Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 34 › Conversation 034-038
Nixon phone call with Boyd on Robert J. Dole and RNC Chairman
Monday, December 11, 1972 · 11:42 AM–11:48 AM ET · White House Telephone · 6 min
AI Summary
President Nixon and McDill "Huck" Boyd discussed the planned resignation of Robert J. Dole as Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman and his replacement by George H.W. Bush. Nixon explained that the transition was a strategic move to allow Dole to focus on his Senate responsibilities and future political battles. The conversation also covered the President's vision for the "New Majority," emphasizing the need for early candidate selection and the recruitment of diverse, high-quality candidates to ensure future electoral success.
- Robert J. Dole
- RNC Chairman
- George H.W. Bush
- New Majority
- Candidate Recruitment
- Republican Party Strategy
Audio
Transcript (AI-generated)
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Hello?
Hello?
Just a moment, sir.
I have Mr. Huck.
Yeah.
I'm going to return you a call.
You are.
Hello?
Hello.
Hello, Huck.
How are you?
Fine.
Fine.
Fine.
How are things in Kansas?
Well, it's cold right now, but otherwise beautiful.
Cold and beautiful, and I hope everybody's making a little money.
I think they are.
It's been the finest year we've ever had in our area.
Christmas sales are good, and how's the advertising?
Well, it shouldn't be any better.
That's what counts.
I just had a good long talk with our mutual friend Bob, and he's just out now talking to the White House press, and I wanted you to know before he did that he's come in and recommended after talking to you and leaders around the country that with his campaign coming up and everything that he feels that
First, his own interests require him not to stay on as chairman, but mainly that we need the full-time chairman now that we've got the presidential thing out.
And that most everybody thinks Bush should be the man if we can get him to do it.
So Bob and I got Bush on the phone, continued the arm twisting that he had begun earlier and Bush has agreed.
So he will announce that Bush will accept as of the inauguration.
Bush of course will stay on through the session.
So I was thinking that in Kansas if you could
put that light on, because this is all the truth.
As a matter of fact, Bob came to me right after the Republican Convention and said that he said, now look, this is a good time for me to resign.
He's got to run and so forth.
I said, no, if we want to change, I want you to stay on through the election.
So it's not no surprise.
It's just a question of having it done the right way.
And it was my thought the best way was to have Bob make the recommendation, which he's now done.
I have accepted it.
I'm going to support
Bush, and he'll go in with flying colors, and Bob will continue to be a strong, close advisor and hard fighter, and we trust the reelected senator.
Did that sound all right to you?
Yes, it seemed to me that it was, you know, the speculation that always arises on things of this sort.
I didn't want it to reach a point where
it would be, you know, any difficulty for Bob.
Yeah, the way they speculate, they got the feeling that they're hauling Bob up and they're going to cut his head off for a lot.
They didn't.
I mean, after all, he was campaigning all over the country, traveled half a million miles, worked his tail off.
The main thing we're going after now is candidates, so I'll tell you that's the real answer.
I looked at the average ages of our candidates as compared with theirs in the close districts.
I looked at the general backgrounds and so forth, and I'd vote for any one of ours were one of theirs, but frankly they beat us with sometimes in the close races that your candidates were a little better.
Yes, I'm afraid they did.
And it's up for you fellows in the party organization.
I trust the next national committee
Huck, if you just step up there and say, now look here, each of us in our own states has got to pick the candidates, pick them early, pick them before the primary, and not tear ourselves to pieces, and then we can win some of these races.
I mean, the light is to us.
You're certainly putting it into better words than I can, exactly how I feel.
I believe that for years.
It's the way I got into the Congress.
They had a little committee out there, and they were going to have a terrible primary fight, and a few fellows from the district got together, picked me in 46.
I ran for the House, won.
From there on, that's the way it works.
And that's what we ought to do nationally, is that people have got to get behind the best man and whoever he is.
In some districts, it'll be an Italian, and in some districts, it'll be a bull.
In some districts, it'll be a wasp and, you know.
Yeah, we tried awfully hard to get Art Letcher back and run our second district out here, because to the one in that seat...
Marvelous fellow.
...it just couldn't...
