Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 217 › Conversation 217-004

Nixon phone call with Butterfield on Administrative Coordination

Friday, October 6, 1972 · 8:32 PM–8:35 PM ET · Camp David Hard Wire · 3 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Butterfield, Alexander P.Conversation217-004 on Tape 217StartFriday, October 6, 1972 at 8:32 PMEndFriday, October 6, 1972 at 8:35 PMRecording deviceCamp David Hard WireSourceNixon Library record for 217-004 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield coordinated the delivery and review of pending documents and administrative materials. Seeking to avoid reviewing fragmented drafts, the President instructed Butterfield to withhold all versions until they could be submitted together as a complete set. Nixon finalized a plan to review the collective materials the following morning between 8:30 and 11:00 am.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 1 minute of this recording (about 37% of it) is represented by only a few words. Listen to the audio rather than relying on the text below; a corrected transcript is queued.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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· Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, mainly, mainly just the other gear.
And, uh... And, uh...
Don't, and just tell us later we won't have it until, what time do they have it scheduled for?
Well, we won't have it until then.
Because it would take me that long.
I'll just have to do it in the morning.
We have now 835.
I don't want to see any until I see them all.
So, uh, when do we expect her to come in?
Right.
Fine, fine.
I'll tell you what we'll do.
Why don't you just hold them all?
I don't know why he's doing two versions, but whatever he's doing, get them done.
I have one here that's already sent.
And, uh, we can, uh, have them get, uh,
And as soon as we heard the memorandum of erection, we just fired them over here.
There's no hurry.
There's no hurry.
And then I'll look at them in the morning.
And I'll work on them.
Start them by 8.30 in the morning and try to finish them by 11 o'clock.
And they aren't going to have it tonight, that's for sure.
This is very realistic.
It's like, I just didn't do too much work on the goddamn thing.
But I don't want to look at three different versions
All in.
All in.
Send it over.
Don't send anything in until everything is in.
I have some with luck.
We are on 10 o'clock now.
Send them over.
I don't expect anything from you until about 11 in the morning.

NARA Description

On October 6, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David from 8:32 pm to 8:35 pm. The Camp David Hard Wire taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 217-004 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 217-4

Date: October 6, 1972
Time: 8:32 pm - 8:35 pm
Location: Camp David Hard Wire

The President talked with Alexander P. Butterfield.

[See Conversation No. 147-2]

Also recorded on October 7, 1972

  • 147-001 8:30 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator talked on the telephone at Camp David at an unknown time between 8:30 pm and 8:32 pm.
  • 147-002 8:32 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield talked on the telephone at Camp David from 8:32 pm to 8:35 pm.
  • 147-003 8:35 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator talked on the telephone at Camp David at an unknown time between 8:35 pm and 8:40 pm.
  • 217-005 8:35 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at an unknown time between 8:35 pm and 8:40 pm.
  • 147-004 8:40 PM · 16 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson talked on the telephone at Camp David from 8:40 pm to 9:00 pm.
  • 217-006 8:40 PM · 16 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David from 8:40 pm to 9:00 pm.
  • 217-007 9:00 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David on an unknown date, sometime between 9:00 pm on October 6, 1972 and 10:16 am on October 7, 1972.
  • 217-008 9:00 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Thelma C. ("Pat") (Ryan) Nixon met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David on an unknown date, sometime between 9:00 pm on October 6, 1972 and 10:16 am on October 7, 1972.

All 41 conversations from October 7, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 217-004, October 7, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/217-004 (accessed October 11, 2026).