Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 29 › Conversation 029-010

Nixon phone call with Stennis on Appropriations and Spiro Agnew

Thursday, August 3, 1972 · 4:57 PM–4:59 PM ET · White House Telephone · 2 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Stennis, John C.Conversation029-010 on Tape 29StartThursday, August 3, 1972 at 4:57 PMEndThursday, August 3, 1972 at 4:59 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 029-010 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon called Senator John C. Stennis to extend birthday greetings and express gratitude for his efforts in navigating difficult appropriation votes in Congress. The two discussed the lack of support from Republican senators and the frustration voiced by Vice President Spiro Agnew regarding the legislative situation. Nixon emphasized the importance of securing a strong position in the House of Representatives to resolve ongoing legislative conflicts, while Stennis reaffirmed his support for the administration's Vietnam policy.

Audio

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NARA Description

On August 3, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and John C. Stennis talked on the telephone from 4:57 pm to 4:59 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 029-010 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 29-10

Date: August 3, 1972
Time: 4:57 pm - 4:59 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with John C. Stennis.

     Birthday greetings

     Appropriations
         -Stennis's role
               -The President's thanks
         -Republican Senators
               -Vice President Spiro T. Agnew's call to the President
               -The President's opinion
         -House of Representatives

     Vietnam
          -Stennis

     Stennis's plans

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 1 minute of this recording (about 31% of it) is represented by only a few words. Listen to the audio rather than relying on the text below; a corrected transcript is queued.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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

John, I'm calling you on two things.

One, to wish you a happy birthday, and two, to thank you for another really great job on, you know, fighting out of the stupid and the pleasant sort of a tough vote.

And now you've got the confidence to just hope that some of them can be ironed out.

I must say we put an awful load on you.

Particularly when we can't even provide you our own republic.

The vice president called me last night.

He was really outraged.

I said, well, I said, well, I understand, you know, I can understand our

Well, we don't, we don't want them all in on this one.

We hope the house is strong enough so that we can really work it out.

So, we're, we're, we're on the right track.

Well, good and have it.

I can assure you that on my time in the war, without saying a thing, you all know you're on the right side.

History will record it, but we didn't have to say much.

And you know why.

Incidentally, they do give us a picture of us, too.

Also recorded on August 3, 1972

029-006 4:15 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 4:15 pm and 4:30 pm.
353-019 4:15 PM · 14 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 4:15 pm and 4:30 pm.
029-007 4:30 PM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Thelma C. ("Pat") (Ryan) Nixon talked on the telephone from 4:30 pm to 4:33 pm.
029-008 4:44 PM · 22 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman talked on the telephone from 4:44 pm to 4:45 pm.
029-009 4:45 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 4:45 pm and 4:57 pm.
353-022 4:45 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 4:45 pm and 4:47 pm.
353-023 4:57 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John C. Stennis met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 4:57 pm to 4:59 pm.
353-024 5:00 PM · 48 min — President Richard M. Nixon, John D. Ehrlichman, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Alexander P. Butterfield, and Zosimo T. Monzon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 5:00 pm to 5:57 pm.

All 62 conversations from August 3, 1972 →

Nixon, Ehrlichman & Haldeman on Appropriations and China relations July 20, 1971 · 2 hr 9 min
Nixon phone call with Mahon on public employment bill and appropriations July 21, 1971 · 6 min
Nixon phone call with MacGregor on Continuing resolution November 3, 1971 · 4 min
Nixon phone call with Timmons on Foreign aid and Legislative strategy November 10, 1971 · 4 min
Nixon, Cole & Shultz on Budget and Vetoes August 10, 1971 · 9 min
Nixon phone call with Colson on Republican Party and Congressional relations October 13, 1971 · 4 min

Cite this conversation

Conversation 029-010, August 3, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/029-010 (accessed November 15, 2026).