Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 281 › Conversation 281-054
Nixon alone in his EOB office on Speechwriting and Office of Legal Counsel
Thursday, October 21, 1971 · 5:43 PM–5:50 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 2 min
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.
- Speechwriting
- Public communication
- Office of Legal Counsel
- Administrative oversight
- Presidential rhetoric
Audio
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
part C, 10:00
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]
Transcript (AI-generated)
No speech has been transcribed for this recording. An AI model that listened to the whole recording reported: The President is mostly reading silently, turning pages, and occasionally murmuring faintly before uttering a phrase at the end.
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.
Related conversations
- Nixon phone call with Andrews on Presidential speeches and Bicentennial July 2, 1971 · 7 min
- Nixon alone in his EOB office on New Economic Policy and Speechwriting August 15, 1971 · 8 min
- Nixon, Safire & Sanchez on Economic Stabilization Program and Inflation October 6, 1971 · 25 min
- Nixon & Safire on Economic policy and Speechwriting October 7, 1971 · 4 min
- Nixon phone call with Safire on Speechwriting and Scientific research May 21, 1971 · 3 min
- Nixon phone call with Price on Speechwriting and Richard K. Cook October 20, 1971 · 1 min
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 November 12, 2026).