Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 311 › Conversation 311-049

Nixon & Sanchez on Public Relations and William Rogers

Sunday, January 2, 1972 · 4:07 PM–6:35 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Sanchez, ManoloConversation311-049 on Tape 311 (tape position 02:39:35–02:42:26)StartSunday, January 2, 1972 at 4:07 PMEndSunday, January 2, 1972 at 6:35 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 311-049 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with his personal aide, Manolo Sanchez, to discuss personnel coordination and communications strategy for an upcoming meeting involving Peter Flanigan and Secretary of State William Rogers. Nixon emphasized his desire to integrate Rogers into the strategy sessions and requested that Sanchez consult with Bill Safire to gather PR advice regarding an upcoming press conference. The President highlighted his preference for Safire’s public relations instincts over those of Henry Kissinger, specifically regarding the handling of sensitive issues like the judiciary.

Audio

part B, 36:46

Download MP3 (part 1) · 112.4 MB ·Download MP3 (part 2) · 61.7 MB

This conversation has not yet been cut into its own clip, so the players above hold the full tape, shared with neighbouring conversations. By the archivists' log it runs from 02:39:35 to 02:42:26 into the tape; their log often drifts a minute or two from the audio, so listen for the subjects in the finding aid.

NARA Description

On January 2, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 4:07 pm and 6:35 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 311-049 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 311-49

Date: January 2, 1972
Time: Unknown between 4:07 pm and 6:35 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President met with Manolo Sanchez.

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[Duration: 5s ]

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Sanchez left at an unknown time before 6:35 pm.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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; click one to play the tape from there.

That's the way to think about it.
Otherwise, you get meshed down and mired down.
Incidentally, at that Peterson meeting tomorrow, I want Rogers there too.
Rogers and sort of our content strategy.
It's sort of a half-meeting.
It's not going to be on the call, it's going to be on the call, it's going to be on the call.
It's over.
It's over.
and get Peterson a chance to shine again.
Oh, one thing I'd like you to do with Bill, I'm going to be going out.
You have, you sit down with him, get his oral advice about what we ought to be doing to show him what we have in mind in the press conference.
After you've done that for an hour or so, you can come in here with Pete, and we can have a little talk about it.
Because his judgment, on the PR side, is
As you're quite aware, he has many failings in his career, but he's about 10 to 1 over Henry on the PR side.
Bill knows what's happening, even though he may be wrong sometimes as for the issue, but he knows damn well how to split it in PR lines.
Don't you agree?
And he never loses himself.
He will be very good on not just this, but the courts.
All the other things you can do.
I'm glad you're all here today.

Also recorded on January 2, 1972

  • 017-147 3:50 PM · 25 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 3:50 pm and 3:58 pm.
  • 017-148 3:58 PM · 9 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone from 3:58 pm to 4:07 pm.
  • 311-048 3:58 PM · 6 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:58 pm to 4:07 pm.
  • 017-149 4:07 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 4:07 pm and 6:35 pm.
  • 311-050 4:07 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 4:07 pm and 6:35 pm.
  • 311-051 4:07 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 4:07 pm and 6:35 pm.
  • 311-052 4:07 PM · 29 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 4:07 pm and 6:35 pm.
  • 311-053 4:07 PM · 15 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 4:07 pm and 6:35 pm.

All 60 conversations from January 2, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 311-049, January 2, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/311-049 (accessed November 2, 2026).