{"conversationCode":"307-020","tapeNumber":307,"conversationNumber":20,"identifier":"37-wht-conversation-307-020","startDateTime":"1971-12-08T20:40:00.000Z","endDateTime":"1971-12-08T20:42:00.000Z","startDate":"8-Dec-1971","startTime":"3:40 PM","endDate":"8-Dec-1971","endTime":"3:42 PM","dateCertainty":"certain","timeCertainty":"certain","participants":"Nixon, Richard M. (President); Flemming, Arthur S.;","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.","locationCode":"EOB","recordingDevice":"Old Executive Office Building","latitudeEstimated":38.897567,"longitudeEstimated":-77.039147,"chronCode":2,"chronRelease":"Second Chronological Release","chronReleaseDate":"26-Oct-2000","aogpRelease":null,"aogpSegment":null,"lastModified":"2015-07-27T17:04:10.235Z","findingAid":"Conversation No. 307-020\n\nDate: December 8, 1971\nTime: 3:40 pm - 3:42 pm\nLocation: Executive Office Building\n\n       Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, NARA Online Public Access Catalog Identifier: 597542\n\nThe President talked with Arthur S. Flemming.\n\n[See Conversation No. 16-55]","filename":["307-020.mp3"],"tapeStart":"00:40:11","tapeEnd":"00:43:09","participantsList":["Nixon, Richard M. (President)","Flemming, Arthur S."],"prevCode":"307-019","nextCode":"307-021","transcript":[{"start":4.13,"end":11.7,"text":"All right."},{"start":12.18,"end":25.48,"text":"Hello, Arthur."},{"start":25.5,"end":28.09,"text":"Well, I'll tell you, I want you to know that during the night, I think you handled that safety thing with great mastery."},{"start":28.11,"end":29.83,"text":"We were most grateful for keeping the lid on and having it come out as long as it did."},{"start":29.85,"end":30.39,"text":"You're a skillful operator."},{"start":30.99,"end":31.27,"text":"You were that."},{"start":38.61,"end":42.81,"text":"All right."},{"start":46.06,"end":59.05,"text":"All right."},{"start":59.45,"end":86.68,"text":"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."},{"start":86.7,"end":86.86,"text":"Did you?"},{"start":86.88,"end":87.34,"text":"You're out there, yeah."},{"start":87.36,"end":87.46,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":87.48,"end":87.58,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":88.69,"end":90.82,"text":"Well"},{"start":92.51,"end":118.99,"text":"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,"},{"start":119.41,"end":140.59,"text":"As I said this in the speech, they want to get in the lead."},{"start":140.61,"end":141.19,"text":"They tell you that it's okay."},{"start":141.21,"end":141.89,"text":"And that, of course, is true, too."},{"start":141.91,"end":143.57,"text":"As you know, we've got security through the whole Council set up and so forth."},{"start":143.59,"end":145.18,"text":"Having said these things, we're not included in the budget and so forth."},{"start":145.2,"end":147.32,"text":"And you can, for example, when a budget message comes up, you can put it back and all the things you want."},{"start":148.7,"end":154.23,"text":"All right."},{"start":154.35,"end":155.9,"text":"All right."},{"start":155.91,"end":157.42,"text":"Good to talk to you."},{"start":157.84,"end":160.36,"text":"Thank you a lot."},{"start":160.38,"end":161.95,"text":"And thanks for all your help."},{"start":161.97,"end":165.37,"text":"I would like to meet this old fire person here."},{"start":165.45,"end":166.98,"text":"You're not hardly over the old man."},{"start":167.88,"end":168.02,"text":"Okay."},{"start":168.04,"end":168.8,"text":"All right."}],"aiSummary":{"text":"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.","topics":["Public relations","Executive discretion","Budgetary policy","Government administration","Political strategy"],"generatedAt":"2026-04-06T14:19:30.364Z"},"topicSlugs":["public-relations","executive-discretion","budgetary-policy","government-administration","political-strategy"],"audioDurationSec":171,"audioFiles":[{"file":"307-020.mp3","bytes":6861636,"durationSec":171.39,"bitrate":320281,"missing":false}],"audioIsShared":false,"audioProbedAt":"2026-09-18T02:19:38.956Z","findingAidSource":"nixonlibrary.gov subject log (2024-05), reslice-v2","findingAidUpdatedAt":"2026-09-18T08:43:18.807Z","transcriptGapSeconds":48,"transcriptGapShare":0.28,"transcriptQuality":"incomplete","audio":["https://nixon.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/audio/307-020.mp3"],"url":"https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/307-020","nixonLibraryUrl":"https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/white-house-tapes/307/conversation-307-020","license":"Public domain (U.S. Government work). AI-generated fields (transcript, aiSummary) are provided as-is without warranty."}