Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 311 › Conversation 311-005

Nixon & Woods on George H.W. Bush and United States Air Force

Friday, December 31, 1971 · 9:13 PM–9:14 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Woods, Rose MaryConversation311-005 on Tape 311 (tape position 00:03:36–00:04:36)StartFriday, December 31, 1971 at 9:13 PMEndFriday, December 31, 1971 at 9:14 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 311-005 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon consulted with his personal secretary, Rose Mary Woods, to initiate a phone call with Ambassador George H.W. Bush. The brief interaction focused on connecting the President with Bush, during which Nixon briefly noted his view of the Ambassador as a potential role model for the United States Air Force. No substantive policy decisions were finalized during this one-minute exchange.

Audio

Download MP3 (part 1) · 112.4 MB ·Download MP3 (part 2) · 61.7 MB

This conversation has not yet been cut into its own clip, so the player above contains the full tape segment shared with neighbouring conversations. It begins about 00:03:36 into the tape and ends around 00:04:36.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

Download transcript (.txt) · JSON data

4:41I'd like to speak to Ambassador George Bush.
4:45He may be a role model for the United States Air Force.
4:49Hello?

NARA Description

On December 31, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 9:13 pm to 9:14 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 311-005 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 311-5

Date: December 31, 1971
Time: 9:13 pm - 9:14 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with Rose Mary Woods.

[See Conversation No. 17-119; one item has been withdrawn from the conversation]

Also recorded on January 1, 1972

  • 017-116 9:08 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Elmer H. Bobst talked on the telephone from 9:08 pm to 9:11 pm.
  • 017-117 9:11 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 9:11 pm and 9:13 pm.
  • 017-118 9:11 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 9:11 pm and 9:13 pm.
  • 311-003 9:11 PM · 15 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 9:11 pm and 9:13 pm.
  • 311-004 9:11 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 an unknown time between 9:11 pm and 9:13 pm.
  • 017-119 9:13 PM · 50 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods talked on the telephone from 9:13 pm to 9:14 pm.
  • 017-120 9:14 PM · 16 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 9:14 pm and 9:22 pm.
  • 311-006 9:14 PM · 27 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 9:14 pm and 9:22 pm.

All 58 conversations from January 1, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 311-005, January 1, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/311-005 (accessed September 18, 2026).