Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 56 › Conversation 056-006

Nixon White House recording on President Nixon and Cabinet Room

Tuesday, May 11, 1971 · 9:45 AM–11:59 PM ET · Cabinet Room · 3 min

Participants[Unknown person(s)]Conversation056-006 on Tape 56StartTuesday, May 11, 1971 at 9:45 AMEndTuesday, May 11, 1971 at 11:59 PMRecording deviceCabinet RoomSourceNixon Library record for 056-006 ↗ · National Archives Catalog, NAID 417174165 ↗

AI Summary

This recording captures an exchange in the Cabinet Room involving President Nixon and at least one individual identified as "Bob." The primary topic appears to be the presentation of a "special one" item, possibly a gift or award, to Bob, with Nixon referencing "May 2nd" and a hope that it becomes a "national tradition." The conversation briefly touches upon a report from Mr. Finch and a related discussion about a "build" that lasted an hour, with subsequent questions indicating particular interest in certain unspecified matters.

President Nixon
Cabinet Room
Gift presentation
Bob
National tradition
Mr. Finch report
White House meeting

Audio

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This clip was extracted from the full tape recording by Easy Nixon.

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part A, 1:04:18

056a.mp3

056b.mp3

056c.mp3

NARA Description

On May 11, 1971, unknown person(s) met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 9:45 am and 11:59 pm. The Cabinet Room taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 056-006 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 56-6

Date: Unknown between May 11 and May 12, 1971

Time: Unknown between 9:45 am, May 11 and 11:59 pm, May 12, 1971
Location: Cabinet Room

Unknown people entered

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

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[Non-historical]
[Duration: 3m 22s ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

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

The unknown people left at an unknown time before 11:59 pm, May 12, 1971

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript was made by an AI model listening to the recording (gemini-3.8-flash) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Speaker names are the model's inference from the voices and the participant list. Words and names can still be wrong — verify against the audio and the finding aid before citing.

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).

Unknown[unintelligible] both of them, I'm pretty sure, now.

UnknownOh, yeah. I got 'em.

UnknownThe other one's the basketball.

UnknownOh, yes, because that's that one. Okay. All right.

UnknownI just hope it works. Trust. Trust.

UnknownSomething in the box come on in the Oval Office, wasn't there? Well, it's like a television.

UnknownYes, yes. Oh yeah, they [unintelligible]

UnknownThanks very much, it's a great pleasure.

UnknownNow who's the- who are the others now? Bob. Oh, you're Bob. Oh come here Bob, I gotta get a special one for you.

UnknownNow Bob, what is our date, May 2nd? So this is a salute [unintelligible] your day, but we hope it will be the national tradition now that you think it's a good idea, Bob? Right here is 1971. You can have this one, Bob. Thanks very much.

UnknownSure.

UnknownRight here, that one.

UnknownGood.

UnknownThank you, sir.

UnknownWell here, put it in the box too, yeah.

UnknownThat's the trust mark.

UnknownOkay. Well, maybe I'm going to wish you well.

UnknownSee some of you tonight, I think. Thank you sir.

UnknownThank you. [laughter]

UnknownThree letters. [laughter]

UnknownThat means the domestic is free to go on, yeah.

UnknownAt least the highlights in the report. Or I like for you to give them. Yes.

UnknownFrankly, the report that uh Mr. Finch made uh slightly varied out the stuff [unintelligible] and then, the strange thing about the the build, which took about an hour, mostly in an encouraging tone. And walked in about an hour later, and asked the questions that [unintelligible] and they had particular interest in [unintelligible]

UnknownThat, and the other one.

UnknownWatch it.

UnknownGood.

Also recorded on May 11, 1971

056-004 8:02 AM · 1 hr 38 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, and members of the Cabinet, including William P. Rogers, John B. Connally, John H. Chafee, John N. Mitchell, Winton M. ("Red") Blount, Jr., Rogers C. B. Morton, Clifford M. Hardin, Maurice H. Stans, James D. Hodgson, Elliot L. Richardson, George W. Romney, John A. Volpe, David M. Kennedy, George P. Shultz, Robert H. Finch, Donald C. Rumsfeld, George H. W. Bush, John D. Ehrlichman, Clark MacGregor, Peter M. Flanigan, Peter G. Peterson, Dr. Edward E. David, Jr., Raymond K. Price, Jr., Alexander P. Butterfield, Ronald L. Ziegler, Robert J. Brown, and Arthur J. Sohmer, met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 8:02 am and 9:45 am.
056-005 9:45 AM · 13 sec — unknown person(s) met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 9:45 am and 11:59 pm.
497-001 11:04 AM · 17 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, John D. Ehrlichman, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:04 am to 11:20 am.
497-002 11:20 AM · 32 min — President Richard M. Nixon, William B. Saxbe, and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:20 am to 11:51 am.
497-003 11:53 AM · 8 min — President Richard M. Nixon, John W. Barnum, Richard S. Bodman, Robert W. Fri, Stephen Kurzman, William N. Letson, Phillip V. Sanchez, Frederic V. Malek, Daniel T. Kinsley, and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:53 am to 12:07 pm.
497-004 12:07 PM · 46 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:07 pm and 12:08 pm.
497-005 12:07 PM · 10 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:07 pm to 12:22 pm.
497-006 12:22 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at 12:22 pm.

All 17 conversations from May 11, 1971 →

Nixon with unidentified visitors in his EOB office on White House meeting July 2, 1971 · 11 min
Nixon, National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in… March 19, 1971 · 6 min
Nixon, Stein & Solomon on Economic Report and Council of Economic Advisers January 31, 1973 · 9 min
Nixon, McReynolds & Casselman on Personnel Changes and Gift Presentation February 19, 1971 · 1 min
Nixon, Elam & Parker on Government service and Staff recognition February 19, 1971 · 4 min
Nixon, Conte & Farrick on Whately bicentennial and Gift presentation March 9, 1971

Cite this conversation

Conversation 056-006, May 11, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives (NAID 417174165). Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/056-006 (accessed November 2, 2026).