{"conversationCode":"043-071","tapeNumber":43,"conversationNumber":71,"identifier":"37-wht-conversation-043-071","startDateTime":"1973-02-13T22:40:00.000Z","endDateTime":"1973-02-13T22:41:00.000Z","startDate":"13-Feb-1973","startTime":"5:40 PM","endDate":"13-Feb-1973","endTime":"5:41 PM","dateCertainty":"certain","timeCertainty":"certain","participants":"Nixon, Richard M. (President); Ziegler, Ronald L.;","description":"On February 13, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler talked on the telephone from 5:40 pm to 5:41 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 043-071 of the White House Tapes.","locationCode":"WHT","recordingDevice":"White House Telephone","latitudeEstimated":38.89767,"longitudeEstimated":-77.03655,"chronCode":"5.3","chronRelease":"Fifth Chronological Release: Part III","chronReleaseDate":"23-Jun-2009","aogpRelease":null,"aogpSegment":null,"lastModified":"2015-07-27T17:04:10.235Z","findingAid":"Conversation No. 43-71\n\nDate: February 13, 1973\nTime: 5:40 pm - 5:41 pm\nLocation: White House Telephone\n\nThe President talked with Ronald L. Ziegler\n\n[See Conversation No. 410-14E]\n\n       Lyndon B. Johnson's death\n            -Raising of flag during mourning period\n                  -Press reaction\n\n       Photo opportunities\n            -Press reaction\n            -George P. Shultz,\n            -John A. Scali\n            -Donald H. Rumsfeld","filename":["043-071.mp3"],"tapeStart":"","tapeEnd":"","participantsList":["Nixon, Richard M. (President)","Ziegler, Ronald L."],"prevCode":"043-070","nextCode":"043-072","transcript":[{"start":0.74,"end":3.3,"text":"Yes, sir."},{"start":3.46,"end":4.16,"text":"Good."},{"start":4.44,"end":5,"text":"No problem at all."},{"start":5.1,"end":8.67,"text":"And they got the red flag in the morning."},{"start":9.07,"end":9.27,"text":"Right."},{"start":9.37,"end":11.43,"text":"Well, on the White House it goes up at midnight."},{"start":12.33,"end":18.14,"text":"On federal installations it goes up at sunup and all others first thing in the morning."},{"start":18.18,"end":20.7,"text":"I think that would be well accepted by the press, don't you think?"},{"start":20.72,"end":21.3,"text":"Yes, it was."},{"start":21.32,"end":25,"text":"It was very accepted."},{"start":25.4,"end":25.84,"text":"No problem."},{"start":26.24,"end":27.87,"text":"They're moving it straight."},{"start":27.89,"end":29.63,"text":"And I think they think it's a nice gesture."},{"start":29.65,"end":30.31,"text":"Kind of a good gesture."},{"start":33.76,"end":34.88,"text":"All right, fine."},{"start":34.98,"end":38.73,"text":"The press this morning are talking about the photo opportunities today."},{"start":38.79,"end":40.41,"text":"They said those are great."},{"start":42.07,"end":44.09,"text":"The stories are generated from them."},{"start":44.92,"end":46.26,"text":"Sure."},{"start":46.28,"end":47.28,"text":"I think worked well today."},{"start":48.04,"end":52.26,"text":"Gave them a good full day, and you can see why we have so full, because these people had piled up."},{"start":52.54,"end":53.06,"text":"Sure, that's right."},{"start":53.09,"end":58.57,"text":"And the Senate hadn't moved on them, so that's one of the reasons I came back to is to see them before they all took off."},{"start":58.59,"end":58.73,"text":"Right."},{"start":60.29,"end":62.45,"text":"Anyway, that's a good..."},{"start":63.5,"end":64.44,"text":"Got a lot, didn't they?"},{"start":64.68,"end":65.2,"text":"An awful lot."},{"start":65.36,"end":67.14,"text":"And they had a full plate yesterday."},{"start":68.91,"end":70.73,"text":"We had Schultz, Galley, and Rumsfeld."},{"start":71.69,"end":72.11,"text":"Was that it?"},{"start":72.43,"end":72.51,"text":"No."},{"start":72.55,"end":74.67,"text":"Was there any other photo opportunity?"},{"start":74.79,"end":76.15,"text":"No, that was three."},{"start":76.67,"end":77.52,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":77.54,"end":78.34,"text":"Those were three good ones."},{"start":79.84,"end":80.56,"text":"News out of it all."},{"start":81.48,"end":82.44,"text":"That's good."},{"start":82.46,"end":83.36,"text":"Okay, sir."}],"aiSummary":{"text":"President Nixon and Press Secretary Ronald Ziegler discussed the positive press reception regarding the flag-lowering protocol observed following the death of Lyndon B. Johnson. They also reviewed the successful media impact of recent photo opportunities featuring George Shultz, John Scali, and Donald Rumsfeld. The two agreed that these staged appearances helped generate favorable news coverage and justified the rapid scheduling of these meetings.","topics":["Lyndon B. Johnson","Press relations","Photo opportunities","Flag protocol","White House communications"],"generatedAt":"2026-04-06T06:30:31.684Z"},"topicSlugs":["lyndon-b-johnson","press-relations","photo-opportunities","flag-protocol","white-house-communications"],"audioDurationSec":90,"audioFiles":[{"file":"043-071.mp3","bytes":2166299,"durationSec":90.15,"bitrate":192246,"missing":false}],"audioIsShared":false,"audioProbedAt":"2026-09-18T02:19:30.403Z","findingAidSource":"nixonlibrary.gov subject log (2024-05), reslice-v2","findingAidUpdatedAt":"2026-09-18T08:42:43.855Z","audio":["https://nixon.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/audio/043-071.mp3"],"url":"https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/043-071","nixonLibraryUrl":"https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/white-house-tapes/43/conversation-043-071","license":"Public domain (U.S. Government work). AI-generated fields (transcript, aiSummary) are provided as-is without warranty."}