Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 17 › Conversation 017-091

Nixon phone call with Laird on Military morale

Saturday, December 25, 1971 · 11:45 AM–11:46 AM ET · White House Telephone · 2 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Laird, Melvin R.Conversation017-091 on Tape 17 (tape position 03:15:51–03:17:42)StartSaturday, December 25, 1971 at 11:45 AMEndSaturday, December 25, 1971 at 11:46 AMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 017-091 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird exchanged Christmas greetings and transitioned into a discussion regarding an ongoing internal military scandal. Nixon emphasized the need to shield the military establishment from reputational damage, characterizing the personnel involved as victims of a flawed system rather than malicious actors. Both agreed that the White House should distance itself from the matter, deferring to Attorney General John Mitchell to handle the situation while ensuring the continued support of leadership figures like Admiral Thomas Moorer.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Hello.
Merry Christmas, Mr. President.
You beat me to it.
Yeah.
Well, I just wanted to wish you the best and hope you have a good day.
Are you home?
I'm at home.
I've got the family here.
Great.
We're in the midst of unwrapping presents.
Yeah, I'll be doing that in about a few minutes with everybody.
And we just hope that everything goes well and that you appreciate all you're doing and everything.
And we'll...
get a little rest and get girded for next year.
Well, very good.
And thank you for calling, Mr. President.
Well, just everything.
Oh, incidentally, on that matter that you're familiar with, I think it's very important, and I've given the orders around to everybody, that we not allow this thing to hurt the military.
You know, we know what's wrong, but we like about it.
So we've got to
clean it up, but we've got to stand by more of these fellows because they are good guys.
They just got trapped in a system that was bad.
Bad, right.
Don't you agree?
I agree, Mr. President.
That's my view, at least.
It's disappointing, and I know it is to you and it is to me, but you've got to just...
But what happened is that, as you pointed out to Mitchell, apparently, you knew about this years ago.
This has been going on for years, and it's just surprising that they had it now, and I just think it's the way the system works.
But now that it's done, we'll... And I'm not going to go back down and read over all those things from Good Pastor and the rest of that stuff.
I'm just going to stay out of it now.
Absolutely.
Leave it, stay out of it, and let Mitchell do whatever has to be done.
That way we can stay sort of apart from it, because we've got to work with these fellows, you know.
It's important.
Particularly with Tom Moore.
Right, and he's fine.
It's just too bad.
He's a good man.
Good man.
Okay, Mel.
Fine.
Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Thank you.

NARA Description

On December 25, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Melvin R. Laird talked on the telephone from 11:45 am to 11:46 am. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 017-091 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 17-91

Date: December 25, 1971
Time: 11:45 am - 11:46 am
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with Melvin R. Laird.

     Christmas greetings

     Laird's location

     Laird's work
           -Military
                 -Adm. Thomas H. Moorer
                 -Gen. Andrew J. Goodpaster
           -John N. Mitchell
           -Moorer

Also recorded on December 25, 1971

  • 017-088 11:34 AM · 43 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Michael J. ("Mike") Mansfield talked on the telephone from 11:34 am to 11:36 am.
  • 017-089 11:38 AM · 21 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 11:38 am.
  • 017-090 11:38 AM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 11:38 am and 11:45 am.
  • 017-092 11:47 AM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon, White House operator, and Edward R. G. Heath talked on the telephone from 11:47 am to 11:48 am.
  • 017-093 11:49 AM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and James D. Hodgson talked on the telephone from 11:49 am to 11:51 am.
  • 017-094 11:51 AM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman talked on the telephone from 11:51 am to 11:55 am.
  • 017-095 11:55 AM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 11:55 am and 12:44 pm.
  • 017-096 11:55 AM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 11:55 am and 12:44 pm.

All 57 conversations from December 25, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 017-091, December 25, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/017-091 (accessed October 10, 2026).