Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 166 › Conversation 166-002

Nixon phone call with Woods on Watergate and Public Relations

Sunday, May 13, 1973 · 4:11 PM–4:16 PM ET · Camp David Study Table · 5 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Woods, Rose MaryConversation166-002 on Tape 166StartSunday, May 13, 1973 at 4:11 PMEndSunday, May 13, 1973 at 4:16 PMRecording deviceCamp David Study TableSourceNixon Library record for 166-002 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and his secretary Rose Mary Woods discussed administrative matters, staff assignments, and the administration's political strategy during the Watergate crisis. Nixon directed Woods to initiate a project of making 15 to 20 appreciation calls daily to political supporters to bolster morale and counter negative media coverage. The two also exchanged views on the perceived conspiracy by the press, Congress, and political opponents to undermine the presidency.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Hello.
Hello.
How are you?
Hi, Rose.
Yes, Mother, I wish you a happy Mother's Day.
Well, aren't you cute?
Yeah.
Well, that's wonderful.
It's a nice day here.
Is it up there?
Very nice here, right?
Right.
David and Julie are here.
Oh, that's great.
And we're doing fine.
And instead of a good talk with Al, they're all working hard.
And I just told them all, I said, my God, keep your daughters up.
We've just begun a fight.
Yeah.
Who did you talk with?
Al Haight.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, I know we were all in there yesterday, and they were working hard.
Doing a great job.
He's a good guy.
Yeah.
Good guy, I think.
Right.
And I was going to tell you that on Wednesday— Buchanan is working, and I got Ray Price working on it, and Len Garment working on a speech for Wednesdays on the, you know, the election commission and that sort of thing.
Uh-huh.
I brought some work home.
If there's something that I needed to do down there, I could go there.
I have a little typewriter here, and on Sunday as it ends, I usually stay here.
Oh, no, no, no, no.
There's nothing to do with the office.
No, no.
They're just having a, you know, brain session, you know.
Yeah.
Good.
I was going to tell you that on Congress and Wagner, I talked with Bill.
I did.
Bill felt that if I called, it would be a little awkward because
Hey, Bill, I promised to relay all of that, and if you picked up the phone and said thanks, but if you didn't, it might just look like we were pushing him around from one person to the other.
I marked, incidentally, because I went through the mail.
Oh, there's some great things, and I typed up yesterday a lot of my phone calls, and then all week long I had that time to type up.
Well, yeah, I think, you know, and I think the best thing is this stupid Russo even saying he's on his way to meet with Angela Davis and all that crowd, you know?
Who?
Well, Ellsberg's partner, Russo.
Oh, sure.
I think the country is just sick of that group, so I think they're going to help more.
Well, I think the people letting that settle off is...
I'm glad they have it done with, but... Matt Byrne is just, I tell you, he's mad.
Yeah, yeah.
I don't know him, but he's bad.
That's right, yeah.
But anyway, so Timmons and I thought the best thing— I'll give—it'd be all right if I called him tomorrow, wouldn't it?
Oh, sure, and just say thanks a lot, because Timmons, he's the one who really rallies all those Southerners around, and that he'll—he's a good man for us.
All right, I know he is.
I'm going to send him a note from you tomorrow, if you don't call him.
Okay, I'll probably give him a call.
You know.
All right.
Well—
I marked as I went through the mail sometimes I'd put on RMW please call for RN and you know what that means.
Do it.
You just call the president, saw your letter and, you know, and he was going to dictate one.
He says, no, would you please place a call.
Yeah.
Yeah, that, that, I can, that's, those are, they appreciate that.
And I would like for you to take on a special project.
You can talk to Alan Timmons about it.
You ought to make about 15, 20 calls a day and all the various people, anybody that does have the guts to speak up for us should get a little call, you know.
Yeah.
So the president noted it and wanted you to know it.
You see, they get it from you, as distinguished from Tim as anybody else, and they know it from me.
Yeah.
Okay.
And the president was sitting there, he was thinking of taking it out to you.
He says, no, we should please call it.
Mm-hmm.
Something like that.
Starting to ruin his office and chatting and so forth.
But it's got to come out, Rose, you watch.
Oh, sure.
It is.
And it's...
These people that talk about, you know, resignation, all that crap.
Oh, well, that's just about the... Yeah.
Yeah.
That, I guess.
That, for the purpose, basically, is a... You know what they want me to do?
Sign like a new...
Oh, they don't even know what they're doing.
They just always have been against them.
Well, I know a lot of new ones, but that's all right.
There are a lot of new ones, but I still think it's part of the whole thing.
Sure, some of our people made some pretty dumb mistakes, but part of the whole thing is the same doggone conspiracy to ruin this country.
I bet your life it is.
It's a conspiracy on the part of some members of Congress.
And many members of the press and TV.
Yeah, and a lot of them are real dupes.
Some of them are bright enough to be part of the conspiracy, but the others, some are really, nobody will ever convince me that it isn't a communist.
That's right.
Well, you bet.
Well, anyway, I just want you to know that everything's going to be all right.
Oh, I'm sure it is.
You can fight like hell and talk it up, okay?
Yeah, okay.

