Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 285 › Conversation 285-020

Nixon & Safire on Inflation and Speechwriting

Thursday, October 7, 1971 · 12:28 PM–12:31 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 1 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Safire, William L.Conversation285-020 on Tape 285 (tape position 02:59:40–03:01:26)StartThursday, October 7, 1971 at 12:28 PMEndThursday, October 7, 1971 at 12:31 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 285-020 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and speechwriter William Safire review and refine the wording of a presidential address concerning economic policy. They focus specifically on improving the rhetoric regarding the administration's "battle against inflation." The brief exchange concludes with an agreement to use the phrasing "we launched this battle" to emphasize the government's commitment to winning the fight against rising prices.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 1 minute of this recording (about 50% of it) is represented by only a few words. Listen to the audio rather than relying on the text below; a corrected transcript is queued.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Bill, this may be a typo, but when we talk about we, it says we launched this battle next in place for the purpose of letting it to be launched.
Yeah, we launched.
Incidentally, is there a better word?
We started this battle, or, you know, people understand, launched.
Yeah, well, I guess people understand it with all the goodness of the word.
All right, we launched this federal .
We launched, well I can say we launched this federal .
We began this federal .
High five.
We launched this about a year, we launched this about the other day.
I think we got a point there.
That's pretty good, too.
Battle against inflation with the purpose of winning.
We're going to stay in until we do.
Okay?
Yeah, good.

NARA Description

On October 7, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and William L. Safire met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 12:28 pm to 12:31 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 285-020 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 285-020

Date: October 7, 1971
Time: 12:28 pm - 12:31 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with William L. Safire.

[See Conversation No. 10-129]

       Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, NARA Online Public Access Catalog Identifier: 597542

Also recorded on October 7, 1971

  • 285-017 12:16 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 12:16 pm and 12:26 pm.
  • 285-018 12:16 PM · 39 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and William L. Safire met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 12:16 pm to 12:27 pm.
  • 010-127 12:26 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and William L. Safire talked on the telephone from 12:26 pm to 12:27 pm.
  • 010-128 12:28 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 12:28 pm.
  • 010-129 12:28 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and William L. Safire talked on the telephone from 12:28 pm to 12:31 pm.
  • 285-019 12:28 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 12:28 pm.
  • 010-130 12:31 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 12:31 pm and 12:48 pm.
  • 285-021 12:31 PM · 4 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 12:31 pm and 12:48 pm.

All 106 conversations from October 7, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 285-020, October 7, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/285-020 (accessed October 6, 2026).