{"conversationCode":"261-037","tapeNumber":261,"conversationNumber":37,"identifier":"37-wht-conversation-261-037","startDateTime":"1971-07-01T20:25:00.000Z","endDateTime":"1971-07-01T21:55:00.000Z","startDate":"1-Jul-1971","startTime":"4:25 PM","endDate":"1-Jul-1971","endTime":"5:55 PM","dateCertainty":"certain","timeCertainty":"estimated","participants":"Nixon, Richard M. (President); Ziegler, Ronald L.; White House operator; Nixon, Thelma C. (\"Pat\") (Ryan);","description":"On July 1, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, Ronald L. Ziegler, White House operator, and Thelma C. (\"Pat\") (Ryan) Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 4:25 pm and 5:55 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 261-037 of the White House Tapes.","locationCode":"EOB","recordingDevice":"Old Executive Office Building","latitudeEstimated":38.897567,"longitudeEstimated":-77.039147,"chronCode":1,"chronRelease":"First Chronological Release","chronReleaseDate":"5-Oct-1999","aogpRelease":null,"aogpSegment":null,"lastModified":"2015-07-27T17:04:10.235Z","findingAid":"Conversation No. 261-37\n\nDate: July 1, 1971\nTime: Unknown between 4:25 pm and 5:55 pm\nLocation: Executive Office Building\n\nThe President met with Ronald L. Ziegler\n\n[The President talked with the White House operator at an unknown time between 4:25 pm and\n5:09 pm]\n\n[Conversation No. 261-37A]\n\n[See Conversation No. 6-81]\n\n[End of telephone conversation]\n\n     Press briefing\n           -Paris talks\n\n[The President talked with Thelma C. (Ryan) (“Pat”) Nixon between 5:09 pm and 5:10 pm]\n\n[Conversation No. 261-37B]\n\n[See Conversation No. 6-82]\n\n[End of telephone conversation]\n     Press briefing\n\n          -Media speculation\n          -Paris talks\n\n     Michael J. (“Mike”) Mansfield amendment\n         -Henry A. Kissinger\n         -US position\n         -Mansfield\n     Pentagon Papers\n          -John D. Ehrlichman\n          -Press statement\n          -Kissinger\n\n     William P. Rogers\n          -Richard A. Moore\n          -John A. Scali\n\n     Suppression of information\n\n     President’s forthcoming statement in Kansas\n\nZiegler left at an unknown time before 5:55 pm","filename":["261a.mp3","261b.mp3","261c.mp3","261d.mp3"],"tapeStart":"03:31:52","tapeEnd":"04:00:12","participantsList":["Nixon, Richard M. (President)","Ziegler, Ronald L.","White House operator","Nixon, Thelma C. (\"Pat\") (Ryan)"],"prevCode":"261-036","nextCode":"261-038","tapeTranscriptFile":"261a.mp3,261b.mp3,261c.mp3,261d.mp3","transcript":[{"start":12805.29,"end":12809.28,"text":"And a little vote is for the girl, for their wife, our secretary."},{"start":12860,"end":12863.82,"text":"Mr. Nixon, please."},{"start":12863.86,"end":12864,"text":"Sorry."},{"start":12864.04,"end":12864.36,"text":"Sorry."},{"start":12864.58,"end":12868.78,"text":"I just wanted to give you a- Right, yeah, sure."},{"start":12868.8,"end":12871.94,"text":"I forgot about it."},{"start":12872.42,"end":12872.68,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":12873.52,"end":12879.14,"text":"They were positive ."},{"start":12945.43,"end":12945.97,"text":"Let me say this."},{"start":12972.61,"end":12973.43,"text":"You've got to have a problem."},{"start":12973.45,"end":12974.17,"text":"It's a big problem."},{"start":12974.19,"end":12974.56,"text":"Oh, yeah."},{"start":13013.5,"end":13032.53,"text":"And that's just for posture and so forth and so forth."},{"start":13036,"end":13040.56,"text":"But it's not reflecting on that."},{"start":13040.58,"end":13046.85,"text":"It's not, that the positive does not relate to the other side."},{"start":13047.23,"end":13055.15,"text":"See, when Mansfield stated that, the point of stirring is speculation."},{"start":13055.21,"end":13058.45,"text":"Well, they don't realize it."},{"start":13058.47,"end":13062.67,"text":"There's that sense in the air that they have"},{"start":13064.89,"end":13067.61,"text":"In the summer, of course, I would advocate right away, oh, we should accept this."},{"start":13067.71,"end":13075.44,"text":"Of course, you can't accept it even if you get out at the end of the year, you can't accept it."},{"start":13075.46,"end":13080.9,"text":"You're going to have to look at it now."},{"start":13080.92,"end":13081.36,"text":"No, I haven't."},{"start":13081.6,"end":13082.12,"text":"The, uh, I don't know."},{"start":13082.18,"end":13088.53,"text":"Maybe, uh, maybe break."},{"start":13088.55,"end":13090.71,"text":"You have to look at it."