Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 329 › Conversation 329-023
Nixon alone in his EOB office on Public Relations and Vietnam War
Tuesday, April 11, 1972 · 2:08 PM–2:45 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 12 min
AI Summary
President Nixon dictated a memorandum to provide guidance on public relations strategy and key messaging for the administration. He emphasized the necessity of a disciplined, repetitive approach to promoting the President's image and accomplishments—particularly regarding Vietnam, foreign policy, and the economy—while framing major issues to deflect criticism toward the Democratic-controlled Congress. Nixon also directed staff to identify the most effective spokesmen to ensure sustained, positive media coverage across a prioritized list of policy initiatives.
- Public Relations
- Vietnam War
- White House Communications
- Domestic Policy
- Electoral Strategy
Audio
NARA Description
On April 11, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 2:08 pm and 2:45 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 329-023 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 329-23
Date: April 11, 1972
Time: Unknown between 2:08 pm and 2:45 pm
Location: Executive Office Building
The President dictated a memorandum.
Spokesmen for administration
-Points to make to supporters
-Vietnam
-Current situation
-Airmen
-Navy men
-Defense of South Vietnam
-Accomplishments
-Reduction in casualties
-Henry A. Kissinger's office
-Julie Nixon Eisenhower
-Mrs. Nixon
-Tricia Nixon Cox
John D. Ehrlichman
Best spokesmen for administration
-The Vice President
-Cabinet members
-Congressmen
-Governors
-White House staff
-Robert J. Dole
-First Family
-Subcabinet
-Veterans and other organizations
-Charles W. Colson's office's list
-Advantages
Taxes
-Public relations efforts
Public relations
-Frequency of stories
-Follow-up
-The President's policies
-Positive publicity
-Rebuttal to oppositionShow the rest of the log (48 more lines)
-The President's image
-Proper projection
-Vietnam development
-Issues
-Foreign policy
-Peace
-The President's image as leader
-Cost of living
-Food
-Crime
-Drugs
-Jobs
-Busing
-Democrats' position
-Programs
-Welfare
-Revenue-sharing
-Government reorganization
-Health
-Use of programs
-Political Group discussion
-Reform
-Congress
-Democratic convention
-Property tax
-Jobs
-Busing
-Property tax
The President replayed portions of the tape.
Public relations efforts
-Busing
-Property tax
-Jobs
-Busing
-Property tax
The President resumed dictation.
Public relations efforts
-List of issues
-Tax relief for non-public schools
-Changes
-Environment
-Foreign competition
-John B. Connally
-Political Group discussionTranscript (AI-generated)
This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 6 minutes of this recording (about 47% 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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I'm proud of the great American airmen, Navy men, from helping the South Vietnamese prevent their invasion from North Vietnam.
We're worried this kind of aggression will serve to cause our peace.
We've been going into discussions with our
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but they are all good safety points to make, except for the one that I mentioned, which is the production period.
So, that way, I have the same first paragraph that I'm going to copy out of the computer.
So, that's the first paragraph.
I referred to it because that's the man in the kitchen in his office.
He gave it to the rep yesterday and he's adding to it.
Modified it in his office.
He's lying for some of the matters you will want to consider.
He's not on earth at all.
I have one.
Players.
I would like for three or four of you to sit down and make up a list of the ten best players we have at home.
Obviously, the best players are some members of the camp, a few members of Congress, some governors, some members of the White House staff, some people like Joel,
You have, of course, the members of the veteran for the so-called sophomores.
Of course, at the secondary level, you have the subgen.
There are veterans and other occupations which are on file with the Coast Guard.
Next subject.
Two is tactics.
This is going to be one major story a day.
This is on a major subject matter.
On the fact that there are plans to build around the assumption that I will have one hard news story each week, television will be involved.
This is important about the tactics.
in order to knock the numbers for this repetition and follow-up, underline the words repetition and follow-up.
How do you start on the line, for example, when you start a speech?
Do you follow-up day after day until you find an animal that's going home?
I pray that we don't be concerned about the practical use for a non-carrier.
It's an important thing to follow up and not to scatter our shots so that we get some sustained victims through one way or another.
In this discussion of tactics, I am referring only to our positive stories.
