Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 314 › Conversation 314-002

Nixon & Ehrlichman on State of the Union and Spiro Agnew

Thursday, January 13, 1972 · 3:41 PM–3:50 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 5 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Ehrlichman, John D.Conversation314-002 on Tape 314 (tape position 01:01:42–01:06:42)StartThursday, January 13, 1972 at 3:41 PMEndThursday, January 13, 1972 at 3:50 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 314-002 ↗ · National Archives Catalog, NAID 417185593 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and John Ehrlichman met to coordinate the drafting of the upcoming State of the Union address and to express frustration regarding a meeting with Vice President Spiro Agnew. Nixon evaluated feedback on drafts written by Raymond Price and Elliot Richardson, emphasizing the need for a narrative focused on restoring public confidence in government amidst political division. The President also decided to incorporate personal reflections on his early congressional career and a reference to Harry S. Truman to frame his vision for the speech.

Audio

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NARA Description

On January 13, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 3:41 pm and 3:50 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 314-002 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 314-002

Date: January 13, 1972
Time: 3:41 pm - unknown time before 3:50 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with John D. Ehrlichman.

     The President’s schedule
          -Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, Robert E. Merriam
               -Value-added tax [VAT]
          -Agnew
               -Briefing on meeting
               -Length of statement

     State of the Union message
           -Raymond K. Price, Jr’s draft
                  -Length
                  -Timing
           -Elliot L. Richardson's memorandum
                  -Quality
                  -The President’s conversation with Price
           -New draft
           -Outline
           -Price
                  -Deadline
                       -Length
                  -Copy to the President
           -The President’s schedule
           -Opening statement
                  -The President's early experiences in Congress
                       -[Harry S. Truman]
                  -Confidence in government
                       -Divisions in Congress
           -Truman
                  -The President’s view

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 1 minute of this recording (about 15% 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.

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).

Well, after that rather interesting experience with Agnew and your friend Marion, I just wondered, shall I strike out with the EAP thing or this way?
Yeah.
What in the hell is Agnew up to?
I thought he'd been briefed on the whole thing.
He's been here and raises all these questions.
What, is he trying to prove some goddamn thing to somebody?
That was almost, you know, I timed it.
Twenty-five minutes he took.
Well, stuff about when he was county commissioner.
Well, my point is, I got the state of the human problem.
OK.
So, OK. OK, now look here, Bob.
The card says come on and came off.
Get off your ass and do this.
If you had a chance to read Ray's last effort, what do you think of it?
Well, yes, there hasn't had to live in it, and I just told him to write 500 words more.
He's supposed to have my five o'clock tonight.
He didn't take a lot of the stuff that he had.
He left it all out.
But you don't want it so close, eh?
Well, did you read Ellie Richardson's memoir?
Well, I think that's goddamn good.
Or don't you think so?
Well, I just told Ray, why don't you take that, take a little of that, your old principles and new realities, and give me a conclusion.
How's that sound to you?
And put the other traffic.
Or at least the new draft has a race, up to this time, it's not even, it has organization in it, I noticed.
Wow.
Well, I sent him an outline.
Listen some to the outline.
I didn't want to deadline 5 o'clock to give you 500 words for basically, I don't know, the lift, the conclusion, the spirit, and so forth.
But I would also like to see what the hell you cut out of this before I start cutting this out of the pitch.
Would you tell me a bit of this?
Say, all right, do you have a copy?
See if we can get a clean copy.
And again, well.
Can't he, what type is he now?
I'll talk to you later.
Fine, okay, because I have to leave here at 4.34.
But insofar as you're concerned, I'm asking for judgment.
Do you think we're on the right track or not?
Yes.
things in it that have a quality in terms of the approach and in terms of the per se from it.
And that is taking and putting in the beginning the fact that 25 years ago I sat in the Republican Congress and we did great things.
We've done a great credit.
And then going on to say that
in terms of where we are now, that we have a situation where, I think this, I also wrote the paragraph, which is almost verbatim, where I said that we have to realize that there are many people in this country, particularly young people,
who have lost confidence in the government.
They read that the president is fighting, the administration is fighting, the Congress is fighting, the House is fighting, the Senate, the Democrats are fighting, the Republicans.
We've got to demonstrate that we can do something.
Do you like that theme or not?
I'm going to refer to Trump as a gallant warrior.
I'm going to do it for a reason.
Even though I disagree with him.
I agree, you've got to get something like him started working on that machine.
All right.

Also recorded on January 13, 1972

  • 314-003 3:41 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 3:41 pm and 3:50 pm.
  • 314-004 3:41 PM · 43 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 3:41 pm and 3:50 pm.
  • 314-005 3:41 PM · 11 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 3:41 pm and 3:50 pm.
  • 314-010 3:45 PM · 7 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 3:45 pm and 4:12 pm.
  • 314-011 3:45 PM · 1 min — 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 3:45 pm and 4:12 pm.
  • 018-085 3:50 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone from 3:50 pm to 3:52 pm.
  • 314-006 3:50 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Julie Nixon Eisenhower met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:50 pm to 3:52 pm.
  • 314-007 3:52 PM · 20 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 3:52 pm and 3:55 pm.

All 48 conversations from January 13, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 314-002, January 13, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives (NAID 417185593). Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/314-002 (accessed November 8, 2026).