Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 2 › Conversation 002-028

Nixon phone call with Haldeman on White House Conferences and Youth Activism

Thursday, April 22, 1971 · 6:47 PM–6:56 PM ET · White House Telephone · 8 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob")Conversation002-028 on Tape 2 (tape position 00:45:24–00:52:57)StartThursday, April 22, 1971 at 6:47 PMEndThursday, April 22, 1971 at 6:56 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 002-028 ↗ · National Archives Catalog, NAID 417188023 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and H.R. Haldeman discuss the political liability of White House-sponsored youth conferences, which they agree have been infiltrated by radical, anti-capitalist activists. The President expresses frustration with Stephen Hess's management of these events and concludes that future conferences, such as those for the elderly, should be held outside of Washington, D.C., to limit media exposure and ensure better administrative control. Additionally, they assess the progress of upcoming anti-war protests, aiming to highlight low attendance numbers to discredit the organizers and manage the optics of the demonstrations.

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NARA Description

On April 22, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone from 6:47 pm to 6:56 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 002-028 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 2-28

Date: April 22, 1971
Time: 6:47 pm - 6:56 pm
Location: White House Telephone

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

     Youth conference
         -President's conversation with unnamed Congressman
         -Stephen Hess
         -Robert H. Finch
         -Donald Rumsfeld
         -Actions

            -Texas A & M
            -Harvard University, Yale University, Stanford University
            -Location
                 -Estes Park
                 -Washington, DC

     White House conferences and commissions
          -Radicals
          -Hess
          -Anthony J. Russo, Jr.
          -Kenneth R. Cole, Jr.
          -Health, Education and Welfare [HEW]
          -Old folks
          -Locations
                -Estes Park, Chicago, St. Petersburg, Florida, Miami
          -Youth
          -William E. Brock, III
          -Edward R.F. Cox

[A transcript of the following portion of this conversation was prepared under court order from
December 1978 through March 1979 for Special Access 8, Ronald V. Dellums, et al. v. James M.
Powell, et al., No. 71-2271. The National Archives and Records Administration produced this
transcript. The National Archives does not guarantee its accuracy.]

[End of transcript]