Obviously, the counterattack or an answer desk operation could be supplemental too.
these positive stories, and on some occasions, they override the positive stories.
I feel it's more important to get our answers than an opposition attack on us, and we are on the level of the story.
But on many days, both should run.
But we have to tell our people, we have to tell our people that faith is thing.
Here
It's getting across the basics about the man, and who he is, and how he can take one of the country's worst political sects, particularly to a community that we recently have not known.
The issues, justice, I've heard about this matter on several occasions.
I know most of the issues have a priority.
as I see it at this time.
Peace and foreign policy generalists generally still have to be on the top of the list.
Temporarily, the emphasis will not be on the generation of peace that will come back into Moscow.
Temporarily, the issue of Moscow needs to be a strong foreign policy leader who is headed for a crisis.
Cost of living.
In particular, our emphasis on the cost
Nine, with particular emphasis on drugs.
Four, jobs.
Five, hustling.
One major effort should be to put our democratic friends strongly on record, favor hustling, and hustle on record against them, and getting this across in the areas where it is an issue.
Vote for the people, and that's important.
This is a tough one to handle, but it is the only way that we can, because we are so attached to the big business and so it is who we are.
Director, I have the next feelings as to which direction that we should follow.
We have an excellent program under the bonnet.
We're out there, ready to share, and we are in a position to help.
The question is whether it is wise to stir up the orders on the site or to use that thing as a subsidiary to shoot more audiences, especially pictures, and so there's more usability and a return to some kind of
after so many years of crisis and upheaval.
This can't be played at the same time, but at least this should be a matter for discussion again before we can see which way we should go.
We've all out on reform issues.
This will all out on the fact on Congress.
The latter is that it is
probably a good idea that many of them should occur immediately after the Democratic Convention.
Maybe before.
This will tend to flex on the fire which is directed against the administration through the Congress very, very often.
The recommendations of the administration was made in direction of this, and the lists
Right after and all the numbers have changed after this insertion.
should be property tax.
And then after that, jobs, after six plus seven, et cetera.
But when you list, when you put it on the board, it's property tax.
And of course, and those are kind of questions in this area where people are interested.
Explicit consent.
This will definitely deflect some of the fire which is directed against the administration to the Congress.
We're going to carry out the recommendations the administration has made.
There's one correction in the list.
This will mean all the numbers have changed after this insertion of the...
to that after that.
Number five, jobs.
Number six, busing, et cetera.
When you list, when you put number four, you're probably going to have a close.
Can we have those there?
Yeah, of course.
I'm sorry.
It was clear.
Yeah, car was on.
Actually, or...
non-polar schools.
Last paragraph, I am not suggesting that this list of issues is exclusive or that it will not change this time as time goes on.
For example, you may want to take the environment.
It may appear you like it.
Commonly for a school to run on the issue of competition.
I'm going to use the America's competitive position.
This memorandum could be used for my own thing, and I would like to use it as a framework at least for discussion when you're working with that state for a memorandum of candidacy.
Also recorded on April 11, 1972
- 022-108 1:14 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 1:14 pm and 2:06 pm.
- 022-109 2:06 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Richard M. Helms talked on the telephone from 2:06 pm to 2:08 pm.
- 329-021 2:06 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Richard M. Helms met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:06 pm to 2:08 pm.
- 329-022 2:08 PM · 3 min — 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 2:08 pm and 2:45 pm.
- 329-024 2:08 PM · 30 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 2:08 pm and 2:45 pm.
- 329-025 2:08 PM · 6 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 2:08 pm and 2:45 pm.
- 329-026 2:45 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:45 pm to 2:55 pm.
- 706-004 2:57 PM · 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Alexander P. Butterfield, and John D. Ehrlichman met in the Oval Office of the White House from 2:57 pm to 3:03 pm.
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- Nixon & Ehrlichman on Busing and Constitutional Amendment October 20, 1971 · 3 min
- Nixon & Mitchell on Electoral strategy and Democratic primary January 24, 1972 · 16 min
- Nixon, Colson & Butterfield on 1972 Presidential Campaign June 10, 1972 · 1 hr 4 min
Cite this conversation
Conversation 329-023, April 11, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives (NAID 417186245). Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/329-023 (accessed November 2, 2026).