NARA Description

On May 13, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods talked on the telephone at Camp David from 4:11 pm to 4:16 pm. The Camp David Study Table taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 166-002 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 166-2

Date: May 13, 1973
Time: 4:11 pm - 4:16 pm
Location: Camp David Study Table

The President talked with Rose Mary Woods.

     Mother’s Day
          -Weather

     Visitors
           -[Dwight] David Eisenhower, II and Julie Nixon Eisenhower
           -Charles G. (“Bebe”) Rebozo

     President’s conversation with Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
           -Watergate

     Haig
            -Woods’s opinion
                                         -2-

             NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                                        Conversation No. 166-4 (cont’d)

Election Reform Commission
      -President’s forthcoming speech
            -Patrick J. Buchanan, Leonard Garment, and Raymond K. Price, Jr.
            -Woods’s schedule

Joe D. Waggonner, Jr.
     -Woods’s conversation with William E. Timmons
          -The President’s possible telephone call compared with Woods’s

Woods’s telephone calls
    -Mail
    -Typing

Anthony J. Russo, Jr.
     -Forthcoming meeting with Angela Davis
     -Daniel Ellsberg

Ellsberg
      -Results of trial
      -William M. Byrne, Jr.
            -Woods’s opinion

Waggonner
    -Woods’s conversation with Timmons
    -Support for President
          -Southerners
    -President’s forthcoming call

President’s mail
      -Instructions for Woods

Watergate
     -Woods’s possible telephone calls
           -Haig and Timmons
           -President’s supporters
     -President’s possible resignation
           -President’s opponents
           -Spiro T. Agnew
                                               -3-

                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                                          Conversation No. 166-4 (cont’d)

           -President’s opponents’ actions
                 -Woods’s assessment
                       -Conspiracy
                            -Congress
                            -Press and television [TV]
                            -Communists

Also recorded on May 13, 1973

  • 165-038 10:21 AM · 18 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone at Camp David from 10:21 am to 10:39 am.
  • 165-039 10:39 AM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator talked on the telephone at Camp David at an unknown time between 10:39 am and 10:48 am.
  • 165-040 10:48 AM · 22 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. talked on the telephone at Camp David from 10:48 am to 11:10 am.
  • 165-041 11:10 AM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator talked on the telephone at Camp David at an unknown time between 11:10 am and 11:36 am.
  • 165-042 11:36 AM · 27 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Raymond K. Price, Jr. talked on the telephone at Camp David from 11:36 am to 12:04 pm.
  • 166-001 12:04 PM · 16 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator talked on the telephone at Camp David at an unknown time between 12:04 pm and 4:11 pm.
  • 166-003 4:16 PM · 20 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator talked on the telephone at Camp David at an unknown time between 4:16 pm and 4:21 pm.
  • 166-004 4:21 PM · 9 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Joe D. Waggonner, Jr. talked on the telephone at Camp David from 4:21 pm to 4:30 pm.

All 13 conversations from May 13, 1973 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 166-002, May 13, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/166-002 (accessed October 12, 2026).