for conservation by
a gas tax, which the President didn't want in the first place.
MR. NESSEN: You say Congress, but you have the
House only having voted, Bob, and you still have the Senate
and the Conference Committee.
Q
So, your feeling is that, there is still a
chance there would be a heavy gas tax?
MR. NESSEN: The President, of course, is opposed
to any gas tax, but there is a long way for any energy bill
to go before it gets out and up to him for signature, and
he just does not want to comment at every stage.
Q
Well, if I could finish --
MR. NESSEN: In addition to the particular bill
that is before the House now, there are a number of other
pieces of his program and of alternate programs that are
before different Committees in different stages of the
process, and it just does not make any sense to every day
make a comment about each vote in each committee.
Now, let me hear the rest of Bob's question.
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Q
I was just wondering what options are left.
As I said, the Congress, it appears now, is not in the mood for
a gas tax which would be one way to conserve fuel. It
looks like the President's tariff plan, spread out over a
long period, as it is, is merely symbolic now. I think
even you all say that. It is not going to be a really
meaningful conservation in that.
MR. NESSEN: I don't agree with that.
Q
Is the President going to propose something
new as a compromise? Would he go to an allocation program
now, or would he want a higher fee system on imported
oil, or is he just going to depend on the decontrol of
oil to encourage --
MR. NESSEN: As far as he can tell, his original
plan is still the best plan, and it is still the plan
he wants. You know, some of the parts of it have not
been considered yet. He has not yet sent up the decontrol
portion and so forth.
Q
Have they reached some sort of conciliatory
area on that today? I mean, do they seem to be leaning
more toward his proposal now?
MR. NESSEN: The purpose of the meeting was not
really to settle on anything, and it did not settle on
anything. It was merely for him to restate his ---
Q
I mean, did they lean any more toward his
program now?
MR. NESSEN: I would not say I got that out of the
meeting.
Q
Let's put it this way, Ron: The fact is --
at least my clear recollection is -- that the President,
at the time he announced these three increases in the oil
import fees, said he was doing so primarily to prod Congress
into acting on an energy program.
MR. NESSEN: That is right.
Q
To try and help with a comprehensive energy
program.
MR. NESSEN: That is right.
Q
In other words, they were described not as an
energy program in and of themselves, but rather as a prod?
MR. NESSEN: Correct.
Q
The fact is now that the House, where the
chief energy legislation was being written, has turned down
its own energy legislation, by and large. What happens now?
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MR. NESSEN: They have not finished yet. They
have not even finished working on that bill on the Floor
yet, and then there is the Senate, and then there is the
Conference, and there are other bills that are in other
committees that contain other parts of the President's
program.
Q
In light of what has happened yesterday, does
the President think there is a realistic expectation that
the Congress is going to enact an energy program?
MR. NESSEN: I certainly hope SO. That was one
of the purposes ---
Q I did not ask about hope. I asked about
his realistic expectations.
MR. NESSEN: I am saying he certainly hopes so, and
that he restated, I thought, pretty strongly, his view
about that this morning to the leaders.
Q
Ron, you said -- just in the interest of
precision -- you said the President is opposed to any
gas tax. You mean a direct gas tax?
MR. NESSEN: Yes, that is right.
Q There is, as a spinoff in his quota-levy
program, an increase in gas tax.
MR. NESSEN: A tax focused solely on gas, he is
opposed to. Obviously, the heart of his program is to reduce
consumption and dependence on imported oil by raising the
price, and there is no denying that, but he does not want a
tax on gasoline.
Q
Ron, does the President plan to make trips
around the country to argue in favor of his energy program?
MR. NESSEN: You mean more trips?
Q
Yes.
MR. NESSEN: He has made a fair number of them.
Q
I thought he told the editors yesterday he intends
to do this.
MR. NESSEN: He certainly has a travel schedule
in the next few months, as he has in the past few months,
and I think he will continue to do what he has done, which
is in public speeches and in meetings, and meetings with
editors and publishers and other groups.
Q
Is he planning a trip next week?
MR. NESSEN: I don't recall a trip next week.
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#245
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#245-6/12
Q
Next Wednesday?
MR. NESSEN: Where is it supposed to be?
Q
I don't know.
MR. NESSEN: I don't recall a trip next Wednesday.
