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 · 37 sec

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 · 0.6 MB

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

Listen to the full tape segment

Position in tape: 04:57:30 – 04:58:04

part C, 56:36

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

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

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

Download transcript (.txt) · JSON data

Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).

During a four-year term, the President of the United States makes over 3,000 major appointments to various government agencies, various government positions.
Our most important appointments, by far the most important appointments he makes, are to the Supreme Court of the United States.

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 128 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 November 12, 2026).