Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 2 › Conversation 002-012

Nixon phone call with Mahon on Texas drought and Disaster relief

Tuesday, April 20, 1971 · 4:04 PM–4:07 PM ET · White House Telephone · 3 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Mahon, George H.Conversation002-012 on Tape 2 (tape position 00:11:18–00:13:52)StartTuesday, April 20, 1971 at 4:04 PMEndTuesday, April 20, 1971 at 4:07 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 002-012 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon consulted with Congressman George H. Mahon regarding an upcoming visit by Secretary of Agriculture Clifford Hardin and General George A. Lincoln to evaluate the drought conditions in Texas. While the administration aimed to provide assistance through loans, grain, and feed, Nixon explicitly rejected declaring the region a major disaster to avoid setting a broad federal precedent. Mahon expressed his support for this approach, agreeing that federal over-commitment should be avoided while maintaining necessary support for the cattle market.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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· Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).
Hello.
Yes, I have Congressman George Mahon.
Yeah.
Hello.
Hi, George.
How are you?
Fine.
Fine.
I don't want to bother you.
I'm sitting here talking to Cliff Harden and Abe Lincoln.
They're going down tomorrow to your country.
Yeah.
And they've got all the authority.
They're going over now to talk to John Connolly to see what further thing he has to report.
They told me they'd invited you.
You couldn't go.
But I want you to know they're going to look at the thing, and anything the law allows, we're going to do.
I think, I appreciate your call, Mr. President.
We are so involved that I didn't plan to go down.
Right.
In particular since they don't feel it necessary to stop in my area at Lubbock, and I don't either.
But they're not going to stop at Lubbock, huh?
No, no, they're going to stop at Amarillo.
Amarillo, I see.
And I saw prices going with them, which I think is very good.
Prices, yeah, that's the other, fine.
And here is the thing.
I don't think we ought to let my Texas friends stampede us on these matters.
We have not had rain for a long time, but we've had a pretty general rain, and this may be the beginning of more rain.
And I don't want to be talking against doing anything properly.
Well, what we're not doing here, we cannot declare it a disaster area.
declared a major disaster here, that's just going a little too far.
Well, what will happen then, we'll have to declare Southern California, Florida, and perhaps Arizona.
And you see, and then you're triggering, of course, unemployment insurance and a lot of other things that are very, very serious.
Well, I think that, I believe that Cliff and Abe ought to be interested and show concern and all that, but not over-commit us because...
They're going to commit for everything short of a major disaster.
I think that's fine.
In other words, loans and grain and all that sort of thing.
Hay to the extent we can find it.
There's no hay in the country, though, I understand.
That's a real problem.
But if we have a little more rain, what we haven't wanted to do is see the cattle market break.
And this drought is going to help postpone any break in the cattle market.
And some feed can be found.
Not enough, I'm sure.
Mr. President, I appreciate your call, man.
I'm grateful that you're here.
They say, incidentally, they could stop at Lubbock if you want them to.
I just don't think it's necessary.
It would be very inconvenient for me to try to go when I want them to go.
All right, swell.
Well, anyway, I just wanted you to know we were thinking about you.
You're always most kind.
All right, thank you.
Goodbye.

NARA Description

On April 20, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and George H. Mahon talked on the telephone from 4:04 pm to 4:07 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 002-012 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 2-12

Date: April 20, 1971
Time: 4:04 pm - 4:07 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with George H. Mahon.

[See Conversation No. 483-17F]

     Texas drought
          -Trip by Clifford M. Hardin and Gen. George A. Lincoln
                -John B. Connally
                -Itinerary
                      -Locations
                -Robert D. Price
          -Weather
          -Disaster declaration
                -Impact
          -Government aid
                -Loans
                -Grain
                -Hay
          -Cattle market
          -Lubbock, Texas

Also recorded on April 20, 1971

  • 002-007 3:35 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 3:35 pm and 3:47 pm.
  • 483-017 3:35 PM · 33 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Clifford M. Hardin, Gen. George A. Lincoln, Peter M. Flanigan, White House photographer, White House operator, John B. Connally, James D. ("Don") Hughes, George H. Mahon, and Clark MacGregor met in the Oval Office of the White House from 3:35 pm to 4:10 pm.
  • 002-008 3:47 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John B. Connally talked on the telephone from 3:47 pm to 3:48 pm.
  • 002-009 3:48 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 3:48 pm and 3:54 pm.
  • 002-010 3:54 PM · 47 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and James D. ("Don") Hughes talked on the telephone from 3:54 pm to 3:55 pm.
  • 002-011 3:55 PM · 3 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 3:55 pm and 4:04 pm.
  • 483-018 4:10 PM · 9 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Rose Mary Woods, Ronald L. Ziegler, Fred Maroon, Manolo Sanchez, unknown person(s), and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:10 pm to 4:19 pm.
  • 483-019 4:20 PM · 51 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, John N. Mitchell, John W. Dean, III, White House photographer, Ronald L. Ziegler, unknown person(s), White House operator, and Sue Morrison met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:20 pm to 5:14 pm.

All 51 conversations from April 20, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 002-012, April 20, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/002-012 (accessed October 3, 2026).