Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 315 › Conversation 315-016

Nixon & Connally on State of the Union and Political Strategy

Monday, January 17, 1972 · 2:29 PM–2:34 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Connally, John B.Conversation315-016 on Tape 315 (tape position 01:06:44–01:14:36)StartMonday, January 17, 1972 at 2:29 PMEndMonday, January 17, 1972 at 2:34 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 315-016 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and John B. Connally discuss the final draft of the upcoming State of the Union address, which H.R. Haldeman is delivering to Connally for review. Nixon seeks Connally's feedback on the speech's tone and strategy, particularly regarding its defense against political attacks from Democrats and the inclusion of specific economic and policy points. The conversation also briefly touches on political optics related to the oil industry and the status of potential political rivals.

Audio

Download MP3 (part 1) · 115.3 MB ·Download MP3 (part 2) · 58.4 MB

This conversation has not yet been cut into its own clip, so the player above contains the full tape segment shared with neighbouring conversations. It begins about 01:06:44 into the tape and ends around 01:14:36.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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 recording.
1:06:50Hello.
1:06:51Hi, John.
1:06:53I don't want to bother you, but I know you've got a lot of attention.
1:06:56The Haldeman is bringing over a copy of what I call my final copy of the State of the Union.
1:07:00And after you finish with them, and you can, I don't know if you can finish with them, you can take time to read through.
1:07:15I give you a ring.
1:07:16I have tried, in fact, we talked in my interview today, I have gone over that, I have just made the old little smile, but I just thought, in view of the rather vicious attacks that the likes of Kennedy and Harris and others have made, that I ought to, frankly, to a certain extent, try to get it achieved.
1:07:58The one which we sort of say that maybe later in the year we may have something on the tax matter.
1:08:05And the other thing, of course, is the totally non-controversial technological stuff, you know, which we've heard about.
1:08:14But my main interest is what I'd like to do is to read it from home.
1:08:20I don't think it will bother me.
1:08:26But when you see one
1:08:49I don't say that.
1:08:50The purpose is to get my own brilliant case, which you might have rather interested in.
1:09:01How one other guy does it, but it is deliberately, like I said, it lays it out there for... Well, when you and I talked, we were talking about it, I just kind of scratched my head.
1:09:18Right.
1:09:19Yeah, well, you may have noticed.
1:09:44And this was as a result of Colson's operation on the freighter.
1:09:51We did have some pretty good answers.
1:09:55Scott, if that was all right, Scott Ford took them on real hard, and Dole got in a couple of lengths.
1:10:02I think we got a hit right back every time the Navy launched this.
1:10:07Let me ask you one question.
1:10:11I was quite pleased with it.
1:10:13I hate to have other people elevate him and all, but what do you think?
1:10:23I mean, what do you think?
1:10:26Yeah.
1:10:29Oh, they are, yeah.
1:10:38That's right.
1:10:41Yeah, yeah.
1:10:43Well, the thing about that is that I'm taking the oil thing.
1:10:47Hell, you know we made a lot of oil people mad by what we've done, and by the same token.
1:10:54Frankly, I do not want to go out and say that I'm not a friend of the oil people, because basically, John, I am.
1:11:03You know, that's what I believe.
1:11:06Ja, ja, ja.
1:11:07Ja, ja.
1:11:35For some of which he can grow a mustache.
1:11:40Well, that's finished.
1:11:42Yeah.
1:11:44Yeah.
1:11:45Well, he's finished anyway.
1:11:46He's not running.
1:11:47He gave up running for president.
1:11:50He can't be re-elected.
1:12:14Again, we'll be followed by October 8th with the major foreign policy report, and we'll be done with foreign policy on such foreign documents very clearly, and I hope you like it.
1:12:25Okay, bye.

NARA Description

On January 17, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and John B. Connally met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:29 pm to 2:34 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 315-016 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 315-16

Date: January 19, 1972
Time: 2:29 pm - 2:34 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with John B. Connally.

[See Conversation No. 19-10]

Also recorded on January 17, 1972

  • 315-015 2:15 PM · 34 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 2:15 pm and 2:29 pm.
  • 315-017 2:34 PM · 25 min — President Richard M. Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 2:34 pm and 3:43 pm.
  • 315-018 2:34 PM · 35 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 2:34 pm and 3:43 pm.
  • 315-019 2:34 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Roger Staubach met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 2:34 pm and 3:43 pm.
  • 018-089 2:39 PM · 7 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Raymond K. Price, Jr. talked on the telephone from 2:39 pm to 2:43 pm.
  • 315-004 2:39 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Raymond K. Price, Jr. met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:39 pm to 2:43 pm.
  • 018-090 2:43 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 2:43 pm and 2:47 pm.
  • 315-005 2:43 PM · 17 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 2:43 pm and 2:47 pm.

All 40 conversations from January 17, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 315-016, January 17, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/315-016 (accessed September 29, 2026).