Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 33 › Conversation 033-014

Nixon phone call with Meskill on 1972 Election and Connecticut politics

Saturday, November 4, 1972 · 10:04 AM–10:08 AM ET · White House Telephone · 4 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Meskill, Thomas J.Conversation033-014 on Tape 33StartSaturday, November 4, 1972 at 10:04 AMEndSaturday, November 4, 1972 at 10:08 AMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 033-014 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon called Connecticut Governor Thomas J. Meskill to express appreciation for his political support and to encourage a strong finish to the 1972 campaign. The two discussed Republican prospects in Connecticut's congressional and state legislative races, as well as the importance of maintaining voter turnout. Nixon specifically authorized Meskill to share his enthusiastic endorsement of local candidates with the press and emphasized the administration's commitment to achieving "peace with honor" in Vietnam and full employment.

Audio

Download MP3 · 4.8 MB

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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.
Good morning, Mr. President.
I just wanted to call you on this Saturday morning to ask you to extend to all of our friends in Connecticut my deep appreciation for their support.
I'm sorry I couldn't get there personally, but I know that everybody's working hard.
Connecticut will be that first state to come in, and also I know all those House seats are up up there, and we're just counting on that
and that great organization of yours, Tom, to pull us through.
Well, it's very nice of you to call, Mr. President.
We were all so disappointed that you couldn't get up here during the campaign, but we understand that you've got a lot of other demands on your time other than campaigning.
I had to go to Rhode Island because, as you know, we had a Senate race there.
And the same was—so I couldn't go either to Connecticut or New Jersey for that reason.
But believe me, you've just been doing great up there, and you've got some marvelous candidates.
We still remember your trips up there two years ago when you helped me and Wiker.
I'll be back later.
I'll be back later.
And, I mean, whenever you are up, I will be there because—
well listen um we're we're really encouraged and we think how you think you're doing up there and we think we're doing very well and we're very hopeful that you're going to have jack walsh and uh saracen and hank uh great and uh i'm looking at that list they sound great let me say this tell they tell the people who uh first we want to get out a good boat take nothing for for granted that's going to help us with all the ticket the second thing is to
Keep talking about to be very confident on the work for peace with honor and strength.
We're going to get it.
Keep right on the positive there.
That's the way it looks at this point.
Well, that's what we've been doing, and we're very pleased with the way that you've been campaigning.
I think you've stuck to your game plan.
Today I'm going, incidentally, to North Carolina where we have a Senate candidate.
Mexico, where we have a Senate candidate, both very close races, and naturally to California, where I finish up.
I have a little selfish interest here, too.
I think you're going to help me get a Republican legislature here in the state of Connecticut.
Well, it might be better if I'm not there.
I need that just as much as you do.
All right, we could do this.
In your speeches today, you can say that I spoke to you.
I spoke to the fact that you've been such an enormous help to us in working with the governors on revenue sharing and other things, and that I enthusiastically endorse the candidates, not only for the Congress, but for the Republicans who are running for the legislature.
Well, that's fine.
How's that?
We have a speaker here in the office, so we have some of the press here taking this all down, and I won't even have to repeat it.
Good.
But I will.
Okay.
Thank you.
Fine.
And you can be sure that as we look at these things, as I said, we are...
as i in conclusion that uh the connecticut voters i know there have always been for a strong america we're for a strong america rather than a weak america the connecticut voters have been for peace with honor not peace with surrender that's a clear-cut issue in this campaign before we've made a breakthrough in the negotiations however have some details to work out but we're going to work them out so that we can be sure it'll be a piece that will last
That's the issue in a word.
That's what the people want.
And we're also going to have, after that, what we haven't had since President Eisenhower was President, full employment, our goal of full employment without war and without inflation.
Okay, Tom.
Thanks for talking to me, sir.

NARA Description

On November 4, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Thomas J. Meskill talked on the telephone from 10:04 am to 10:08 am. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 033-014 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 33-14

Date: November 4, 1972
Time: 10:04 am - 10:08 am
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with Thomas J. Meskill.

[This is the original beginning of Conversation No. 033-014, which has been merged with
Conversation No. 033-013.]
                                            - 16 -

                           NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY

                                                             Conversation No. 33-114 (cont’d)

[See Conversation No. 389-11E]

      Greetings

*****************************************************************

[Previous PRMPA Personal Returnable (G) withdrawal reviewed under deed of gift during
chronological review 2007-2013]

      1972 Election
           -Connecticut
                 -The President's appreciation for support
                 -House of Representatives seats
                 -Republican organization
                 -The President’s schedule
                       -Rhode Island
                              -Senate race
                       -New Jersey
                       -Candidates
                       -The President’s previous trip
                              -Meskill
                              -Lowell P. Weicker, Jr.
                 -Republican chances
                       -John O. (“Jack”) Marsh, Jr.
                       -Ronald A. Sarasin
                       -[Unintelligible]              -Voter turnout
                 -Vietnam
                       -Peace with honor
           -The President's schedule
                 -North Carolina
                       -Jesse A. Helms
                 -New Mexico
                       -Pete V. Domenici
                 -California
           -Connecticut
                 -State legislature
                       -Republicans
                       -The President's call to Meskill
                              -Revenue sharing
                                             - 17 -

                            NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY

                                                          Conversation No. 33-114 (cont’d)

                               -Endorsements
                               -Media coverage
                   -Issues
                   -National defense
                   -Vietnam
                         -Peace with honor
                         -Negotiations
                               -Details
             -Full Employment
                   -Dwight D. Eisenhower
                   -War, inflation

*****************************************************************

Also recorded on November 4, 1972

  • 033-010 9:55 AM · 7 sec — H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 9:55 am and 10:04 am.
  • 033-011 9:55 AM · 24 sec — H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, unknown person(s), and President Richard M. Nixon talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 9:55 am and 10:04 am.
  • 033-012 9:55 AM · 8 sec — H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 9:55 am and 10:04 am.
  • 033-013 9:55 AM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 9:55 am and 10:04 am.
  • 389-011 9:55 AM · 41 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, John D. Ehrlichman, unknown person(s), White House operator, Thomas J. Meskill, Stephen B. Bull, Wesley Powell, Beverly Powell, J. Caleb Boggs, Pierre S. DuPont, S. Fletcher Thompson, John K. MacIver, Robert Hirsch, James A. McClure, Margaret Chase Smith, and Howard H. Baker, Jr. met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 9:55 am to 10:36 am.
  • 033-015 10:08 AM · 14 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 10:08 am and 10:09 am.
  • 033-016 10:09 AM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Wesley Powell, and Beverly Powell talked on the telephone from 10:09 am to 10:13 am.
  • 033-017 10:13 AM · 22 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 10:13 am and 10:14 am.

All 59 conversations from November 4, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 033-014, November 4, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/033-014 (accessed October 10, 2026).