Nixon White House Tapes ›Tape 284 › Conversation 284-011

Nixon & Safire on Speechwriting and Economic policy

Wednesday, October 6, 1971 · 4:00 PM–4:05 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Safire, William L.Conversation284-011 onTape 284 (tape position 00:43:37–00:45:43)StartWednesday, October 6, 1971 at 4:00 PMEndWednesday, October 6, 1971 at 4:05 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 284-011 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and speechwriter William Safire met to refine a pending speech draft, focusing on the specific linguistic framing of the administration's economic policies. The President expressed a strong preference for using the term "yardstick" rather than "guideline" to describe economic benchmarks. This brief consultation served to finalize the rhetorical tone of the address before Safire departed to proceed with the revisions.

Audio

Download MP3 (part 1) · 112.0 MB ·Download MP3 (part 2) · 37.6 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 00:43:37 into the tape and ends around 00:45:43.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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 · Timestamps are positions within the full tape recording.

43:55Can I let you read this, uh, come back?
43:58Yeah, I wanted you to do that, that, uh, I'll, uh, I'll tell you a bit.
44:04Conjure tape.
44:04I suppose you can come back in about a minute.
44:08Oh, I'll brush your shit if you're over here.
44:12Okay.
44:14You feel all right about it now?
44:16I feel the same way, sir.
44:16It's about the 1705 war.
44:17That's the first time I've come in on the party floor.
44:22about the field of view.
44:25It's not just an economic view.
44:29I like it.
44:30Okay, what about the word yardstick instead of guideline, by the way?
44:39Guidelines, I hate to use.
44:41And yardsticks, you can find them fairly in the president's office.

NARA Description

On October 6, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and William L. Safire met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 4:00 pm to 4:05 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 284-011 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 284-11

Date: October 6, 1971
Time: 4:00 pm - 4:05 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President met with William L. Safire.

     The President's schedule

           -Speech draft

     Safire's schedule

     Speech draft
          -Language of text

Safire left at 4:05 pm.

Also recorded on October 6, 1971

  • 010-093 3:41 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 3:41 pm.
  • 010-094 3:41 PM · 16 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson talked on the telephone from 3:41 pm to 4:00 pm.
  • 284-009 3:41 PM · 10 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Charles W. Colson, and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:41 pm to 4:00 pm.
  • 010-095 4:00 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 4:00 pm.
  • 284-010 4:00 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 4:00 pm.
  • 284-012 4:06 PM · 24 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 4:06 pm to 4:30 pm.
  • 284-013 4:39 PM · 20 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 4:39 pm.
  • 284-014 4:40 PM · 35 min — President Richard M. Nixon, William L. Safire, White House operator, John B. Connally, and Charles W. Colson met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 4:40 pm to 5:25 pm.

All 110 conversations from October 6, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 284-011, October 6, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/284-011 (accessed September 18, 2026).