Well, maybe if this next year, if he wants to go, I'll give him a push.
I was thinking about it from the standpoint that if he had a little house out there in a district someplace, he could be anywhere then and still be a resident.
Right, right, right.
That's where he graduated from.
Almost a mailbox.
You know, that's right.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, that's good.
I have the feeling that he'd be a great man for us.
Art Fletcher?
Oh, he's a great spokesman, strong man, and marvelous candidate.
He almost won as lieutenant governor of Washington.
I know, I know.
We could have done that for him, and we're going to have to do more of that.
I think you're correct.
All over.
I mean, that's what the new majority is all about.
I mean, with only 25% of the people, according to Gallup, admitting that they're Republicans today,
You can't get 61 percent of the vote without getting some people that aren't Republicans.
That's absolutely right.
Not that we don't want some of those Republicans, too, in a state like Kansas.
Yes, but we still do need to do a better job on that very elemental basis.
You don't know how much I appreciate your call.
I just feel that Bob does need to get out of this, you know, in the best way possible.
That's right.
And he's a great guy.
He's been a marvelous spokesman.
And as a matter of fact, he can do us more good in the Senate now that he's out because his tongue is sharp.
And he'll cut that Teddy Kennedy to pieces.
Yes, he will.
But there's a lot of difference in doing it as a nurse.
That's right.
Because everything you do is tagged on.
That's right.
That's right.
Oh, boy, he's going to love it, too.
Yes, I think he will.
He loves a good fight.
Right, right.
Well, we'll take good care of him, and we do appreciate your help, and we'll see you on the 19th.
All right, and I appreciate it ever so much.
Bye-bye.
Thank you very much.
NARA Description
On December 11, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and McDill ("Huck") Boyd talked on the telephone from 11:42 am to 11:48 am. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 034-038 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 34-38
Date: December 11, 1972
Time: 11:42 am - 11:48 am
Location: White House Telephone
The President talked with McDill (“Huck”) Boyd.
[See Conversation No. 819-2F]
Kansas
-Weather
-Local economy
-Sales and advertising
********************************************************************
[Begin segment reviewed under deed of gift]
Robert J. Dole
-Resignation as Republican National Committee [RNC] Chairman
-George H. W. Bush
-Announcement
-Timing
-Boyd’s view
-Concern over speculation
-Dole’s 1972 campaign efforts
Republican Party
-The President’s goals
-New candidates
-Age
-Backgrounds
-Quality
-Boyd’s role
-Candidate selection
-Pre-primary
-Avoidance of primary fights
-The President’s 1946 campaign
-Kansas second district
-35-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Conversation No. 34-38 (cont’d)
-Arthur A. Fletcher
-New Majority
-Appeal to non-Republicans
New Majority
Dole
-Resignation as RNC Chairman
-Handling
-Senate role
-Edward M. Kennedy
[End segment reviewed under deed of gift]
********************************************************************
The President’s appreciation for Boyd’s support
The President’s schedule
-December 19, 1972 receptionAlso recorded on December 11, 1972
- 034-034 10:18 AM · 14 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 10:18 am and 11:07 am.
- 819-002 10:18 AM · 3 hr 51 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Robert J. Dole, White House operator, Ronald L. Ziegler, George H. W. Bush, Alexander P. Butterfield, McDill ("Huck") Boyd, John B. Connally, John D. Ehrlichman, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 10:18 am and 2:25 pm.
- 034-035 11:08 AM · 7 min — H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, George H. W. Bush, and President Richard M. Nixon talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 11:08 am and 11:15 am.
- 034-036 11:25 AM · 28 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 11:25 am.
- 034-037 11:25 AM · 17 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 11:25 am and 11:42 am.
- 034-039 11:55 AM · 15 sec — H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 11:55 am and 12:14 pm.
- 034-040 11:55 AM · 9 min — H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman and John B. Connally talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 11:55 am and 12:14 pm.
- 819-003 2:25 PM · 15 sec — United States Secret Service agents met in the Oval Office of the White House on an unknown date, sometime between 2:25 pm on December 11, 1972 and 9:57 am on December 12, 1972.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 034-038, December 11, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/034-038 (accessed September 20, 2026).