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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Hello.
I wonder if you've been in touch with that youth conference out there.
I talked to a congressman who'd been out there, and I think it was Tlockett, and I think our faith in Steve Hess and Finch and Rumsfeld may have been misplaced.
He said it was about 90% socialist, left-wing, eastern liberals,
And he said there were a few of our people there, but they weren't.
His percentages are wrong, but his... Yeah, but he said that they adopted a resolution to abolish the capitalist system, among other things, but...
I don't think that's right.
No, he is right on that, because I saw it.
He showed it to me.
They had one on the war, but... Yeah, no, no, on the war, but also abolishing the capitalist system in the United States, they had that one, too.
But the point is that his...
Do we have anybody out there that's trying to...
I mean, did we have anybody to organize our people?
Did we have people from Texas A&M there, for example?
No.
Huh?
I'm sure there was somebody, but the people that are there were put together...
Mainly Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and all that?
No, no, they're all over.
A little bit of everything, but they're inevitably activist types.
I see.
I guess there wasn't much we could do about it, so one of those other things.
We did the best thing we could do, which was have it in Estes Park.
That was a very good decision, right.
But have no illusions.
If it were in Washington, it would have been a total disaster.
A veteran story.
Yeah.
Well, anyway, they're out there and meandering around.
They're not getting much publicity, are they?
The moral is don't have White House conferences on youth or anything else.
I couldn't agree more.
presidential commissions and White House conferences.
Yeah, like the Mexicans, let's not have a White House conference, let's just set up a commission on it, you know?
Because you get a conference and then you get the radicals, the Chicanos and the rest take it over, all the rest.
There's got to be, on all those things, ways that we set up so they're under control.
I don't think Steve was, that was a good idea as a way to get Steve out of the White House.
It wasn't a very good idea
in terms of control of the conference, because Steve just isn't that kind to... No, no, no, I know.
But Jerry Rossell moved in on it and has been... Oh, has he?
Well, that's good.
Riding herd on it and has done a pretty good job, so has Ken Cole.
Right, good.
Pretty good job of trying to...
Well, they do the best they can.
I understand.
Bad thing.
But this is enough of Hess now, dude.
Let's don't promise him anything more.
Have we promised him anything more?
I certainly hope not.
Not to my knowledge.
Well, I'm not promising anything more.
You know what I mean.
I don't want him in HEW, anyplace else.
He's done now.
He's had his say and let him go out and yak.
Write a book or something.
Huh?
Write his book, right?
Because he's done his job and...
It's just not that he's at fault for it, but Steve leans in that direction, Bob.
He's tried hard.
He really has.
And trying to, you know, work between, draw a fine line.
Maybe he doesn't.
It's always going to be the wrong direction.
Mm-hmm.
Well.
You say, God damn, that was a marvelous decision to have it in Estes Park.
I don't know whose idea that was, but... That was brilliant.
That was a good one.
That was brilliant.
Really, it's made a lot of difference.
Let's look ahead to the rest of the White House conferences to be sure that we aren't... We're slugged with them like the old folks conference.
The old folks is the only one we've got left.
Well, put it the hell out in Chicago.
Seven Chicago or something, you know.
Miami, St. Petersburg.
Miami, right, good.
I really mean it.
Why not?
No, it's not a bad idea.
Yeah, why put it here, you know, where the Washington Press Store, you know, runs around.
I think we should.
I think it's been a tough thing, Art, that people have had to go out and
through that youth stuff.
Terribly hard for them.
I know this guy said, gee, it was really murderous.
Bill Brock was out there and took it for a while and then got mad at him.
They all say that the same thing that Eddie Cox reported, that they were very violent as the group that are there.
So I guess the activists are.
They've got this escalated rhetoric and they
trying to outdo themselves.
That's one of the problems with making wild statements is that next time you've got to make wilder ones.
They may overplay their hands.
Who knows?
I think they may.
What's the latest on the weekend thing?
Is that escalating particularly?
Doesn't seem to be, no.
The number of buses is about the same, huh?
Dean says, just based on the best they can get now, that there's a fair chance it just may be a basic fizzle.
It may not
may not pull together even as much as they thought they would.
John Dean is pulling the intelligence together on it, what little there is.
And yet it could escalate.
It can.
It could be a quarter of a million for all we know.
As John said yesterday, as Mitchell said yesterday, there's no way to tell really until things start moving.
Well, we're all ready to pounce on it if it is a fizzle, aren't we?
Oh, yeah.
This time.
We've got it at a half a million, haven't we?
Has the press bought that?
Some have bought it, and some of the organizers, of course, are playing it at all different figures, so it's at least confused.
All of our people should put out a half a million.
They've talked about it being the biggest one.
That's the one we've got them best hung on, because they won't make that.
Good.
At least it doesn't appear they will.
And it's...
You never know it from the media, but the veterans thing has basically been a fizzle in terms of numbers.
Is it really?
But it succeeded in what they were after, which is getting coverage.
They really got coverage, didn't they?
Yeah.
Well, they wanted to cover it.
The press wanted to cover it.
But, you know, an interesting thing, though, after covering this one, I don't know whether the interest in covering the rest may be as great.
That's a good point.
I hadn't thought about that, but it may dull down substantially, especially with nothing happening.
you know nothing happened really are we are i i presume we are but uh i hope that uh and this one might do a little good to the uh mcgritter group really should bombard those damn networks you know for you know for distorting the news and to give such terrific coverage to these terrible they are and the congressmen have been doing it too they're good good and hitting some yeah
Some of the congressmen are full of fight, I find.
Well, some of this helps to crank them up, too.
They really are full of fight, you know.
They're mad at these people and what they're doing, and they're ready to go.
But Jesus, that Matthias, that's the one I love.
You just buy the ad in the Washington Post.
Try to hit it for...
If they'll sell it.
They may not sell it.
If not, put it in the star.
That's right.
They may not.
Well, just put an ad in.
We are disgusted, you know?
Yeah.
Okay.
All right.

Also recorded on April 22, 1971

  • 486-006 3:35 PM · 4 min — Manolo Sanchez and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 3:35 pm and 3:41 pm.
  • 486-007 3:41 PM · 54 min — President Richard M. Nixon, William P. Rogers, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Manolo Sanchez, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 3:41 pm to 4:35 pm.
  • 486-008 4:35 PM · 17 sec — United States Secret Service agents met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 4:35 pm and 4:52 pm.
  • 055-002 5:11 PM · 13 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Republican congressmen, including Daniel H. Kuykendall, Samuel L. Devine, Elford A. Cederberg, Robert H. Michel, Glenn R. Davis, Peter H. B. Frelinghuysen, Barber B. Conable, Jr., John H. Kyl, John E. Hunt, John H. Buchanan, Jr., William A. Steiger, Burt L. Talcott, Charles E. Wiggins, Louis C. Wyman, John T. Myers, Benjamin B. Blackburn, III, Hamilton Fish, Jr., William L. Dickinson, Clark MacGregor, William E. Timmons, John D. Ehrlichman, and Richard K. Cook, met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 5:11 pm and 6:41 pm.
  • 002-027 6:41 PM · 4 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 6:41 pm and 6:47 pm.
  • 002-029 6:56 PM · 3 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 6:56 pm and 8:10 pm.
  • 002-030 8:10 PM · 13 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson talked on the telephone from 8:10 pm to 8:23 pm.
  • 002-031 8:23 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John B. Connally talked on the telephone from 8:23 pm to 8:25 pm.

All 14 conversations from April 22, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 002-028, April 22, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives (NAID 417188023). Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/002-028 (accessed November 2, 2026).