Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 85 › Conversation 085-012
Nixon White House recording on White House logistics and Film production
Friday, December 3, 1971 · 12:00 AM–10:08 AM ET · Cabinet Room · 12 min
AI Summary
Technical staff met in the Cabinet Room to coordinate production logistics for filming a high-level meeting featuring President Nixon and Vice President Spiro Agnew. The discussion focused on establishing camera angles, managing lighting equipment, and determining optimal seating arrangements for the 35 expected attendees. The crew finalized plans for the President's opening remarks and arrival and departure sequences to ensure comprehensive audio-visual coverage.
- White House logistics
- Film production
- Presidential photography
- Cabinet Room
- Technical planning
Audio
This clip was extracted from the full tape recording by Easy Nixon.
Listen to the full tape segment
085a.mp3
085b.mp3
085c.mp3
085d.mp3
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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.
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Ah, I'd say that it was connected.
White wants $60,000.
White has $60,000.
White has $60,000.
$60,000. $60,000.
Hello.
Hello.
Hello.
Hello.
Det er svært svært svært svært.
I'm not checking every one, but there's no reason why they wouldn't all be the same.
All of those are 60.
Well, you know what?
Maybe they've already replaced them.
Is that possible?
Maybe they did.
Yeah, all of mine seats so far.
It's possible maybe that they replaced them.
These are all 60s.
Right.
Okay.
Oh, I've already done it?
Yeah.
Okay.
How are you doing?
All right, now he comes in here.
Jim, this is Thorstein.
Jim, I mean Chuck.
Yes.
He'll be here.
He'll be here.
He'll pick up his entrance.
Okay.
Following him.
Leading him.
Not leading him, but following him.
Losing him.
Losing Chappell.
Positioning himself over that corner.
And he almost got himself killed.
I'll just knock on the doorway more or less.
I'll let him enter.
Don't come in until after your drive.
I've seen him way, way at two feet since he's come in.
Right now I'm here.
First of all, you've got to take a read of these bulbs.
They're not 61s.
The president sits there in the high chair.
His adjutant sits here.
All of these people will be occupied, and most of the others.
There will be about 35 people in here.
I don't know who else of importance is going to talk, but obviously we want to concentrate.
I don't know.
How many seats are in here?
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18,
Well, there are more than 35 chairs in here, so hopefully, Chuck, hopefully there will be a few gaps in here.
Well, if there are not, and there are three gaps down there, then maybe you can get...
Mark Wood or John Scali or someone who's here, I'll be outside there.
I was looking earlier, and Randy said we might have to be quick now.
There are people sitting there.
I won't take this.
Everybody's standing in front of me.
I can't do that.
I'll stay over there.
You don't have to.
There's nothing wrong with that.
And I can't make your move.
Slow, very slowly here.
The president will open the meeting and talk for about 10 minutes, and then turn it over to tonight's president, who will continue our conversation.
We'll have about 10 minutes each, and then we'll have a little bit of this.
We'll try to see...
But you better be sure to come in here with a brand new one.
Where am I coming from?
As we go on.
And I need it because I think it's going to be a good night.
I mean, what do we have to do?
Now you don't need to do anything.
You're going to end up in a lot of pieces.
I apply.
Thank you very much.
In fact, Chuck, if you get in here ahead of time, which I'm sure you can, you might grab a few inserts.
There isn't much, but I guess maybe I could use them.
Maybe you could get in here early for the present.
Yeah, let's see.
Okay.
You might make a little, when you get this, make your own little additional notes.
But you will have, let's go home behind me, I think, until nearly 10 o'clock, so you should have a good half an hour in here with nobody along the line.
Where is the mystery room in the hostel room?
Oh, thank you, please.
Well, how's the reading in here?
Really?
Well, is it going to be the same if it's a dark gray day?
That's good to hear.
This guy white, your truck is going to be the wind truck.
He's locked here.
But you're over here, you know.
You have a priority monitor.
I can probably decide.
Yeah, yeah.
I don't know.
And probably people sitting here, too, don't know the monitor.
All right.
When the president leaves, he'll count him out, Joe.
All right.
And he'll follow us.
He'll follow back.
Why not?
Okay, so...
It's the same thing every first.
So then when we look at my magazine...
When my magazine gets down, the president's going to be on top.
And we're going to leave.
Well, if he says we'll talk about an operation, I mean, I got to get going again.
You know?
All right.
Let me see if I can cut it, though.
Let me see if I can cut it, though.
Because, uh, well...
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Sound.
Sound.
No problem.
You'll just have to arrange that.
No problem.
No problem.
No problem.
All right, while we're here, while we're here, are we all settled in this room?
Yes, we're ready.
Are we finished?
Yes.
All right, while we're here, why don't we look at the 2-0 departure, which is right here in the car.
I'm sorry we're doing this all out of order, but we've worked so much time, but we went back.
All right.
NARA Description
On December 3, 1971, unknown person(s) met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 12:00 am and 10:08 am. The Cabinet Room taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 085-012 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 85-12
Date: Unknown between December 3 and December 6, 1971
Time: Unknown between 12:00 am, December 3 and 10:08 am, December 6, 1971
Location: Cabinet Room
Unknown men met
Filming the President
-Equipment
-Lighting
-Seating arrangements
-The President
-Vice President Spiro T. Agnew
-Number of seats
-Mark I. Goode
-John A. Scali
-The President’s opening remarks
-Roosevelt Room
-Lighting
-The President’s departure
-Scenes, sound
Pierre E. Trudeau departure
The unknown men left at an unknown time before 10:08 am, December 6, 1971Also recorded on December 3, 1971
- 085-001 12:00 AM — unknown person(s) met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 12:00 am and 10:08 am.
- 085-002 12:00 AM — unknown person(s) met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 12:00 am and 10:08 am.
- 085-003 12:00 AM — unknown person(s) met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 12:00 am and 10:08 am.
- 085-004 12:00 AM — unknown person(s) met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 12:00 am and 10:08 am.
- 085-006 12:00 AM — a White House tour group met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 12:00 am and 10:08 am.
- 085-007 12:00 AM — unknown person(s) met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 12:00 am and 10:08 am.
- 085-008 12:00 AM — a White House tour group met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 12:00 am and 10:08 am.
- 085-009 12:00 AM — a White House tour group met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 12:00 am and 10:08 am.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 085-012, December 3, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/085-012 (accessed October 12, 2026).