Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 261 › Conversation 261-026

Nixon & Colson on Daniel Ellsberg and Pentagon Papers

Tuesday, June 29, 1971 · 2:28 PM–2:32 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Colson, Charles W.Conversation261-026 on Tape 261 (tape position 01:02:01–01:24:20)StartTuesday, June 29, 1971 at 2:28 PMEndTuesday, June 29, 1971 at 2:32 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 261-026 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Charles Colson discuss their strategy for handling the controversy surrounding the Daniel Ellsberg case and the publication of the Pentagon Papers. Nixon emphasizes the need to aggressively challenge internal government leakers, framing them as disloyal intellectuals who undermine the country's interests. The President instructs Colson to actively pursue evidence linking these individuals to subversive communist groups to discredit their motivations and control the political narrative.

Audio

Download MP3 (part 1) · 112.0 MB ·Download MP3 (part 2) · 112.0 MB ·Download MP3 (part 3) · 112.0 MB ·Download MP3 (part 4) · 27.1 MB

This conversation has not yet been cut into its own clip, so the player above contains the full tape segment shared with neighbouring conversations. It begins about 01:02:01 into the tape and ends around 01:24:20.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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· Timestamps are positions within the full tape recording.
1:02:12Yeah.
1:02:14So, anything new on the air front today?
1:02:25Right.
1:02:27Yeah.
1:02:36Here it is.
1:02:47I told all of them today and I also told the captain and I told the official that we're going to fight all out of this thing.
1:03:29Well, the point is that if the Ellsberg case ever comes up, he's going to get all through his government among the intellectual types.
1:03:36The people that have the loyalty is the idea that they will be the ones who return what's good for this country.
1:03:43And on that, they weren't elected.
1:03:44They're not going to turn it that way.
1:04:03Now, I consider this a little problem.
1:04:06I'm going to make it a moderate one.
1:04:07I just want to prove it.
1:04:12You're not very too much of an insider.
1:04:13You have a problem, I tell you.
1:04:18Run your shop.
1:04:19Be honest.
1:04:36Pretty natural, right?
1:04:41Mm-hmm.
1:04:41Mm-hmm.
1:04:42If you can really tie it in with some, like communist groups, that would be good.
1:05:05It's my guess that the intent was subversive, you know.
1:05:27Sure.
1:05:33Right.
1:05:34Right.
1:05:35Yeah.
1:05:35Okay.
1:05:38Well, that was a big damn dickle in the hunch yesterday.
1:05:42The nickel, the pressure, the comic power, everybody else.
1:05:47Yeah.
1:05:48I got it.
1:06:06Okay, good.
1:24:57You're getting a bad look at me.
1:24:59That's what you get.

NARA Description

On June 29, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:28 pm to 2:32 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 261-026 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 261-26

Date: June 29, 1971
Time: 2:28 pm - 2:32 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with Charles W. Colson

[See Conversation No. 6-23]

Also recorded on June 29, 1971

  • 530-013 12:42 PM · 21 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:42 pm to 12:44 pm.
  • 530-014 12:44 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Stephen B. Bull, Mrs. Frank Mason, Pam Bull, and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:44 pm to 12:46 pm.
  • 530-015 12:46 PM · 19 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:46 pm to 1:11 pm.
  • 531-025 12:46 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:46 pm to 1:11 pm.
  • 531-032 1:11 PM · 11 sec — Stephen B. Bull and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 1:11 pm and 4:18 pm.
  • 006-023 2:28 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Charles W. Colson, and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone from 2:28 pm to 2:32 pm.
  • 006-024 2:32 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 2:32 pm and 5:03 pm.
  • 063-005 2:50 PM · 1 hr 33 min — President Richard M. Nixon and members of the National Commission on Productivity, including George P. Shultz, Jerome M. Rosow, Harllee Branch, Jr., Edward W. Carter, James M. Roche, Walter B. Wriston, John O'Connell, J. Warren, Shaver, W. L. Lohrentz, Robert Atkinson, Oscar A. Lundin, I[lorwith] W. Abel, Joseph A. Beirne, George Meany, Floyd E. ("Red") Smith, Leonard Woodcock, Nat Weinberg, Nathaniel Goldfinger, Reginald Newell, William T. Coleman, Jr., John T. Dunlop, Howard W. Johnson, Arjay Miller, W. Allen Wallis, John B. Connally, James D. Hodgson, Paul W. McCracken, Maurice H. Stans, Dr. Edward E. David, Jr., Leon Greenberg, Dr. Hubert Heffner, William H. Kohlberg, Harold C. Passer, Harold Wool, Murray L. Weidenbaum, and Carl Savit, met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 2:50 pm and 11:59 pm.

All 54 conversations from June 29, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 261-026, June 29, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/261-026 (accessed October 5, 2026).