Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 307 › Conversation 307-020

Nixon & Flemming on Public relations and Executive discretion

Wednesday, December 8, 1971 · 3:40 PM–3:42 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 3 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Flemming, Arthur S.Conversation307-020 on Tape 307 (tape position 00:40:11–00:43:09)StartWednesday, December 8, 1971 at 3:40 PMEndWednesday, December 8, 1971 at 3:42 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 307-020 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon praises Arthur S. Flemming for his skillful handling of a sensitive safety-related situation, expressing gratitude for his discretion. Nixon encourages Flemming to represent his administration's views publicly and cultivate the impression of having regular access to the President. Additionally, they briefly touch upon administrative budget matters and the potential for Flemming to advocate for specific priorities in upcoming budget messages.

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 28% 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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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All right.
Hello, Arthur.
Well, I'll tell you, I want you to know that during the night, I think you handled that safety thing with great mastery.
We were most grateful for keeping the lid on and having it come out as long as it did.
You're a skillful operator.
You were that.
All right.
All right.
60% that aren't at any point, or 40, whatever it is, an opportunity to encourage them through the internet to go and buy their own things, which ought to be done.
Did you?
You're out there, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well
Well, you and you me, I want you to be, you know, whatever, however often we get to talk, it remains to be seen, because, you know, I'm a Russian officer, I've been in these countries, in China, in Russia, and all that, but you, you just take a few liberties and say that you talk to me quite regularly, and you know you're reflecting my views, and so on and so forth, and you do that, and it's not that any time you have to say that, any time the president is all set, and you have to,
As I said this in the speech, they want to get in the lead.
They tell you that it's okay.
And that, of course, is true, too.
As you know, we've got security through the whole Council set up and so forth.
Having said these things, we're not included in the budget and so forth.
And you can, for example, when a budget message comes up, you can put it back and all the things you want.
All right.
All right.
Good to talk to you.
Thank you a lot.
And thanks for all your help.
I would like to meet this old fire person here.
You're not hardly over the old man.
Okay.
All right.

NARA Description

On December 8, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Arthur S. Flemming met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:40 pm to 3:42 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 307-020 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 307-020

Date: December 8, 1971
Time: 3:40 pm - 3:42 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

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

The President talked with Arthur S. Flemming.

[See Conversation No. 16-55]

Also recorded on December 8, 1971

  • 016-054 3:39 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 3:39 pm.
  • 307-019 3:39 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 3:39 pm.
  • 016-055 3:40 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Arthur S. Flemming talked on the telephone from 3:40 pm to 3:42 pm.
  • 016-056 3:43 PM · 40 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and John N. Mitchell talked on the telephone from 3:43 pm to 3:44 pm.
  • 307-021 3:43 PM · 38 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and John N. Mitchell met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:43 pm to 3:44 pm.
  • 016-057 3:44 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 3:44 pm and 3:46 pm.
  • 307-022 3:44 PM · 13 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 3:44 pm and 3:46 pm.
  • 307-023 3:44 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 an unknown time between 3:44 pm and 3:46 pm.

All 76 conversations from December 8, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 307-020, December 8, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/307-020 (accessed October 12, 2026).