Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 6 › Conversation 006-080

Nixon, Haldeman & Ehrlichman on Declassification and Government transparency

Thursday, July 1, 1971 · 4:09 PM–4:11 PM ET · White House Telephone · 2 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob"); Ehrlichman, John D.Conversation006-080 on Tape 6 (tape position 01:25:59–01:28:23)StartThursday, July 1, 1971 at 4:09 PMEndThursday, July 1, 1971 at 4:11 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 006-080 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon, H. R. Haldeman, and John Ehrlichman coordinate the President's upcoming meeting with a group tasked with reviewing government classification systems. While Nixon expresses reluctance to dedicate significant time to the group due to his focus on critical matters involving Henry Kissinger, he ultimately agrees to a brief, ten-minute meeting. Ehrlichman is instructed to steer the group's agenda toward specific regional interests, such as Korea and Cuba, to maintain administrative control over their output.

Audio

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Mr. President, Mr. Halderman, comment?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
President's on the line.
Yeah, sir.
No, I can't, I just see it here, and he wants me to say, to discuss with him, how can we cut down on unnecessary classification?
How can we speed up declassification?
How can we...
I don't want to meet with this group.
That should be discussed with somebody else, right?
I'm just not going to do it.
Well, John's right here.
Let me have him fill you in.
But this one was the one, remember, that was raised in the meeting this morning.
I know, but I thought we were, I misunderstood.
I was going to use this group as the group to carry out, but only when I wanted to meet with them when I had somebody to put in charge of them.
No, no.
This group, this doesn't relate to the putting someone in charge of them.
This relates to, they're an ongoing thing.
We don't want them to report in too fast.
they've got a lot of ideas on things that can be done the main reason for meeting with him was to put the focus back on the january 15th directive you know and then simply we were going to put in your schedule to admit with him and uh john's here let him give you a quick fill on it but let him tell him that i haven't got i'm working with henry and i don't want to spend any time on it hello yeah hello yes john i'm so tied up about this thing with henry right now it's so very important could you tell this bunch
I mean, I'll sit with them for a couple of minutes, bring them over here if you want, and I'll step out.
But I don't want to have to figure out what to tell them.
Oh, you don't need to tell them a thing.
I suppose you want us to slow them down and all that sort of thing?
Oh, I can do that.
In fact, I already have.
I've been visiting with them here.
All right, fine.
No, here's what you've got here.
It's a group who were about two weeks away from making a report to you on rejiggering the whole classification system.
Yeah, I know.
Just let Rehnquist give you an interim report.
And then you can ask questions if you wish.
If not, you can just tell them, look, I want you fellas also to dig into the Korean and the Cuban and these other things.
And you can come back to me when you're ready with a plan for doing that.
And then turn them loose.
And then you will then control them.
Sure.
Fine.
Sure.
All right.
You bring them, if you would, bring them over.
I can only step out for ten minutes.
I understand.
That's fine.
Because we're working on the final drafts of these special papers, very special ones, as you know, Henry.
So bring them over and bring them in this little outside room with a nice table and everything.
And then when you're there, you come in, get me, I'll come out.
And that'll be that.
All right, sir.
Fine.

NARA Description

On July 1, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, and John D. Ehrlichman talked on the telephone from 4:09 pm to 4:11 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 006-080 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 6-80

Date: July 1, 1971
Time: 4:09 pm - 4:11 pm
Location: White House Telephone

H.R. (“Bob”) Haldeman talked with the President.
[See Conversation No. 261-35B]

     President's schedule
           -Meeting with declassification group
           -Agenda
           -John D. Ehrlichman
           -Interim declassification report
           -Henry A. Kissinger

Ehrlichman talked with the President.

     Meeting with declassification group
          -William H. Rehnquist
          -Assignment
                -Korea, Cuba
          -Kissinger

Also recorded on July 1, 1971

  • 261-032 3:17 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 3:17 pm.
  • 261-033 3:18 PM · 16 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:18 pm to 3:22 pm.
  • 261-034 3:22 PM · 21 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 3:22 pm and 3:55 pm.
  • 261-035 3:55 PM · 30 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, Alexander P. Butterfield, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, unknown person(s), and John D. Ehrlichman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:55 pm to 4:25 pm.
  • 006-081 4:11 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 4:11 pm and 5:09 pm.
  • 261-036 4:25 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 4:25 pm and 5:09 pm.
  • 261-037 4:25 PM · 28 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Ronald L. Ziegler, White House operator, and Thelma C. ("Pat") (Ryan) Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 4:25 pm and 5:55 pm.
  • 261-041 5:01 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 5:01 pm and 6:00 pm.

All 57 conversations from July 1, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 006-080, July 1, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/006-080 (accessed October 22, 2026).