Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 10 › Conversation 010-034

Nixon phone call with Colson on Edward M. Kennedy and Vietnam War

Wednesday, September 29, 1971 · 7:33 PM–7:57 PM ET · White House Telephone · 24 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Colson, Charles W.Conversation010-034 on Tape 10 (tape position 00:53:22–01:17:34)StartWednesday, September 29, 1971 at 7:33 PMEndWednesday, September 29, 1971 at 7:57 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 010-034 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Charles Colson discuss strategies to attack Senator Edward Kennedy’s recent remarks on Vietnam, comparing them to past controversial statements by John F. Kennedy. They prioritize generating political opposition to Kennedy's stance and coordinating a firm administration response, particularly from Secretary of State William P. Rogers. Additionally, the conversation covers managing economic policy, specifically framing legislative opposition to a federal pay increase as a sabotage of the President's efforts to control the cost of living.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 8 minutes of this recording (about 32% of it) is represented by only a few words. Listen to the audio rather than relying on the text below; a corrected transcript is queued.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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, I have Mr. Colt.
Hello?
What's the evening line from the nutcutter?
Did he happen to pick up, Chuck, I was going to call you back, that line where he said, I would crawl...
That's the most horrible thing, for a president of the United States to crawl.
And what did he do?
What was the line he took, Chuck?
Great, great, great, great.
Really?
Yeah.
Right.
Oh, they probably wouldn't, but that's all right.
Good.
Particularly the crawling thing was so disgusting.
It's like Jack Kennedy's comment in 60 where he said, I would apologize to Khrushchev, you see.
Right.
Were they?
But were they second?
I hope they were.
Oh.
Oh, for Christ sakes.
He didn't even know.
Yeah.
I think what was the reaction to the fact that I came?
That was really quite a reaction.
The press didn't really play it up as the enthusiasm that I thought they were.
I didn't know that.
How'd they do it?
It's not going to destroy it, but it's going to have an emotional impact on you.
Yeah.
Well, actually, tonight the network's on.
Donnelly Carey for MECO.
That was the big news, you see.
Yeah.
I hope they use his.
That's right.
He said that, good for him.
He's a Democrat, you know.
But he's a good man.
Well, uh, it was a tough thing, but we had to do it.
Alright.
Yeah.
You won't do it.
I know.
Well...
No.
No, this is something where Bill ought to really have a press conference and lash the bastard.
Right.
What?
Dignify it.
We want to make an issue.
That's right.
Good, good.
I understand, yes, that he did very well.
Yeah, he finally got the... Alright.
Good.
They've got to stay in line on this.
They've got to.
Is that right?
You mean in the Senate?
I couldn't believe it would be there.
Well, we get more votes than we had before.
No.
That's right.
Keep it on.
Good.
All right.
Good.
Good.
Here's the one.
Heat start.
What do you think of it?
Well, that's good.
That's good.
How are you coming with our friend from CBS?
Huh?
No, no, no, no.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We really should...
The main thing is that I trust that through the administration now, and this includes Elliot Richardson particularly, there must be never anybody to talk to the son of a bitch again.
All right.
Yeah.
Nah.
That's right.
Well, and it's a legitimate thing.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Well, I did the IMF today.
We're trying to sort of keep firm there.
We've got to keep firm, you know, in this international way.
Oh, well.
We have to do that, though.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Thank God we got him.
Because, boy, he was good.
He didn't mind, you know, if you'd called him on, if you did Rogers, right, he'd be out there cracking Teddy right over the ass.
All right.
All right.
He certainly should.
He did.
You wouldn't have to ask him.
He would have done it before.
Yeah.
That's right.
Oh, sure, sure.
Well, we'll keep looking at it.
Good.
Sure.
If he's already provided this, he thinks he's going to...
You know, get a good story out of it.
You really ought to.
Sure.
Did they?
Good.
Good.
The crawling thing really is terrible.
Yeah Oh boy Yeah Yeah
We really have to get there unless, you know, I was thinking of this vote on the pay thing.
We've got to put the monkey on their back.
They do that.
They are busting the whole effort to stop the rise in the cost of living.
They're really, you know, they're sabotaging the president's plan.
That's right.
That's right.
That's right.
Mm-hmm.
Take the heat.
It's much better.
Very good.
But he gets the control, eh?
Yeah, that's right.
And also, a lot of people think that Stein now thinks that the hell he looks like is a liberal trying to protect the president.
You know what I mean, right?
What are you doing?
Sure.
No, sir.
Take the heat, get it over with.
That's right.
That's right.
That's right.
I am inclined to think we're going to get some good numbers in the balance of the years.
I just think there's a hell of a lot going on here in Victoria.
There it goes.
But there shall await to see.
Of course Goldstein will write those, write the figures for this one unfortunately.
Oh, he'll give us a little help, I guess.
God damn it.
Well, we'll see.
Well, we'll see.
Okay.
Well, okay.
Bye.

NARA Description

On September 29, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson talked on the telephone from 7:33 pm to 7:57 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 010-034 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 10-34

Date: September 29, 1971
Time: 7:33 pm - 7:57 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with Charles W. Colson.

     Vietnam
          -Senator Barry M. Goldwater
               -Edward M. Kennedy
               -Speech
                    -John F. Kennedy
                          -Nikita S. Khrushchev

     Media
         -Wire reports
               -Reaction to Goldwater’s speech
         -Prisoners of War [POWs]
         -President's attendance at National League of Families dinner, September 28
               - Today show’s report
         -Andrei A. Gromyko

     Veterans of Foreign Wars [VFW]
          -Unknown person

     Colson's schedule
          -William P. Rogers
                -Goldwater
                -Possibility of press conference on Kennedy comment

     Maurice H. Stans

     Senate
          -Support for the President

     Columbia Broadcasting System [CBS]
         -Daniel L. Schorr
         -Elliot L. Richardson
         -Frank Stanton

     President's schedule
          -Previous reception for members of the International Monetary Fund [IMF],
                 September 28

     Rogers
         -Compared with John B. Connally [?]
         -Edward Kennedy

     POWs
        -Edward Kennedy

     Economy
         -Federal pay increase delay
              -Cost of living
         -Bureau of Labor Statistics [BLS]
         -Louis Harris
         -[Forename unknown] Goldstein (Leon Greenberg [?])
              -Consumer Price Index [CPI] figures
         -Harris

     Vietnam
          -John F. Kennedy
               -Ngo Dinh Diem

Also recorded on September 29, 1971

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  • 580-019 3:02 PM · 28 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 3:02 pm to 3:03 pm.
  • 580-020 3:03 PM · 1 hr 54 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Andrei A. Gromyko, Anatoliy F. Dobrynin, William P. Rogers, Henry A. Kissinger, William Krimer, Viktor M. Sukhodrev, and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the Oval Office of the White House from 3:03 pm to 5:00 pm.
  • 580-021 5:00 PM · 53 sec — United States Secret Service agents met in the Oval Office of the White House at 5:00 pm.
  • 583-001 5:05 PM · 9 min — President Richard M. Nixon, William P. Rogers, and Henry A. Kissinger met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 5:05 pm and 5:14 pm.
  • 583-002 5:15 PM · 2 min — United States Secret Service agents met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 5:15 pm and 5:17 pm.
  • 010-032 7:19 PM · 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone from 7:19 pm to 7:24 pm.
  • 010-033 7:27 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 7:27 pm.

All 36 conversations from September 29, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 010-034, September 29, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/010-034 (accessed October 12, 2026).