Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 321 › Conversation 321-008

Nixon & Ehrlichman on Public Relations and 1972 Election

Wednesday, February 9, 1972 · 1:05 PM–2:52 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 7 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Ehrlichman, John D.Conversation321-008 on Tape 321 (tape position 00:53:19–01:00:39)StartWednesday, February 9, 1972 at 1:05 PMEndWednesday, February 9, 1972 at 2:52 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 321-008 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and John Ehrlichman discuss the handling of the President's brother, Donald Nixon, and the potential political liability posed by his ongoing business activities and looming press scrutiny. Nixon directs Ehrlichman to coordinate with Donald to prevent him from exploiting the family name while simultaneously insisting that access to the President must remain restricted. Additionally, the pair briefly touches upon logistics for upcoming travel and strategic consultations regarding John Connally.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 4 minutes of this recording (about 64% 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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Where you can talk.
Yeah.
Uh, you're going to see Don today, are you?
Uh, there's not any further, uh, information or guidance or anything, huh?
Okay, well.
I'll be leading the, yeah, the helicopter.
Yeah.
But I'll be leaving about four, so that'll be good.
But that, of course, is only a...
I think there can be absolutely no compromise on his seeing me at any time.
Would you agree or not?
How can you present that to him, John?
If you talk to him, make sure you have his details.
Good.
I had forgotten.
Every time he's involved in anything, that's good.
Yeah.
Like, uh, no, wait, no.
When you say involve himself in whatever, be more specific in what you would tell him about you.
He'll try to explain each thing, but you can...
Right.
So, because he otherwise will be greatly intimidated by anything he does in the business world.
Of course, on the other side, you don't want to give them a free hand to go out and make an ass of themselves with more deals.
So you could say because of the passageway, you could say that.
Is that what you mean?
In the case that he's got approval for this kind of thing, for example, if you know the slightest idea, he's just given them a fee, and he's paid by the homeowner, or his friend-in-law, or something like that, and told you the same thing, didn't he?
Good.
Of course, some place.
Madrid is a little safer.
Paris is a Madrid university there.
And we've done a lot of, you know, the Istanbul election.
I guess that's an idea of genius.
So I just said, I love you.
We're going to have some more education.
I think we're recording.
We're recording.
Take it to Spanish.
Take it to Spanish.
We're going to start in Spanish.
We're going to start in Spanish.
We're going to start in Spanish.
I think your point is that maybe that's not the difference.
It's probably true.
It's just, you know, maybe.
So, I guess, I'm courageous to your mind, but it would be best if you just got to take it like that
He watched every step of the way now.
His moving in here is one of the real, real, every case that he's ever been involved in.
Of course, these stories are going to come out right away after the action story, Friday.
Yeah.
They'll probably be, your view there is going to be goddamn rough, aren't they?
Yeah.
I don't care, frankly.
I just don't believe, and I've always thought that, you know, I've been here at Roosevelt.
I don't believe that families being involved hurt you all the while.
But it could have done things because of his total insistence on being, you know, don't hang around.
And he does.
He's broken.
He's broken to death.
I did want to tell you that I had a good talk with Connelly about that, that he said he brought up this, that I brought up a lot.
He brought up a lot of that.
And I said, well, you know that what John said, yeah.
And I said that there was certainly more attention to it.
I'm afraid I may have it.
Is that real?
Yeah, it's good.
You were going down there and so forth.
We're going to indicate it.
I know a lot of things that we won't do at all, but you, I want to chat with him on the plane.
John, it just didn't get ready.
Maybe we can talk.
Is that something that... Yeah, now...
Right.
What I would suggest on the airplane is to do
through this, if you will, the rockers are going down through the state of the hotel.
And I don't think you have, so I'm gonna let them sit in the lounge.
I think I will let you refuse what is basically the, you know, the two departments, the Hatch Department, okay?
What your conversation of that, sir?
So you can say, you know, see what I mean?
so that you can get as somewhat of an awful feeling so that you can go all night.
And I'll say, come on, I don't know about you, but come on.
Why don't you all thank me right now?

NARA Description

On February 9, 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 1:05 pm and 2:52 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 321-008 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 321-8
Date: February 9, 1972
Time: Unknown between 1:05 pm and 2:52 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with John D. Ehrlichman.

     President’s schedule
           -Camp David
                -Ehrlichman’s upcoming meeting with F. Donald Nixon
                -Helicopter
                      -Timing
                           -Location

     Public relations
          -Donald Nixon
                 -Contact with the President
                       -1972 election
                 -Recent revelations about business activities
                 -John N. Mitchell
                       -Conversation with Ehrlichman
                 -Lloyd G. Hallamore
          -Donald A. Nixon [?]
                 -Madrid
                       -Paris
                       -University
          -Donald Nixon
                 -Handling
                       -Contact with the President
                 -[Jack N. Anderson] stories
                       -Timing
                       -Possible tone
                 -Franklin D. Roosevelt relatives
                 -Use of name

     H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman
          -John B. Connally
               -Previous conversation with the President
                     -Value-added tax [VAT]
               -Florida
                     -Conversation during trip
               -William P. and Adele (Langston) Rogers
               -President’s instructions

Also recorded on February 9, 1972

  • 321-001 12:08 PM · 52 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 12:08 pm and 12:16 pm.
  • 321-003 12:16 PM · 45 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 12:16 pm to 1:05 pm.
  • 321-004 1:05 PM · 6 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 1:05 pm and 2:52 pm.
  • 321-005 1:05 PM · 6 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 1:05 pm and 2:52 pm.
  • 321-006 1:05 PM · 56 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 1:05 pm and 2:52 pm.
  • 321-007 1:05 PM · 10 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 1:05 pm and 2:52 pm.
  • 321-009 1:05 PM · 17 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 1:05 pm and 2:52 pm.
  • 321-010 1:05 PM · 4 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 1:05 pm and 2:52 pm.

All 53 conversations from February 9, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 321-008, February 9, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/321-008 (accessed October 2, 2026).