Nixon White House Tapes ›Tape 728 › Conversation 728-009

Nixon, Woods & Butterfield on Camp David and Barry M. Goldwater

Tuesday, June 6, 1972 · 4:01 PM–4:03 PM ET · Oval Office

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Woods, Rose Mary;  Butterfield, Alexander P.Conversation728-009 onTape 728 (tape position 02:19:19–02:23:15)StartTuesday, June 6, 1972 at 4:01 PMEndTuesday, June 6, 1972 at 4:03 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 728-009 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with Rose Mary Woods to handle administrative tasks, including signing documents and discussing weather conditions at Camp David. Alexander P. Butterfield briefly joined the session to consult on the President's upcoming schedule, specifically regarding Barry M. Goldwater. The conversation also touched upon political messaging regarding nuclear defense capabilities and congressional resistance to military building programs.

Audio

Download MP3 (part 1) · 167.3 MB ·Download MP3 (part 2) · 35.6 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 02:19:19 into the tape and ends around 02:23:15.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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 · Timestamps are positions within the full tape recording.

2:19:22That's because of our... Jackson's arguing about overkill capability and all this.
2:19:28We're just...
2:19:34And then also the argument starting to emerge, I assume because of some of the background, because it didn't seem to come out at the beginning, but it's coming out now pretty clearly, that the question of us giving up anything or next to giving up anything is ridiculous, that we weren't on any building program anyway.
2:19:49And we couldn't get one.
2:19:52Our Congress wouldn't give us one.
2:19:54You got to get that in.
2:19:55Yeah.
2:21:00All right.
2:21:52And I'm cleared out.
2:21:53I've all got a big, big line of land up there, so... Oh, thank you.
2:21:54Thank you very much.
2:21:55Where are you going next?
2:21:56Maybe that's what you're writing.
2:21:56Yeah.
2:21:57I didn't realize that.
2:21:57I was sitting there reading a letter from a paying friend.
2:22:35Huh?
2:22:35I think this is.
2:22:35No, I can't do that.
2:22:36I can't do both.
2:22:36Well, that was good.

NARA Description

On June 6, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, Rose Mary Woods, and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:01 pm to 4:03 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 728-009 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 728-9

Date: June 6, 1972
Time: 4:01-4:03 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Rose Mary Woods.

     Items for the President’s signature

     Weather
         -Camp David

Alexander P. Butterfield entered at 4:02 pm.

     The President's schedule
          -Barry M. Goldwater

Woods and Butterfield left at 4:03 pm.

Also recorded on June 6, 1972

  • 025-016 2:01 PM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 2:01 pm and 2:05 pm.
  • 728-005 2:04 PM · 13 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. met in the Oval Office of the White House from 2:04 pm to 2:17 pm.
  • 728-006 2:17 PM · 50 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at 2:17 pm.
  • 728-007 2:17 PM · 31 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Rose Mary Woods, and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 2:17 pm and 2:50 pm.
  • 728-008 2:50 PM · 1 hr 9 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, unknown person(s), and Henry A. Kissinger met in the Oval Office of the White House from 2:50 pm to 4:01 pm.
  • 728-010 4:03 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 4:03 pm and 4:07 pm.
  • 193-001 5:00 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at an unknown time between 5:00 pm and 8:18 pm.
  • 193-002 5:00 PM · 14 min — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at an unknown time between 5:00 pm and 8:18 pm.

All 40 conversations from June 6, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 728-009, June 6, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/728-009 (accessed September 18, 2026).