Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 288 › Conversation 288-017

Nixon & Haldeman on Henry Kissinger and Charles H. Percy

Tuesday, October 12, 1971 · 10:32 AM–11:19 AM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 3 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob")Conversation288-017 on Tape 288 (tape position 01:01:26–01:04:02)StartTuesday, October 12, 1971 at 10:32 AMEndTuesday, October 12, 1971 at 11:19 AMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 288-017 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and H. R. Haldeman met to coordinate upcoming scheduling and staffing logistics, specifically addressing travel plans for Henry Kissinger and meetings involving Senator Charles Percy in Chicago. The discussion focused on managing the President's calendar and delegating responsibilities to aides like Clark MacGregor to ensure operational efficiency. The pair evaluated the political implications of these engagements and determined the necessary preparatory steps for the following day.

Audio

Download MP3 · 2.4 MB

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

Listen to the full tape segment

Position in tape: 01:01:26 – 01:04:02

288a.mp3

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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

Bob Henry said he was going to Chicago tomorrow to attend that person's dinner.

Maybe he was talking about something built for tomorrow night.

I don't know if he's true.

It's tomorrow night.

I'll try it out there.

Well, if you want to check it out, if the damn thing is tomorrow, I would have to do it perhaps late this afternoon.

Because he says this is a big dinner and several senators are going out and all that sort of thing.

So it may be that your date, I would gather, that you have to buy something considerably later than a week or so.

I, uh...

Is this a situation where, who agrees with the president?

Why are we doing this now?

I just think, well, maybe it helps us a little more, but the only point is, I just don't know how to do the others, I mean, except to say that

Yeah.

Technically, we just haven't the capability.

And so that they all feel they're getting the same thing.

But if you get that word around, they're going to read it to others, you know, so they won't block these words.

NARA Description

On October 12, 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 10:32 am and 11:19 am. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 288-017 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 288-17

Date: October 12, 1971
Time: Unknown between 10:32 am and 11:19 am
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman.

     Henry A. Kissinger
         -Schedule
               -Chicago
                    -Charles H. Percy

     The President's schedule
          -Clark MacGregor

     Kissinger

Also recorded on October 12, 1971

011-058 10:16 AM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 10:16 am and 10:31 am.
288-014 10:16 AM · 40 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 10:16 am and 10:31 am.
288-015 10:16 AM · 17 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 10:16 am and 10:31 am.
288-016 10:16 AM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 10:16 am to 10:31 am.
011-059 10:31 AM · 47 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods talked on the telephone from 10:31 am to 10:32 am.
288-018 10:32 AM · 21 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 10:32 am and 11:19 am.
288-019 10:32 AM · 20 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 10:32 am and 11:22 am.
288-020 10:32 AM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 10:32 am and 11:22 am.

All 71 conversations from October 12, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 288-017, October 12, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/288-017 (accessed October 12, 2026).