Q
Ron, what a lot of people are trying to get
at here -- we are not trying to have a debate -- we are
wondering with what has happened in Congress, with the
success the President has had with his own program so far,
are we about to come to some reassessment on energy like
we had on the Middle East, and maybe go back and start
over and try to get people together again and see if
something can be worked out on the problem? Is there going
to be a new push, something new, a new effort now?
MR. NESSEN: I would say not, Bob. I think he
is sticking with his program which I think more and more
emerges, or is still the only program, and there is still
a lot of legislative steps that can be taken and he is
hoping that they will be taken.
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#245-6/12
Q
Ron, has he changed his view toward the OPEC
decision to postpone the increase in prices for --
MR. NESSEN: No, I think the views I expressed the
other day are still the same views,
Q Ron, does he have any views on the Congressional
passed housing bill, and specifically, is it considered, by
the White House, to be inflationary and one the President
would likely veto?
MR. NESSEN: Well, I don't think the main complaint
about it is so much its inflationary aspects. The Secretary
of HUD, as I understand it, Carla Hills, and, also, Jim Lynn,
have said that they would recommend that the President veto
it.
He has not made any final decision on that. The
complaints that the President sees about the bill are that ---
as you know, there are several sections to it.
Section one has a so-called subsidized interest
rates on mortgages. The President thinks the intention
of the bill is good, but he does not think that the way the
bill is written would accomplish what it claims to accomplish.
And he thinks it would make the economic problems worse.
Now, the first part of the bill, Title I, really,
amounts to a subsidy for middle income families -- families
who would go ahead and buy a house whether they got this
subsidy or not -- and in some areas, families making over
$23,000 a year would be eligible for this kind of subsidy
to help buy a house. And what that means is that all the
other taxpayers and people who are paying 8 and 9
percent on their mortgages, their tax money would be taken,
and it would be used to subsidize 400,000 fortunate families,
some of them making $23,000 a year or over. So that, those
few 400,000 families would get a 6 or 7 percent mortgage,
and that does not seem fair to the President, that all the
other taxpayers ought to underwrite a low priced mortgage
for the middle income families. That is one of his objections.
In addition to that, the way the bill is set up,
it would not provide very much stimulus in the immediate
future. It would be further out when, hopefully, the economy
would not need the kind of stimulus that this bill promises.
The President believes, basically, the way you
bring interest rates down is to stop competing in the money
market, stop the Federal Government from competing in the
money market to such an extent that it draws so much money
off that, that interests rates go up, and that is why
interest on mortgages is high.
The other part of the bill, as you know, has to do
with stepping in and paying the mortgage payments for people
who are temporarily out of work and can't keep up their
mortgage payments. The fact is, at the moment, the foreclosure
rate is very, very low. One-half of 1 percent is the foreclosure
rate, and in fact, that is lower than it was during the '60s,
which was during a period of prosperity.
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#245-6/12
The fact is that most banks and savings and loans
during this period are forgiving mortgage payments as long
as people are out of work, and then, when the people get
their jobs back, they resume their mortgage payments. So,
the President does not see that this program, which would
be very costly, is needed right now. It addresses a problem
that does not exist.
In addition, the President is watching the fore-
closure rate, and if it goes up, there are already mech-
anisms in place which would come into force and would avoid
foreclosures.
MORE
#245
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Q
Ron, presumably a problem that does exist
is unemployment of about a million in the building trades
and another million in the industries that feed off the
housing industry. Now, presumably the bill would cut into
that rate a bit.
MR. NESSEN: It would at some point in the future,
and the President does not see it providing any kind of
an immediate stimulus. The best way to get the housing
market back to a healthy state, he believes, is to keep
interest rates for everybody -- not just the lucky 400,000,
but for everybody -- down by keeping the Government from
borrowing so much money to make up for a big debt that it
causes interest rates to go up.
Q
Ron, I wanted to ask this question, if I
may. I have been trying to get your attention ---
MR. NESSEN: Let's finish on the housing bill.
Q
Would you say he is leaning toward a veto?
MR. NESSEN: No, I would just leave it that my
understanding is Carla Hills and Jim Lynn have recommended
a veto or will recommend a veto, but I don't have a final
answer from him.
