Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 20 › Conversation 020-105

Nixon phone call with Haldeman on China trip and Public relations

Monday, February 28, 1972 · 10:47 PM–10:50 PM ET · White House Telephone · 3 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob"); [Unknown person(s)]Conversation020-105 on Tape 20 (tape position 03:20:15–03:23:42)StartMonday, February 28, 1972 at 10:47 PMEndMonday, February 28, 1972 at 10:50 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 020-105 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and H. R. Haldeman debrief the successful conclusion of the President's trip to China, focusing on the positive public reception at Andrews Air Force Base and the favorable stock market performance. The conversation shifts to managing press relations, specifically addressing a critical Washington Post headline regarding Taiwan policy that drew concern from press secretary Ron Ziegler. Despite these media challenges, the participants reaffirm the overall success of the diplomatic mission and discuss the ongoing efforts of Henry Kissinger to brief domestic political leaders.

Audio

Download MP3 · 4.7 MB

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

Download transcript (.txt) · JSON data

· Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).
Hello.
Yes, sir.
How'd you think it went out there?
I think great.
It was really, I thought, a wonderful crowd.
Very inspiring kind of a thing to wrap it all up.
Right.
And the American the Beautiful was nice at the end.
That worked out very well, I thought.
Yeah.
It must have been great television.
I haven't talked to anybody who saw it on TV.
I wonder if it wasn't good television.
It must have been.
Oh, it has to have been.
Because it was that huge crowd and that great enthusiasm and that...
a lot of color.
That, in that hangar, works out very well.
Right.
Now, really, by going to that length, I've really made the report to the nature.
Nobody can really complain about that, can they?
Yep.
That's right.
That's right.
Got that out of the way.
That was perfect.
All right.
Well, I've got Henry busy.
He's talking to Reagan on the phone now.
Good.
He's really charged up about it.
He goes and battles for things.
He's used to working all night.
He's still got a while to go tonight.
Well, that's good.
He needs the more of that that he can do for the next day or so.
Yeah.
Until he winds down.
That's right.
I think what is, I just, when I got in, I saw the headline, the Washington Post, and I see why Colson and the rest of the word, the headline is really disgraceful.
It says, Nixon's budgets pull out of Taiwan.
Yeah.
Well, for Christ's sakes, that's not true.
It says pull out when there is peace.
And a colonel tried to do us in.
And I said, I had a hell of a time with Ziegler.
He wants to have him for that thing.
And I said, Ron, you can't.
He said, well, it's a problem.
But you've got to convince him of it.
I just have a personal feeling about it.
Yeah, I told him that.
Of course, Ziegler, I know, has to play it that way.
But that's one of the reasons.
I'll take the heat.
I think it isn't the heat from Carno that he's worried about, as I understand it.
What his concern is that we screw our story because Carno will break it.
He'll get it from somebody and then run it.
What does he want to do?
Have Carno?
Have him screw us like we did have Buckley and Buchanan screw us?
Not Buchanan, but Buckley and me.
You see what I mean?
Yeah.
What the hell?
He screwed us.
What do you think?
Don't you agree?
Do you?
I don't know.
I do.
I can see his point, which is a different point than we've been talking about.
All right.
Just take your risk.
But maybe that doesn't make any difference either.
So they do put it on.
All right.
Push it along, dude.
But all in all, I do think we have really brought the thing off in a fine climax.
I sure have.
Good.
I think the communication probably played better than thought.
Well, I think it did.
Incidentally, I guess the market held up all right.
Well, honestly, it's 924.
Yeah.
That's not bad.
It had some little up and down days, but I never gave you the market report.
Oh, no.
I don't hear it.
It was digging back and forth, and it had one pretty big day when it was about 911.
Wow.
924.
That's just where it ought to be about now.
Oh, that's good.
Okay.
Come in.
Come in, come in, come in.
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, fine.

NARA Description

On February 28, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, and unknown person(s) talked on the telephone from 10:47 pm to 10:50 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 020-105 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 20-105

Date: February 28, 1972
Time: 10:47 pm - 10:50 pm
Location: White House Telephone

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

     Reception at Andrews Air Force Base
          -Crowd reception
          -Television coverage

           -Report to the nation
           -Henry A. Kissinger schedule
                -Ronald W. Reagan
                -Length of day

     Washington Post headline
          -Charles W. Colson
          -Pullout from Taiwan, Republic of China
          -Stanley Karnow criticism
          -Ronald L. Ziegler's view
                -Fears of reporters
                -William F. Buckley, Jr. criticism
                -Patrick J. Buchanan
          -Agreement with Ziegler
     Success of trip
          -Public relations
          -Stock market
                -Performance during trip

[An unknown person entered at an unknown time after 10:47 pm.]

Also recorded on February 29, 1972

  • 020-104 10:46 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 10:46 pm.
  • 020-143 10:46 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 10:46 pm.
  • 020-106 10:52 PM · 8 min — President Richard M. Nixon, White House operator, and Henry A. Kissinger talked on the telephone from 10:52 pm to 11:00 pm.
  • 020-107 11:00 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 11:00 pm and 11:05 pm.
  • 020-108 11:05 PM · 6 min — President Richard M. Nixon and William P. Rogers talked on the telephone from 11:05 pm to 11:11 pm.
  • 020-109 11:11 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone from 11:11 pm to 11:12 pm.
  • 020-110 11:12 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John B. Connally talked on the telephone from 11:12 pm to 11:15 pm.
  • 020-111 11:15 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 11:15 pm and 11:22 pm.

All 51 conversations from February 29, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 020-105, February 29, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/020-105 (accessed October 12, 2026).