{"conversationCode":"026-044","tapeNumber":26,"conversationNumber":44,"identifier":"37-wht-conversation-026-044","startDateTime":"1972-07-01T17:02:00.000Z","endDateTime":"1972-07-01T17:05:00.000Z","startDate":"1-Jul-1972","startTime":"1:02 PM","endDate":"1-Jul-1972","endTime":"1:05 PM","dateCertainty":"certain","timeCertainty":"certain","participants":"Nixon, Richard M. (President); Walters, Vernon A.;","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.","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. 26-44\n\nDate: July 1, 1972\nTime: 1:02-1:05 pm\nLocation: White House Telephone\n\nThe President talked with Lt. Gen. Vernon A. Walters.\n\n[See Conversation No. 746-18]\n\n     Memorandum from Richard M. Helms\n        -Soviet Union leaders\n              -The President and Henry A. Kissinger\n        -Helms's and the President's schedules\n        -Forthcoming meeting\n              -The President’s views of Soviet Union leaders\n              -Possible leaks\n                    -State Department\n        -Instructions for Helms\n              -Peter G. Peterson\n\n     Walters's job\n          -Protection of Central Intelligence Agency [CIA]","filename":["026-044-splice.mp3"],"tapeStart":"03:18:26","tapeEnd":"03:20:54","participantsList":["Nixon, Richard M. (President)","Walters, Vernon A."],"prevCode":"026-043","nextCode":"026-045","tapeTranscriptFile":"026a.mp3,026b.mp3","transcript":[{"start":12061.32,"end":12061.98,"text":"Walters, sir."},{"start":12062.14,"end":12064.24,"text":"Hello, Walters."},{"start":12065.06,"end":12068.82,"text":"A memorandum came in from Helms about"},{"start":12069.25,"end":12083.04,"text":"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"},{"start":12084.09,"end":12089.79,"text":"with regard to the Soviet leaders, you know, to update the kind of things you have on them."},{"start":12090.05,"end":12090.29,"text":"Right."},{"start":12090.49,"end":12092.01,"text":"He's out of the country, I find."},{"start":12092.03,"end":12093.09,"text":"Yes, he is."},{"start":12093.21,"end":12095.13,"text":"And I'm leaving for California and out there."},{"start":12095.25,"end":12107.48,"text":"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."},{"start":12108.06,"end":12110.3,"text":"I, of course, have my own recollections."},{"start":12110.42,"end":12110.72,"text":"Are you?"},{"start":12111.26,"end":12116.08,"text":"And I'd be glad to, you know, just sort of sit down and go over, you know, an analysis of these people."},{"start":12116.56,"end":12134.78,"text":"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"},{"start":12135.11,"end":12137.83,"text":"Well, the president thinks this is the other one is this and that."},{"start":12138.55,"end":12145.96,"text":"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."},{"start":12147.06,"end":12148,"text":"What do you think about this?"},{"start":12148.02,"end":12152.91,"text":"Well, I think we have, you know, one or two other very sensitive accounts like that that we can keep very careful."},{"start":12152.93,"end":12156.09,"text":"Well, you can, I want you to get a hold of Dick and tell him that..."},{"start":12156.87,"end":12160.74,"text":"that I'm willing to do, but we have to do it on a sensitive basis."},{"start":12160.78,"end":12172.85,"text":"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."},{"start":12172.87,"end":12175.71,"text":"Some of it is not as accurate because people just didn't know."},{"start":12176.37,"end":12184.41,"text":"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."},{"start":12184.45,"end":12186.99,"text":"In other words, it would be distributed only at my direction."},{"start":12187.01,"end":12189.63,"text":"And, of course, fine."},{"start":12190.35,"end":12190.97,"text":"And we'll do that."},{"start":12191.03,"end":12191.27,"text":"Fine."},{"start":12191.29,"end":12192.29,"text":"How do you like your job?"},{"start":12192.41,"end":12192.99,"text":"It's fascinating."},{"start":12193.33,"end":12194.37,"text":"Right, right."},{"start":12194.93,"end":12200.2,"text":"Well, I hope you get into a few mean things and protect the CIA from assaults."},{"start":12201.19,"end":12201.77,"text":"From abroad."},{"start":12201.79,"end":12202.87,"text":"I mean, at home, too."},{"start":12202.91,"end":12203.62,"text":"Yes, I will."},{"start":12203.88,"end":12205,"text":"Everybody's trying to get in these."},{"start":12205.12,"end":12205.48,"text":"Okay."},{"start":12205.5,"end":12205.9,"text":"Right."},{"start":12205.94,"end":12206.2,"text":"Bye."},{"start":12206.22,"end":12206.72,"text":"Okay."}],"transcriptBoundary":{"start":12061.23,"end":12215,"startMethod":"llm-alignment","endMethod":"llm-alignment"},"transcriptConfidence":"high","transcriptSource":"bigtape","aiSummary":{"text":"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.","topics":["Vernon A. Walters","Central Intelligence Agency","Soviet Union","Information leaks","State Department"],"generatedAt":"2026-04-06T03:18:56.846Z"},"topicSlugs":["vernon-a-walters","central-intelligence-agency","soviet-union","information-leaks","state-department"],"audioDurationSec":157,"audioFiles":[{"file":"026-044-splice.mp3","bytes":2502879,"durationSec":156.76,"bitrate":127729,"missing":false}],"audioIsShared":false,"audioProbedAt":"2026-09-18T14:10:15.024Z","originalFilename":["026a.mp3","026b.mp3"],"spliceSource":{"spliceType":"bigtape","sourceFiles":["026b.mp3"],"cutStart":12059.73,"cutEnd":12216.5,"adjustedStart":12059.73,"adjustedEnd":12216.5,"boundaryMethod":"llm-alignment","confidence":"high","splicedAt":"2026-09-18T14:10:15.024Z"},"transcriptPrev":{"segments":16,"replacedAt":"2026-09-18T08:14:04.096Z"},"audio":["https://nixon.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/audio/026-044-splice.mp3"],"url":"https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/026-044","nixonLibraryUrl":"https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/white-house-tapes/26/conversation-026-044","license":"Public domain (U.S. Government work). AI-generated fields (transcript, aiSummary) are provided as-is without warranty."}