Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 31 › Conversation 031-037

Nixon phone call with Price on Speechwriting and Drug Policy

Friday, October 13, 1972 · 9:44 AM–9:47 AM ET · White House Telephone · 3 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Price, Raymond K., Jr.Conversation031-037 on Tape 31StartFriday, October 13, 1972 at 9:44 AMEndFriday, October 13, 1972 at 9:47 AMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 031-037 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and speechwriter Raymond K. Price, Jr. discuss the drafting and refinement of various upcoming presidential speeches. The pair decides to remove references to marijuana and dangerous drugs from a crime policy draft to avoid unnecessary controversy. They also review the status of drafts concerning paternalism, veterans, agriculture, health, and education, while agreeing to defer a foreign affairs speech until the outcome of Vietnam peace negotiations becomes clearer.

Audio

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Hello.
Ray Price.
Hello.
Sir, I saw your memorandum on the crime and drug thing, and I have no problem in taking it out.
As a matter of fact, in the event that you think it raises a problem, perhaps we just ought to leave out the dangerous drugs things, because, I mean...
Any smart person, I think, could just maybe ask the... Of course, my position on the marijuana has already been made.
Yes, you did.
But would you prefer to leave that out, too?
I mean, I could just put in the two things.
I think that might be better.
Just leave it out so we don't raise the question.
I think the position is just the matter.
Now, the rest is... Yeah.
So, all right, fine.
I'll work it over now for...
In terms of just getting the rough edges moved off and so forth and so on.
And...
How are you coming on education?
That's the next one.
I mean, how are you working on now?
We're just about to crank up on that, and that's one we hadn't gotten started on because there's been some question about whether we really should do one.
Oh, yeah.
I see.
There were some people who felt that it would be a good idea.
What about others?
We're well along, of course, on the paternalism list.
I'd be ready to throw, but... And we're working on the veterans ones.
The veterans, of course, right, right.
That's an easy one.
That's just, that's basically on a farm when we've got to have something for the farmer.
We've got an agriculture draft, which is a pretty good starting point.
We're going to work over on that.
And then I think one, a very high level one, you know, for the, toward the end is needed.
Let's see what other subsets we want besides education.
Well, one that we haven't started on, but we've been gathering a little stuff on, is a health one, which I think could be good.
Health.
as as possibilities it does yeah uh we've got the foreign uh the unfinished agenda in foreign affairs which uh yeah we had a draft on which we wanted to do a little more work on well i'll tell you with the with foreign affairs you really have got to i'd sort of put that on the back burner i know i would get it i'd have the draft but i put in the back burner because everything really hinges on
I mean, as long as Vietnam is being negotiated, you know, you don't know, nothing may happen.
That's the only subject people give a damn about.
And so that would come very late, that one, unless, okay.
All right, fine, Ray, thanks.
Sure, thank you.

NARA Description

On October 13, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Raymond K. Price, Jr. talked on the telephone from 9:44 am to 9:47 am. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 031-037 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 31-37

Date: October 13, 1972
Time: 9:44 am - 9:47 am
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with Raymond K. Price, Jr.

[See Conversation No. 797-3]

        Domestic issues
           -Crime and drugs
               -Price's memorandum
               -Marijuana issue
           -Education
               -Price's speech draft
           -Speech drafts
               -Paternalism, veterans, agriculture
               -Health

        Foreign affairs
            -Status of draft
                 -Timing of speech
                      -Vietnam

Also recorded on October 13, 1972

  • 031-036 9:37 AM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 9:37 am and 9:44 am.
  • 797-001 9:37 AM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:37 am and 9:44 am.
  • 797-002 9:44 AM · 22 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House at 9:44 am.
  • 797-003 9:44 AM · 12 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Raymond K. Price, Jr., H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 9:44 am to 10:05 am.
  • 108-003 10:06 AM · 38 min — President Richard M. Nixon and the Pay Board, including George P. Shultz, Donald H. Rumsfeld, George H. Boldt, William G. Caples, Donald Cagle, Kermit Gordon, Dr. Neil H. Jacoby, Rocco C. Siciliano, Arnold R. Weber, and Robert P. Tiernan, met in the Cabinet Room of the White House from 10:06 am to 10:51 am.
  • 797-034 10:06 AM · 24 sec — United States Secret Service agents and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 10:06 am and 10:51 am.
  • 797-004 10:51 AM · 15 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House at 10:51 am.
  • 797-005 10:51 AM · 25 min — President Richard M. Nixon, John D. Ehrlichman, and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the Oval Office of the White House from 10:51 am to 11:17 am.

All 50 conversations from October 13, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 031-037, October 13, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/031-037 (accessed October 10, 2026).