← 306-013306-015 →

Conversation 306-014

TapeTape 306StartMonday, November 29, 1971 at 5:39 PMEndMonday, November 29, 1971 at 6:14 PMTape start time02:27:13Tape end time02:51:12ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob")Recording deviceOld Executive Office Building
AI Summary

President Nixon and H. R. Haldeman met to coordinate upcoming scheduling, personnel matters, and political strategy. Key topics included the potential appointment of Cornelius V. Whitney as Ambassador to Spain—specifically the decision to withdraw his nomination due to concerns over campaign financing—and the confirmation process for Earl L. Butz as Secretary of Agriculture. They also discussed legislative strategy regarding a potential congressional special session and the President’s plan to shift toward more informal Q&A style appearances to better communicate his policies to the public.

Cornelius V. WhitneyCampaign financeEarl L. ButzSenate confirmationState of the UnionPresidential communications
AudioNARA Description

On November 29, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 5:39 pm and 6:14 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 306-014 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 306-14

Date: November 29, 1971
Time: Unknown after 5:39 pm until 6:14 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President met with H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman.

     The aged
          -Legislation

     Richard A. Moore [?]

     Charles W. Colson

     John D. Ehrlichman

The President talked with Julie Nixon Eisenhower between 5:43 pm and 5:44 pm.

[Conversation No. 306-14A]

*****************************************************************

[Previous PRMPA Personal Returnable (G) withdrawal reviewed under deed of gift 09/24/2019.
22s segment cleared for release. 3s remain closed as 306-014-w001.]
[Personal Returnable]
[306-014-w001]
[Duration: 22s]

[See Conversation No. 015-167]

*****************************************************************

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[Personal Returnable]
[306-014-w001]
[Duration: 3s]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

*****************************************************************

[End of telephone conversation]

*****************************************************************

     Colson
          -Julie Eisenhower
          -William P. Rogers

The President talked with the White House operator at 5:45 pm.

[Conversation No. 306-14B]

[See Conversation No. 15-168]

[End of telephone conversation]

     Clark MacGregor
          -Schedule
               -New York
                    -Introduction of George H.W. Bush

The President talked with the White House operator at an unknown time between 5:45 pm and
5:47 pm.

[Conversation No. 306-14C]

[See Conversation No. 15-169]

[End of telephone conversation]
*****************************************************************

[Previous PRMPA Personal Returnable (G) withdrawal reviewed under deed of gift 09/24/2019.
Segment cleared for release.]
[Personal Returnable]
[306-014-w002]

     The President’s health
          -Cough
          -Key Biscayne
               -Weather
               -Air conditioning

*****************************************************************

The President talked with William E. Timmons between 5:47 pm and 5:50 pm.

[Conversation No. 306-14D]

[See Conversation No. 15-170]

[End of telephone conversation]

     The President's schedule
          -Congress
                -Possible call back by the President
                      -Florida
                      -New York
          -Florida
                -Edward R.G. Heath
                -Christmas

     Thelma C. (“Pat”) Nixon's schedule
          -Forthcoming trip to Africa
                -Reception for accompanying staff
                     -New Year's Eve
                          -Parties
                     -Value
                     -Return from trip
                          -Congress schedule
                                 -State of the Union address

     The President's schedule
          -State of the Union speech
          -Inaugural anniversary
          -Foreign visitors
                -[Emilio Colombo?]
                      -Timing of visit
                            -State of the Union address
                -Henry A. Kissinger

The President talked with Kissinger at an unknown time between 5:50 pm and 6:00 pm.

