Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 9 › Conversation 009-142

Nixon phone call with Haldeman on River Rouge and Public relations

Thursday, September 23, 1971 · 4:09 PM–4:13 PM ET · White House Telephone · 3 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob")Conversation009-142 on Tape 9 (tape position 04:50:40–04:54:05)StartThursday, September 23, 1971 at 4:09 PMEndThursday, September 23, 1971 at 4:13 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 009-142 ↗ · National Archives Catalog, NAID 417189901 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and H. R. Haldeman discuss logistical adjustments for the President's upcoming travel schedule, specifically deciding to cancel a proposed visit to a River Rouge plant. The conversation transitions into a critique of the length and clarity of White House press materials, with Nixon directing that all future statements and information papers be condensed to under 200 words. They agree that Patrick J. Buchanan should oversee this editing process to ensure brevity and focus in public messaging.

Audio

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NARA Description

On September 23, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone from 4:09 pm to 4:13 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 009-142 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 9-142

Date: September 23, 1971
Time: 4:09 pm - 4:13 pm
Location: White House Telephone

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

[See Conversation No. 280-25]

The President's schedule
     -River Rouge
           -Arrival
           -Press
           -Barnstorming
                 -Sheriff
                 -Congress
                 -Governor
     -International economic statement
           -Length
           -Press
     -Press statements and information papers
           -Patrick J. Buchanan
           -Length of answers
           -George P. Shultz
           -Amount of work

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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

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Yeah.
Mr. Holden will be calling, Mr. President.
Yes, sir.
Well, I was just looking at this, and because it's so late, don't be sure they knock off any thought of that River Rouge thing.
Yeah, well, let's...
I can't get in after 2 o'clock in the morning.
And it shouldn't, of course, be done going in.
Okay, fine.
So you don't have anybody working?
No, sir.
We did absolutely nothing on it.
Yeah.
Don't have them do anything.
Right.
I won't.
I wasn't going to anyway.
It's something we can do.
You want to do a plant sometime.
Yeah.
Do it someplace else.
Well, it's really reaching pretty much.
I was thinking about it afterwards to go that late at night and all, too.
Well, it's also doubtful as to whether a plant's a good idea any time.
Yep.
I mean, it just may not be maybe too goddamn much like...
barnstorming yep you know going up and down the line shaking hands with people in a plant and so forth i mean it's it's not a bad idea if you're running for sheriff yeah or congress or governor matt for that matter but you know right well we've done nothing on it so it'll be no problem trying to get some of this stuff boiled down so i asked for
full statement on the international thing and so you got a major address a thousand words yeah a thousand words which of course just ridiculous you can't get up there and talk for 10 minutes about something that nobody understands yeah if they want to put that out that's fine you know but uh well anyway they did the best they can but it does show you how you've got to keep these you know these these press things in the hands of somebody like
Yeah, well normally we run all that through Pat, you know, which is really what we ought to do on everything, I think.
Yeah, I suppose, I suppose.
Although, of course, some of his stuff runs long, too, when he gets on a favorite subject, you know, like politics or some of the other things.
But the thing that I really feel you've got to, maybe if we're talking to Pat and he's got to get some stuff ready for me, you know, in case I want to use it out there Saturday.
I think everybody should think in terms of no answer more than 200 words.
Just see what, and make them do the boiling down.
200 words is actually a hell of a long answer.
That's a minute and a half to, it's almost two minutes.
And if people can say you can't go more than that and prefer 100, because it's the boiling process that is terribly difficult.
Yeah.
And then that way you'll get a lot of the fuzz out.
And it will let them think.
I suppose one of the reasons, Bob, they go for these long answers is that that's what most of them give, don't they?
I mean, I suppose that... Well, yeah, that's part of it.
Part of it is that they don't...
When they give you something into you, they figure they've got to cover everything.
That's right.
Sure, sure, sure.
That's right.
That's right.
Well, it's a hell of a lot of work for one damned audience, I must say.
There's a lot of damned stuff here.
Yeah.
Anyway, that's enough.
Bye.

Also recorded on September 23, 1971

  • 280-019 2:42 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 2:42 pm and 3:30 pm.
  • 280-021 3:30 PM · 40 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:30 pm to 3:31 pm.
  • 280-022 3:31 PM · 6 sec — 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 3:31 pm and 4:09 pm.
  • 280-023 3:31 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 3:31 pm and 4:09 pm.
  • 280-024 3:31 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:31 pm to 4:09 pm.
  • 280-025 4:09 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 4:09 pm to 4:13 pm.
  • 280-026 4:13 PM · 18 sec — 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 4:13 pm and 4:40 pm.
  • 280-027 4:40 PM · 19 sec — Manolo Sanchez and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 4:40 pm and 4:54 pm.

All 32 conversations from September 23, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 009-142, September 23, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives (NAID 417189901). Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/009-142 (accessed November 2, 2026).