Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 253 › Conversation 253-020

Nixon & Garment on Arts policy and National Endowment for the Arts

Wednesday, May 26, 1971 · 3:30 PM–3:35 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 3 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Garment, LeonardConversation253-020 on Tape 253 (tape position 01:06:00–01:09:11)StartWednesday, May 26, 1971 at 3:30 PMEndWednesday, May 26, 1971 at 3:35 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 253-020 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Leonard Garment discussed the administration's outreach efforts to the arts community and the political value of engaging with cultural figures. Nixon emphasized his belief that the government should look beyond material concerns like social security or food stamps to convey more profound, inspirational messages to the public. He specifically instructed Garment to encourage Nancy Hanks, the chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, to maintain flexibility and effectively navigate the countercultural climate of the era.

  • Arts policy
  • National Endowment for the Arts
  • Public relations
  • Cultural outreach
  • Nancy Hanks

Audio

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Yeah.
Not bad.
Yeah.
Well, how did your artist go?
It may be worth going.
Well, I don't know.
You never know with this issue.
At least it's something that's important to these people and also important in the long run to what we do, so we just gotta go with it.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, turn it up.
You can fire that fire.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah, I see.
All right.
I didn't care.
So that had something to those people, they got that.
And I thought it was interesting, too, that the little story about the Chilean second class, and I remember that, you know, that story, I believe it was 40 years old that I recall when I was working there.
It's really true, a woman, you know, a remarkable woman did it for nothing to come there and tell us that she came back to the United States.
The family voted for her, she would buy a name for her to go second class, and she decided to go.
a horrible first class, which I think is about the best way.
What we need is that we can get across something like that.
And I do feel strongly about that.
Just food stamps and a little more income and increase my social security and give me a better plumbing and so forth is not all that's in line, but there's a hell of a lot of people in the world that don't have much, but who
Well, there are a lot of people that have everything and have nothing.
And there are a lot of people that have very little and very, that's really what these people in the arts, what we need to tell people.
In other words, a person who says that, you know, and I tell some of the greatest people in music, they have angels later on, but they started from fairly poor families, you know.
Not that they had that.
Otherwise, you know,
The main things that I told Nancy is, no, no, tell her to get behind those beards and I will keep her loose.
Okay.

NARA Description

On May 26, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Leonard Garment met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:30 pm to 3:35 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 253-020 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 253-20

Date: May 26, 1971
Time: 3:30 pm - 3:35 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with Leonard Garment

[See Conversation No. 3-138]

Also recorded on May 26, 1971

  • 003-135 3:15 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 3:15 pm and 3:17 pm.
  • 003-136 3:17 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Julie Nixon Eisenhower talked on the telephone from 3:17 pm to 3:18 pm.
  • 253-018 3:17 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Julie Nixon Eisenhower met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:17 pm to 3:18 pm.
  • 003-137 3:18 PM · 4 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 3:18 pm and 3:30 pm.
  • 253-019 3:18 PM · 3 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 3:18 pm and 3:30 pm.
  • 003-138 3:30 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Leonard Garment talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 3:30 pm and 3:35 pm.
  • 253-021 3:35 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 3:35 pm.
  • 253-022 3:35 PM · 29 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Raymond K. Price, Jr., John K. Andrews, Jr., unknown person(s), Ronald L. Ziegler, and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:35 pm to 4:10 pm.

All 83 conversations from May 26, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 253-020, May 26, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/253-020 (accessed October 12, 2026).