{"conversationCode":"269-015","tapeNumber":269,"conversationNumber":15,"identifier":"37-wht-conversation-269-015","startDateTime":"1971-08-03T14:02:00.000Z","endDateTime":"1971-08-03T14:19:00.000Z","startDate":"3-Aug-1971","startTime":"10:02 AM","endDate":"3-Aug-1971","endTime":"10:19 AM","dateCertainty":"certain","timeCertainty":"estimated","participants":"Nixon, Richard M. (President); Ehrlichman, John D.;","description":"On August 3, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 10:02 am and 10:19 am. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 269-015 of the White House Tapes.","locationCode":"EOB","recordingDevice":"Old Executive Office Building","latitudeEstimated":38.897567,"longitudeEstimated":-77.039147,"chronCode":2,"chronRelease":"Second Chronological Release","chronReleaseDate":"26-Oct-2000","aogpRelease":null,"aogpSegment":null,"lastModified":"2015-07-27T17:04:10.235Z","findingAid":"Conversation No. 269-15\n\nDate: August 3, 1971\nTime: Unknown between 10:02 am and 10:19 am\nLocation: Executive Office Building\n\nThe President talked with John D. Ehrlichman.\n\n     Busing\n          -Texas\n          -Court action\n                -Appeal\n          -Unknown person’s statement\n          -Possible telephone calls\n          -Alternatives\n                -Car pools\n                -Court action\n                -Department of Health, Education, and Welfare [HEW]\n                      -Regional office\n          -George P. Shultz\n                -President's instructions\n                      -Regional office action\n                            -Administration disapproval\n                                  -Disciplinary action\n\n     National economy\n          -Lowell P. Weicker, Jr.\n                -Statements\n                      -Unemployment\n                -Administration allies\n          -Arthur F. Burns\n\n          -Congress","filename":["269-015-splice.mp3"],"tapeStart":"01:46:31","tapeEnd":"01:55:22","participantsList":["Nixon, Richard M. (President)","Ehrlichman, John D."],"prevCode":"269-014","nextCode":"269-016","tapeTranscriptFile":"269a.mp3,269b.mp3,269c.mp3,269d.mp3","transcript":[{"start":6399.59,"end":6400.13,"text":"Hi, John."},{"start":6401.01,"end":6404.68,"text":"What's the morning report on our..."},{"start":6441.42,"end":6445.63,"text":"Great, great."},{"start":6445.77,"end":6447.85,"text":"And appeal, and appeal, and action."},{"start":6473.03,"end":6473.17,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":6473.21,"end":6473.61,"text":"He'll say it today."},{"start":6473.63,"end":6473.73,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":6503.86,"end":6504.66,"text":"Right, right."},{"start":6505.42,"end":6516.75,"text":"Well, how about making telephone calls, you know, prior to that time, and cool the damn thing off and say that we're trying it and we're proposing it."},{"start":6516.79,"end":6517.75,"text":"Well, that's good work."},{"start":6517.87,"end":6520.09,"text":"There must be a non-bussing way to do the damn thing."},{"start":6525.88,"end":6526.14,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":6530.93,"end":6531.13,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":6531.65,"end":6531.75,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":6531.77,"end":6531.91,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":6532.57,"end":6532.75,"text":"Mm-hmm."},{"start":6534.47,"end":6536.25,"text":"How the hell are we doing now?"},{"start":6536.27,"end":6548.5,"text":"Busting carpools or something like that?"},{"start":6548.52,"end":6548.62,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":6548.64,"end":6553.3,"text":"Well, why the hell hasn't the court done that?"},{"start":6553.32,"end":6557.34,"text":"Well, why didn't they ATW those then?"},{"start":6557.36,"end":6558.94,"text":"Where did we... ATW really tried to screw us, John."},{"start":6562.41,"end":6563.93,"text":"Well, have we done?"},{"start":6567.39,"end":6573.81,"text":"He knows my disillusionment on that letter."},{"start":6573.91,"end":6577.2,"text":"So the regional office deliberately put in a lousy service."},{"start":6577.24,"end":6579.96,"text":"They did it because they believed in busing and they wanted to do less there."},{"start":6582.3,"end":6582.58,"text":"They did it."},{"start":6582.6,"end":6582.78,"text":"I see."},{"start":6588.56,"end":6588.8,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":6591.38,"end":6592.04,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":6592.18,"end":6592.5,"text":"All right."},{"start":6592.84,"end":6597.9,"text":"Well, now, I want them, I want Schultz, he should be directed to attack that regional office personally."