Nixon White House Tapes ›Tape 100 › Conversation 100-005

White House tour group on White House tours and Cabinet Room

Friday, May 5, 1972 · 11:37 AM–9:10 AM ET · Cabinet Room ·2 min

ParticipantsWhite House tour groupConversation100-005 onTape 100StartFriday, May 5, 1972 at 11:37 AMEndMonday, May 8, 1972 at 9:10 AMRecording deviceCabinet RoomSourceNixon Library record for 100-005 ↗

AI Summary

A guide provides a tour of the West Wing and Cabinet Room to a visiting group of citizens. The presentation covers the architectural history of the West Wing, the functional use of the Cabinet Room for staff and National Security Council meetings, and the symbolic significance of seating arrangements and presidential portraits. The guide highlights specific features of the room, including the custom chairs used by cabinet members and the specialized telephone equipment available to the President.

Audio

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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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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This part of the building was known as the West Wing.
This was added in 1902 to the Fittlerosa administration.
Now before then, the president's office was on the second floor of the residence.
But Fittlerosa had quite a large family and his business began picking up, so he decided to move the office out of the second floor so he had more privacy.
And it was moved down a hallway where it would cover a few minutes, and this was finished in 1909 by President Taft.
And at West Wing, you have the president's top staff.
You have the press office, which we just passed on the colonnade there.
To the right, as we were coming around, will be the press secretary's office, Ron Zema.
And his office here is right on the assistant's president, which leads from this office right into the president's office, the side door.
Now, the cabinet room is used primarily for the cabinet, but it is also used for several staff meetings.
On the back of each chair, you have
the cabinet office along with the day that the cabinet member took office.
These chairs are all bought by the different cabinet secretaries, so when they leave, the chairs go with them.
Now President Nixon donated this table when he took office.
It's a little larger than the old table.
Now the President's chair is the one you see here, slightly elevated above the others.
and the vice president or president sit directly across.
Then the other cabinet members turn to the left, be sitting according to the age of the cabinet office.
Now the portraits in here are selected by the president, and these are usually presidents on the present field, most related to an entire career.
Mr. Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, then President Eisenhower.
And you also have the National Security Council that meets in here and every other staff organization.
This telephone, I guess, connects the president to any agent he's aware of.
Well, I don't know how extensive this telephone might be, but I'm sure that if he needed to get out, he has the proper telephone at all.
He has restrictions taking pictures of him all the time.
Thank you.

NARA Description

a White House tour group met in the Cabinet Room of the White House on an unknown date, sometime between 11:37 am on May 5, 1972 and 9:10 am on May 8, 1972. The Cabinet Room taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 100-005 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 100-5

Date: Unknown between May 5 and May 8, 1972
Time: Unknown between 11:37 am, May 5 and 9:10 am, May 8, 1972
Location: Cabinet Room

A tour group met

     White House
          -West Wing
               -Construction
                     -Theodore (“Teddy”) Roosevelt
          -Previous location of the President’s office
          -Oval Office
               -William H. Taft
          -West Wing
               -The President’s staff
               -Press Office
                     -Ronald L. Ziegler
          -Cabinet Room
               -Use
               -Chairs
                     -Names and dates
               -Arrangements
               -Table
               -The President’s chair
               -The Vice President
                     -Seating
               -Seating arrangements
               -Portraits
                     -Dwight D. Eisenhower, Theodore (“Teddy”) Roosevelt, and [Thomas]
                           Woodrow Wilson
               -National Security Council [NSC] meetings
               -Telephone

The tour group left at an unknown time before 9:10 am, May 8, 1972

Also recorded on May 5, 1972

  • 100-002 11:37 AM · 3 min — a White House tour group met in the Cabinet Room of the White House on an unknown date, sometime between 11:37 am on May 5, 1972 and 9:10 am on May 8, 1972.
  • 100-003 11:37 AM · 2 min — a White House tour group met in the Cabinet Room of the White House on an unknown date, sometime between 11:37 am on May 5, 1972 and 9:10 am on May 8, 1972.
  • 100-004 11:37 AM · 16 sec — a White House tour group met in the Cabinet Room of the White House on an unknown date, sometime between 11:37 am on May 5, 1972 and 9:10 am on May 8, 1972.
  • 100-006 11:37 AM · 1 min — a White House tour group met in the Cabinet Room of the White House on an unknown date, sometime between 11:37 am on May 5, 1972 and 9:10 am on May 8, 1972.
  • 100-007 11:37 AM · 3 min — Ronald L. Ziegler and a White House tour group met in the Cabinet Room of the White House on an unknown date, sometime between 11:37 am on May 5, 1972 and 9:10 am on May 8, 1972.
  • 100-008 11:37 AM · 2 min — a White House tour group met in the Cabinet Room of the White House on an unknown date, sometime between 11:37 am on May 5, 1972 and 9:10 am on May 8, 1972.
  • 100-009 11:37 AM — George P. Shultz and a White House tour group met in the Cabinet Room of the White House on an unknown date, sometime between 11:37 am on May 5, 1972 and 9:10 am on May 8, 1972.
  • 100-010 11:37 AM · 40 sec — Alexander M. Haig, Jr. and a White House tour group met in the Cabinet Room of the White House on an unknown date, sometime between 11:37 am on May 5, 1972 and 9:10 am on May 8, 1972.

All 54 conversations from May 5, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 100-005, May 5, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/100-005 (accessed September 18, 2026).