Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 55 › Conversation 055-001
Nixon, Goldwater & Bellmon
Tuesday, April 20, 1971 · 5:17 PM–6:21 PM ET · Cabinet Room · 1 hr 5 min
Audio
This clip was extracted from the full tape recording by Easy Nixon.
Listen to the full tape segment
part A, 1:45
055a.mp3
055b.mp3
055c.mp3
055d.mp3
NARA Description
On April 20, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Republican senators, including Barry M. Goldwater, Henry L. Bellmon, John G. Tower, Howard H. Baker, Jr., Robert J. Dole, Edward J. Gurney, J. Caleb Boggs, Carl T. Curtis, Clifford P. Hansen, Jack R. Miller, Clark MacGregor, William E. Timmons, Kenneth E. BeLieu, Eugene S. Cowen, Harry S. Dent, and Henry A. Kissinger, met in the Cabinet Room of the White House from 5:17 pm to 6:21 pm. The Cabinet Room taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 055-001 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 55-1
Date: April 20, 1971
Time: 5:17 pm - 6:21 pm
Location: Cabinet Room
The President met with Barry M. Goldwater, Henry L. Bellmon, John G. Tower, Howard H.
Baker, Jr., Robert J. Dole, Edward J. Gurney, J. Caleb Boggs, Carl T. Curtis, Clifford P. Hansen,
Jack R. Miller, Clark MacGregor, William E. Timmons, Kenneth R. BeLieu, Eugene S. Cowen,
Harry S. Dent, and Henry A. Kissinger
[General conversation/Unintelligible]
Gordon L. Allott
Greetings
Goldwater
Tower
Abraham A. Ribicoff
[General conversation/Unintelligible]
President’s meeting with John L. McClellan
-Republicans
-John N. Mitchell
-Republicans
-Defections
-National defense
-Voting in Congress
National security issues
-Support for President
-End-the-war resolutions
-Presidential powers
-Defense budget
-War-making powers
-Jacob K. Javits bill
-John Sherman Cooper and Frank F. Church amendment
-State Department
-Defense Department
-LegislationShow the rest of the log (103 more lines)
-Senate bill
-J. William Fulbright
-Vice President Spiro T. Agnew
-Preparedness
-David Packard’s speech in San Francisco
-Popular reaction
-William Proxmire and Javits
-Vietnam War
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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[National Security]
[Duration: 7m 55s ]
JAPAN
GERMANY
AFRICA
SOVIET UNION
Allott entered at an unknown time after 5:17 pm
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[To listen to the segment (29m15s) declassified on 02/28/2002, please refer to RC# E-518.]
******************************************************************************
-Loss of primacy
-Vietnam
-Political problem of continued war
-Popular opinion
-Need for ending war
-Public opinion mail
-Erosion of support
-Support for President
-Reaction
-Mail
-Erosion of support
-Withdrawal
-United States’ preeminence
-Withdrawal from Vietnam
-Polls
-Prisoners of War [POWs]
-Opinion Research Corporation [ORC] poll
-Gallup poll
-Mail
-Popular opinion
-Kent State proposals
-Congressional resolution
-Iowa State University
-Reaction
-POWs issue
-Vietnamization policy
-Loss of primacy
-American people
-Preeminence
-Kissinger
-Sufficiency
-Melvin R. Laird
-Declassification of information
-Goldwater
-John F. Kennedy’s announcement on atmospheric testing
-Sufficiency issue
-Sufficiency
******************************************************************************
Soviet Union
[To listen to the segment (17s) declassified on 02/28/2002, please refer to RC# E-518.]
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-Laird
-Proxmire
-Briefing
-People’s Republic of China [PRC]
-Trade restrictions
-United States’ foreign policy
-Domestic issues
-Executive reorganization
-President’s policies
******************************************************************************
People’s Republic of China
[To listen to the segment (19s) declassified on 02/28/2002, please refer to RC# E-518.]
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Aviation
-James H. Doolittle
-Barry M. Goldwater, Jr
[General conversation/Unintelligible]
The President, et al. left at 6:21 pmTranscript (AI-generated)
No transcript is available yet for this conversation.
Also recorded on April 20, 1971
- 002-012 4:04 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and George H. Mahon talked on the telephone from 4:04 pm to 4:07 pm.
- 483-018 4:10 PM · 9 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Rose Mary Woods, Ronald L. Ziegler, Fred Maroon, Manolo Sanchez, unknown person(s), and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:10 pm to 4:19 pm.
- 483-019 4:20 PM · 51 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, John N. Mitchell, John W. Dean, III, White House photographer, Ronald L. Ziegler, unknown person(s), White House operator, and Sue Morrison met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:20 pm to 5:14 pm.
- 002-013 4:42 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 4:42 pm and 4:59 pm.
- 002-014 4:59 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon, John N. Mitchell, and Sue Morrison talked on the telephone from 4:59 pm to 5:01 pm.
- 483-020 5:14 PM · 2 min — Alexander P. Butterfield and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 5:14 pm and 5:17 pm.
- 483-021 5:14 PM · 40 sec — President Richard M. Nixon, Alexander P. Butterfield, John N. Mitchell, and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 5:14 pm and 5:17 pm.
- 483-022 6:22 PM · 20 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the Oval Office of the White House from 6:22 pm to 6:44 pm.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 055-001, April 20, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives (NAID 417174145). Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/055-001 (accessed November 2, 2026).