Nixon White House Tapes ›Tape 274 › Conversation 274-007

Nixon & Safire on Knights of Columbus and Speechwriting

Monday, August 16, 1971 · 2:44 PM–2:49 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Safire, William L.Conversation274-007 onTape 274 (tape position 00:09:29–00:12:58)StartMonday, August 16, 1971 at 2:44 PMEndMonday, August 16, 1971 at 2:49 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 274-007 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with speechwriter William Safire to discuss the development of an upcoming address to the Knights of Columbus. Nixon instructed Safire to synthesize drafts prepared by John McLaughlin and Patrick Buchanan into a cohesive 1,500-word speech. The President emphasized themes of peaceful competition following his August 15th address to the nation and requested the inclusion of Buchanan’s assertive rhetoric regarding America’s critics to suit the audience's sensibilities.

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 00:09:29 into the tape and ends around 00:12:58.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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 · Timestamps are positions within the full tape recording.

9:36Yeah.
9:36Hello.
9:37I am going to send over to you a poem which I would like you to do for me.
9:42I'm going to send you a thousand-word draft that Father McLaughlin did and another 1,500 words that you can in another direction on 19 Columbus.
10:01I want 1,500 words outside on 19 Columbus.
10:04Let me say it.
10:06But I think the two, you could take the two and meld them together.
10:19And it seems to me that I will say this in my introduction.
10:27I am the first president of the Congress, and I want to point out that
10:40I think really the theme that we can do is sort of cutting off our last night.
10:49Today, we're entering a new era of all we started with, planning on a piece of competition.
11:01I would start writing the last of the speech last night, and then say, it depends on the people, but this organization, and we've got all the fine things about, you know, about the night, the sense of history, and everything.
11:19Buchanan's got some good...
11:24arguing stuff about people who are non-American and so forth, which I think would be said there.
11:30It's that kind of, you know, they're kind of a down-to-earth, mason-like type of audience, so you need a little of that in.
11:38I'd like to hear what you're wanting to say, but I really think that we can't accept enough.
11:44They're a little rougher than any of them, and I can say, I'll send the copies to your office, okay?
11:52Yeah.
11:53well let me say there's no problem
12:12And then I think, too, the idea of those so-called compromises.
12:41Mr. President, they seem to be late.

NARA Description

On August 16, 1971, 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. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 274-007 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 274-7

Date: August 16, 1971
Time: 2:44 pm - 2:49 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with William L. Safire.

     Knights of Columbus speech, August 17, 1971
         -Draft
                -Length
                -Other drafts
                     -Patrick J. Buchanan
                     -John J. McLaughlin

                -Importance
                -Themes
                     -President’s address to the Nation, August 15, 1971
                           -Peaceful competition
                -Buchanan
                     -America’s critics
                -Time
                -John B. Connally
                     -Football analogy

     Connally's press conference

     Draft of Knights of Columbus speech

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.
  • 274-006 2:43 PM · 30 sec — 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.
  • 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.
  • 274-008 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 274-007, 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/274-007 (accessed September 18, 2026).