Nixon White House Tapes ›Tape 274 › Conversation 274-006

Nixon with unidentified visitors in his EOB office on William L. Safire

Monday, August 16, 1971 · 2:43 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  White House operatorConversation274-006 onTape 274 (tape position 00:08:51–00:09:21)StartMonday, August 16, 1971 at 2:43 PMEndMonday, August 16, 1971 at 2:43 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 274-006 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon initiated a brief communication through the White House operator to place an outgoing call. The primary purpose of this interaction was to establish a direct line of contact with presidential speechwriter William L. Safire. No further discussion or substantive policy deliberations occurred during this brief exchange.

Audio

Download MP3 (part 1) · 112.0 MB ·Download MP3 (part 2) · 112.2 MB ·Download MP3 (part 3) · 67.0 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 00:08:51 into the tape and ends around 00:09:21.

Transcript (AI-generated)

No transcript is available yet for this conversation. The recording may contain no audible speech, or it may not have been processed.

NARA Description

On August 16, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 2:43 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 274-006 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 274-6

Date: August 16, 1971
Time: 2:43 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with the White House operator.

     Request for a call to William L. Safire

Also recorded on August 16, 1971

  • 274-005 2:40 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:40 pm to 2:43 pm.
  • 274-048 2:43 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:43 pm to 2:44 pm.
  • 274-007 2:44 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and William L. Safire met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:44 pm to 2:49 pm.
  • 274-008 2:49 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 2:49 pm and 2:54 pm.
  • 274-009 2:49 PM · 15 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 2:49 pm and 2:54 pm.
  • 274-010 2:54 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:54 pm to 2:58 pm.
  • 274-011 2:59 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Robert H. Finch met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:59 pm to 3:01 pm.
  • 274-012 3:01 PM · 55 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 3:01 pm and 3:05 pm.

All 88 conversations from August 16, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 274-006, August 16, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/274-006 (accessed September 18, 2026).