Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 12 › Conversation 012-023

Nixon phone call with Price on Speechwriting and Richard K. Cook

Wednesday, October 20, 1971 · 6:10 PM–6:11 PM ET · White House Telephone · 1 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Price, Raymond K., Jr.Conversation012-023 on Tape 12 (tape position 00:38:59–00:40:27)StartWednesday, October 20, 1971 at 6:10 PMEndWednesday, October 20, 1971 at 6:11 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 012-023 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon consulted with speechwriter Raymond K. Price, Jr. regarding a draft composed by Richard K. Cook. Nixon expressed approval of the speech's overall quality but directed Price to have the draft revised to remove references to the current conflict as potentially the "last war." The President worried that characterizing the era as the "last generation of veterans" created expectations of lasting peace that could be perceived as false hope, and he requested that the rhetoric be tempered to avoid such vulnerability.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

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hello mr ray price ray sir i uh just read this uh cook draft which i think has is a fine quality there's one thing that i'd like to have you have him rewrite in terms of and it'll require some uh a bit of cutting i'm not cutting but changing i i don't want to go so far and he we use it three times in the speech of the

the last generation of veterans and so forth and so on.

I think it's, I have said, of course, the idea, you know, in one interview that this could be the last war or something.

But on the other hand, I think we could be held up to saying, well, we're holding out a false hope and so forth and so on.

You know what I mean?

And so what the hell do we have?

So I think if he could just tinker and

And you know what I mean, those three areas sort of take that out so it doesn't hold that high of hope.

A lasting peace or a generation of peace, that sort of thing.

But I think, well, it makes a nice balance to say the first generation of veterans, the last generation, that's all that.

But I just think it goes a bit too far in the present context.

All right.

But otherwise, I think it's fine.

It's got a lot of very eloquent and so forth.

Okay.

That's good.

Bye.

NARA Description

On October 20, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Raymond K. Price, Jr. talked on the telephone from 6:10 pm to 6:11 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 012-023 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 012-023

Date: October 20, 1971
Time: 6:10 pm- 6:11 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with Raymond K. Price, Jr.

[See Conversation No. 282-39]

     The President's having read a speech draft
          -Richard K. Cook
               -Wording
               -Veterans
               -Peace

Also recorded on October 20, 1971

012-022 6:09 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 6:09 pm and 6:10 pm.
282-037 6:09 PM · 50 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 6:09 pm to 6:10 pm.
282-038 6:10 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 6:10 pm.
282-039 6:10 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Raymond K. Price, Jr. met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 6:10 pm to 6:11 pm.
012-024 6:11 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 6:11 pm and 6:17 pm.
282-040 6:11 PM · 59 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 6:11 pm and 6:17 pm.
282-041 6:11 PM · 8 sec — 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 6:11 pm and 6:17 pm.
282-042 6:11 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John N. Mitchell met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 6:11 pm and 6:17 pm.

All 83 conversations from October 20, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 012-023, 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/012-023 (accessed September 28, 2026).