Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 251 › Conversation 251-009

Nixon & Ziegler on Press Relations and Vietnam War Protests

Tuesday, April 20, 1971 · 2:55 PM–3:00 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 3 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Ziegler, Ronald L.Conversation251-009 on Tape 251 (tape position 00:07:04–00:10:07)StartTuesday, April 20, 1971 at 2:55 PMEndTuesday, April 20, 1971 at 3:00 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 251-009 ↗ · National Archives Catalog, NAID 417183535 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Press Secretary Ronald Ziegler consulted to coordinate a consistent public response regarding whether the administration had discussed upcoming protest demonstrations during a recent meeting. Seeking to mitigate negative press coverage, the two men verified that the Vietnam War and related demonstrations were not on the formal agenda and had not been addressed by the President. Nixon prioritized identifying the source of unauthorized leaks or misinformation regarding these meetings to ensure the official narrative remained uniform.

Audio

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NARA Description

On April 20, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:55 pm to 3:00 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 251-009 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 251-9

Date: April 20, 1971
Time: 2:55 pm - 3:00 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President met with Ronald L. Ziegler

[A transcript of the following portion of this conversation was prepared under court order from
December 1978 through March 1979 for Special Access [SA] 8, Ronald V. Dellums, et al. v.
James M. Powell, et al., No. 71-2271. The National Archives and Records Administration
produced this transcript. The National Archives does not guarantee its accuracy.]

[End of transcript]

Ziegler left at 3:00 pm

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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I'm quite sure you did not say
I was quite sure of that.
I was quite sure of that, and I talked to several others who were in the meeting.
They said, no, sir, I'm in here, but I want you to check directly with you, because then I can say I'm talking to them.
It wasn't even discussed.
Why don't you quote McGregor?
He was there.
The subject was not even brought up.
We didn't discuss the Vietnam War.
You mean his demonstration?
I thought he brought it up.
It wasn't even...
It wasn't on the agenda.
It wasn't brought up by anybody.
I can bring it up.
It wasn't all simple, Scott.
No, no, no.
It was splattered around town.
I would have hit it pretty hard.
It was said.
The president's never said it.
No, it is.
It's a matter.
That was not being discussed at all in that meeting or any other meeting.
The president has never said it.
No, no, no, don't say that.
It's a matter that was not discussed at that meeting or any other meeting.
And it was not discussed in that meeting.
I don't know how many there are.
It's one of the slightest ideas.
But it is enough.
But you're being quoted the same.
Only 30% of those that are juried.
I've never heard you say that.
During the slightest idea of what they were, I would assume that there are some that are not, but I would be very surprised if they were all there.
But we haven't even discussed this.
We don't have any numbers.
We have no reason, no knowledge of it.
The matter was not even discussed this morning, and it's never been discussed in any meeting that I know of.
But I'd like to nail who the hell's on it.
Who is it?
I don't know.
I'm a smart guy now.
Is it somebody from the White House?
I don't know.
No, really, I mean, that's, uh, somebody may be just trying to, trying to jump us.
Who was in that meeting this morning?
Who, who the hell, uh... Well, the point is that you did not say that.
Forget what I said.
We did not discuss the demonstrations at all.
We discussed it.
We've been brought up about the demonstrations.
I think 30% of that is something new.
I think the vice president said it.
Maybe he said it.
Did he?
I don't know.
He might have said it.
But it's not been in the meeting.
In the meeting, the matter of demonstration was not even discussed.
You were there.
The draft.
Thank you, sir.

Also recorded on April 20, 1971

  • 042-058 2:38 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 2:38 pm.
  • 042-060 2:39 PM · 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Tricia Nixon Cox talked on the telephone from 2:39 pm to 2:44 pm.
  • 251-006 2:39 PM · 59 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Tricia Nixon Cox met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:39 pm to 2:44 pm.
  • 042-061 2:45 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Leslie C. Arends talked on the telephone from 2:45 pm to 2:46 pm.
  • 251-007 2:45 PM · 54 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Leslie C. Arends met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:45 pm to 2:46 pm.
  • 251-008 2:46 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 2:46 pm and 2:55 pm.
  • 251-010 3:00 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 3:00 pm and 3:04 pm.
  • 483-016 3:06 PM · 26 min — President Richard M. Nixon, George P. Shultz, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 3:06 pm to 3:34 pm.

All 56 conversations from April 20, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 251-009, April 20, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives (NAID 417183535). Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/251-009 (accessed November 2, 2026).