Q
Does he see any countervailing questions in
the bill?
MR. NESSEN: I say it is well intentioned and
he is obviously concerned about the housing industry and
he has had people come in and talk to him about the housing
industry, but he believes the best way to restore the
health is to first of all restore the health of the economy
as a whole and then to keep interest rates down and not
just subsidize 400,000 people.
Q
Ron, when the President made his tax cut
proposals he said it was high time somebody started looking
after middle income folks. He was quite passionate about
that and quite fervent about that. Has he changed his
mind about middle income folks now?
MR. NESSEN: Certainly not, Peter. Why would
you think that?
Q
You made quite a case about subsidizing
middle income housing.
MR. NESSEN: I think you know what he was talking
about at the time and, in fact, this really reinforces
that. You would have all the taxpayers and the middle
income taxpayers, really -- as he pointed out in that
speech -- bear an unusually heavy burden, and they would
be paying their taxes to subsidize 400,000 people who
would get these low cost mortgages.
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Q
I want to ask you about these 400,000.
First of all, are they people or families? You said
people, at some point, and families, at another point.
MR. NESSEN: Families. 400,000 families.
Q Now these 400,000 families, are these 400,000
families the ones above $23,000 or are they the ones from
$15,000 to some figure -- because you start out talking
about a figure of $15,000 and suddenly shift up to $23,000?
MR. NESSEN: I did not mention a $15,000 figure.
John, why don't you come over and help me as
much as you can.
MR. CARLSON: The level is $23,000 maximum except
in certain high cost areas where you can go 20 percent
above that.
Q I am trying to find out, for the 400,000
families, what is the income range.
MR. NESSEN: From zero to $23,000.
MR. CARLSON: Except in certain high cost areas
you can go 20 percent above $23,000.
Q Wouldn't you say your 400,000 families
includes people down around $5,000 or $8,000 a year, too?
MR. NESSEN: I think I see your point, Jim, and
I think you know the answer.
Q You left the impression, Ron, that a lot of
people who make $23,000 a year would benefit from this
bill. Now, how many of them are there?
MR. NESSEN: How do you know? The bill has not
been passed yet. Nobody has applied for one of these
mortgages yet.
Q
Yes, but you are throwing the figure around.
MR. NESSEN: We are not throwing a figure around.
I am pointing out that under the terms of the bill as it is
passed people making $23,000, and in some areas people
making $23,000 plus 20 percent of $23,000, would be eligible.
You can't tell at this point who is going to apply.
Now, people making $5,000 or $6,000 or $8,000
might not have the down payment on a house. Maybe it is
the upper income people who have the down payment and would
get the benefit.
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Q
I am trying to find out the income range
you are talking about with these 400,000 families.
MR. NESSEN: Jim, we said it, and I think you
understand, it is from zero to $23,000 plus 20 percent.
I understand your point.
Q
I am trying to find out if there are only
400,000 families in the country who make from, say, $2,000
a year to $2,500 a year, which certainly cannot be the
case.
MR. NESSEN: No.
Q
Then, what is the zero business?
MR. NESSEN: The incomes that would qualify for
these low cost mortgages.
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#245-6/12
Q
Are what? What to what?
MR. CARLSON: Up to $23,000 -- zero to $23,000.
Q
Only 400,000 of those? That is what I am
asking.
MR. CARLSON: The bill only provides $1.35 billion,
which will take care of 400,000.
Q
He means the first 400,000 that apply?
MR. CARLSON: That is right.
MR. NESSEN: I am glad we got that straightened
out.
Q
Ron, what does the President propose to do
for this one-half of 1 percent?
MR. NESSEN: Well, if the foreclosure rate increases,
there are a number of steps ready to go. At the moment, there
are -- and I think it is important to realize this -- that,
at the moment, in the fiscal year 1975 and 1976 combined,
there is $60 billion being spent in various Federal or
Federally sponsored agencies in the form of credit aids,
subsidy payments, tax expenditures and so forth for the
housing industry, and I can give you a breakdown of that,
if you would like.
Q
What years were those?
MR. NESSEN: 1975 and 1976 there are $60 billion,
over two years, available in various forms of assistance to
the housing industry.
Q
The industry but what about the mortgage
owner?
