Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 280 › Conversation 280-011

Nixon & Haldeman on Arthur Burns and White House Social Affairs

Thursday, September 23, 1971 · 11:16 AM–12:58 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 3 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob")Conversation280-011 on Tape 280 (tape position 01:39:53–01:54:06)StartThursday, September 23, 1971 at 11:16 AMEndThursday, September 23, 1971 at 12:58 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 280-011 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and H. R. Haldeman discussed the exclusion of Arthur Burns from an invitation list for a Japanese dinner event. To avoid personal friction with Burns, Nixon instructed Haldeman to shift the responsibility to the State Department, claiming the agency exclusively curated the guest list. The two agreed on this strategy to manage Burns's expectations and protect the White House from appearing at fault.

Audio

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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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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 was just checking the... Did you find out whether Artie was or was not invited to the Japanese Academy Center?
He was not.
And it rained on my body.
Yeah.
I should have been.
I should have.
Yeah.
Well, my point is that, yeah, my point is that I think you would have come to that.
We do go, how would you handle it?
You just say that the president, well, the president would have asked you, how would you put it, don't say that, and say, well, what, did I ever have another engagement?
Where was he?
And then you check, and you found that it was solely, you can put it on the State Department.
You understand?
It's on the State, made up the list.
for us because we had set it up at a late time and they submitted a list and we'd go on.
They were putting the opposite numbers on that.
And the state says that it's true.
They're telling the president to re-rate for all the states.
We're not including our group, but even though they didn't have their opposite number there.
I do that because we need to, he needs to know, he'll undoubtedly think that the White House can be modeled.
You see, and that will make the part that I already know about, the state made up the list, and that I had asked about her, and she finally got to the bottom of the mystery, and it wasn't the White House staff.
We had nothing to do with the list.
We didn't have a job to attend to.
We had to do the work.
The state made up the whole list, and it was up to them to invite you.
And when you braced them on it, they said, well, we only have...
opposite numbers of each one of these, of their people.
And in the picture you should say, you should let us know, aren't you?
We're not aware of it, but I'm trying to let you know.
Okay, fine.
And whatever he makes it would be advisable for him to go and have one of these dinners that we have before our conference.
I'll just have to give you a call when you put it that way.
Okay, it would be very good there to go ahead and do what you want.
Good.
Anything else?
Good.
Good.
Cabinet meeting at nine.
Okay.
Bye.

NARA Description

On September 23, 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 11:16 am and 12:58 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 280-011 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 280-11

Date: September 23, 1971
Time: Unknown between 11:16 am and 12:58 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman.

     White House entertainment and social affairs
          -Arthur F. Burns
               -Dinner for Japanese
                     -Raymond K. Price, Jr.
                     -Instructions for Haldeman
                           -Burns
                           -State Department
                                 -List
                                       -Burns
                     -The White House
                     -State Department

                           -List
                                  -White House staff
                -Forthcoming events
                      -Burns
                      -Invitations
                      -Burns
                            -Dinner
                -Call to Haldeman

     The President's schedule
          -Cabinet meeting
               -Time
               -Call to Burns
                      -Burns’ call to Haldeman
                           -State Department

Also recorded on September 23, 1971

  • 009-138 10:35 AM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 10:35 am.
  • 009-139 10:35 AM · 46 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Patrick J. Buchanan talked on the telephone from 10:35 am to 10:38 am.
  • 280-004 10:35 AM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 10:35 am.
  • 280-006 10:38 AM · 47 sec — 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 10:38 am and 11:15 am.
  • 280-007 10:38 AM · 17 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 10:38 am and 11:15 am.
  • 280-008 10:38 AM · 14 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 10:38 am and 11:15 am.
  • 280-009 11:15 AM · 21 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 11:15 am to 11:16 am.
  • 280-010 11:16 AM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 11:16 am and 12:58 pm.

All 32 conversations from September 23, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 280-011, September 23, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/280-011 (accessed October 12, 2026).