Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 32 › Conversation 032-078

Haldeman & Ziegler on Public relations and Speechwriting

Saturday, October 28, 1972 · 9:24 AM–9:27 AM ET · White House Telephone · 1 min

ParticipantsHaldeman, H. R. ("Bob"); Ziegler, Ronald L.Conversation032-078 on Tape 32StartSaturday, October 28, 1972 at 9:24 AMEndSaturday, October 28, 1972 at 9:27 AMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 032-078 ↗

AI Summary

H. R. Haldeman and Ronald Ziegler coordinated a last-minute schedule change regarding President Nixon’s upcoming addresses, swapping the planned “Defense” speech with the “One America” speech. Haldeman directed Ziegler to announce that the Defense speech was being postponed by one day to allow for further editing and to maximize its strategic impact. Ziegler agreed to relay these instructions to Gerald Warren to ensure the public announcement reflected the revised schedule.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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.
Mrs. Ziegler.
Okay.
There you are.
Ron.
It's Bob.
Yeah.
The President wanted to talk to you because he wants to move the defense speech to tomorrow and do the One America speech today.
And you've already announced that today would be the defense speech, but the thought would be that he's had to do some extensive editing on the defense speech because of the importance of it and so on, and that it will therefore be postponed until tomorrow and he'll deliver a different address today, the one he was planning to do tomorrow.
Okay, should we announce the title?
Today?
Yeah.
I don't think so.
We'll just say a different speech.
Yeah, instead he'll substitute today the speech that he was planning to give.
Tomorrow.
And then what will he give tomorrow?
Defense.
All right.
We should say that.
Definitely.
He'll give the defense speech tomorrow, but he's postponing it one day because of some extensive editing he's had to do on it and because of the importance of the speech.
Right.
He'd like to hypo the defense speech.
Okay.
And we want to get the best ride out of it we can, and plus he is doing some reworking on it.
Yeah, I'll call Jerry right away.
I just voted.
That works okay, don't you think?
Yeah, it works fine.
Okay.
I'm on my way in.
Okay.
Bye.

NARA Description

On October 28, 1972, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman and Ronald L. Ziegler talked on the telephone from 9:24 am to 9:27 am. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 032-078 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 032-078

Date: October 28, 1972
Time: 9:24 am - 9:27 am
Location: White House Telephone

H.R. (“Bob”) Haldeman talked with Ronald L. Ziegler.

[See Conversation No. 809-2A]

        Ziegler's call

        The President's schedule
            -Changes
                -Defense speech and “One America” speech
                -Defense speech
                     -Announcement
                     -Editing
                     -Postponement
                     -Announcement
                -Today's speech
                -Defense speech
                -Postponement
                     -Reasons
                -Gerald L. Warren

       Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, NARA Online Public Access Catalog Identifier: 597542

Also recorded on October 28, 1972

  • 809-001 8:45 AM · 11 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Rose Mary Woods, and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House from 8:45 am to 9:00 am.
  • 809-002 9:10 AM · 1 hr 6 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Stephen B. Bull, Ronald L. Ziegler, unknown person(s), Rose Mary Woods, Henry A. Kissinger, and Charles W. Colson met in the Oval Office of the White House from 9:10 am to 10:26 am.
  • 809-003 10:26 AM · 26 sec — Manolo Sanchez, Stephen B. Bull, and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 10:26 am and 11:59 pm.

Cite this conversation

Conversation 032-078, October 28, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/032-078 (accessed October 12, 2026).