Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 37 › Conversation 037-055

Nixon phone call with Rogers on State Department and Official Visits

Monday, March 5, 1973 · 3:28 PM–3:32 PM ET · White House Telephone · 4 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Rogers, William P.Conversation037-055 on Tape 37StartMonday, March 5, 1973 at 3:28 PMEndMonday, March 5, 1973 at 3:32 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 037-055 ↗ · National Archives Catalog, NAID 417195251 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Secretary of State William P. Rogers coordinate logistics for the President's upcoming visit to the State Department. They agree that Nixon will unveil a memorial plaque honoring fallen State Department employees rather than delivering a traditional auditorium address, a decision intended to symbolize respect for both civilian and military service. Additionally, they plan an intimate luncheon where Nixon will be accompanied only by Henry Kissinger to foster an informal, positive interaction with staff and counter perceptions of departmental antagonism.

Audio

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NARA Description

On March 5, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon and William P. Rogers talked on the telephone from 3:28 pm to 3:32 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 037-055 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 37-55

Date: March 5, 1973
Time: 3:28 pm-3:32 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with William P. Rogers.

[See Conversation No. 417-7]

       President's visit to State Department
              -Stephen B. Bull
              -Unveiling of plaque
                       -President’s remarks
                       -State Department employees killed in service
                                -Vietnam
                                -Daniel E. Mitrione
                                       -Peru
              -Luncheon
                       -Press coverage
                       -Comparison to Defense Department visit
                       -Henry A. Kissinger
              -Receptive crowd

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Names and numbers are often wrong; speakers are not identified. Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Hello?
Hello?
Bill, how are you?
I, uh, Steve gave me a rundown, and let me say that, uh, with regard to the thing, uh, if provided they, uh,
The TV fellows are looking over.
If that's what you prefer, you think it's the best thing, that's what we'll do, the plaque.
You think the plaque's better than addressing the group.
Of course, if you do the plaque, you can still have a lot of people around.
Oh, yes.
What we would do is we have that whole area filled, so we try to have maybe 1,000 people.
Oh, good, good, good.
And then your point is to unveil the plaque and then to make remarks there.
That really symbolized it better than my just standing up there talking to people in an auditorium.
That's right.
See, what I had in mind, it turned out that we'd been trying to think of an occasion for this unveiling the plaque.
What it is, on the other side, if you remember, the C Street entrance, not the one where you come in normally, but the other one, the main entrance.
There's a big room, a nice room, with all those flags.
Oh, yeah.
I've been in there.
I know.
And on the other side of that lobby, there is a plaque which...
has the names of the men who were killed in action up to 1966.
So what would happen now is this plaque has the names of about 20 men, most of whom were killed in Vietnam.
It has the one that was killed, Metrioni, in Peru, and a couple of others.
And the names of these two men that are coming back this afternoon will be added to the plaque.
So it fits in exactly with your thought about the combination of men, military men and civilians.
And have your research guys send over to our people right away, the people, you know, what the other plaque is.
I will.
So I can get that.
I will.
And sort of suggest the nature and suggest remarks.
I mean, we'll work on remarks.
Now, the other point is that on the dinner, on the luncheon,
whoever you want that's fine and that's about what i did at defense i had about 20 people that's right and we just sat around and talked about things and so they get the feel of everything and
there we could have some still pictures if you well we can have we can have it by all means no i'd have a camera we let them in for defense okay we should i think we should do exactly the same and uh we could be sitting having a little talk so we won't have anything planned we'll just let the conversation take a course and you can do the talking well actually uh we could sort of let things let things develop right as they go so they get a
participation and so forth.
The only person that I would bring from here would be Henry.
I think I should bring him, but I should not bring anybody else.
That's good.
And I will not have any aid or anything like that with me.
I mean, nobody that has to sit.
Fine.
So we'll go down and do the plaque thing.
Also, let the people... One thing that I was...
When I was over at Defense, Elliot was...
of course was new there when i went in i saw the halls were bare and he says he said we people out but we thought that the security thing that should be bearing i said oh no i said so when i left i said get the people out so uh as you've always done let the people be out because i think one thing one thing about this sort of visit is to show that the you know the state department people are not sitting here and antagonism to the president and all that crap you know these people will be just like the people at the fence well that's fine whatever you'd like
You won't have to stay too long.
We'll try to make it move fairly quickly.
I'll be there at 1, and I can stay until 2.30.
That'd be fine.
Thank you, Mr. Ben.

Also recorded on March 5, 1973

  • 417-004 3:25 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 3:25 pm.
  • 417-005 3:25 PM · 56 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:25 pm to 3:26 pm.
  • 037-052 3:26 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 3:26 pm.
  • 037-053 3:26 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull talked on the telephone from 3:26 pm to 3:27 pm.
  • 037-054 3:27 PM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 3:27 pm.
  • 417-006 3:27 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 3:27 pm.
  • 417-007 3:28 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and William P. Rogers met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:28 pm to 3:32 pm.
  • 037-056 3:33 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 3:33 pm.

All 31 conversations from March 5, 1973 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 037-055, March 5, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives (NAID 417195251). Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/037-055 (accessed October 29, 2026).