Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 278 › Conversation 278-052
Nixon & Haldeman on Military draft and Congressional relations
Thursday, September 16, 1971 · 11:15 AM–11:48 AM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 11 min
AI Summary
President Nixon and H. R. Haldeman met to coordinate strategy regarding the pending draft extension bill and upcoming diplomatic events. The discussion focused on securing legislative support from congressional leaders like F. Edward Hébert and managing the political narrative around the volunteer army and forthcoming summit announcements. Nixon also instructed Haldeman to coordinate with Clark MacGregor to ensure a friendly question regarding foreign policy is planted at the President’s next press conference.
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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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.
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I've got a special deal that I'm not going to tell you about today.
It's going to go wrong before I can talk to you.
Don't ask me what it is.
Okay.
Now, I'm going to tell you how to do it.
On October the 12th, I've got to go down to the arms service.
Okay.
That's how I'm going to go back to my home.
Now, the other thing is that on the draft, my guess is that you're not going to have a vote before 4 o'clock.
And I'm confident that I'm going to be in time to debate with them.
And I'm going to be in time to debate with them.
The Russian announcement has to be involved in any way possible.
I said to her, look, I'll work it out.
I'll work it out.
Basically, what you simply say is that, well, they understand the problem, but they don't understand what you have to say.
What you simply have to say is that you have to do it.
Is anybody in there at all?
I mean, the jargon started to go all out of the song here in our home.
It was stuck here all over.
And the second part was work, which isn't pretty candid.
Oh, hell no.
Hell no.
Oh, no, no, no, no, no.
Yeah, he did phone work tomorrow.
Yeah, he did.
No, no, no.
And he didn't want to leave.
Okay.
Well, we have got to, well, yes, yes, that's fine.
It requires us to have everyone with us now.
Thank you.
Oh, yeah. .
Let's go.
Oh, could I?
Let's see.
Oh, one thing.
I made a quick note.
Ronald told me, and this is probably plenty of chopper.
Remember, I appointed Bob Tyson to be an ambassador on some sort of television or something.
So, just help planning and handling.
put it on the back of
Thank you.
Thank you.
The key thing is, Bob, is that you can't be decided down here by Schultz, Gisbert, etc.
It's great, but it's got to be decided by the three people who are ready to step in.
I don't know if you do have a motion.
What does the, uh, the moderator think, uh, is he, uh, is he, uh, is he, uh, is he, uh, is he, uh, is he, uh, is he,
We've still got to go through with that trip.
I'm glad you got out of it.
I promise.
And after that, I can be cool with something like making him feel good.
He's like, we're going to up and down.
We're going to up and down the trail.
He does say good things to me.
I don't know about his goddamn record.
He's a very clever lady.
I don't know about that.
He says, oh, I'm going to travel abroad.
He's going to take the risk.
I don't know what he's talking about.
Let's get it out on a massive basis.
But at the highest, in other words, you get somebody, not just a number of people, but somebody who's that kind of gold runner or somebody who's cracking on, starting a point of college.
It's very important to do what they're doing, all out there.
That's what they're playing on.
They're playing on .
I always hope, I hope that you shake the greater up a little bit so that he realizes that we're, but we're, but we're out here.
We've got to help these, we've got to help John.
We've got to help him.
We've got to help him.
We've got to help him.
We've got to help him.
Well, probably not as hard as .
But if we don't play the same way, it's not a player.
It's something else.
I mean, I don't know that you can cancel the last one.
Yeah, but you can say it can be very difficult.
Well, no, I can't have somebody .
Better lately.
Traveling again.
So that they can question me, I want somebody to plant a question at the press conference on it.
Maybe I don't put it quite clear.
Exactly.
I want somebody in there.
You know, one of those guys, and this is one time we used to plant a question, and it has been reported.
Now, can you do that?
Steve McGregor, you've got to plant a question.
Oh, come on.
I have a question here.
The fact that it's reported that you said that, how do you comment that you have to make a very big step that you cannot do?
We have a series of problems that we've got to get credit for.
Correct.
Bye.
NARA Description
On September 16, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 11:15 am and 11:48 am. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 278-052 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 278-52
Date: September 16, 1971
Time: Unknown between 11:15 am and 11:48 am
Location: Executive Office Building
The President talked with H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman.
Forthcoming vote on draft extension bill
-The President's deal with F. Edward Hébert
Schedule
-October 12 Hebert portrait hanging ceremony
Military draft bill
-Time deadline
Forthcoming events
-US-Soviet Union summit announcement
Draft extension bill
-Volunteer army
-George P. Shultz’s view
Henry A. Kissinger
Robert C. Tyson
-Dr. W. Kenneth Riland's information about letter
-Peter M. Flanigan
-Response
-Secretary of State [William P. Rogers]
Leonard H. Goldenson
-Letter about television
-Raymond K. Price, Jr.
-[Virginia Sherwood]
Congress
-Draft extension bill
-Hébert
-Shultz
-Kissinger
-Clark MacGregor
-Handling of action on legislation
-Hébert, John C. Stennis, Leslie C. Arends
-Meeting with Michael J. Mansfield
-Mansfield's action
-MacGregor’s view
-The President's forthcoming trip to Montana
-Scheduling
-George S. McGovern
-Stennis
-Handling of unknown foreign policy issue
-Barry M. Goldwater
-Forthcoming summits with PRC, Soviet Union
-MacGregor
-Handling
-Options
President’s schedule
-Alaska
Press conference
-Planned question
-Handling
-MacGregorAlso recorded on September 16, 1971
- 009-038 10:48 AM · 9 min — President Richard M. Nixon and F. Edward Hébert talked on the telephone from 10:48 am to 10:57 am.
- 278-051 10:48 AM · 24 min — President Richard M. Nixon, F. Edward Hébert, and Henry A. Kissinger met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 10:48 am to 10:57 am.
- 009-039 11:15 AM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 11:15 am and 11:48 am.
- 278-053 11:15 AM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 11:15 am and 11:48 am.
- 278-054 11:15 AM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 11:15 am and 11:48 am.
- 278-055 11:15 AM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 11:15 am and 11:48 am.
- 278-056 11:15 AM · 7 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 11:15 am and 11:48 am.
- 009-040 11:48 AM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and George P. Shultz talked on the telephone from 11:48 am to 11:50 am.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 278-052, September 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/278-052 (accessed October 12, 2026).