Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 31 › Conversation 031-130

Nixon phone call with Ziegler on Congressional leadership and Press relations

Wednesday, October 18, 1972 · 7:19 PM–7:23 PM ET · White House Telephone · 4 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Ziegler, Ronald L.Conversation031-130 on Tape 31StartWednesday, October 18, 1972 at 7:19 PMEndWednesday, October 18, 1972 at 7:23 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 031-130 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Press Secretary Ronald Ziegler consulted regarding potential media inquiries following a recent phone call between the President and congressional leaders Mike Mansfield and Margaret Chase Smith. They clarified the nature of the conversation to ensure that laughter overheard by the press would not be misinterpreted or attributed to political leaks regarding China. Additionally, Ziegler provided a brief update on the positive reception of Secretary of State William P. Rogers' recent trade agreement statement and current television news coverage.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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· Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).
Mr. Ziegler calling you, sir.
There you are.
Mr. President?
Yeah.
Your phone call to, or from the leadership.
There were press when they called, and at one point, Senator Mansfield and Senator Smith apparently laughed at something you said.
In other words, being amused by it.
And the press were asking what that was.
Well, Senator Mansfield said he would never divulge what the president said, and so did Senator Smith.
And I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't something new.
It wasn't really—I think it was just about— Senator Smith said privately, apparently, to Moges that you said you were going to win two to one.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
I heard that she was going to win two to one.
She said, I think you're going to do better than that, man.
I see.
Exactly.
I heard she would win two to one.
You said, I hope you'll do well.
What they were laughing about, I don't know.
Well, it wasn't the best.
In other words, they could say it was a coup.
Now, Mike, as you know, is planning to go to China again.
Right.
That's what that was all about.
But I didn't do it.
I did it in double talk.
Right.
But I wish them out well.
There really wasn't anything wrong that you can really report.
Todd, just stay away from it all.
I just did say that we had a pleasant conversation about coming to see them, and that I confidently expected to see both of them in their positions of leadership in the next congressman.
I'm pointing out that you can't say that because that puts Mike in that position.
That's right.
I look forward to seeing them in the next Congress and after the election.
I hope the next three weeks aren't too difficult for either of them, put it that way.
All right.
There isn't much else to say.
No, that's fine.
I just didn't want anything to become confused on that.
I'm sorry to bother you, but I did want to change it.
On the two-to-one thing, it was the other way around.
And I thought she was going to live a two-to-one, and she said, I think you're going to do better than that.
Okay, sir.
Thanks a lot.
How did the other, how did the Rogers do?
Oh, he did great.
I thought he did well.
It was on ABC, and he was on ABC.
The trade thing got good coverage tonight.
The film from in the office played down in the middle of the news shows on each of them.
They play the top, Watergate.
No, no, they didn't.
There was a little of that on tonight, but really not much.
The top, of course, was the Kissinger and Andrews.
All right, gross.
We're doing fine tonight, I think.
Good.
Yes, sir.

NARA Description

On October 18, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler talked on the telephone from 7:19 pm to 7:23 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 031-130 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 31-130

Date: October 18, 1972
Time: 7:19 pm - 7:23 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with Ronald L. Ziegler.

[See Conversation No. 369-22]

        Congressional adjournment
           -Margaret Chase Smith and Michael J. Mansfield's previous call to the President
                -Press inquiry

                 -Smith's comment to Thomas C. Korologos
                 -The President’s recollection
                 -Mansfield's forthcoming trip to the People's
                  Republic of China [PRC]
                 -The President’s recollection

        William P. Rogers
            -Trade agreement statement
                -Television coverage on American Broadcasting Company [ABC]
                -Alexander M. Haig, Jr.'s comments

        Television coverage
            -Watergate
            -Henry A. Kissinger's arrival in Saigon, South Vietnam

Also recorded on October 18, 1972

  • 031-129 7:15 PM · 19 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Goldthwaite H. Dorr talked on the telephone from 7:15 pm to 7:16 pm.
  • 369-020 7:15 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Goldthwaite H. Dorr met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 7:15 pm to 7:16 pm.
  • 369-021 7:16 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 7:16 pm and 7:19 pm.
  • 369-022 7:19 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 7:19 pm to 7:21 pm.
  • 031-131 7:23 PM · 14 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 7:23 pm and 7:28 pm.
  • 369-023 7:23 PM · 11 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 7:23 pm and 7:28 pm.
  • 369-024 7:23 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 7:23 pm and 7:28 pm.
  • 369-025 7:23 PM · 9 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 7:23 pm and 7:28 pm.

All 86 conversations from October 18, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 031-130, October 18, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/031-130 (accessed October 10, 2026).