Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 336 › Conversation 336-031

Nixon & Woods on Vietnam War and Presidential speeches

Monday, May 8, 1972 · 4:50 PM–4:55 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Woods, Rose MaryConversation336-031 on Tape 336 (tape position 01:56:06–01:57:46)StartMonday, May 8, 1972 at 4:50 PMEndMonday, May 8, 1972 at 4:55 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 336-031 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with his personal secretary, Rose Mary Woods, to finalize edits for his upcoming televised address regarding the Vietnam War. The discussion focused on last-minute proofreading and specific terminology adjustments, including ensuring the correct formal title for South Vietnam. Nixon reviewed these changes to ensure the speech text accurately reflected current diplomatic language before its final production.

Audio

Download MP3 (part 1) · 112.6 MB ·Download MP3 (part 2) · 112.3 MB ·Download MP3 (part 3) · 49.5 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 01:56:06 into the tape and ends around 01:57:46.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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.
1:56:25Yeah, there are a couple of things.
1:56:28They're still proofing for me.
1:56:31We don't know what this is.
1:56:33It's all done.
1:56:35Well, except that we don't know whether they haven't gotten history's latest changes yet.
1:56:43Oh, yeah.
1:56:43Well, that became felt in the last five minutes.
1:56:49Uh-huh.
1:56:54I made a couple on my way over.
1:56:57Sorry about that.
1:57:00Once the Lord said this, in the first place, here you go.
1:57:07He said, massive invasion of Vietnam.
1:57:11A massive invasion of the Republic of Vietnam.
1:57:16Just stop getting them all set up in Vietnam.
1:57:24It's recovered in Vietnam.
1:57:27They don't want to call it Republic of Vietnam.
1:57:33Well, Jensen said they got it set before.
1:57:36It's recovered in Vietnam, but it's not recovered in South Vietnam.

NARA Description

On May 8, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 4:50 pm to 4:55 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 336-031 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 336-31

Date: May 8, 1972
Time: 4:50 - 4:55 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President met with Rose Mary Woods.

     Vietnam
          -President’s speech
                -Copy
                     -Proofreading
                -Changes
                     -Wording
                     -Winston Lord
                           -South Vietnam
                                -Proper title

Woods left at 4:55 pm.

Also recorded on May 8, 1972

  • 024-013 4:55 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, and unknown person(s) talked on the telephone from 4:55 pm to 4:57 pm.
  • 336-032 4:55 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 4:55 pm and 4:57 pm.
  • 024-014 4:57 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 4:57 pm and 5:23 pm.
  • 024-015 4:57 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 4:57 pm and 5:23 pm.
  • 336-033 4:57 PM · 55 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 4:57 pm and 5:23 pm.
  • 336-034 4:57 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 4:57 pm and 5:23 pm.
  • 336-035 4:57 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 4:57 pm and 5:23 pm.
  • 336-036 4:57 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 4:57 pm and 5:23 pm.

All 94 conversations from May 8, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 336-031, May 8, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/336-031 (accessed October 9, 2026).