Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 259 › Conversation 259-007
Nixon & Woods on White House social functions and Vietnam War
Monday, June 28, 1971 · 2:53 PM–4:01 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 1 hr 2 min
AI Summary
President Nixon and personal secretary Rose Mary Woods met to discuss various administrative and social matters, including guest lists for upcoming White House events and logistics for presidential appointments. The conversation also touched upon the development of communication strategies regarding the Vietnam War, specifically addressing how to explain the history of U.S. involvement to young people. Additionally, they reviewed reports on personnel matters and discussed the involvement of family members in public outreach efforts.
- White House social functions
- Vietnam War
- public relations
- presidential scheduling
- administrative operations
Audio
This clip was extracted from the full tape recording by Easy Nixon.
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Position in tape: 00:05:55 – 01:07:50
259a.mp3
Transcript (AI-generated)
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Uh, what had this, uh, luncheon Friday that we were having, this is the last one, included with Griswold?
She's purple, but she doesn't need a chair for any decision.
Hey, I haven't been working on things, so I was just going to ask you that.
I'm going to ask you to take it off first and stop being cold.
Of course.
They've got a cold.
It's cold.
I'll see you real soon.
Okay.
No, I know that, but Alex is taking over on all the other people.
What's the trouble?
I think they're very poor.
Maybe I was doing a poor job, but nobody said anything and it just doesn't land.
I'm not doing anything.
Which one's the real one?
The last two or three.
He did say he...
The last two or three that have been, that they've had to send out telegrams, they get them so late, there's a call.
That's the brand.
Ah, the brand was the other one.
It was set up very late.
The brand was very late, too, with the next one.
That's the most of them was put there.
Well, that's another reason why we didn't agree to do it until the last one.
And Memo's are gone, and just ignoring me completely.
Well, they're not supposed to be there.
If those two had all been set up, I think they've done it.
Both brand and Somosilver put on the last one that we decided to add to it.
They do what they do.
They go all the way down to the country director.
They go against all the rules that we've set up.
So then when the next thing comes, the country director for the other thing is just livid.
My roads here was a problem.
They didn't have much.
I said we could make points with him.
That's right.
They don't make any points with you.
Well, I understand.
There's no change in his control.
Okay, well, then I can do what they were.
He was now in charge.
Only those two.
Because if he is, then I don't have anything to do with him.
Because I don't want to work with him.
Okay, thank you, sir.
There's no question about it.
We've tried terribly hard to really scatter and take close to people and others and evaluate them against others.
But if you just take a little and turn it in, you get some pretty bad results.
It makes the wrong people.
You've got to have the right kind of confidence with it.
You've got to have...
They've got to have an investigation weeks ahead because half of the thrill is in being able to tell all the facts that are coming and have the right word.
Like this one, the last one.
Oh, I realize that.
These three are here.
These three are here.
What about somebody who's more into what you would think about if they were considering Leo Turn for some appointment?
Would you say that?
I think he's all right.
I think he's all right.
I think liberals and leftists and free world, yeah.
He's tough.
Yeah, he's tough.
Yeah, he's tough.
He's all right.
He's all right.
He's all right.
He's all right.
When I talked to the Annenberg when he was here, he didn't want to talk to me about Facebook.
What's wrong with him?
Well, because he was talking with me or with you, but he won't go through anybody else.
Many people say things to people in heaven.
What?
They say they're not going to tell anybody else, but it gets them back out.
Alright, alright.
He can talk to you.
Alright.
John Howard sent you an encoded photo.
He thinks it's absolutely fantastic.
He isn't always going to do it.
It's American discontent.
The roots of American discontent are his sign itself, his sign itself.
Sure, good.
I'll just put it there.
Okay.
Good idea.
I'll acknowledge it, but I'll just put it there.
Yeah, sure.
But he hasn't ever said no.
No, no, no, no.
I wanted you to know how much it meant.
We sent a letter to his boy, who graduated from a Pilates or a pop-up, everything.
And also, as the best, the most experienced military man that I've ever met, Earl, at our school.
Thank you, sir.
And our primary boss, too.
Good.
Thank you.
I think we should order some more presidential ice cream.
I've been getting one since the Gold Coast time.
Do you like it?
I guess so, yeah.
It's a pretty good thing.
He had also heard this Strokes, you know, from the Anaheim State, Strokes, Strokes, or anything.
He had come to be put in public affairs council, I think.
They all thought he was so good that they wanted to get his record and possibly put him on the air.
But there's just never been anyone, and they had all kinds of experts.
We've been pushing it, you know.
Yeah.
He said Larry Bryant came before him and better went down his route.
He was so nice.
And the droves was the hit of the whole thing.
With his song, there's such great communication between the elements.
He's not much to look at, I don't see him.
Talk to, talk to, uh, to Nick more.
Say, uh, tell Nick I wanted that, that I wanted, I wanted to report it to him.
Yeah.
Um.
Is there anything that's somewhere out of his care, or?
It's a benefit to also check on this.
I hear you can check with me.
I don't know if you can see things, but...
She said, yes, she's awfully good at it, and I want you to look for something.
I don't want you to ask Stacey, but tell Hayden that you're going to check in terms of this scene.
for her going abroad.
In other words, to represent the United States or something.
She basically, though she's a hell of a lot better at representing the United States, you know what I mean?
Well, and something to look at these inaugurations.
He's fine, but I mean, she's the first lady.
Of course she would do it in an inauguration.
You know, for understanding it.
That's right, because there's nothing that happens at any point.
Inauguration.
There now.
Yes, from all the cameras.
Anything is because... You can do it on Sunday, but I mean, suppose it's an anniversary of some sort, but I can't go to it.