[Conversation No. 306-14E]

          -Unknown meeting
          -The President's current meeting with Haldeman

[End of telephone conversation]

     Kissinger’s schedule

     The President's schedule
          -Christmas tree lighting

     Julie Nixon Eisenhower's schedule
           -Christmas television special

*****************************************************************

[Previous PRMPA Personal Returnable (G) withdrawal reviewed under deed of gift 09/24/2019.
Segment cleared for release.]
[Personal Returnable]
[306-014-005]
[Duration: 25s]

     Julie Nixon Eisenhower's schedule
           -Christmas television special
                -Press

     Tricia Nixon Cox’s wedding

     Julie Nixon Eisenhower's schedule

*****************************************************************

     Government workers' pay raise
         -Credit for administration

     The President's schedule
          -Florida
                -George P. Shultz
          -Spanish Ambassador

     US Ambassador to Spain
         -Cornelius V. (“Sonny”) Whitney
              -Visit to Spain
                       -Children
                 -Prince Juan Carlos
                 -Gregorio Lopez Bravo de Costro
                 -Age
                       -Gen. Francisco Franco
                 -Rogers and Kissinger
     Campaign financing
         -Whitney
         -Campaign contribution
              -John N. Mitchell and Lee R. Nunn
              -Return to Whitney

Kissinger entered at 6:00 pm.

     Kissinger's schedule
          -Meeting with Jerrold L. Schecter et al.
                -Report to Congress on US foreign policy
                -The President's policies
                      -Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR]
                           -The President's previous press conference
                      -People's Republic of China [PRC]
                -Reporters' response to answers from Kissinger
                -Information from State Department
                -PRC
                      -Rogers
                -PRC, USSR and Vietnam
                      -The President's policies
                -Article

     The President's schedule
          -Possible interview with Time
               -Photograph

Kissinger left at 6:04 pm.

                 -Drawing
                      -Tie-in of key issues

     Campaign financing
         -Whitney
              -Campaign contribution
                    -Return of money
                    -Probable revelation
              -Senate confirmation
                    -Spain’s position
                    -Mitchell
         -Candidates

*****************************************************************
[Previous archivists categorized this section as unintelligible. It has been rereviewed and
released 09/24/2019.]
[Unintelligible]
[306-014-w012]
[Duration: 4s]
     Campaign financing
         -Candidates
              -Alternates

*****************************************************************

     Earl L. Butz
           -Confirmation as Secretary of Agriculture
                -The President's work
                -Check on background
                     -Carl T. Curtis
                     -Milton R. Young
                -John C. Whitaker's work
                -MacGregor

     Campaign financing
         -Whitney
              -Campaign contribution
                    -Return of money
              -Senate confirmation
                    -Mitchell's views
                    -Spain’s position
                    -Mitchell's view
                    -Spain’s position
                    -Mitchell’s view
                         -Return of money
                    -Spain’s position
              -Children
              -Age
              -Senate confirmation
                    -Butz example

     Senate
          -Special session
               -Rules
                     -Calendar year

An unknown man [US Secret Service agent] and Manolo Sanchez entered at an unknown time
after 6:04 pm.

*****************************************************************
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 11
Previous archivists categorized this section as a PRMPA National Security (B) withdrawal. With
new guidance it is now categorized as a PRMPA Federal Statute (A). It has been rereviewed and
closed under PRMPA 11/15/2022.]
[Federal Statute]
[306-014-w011]

The unknown man [US Secret Service agent] and Manolo Sanchez left at an unknown time
before 6:14 pm.

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 11

*****************************************************************

     Senate
          -Special session
               -Scheduling
                     -Effect
                           -Christmas
                           -New Year’s
                     -The President’s schedule
                     -Retiring Congressmen
               -House Resolution [HR] 1

     The President's schedule
          -Speeches
               -Value
               -Chicago
               -Elderly issue
          -TV appearances
               -Question and answer sessions
               -Major announcements

Haldeman left at 6:14 pm.
Transcript (AI-Generated)

This transcript was generated automatically by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite this transcript as authoritative. Consult the Finding Aid above for verified information.

