Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 26 › Conversation 026-044

Nixon phone call with Walters on Central Intelligence Agency and Soviet Union

Saturday, July 1, 1972 · 1:02 PM–1:05 PM ET · White House Telephone · 3 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Walters, Vernon A.Conversation026-044 on Tape 26 (tape position 03:18:26–03:20:54)StartSaturday, July 1, 1972 at 1:02 PMEndSaturday, July 1, 1972 at 1:05 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 026-044 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon initiated this brief call to reach Deputy CIA Director Vernon A. Walters after discovering that CIA Director Richard Helms was unavailable. The primary purpose was to coordinate a forthcoming meeting regarding sensitive matters involving Soviet leadership and concerns over potential information leaks from the State Department. Nixon also signaled an intent to discuss the protection of the CIA and provided specific instructions to be relayed to relevant personnel.

Audio

Download MP3 · 2.4 MB

This clip was extracted from the full tape recording by Easy Nixon.

Listen to the full tape segment

Position in tape: 03:18:26 – 03:20:54

026a.mp3
026b.mp3

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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).
Walters, sir.
Hello, Walters.
A memorandum came in from Helms about
four or five days ago or so in which he asked, said it would be very helpful if, I mean, the CIA had some reflections from me and from Henry
with regard to the Soviet leaders, you know, to update the kind of things you have on them.
Right.
He's out of the country, I find.
Yes, he is.
And I'm leaving for California and out there.
I think if you could get a message to him, and this is also for your information, that if you can get together a very elite small group, I mean, maybe, you know, half a dozen.
I, of course, have my own recollections.
Are you?
And I'd be glad to, you know, just sort of sit down and go over, you know, an analysis of these people.
Now, the main point about this, however, is that it could only be done if I could have an absolute control on the secrecy of it, because anything leaking out, as you know what I mean, could be terribly embarrassing and where
Well, the president thinks this is the other one is this and that.
So therefore, I don't know whether that's the only reason that I, frankly, I haven't briefed the State Department on my views because I know it'll leak.
What do you think about this?
Well, I think we have, you know, one or two other very sensitive accounts like that that we can keep very careful.
Well, you can, I want you to get a hold of Dick and tell him that...
that I'm willing to do, but we have to do it on a sensitive basis.
I don't want it, for example, like when they send a fellow like a cabinet officer abroad, like a Peterson, to give him the boilerplate stuff you gave me, and it's only I can correct some of that stuff.
Some of it is not as accurate because people just didn't know.
But if you could have a, this should be basically the top secret stuff, which would not be given to foreign governments, but not be given to catalogers.
In other words, it would be distributed only at my direction.
And, of course, fine.
And we'll do that.
Fine.
How do you like your job?
It's fascinating.
Right, right.
Well, I hope you get into a few mean things and protect the CIA from assaults.
From abroad.
I mean, at home, too.
Yes, I will.
Everybody's trying to get in these.
Okay.
Right.
Bye.
Okay.

NARA Description

On July 1, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Vernon A. Walters talked on the telephone from 1:02 pm to 1:05 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 026-044 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 26-44

Date: July 1, 1972
Time: 1:02-1:05 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with Lt. Gen. Vernon A. Walters.

[See Conversation No. 746-18]

     Memorandum from Richard M. Helms
        -Soviet Union leaders
              -The President and Henry A. Kissinger
        -Helms's and the President's schedules
        -Forthcoming meeting
              -The President’s views of Soviet Union leaders
              -Possible leaks
                    -State Department
        -Instructions for Helms
              -Peter G. Peterson

     Walters's job
          -Protection of Central Intelligence Agency [CIA]

Also recorded on July 1, 1972

  • 026-040 12:16 PM · 12 sec — H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 12:16 pm and 1:02 pm.
  • 026-041 12:16 PM · 57 sec — H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman and Clark MacGregor talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 12:16 pm and 1:02 pm.
  • 026-042 12:16 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 12:16 pm and 1:02 pm.
  • 026-043 1:00 PM · 18 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone from 1:00 pm to 1:02 pm.
  • 746-018 1:02 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Vernon A. Walters met in the Oval Office of the White House from 1:02 pm to 1:05 pm.
  • 026-058 1:05 PM · 41 min — the recording device engaged at an unknown time between 1:05 pm and 11:59 pm, but the conversation appears to be blank.
  • 746-019 1:05 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Stephen B. Bull, and Bruce A. Kehrli met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 1:05 pm and 1:08 pm.
  • 746-020 1:08 PM · 12 sec — Unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House on an unknown date, sometime between 1:08 pm on July 1, 1972 and 9:06 am on July 19, 1972.

All 43 conversations from July 1, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 026-044, July 1, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/026-044 (accessed October 12, 2026).