Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 281 › Conversation 281-054

Nixon alone in his EOB office on Speechwriting and Public communication

Thursday, October 21, 1971 · 5:43 PM–5:50 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 2 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President)Conversation281-054 on Tape 281 (tape position 04:15:02–04:16:35)StartThursday, October 21, 1971 at 5:43 PMEndThursday, October 21, 1971 at 5:50 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 281-054 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon reviewed a draft of an upcoming speech, focusing on technical accuracy and clarity. During the rehearsal, he identified a specific error in the title of an assistant attorney general within the Office of Legal Counsel. Nixon ultimately decided against requesting a revision, concluding that the minor typographical error was not significant enough to necessitate reprinting the document.

Audio

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This clip was extracted from the full tape recording by Easy Nixon.

Listen to the full tape segment

Position in tape: 04:15:02 – 04:16:35

281a.mp3
281b.mp3
281c.mp3

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 October 21, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 5:43 pm and 5:50 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 281-054 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 281-54

Date: October 21, 1971
Time: Unknown between 5:43 pm and 5:50 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President rehearsed a speech.

[A transcript of the final broadcast of this speech appears in Public Papers of the Presidents,
Richard M. Nixon, 1971, pp. 1053-1057]

Also recorded on October 21, 1971

  • 012-049 5:42 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 5:42 pm.
  • 012-050 5:42 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods talked on the telephone from 5:42 pm to 5:43 pm.
  • 281-050 5:42 PM · 14 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 5:42 pm.
  • 281-051 5:42 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 5:42 pm to 5:43 pm.
  • 281-052 5:43 PM · 56 sec — President Richard M. Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 5:43 pm and 5:50 pm.
  • 281-053 5:43 PM · 12 sec — 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 5:43 pm and 5:50 pm.
  • 281-055 5:50 PM · 6 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Rose Mary Woods, and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 5:50 pm and 5:55 pm.
  • 012-051 5:52 PM · 33 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone from 5:52 pm to 5:53 pm.

All 107 conversations from October 21, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 281-054, October 21, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/281-054 (accessed September 28, 2026).