Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 6 › Conversation 006-095

Nixon phone call with Colson on John Scali and William P. Rogers

Friday, July 2, 1971 · 4:23 PM–4:25 PM ET · White House Telephone · 2 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Colson, Charles W.Conversation006-095 on Tape 6 (tape position 01:59:36–02:01:25)StartFriday, July 2, 1971 at 4:23 PMEndFriday, July 2, 1971 at 4:25 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 006-095 ↗ · National Archives Catalog, NAID 417189081 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon directed Charles Colson to relay praise from Secretary of State William Rogers to John Scali regarding their collaboration on a joint press statement. Nixon further specified that Scali should be positioned as the primary advisor for future presidential trips to boost his morale and improve press coordination. Finally, the two discussed managing media coverage of recent unemployment data, with Nixon instructing Colson to minimize the narrative of a "statistical fluke" in upcoming NBC news reports.

Audio

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NARA Description

On July 2, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson talked on the telephone from 4:23 pm to 4:25 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 006-095 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 6-95

Date: July 2, 1971
Time: 4:23 pm - 4:25 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with Charles Colson.

[See Conversation No. 260-10]

     Joint press statements
           -John A. Scali
           -President's conversation with William P. Rogers

     President's trips

          -Scali's role
          -Ronald L. Ziegler, Robert J. McCloskey
          -Rogers

     Unemployment figures
         -Statistical "fluke" statement
         -Media coverage
         -Scali's conversations with John W. Chancellor, Dan Rather
         -Colson's conversation with Howard K. Smith
         -Colson's conversation with George P. Shultz

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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

Yes, sir.
Would you tell, I forgot to mention, John Scali that I saw Rogers at lunch and he spoke very highly of Scali's working on that statement with him.
And I told Rogers that whenever we took a trip in the future, and naturally we have none planned at the moment, but you never know, I said that it was my plan to have Scali go as the top pilot.
advisor in his field because he worked so well with Ziegler and with McCloskey.
And Bill said, that's just great.
He's all for it.
This will build Scali up a little bit.
That's good for his morale.
And just telling him that we don't want, that there's nothing planned at the moment, but that
that I'm pleased that it's working out this way, because whenever trips are taken, Rogers, of course, will go, and Rick Scali's just the man to go along.
Perfect enemy here.
The other thing to say to him is this, that see if what he can do to see that that statistical fluke thing doesn't become the story tonight on NBC.
I don't know if you can, but...
Yes, he's talking to Chancellor, and also to Rather.
Well, they've got to say that some say it's statistical, but let's get our side across, too.
I'm sure they will.
Explaining it to Howard Smith, he understood it perfectly.
What really happened is, it seems to me, is that their earlier figures, when they went up, were...
where they went up, frankly, unemployment never went to 6.2.
That's right, exactly.
And it probably is about 5.8, and now it's really 5.6, but it did go down.
That's right, and that's the important thing.
But the point is that the bad news we took was also a statistical fluke, and now we're simply correcting it.
I went through this yesterday with Schultz at length, and that, I think, is a fact.
I don't think it ever went as high as they said it did.
That's right.
All right, go.
I'll take care of it, sir.
Thank you.

Also recorded on July 2, 1971

  • 006-094 4:22 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 4:22 pm.
  • 260-009 4:23 PM · 40 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 4:23 pm.
  • 260-010 4:23 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 4:23 pm to 4:25 pm.
  • 260-011 4:25 PM · 1 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 4:25 pm and 4:27 pm.
  • 006-096 4:26 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 4:26 pm.
  • 006-097 4:27 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Thelma C. ("Pat") (Ryan) Nixon talked on the telephone from 4:27 pm to 4:29 pm.
  • 260-012 4:27 PM · 16 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Thelma C. ("Pat") (Ryan) Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 4:27 pm to 4:29 pm.
  • 006-098 4:29 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 4:29 pm and 5:24 pm.

All 80 conversations from July 2, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 006-095, July 2, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives (NAID 417189081). Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/006-095 (accessed November 2, 2026).