{"conversationCode":"188-011","tapeNumber":188,"conversationNumber":11,"identifier":"37-wht-conversation-188-011","startDateTime":"1972-05-18T21:56:00.000Z","endDateTime":"1972-05-19T00:22:00.000Z","startDate":"18-May-1972","startTime":"5:56 PM","endDate":"18-May-1972","endTime":"8:22 PM","dateCertainty":"certain","timeCertainty":"estimated","participants":"Nixon, Richard M. (President); Colson, Charles W.;","description":"On May 18, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at an unknown time between 5:56 pm and 8:22 pm. The Camp David Hard Wire taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 188-011 of the White House Tapes.","locationCode":"CDHW","recordingDevice":"Camp David Hard Wire","latitudeEstimated":39.648333,"longitudeEstimated":-77.465,"chronCode":3,"chronRelease":"Third Chronological Release","chronReleaseDate":"28-Feb-2002","aogpRelease":null,"aogpSegment":null,"lastModified":"2015-07-27T17:04:10.235Z","findingAid":"Conversation No. 188-011\n\nDate: May 18, 1972\nTime: Unknown between 5:56 pm and 8:22 pm\nLocation: Camp David Hard Wire\n\nThe President dictated a memorandum to Charles W. Colson.\n\n     Congress\n         -Administration lobbying of Senate and House\n              -The President’s view\n         -Radicals' and peaceniks' lobbying\n              -Methods\n                     -Mail\n                     -Telephone calls\n                     -Delegations\n\n       Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, NARA Online Public Access Catalog Identifier: 597542\n\n                            -President's experience\n           -Administration lobbying\n                -Colson's office\n                -Clark MacGregor's office\n                -Delegations to Senators and Congressmen\n                      -Purposes\n           -The President’s view\n           -Reaction to delegations\n           -Administration lobbying\n                -Methods","filename":["188-011.mp3"],"tapeStart":"00:39:48","tapeEnd":"00:41:56","participantsList":["Nixon, Richard M. (President)","Colson, Charles W."],"prevCode":"188-010","nextCode":"188-012","transcript":[{"start":7.95,"end":17.1,"text":"the way we work on members of the Senate and how it may not be as effective as it can be, period."},{"start":17.12,"end":33.36,"text":"It is quite clear that the opposition, the fiendics, the radicals, et cetera, primarily concentrate not on mail, telephone calls, but on sending delegations and who insist on seeing"},{"start":36.63,"end":41.32,"text":"and then proceed to work him over and get a commitment from him, period."},{"start":41.34,"end":56.72,"text":"Having been in this spot myself on many occasions, I now know how hard it is to turn one of these groups off without saying something that is favorable to their cause, period."},{"start":56.92,"end":61.47,"text":"I think you ought to have a discussion in your own shop and also with McGregor."},{"start":64.89,"end":65.07,"text":"Okay."},{"start":66.59,"end":82.16,"text":"we can get delegations to the system calling on senators and congressmen so that they can hammer home what we want and get commitments from them."},{"start":82.18,"end":84,"text":"Period."},{"start":84.03,"end":95.92,"text":"You have to remember that there are many, there are very, very few people with any backbone in the Senator House anymore and that they are really patsies for a group that comes in and"},{"start":100.62,"end":126.93,"text":"What we need are some strong, vigorous people who will act just as effectively as our opponents do in going office to office in groups and trying to get commitments from our point of view."}],"aiSummary":{"text":"President Nixon directed Charles Colson to reorganize administration lobbying efforts to better mirror the aggressive, direct-action tactics used by anti-war radicals. Nixon argued that congressional members were increasingly susceptible to pressure and instructed Colson to coordinate with Clark MacGregor to deploy proactive delegations to secure legislative commitments. The President emphasized that this shift from traditional mail and phone campaigns to face-to-face, intensive lobbying was essential to influence members of Congress effectively.","topics":["Lobbying tactics","Congressional relations","Political strategy","Charles Colson","Legislative influence"],"generatedAt":"2026-04-06T09:46:32.479Z"},"topicSlugs":["lobbying-tactics","congressional-relations","political-strategy","charles-colson","legislative-influence"],"audioDurationSec":128,"audioFiles":[{"file":"188-011.mp3","bytes":5144869,"durationSec":128.48,"bitrate":320354,"missing":false}],"audioIsShared":false,"audioProbedAt":"2026-09-18T02:19:33.323Z","findingAidSource":"nixonlibrary.gov subject log (2024-05), reslice-v2","findingAidUpdatedAt":"2026-09-18T08:43:00.999Z","audio":["https://nixon.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/audio/188-011.mp3"],"url":"https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/188-011","nixonLibraryUrl":"https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/white-house-tapes/188/conversation-188-011","license":"Public domain (U.S. Government work). AI-generated fields (transcript, aiSummary) are provided as-is without warranty."}