},{"start":13091.17,"end":13091.95,"text":"What is the situation on that?"},{"start":13100.65,"end":13109.4,"text":"My inclination still is to resist the... Well, I know that the..."},{"start":13109.44,"end":13129.69,"text":"I see in myself nothing to be... gained by going on black and out of shape about this... these papers."},{"start":13136.89,"end":13138.27,"text":"Everybody has a precious soul."},{"start":13138.59,"end":13140.74,"text":"The obsession that they have that I like to have."},{"start":13140.75,"end":13142.5,"text":"I don't think there has to be an expensive statement."},{"start":13142.52,"end":13156.5,"text":"Well, the major question is, however, wherever you are, the next time you submit a question, it will be the first question."},{"start":13156.52,"end":13160.22,"text":"Well, I don't know if you submit a question."},{"start":13160.26,"end":13162.52,"text":"Well, it's not the next one."},{"start":13165.4,"end":13174.4,"text":"I'm wondering if that would probably say something like that, but I don't know about you."},{"start":13177.28,"end":13184.32,"text":"But that time, if you're playing, you know something about me."},{"start":13184.34,"end":13185.32,"text":"So he was like, tell me."},{"start":13185.34,"end":13187.48,"text":"Well, by this time, by that time, it's a lot of writing."},{"start":13187.52,"end":13192.84,"text":"Well, Dick Warren's going to be working in a very small company."},{"start":13194.02,"end":13198,"text":"My own view is that it's not all that important."},{"start":13198.84,"end":13203.5,"text":"I think the repression is just great."},{"start":13203.92,"end":13204.31,"text":"I'm all for it."},{"start":13204.34,"end":13207.09,"text":"I'm not going to worry about repression."},{"start":13207.11,"end":13213.29,"text":"We're not trying to repress the South."},{"start":13221.89,"end":13226.05,"text":"I don't know that it has said."},{"start":13226.13,"end":13232.57,"text":"What people would we look for?"},{"start":13232.61,"end":13238.29,"text":"The government has already managed to ."},{"start":13239.83,"end":13248.25,"text":"I can't do that."},{"start":13262.69,"end":13271.41,"text":"Something very brief."},{"start":13271.57,"end":13271.79,"text":"Excuse me."},{"start":13271.81,"end":13273.9,"text":"I'm not advocating that."},{"start":13273.92,"end":13276.16,"text":"What I meant is I think you're covered."}],"transcriptBoundary":{"start":12712,"end":14412,"startMethod":"tape_time","endMethod":"tape_time"},"transcriptConfidence":"low","transcriptSource":"bigtape","aiSummary":{"text":"President Nixon met with Press Secretary Ronald L. Ziegler to coordinate the administration's public messaging regarding the ongoing Paris Peace Talks, the Pentagon Papers, and the Mansfield Amendment. The discussion focused on managing press speculation and determining the appropriate government posture toward media inquiries and potential information suppression. Nixon expressed a desire to keep official statements brief and dismissive of the controversy surrounding the leaked documents.","topics":["Pentagon Papers","Mansfield Amendment","Paris Peace Talks","Media relations","Press briefings"],"generatedAt":"2026-04-06T12:20:41.943Z"},"topicSlugs":["pentagon-papers","mansfield-amendment","paris-peace-talks","media-relations","press-briefings"],"audioDurationSec":1700,"audioFiles":[{"file":"261a.mp3","bytes":117433574,"durationSec":7339.6,"bitrate":128000,"missing":false},{"file":"261b.mp3","bytes":117441933,"durationSec":7340.12,"bitrate":127999,"missing":false},{"file":"261c.mp3","bytes":117408078,"durationSec":7338,"bitrate":128000,"missing":false},{"file":"261d.mp3","bytes":28433763,"durationSec":1777.11,"bitrate":127999,"missing":false}],"audioIsShared":true,"audioProbedAt":"2026-09-18T02:19:38.006Z","audio":["https://nixon.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/audio/261a.mp3","https://nixon.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/audio/261b.mp3","https://nixon.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/audio/261c.mp3","https://nixon.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/audio/261d.mp3"],"url":"https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/261-037","nixonLibraryUrl":"https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/white-house-tapes/261/conversation-261-037","license":"Public domain (U.S. Government work). AI-generated fields (transcript, aiSummary) are provided as-is without warranty."}