MR. NESSEN: Well, at the moment, with a foreclosure
rate of one-half of 1 percent, there does not seem to be that
need.
Q
What does one-half of 1 percent foreclosure
rate mean in terms of number of foreclosures?
MR. NESSEN: We can get it for you. We have to
add it up.
Q
Ron, on the same subject, what, if anything,
does the President want Congress to do to help revive the
housing industry?
MR. NESSEN: I think there has already been a
number of steps the Administration has proposed. I think the
main thing is, the solution to the problems is, to have interest
rates low enough that people can afford to buy houses again.
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Q
He does not want any particular specific
legislative action on housing now?
MR. NESSEN: The Administration has already
authorized almost $23 billion for mortgage support, and
this would assist mortgages covering 700,000 housing units.
That includes the Federal Home Loan Bank Board advancing $4 billion
to savings and loans at subsidized interest rates so that the
savings and loans can support mortgages on 133,000 units.
The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation has made
commitments to purchase $3 billion in mortgages that would
finance another 100,000 homes at below market interest rates.
The Government National Mortgage Association, at HUD, has
authorized the purchase of nearly $16 billion in mortgages
carrying below market interest rates under various tandem plans.
There are 333,000 units with FHA or VA guaranteed mortgages
for tandem support. 167,000 units will get conventional
mortgages and so forth. There are a number of programs, so
the Administration has not done nothing about housing.
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Q
Ron, you obviously are loaded for bear,
there. Why is the President having any difficulty in
deciding whether to veto this bill?
MR. NESSEN: I think he always reserves judgment
until he reads the bill.
Q
Ron, before we leave housing, 400,000 families
buying homes, regardless of whether there would be a few
middle income people slipping in there and taking
advantage of it or not, still, at an average cost of $20,000,
$30,000, $40,000 for a home, isn't that going to be a
big shot in the arm for the economy right now?
MR. NESSEN: The argument that is made here by
the people who have studied this closely is that many, if
not all, of the 400,000 would buy the homes without the
mortgage subsidy.
Q
Do you have any statistics on how many
probably would, anyway?
MR. NESSEN: It is difficult to determine that.
Q
Ron, then I assume by all of this the answer
is yes, the President will veto it. It is that bad.
MR. NESSEN: I have not said that, Phil. I have
only said
---
Q
You said he hasn't read all the bill, but
has he read all this stuff you have been feeding us today?
MR. NESSEN: He has kept up with the progress of
the bill. (Laughter.)
Q
Is he really going to read the bill?
MR. NESSEN: He is going to read an analysis of
the bill, certainly.
Is that all the housing questions?
Q
Ron, I would like very much to ask this one
question.
MR. NESSEN: Incidentally, this is a historic
day in the briefing, I think, because Les got his question
answered about inflexibility of Israelis.
Q
I did not, but that is all right.
MR. NESSEN: But you asked it. You did not get
an answer, but you asked it.
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Q
The Non-Metallic Mining Review Board --
there has been enormous coverage of this and no little
rage, and the guy has been listening to Beethoven records
for four years. Now, I have called the OMB nine times
and the ninth phone call finally concluded they told me
it was the Department of the Interior's responsibility for
a $60,000 appropriation. The Department of Interior,
after three more phone calls, said, "Oh, no, it is not
ours; it is the President's."
Ron, this is $60,000 to pay a guy to sit there
and listen to Beethoven records. I tried both Interior
and OMB.
Will the President take this out because he
has the option to take it out of the budget? It is a
small amount, but it is rather irritating.
Q
Would you repeat the question?
Q
Will the President do something about
$60,000 to listen to Beethoven?
MR. NESSEN: Would you let me look into it, Les?
I have not done any research.
Q
Will you, and get an answer?
MR. NESSEN: Yes.
Walt has a question.
Q
Yesterday I asked you if the President has
had any, I think it was moral indignation or concern,
about the Rockefeller Commission report on the CIA,
specifically as it applies to domestic spying. And you
referred me to the President's press conference, and I
can't find any implied or direct criticism of the domestic
spying aspect in there.
Is the President concerned about this?
MR. NESSEN: I thought that his statement did
have some remarks about that.
Q
I have the press conference here, if you
can find it. He was critical of the political assassination
saying his Administration would never do that, but I don't
see anything where the President says, "This is wrong.
