Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 7 › Conversation 007-079

Nixon phone call with Shultz on Veto strategy and John Connally

Monday, August 9, 1971 · 5:47 PM–5:48 PM ET · White House Telephone · 56 sec

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Shultz, George P.Conversation007-079 on Tape 7 (tape position 02:48:43–02:49:41)StartMonday, August 9, 1971 at 5:47 PMEndMonday, August 9, 1971 at 5:48 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 007-079 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon consulted with George Shultz regarding the political strategy for two pending bills, relaying concerns raised by John Connally about the timing of potential vetoes. Connally advised against immediate action, arguing that the administration had not yet established the necessary political predicate to justify a veto to Congress. Consequently, the President decided to delay his final decision pending further analysis of the administration's leverage and the likelihood of successfully challenging Congress.

Audio

Download MP3 · 1.3 MB

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

Download transcript (.txt) · JSON data

Hello.
Mr. Schultz.
Yeah.
George.
Yes, sir.
On those two bills, I talked to Connolly about them, and I think he makes a very good point in one respect.
I mean, it sort of leans the other way on the budget thing, but the reason that he has for not vetoing is that we will not have laid the proper predicate for it.
His view is that once we have vetoed
made the other moves that we're planning but then you just veto them in a minute you know and then throw the ball right back over to the congress but here to do it now he thinks there's some doubts about it now that's his argument for whatever it's worth and uh i i i hate to roll over on those bills i must say but i i still want to see tomorrow what what the congressional chances are if we do veto okay okay

NARA Description

On August 9, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and George P. Shultz talked on the telephone from 5:47 pm to 5:48 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 007-079 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 7-79

Date: August 9, 1971
Time: 5:47 pm - 5:48 pm
Location: White House Telephone
The President talked with George P. Shultz.

[See Conversation No. 558-10A]

     Bills
             -The President's talk with John B. Connally
                  -Budget
                  -Veto
                  -Congress

Also recorded on August 9, 1971

  • 558-008 5:00 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 5:00 pm and 5:02 pm.
  • 558-009 5:02 PM · 44 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Rose Mary Woods, George P. Shultz, and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House from 5:02 pm to 5:44 pm.
  • 558-010 5:44 PM · 34 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Ellsworth F. Bunker, Henry A. Kissinger, White House photographer, Stephen B. Bull, unknown person(s), and George P. Shultz met in the Oval Office of the White House from 5:44 pm to 6:18 pm.
  • 007-080 5:48 PM · 3 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 5:48 pm and 8:06 pm.
  • 558-011 6:18 PM · 46 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 6:18 pm and 6:21 pm.
  • 558-012 6:18 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 6:18 pm and 6:21 pm.
  • 558-013 6:21 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Rose Mary Woods, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 6:21 pm to 6:28 pm.
  • 558-014 6:28 PM · 2 min — United States Secret Service agents met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 6:28 pm and 11:59 pm.

All 38 conversations from August 9, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 007-079, August 9, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/007-079 (accessed October 11, 2026).