Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 249 › Conversation 249-015

Nixon & Ehrlichman on Surveillance and White House Security

Thursday, April 15, 1971 · 3:48 PM–4:05 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 5 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Ehrlichman, John D.Conversation249-015 on Tape 249 (tape position 02:04:46–02:10:05)StartThursday, April 15, 1971 at 3:48 PMEndThursday, April 15, 1971 at 4:05 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 249-015 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and John Ehrlichman met to review talking points prepared by Patrick Buchanan for the President's upcoming address to the American Society of Newspaper Editors. The discussion focused on justifying the necessity of government surveillance for security purposes—citing threats to public officials and recent media coverage of White House cameras—and refining economic messaging to better highlight positive indicators like retail sales. Nixon directed Ehrlichman to coordinate with George Shultz and Paul McCracken to ensure the presentation of economic data utilized specific, impactful examples rather than generalized statistics.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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John, I wanted to be sure that you took a look at the suggested comments on surveillance and other things that Buchanan has gathered justice for this editor.
Have you looked at it yet?
Well, no.
Yeah.
Well, let me say, I know you've got a lot of other things, but this is your field, and maybe you'll do more.
you just take a quick look at them and see what they have.
I don't, of course, as you know, as you probably see there, five times as long, I'm not going to be able to answer it, but I'm going to cut it down a lot, but the general, the general propositions tend to be in there.
There's many good ones to be made, but I don't know if there are about 30 seconds to make it, but we'll do it.
It seems to me that, frankly, we ought to sort of
cruel the idea that everybody, you know, they're being watched.
Second, we've got to, not that we're doing less than others, but also remember that a hell of a lot of people want to see that the bad guys are surveilled, particularly when they're bombing things and that sort of thing.
You'll recall that after Oswald, everybody said, why the hell does the FBI watch?
I mean, when Muskie talks about Earth Day, I mean, if they ask me what I say, well,
There's surveillance right in this room.
Every time I make a speech, any place, any time I travel, there's surveillance.
There's surveillance of public figures.
There has to be.
And there is, if you know.
Or, Rennie Davis is there.
So there, they're always tailoring him.
And Black, the other one, real bad.
I mean, the guy that's the head of the Revolutionary Blacks.
There were two there.
Sure, they were on the platform with Muskie.
Who else?
Sure.
But, nevertheless, the point is that the President, they did surveillance just to be sure, but there are all sorts.
We live in a day of letters being written, anonymous letters, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, and so forth.
That, of course,
Totally ridiculous with a picture of Washington Post this morning of cameras in the White House.
Now, what in the name of God are they talking about?
Hell, there are cameras in San Clemente, and there are cameras in Camp David.
And otherwise, you've got to have men up there in the room.
Yeah, what do they want?
Men up there with guns?
Huh?
The whole purpose is to have the cameras there to see them.
They've got to walk up with a bazooka and a lot of shell in it.
Huh?
What do they want?
Well, of course, there's all that.
The other thing, though, is that there's quite a bit on here.
I don't know.
It seems to me to be about right.
You've got to be able to stop justice.
I think more of us looked at it.
But you may have some views.
As I say, don't add anything.
But if you think there's a point that ought to be made or one that ought not to be made, why should justice...
The other thing is that in terms of the economic stuff, I'd ask you to check with Schultz to give you some more of it.
It seems to me that this is a good time to just emphasize the pilot.
I mean, yesterday, in the days that, you know, we talked about the industrial production, which is always a laggard, especially when it comes to this presentation, it's not always as good as it used to be.
It's come out today, yeah, at 28 and a half.
What about retail sales?
Did that come out today?
That's a better story.
Incidentally, see if Schultz or somewhere in my crack can sort out the March figures from the rest.
You get what I mean?
I guess the March, I'd like to, for example, March automobile sales probably had the biggest lift of any year, of any month in 10 years over the previous month.
You know what I mean?
You see what I mean?
It's that kind of thing.
If you just look at two or three or four good examples, the way it is, the way that McCracken presents his stuff, or at least the way that McCracken gets it to me, it says retail sales are up and interest rates are down and so forth.
That doesn't mean a goddamn thing.
the Laotian operation, what we, in the middle of it, when I said 55% of the truck traffic is cut or reduced.
Now that bite, see, everybody said, well, gee, that's something they can do.
Then if you just say the truck traffic is going to do, that doesn't mean a goddamn thing.
So I didn't know the GNP story was coming out tomorrow.
I mean, it wasn't supposed to be leaked.
Talk about it.
We have a crack after that.
Good.
Bye.
Bye.
Good.
Bye.

NARA Description

On April 15, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 3:48 pm and 4:05 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 249-015 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 249-15

Date: April 15, 1971
Time: Unknown between 3:48 pm and 4:05 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with John D. Ehrlichman

     Surveillance
          -Suggested comments for forthcoming interview at convention of American Society
                of Newspaper Editors, April 16, 1971
          -Patrick J. Buchanan
          -Department of Justice
          -Numbers
          -Concern
          -Public opinion
                -Lee Harvey Oswald
                -Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI]
          -Earth Day
                -Edmund S. Muskie
          -Protection for President

          -Rennie Davis
          -Unknown black leader
          -Muskie
          -Protection for President
          -Washington Post story on White House cameras
          -Camera locations
          -Richard A. Moore

     Economic indicators
         -George P. Shultz
         -Industrial production
         -Retail sales
         -Shultz
         -Paul W. McCracken
         -March retail sales
         -McCracken
         -Buchanan
         -Comparative figures
               -Use by President in unknown speech
         -Gross National Product [GNP]
               -McCracken

Also recorded on April 15, 1971

  • 042-045 3:44 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 3:44 pm.
  • 249-012 3:44 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 3:44 pm.
  • 042-046 3:45 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Donald H. Rumsfeld talked on the telephone from 3:45 pm to 3:48 pm.
  • 249-013 3:45 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Donald H. Rumsfeld met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:45 pm to 3:48 pm.
  • 042-047 3:48 PM · 4 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 3:48 pm and 4:31 pm.
  • 249-014 3:48 PM · 20 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 3:48 pm and 4:05 pm.
  • 249-016 4:05 PM · 17 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 4:05 pm to 4:32 pm.
  • 249-017 4:05 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 4:05 pm and 4:31 pm.

All 71 conversations from April 15, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 249-015, April 15, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/249-015 (accessed October 3, 2026).