Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 281 › Conversation 281-065

Nixon & Haldeman on Public relations and Speech preparation

Thursday, October 21, 1971 · 6:45 PM–7:05 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob")Conversation281-065 on Tape 281 (tape position 04:57:30–04:58:04)StartThursday, October 21, 1971 at 6:45 PMEndThursday, October 21, 1971 at 7:05 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 281-065 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and H. R. Haldeman met to coordinate preparations for an upcoming presidential address. The discussion centered on lighting requirements and logistical arrangements necessary to optimize the broadcast quality of the event. No major policy decisions were reached, as the conversation focused exclusively on technical stagecraft for the speech.

Audio

Download MP3 (part 1) · 112.1 MB ·Download MP3 (part 2) · 112.2 MB ·Download MP3 (part 3) · 63.4 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 04:57:30 into the tape and ends around 04:58:04.

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 and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 6:45 pm and 7:05 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 281-065 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 281-65

Date: October 21, 1971
Time: Unknown between 6:45 pm and 7:05 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with an unknown person [H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman ?].

     Lights for speech

Also recorded on October 21, 1971

  • 012-055 6:36 PM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods talked on the telephone from 6:36 pm to 6:37 pm.
  • 281-061 6:36 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 6:36 pm to 6:37 pm.
  • 281-062 6:37 PM · 52 sec — President Richard M. Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 6:37 pm and 6:44 pm.
  • 012-056 6:44 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods talked on the telephone from 6:44 pm to 6:45 pm.
  • 281-063 6:44 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 6:44 pm to 6:45 pm.
  • 012-057 6:45 PM · 3 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 6:45 pm and 8:03 pm.
  • 281-064 6:45 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 6:45 pm and 7:05 pm.
  • 281-066 6:45 PM · 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 6:45 pm and 7:05 pm.

All 107 conversations from October 21, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 281-065, 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/281-065 (accessed September 28, 2026).