Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 338 › Conversation 338-025

Nixon & Rockefeller on White House leaks and Political strategy

Tuesday, May 9, 1972 · 12:09 PM–12:13 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Rockefeller, Nelson A.Conversation338-025 on Tape 338 (tape position 00:53:27–00:58:21)StartTuesday, May 9, 1972 at 12:09 PMEndTuesday, May 9, 1972 at 12:13 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 338-025 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with Nelson Rockefeller to apologize for an unauthorized letter that caused public embarrassment for the New York Governor. Nixon distanced himself from the leak, labeling it a "coup" and vowing to identify the culprit within his administration. Additionally, the two discussed the geopolitical implications of the upcoming Moscow summit in the context of ongoing international tensions.

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 00:53:27 into the tape and ends around 00:58:21.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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.
53:10I guess I wanted to make a little apology.
53:12You know, when I talked to you Sunday, I didn't know about that goddamn letter, and I have raged hell around here.
53:19Well, you see, what happened is that we had a forum, and apparently the letters and all that sort of thing were presented, but not certainly for the purpose of publication.
53:32And I just raged hell, and I may have told God.
53:36It'll never happen, it'll never happen, and I'm just sorry to embarrass you, but I, frankly, maybe it'll help me a little bit, but as you know, I just don't want to, I didn't want to put me in a position of being against you on something.
53:49It'd just burn my ass, believe me.
53:58Well,
54:04Sure, sure.
54:04Well, it was one of those things.
54:06I was writing my speech at that time, and I just didn't have any idea what was going on.
54:13Well, I tell you, you've been a great support of some of this, and we've done the right thing.
54:19What did you put a statement out?
54:22Oh, good.
54:22I'm going to get them at noon, so I'll be treating them all, so...
54:30I think we can...
54:58But if they cancel the summit, we're going to say, well, don't you think we just say, well, because I think you would agree I couldn't possibly go to Moscow with Russian pants rumbling around through the streets of the UAE.
55:09Yeah, that's right.
55:11We don't take too much heat from what they call the witnessing liberals in there.
55:32Well, I appreciate your, but I must say I was so embarrassed when I came in.
55:34See, I didn't know, but as a matter of fact, I got in the next morning and I picked up, I had to see the paper.
55:40I picked up the paper and I thought, what in the name of God is this?
55:51And I didn't really know what to see.
55:52And when you talked to me about it, I didn't know what it was about.
55:56Unbelievable.
56:00You see, but I, over the weekend, of course, I was writing a speech.
56:05I did it myself.
56:07It's going to take so much energy.
56:11But anyway, you can be sure, if you would just be sure that all of our viewers and my friends know that this was just a damn coup.
56:26We're looking.
56:27We're looking around.
56:28I'm trying to find the culprit.
56:30Okay, thank you.
58:02Sit with me, please.
58:04Sit with me.

NARA Description

On May 9, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Nelson A. Rockefeller met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 12:09 pm and 12:13 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 338-025 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 338-25

Date: May 9, 1972
Time: Between 12:09 and 12:13 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with Nelson A. Rockefeller.

[See Conversation No. 24-54]

Also recorded on May 9, 1972

  • 024-051 11:56 AM · 18 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 11:56 am and 12:05 pm.
  • 024-052 12:05 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Arthur W. Radford talked on the telephone from 12:05 pm to 12:06 pm.
  • 338-023 12:05 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Arthur W. Radford met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 12:05 pm and 12:06 pm.
  • 024-053 12:06 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 12:06 pm and 12:09 pm.
  • 338-024 12:06 PM · 19 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 12:06 pm and 12:09 pm.
  • 024-054 12:09 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Nelson A. Rockefeller talked on the telephone from 12:09 pm to 12:13 pm.
  • 024-055 12:13 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 12:13 pm and 12:27 pm.
  • 338-026 12:13 PM · 10 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 12:13 pm and 12:27 pm.

All 96 conversations from May 9, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 338-025, 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/338-025 (accessed October 10, 2026).