Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 19 › Conversation 019-151

Nixon phone call with Haldeman on Caspar Weinberger and George P. Shultz

Friday, January 28, 1972 · 5:26 PM–5:30 PM ET · White House Telephone · 5 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob")Conversation019-151 on Tape 19StartFriday, January 28, 1972 at 5:26 PMEndFriday, January 28, 1972 at 5:30 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 019-151 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and H.R. Haldeman discuss administrative appointments, specifically exploring the potential role of Caspar Weinberger as a successor to George Shultz at the Office of Management and Budget. They also coordinate communication strategies regarding Henry Kissinger’s recent meeting with Soviet Ambassador Anatoliy Dobrynin to ensure Secretary of State William Rogers remains informed without disclosing excessive detail. Finally, the two review recent polling data that shows a slight uptick in the President's approval ratings following his January 25th speech on Vietnam.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 1 minute of this recording (about 28% 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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Oh, just a couple of thoughts.
On John, he had made up his mind at the firm.
The more I thought about it, I thought about it last week, but I figured that, well, we're going to take you to the firm, and you're going to be making a living.
It's interesting that there's the same thing.
John's donating his time to the campaign.
I think your argument of the heat anyway is probably what really does end up answering it.
That question's never come up with me before, with him, so I'm glad you raised it.
How about my thought about cap?
I wish I'd have thought of that earlier.
Yeah, and it might have been a... Of course, we couldn't have done it.
Well, we could have done it right after.
We could have done it now.
If we had known, we could have said...
worth further exploring than the other thing I was thinking.
But we should put someone new in now.
Yeah.
Really, we shouldn't wait.
Because Cap doesn't want to do the next budget.
If we keep George in there for continuity through the season, it would be a good time to change the budget.
Yeah, we put him.
Well, Henry had a very good talk with the Brinkman.
Well, nothing substantive.
He doesn't have to say anything.
Rogers will find out.
You tell him.
You tell him.
You just give a brief number and not say how long it was.
He doesn't have to say anything.
Very good.
Okay.
Okay.
Oh, I've got the poll.
Our poll.
Oh, yeah.
It shows approval up to 54.
How hard.
We're, uh,
But it shows a little.
The last one we did was in November, November 19.
And there, we had 52.
I remember it didn't show much.
And we had had the same in October.
We had 52.
Now, this does show 54, up a couple points.
It shows the disapproval of, in November, it was 33.
It's now 36.
Then in October, it was 38.
So actually, we're several points better than we were in October.
disapproval is bound now as you go on i kind of think it has to go up to go up because you're polarizing
that uh doesn't show anything with regard to money but yeah we asked on the approval of the way president vietnam situation and that's 54 38. uh better yeah in november it was 50 39. we picked up four points on approval and that november was the highest that it's been all year before it was 47 40 46 41.
like you did uh you didn't ask about the reaction to the priest yep well first of all awareness on it was 77 which is uh yeah especially when it's just see we took it just right afterwards

NARA Description

On January 28, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone from 5:26 pm to 5:30 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 019-151 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 19-151

Date: January 28, 1972
Time: 5:26 pm - 5:30 pm
Location: White House Telephone

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

     Appointments
         -John N. Mitchell
              -Law firm
                   -Criticism
              -Robert H. Finch
         -Caspar W. (“Cap”) Weinberger
              -Possible role with the administration

**********************************************************************

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 26s ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

**********************************************************************

     Budget director replacement
         -Weinberger
         -George P. Shultz

     Henry A. Kissinger
         -Conversation with Anatoliy F. Dobrynin
               -Forthcoming conversation with Haldeman
                    -Memorandum for William P. Rogers

     Polls
             -Approval of the President's performance
                  -Polarization factor
                  -Opinion Research Corporation [ORC]
                  -Vietnam
                       -The President's January 25, 1972 speech
                              -Awareness

Also recorded on January 28, 1972

  • 659-023 5:03 PM · 1 min — United States Secret Service agents and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 5:03 pm and 11:59 pm.
  • 019-148 5:05 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 5:05 pm and 5:23 pm.
  • 019-149 5:23 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods talked on the telephone from 5:23 pm to 5:25 pm.
  • 019-150 5:25 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 5:25 pm and 5:26 pm.
  • 019-152 5:30 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 5:30 pm and 5:33 pm.
  • 019-153 5:33 PM · 16 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone from 5:33 pm to 5:44 pm.
  • 019-154 5:49 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 5:49 pm.
  • 019-155 5:49 PM · 18 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson talked on the telephone from 5:49 pm to 6:08 pm.

All 37 conversations from January 28, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 019-151, January 28, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/019-151 (accessed October 12, 2026).