Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 261 › Conversation 261-014
Nixon & Colson on Pentagon Papers and The New York Times
Thursday, June 17, 1971 · 2:22 PM–2:37 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 7 min
AI Summary
President Nixon and Charles Colson discuss strategies to discredit the New York Times for publishing the Pentagon Papers, framing the newspaper's actions as the criminal act of knowingly publishing stolen government documents. Nixon directs Colson to aggressively disseminate this narrative to members of Congress, the press, and the public to shift focus away from the war and onto the legal and security implications of the leaks. Furthermore, Nixon emphasizes the need to frame the documents as a reflection of Kennedy and Johnson-era mismanagement rather than a current administration cover-up.
- Pentagon Papers
- The New York Times
- Leaked Documents
- Legal Strategy
- Media Manipulation
- National Security
Audio
This clip was extracted from the full tape recording by Easy Nixon.
Listen to the full tape segment
Position in tape: 00:14:32 – 00:21:58
261a.mp3
261b.mp3
261c.mp3
261d.mp3
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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.
Download transcript (.txt) · JSON data
· Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).
Each line starts with a timestamp button; press it to play the audio from that point.
55, 42.
Correct.
The lobbying, I'm going to get through everything.
They had the lobbying, the veterans, the lawyers, the New York Times ran that thing for that purpose, no question about it.
Did Thomas think we could do for it out?
No.
Of the nation, of the nations of the past?
No.
I mean, actually, if you read the Times stories, it discredits it.
If you read from the viewpoint of the guy that wrote the statement, it's a left-wing thought.
Oh, I don't know.
I think the...
I'm not sure what was your opinion on this, but I don't know if you're beginning to get any proper coverage in the Times.
There have been a few editorials the other way around.
Once you get this line, which would be a very simple way to go, the Times is guilty of publishing, of knowingly publishing stolen goods.
knowingly publishing stolen goods.
McLeod brought it up when he came today.
He said they have a case down here today.
Any individual who received stolen goods is guilty.
He says here the Times received stolen goods, stolen documents, but the Times knowingly published stolen goods.
I think it's got to be here on that.
The other thing that is not, I've already been, I know Eric is not currently in the same pool, but the other thing is that from the attacks on this to constantly handle the fact that this is the Kennedy-Johnson picture, which is what we get when we're getting that across.
And it's said, and it's the obvious ones.
They were supposed to be, he did say, and I think they were said about 10 times, but what is the trouble?
They are carrying it, so they're carrying it.
The point is, I'm not concerned about the issue.
I'm not concerned about, I mean, I don't want to go home at this point and I don't want everybody here to think, well, this is too bad.
My God, let's make something of it.
It's an opportunity.
Listen, the New York Times believed, the New York Times, and people's credit, of course,
indefinitely is for so and so.
In fact, I would, as long as I am where I am, in New York County, never, never, never have any stolen goods, I'll tell you that.
They chose to take us on hand now, but it goes beyond that.
It goes to all of the disloyal people in government who do, who are tempted to get out and peddle the paper here and there, either for profit or because they don't really want to work here.
It goes also to the integrity of our country.
It's far beyond that.
This is a terrible thing.
And I think it needs to come.
In parallel with lies, in parallel with our sources, in parallel with our lives and communications, in parallel with the President's right to have honest advisors while he destroys it all.
And somebody's got to say it.
They've got to get it out.
It hasn't been said simply enough and often enough yet.
I don't know what the trouble is.
I want you to get that line.
Use it.
I want it used.
Get it to 10 senators and congressmen.
Knowing the publishing.
Get somebody to get it out on television.
That's the kind of thing.
Get somebody to put it in on an editorial.
Then mail that around the country.
Put it, get it on some sort of print.
Mail it to 100,000 people.
Knowingly stuff publishing .
Why aren't they guilty of something?
My issue totally was that endangering the security of Americans.
That's the second line, endangering the security of Americans.
Third, well, people don't care about the presidency and all that, but nevertheless, endangering the security of Americans.
I have a problem with the chocolate in my head.
I have a kid who is grayish, and I'm afraid of the fact that it's important that you get sober now.
It stirs the people around me.
That's why everybody's knowingly publishing stolen goods.
That's the way they're not stolen.
There are people who don't know how to say anything in simple ways.
Not in terms of knowingly publishing stolen, I mean stolen, stolen secure documents.
That's the way Henry would put it.
No, that's correct.
The way of knowingly publishing stolen goods.
People get that.
It sounds like a thief.
It sounds like something wrong.
I mean, there's a lot of people that are against the war that wouldn't do this.
You can be against the war, but you don't break the law.
And also the other idea, breaking the law is never justified regardless of the cause.
No cause justifies breaking the law.
I put that one down for you.
No cause, which, to which, and I warn, justifies breaking the law.
Those two young guys, they look into other, the two youngest look 25 years older, so, but they are, but they are really crazy.
My God, they are just, come on, come on.
Come on.
You can't even handle it.
They have these great guys.
They do, they just fail on this kind of thing.
That puts the war in the front page, of course it does.
One thing to have in mind is it's a story that is not making an impact on the country.
I owe you money for what is happening here, despite the fact that it's not tolerated so much.
You know what I mean?
Tolerated people may love it.
It's still confusing to the average guy.
The only problem is that it's getting tolerated and tries to get it across as if we were covering up something about the war.
We are not covering up the Republican Party.
We're covering up who was responsible in that period.
It's a fight between Johnson and Kennedy and Macklemore and those people.
And we've just got to say that.
NARA Description
On June 17, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:22 pm to 2:37 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 261-014 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 261-14 Date: June 17, 1971 Time: 2:22 pm - 2:37 pm Location: Executive Office Building The President talked with Charles W. Colson [See Conversation No. 5-109]
Also recorded on June 17, 1971
- 005-107 1:13 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 1:13 pm and 1:16 pm.
- 005-108 1:16 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 1:16 pm and 2:22 pm.
- 261-013 1:16 PM · 13 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 1:16 pm and 2:22 pm.
- 005-109 2:22 PM · 14 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson talked on the telephone from 2:22 pm to 2:37 pm.
- 005-110 2:41 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 2:41 pm.
- 524-026 2:41 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at 2:41 pm.
- 524-027 2:42 PM · 53 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Ronald L. Ziegler, Charles W. Colson, Clark MacGregor, Barry M. Goldwater, White House photographer, Henry A. Kissinger, Manolo Sanchez, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 2:42 pm to 3:33 pm.
- 524-028 3:33 PM · 35 sec — President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, and Manolo Sanchez met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 3:33 pm and 3:37 pm.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 261-014, June 17, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/261-014 (accessed October 12, 2026).