{"conversationCode":"020-087","tapeNumber":20,"conversationNumber":87,"identifier":"37-wht-conversation-020-087","startDateTime":"1972-02-09T20:38:00.000Z","endDateTime":"1972-02-10T04:59:00.000Z","startDate":"9-Feb-1972","startTime":"3:38 PM","endDate":"9-Feb-1972","endTime":"11:59 PM","dateCertainty":"certain","timeCertainty":"estimated","participants":"Haldeman, H. R. (\"Bob\"); White House operator; Nixon, Richard M. (President); Buchanan, Patrick J.;","description":"On February 9, 1972, H. R. (\"Bob\") Haldeman, White House operator, President Richard M. Nixon, and Patrick J. Buchanan talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 3:38 pm and 11:59 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 020-087 of the White House Tapes.","locationCode":"WHT","recordingDevice":"White House Telephone","latitudeEstimated":38.89767,"longitudeEstimated":-77.03655,"chronCode":3,"chronRelease":"Third Chronological Release","chronReleaseDate":"28-Feb-2002","aogpRelease":null,"aogpSegment":null,"lastModified":"2015-07-27T17:04:10.235Z","findingAid":"Conversation No. 20-87\n\nDate: February 9, 1972\nTime: Unknown after 3:38 pm\nLocation: White House Telephone\n\nH. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman talked with the White House operator; the President can be heard in the\nbackground.\n\n     Request for a call to Patrick Buchanan\n\n     Unknown book\n\nHaldeman talked with Buchanan.\n\n     Public relations\n          -President's handling of press conference\n                 -Substantive issues\n                 -Eloquence\n                 -Coverage of desired points\n                 -Delivery\n                      -Pace\n                 -Length\n                 -Wire coverage\n                 -Vietnam questions\n                      -Questions and answers preparation\n                      -Nguyen Van Thieu mention\n                      -William P. Rogers\n                 -Transcript\n                 -Busing\n                      -Congressional action\n                             -The President’s forthcoming trip to the People’s Republic of China\n                                   [PRC]\n                             -Forthcoming meeting\n                 -Questions on Haldeman\n                      -George S. McGovern","filename":["020-087.mp3"],"tapeStart":"02:36:20","tapeEnd":"02:38:47","participantsList":["Haldeman, H. R. (\"Bob\")","White House operator","Nixon, Richard M. (President)","Buchanan, Patrick J."],"prevCode":"020-086","nextCode":"020-088","transcript":[{"start":3.98,"end":5.88,"text":"Haldeman, could I have Buchanan, please?"},{"start":6.2,"end":22.51,"text":"Thank you."},{"start":22.53,"end":29.4,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":32.31,"end":36.86,"text":"There you are."},{"start":36.88,"end":37.58,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":37.6,"end":38.58,"text":"How do you think it came out, Pat?"},{"start":38.84,"end":39.6,"text":"I think it came out well."},{"start":39.95,"end":40.59,"text":"Do you?"},{"start":40.61,"end":40.83,"text":"Oh, yeah."},{"start":40.85,"end":45.21,"text":"I think he made, on three or four points, it came out very well substantively, you know."},{"start":46.06,"end":51.84,"text":"And he made the points he wanted to make on any number of issues, and we got by a lot of them."},{"start":51.97,"end":54.47,"text":"So I didn't see any problems in the whole thing, frankly."},{"start":54.49,"end":56.63,"text":"You know, he wasn't the most eloquent one."},{"start":56.65,"end":59.1,"text":"He talks a hell of a lot slower than he does..."},{"start":59.4,"end":63.96,"text":"But by continuing an extra 15 minutes, we got a lot of stuff in there."},{"start":63.98,"end":65.2,"text":"So I thought it was a good conference."},{"start":65.22,"end":66,"text":"Well worthwhile."},{"start":67.23,"end":68.75,"text":"And I've seen this stuff come over the wires."},{"start":68.79,"end":70.21,"text":"I haven't seen any problem at all."},{"start":70.23,"end":71.77,"text":"Think we're in good shape on Vietnam now?"