Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 17 › Conversation 017-144

Nixon phone call with Haldeman on John Connally and Daniel Schorr

Sunday, January 2, 1972 · 3:30 PM–3:36 PM ET · White House Telephone · 6 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob")Conversation017-144 on Tape 17 (tape position 05:20:10–05:25:57)StartSunday, January 2, 1972 at 3:30 PMEndSunday, January 2, 1972 at 3:36 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 017-144 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and H.R. Haldeman discussed a speculative news report by Daniel Schorr alleging internal White House conflict between Treasury Secretary John Connally and other top advisors. The President expressed skepticism regarding the article and reaffirmed his support for Connally, tasking Haldeman with assessing the situation during an upcoming meeting. They decided to arrange a dinner for Connally to discuss his recent travels and gauge his perspective on economic and international affairs.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Bob.
Yes, sir.
I was looking over Buchanan's last minute stuff here, and he points up some story on Connolly from Daniel Shore and so forth and so on.
Are you familiar with it?
Yeah.
Well, what is the substance of it?
Nothing.
Where Brumley is supposed to have told Fortune that the White House is trying to stab Connolly in the back, and he named
The Brumley part, we're checking out.
Burns and Kissinger and Schultz were all doing it and so forth and so on.
But the main point is, and that Connolly has gone to Texas to think things over and so forth and so on.
But you have kept, you've been in touch with Connolly and so has Ehrlichman, a very close touch.
Yep.
And as far as you know, there's no... None at all.
I had a very good chat with him on the phone the other day and he
you know, and his plans to go out west, that he would be... Well, the general, the impression was of this story is that he was not satisfied with the Azores agreement and so forth, which is not true.
Yeah, I think they're drawing off of a lot of assumptions.
You know, what he's putting together is the fact that he wasn't in...
Florida for the Brant meeting, which of course he had never intended to be.
That's right.
And gone off to Texas now, but he's going to be at the Sato meeting.
Nobody else has picked that up.
It's a sure speculative piece.
Except for that fortune thing.
That I've got to track down.
Man, that's curious, isn't it?
as a recollection I don't know who's well it wouldn't be well we know of course that they all have their different views I mean Schultz has and of course Burns we know was stabbing him but yeah well Schultz had you know could figure no basis for anything of this I mean he had no nothing at all no because there's been no you know no
of any kind that would give any basis to this.
I see.
Because Schultz was aware.
I mean, between Schultz and Conley.
Sure.
I think it's clear, sure speculation.
I debated after he said calling Conley, but I thought maybe that might stir it up.
I don't know.
I could call him and just... Well,
I'm not sure that I would.
Let's see, what would it, let's see, maybe it would.
Well, he isn't likely to say much to you on the phone about it, is he?
I don't think so.
That's the thing.
Maybe it'd be better to wait until we see him.
It might be a good idea to have a session with him before the Sato meeting.
Yeah.
Well, it certainly is a good idea for you to, for example, on the White House staff side of it.
I shouldn't get into him with that.
No, no.
I don't mean a session with him on any of this, but just a working session.
Which I think is a good idea.
He ought to come over if he can, and then we'll put him up over there.
I think that's a good idea on, say, Wednesday afternoon or something like that.
Or Wednesday morning.
Whatever he wants.
Okay.
Or better still, I could just have him over so that he couldn't have the day.
I could have him over for Wednesday night and have him over for dinner.
Okay, good.
And he'd just be over on that side Wednesday night and be there for the meetings?
That's right.
That's right.
He has to come anyway.
Yeah.
So we could do that.
So why don't you just...
You might give him a ring and set that up.
That's a way to get at anything.
That would be perfectly natural.
See how his temperature is.
Because I had called him about his schedule anyway.
Yeah, to say that I thought that I'd like to, just the two of us, we could have a chance to have dinner and go over a few just general things, so forth and so on.
Yeah.
My guess is that, I mean, my guess is that fellows like Shore, whether he's much like Rather, you know, they put these things out for the purpose of trying to make them happen and, you know, just sort of shoot.
Or take, you know, some circumstantial shooting in the dark.
Things, put them together and draw a conclusion.
Yeah, yeah.
But I didn't, it may be that there's grumbling around over there, but I
rather doubt I just can't imagine I mean I had I just had the feeling that he had to feel awfully good about his how things are going when you call him on invite him to this ask him what they you know I have to get him a little about the Longhorns losing but how people generally feel about the international thing and the economy and so forth that's he run into out there okay and then give me a call back with you sure as I'd like to have the feel of this I can maybe put in a couple of good words for him as it then goes along all right okay

NARA Description

On January 2, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone from 3:30 pm to 3:36 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 017-144 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 17-144

Date: January 2, 1972
Time: 3:30 pm - 3:36 pm
Location: White House Telephone

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

[See Conversation No. 311-44]

     News Summary
         -Patrick J. Buchanan
         -Daniel L. Schorr's article on John B. Connally
               -Substance [?]
               -Calvin E. Brumley
                     -Fortune
               -White House
               -Connally
               -Arthur F. Burns
               -Henry A. Kissinger
               -George P. Shultz
               -Connally
                     -Back in Texas
               -Haldeman, John D. Ehrlichman
                     -Haldeman’s phone call to Connally
               -Substance
               -Azores agreement
                     -Speculation and assumptions
               -Connally
                     -Florida
                           -Willy Brandt meeting
                     -California
                           -Eisaku Sato meeting
               -Relations between Burns, Shultz and Connally
                     -Different views

     Schorr
          -Potential phone call to Schorr by Haldeman
          -Haldeman to meet with Schorr prior to Eisaku Sato meeting
                -Connally matter
          -President to have dinner with Schorr
                -Time and date
                      -Scheduling
          -Schorr and Dan Rather

     Connally
         -Haldeman to call Connally

                -University of Texas “Longhorns”
                      -Football loss
                -Economy
          -Haldeman to call President back
          -President's interview with Rather
                -Comments about Connally
                      -Support for Connally

Also recorded on January 2, 1972

  • 311-044 3:30 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:30 pm to 3:36 pm.
  • 017-145 3:36 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 3:36 pm and 3:40 pm.
  • 311-045 3:36 PM · 14 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 3:36 pm and 3:40 pm.
  • 017-146 3:40 PM · 10 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger talked on the telephone from 3:40 pm to 3:50 pm.
  • 311-046 3:40 PM · 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:40 pm to 3:50 pm.
  • 017-147 3:50 PM · 25 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 3:50 pm and 3:58 pm.
  • 311-047 3:50 PM · 33 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 3:50 pm and 3:58 pm.
  • 017-148 3:58 PM · 9 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone from 3:58 pm to 4:07 pm.

All 39 conversations from January 2, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 017-144, January 2, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/017-144 (accessed October 12, 2026).