Yeah.
Any special... She's awfully hard to get to know, you know, we haven't tried to kick her into going to Peru, which we've been talking about ever since.
I know.
But it was like a false success.
Yeah.
But she needs to do another one now.
I'm sorry about this.
You didn't know whether you could do it or someone else could do it.
Here's the thing, anyone has really, and even with all this paper...
has given a speech or a talk or gotten an invitation for a young kid, like even his son, who's 17 or 18, saying, why are we in Vietnam?
How did we get there?
So that people can answer those questions.
Who would I give that to?
Don't worry about it.
That way it gets to the 18-year-old.
They understand what it's all about.
We're at a very difficult stage there because that battle, even the fact that all of those
got us in, are now criticized for getting in.
I know.
Except for me, who did get in.
I had stood up on it and, like my November 13th cast, if they want to go back and read that, that tells why you're in Vietnam.
And so forth and so on.
Could I ask, do you think Pat Buchanan could pull together something?
Pat Buchanan's the best one to do it.
Well, he just wants it so people can, like he says, I can't even talk to my son and talk a lot with him.
I know.
It's very complicated.
People forgot.
The baby gave me a technique up in the woods.
That's Wolpert's interiors or something that just, it was a funny, I'm joking to you all, but people wanted to try to make it nice.
Oh, yeah.
He said sometimes like the baby.
Yeah, the baby times for you.
Yeah, just sometimes I want to see him.
Wolpert.
He really is just a big ass for him.
Oh, God.
You know, really, it's not Wolpert.
He thought he'd take me down.
Yeah, Wolpert.
Yeah.
He's the guy we always were going to throw rocks with when we used ginseng to protect the kids against the cold.
Yeah.
So this guy stole the papers and chewed.
Oh, shit.
It's just bad.
It's just bad.
Patty lives back here.
She's doing one great job of speaking up.
Good.
Good.
And, uh...
I also told the people out there, we're driving back right into certain towns that there's, you know, there's ways in China that Richard Nixon won the nomination.
It's his, and they ought to be backing him.
It was very well put.
It was nice of you guys to do it.
I don't know if you guys can see it, but the New York New York News did a nice little, uh, that on, you know, the kids, and then a whole page.
It's like you might want to take the palm of it.
You might want to touch it.
You set it up.
You set it up.
You take the third one.
Yeah, when I was up for radio, it was a girl's funeral.
That's how I was taking it.
That was very good.
I got a call.
I mean, I heard it to, uh...
Connie, I have a rather St. John's call.
Someone wants Tricia to do a... Mary something or other.
She is so good.
Tell her.
Tell her to do it.
She should do this.
Don't ask Pat now.
Pat should have nothing to do with it.
You would tell Tricia.
I want her to do it.
I want her to stay in the public eye.
That's why she'll come down.
NARA Description
On June 28, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:53 pm to 4:01 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 259-007 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 259-7
Date: June 28, 1971
Time: 2:53 pm - 4:01 pm
Location: Executive Office Building
The President met with Rose Mary Woods
President’s schedule
-Forthcoming lunch honoring Consuelo Velasco Alvarado
-Guest list
-Mr. and Mrs. Erwin N. Griswold
-Alexander P. Butterfield’s role
-Previous White House social functions
-Willy Brandt dinner
-Henry A. Kissinger’s office
-Anastasio Somoza Debayle dinner
-Guest lists
-Future White House social functions
-Charles W. Colson
-Guest lists
******************************************************************************
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 26m 12s ]
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
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Presidential ppointments
-Leo Cherne
Walter H. and Leonore (Cohn) Annenberg
-Prior conversation with Woods
-John N. Mitchell
John G. Tower
-The Roots of American Discontent by Arthur Steinfeldt [?]
-Letter of congratulations to Tower’s soon
Presidential ashtrays
******************************************************************************
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 2m 19s ]
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2
******************************************************************************
******************************************************************************
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 1m 25s ]
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3
******************************************************************************
Dolf M. Droge
-Woods’ forthcoming conversation with Richard A. Moore
-Report for the President
Thelma C. (Ryan) (“Pat”) Nixon
-State Department
-General Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
-Trips abroad
-Vice Presidint Spiro T. Agnew
-Presidential representative
-Trip to Peru
Vietnam speech for young people
-”Why are we there?”
-History of US involvement
-Patrick J. Buchanan
Charles G. (“Bebe”) Rebozo
Unnamed person who stole documents [Daniel Ellsberg?]
-Ronald W. Reagan
-New York Daily News article
Unknown person’s funeral
******************************************************************************
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 2m 9s ]
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5
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Adela Rogers St. Johns’ phone call to Constance M. (Cornell) (“Connie”) Stuart
-Tricia Nixon Cox
-Mrs. Nixon
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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 6
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 16m 39s ]
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 6
******************************************************************************
Woods left at 4:01 pmAlso recorded on June 28, 1971
- 006-002 2:47 PM · 14 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull talked on the telephone from 2:47 pm to 2:48 pm.
- 259-004 2:47 PM · 23 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:47 pm to 2:48 pm.
- 006-003 2:48 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 2:48 pm.
- 259-005 2:48 PM · 18 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 2:48 pm.
- 006-004 2:49 PM · 16 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods talked on the telephone from 2:49 pm to 2:50 pm.
- 259-006 2:49 PM · 33 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:49 pm to 2:50 pm.
- 006-005 2:50 PM · 54 sec — Alexander P. Butterfield, White House operator, and Patrick J. Buchanan talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 2:50 pm and 5:59 pm.
- 259-008 4:02 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 4:02 pm.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 259-007, June 28, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/259-007 (accessed October 5, 2026).