{"conversationCode":"314-002","tapeNumber":314,"conversationNumber":2,"identifier":"37-wht-conversation-314-002","startDateTime":"1972-01-13T20:41:00.000Z","endDateTime":"1972-01-13T20:50:00.000Z","startDate":"13-Jan-1972","startTime":"3:41 PM","endDate":"13-Jan-1972","endTime":"3:50 PM","dateCertainty":"certain","timeCertainty":"estimated","participants":"Nixon, Richard M. (President); Ehrlichman, John D.;","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.","locationCode":"EOB","recordingDevice":"Old Executive Office Building","latitudeEstimated":38.897567,"longitudeEstimated":-77.039147,"chronCode":3,"chronRelease":"Third Chronological Release","chronReleaseDate":"28-Feb-2002","aogpRelease":null,"aogpSegment":null,"lastModified":"2015-07-27T17:04:10.235Z","findingAid":"Conversation No. 314-002\n\nDate: January 13, 1972\nTime: 3:41 pm - unknown time before 3:50 pm\nLocation: Executive Office Building\n\nThe President talked with John D. Ehrlichman.\n\n     The President’s schedule\n          -Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, Robert E. Merriam\n               -Value-added tax [VAT]\n          -Agnew\n               -Briefing on meeting\n               -Length of statement\n\n     State of the Union message\n           -Raymond K. Price, Jr’s draft\n                  -Length\n                  -Timing\n           -Elliot L. Richardson's memorandum\n                  -Quality\n                  -The President’s conversation with Price\n           -New draft\n           -Outline\n           -Price\n                  -Deadline\n                       -Length\n                  -Copy to the President\n           -The President’s schedule\n           -Opening statement\n                  -The President's early experiences in Congress\n                       -[Harry S. Truman]\n                  -Confidence in government\n                       -Divisions in Congress\n           -Truman\n                  -The President’s view\n\n       Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, NARA Online Public Access Catalog Identifier: 597542","filename":["314-002.mp3"],"tapeStart":"01:01:42","tapeEnd":"01:06:42","participantsList":["Nixon, Richard M. (President)","Ehrlichman, John D."],"prevCode":"314-001","nextCode":"314-003","transcript":[{"start":0.12,"end":24.18,"text":"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?"},{"start":24.2,"end":24.3,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":24.92,"end":28.67,"text":"What in the hell is Agnew up to?"},{"start":28.81,"end":38.03,"text":"I thought he'd been briefed on the whole thing."},{"start":38.05,"end":42.28,"text":"He's been here and raises all these questions."},{"start":42.3,"end":44.84,"text":"What, is he trying to prove some goddamn thing to somebody?"},{"start":44.86,"end":48.83,"text":"That was almost, you know, I timed it."},{"start":48.84,"end":50.89,"text":"Twenty-five minutes he took."},{"start":50.91,"end":52.45,"text":"Well, stuff about when he was county commissioner."},{"start":58.45,"end":77.15,"text":"Well, my point is, I got the state of the human problem."},{"start":77.17,"end":77.43,"text":"OK."},{"start":77.45,"end":79.28,"text":"So, OK. OK, now look here, Bob."},{"start":79.3,"end":82.08,"text":"The card says come on and came off."},{"start":82.1,"end":82.68,"text":"Get off your ass and do this."},{"start":82.7,"end":84.12,"text":"If you had a chance to read Ray's last effort, what do you think of it?"},{"start":86.72,"end":92.78,"text":"Well, yes, there hasn't had to live in it, and I just told him to write 500 words more."},{"start":93.72,"end":95.81,"text":"He's supposed to have my five o'clock tonight."},{"start":95.83,"end":103.29,"text":"He didn't take a lot of the stuff that he had."},{"start":103.31,"end":103.69,"text":"He left it all out."},{"start":103.71,"end":110.62,"text":"But you don't want it so close, eh?"},{"start":110.64,"end":112.52,"text":"Well, did you read Ellie Richardson's memoir?"},{"start":113.36,"end":118.01,"text":"Well, I think that's goddamn good."