Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 406 › Conversation 406-006

Nixon & Haldeman on Press Relations and Vietnam Peace Settlement

Tuesday, January 30, 1973 · 12:35 PM–12:50 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 18 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob"); [Unknown person(s)]Conversation406-006 on Tape 406StartTuesday, January 30, 1973 at 12:35 PMEndTuesday, January 30, 1973 at 12:50 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 406-006 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and H. R. Haldeman met to discuss strategies for shaping public perception and press relations following the 1972 election and the Vietnam peace settlement. The conversation focused on the placement of favorable articles and editorials, emphasizing the need to utilize external authors to maintain distance from the White House. Additionally, they evaluated potential political maneuvers, including the role of John Connally and the management of ongoing press inquiries regarding the President's schedule and political opponents.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 5 minutes of this recording (about 28% of it) is represented by only a few words. Listen to the audio rather than relying on the text below; a corrected transcript is queued.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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I'll leave it down there.
Don't take any blame on me.

— 1 min 15 s with no transcribed speech —

Oh
I'm waiting for you to read the book.
Let me ask you, suggest one other thing.
You should not overwork.
How about having them?
Let some others fight it separately.
Herman Kahn.
Herman Kahn should fight it.
That you can't, right?
Or you both can't.
You're pissing him straight.
That's right.
Now, with Hank, maybe he has some thought on it.
One thing I want to be very sure of is the client thing.
You know, not a small pool.
Nothing.
We cannot have you running around the world with a person.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Right.
But, you know what I mean, that, uh, and, uh, refusing to admit that maybe they had been in there, refusing even to concede, maybe, maybe, present, you know, some character occurred, you know what I'm saying.
Uh, maybe Bill Hurst will write it, maybe Buchanan can write it for us.
Must not come out of the White House staff.
You know, I didn't want to knock it.
But it is something that one of our staffers could write.
You kind of have that special ability, I think, to get somebody else to pick it up and then pick it up.
What if you just have, you can't even check the seed or the martell or the telegraph?
What if any of the telegraphs had action?
If they didn't, they'd send out those two.
The first two are very good, because they deal with inauguration.
And that should be done very fast, Bob, because you have that kind of thing on those two bits of your own store again.
The first two, I've read them both.
They're excellent.
And if they go to Thursday,
I think another thing is that, you know, I've been trying to make the point, and I will, in the election, that all other people don't act like winners, so it's very important, which is why I had this point again, in campaigns going around, you know, the not-that-church, or maybe the kind of loose-balling that was said by Dolly Parton in this campaign.
And I keep...
all the grating he had to do on people, I think that's very important, very important.
Because in other words, rather than it should be not a bitter anger, but a joyous anger, that's not what it's going to be.
That's the point I would say.
Let's have a little fun with it now.
What do you think about the idea of an article about it?
Take care out in the park tonight.
I still want you.

— 1 min 14 s with no transcribed speech —

That's what's .
So what I'm getting here to is the idea that .
I think he underestimates the weakness of their philosophical difference and also their basic personality.
Coming to the point, though, it gets to the crit iron, it gets to the target, it gets to all the rest.
Whether our decision there probably isn't right.
All the ground is dead.
If you wrap around with the structure and all the rest of it, there's no particular fallout.
What do you feel?
It's not insidious like it is.
I don't make a big thing out of it.
This year I just can't make a big deal out of it.
I don't think they can find it.
And they could argue that they have, you know, they know one's own.
The average democratic party.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And he's off room.
Talk about the other day.
He never does a thing about it.
He's done a lot.
And I think we should play it that way.
I am not going to press him.
I think Colson should.
Colson's going to be on the outside.
We're not going to close him down.
We're not going to do anything.
One of us is going to go.
We're not going to do a show.
He's going to host a meeting.
And I'm not going to raise him.
I'm not going to raise him for this thing.
I don't mean you can't raise him.
It's a little discouraging.
If it is...
but I'm pretty high in this room at all.

NARA Description

On January 30, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 12:35 pm to 12:50 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 406-006 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 406-6

Date: January 30, 1973
Time: 12:35 pm and 12:50 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

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

       President's dictation machine
             -Location
             -Tape
             -Operation
                    -Microphone

       Briefing book

An unknown woman entered at an unknown time after 12:35 pm.

       Briefing book [?]

The unknown woman left at an unknown time before 12:50 pm.

       Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
            -Possible meeting with Haldeman
            -Military planning
                  -Hardline stance
                        -Patrick J. Buchanan
                        -Timing
                  -Herman Kahn

       Press relations
             -Haig
             -Herbert G. Klein
             -Henry A. Kissinger’s trip to Vietnam
                    -Press pool
                          -Wire services
                                             -5-

                  NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                                             Conversation No. 406-56 (cont’d)

                  -Ronald L. Ziegler
                  -Prisoners of War [POWs] interviews
                         -Hospital
            -Possible article
                  -Congress
                  -Peace efforts by President
                  -President’s opponents
                  -Possible author
                         -William Randolph Hearst, Jr.
                         -Buchanan
                  -Distribution
            -Favorable editorial
                  -Buchanan
                  -Lyndon (“Mort”) Allin
                  -London Daily Telegraph
                  -Distribution
                  -1973 Inauguration
            -1972 election
                  -Victory
            -Daniel P. (“Pat”) Moynihan
                  -Campaign statements
            -President’s opponents
            -Possible article on response to Vietnam settlement
                  -Victor Lasky
            -Time
                  -President's meeting with Jerrold L. Schecter
                         -Value
                  -Editors
                         -Philosophy
                         -Raymond K. Price, Jr.
            -Decision by President
                  -Gridiron Club dinners
            -Schecter
            -President's schedule
            -Amount of contact with President

An unknown person entered at an unknown time after 12:35 pm.

      Delivery
                                             -6-

                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                                              Conversation No. 406-56 (cont’d)

The unknown person left at an unknown time before 12:50 pm.

       Press relations
             -Amount of contact with President
                    -Value
                          -Social events
                          -Press conferences
             -Moynihan's plan
             -President’s opponents
             -Democratic partisans
                    -John B. Connally
             -President’s supporters
                    -Cynicism
                    -Optimism

       Connally
            -President’s schedule
            -Plans
            -Assistance to President [?]
            -Charles W. Colson
                   -Pressure
            -Political future
            -Lyndon B. Johnson’s death

       President's schedule
             -Briefing book

Haldeman left at 12:50 pm.

Also recorded on January 30, 1973

  • 036-115 12:06 PM · 23 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 12:06 pm and 1:18 pm.
  • 406-001 12:06 PM · 18 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 12:06 pm and 12:10 pm.
  • 406-002 12:10 PM · 16 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 12:10 pm.
  • 406-003 12:10 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 12:10 pm and 12:25 pm.
  • 406-004 12:25 PM · 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 12:25 pm and 12:35 pm.
  • 406-005 12:25 PM · 36 sec — 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 12:25 pm and 12:35 pm.
  • 406-007 12:50 PM · 13 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 12:50 pm and 1:18 pm.
  • 036-116 1:18 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler talked on the telephone from 1:18 pm to 1:20 pm.

All 51 conversations from January 30, 1973 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 406-006, January 30, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/406-006 (accessed October 27, 2026).