What about dinner?
What time do you want to have it?
Do you want to have it a little early?
Oh, fine.
Okay.
He may be involved in this one, but they already introduced him.
Operator, I called McGregor.
He's in the yard.
He's getting tailwinds from me.
Yeah, it's one of those things.
The weather is so... You don't get a cold down there because you get...
What you do is you get outside in the rain, but you don't get outside in the rain.
I mean, you don't.
But it's the weather.
It's just not...
I mean, the weather is the same outside.
In fact, it's colder outside.
Yeah.
The air conditioning.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I know.
With regard to that, did some of our boys go forward with trying to get reduced to a Senate bill or something?
... ... ... ...
How sick is he?
Yeah, the beach where we have to line up some of our troops to stand up for the greater position.
Did they call?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Just so we have a few.
Five and a half.
Four, four, four.
We're getting down.
They're driving around.
You know, just stay there on that.
What's the line?
Do I go to the house now?
That may possibly be it.
They were waiting on it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
What do you mean?
Sure, that's right.
Okay.
Let's see.
Break around.
I wish you had gone.
What do you mean?
It's all back.
Oh, I think we can stay.
Stay on.
What do you mean?
I love their, their equivalent, you know.
I didn't teach them.
.
.
.
In the morning of the 1st, we probably have to come up the very 1st.
And especially if you wanted to have a reception for her, travel and party with each other through.
This is the very 1st that you can hear, so you can have a reception, an early reception.
Some people would be going to the party in the 1st, but they don't.
You can have a man, 5 or 6 or something, if you don't want them for very long anyhow.
I think what you might want to do is wait and at some point after she gets back for instance if that week
If Congress doesn't go on 17th, they won't come back until the 17th, presumably.
Therefore, your State of the Union would not be 13th as we thought, rather than 20th.
That means you've got that week after she gets back.
One evening that week, you might want to have a reception for the people who are with her.
That's your, your inaugural anniversary.
I need to start a thing that I already know at the end of the third year.
I need to know.
We're trying to kind of rethink that concept.
There's no damn preparation for the Italian.
They didn't come in the 21st.
21st.
Well, that's what you put in then because to get it past the state of the union, it's going to be a little bit later when the federation is going to do it.
It's a little too far in terms of what we can't really get out.
What I meant is
You get two rides, but you don't get much anyway.
Yes, we're discussing it.
Are you still in your meeting?
Yeah?
No, no, no, go ahead and finish.
I know that we've just been talking.
Okay.
No, no, no, go on.
Take it.
Don't hurry on it.
We'll do it tomorrow.
Okay.
Bye.
Here, I'll just do it from here.
I was just getting this nice toy at the moment.
She's got her arms flying.
And it isn't going to make a hell of a lot of difference that we get the credit for it, Bob, with the government workers.
They're such a sod, come on, anyway, that they get the money that's all.
He understood that.
It's kind of a good point.
The feeling about that restaurant.
This weekend we have seven people.
That's a confession all for anyone.
So that's great.
Back up.
I'll get that out of the way.
Yes, ma'am.
Mr. Tracey, the Spanish ambassador is staying with me.
Oh, what's going on?
We've got a... What's going on?
The Spanish don't want you.
Well, don't fit me.
Send him with me.
That's good.
Not much anyway.
Stupid guy.
Visited Spain in September.
Entered his children to Spanish schools and ran around telling everybody he was going to be the next U.S. ambassador.
Before we had gotten an act along with all that stuff.
The one Carl spoke has probably been defending many of those objectives.
Based on his age, he's a little odd to consider a friend of his age.
And he's likely a stranger.
He seems to have been part of the Spanish war on the Cape Cod.
His history of both strongly recommend that he's not one of them.
I agree.
Mitchell and or Nunn made a deal with that.
Well, give it back.
Give it back.
I think that's what we got.
What's that?
I just wanted to check whether there was a... No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
I said, you know, we wanted to make it as near as possible.
We thought it was spectacular last year, the thing that I'm trying to get across there.
It's that this thing was a design that the shoe came into our hands.
And...
I keep telling him, I said, look, I didn't know the president when I came in.