},{"start":118.13,"end":121.83,"text":"Or don't you think so?"},{"start":122.12,"end":127.44,"text":"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."},{"start":127.46,"end":128.47,"text":"How's that sound to you?"},{"start":128.99,"end":130.21,"text":"And put the other traffic."},{"start":130.23,"end":140.56,"text":"Or at least the new draft has a race, up to this time, it's not even, it has organization in it, I noticed."},{"start":140.58,"end":140.66,"text":"Wow."},{"start":140.68,"end":141.24,"text":"Well, I sent him an outline."},{"start":144.85,"end":154.1,"text":"Listen some to the outline."},{"start":154.51,"end":165.5,"text":"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."},{"start":165.52,"end":167.71,"text":"But I would also like to see what the hell you cut out of this before I start cutting this out of the pitch."},{"start":167.72,"end":168.99,"text":"Would you tell me a bit of this?"},{"start":169.32,"end":174.51,"text":"Say, all right, do you have a copy?"},{"start":174.53,"end":177.11,"text":"See if we can get a clean copy."},{"start":177.13,"end":182.9,"text":"And again, well."},{"start":182.92,"end":189.33,"text":"Can't he, what type is he now?"},{"start":189.35,"end":190.15,"text":"I'll talk to you later."},{"start":190.5,"end":196.89,"text":"Fine, okay, because I have to leave here at 4.34."},{"start":196.91,"end":198.6,"text":"But insofar as you're concerned, I'm asking for judgment."},{"start":198.62,"end":204.39,"text":"Do you think we're on the right track or not?"},{"start":204.41,"end":204.49,"text":"Yes."},{"start":205.57,"end":217.55,"text":"things in it that have a quality in terms of the approach and in terms of the per se from it."},{"start":217.73,"end":221.89,"text":"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."},{"start":221.91,"end":222.45,"text":"We've done a great credit."},{"start":222.47,"end":224.12,"text":"And then going on to say that"},{"start":224.84,"end":243.17,"text":"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,"},{"start":243.15,"end":250.78,"text":"who have lost confidence in the government."},{"start":250.8,"end":267.57,"text":"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."},{"start":267.59,"end":268.71,"text":"We've got to demonstrate that we can do something."},{"start":268.74,"end":269.36,"text":"Do you like that theme or not?"},{"start":269.38,"end":270.96,"text":"I'm going to refer to Trump as a gallant warrior."},{"start":270.98,"end":271.74,"text":"I'm going to do it for a reason."},{"start":273.04,"end":284.29,"text":"Even though I disagree with him."},{"start":284.31,"end":287.88,"text":"I agree, you've got to get something like him started working on that machine."},{"start":287.9,"end":288.26,"text":"All right."}],"aiSummary":{"text":"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.","topics":["State of the Union","Spiro Agnew","Public confidence in government","Speechwriting","Harry S. Truman","Executive branch administration"],"generatedAt":"2026-04-06T14:38:50.265Z"},"topicSlugs":["state-of-the-union","spiro-agnew","public-confidence-in-government","speechwriting","harry-s-truman","executive-branch-administration"],"audioDurationSec":288,"audioFiles":[{"file":"314-002.mp3","bytes":11535480,"durationSec":288.25,"bitrate":320156,"missing":false}],"audioIsShared":false,"audioProbedAt":"2026-09-18T02:19:41.277Z","findingAidSource":"nixonlibrary.gov subject log (2024-05), reslice-v2","findingAidUpdatedAt":"2026-09-18T08:43:19.546Z","transcriptGapSeconds":43,"transcriptGapShare":0.15,"transcriptQuality":"incomplete","audio":["https://nixon.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/audio/314-002.mp3"],"url":"https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/314-002","nixonLibraryUrl":"https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/white-house-tapes/314/conversation-314-002","license":"Public domain (U.S. Government work). AI-generated fields (transcript, aiSummary) are provided as-is without warranty."}