Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 21 › Conversation 021-121

Nixon phone call with an unidentified caller on Alexander P. Butterfield

Monday, March 20, 1972 · 5:56 PM–7:36 PM ET · White House Telephone · 10 sec

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); White House operatorConversation021-121 on Tape 21 (tape position 04:18:55–04:19:05)StartMonday, March 20, 1972 at 5:56 PMEndMonday, March 20, 1972 at 7:36 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 021-121 ↗ · National Archives Catalog, NAID 646310242 ↗

A 10-second recording. What it contains is described by the archivists' log below; no AI summary is shown for recordings this short.

Audio

Download MP3 · 0.4 MB

This clip of the conversation was cut from the tape by the National Archives (catalog record ↗).

Listen to the full tape segment it comes from

Position in tape (archivists' log): 04:18:55 – 04:19:05

part B, 2:15:34

021a.mp3
021c.mp3

NARA Description

On March 20, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 5:56 pm and 7:36 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 021-121 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 21-121

Date: March 20, 1972
Time: Unknown between 5:56 pm and 7:36 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The White House operator talked with the President.

     Alexander P. Butterfield’s location

     Stephen B. Bull

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript was made by an AI model listening to the recording (gemini-3.8-flash) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Speaker names are the model's inference from the voices and the participant list. Words and names can still be wrong — verify against the audio and the finding aid before citing.

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).

OperatorMr. President, we're trying to locate Mr. Butterfield and in the meantime, Mr. Bull has come in.
NixonLet's forget him.
NixonYeah. All right, I'll talk to him.
OperatorAll right.

Also recorded on March 20, 1972

  • 324-008 5:15 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 5:15 pm and 5:21 pm.
  • 324-009 5:15 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 5:15 pm and 5:21 pm.
  • 324-012 5:21 PM · 53 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Charles W. Colson, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, unknown person(s), Ronald L. Ziegler, White House operator, John D. Ehrlichman, and Stephen B. Bull met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 5:21 pm to 6:30 pm.
  • 021-117 5:30 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 5:30 pm and 5:56 pm.
  • 021-118 5:56 PM · 23 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 5:56 pm.
  • 021-119 5:56 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 5:56 pm and 7:36 pm.
  • 021-120 5:56 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 5:56 pm and 7:36 pm.
  • 324-013 6:30 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 6:30 pm and 6:34 pm.

All 23 conversations from March 20, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 021-121, March 20, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives (NAID 646310242). Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/021-121 (accessed November 2, 2026).