Nixon White House TapesTape 4 › Conversation 004-043

Nixon phone call with Woods on Speechwriting and Spiro Agnew

Friday, June 4, 1971 · 8:25 PM–8:27 PM ET · White House Telephone · 1 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Woods, Rose MaryConversation004-043 on Tape 4 (tape position 02:11:17–02:12:34)StartFriday, June 4, 1971 at 8:25 PMEndFriday, June 4, 1971 at 8:27 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 004-043 ↗

President Nixon and his personal secretary, Rose Mary Woods, coordinate the revision of a speech drafted for a dedication ceremony scheduled the following day. Finding the original text provided by staff to be excessively long and dull, Nixon instructs Woods to truncate the draft while retaining its opening and closing sections. Woods agrees to finalize the condensed version within thirty minutes so that Press Secretary Ron Ziegler can review it before the President’s 8:30 a.m. breakfast meeting with Vice President Spiro Agnew.

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Hello.
Hello.
Rose.
Yes, sir.
Are you home?
Yes, I just came home.
I was, I think maybe I want to do a text not very long on this dedication tomorrow.
And it can be done in the morning.
I mean, I can have it there around 8.30.
Okay, is it the one they sent over to you?
No, no, I'm cutting that down.
Yeah, they sent me a very long text, but I... Did you type that or what?
No, I saw it and I started it and I realized that you would never give that.
It's too long, yeah.
I'm going to cut it.
Too long and too dull, most of it.
Yeah, yeah.
So I'm going to cut most of it.
I'm going to cut it down, but I want to take the first part and the last part and put it out.
So, uh... Well, I'll be back over there, uh...
Because Ron will have to run it tonight.
I mean, his people will have to run it.
I see, yeah.
Because you leave at 9.30, I think.
9.30, yeah.
I'm having breakfast with Agnew in the morning at 8.30.
Yeah, okay.
Well, I'll have it ready.
I'll work on it to have it ready in a half hour.
Okay.
All right, fine.
All right, fine.

On June 4, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods talked on the telephone from 8:25 pm to 8:27 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 004-043 of the White House Tapes.

Conversation No. 4-43

Date: June 4, 1971
Time: 8:25 pm - 8:27 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with Rose Mary Woods.

     Woods’ location

     Speech text for forthcoming dedication ceremony, June 5th
          -Prepared text
          -Ronald L. Ziegler's role
          -President's meeting with Spiro T. Agnew, June 5
  • 004-041 8:03 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone from 8:03 pm to 8:05 pm.
  • 004-042 8:05 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 8:05 pm and 8:25 pm.
  • 004-044 8:27 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 8:27 pm and 8:56 pm.
  • 004-045 8:27 PM · 15 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 8:27 pm and 8:56 pm.
  • 004-046 8:56 PM · 6 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman talked on the telephone from 8:56 pm to 9:02 pm.
  • 004-047 9:03 PM · 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger talked on the telephone from 9:03 pm to 9:08 pm.

Conversation 004-043, June 5, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/004-043 (accessed September 18, 2026).