Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 12 › Conversation 012-004

Nixon phone call with Haldeman on State of the Union and Legislative schedule

Wednesday, October 20, 1971 · 3:37 PM–3:39 PM ET · White House Telephone · 2 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob")Conversation012-004 on Tape 12 (tape position 00:13:27–00:15:10)StartWednesday, October 20, 1971 at 3:37 PMEndWednesday, October 20, 1971 at 3:39 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 012-004 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and H. R. Haldeman coordinate the administration's legislative calendar, focusing on how congressional adjournment timelines affect the scheduling of the upcoming State of the Union address. The discussion weighs potential return dates for Congress in early 1972 to ensure the address does not conflict with First Lady Pat Nixon's travel publicity. They conclude that the State of the Union can be deferred until January 10th or later to accommodate these scheduling uncertainties.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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· Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).
Mr. President, Mr. Haldeman.
Hi, Bob.
Sir, on the Congress, the best guess is that they won't be back until the week of January 17th, but that's based on the assumption that they won't get out until just before Christmas.
If they get out early, which they're shooting for, then they would come back the week of January 3rd.
January 3rd?
If they get out by Thanksgiving or something like that.
Yeah.
Well, of course, the 17th would mean you'd have, I'm just thinking of Pat's trip.
Well, she doesn't have to be back when they're here, except I don't want to have the State of the Union and so forth sort of knock out her publicity.
But if we had the 3rd, is that what day of the week is the 3rd?
The 3rd... Just a second.
Well, we could have the State of the Union on the 10th.
Third is Monday, and they wouldn't come back until Tuesday or Wednesday.
That's what I mean.
The original plan was to come back on the 4th, on Tuesday.
But nobody believes that they're going to adjourn in time to do that.
Yeah.
And the assumption is that they won't come back until, like, the 18th or 19th.
Good.
On the State of the Union, we could put off until the 10th or so.
Okay.
All right.
We can put it off until the 10th in any event if you want to.
Yeah, we can put it off in any event.
You're right.
On the guessing basis, we've got the State of the Union at the 20th now.
Yeah, I see.
All right, fine, fine, fine.
At this point, there's no way of telling what they're going to do.
Okay, that's good.

NARA Description

On October 20, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone from 3:37 pm to 3:39 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 012-004 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 012-004

Date: October 20, 1971
Time: 3:37 pm- 3:39 pm
Location: White House Telephone

       Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, NARA Online Public Access Catalog Identifier: 597542

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

[See Conversation No. 282-14B]

     Congress’ schedule
          -Thelma C. (“Pat”) Nixon's trip
          -State of the Union
                -Scheduling

Also recorded on October 20, 1971

  • 012-005 3:39 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 3:39 pm and 3:40 pm.
  • 012-006 3:40 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Thelma C. ("Pat") (Ryan) Nixon talked on the telephone from 3:40 pm to 3:42 pm.
  • 012-007 3:42 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 3:42 pm and 3:43 pm.
  • 282-015 3:42 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:42 pm to 3:43 pm.
  • 012-008 3:43 PM · 16 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 3:43 pm.
  • 282-016 3:43 PM · 17 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 3:43 pm.
  • 282-017 3:43 PM · 11 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 3:43 pm and 4:05 pm.
  • 282-018 3:43 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:43 pm to 4:05 pm.

All 83 conversations from October 20, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 012-004, October 20, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/012-004 (accessed September 28, 2026).