Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 43 › Conversation 043-022

Nixon phone call with Johnson on Condolences and United Nations appointment

Saturday, February 3, 1973 · 1:33 PM–1:38 PM ET · White House Telephone · 4 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Johnson, Claudia A.Conversation043-022 on Tape 43StartSaturday, February 3, 1973 at 1:33 PMEndSaturday, February 3, 1973 at 1:38 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 043-022 ↗

AI Summary

President Richard M. Nixon placed a courtesy call to former First Lady Claudia "Lady Bird" Johnson to offer his condolences following the death of Lyndon B. Johnson. During the conversation, Nixon praised her dignified conduct during the bereavement period and discussed the administrative challenges she faced managing estate matters and correspondence. The President concluded by suggesting she consider a future short-term appointment to the United Nations delegation, explicitly requesting that she defer any decision until she had time to recover from her recent loss.

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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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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. Johnson.
Hello?
Yes, sir.
I'm just calling to see how you're feeling.
How very nice of you.
I'm just doing all right.
I'm trying to answer that sort of thing you would know so well, that enormous volume of kind, wonderful mail, and then sort of facing up to some of the estate matters.
So it's very busy, and that's a good thing to be.
Sure.
Well, I think you should know that we, of course, actually had quite a...
I mean...
rather heavy male reaction here, and universally everybody commented upon what a really wonderfully dignified and gracious way that you handled the whole affair.
They owe the terms like she's a real lady, and that's why you'd be very proud of it.
I mean, you and I think Lyndon would, too.
How kind you are to come and tell me that.
You know, you just have to think at a time like that, that my sadness is for a later time.
Right now, I just have to try to keep everybody else from... That's right, and that's what B.B.
told me about when he said, he says, everybody else, you know, is about ready to crack up, and you had to brace them up.
And that is a beautiful...
Wonderful, wonderful pen, Mr. President, and I appreciate it greatly, and I have written you, but you wouldn't have had a chance to read it, even if something like that gets through the barrage.
Let me also tell you that I don't need any answer on what I'm going to talk about right now, but it's something for the future that you might want to think about.
You naturally are very busy now and will be with the state and all that sort of thing.
But if you would consider it, it would be a very great service to the country if you might consider
on a part-time basis, an assignment that what I'm really thinking about is to the delegation to the United Nations, which is about a two-month assignment.
And I think it would have a marvelous effect if you could do it.
Now, we don't have to decide it, and I'm going to hold it until about May or June.
But I just wanted you to put it in the back of your mind.
And if you'd like to consider something like that, we'd like to have you do it.
Thank you for your confidence, Mr. President, so much.
I think I do know better right now than to say yes or no to anything.
That's right.
We don't want you to say a word about it.
I just thought that as you go along, other things will come up, and then you can have this sort of other thing that you can choose.
Because my feeling is this, and I know that...
Right at this time, you feel that, well, I just don't want to do anything.
I want to get all this burden off, and I want to rest.
But knowing you, you'll be that way for about one month and two months, and then you really want to do something.
You must do something.
You know what I mean?
I'm sort of a judge of this, just having seen it.
Because, you know, you're...
or vigorous, you've always been active and so forth.
So I just want you to know that that could be a very, very interesting and important assignment.
So anyway, you'll give my best to everybody down there, and the whole country's pulling for you.
I certainly will, sir, and my great gratitude to you for everything.
Well, I was proud to be there.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Bye.

NARA Description

On February 3, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon and Claudia A. Johnson talked on the telephone from 1:33 pm to 1:38 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 043-022 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 43-22

Date: February 3, 1973
Time: 1:33 pm - 1:38 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with Claudia A. (“Lady Bird”) Johnson.

[See Conversation No. 840-19A]

       Claudia Johnson
            -Activities
            -White House mail about Claudia Johnson
                  -Content
            -Bereavement
                  -Lyndon B. Johnson
                  -Charles G. (“Bebe”) Rebozo
            -Offer of United Nations [UN] appointment
                  -Length of term

Also recorded on February 3, 1973

  • 840-013 1:20 PM · 52 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at 1:20 pm.
  • 840-014 1:20 PM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House from 1:20 pm to 1:21 pm.
  • 043-020 1:21 PM · 7 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Michael J. ("Mike") Mansfield talked on the telephone from 1:21 pm to 1:23 pm.
  • 840-016 1:21 PM · 7 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Michael J. ("Mike") Mansfield met in the Oval Office of the White House from 1:21 pm to 1:23 pm.
  • 043-021 1:23 PM · 17 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 1:23 pm and 1:33 pm.
  • 840-017 1:23 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Stephen B. Bull, and Manolo Sanchez met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 1:23 pm and 1:32 pm.
  • 840-018 1:23 PM · 17 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 1:23 pm and 1:32 pm.
  • 840-019 1:32 PM · 24 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Charles W. Colson, Claudia A. Johnson, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 1:32 pm to 1:57 pm.

All 41 conversations from February 3, 1973 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 043-022, February 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/043-022 (accessed October 1, 2026).