This is morally improper. This should never have happened.
Americans' Constitutional rights were violated. We will
see this never happens again."
MR. NESSEN: Well, Walt, one thing I suggest you
do is take a look at these memos that he has sent.
Q
Those are the ones today?
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MR. NESSEN: Yes. Because he talks about it being
important that "all activities strictly observe
Constitutional guarantees against the violation of
individual civil liberties" and so forth. I don't think
his views on that subject are unknown.
Q
Congressman Stanton apparently told the
Cleveland Plain Dealer that he is aware that the CIA
took part in the assassination of at least one foreign
leader.
MR. NESSEN: I read that, yes.
Q
Did that come from the Rockefeller report
on assassination?
MR. NESSEN: I have no idea.
Q
Is the President aware of the CIA taking
part in the assassination of one foreign leader?
MR. NESSEN: He has read the material, Tom.
I don't know what is in the material. I have not read
the material.
Q
Can we direct that question to you, to ask
him if he is aware of one assassination?
Q
That is a very serious charge on the part
of a Congressman who is close to the investigation.
MR. NESSEN: I know that. I will ask him the
question, of course, but I think the President will
probably stand on what he said the other night in terms
of making judgments about the past.
Q
You mean he won't judge whether there has
been a murder sponsored by the Government or not?
MR. NESSEN: I don't think he is going to want
to respond to one isolated remark by a Congressman.
Q
Would you ask him, then, about the violation
of the civil rights of 7,200 American citizens?
Q
It is not an inconsequential Congressman.
MR. NESSEN: I understand that, Tom, but I think
the President's position on the incomplete report of the
Rockefeller Commission on assassinations, that he is not
going to sit in judgment until all the investigation is
completed by both the Attorney General ---
Q
This is not a question of judgment. It is
a question of fact. Did the Rockefeller Commission turn
up substantial evidence that the CIA knocked off a foreign
leader?
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MR. NESSEN: Tom, I just don't see the President
giving a yes or no answer to that question.
Q
Is this what the President meant when he
talked about Congress should treat all of this evidence
with utmost prudence? Does he see this as irresponsible
on the part of the Congress?
MR. NESSEN: I have not asked him about
Congressman Stanton's statement, but he laid out his
views the other night in terms of the sensitivity of this,
in terms of not sitting in judgment on people who have served
in previous Administrations.
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Q
We don't want his judgment, Ron. That is not
what you are being asked. You are merely being asked
whether this is true or not true, according to the President's
knowledge.
MR. NESSEN: I will ask him, but I don't believe
I am going to be able to answer one way or the other from
here.
Q
Do you expect the President will issue some
sort of statement of his own on the subject of assassinations
at some point?
MR. NESSEN: My feeling is that, once he has
reviewed the comments that will come back from the depart-
ments and agencies to whom he is sending this memo, today,
that he will then, as I said, take both administrative
action and propose legislation where warranted, and at that time,
I would expect he would have more to say on the matter.
Q
But will that statement include something on
assassinations?
MR. NESSEN: I don't know.
Q
He has decided for this time that this material
should be kept secret? That is what he said the other day.
MR. NESSEN: Partly because it is incomplete.
Q
And we know that the Counsel's Office is
doing some investigating along with the Church Committee.
Now, when the Counsel's Office feels it has all the information
in hand that is available, will the President make a decision
as to whether this stuff should be released? I am talking
about the assassination part, and will he make a statement of
his own putting this in whatever context he deems appropriate?
MR. NESSEN: I don't know, Mort. It is too far
down the line.
Q
Has it been discussed?
MR. NESSEN: I have not heard it discussed.
Q
Does the President feel offended by
the talk that he is passing off this problem to the
Congressional committees and to the Attorney General
and trying to get rid of a hot potato?
MR. NESSEN: I have not heard him say he is offended.
I think he believes he has handled it in the proper manner,
as he sees it.
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Q
Ron, do you have anything to add to what
Kissinger said about the talks with Rabin? Any personal
feelings on the President's part -- how he feels?
MR. NESSEN: No.
Q
Ron, President Park, in an interview, said he
would go nuclear. He said he has the capability if the
United States should decide eventually to withdraw its
troops. And I don't think they are there into infinity.