All of these ideas that you read in his first press conference, you'll see what we've done in Soviet politics is exactly what he said in his first press conference.
He said, I said,
What are they doing?
They just quit writing?
They don't take note of that sort of thing?
Right.
But they've got to save their own patients.
They may be getting out of the state.
Is he, did they try to pull the idea that the Rockers changed track?
I'm not ahead of everybody on China, all of them.
I said, take the people from China, the Soviet Union, Vietnam.
He has all the rules.
He doesn't bother about every little detail.
And, um...
I'll give them an interview, but I'm not going to post it.
I'm not going to post it.
Let's just understand.
They just understand.
There's no bulletin for fiction.
They screw me every time, on every time there's a case.
Horrible.
They'll probably do it wrong.
I bet they do it rather than photograph.
I would think they would.
Because, you know, the thing that ties, they work in China and some of the other stuff.
They've got
Well, we'll just tell Whitney we've got to get another $250 back to him.
Now, the other problem is that if he goes up, he'd have to reveal his financial support, WGF, and why, or reveal it.
That would be a mess, too.
The $250 could go back.
I don't want the money.
Just say that if you were the present temper, put it on the table.
The present temper and so forth, we cannot get it confirmed.
We've managed that already.
We regret it very much.
I'd say we just don't want him to be embarrassed.
There's no way we can get him to confirm it.
Mitchell's got to understand that, too.
The job can't be discovered on that.
We're going to have a hell of a time getting through this.
But don't put us in Courier State Department.
Let's pick another man.
Have they got any other candidates?
Yes.
Have you had anybody else?
I've forgotten.
For me, most people want to run off the bus right now.
But I don't.
I just feel like you can't do it.
Well, you can do it.
There was some space there that I found.
They did not check it.
I'm not surprised.
I just thought I'd seen him.
He was young.
He was young.
When they brought his name in, Bob, they said they would all shake that memory off to the old guy.
And they gave him a number after a bunch of other things.
I just think it was done.
I think it was done.
And you can't blame John.
What if the boy told you that he did have responsibility for that?
John just took big figures and was the best man.
I put the baby
No, I don't think so.
I'm just not going to have a final.
That's all there is to it.
You never forget a truth.
The Spanish are ready to tell about it.
Mitchell's view is to return his contribution and then go ahead with the appointment.
Oh, no.
It's just they've hit the words of all possible.
That gets rid of the question on the economy and on the future.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
Because the Spanish government may refuse the aggregate loan.
Don't do it.
Don't.
I don't know how he's that old.
I don't know how he has kids.
I don't know how he's able to find people's homes.
It's like the basis of the Senate.
You don't hear the Senate screwing around with funds.
We just can't get it confirmed.
Yeah.
That's... That's how we find it out.
On this special session, does it have to be in the same calendar year?
It could be.
If they decide to get out on the 17th, you can bring it back on the 2nd.
But that would be another way to
Jump!
Jump!
So what does that mean?
All you're doing legally then is wanting to come back early for the detectives.
I don't know.
It's the same conversation.
Yeah.
It's the same conversation as the detectives.
I don't like to know now, but they... That's right.
You're right.
Second session.
You're exactly right.
Now, what I meant is you bring them back.
But then they have to adjourn that.
Yeah.
But as a practical matter, it was... Yeah.
Right.
Sure.
That went back to that.
Yeah.
There's a very great difference, you see.
We don't have to break it back for a new session, because everything dies.
Yeah.
Oh yeah, I know.
Session to session, in the same conference, it doesn't die, does it?
It dies at the end of the conference.
Certainly doesn't die.
All they're doing is the journey.
No way.
If they adjourn and suddenly die,
I think we've got a good plan.
So that you can get all of our voice totally out of the idea.
I don't have more speeches.
I don't really feel about that word anymore.
I mean, we had a meeting.
What else is that?
Running Chicago is not doing the old folks is not.
It really isn't.
It's not ever going to be.
It's not the city of Chicago.
It's the state of Chicago.
You know, we could...
I think what we've got to do is, now all my parents are in Kelvin, and I work on them, you know.
And I was in Kelvin, and I was in those times, and I was in those times.
So, uh, Q and A, don't you agree?
Yep.
And Laura, Peter, and I, that's the thing.
All right.
← 306-013306-015 →