Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 728 › Conversation 728-001

Nixon & Colson on Richard G. Kleindienst and George P. Shultz

Tuesday, June 6, 1972 · 1:42 PM–1:59 PM ET · Oval Office · 18 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Colson, Charles W.Conversation728-001 on Tape 728 (tape position 00:01:40–00:19:52)StartTuesday, June 6, 1972 at 1:42 PMEndTuesday, June 6, 1972 at 1:59 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 728-001 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Charles W. Colson met to discuss strategic administrative and legislative priorities, including the confirmation schedules for Richard Kleindienst and George P. Shultz. The conversation covered personnel matters involving key cabinet officials and the political implications of the President’s recent appearance at a joint session of Congress. They also touched upon national defense policy and administrative planning for upcoming presidential travel.

Audio

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Position in tape: 00:01:40 – 00:19:52

part A, 1:38

728a.mp3
728b.mp3

NARA Description

On June 6, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson met in the Oval Office of the White House from 1:42 pm to 1:59 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 728-001 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 728-1

Date: June 6, 1972
Time: 1:42-1:59 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President talked with Charles W. Colson.

[See Conversation No. 25-14 and 25-15]

[The first portion of this conversation may have been recorded on Conversation No. 25-15;
however this recording is inaudible due to poor volume]

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

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 2m 18s ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

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

     George C. Wallace
         -Health

     Richard G. Kleindienst’s confirmation
          -Timing
          -H.R. Haldeman

     John B. Connally

     George P. Shultz
         -Wilbur D. Mills
         -Connally

     Melvin R. Laird
         -National defense budget
         -Armed services

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

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 1m 11s ]
Show the rest of the log (34 more lines)
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3

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    The President's schedule
         -Camp David
              -Henry A. Kissinger
                     -Japan trip

    Kleindienst
         -Confirmation schedule

    Shultz
         -Confirmation

    Congress
        -Impression nationwide
        -Joint session of Congress
              -The President’s speech
              -Public relations

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

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 6m 46s ]

[THIS PORTION OF CONVERSATION IS RECORDED IN CONVERSATION NO. 25-15;
ONE ITEM HAS BEEN WITHDRAWN FROM THIS CONVERSATION]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4

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

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

Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).

By the way, I got it for you next week, yeah?
Yeah.
All right, just one of those things.
Let's try to stop the environment, shall we?
Well, the climbing steps come up tomorrow.
Oh, I know.
I heard it earlier.
Colin said he thought they might do it tomorrow.
Maybe he didn't know.
Oh, I see.
Yeah.
Sure.
That's the building that your accountant has.
You are.
Because George said that before, you know.
That was because of his comments that were going.
Oh, I don't care.
I just, that's what I'm trying to say.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sure.
Yeah.
I saw that.
Well, I think, actually, Bell not being a political capital officer, basically, he does it on that basis in national defense.
It's not too bad, actually.
I don't think he'd be carried back or all these kind of things, but he'd stand up for strong national defense.
Oh!
What was that?
Well, they certainly must be.
They are really the way I call this.
It's the rule in the iron services, you know.
Yeah.
I think, uh...

— 1 min 15 s with no transcribed speech —

I can't take it for a day or two to see if we can get any things lined up on the trip to Japan.
But you don't figure the client is probably going to need the program next week?
Yeah, yeah.
I see.
Well, it'll be, uh, well, I just, uh, I don't know.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, I would think it would be, yeah.
Well, he did it a lot of the time, so it's unbelievable.
I just don't think they could possibly, possibly not be getting a bad impression of the country, you know.
I noticed one of the news magazines picked up the fact that there are so few of them who came to the joint session.
Well, that doesn't count that many.
For sure.
Yeah.
Okay.
And they'll all be getting on those.

— 8 min 15 s with no transcribed speech —

Go through these now, sir.
All right.

Also recorded on June 6, 1972

  • 025-015 1:42 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson talked on the telephone from 1:42 pm to 1:57 pm.
  • 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.
  • 025-017 2:01 PM · 2 min — unknown person(s) talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 2:01 pm and 2:05 pm.
  • 728-002 2:01 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 2:01 pm and 2:04 pm.
  • 728-003 2:01 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 2:01 pm and 2:04 pm.
  • 728-004 2:01 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 2:01 pm and 2:04 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 · 53 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at 2:17 pm.

All 47 conversations from June 6, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 728-001, 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/728-001 (accessed November 14, 2026).