Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 24 › Conversation 024-148

Nixon phone call with an unidentified caller on Pierre Salinger

Tuesday, May 16, 1972 · 10:11 AM–10:12 AM ET · White House Telephone · 54 sec

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Nixon, Thelma C. ("Pat") (Ryan)Conversation024-148 on Tape 24 (tape position 03:35:35–03:36:28)StartTuesday, May 16, 1972 at 10:11 AMEndTuesday, May 16, 1972 at 10:12 AMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 024-148 ↗ · National Archives Catalog, NAID 646314612 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon called his wife, Pat, to discuss viewing motion pictures produced by Pierre Salinger. He planned to watch a half-hour segment at 4:00 pm in the movie theater and invited her to join him, along with some staff members and Walter Cronkite, to make the viewing less solitary and to build support for the project.

Pierre Salinger
Motion pictures
Viewing plans
Pat Nixon
Walter Cronkite
White House staff

Audio

Download MP3 · 2.1 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): 03:35:35 – 03:36:28

part B, 1:33:25

024a.mp3

024c.mp3

NARA Description

On May 16, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Thelma C. ("Pat") (Ryan) Nixon talked on the telephone from 10:11 am to 10:12 am. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 024-148 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 24-148

Date: May 16, 1972

Time: 10:11 am - 10:12 am
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with Thelma C. (“Pat”) Nixon.

[See also Conversation No. 725-21]

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 48s ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

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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).

NixonHave you seen Salinger's motion pictures?

NixonHello?

NixonYeah. Uh-uh.

NixonHave you seen his motion pictures, Salinger's?

NixonNo. Oh, no. He's always talking to me about them.

NixonWell, yeah, I've got to see them. I got to see a half hour of them today because we've got to build on them there. We've got to get through. At 4:00 I'm going to look- see it in the movie theater. Could you be free, you might want to come. I've got two or three staff members coming, I just don't want it to be by myself.

NixonWell, I have to shake hands with those people afterwards.

NixonNo, no, I'm going to do the same thing. I'm not going to just, I'm not going to leave them and let you shake hands. I'll stay and shake hands with them, too.

NixonYeah, and then I could go down.

NixonYeah, then we could go down, fine. And invite Walter to go too, let's just build up a little crowd, okay?

NixonOkay.

NixonIs he there? Is Salinger going to show them himself?

NixonOh, yes. We got to listen to 30

NixonOh yeah, he's been talking to me about them.

NixonYes, but it's worth doing. Yeah, okay. Fine.

Also recorded on May 16, 1972

024-145 9:59 AM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 9:59 am and 10:00 am.
725-018 9:59 AM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:59 am and 10:00 am.
024-146 10:00 AM · 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Thelma C. ("Pat") (Ryan) Nixon, and Walter R. Tkach talked on the telephone from 10:00 am to 10:05 am.
725-019 10:00 AM · 9 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Thelma C. ("Pat") (Ryan) Nixon, and Walter R. Tkach met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 10:00 am and 10:05 am.
725-020 10:05 AM · 52 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 10:05 am and 10:11 am.
725-021 10:11 AM · 7 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Thelma C. ("Pat") (Ryan) Nixon met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 10:11 am and 10:12 am.
725-022 10:12 AM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 10:12 am and 10:23 am.
725-023 10:12 AM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 10:12 am and 10:23 am.

All 74 conversations from May 16, 1972 →

Nixon, Ziegler & Camp David Operator on George McGovern and Vietnam War August 17, 1972 · 10 min
Nixon, Haldeman & Sanchez on George McGovern and Vietnam War August 17, 1972 · 22 min
Nixon, Haldeman & Camp David Operator on American Legion and Pierre Salinger August 17, 1972 · 7 min
Nixon phone call with Colson on Economy and Stock Market March 30, 1972 · 12 min
Nixon phone call with Ziegler on 1972 presidential campaign October 5, 1972 · 8 min
Nixon phone call with Ziegler on Media relations October 7, 1972 · 11 min

Cite this conversation

Conversation 024-148, May 16, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives (NAID 646314612). Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/024-148 (accessed November 8, 2026).