What does the United States think of this?
MR. NESSEN: I have not heard of that until you
just mentioned it.
I will have to look into it. I have not heard of
it until just now.
Q
North Vietnam is saying, if we want to go look
for our MIAs, we are going to have to give postwar aid. Does
the White House have any reaction to this?
MR. NESSEN: You probably couldn't print it if I
told you the word that comes to mind.
Q
What do you mean?
MR. NESSEN: Well --
Q
Can you give us any more guidance as to when
the President is going to make his election announcement?
MR. NESSEN: No, I can't.
Q
Let me go back to my question --
MR. NESSEN: Phil, the President, I think, and
the White House have denounced the North Vietnamese
continually for refusing to live up to the provisions
of the Paris Accord, which allowed inspection teams to
go and look for the graves or remains of missing American
service men, and this is just another cruelty that North
Vietnam is inflicting on the families of these missing
servicemen, just toying with their emotions and their
memories.
The reason I said that is, I just can't think
of a usable word that is strong enough to express the kind
of feeling the United States has about that kind of cruelty
on the families.
Q
One of the provisions, as I recall, was the
United States would help North Vietnam in rebuilding after
the postwar period?
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MR. NESSEN: There were many provisions that
depended on other circumstances being in place, and I
don't have the exact Accords in front of me.
Q
Does that mean that the United States now
considers the Paris Peace Agreement moot and by the board?
MR. NESSEN: I don't know what exact word the
diplomats would use, but I think it is fairly obvious,
isn't it?
Q
Fairly obvious that it is scrapped?
MR. NESSEN: (Laughter)
Q
The State Department says that the Paris
Agreements are still operational wherein they apply.
MR. NESSEN: I think that is probably the proper
statement.
Q
I don't know what it means.
Q
Has the President ordered his people to go
back to the drawing boards and try to come up with some
plan to get an accounting of the MIA's, or has he now given
up hope?
MR. NESSEN: No, the President has not given up
hope and does not intend to give up hope. You know, there
was a meeting here two or three Saturdays ago that I think
you know about. The United States is doing everything it
can to get an accounting of the MIA's. There is no hard
evidence that there are any MIA's left alive, but still
the families deserve an accounting and the President --
and there are people assigned to this -- are doing what
they can, but it is the North Vietnamese who are preventing
even a search for the gravesites.
Q
You are not saying we have closed the door
on possible future relations with all of Indochina, are
you?
MR. NESSEN: I didn't think I had.
Q
Now, is there room for some sort of a
reconciliation?
MR. NESSEN: I think you have to refer back to
what Dr. Kissinger said at one of his news conferences,
that there needs to be some time to see what sort of
government is set up there. My understanding is there is
not a government in Saigon. There is a military administration
but no government, and they have to wait and see what
emerges.
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Q
Ron, with another veto expected and one
that probably will be sustained, is the President
concerned? Does he believe that the country is being
hurt by this deadlock between the President and Congress,
by this stalemate?
MR. NESSEN: Is the President ---
Q
Does he believe the country is being hurt
by this continued deadlock and stalemate on any number
of legislative matters that are passed by Congress,
vetoed by the President, and sustained, and so forth?
MR. NESSEN: In the case of the energy bill,
he certainly believes that every day that passes simply
continues and increases dependence on foreign sources of
oil. But some of the other matters, quite the contrary.
The strip mining bill, by vetoing and sustaining
that he avoided a great loss of coal production and jobs in
the coal industry.
The jobs bill -- obviously he has a very large
proposed jobs bill up there and it now appears that Congress
has gotten rid of the Christmas tree aspects of the other
bill and is settling down to pass the needed legislation
which is over $1-1/2 billion for public service jobs and
over $400 million for summer jobs.
Q
Is he concerned that he seems to be governing
by veto?
MR. NESSEN: No, he is preventing what he considers
unsound legislation from getting on the books, and in
most of these cases Congress has gone back and passed
sound legislation, after he has stopped the unsound
legislation.
Q
Ron, does the President have any reaction
to Mrs. Ghandi's little Watergate problem in India? (Laughter.)
MR. NESSEN: I don't think we would comment on
the internal affairs of another country.
THE PRESS: Thank you, Ron.
END
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