},{"start":72.41,"end":73.07,"text":"Yeah, fairly good."},{"start":73.09,"end":77.94,"text":"I wish they hadn't asked the second question because the first one was, did you get that Q&A into him?"},{"start":79.1,"end":79.74,"text":"Did we send over to you?"},{"start":80.6,"end":80.78,"text":"No."},{"start":81.32,"end":82.02,"text":"Oh, you didn't?"},{"start":82.33,"end":83.65,"text":"Well, he handled it right on the mark."},{"start":84.61,"end":86.89,"text":"I wish that had been more of the lead question."},{"start":87.33,"end":89.63,"text":"But it's all in the record, I think."},{"start":89.99,"end":97.12,"text":"Shoes should be in good shape, and there wasn't that much, and Roger certainly wasn't verbally undercut."},{"start":97.26,"end":98.08,"text":"No, that's right."},{"start":98.26,"end":99.56,"text":"Substantively, he held our position."},{"start":99.69,"end":100.45,"text":"Yeah, we had to."},{"start":100.67,"end":100.89,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":101.59,"end":103.99,"text":"So I thought, from what I've seen, it went very well."},{"start":104.03,"end":105.98,"text":"I'd like to look at the transcript, but... Yeah."},{"start":106.7,"end":107.74,"text":"How about bussing?"},{"start":107.76,"end":108.86,"text":"Bussing was outstanding."},{"start":109.13,"end":109.91,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":109.93,"end":110.55,"text":"I like that."},{"start":110.71,"end":110.95,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":111.09,"end":114.05,"text":"One reason I like it is because they're about to do something on the damn hill."},{"start":114.13,"end":120.98,"text":"And if the hill goes ahead of him while he's in Peking or something, then we're just following him."},{"start":121.02,"end":122.72,"text":"That's the point of having the meeting Monday."},{"start":123.05,"end":123.57,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":123.59,"end":123.83,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":124.57,"end":126.65,"text":"So, yeah, he's in good shape on that."},{"start":127.13,"end":128.93,"text":"So that should help."},{"start":129.21,"end":129.47,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":130.56,"end":133.02,"text":"So I thought, who was your friend that asked the second time about you?"},{"start":133.6,"end":134.32,"text":"I don't know."},{"start":134.34,"end":135.96,"text":"I just heard his voice from the..."},{"start":136.26,"end":141.8,"text":"I thought it was McGovern that snuck in there for me."},{"start":141.82,"end":142.76,"text":"Pretty ridiculous."},{"start":143.34,"end":144.23,"text":"Oh well."},{"start":144.25,"end":144.81,"text":"Okay, good."},{"start":145.13,"end":146.17,"text":"Thanks Pat."}],"aiSummary":{"text":"H. R. Haldeman and Patrick Buchanan review the President’s recent press conference, assessing its effectiveness and impact on public perception. They discuss the substance of Nixon’s delivery, particularly his handling of Vietnam questions and his strong stance on busing. The conversation highlights the administration's strategic timing regarding busing legislation in light of the President’s upcoming trip to the People's Republic of China.","topics":["Press relations","Vietnam War","Busing","Public relations","China trip"],"generatedAt":"2026-04-06T01:59:34.291Z"},"topicSlugs":["press-relations","vietnam-war","busing","public-relations","china-trip"],"audioDurationSec":147,"audioFiles":[{"file":"020-087.mp3","bytes":3537187,"durationSec":147.32,"bitrate":192079,"missing":false}],"audioIsShared":false,"audioProbedAt":"2026-09-18T02:19:25.225Z","audio":["https://nixon.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/audio/020-087.mp3"],"url":"https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/020-087","nixonLibraryUrl":"https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/white-house-tapes/20/conversation-020-087","license":"Public domain (U.S. Government work). AI-generated fields (transcript, aiSummary) are provided as-is without warranty."}