Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 37 › Conversation 037-040

Nixon phone call with Baroody on Building collapse and Peter J. Brennan

Saturday, March 3, 1973 · 9:17 AM–9:19 AM ET · White House Telephone · 1 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Baroody, William J., Jr.Conversation037-040 on Tape 37StartSaturday, March 3, 1973 at 9:17 AMEndSaturday, March 3, 1973 at 9:19 AMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 037-040 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon calls Secretary of Labor Peter J. Brennan to advise him to visit the site of a recent building collapse to demonstrate the administration's commitment to construction safety. Nixon emphasizes the importance of Brennan 'showing the flag' to improve the administration's public image and suggests that Brennan announce that the President has expressed personal concern regarding potential safety regulation violations. Brennan confirms his intent to visit the site and agrees to report his findings back to the President.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Secretary, morning.
Good morning, Pete.
Good morning.
Say, it occurred to me, and probably you already thought of this, that terrible accident out there, that maybe you ought to get out there and just show the flag and show that we're concerned about the safety regulations and so forth.
Yes, sir.
I don't know.
What do you think?
Of course, it's not a federal thing, but, you know, we have very, we got through a lot of very, very good legislation on safety, as I recall.
I'm not familiar with it, but you probably are.
I think it's good.
I was going out last night.
night but i was tied up in some brief right but i'm going out this morning good well what you can do beat is to tell the press that uh i've called and expressed my concern that you and i have often talked about this that we have a great interest in it to see whether safety regulations were in any way violated yes i don't know uh i don't know about such an accident uh what what this uh i don't know what whether there are it isn't a federal
thing but uh but it would come under it would come under our federal federal yeah yeah i saw the paper paper said that this uh you know this fellow is they're trying to get the elevator up there but the uh uh i think that you know because of your background and everything you're just it's just a very good eye it's a good thing to do and that you're gonna you're gonna report to me after you get it okay well i i was on my way downtown now and i'm good i'll go right from there over there good good

NARA Description

On March 3, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon and William J. Baroody, Jr. talked on the telephone from 9:17 am to 9:19 am. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 037-040 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 37-40

Date: March 3, 1973
Time: 9:17 am-9:19 am
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with Peter J. Brennan.

[See Conversation No. 868-5]

       Building collapse
              -Administration image
                      -Brennan public appearance
              -Safety legislation
              -Press relations
                      -President’s guidance
                              -Safety regulations

Also recorded on March 3, 1973

  • 037-039 9:10 AM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 9:10 am and 9:17 am.
  • 868-001 9:10 AM · 16 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:10 am and 9:17 am.
  • 868-002 9:10 AM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:10 am and 9:17 am.
  • 868-003 9:10 AM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:10 am and 9:17 am.
  • 868-004 9:10 AM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:10 am and 9:17 am.
  • 868-005 9:17 AM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Peter J. Brennan met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:17 am and 9:19 am.
  • 868-006 9:19 AM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:19 am and 9:49 am.
  • 868-007 9:40 AM · 26 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:40 am and 10:05 am.

All 43 conversations from March 3, 1973 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 037-040, March 3, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/037-040 (accessed October 1, 2026).