},{"start":6598.36,"end":6599.02,"text":"Is that clear?"},{"start":6599.04,"end":6599.4,"text":"No, no, no."},{"start":6600.18,"end":6604.07,"text":"I'm not, you don't, you've got to clear, you've got to allow him to clear."},{"start":6604.09,"end":6608.15,"text":"He is to say the president totally disapproves of the action of the regional office."},{"start":6609.01,"end":6617.99,"text":"And we are taking disciplinary, use the word, if you've got a pencil, disciplinary action is being taken to reprimand those or remove those who did this."},{"start":6618.07,"end":6618.53,"text":"Is that clear?"},{"start":6618.55,"end":6619.63,"text":"Now do it, John."},{"start":6620.49,"end":6622.84,"text":"That's the way to talk to this thing."},{"start":6622.9,"end":6623.11,"text":"Great."},{"start":6623.14,"end":6623.35,"text":"All right."},{"start":6624.85,"end":6625.26,"text":"Fine, John."},{"start":6625.5,"end":6625.8,"text":"Fine."},{"start":6625.82,"end":6629.96,"text":"Say, John, what the hell is the matter with White?"},{"start":6629.98,"end":6633.86,"text":"I notice he's whacking around about the economy and everything."},{"start":6636.22,"end":6646.6,"text":"Yeah, but he says a lot of other senators, I go, why don't they get him down and give him the, not the rest of the, the brief, what's the, what is his unemployment?"},{"start":6653.75,"end":6654.05,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":6655.93,"end":6656.13,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":6656.15,"end":6656.27,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":6659.99,"end":6664.71,"text":"Well, can't somebody,"},{"start":6669.45,"end":6681.74,"text":"All right, well, planning on somebody, we've got some very powerful friends, you know, that support him, and he's, he can't, can't attack us, that this way, he's not running or anything."},{"start":6682.06,"end":6691.02,"text":"He can talk about the problem, and if he wants to, he can light up and start doing it."},{"start":6691.83,"end":6697.15,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":6697.89,"end":6698.31,"text":"Sure does."},{"start":6699.24,"end":6699.92,"text":"Well, they can't."},{"start":6699.96,"end":6713.39,"text":"They won't do it before they turn this week."},{"start":6713.45,"end":6713.81,"text":"Can they?"},{"start":6713.83,"end":6714.01,"text":"No?"},{"start":6714.05,"end":6714.59,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":6716.3,"end":6716.46,"text":"Okay."},{"start":6717.42,"end":6719.64,"text":"All right."}],"transcriptBoundary":{"start":6399,"end":6717,"startMethod":"llm-alignment","endMethod":"llm-alignment"},"transcriptConfidence":"medium","transcriptSource":"bigtape","originalFilename":["269a.mp3","269b.mp3","269c.mp3","269d.mp3"],"spliceSource":{"spliceType":"bigtape","sourceFiles":["269a.mp3"],"cutStart":6397.5,"cutEnd":6718.5,"adjustedStart":6397.5,"adjustedEnd":6718.5,"boundaryMethod":"llm-alignment","confidence":"medium","splicedAt":"2026-10-27T04:37:27.214Z"},"aiSummary":{"text":"President Nixon and John Ehrlichman discuss methods to obstruct court-ordered school busing in Texas, specifically focusing on pursuing legal appeals and alternative compliance strategies. Frustrated by a regional Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) office that issued a non-compliant directive, Nixon orders Ehrlichman to instruct George Shultz to publicly reprimand the office and initiate disciplinary action. The conversation also briefly touches on managing Senator Lowell Weicker regarding his public criticism of the administration's economic policies.","topics":["Busing","School Desegregation","Department of Health, Education, and Welfare","Personnel Management","National Economy","Lowell Weicker"],"generatedAt":"2026-04-06T12:31:20.249Z"},"topicSlugs":["busing","school-desegregation","department-of-health-education-and-welfare","personnel-management","national-economy","lowell-weicker"],"audioDurationSec":321,"audioFiles":[{"file":"269-015-splice.mp3","bytes":5136345,"durationSec":320.99,"bitrate":128011,"missing":false}],"audioIsShared":false,"audioProbedAt":"2026-10-27T04:37:27.214Z","transcriptPrev":{"segments":65,"replacedAt":"2026-09-18T14:11:53.293Z"},"audio":["https://nixon.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/audio/269-015-splice.mp3"],"url":"https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/269-015","nixonLibraryUrl":"https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/white-house-tapes/269/conversation-269-015","license":"Public domain (U.S. Government work). AI-generated fields (transcript, aiSummary) are provided as-is without warranty."}