Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 2 › Conversation 002-043
Nixon phone call with Haldeman on anti-war protests and public relations
Monday, April 26, 1971 · 7:55 PM–8:01 PM ET · White House Telephone · 6 min
AI Summary
President Nixon and H. R. Haldeman discuss the scheduling of the President's upcoming travel and the need to manage public expectations regarding his return to Washington to avoid the appearance of responding to political pressure from anti-war protests. They evaluate the ongoing demonstrations, expressing frustration with media coverage and emphasizing the necessity for government departments to maintain a hard line against protesters. Haldeman notes that intelligence gathering, assisted by informants within the activist groups, will provide a clearer picture of potential disruptions by early next week.
- anti-war protests
- public relations
- intelligence gathering
- White House scheduling
- protest management
Audio
Transcript (AI-generated)
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Hello.
Mr. Haldeman, Mr. President.
There you are.
Hello, Bob.
Yes, sir.
I just talked to John Ehrlichman, and I agree I should come back Monday.
Here's the view I have on the thing, is that we announce tomorrow that I'm going out for this.
You know, they don't know how long we're planning to stay anyway, do they?
We haven't set any specific time now.
Fine.
We'll just say that we're going out for this, and I'll come back, plan to come back on...
Monday morning, you see, so that I'll be here during this period.
If the damn Capitol is stirred up, I ought to be here.
I shouldn't be out in the hinterlands.
The view of everybody but Ehrlichman, and I thought he shared it, was that you should not come home on Monday unless that happens, and then you should only come home at the last minute on Monday.
On the other hand...
If we announce we're going to stay for a week and then come back, I don't think that's a good idea.
That we create a national crisis then and I rush back because of this and that.
I don't want the press to go out there with their wives and everything and then plan to stay a week.
How are we going to handle the announcement?
We haven't set any specific time.
We weren't going to.
We were just going to leave it that you'd be back.
They've already said that, obviously, that you haven't set a return time that you will have to be back for the agriculture thing on Friday.
Yeah.
We've just left it at that.
Well, I'd like to be in a position, though, that I don't appear to be doing something because of pressure, that we sort of planned it this way.
How can we?
Well, think about it.
Tomorrow, before Ziegler makes his press announcement, tells the press,
that I'm going out and I'll be there for the weekend and then I'll, you know, be returning to Washington after the, you know, I just don't think we ought to.
I can see your point.
See, I don't want to be in a position where we have announced we're going to be there a week and then we rush back because the Capitol is under siege and all that sort of thing.
I feel that he may have a point there.
Yeah.
But we'll think about it, sleep on it overnight, and then in the morning sort of develop a plan.
The thing right now is just looking at the TV news tonight, I understand that according to John, they sort of didn't play up the profanity or anything like that.
They just sort of made them look awful good.
They didn't make them look good, but they sure didn't make it look bad.
They didn't.
And I don't think that...
I'm sure the folks at home didn't get the impression that there was anything very important going on.
Is that right?
The same old stuff with people running around.
Mm-hmm.
Boy, isn't it exciting.
I hope that, well, I guess there's nothing we can do.
The network really ought to be taken to task for not reporting the whole thing.
Well, what the hell.
Let's see what stirs up now tomorrow.
And they may get discipline of their people, and I don't think they want this to get that far out of control yet, because what they're trying to do is build up.
Mm-hmm.
In other words, they think they may have moved a little too fast too soon.
Could be.
That's what some of them are saying today, and we're trying to turn the others off.
Mm-hmm.
They may not be able to control them, though.
No, they may not.
Well, let's think in terms of not getting, you know, tied in to...
I mean, I do think we do not want to leave an announcement in a way that we're planning to stay a week.
Yeah.
I'm just going out for this event, and I'll be there over the weekend and be returning to Washington early next week.
right right yeah and then we'll come back monday if i feel like it right right but i don't know whether we're going to know much more you mean you think we'll know more on monday oh sure we'll know see the the tie-in type stuff hits on monday morning we may know a lot more we've got
much better intelligence on this whole thing than we have had before because we've got four informers at in the top levels of the operation and a whole bunch i think 23 in in the organization good and uh uh in the next few days we'll know a lot more about what they're really going to do right and their capability of doing it and by sunday we'll know we'll know yeah pretty much precisely because their crowd their their people will all gather saturday yeah yeah
And then anything they do on Monday morning, the effect that they have there Monday morning will be between 7 and 8 or 7 and 9, which is 6 o'clock in the morning.
Tomorrow they're going to work over at the agencies, are they?
Yeah.
Well, that's all right.
Let's just let it develop.
They're going to move around to departments.
And if it gets...
The departments, though, should take a hard line.
I don't want them inviting them in to...
You know, to sit in and all that stuff.
None of this sort of stuff.
Not even at HEW.
Huh?
Right.
We definitely should.
Because, you know, the people, it's too bad the networks didn't carry what really happened.
Well, one thing for sure, the senators know it, don't they?
Yep.
So they probably adjourned, apparently.
Yeah.
Still Thursday.
All right.
Okay.
Well, we'll put it that way then.
Okay.
All right.
NARA Description
On April 26, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone from 7:55 pm to 8:01 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 002-043 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 2-43
Date: April 26, 1971
Time: 7:55 pm - 8:01 pm
Location: White House Telephone
The President talked with H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman.
[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]
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Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, NARA Online Public Access Catalog Identifier: 597542Also recorded on April 26, 1971
- 489-022 6:36 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at 6:36 pm.
- 489-023 6:37 PM · 11 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Alexander P. Butterfield, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Stephen B. Bull, and Henry A. Kissinger met in the Oval Office of the White House from 6:37 pm to 6:45 pm.
- 489-024 6:45 PM · 2 min — United States Secret Service agents met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 6:45 pm and 8:30 pm.
- 002-038 6:53 PM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 6:53 pm and 7:38 pm.
- 002-039 7:38 PM · 15 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 7:38 pm.
- 002-040 7:40 PM · 10 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman talked on the telephone from 7:40 pm to 7:49 pm.
- 002-041 7:50 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 7:50 pm.
- 002-042 7:55 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 7:55 pm.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 002-043, April 26, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/002-043 (accessed October 10, 2026).