Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 343 › Conversation 343-010

Nixon & Rather on Media Relations and CBS News

Monday, June 12, 1972 · 2:43 PM–2:45 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Rather, DanConversation343-010 on Tape 343 (tape position 00:10:36–00:13:15)StartMonday, June 12, 1972 at 2:43 PMEndMonday, June 12, 1972 at 2:45 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 343-010 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon invited journalist Dan Rather to the White House to express his personal appreciation for CBS's coverage of his daughter Tricia's wedding anniversary. The brief, informal conversation focused on the President's positive reception of the broadcast and included some lighthearted personal anecdotes about family memories and wedding reflections. No significant policy decisions were made, though Nixon encouraged Rather to maintain contact with staff member Alexander Haig.

Audio

Download MP3 (part 1) · 111.6 MB ·Download MP3 (part 2) · 111.8 MB ·Download MP3 (part 3) · 11.6 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 00:10:36 into the tape and ends around 00:13:15.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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.
10:36Oh, Dan, how are you?
10:39Fine.
10:40Well, I thought you'd be interested to know that this is Nixon and Patricia and Cox were...
10:47In the White House last night, we got the Signal Corps to run over the tapes of some of the broadcasts of the wedding.
10:54And I had really not had a good chance to see your whole CBS show, and I just thought it was great.
11:02And I appreciate your warm comments, and I wish you'd pass on my thanks to Iron McLaughlin and the producers who do that.
11:09It's hard to realize it's a year ago.
11:12My gosh, I'm getting to feel awful old with that.
11:17Yeah, I saw you.
11:21Yeah, I think that you noticed that's why we brought Trish in, because she came and she noticed it first.
11:25Tonight we're going to take them out.
11:30We offered, and I told them I had a party.
11:33We got people to come to their friends.
11:35They're all skedaddled around.
11:37I'm going to still work to take them out of Sequoia.
11:43No, I'm not.
11:44But anyway, I got you here, so that is quite a day.
11:47Wow.
12:04Trisha reminded me of something that her memory is better than mine.
12:08She said, I made the decision about going head over my head.
12:12And generally, I remember I called her at 11 o'clock and I said, I thought she said something.
12:18She said, no, but she said, because you lean so hard.
12:21She said, and I said, you'll put her on at 6 o'clock.
12:25I said, sir, what would you do?
12:29I don't know, I always like to take credit for them, you know, but in this case, she gave it to me, but I give it to her.
12:35Okay?
12:36We'll just say it's unanimous, like Colin and I said.
12:40Okay.
12:42Bye.
13:09I'm going to suggest, you might talk to Hague about it, because I'm pretty good at this sort of thing, too.

NARA Description

On June 12, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Dan Rather met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:43 pm to 2:45 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 343-010 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 343-10

Date: June 12, 1972
Time: 2:43-2:45 pm
Location: Old Executive Office Building

The President talked with Dan Rather.

[See Conversation No. 25-52]

Also recorded on June 12, 1972

  • 025-051 2:35 PM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 2:35 pm.
  • 343-008 2:35 PM · 39 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 2:35 pm.
  • 025-052 2:43 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Dan Rather talked on the telephone from 2:43 pm to 2:45 pm.
  • 025-053 2:45 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 2:45 pm and 2:52 pm.
  • 025-054 2:45 PM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 2:45 pm and 2:52 pm.
  • 343-011 2:45 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 2:45 pm and 2:52 pm.
  • 343-012 2:45 PM · 38 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 2:45 pm and 2:52 pm.
  • 343-013 2:45 PM · 21 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 2:45 pm and 2:52 pm.

All 44 conversations from June 12, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 343-010, June 12, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/343-010 (accessed October 9, 2026).