Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 338 › Conversation 338-017

Nixon, Mitchell & Buchanan on Vietnam War and Naval Blockade

Tuesday, May 9, 1972 · 11:35 AM–11:42 AM ET · Old Executive Office Building

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Mitchell, John N.; Butterfield, Alexander P.; Buchanan, Patrick J.Conversation338-017 on Tape 338 (tape position 00:40:14–00:47:17)StartTuesday, May 9, 1972 at 11:35 AMEndTuesday, May 9, 1972 at 11:42 AMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 338-017 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon consulted with John Mitchell and Patrick Buchanan regarding domestic political reactions to the recent naval blockade of North Vietnam. The discussion focused on securing public support from influential figures, including Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr., Secretary of State William P. Rogers, and Kenneth Rush. Nixon also coordinated logistics for an upcoming Duke Law School reunion dinner, emphasizing a controlled press photo opportunity to maintain an appropriate public image during the military escalation.

Audio

Download MP3 (part 1) · 111.3 MB ·Download MP3 (part 2) · 96.0 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 00:40:14 into the tape and ends around 00:47:17.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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· Timestamps are positions within the full tape recording.
39:53Hello?
39:54Hello?
39:56Well, there's an old Haiti man, and I told you that, please, if I may, did something.
40:05You know, I wrote the damn thing over the weekend.
40:07I didn't get the final one.
40:09I don't know what you heard.
40:20Of course the Democrats
40:36Politicians, you know, just what we expect.
40:38They're laying on the bushes.
40:40They're supporting the president.
40:42They ought to be in for that.
40:55We're done.
40:56as and when it's canceled, which you can very well make even.
41:00We're just going to say, well, we expect that to happen at a later time, but we're not going to have the American president go to some Russian tanker running through the streets of the way.
41:14That's the main effect, you know, of this kind of operation.
41:18Nothing's not technically evolving.
41:20It only has an effect for a period of time that I can tell you
41:27It's an offer, but how the hell can anybody say we should do more?
41:43Did you agree with it?
41:59I have a suggestion.
42:01Wouldn't this be a good time for you and Buckley to get Ashbrook in and say, look, John, if the car stays dead behind, we're going to get out of the race.
42:14Ray in the call, I'm asking him to call.
42:15Would you do that?
42:19I'm going to call some of his troops.
42:21Would you do that?
42:22No, I wouldn't do that.
42:23I approve the trip of Ray to Europe.
42:24I'm going to send him a message.
42:25I'm going to send him a message.
42:28You ought to be happy.
42:31They just want to go to Europe.
42:34I don't know.
42:35It's all good.
42:36It's all right.
42:37It's all right.
42:42We, uh, all go and, uh...
43:26I would like to have comments made by you.
43:45I've got three of them right now.
43:54Charlie Ryan, Ken Rush, and the dean, Fred Day.
43:58And then I said Powell.
44:00Well, if you can't get your hawks going now, we can.
44:07Oh, sure, it's going to take months, but it might not.
44:20The main thing is it'll do it.
44:24Maybe Bill Rogers, if you recall, I invited him.
44:30He accepted.
44:30Good.
44:30All right.
44:31I can't say a word.
44:32Powell, too?
44:32Huh?
44:32Powell, as well?
44:34Powell?
44:34Powell.
44:34He's a justice, but he's free of court.
44:37That's fine.
44:38That's all.
44:40We're going to hold here for two minutes.
44:43Two minutes.
44:43Two minutes.
44:43Just say Bill Rogers is a couple.
44:50He's representing.
44:54tell him I'm Patrick Rush, because he was a professor, an associate professor at Duke.
45:02So he'll speak.
45:04And Paul, tell him who else is talking.
45:05I appreciate it.
45:06Yeah, I was glad that you said it.
45:07We weren't sure what we were talking about.
45:10That was very funny, isn't it?
45:13Behind a disaster.
45:23Yeah, that'd be fine.
45:27Do you think we should take the F Rogers?
45:34Well, we're already taking a little bit away from the end, but I think for a good reason.
45:51Now, with that picture, I know the place to take this outside.
45:57Step out the steps, let the press in.
46:01Just the classroom.
46:01No spouses.
46:02No spouses.
46:03No class.
46:56I'll drop that.

NARA Description

On May 9, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, John N. Mitchell, Alexander P. Butterfield, and Patrick J. Buchanan met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 11:35 am to 11:42 am. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 338-017 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 338-17

Date: May 9, 1972
Time: 11:35-11:42 am
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with John N. Mitchell.

[Conversation No. 387-17A]

[See Conversation No. 24-45; two items have been withdrawn from this conversation]

Alexander P. Butterfield entered at 11:37 am.

[End of telephone conversation]

     Vietnam

           -Blockade
                -Comments
                     -Lewis F. Powell, Jr.
                     -Charles Rhyne
                     -[David] Kenneth Rush
                     -John W. Dean, III [?]
                     -Powell

The President talked with Patrick J. Buchanan between 11:40 and 11:41 am.

[Conversation No. 338-17B]

[See Conversation No. 24-46]

[End of telephone conversation]

     Vietnam
          -Blockade
               -Comments
                    -William P. Rogers
                    -Powell
                    -Rush
                    -Powell
                    -John B. Connally
                    -Rogers
                    -Powell

     Duke Law school reunion dinner
         -Photograph session
              -Weather
              -Participants

Butterfield left at 11:42 am.

Also recorded on May 9, 1972

  • 024-043 11:32 AM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 11:32 am.
  • 024-044 11:32 AM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 11:32 am and 11:35 am.
  • 338-015 11:32 AM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 11:32 am.
  • 338-016 11:32 AM · 13 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 11:32 am and 11:35 am.
  • 024-045 11:35 AM · 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon, John N. Mitchell, and Alexander P. Butterfield talked on the telephone from 11:35 am to 11:39 am.
  • 024-046 11:40 AM · 30 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Patrick J. Buchanan talked on the telephone from 11:40 am to 11:41 am.
  • 024-047 11:41 AM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 11:41 am and 11:50 am.
  • 338-018 11:42 AM · 40 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 11:42 am and 11:50 am.

All 96 conversations from May 9, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 338-017, May 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/338-017 (accessed October 9, 2026).