Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 343 › Conversation 343-018
Nixon & Colson on William Rogers and Media Strategy
Wednesday, June 14, 1972 · 2:18 PM–2:40 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building
AI Summary
President Nixon and Charles Colson discussed strategic media appearances and speaking engagements for Secretary of State William Rogers. The President directed Colson to coordinate a schedule of prestigious public forums and evening talk shows for Rogers that would avoid sensitive political debates and conflict with the Democratic National Convention. Nixon emphasized the importance of controlling Rogers's public image and messaging, particularly regarding foreign policy and national defense, while ensuring he appeared in key electoral states.
- William Rogers
- Media Strategy
- Public Relations
- Campaign Scheduling
- Foreign Policy
- Public Speaking
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 00:27:17 into the tape and ends around 00:43:23.
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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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.
27:17John, I wanted to tell you that I talked to Bill Rogers today, and we would prefer, I would prefer to not do Issues and Answers because it's not a testimony Monday, and I don't want the questioners on Sunday to raise questions that should be the only answer that we make.
27:34If you can, get somebody else to go on.
27:37But not on this subject.
27:39We've got a program in Salt Lake.
27:41We've got a program now.
27:43The other thing, I would not urge him to do a press conference next week at night.
27:49It's better to let this thing arrive the rest of this week and the press conference next week.
27:57He's going to go abroad on the 27th.
28:14That's tough, but I told him, he asked about it, whether he didn't know, whether he didn't know, and I said, well, that I didn't, that we wanted to be sure we didn't have the captain officer traveling, so he was speaking on the law, and he had to comply with the law, but I told him that I would like for him, he came back from his trip, to do such things as the Commonwealth Club, San Francisco, and the Legion, and he ought to do the VFW, I think.
29:06And another one is up there, and I said, hey, you want to go to the labor group?
29:09And I said, just try it.
29:10And I said, David, the Secretary of State wants to go to the labor group.
29:14And he called them out all the time.
29:16So I told him that I would pass all the time.
29:27You'll get him a call after we talk and say that you raised this, that these are the different key states, I think, that you are trying Chicago to come.
29:40I think also, I would think a good New York foreign president at some point, not a Jewish one, because I think that would be different, but when he could do a...
29:53Or you can ask him what he thinks of the water in the city.
30:06He should do prestige work.
30:07And I think, too, that in his case, he's just as well to do it at night.
30:12Because they'll carry some of it at night, don't you think?
30:15Or do you... Then he'll do just as well.
30:16He'll do better than trying to do it at noon and making news at night.
30:19Or he could do it at sunset at noon and then do something, do a talk show at night or something.
30:25It's all that.
30:29But then, the point is that if he does that, I think when he does these clubs, he ought to try to save some time to do one of the interview shows, but not on the daytime.
30:40It's got to be a time.
30:41An interview show should be a time.
30:47If you're asking this, and then say, we'd like to do a good time to do this with you, from right now, what would you like to do?
30:58And what we don't want to watch for these forums, we don't want to run others in on, if these agencies are going to do some kind of trade in Chicago.
31:07I think a good Cleveland forum would be the idea, or Columbus.
31:12Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, that's another one.
31:15They have a very viable forum or relationship on some kind of club.
31:19One of the big ones.
31:24The state council board in Pittsburgh would be excellent.
31:26That would be better for Philadelphia.
31:31But anyway, that would be fine.
31:32He just probably was a little confused on why we turned him off.
31:35Of course, because Henry was going on and so forth.
31:41Yeah, but he wondered whether I saw him, too.
31:44I told him it was definitely disgusting, but I said something like that.
31:46He said, it's fine, you know.
31:53Well, that would have been fine last week, wouldn't it?
31:56It was because we had so much else on.
31:58As it turned out, it seemed to go...
32:00I know that the tree hunters all picked up that one spot I did an assault on.
32:04At least he kicked it off.
32:06Yeah.
32:31You know, it's just as well to have a little debate about this.
32:53You see, some controversy.
32:54We know, of course, you don't want to leave an impression.
32:56But in the final analysis, it's like any other debate.
32:59After the debate and raising all these questions, I've been sent a full story over the line.
33:04We would have won the debate.
33:18Well, Scoot was in the scene today, and he was fighting with his gunner.
33:21He may not be all that much of a gunner, he'll ask some tough questions, but he's really on our side on this, you know.
33:26I'm going to carry you back.
33:27That would be perfect, right?
33:28Yeah, I'm going to try to carry you back.
33:57One thing about it is that he said to be sure to have your people told Henry they ought to get everything he had said about the government, just that truth.
34:04He stooped toward the pieces.
34:06Now, I don't know whether you've got all that.
34:09I hope we have every statement you've made.
34:11Well, well, the imprint is pretty good, too.
34:24...and also his, on the defense, cutting down six carriers.
34:29Scoop knows his business too, he says.
34:32So he agrees, you know, ideologically, because...
34:53I don't believe that.
34:54He is, he is.
34:57If they're interested in Israel, they cannot be prepared.
35:21Incidentally, why don't you also get that stuff put out in California, saying that I was a tool of the Jewish international conspiracy?
35:25Have you?
35:26I haven't mentioned Detroit.
35:27Most of the places I would not send over the South.
35:28You don't need it there.
35:29But Ohio, and all that naturally...
35:52And, you know, you might put him in upper New York.
35:57He was in Rochester.
35:57He had a great lot of friends in Rochester.
35:59Paul Miller is a very good friend of his.
36:01I asked him how like Rochester was.
36:03And he was born in New York.
36:13If you could, you might give a call, and we'll be talking about it, and you want to know what it is.
36:19We'd like to schedule some in the summer, but a lot of this, we should schedule after this trip, till we hop property.
36:26We should do it, and we shouldn't do it before the Democratic Convention.
36:31He won't be back till the end of their convention anyway.
36:34And after the Democratic Convention, he'd be a very good person to be out there.
36:38Mm-hmm.
36:40Yes, we'll have that teacher say that I said that you should have a proper mask when you're working with them.
37:52Remember I told you that any rigger of history remembers what happened to Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
37:55It doesn't hurt you a little to revise records.
37:58It's best if you don't revise records.
38:56Well, until the summer set, I don't know.
38:57Maybe wrong.
38:57It's like the last summer set.
38:58It's the 28th.
38:59But whatever it is, it's a... Wall space and all.
38:59All right.
39:00I heard the wiring just now.
39:01That's right.
39:38But I don't know, I just have that hunch that, you know, he's going to come here at this time, and he's going to have to go there.
39:42It's just distracting me too much.
39:43It's a picture of him.
39:43He's still in London.
39:44He's going home.
40:33Yeah, on this street.
40:34It's really a great state iron campaign.
41:00It's really, incidentally, much more fun to campaign in Maine than almost any city.
41:04Much more than in Hampshire, actually.
41:07Because you don't have the load situation.
41:10It's a more responsible state.
41:26You know, another thing that's interesting, I was so glad to see him come on board the machine.
41:31That was good, because to have him left to repent was a very bad signal to the country.
41:37It would have been if the...
41:57The people at age are putting out what needs to be done for the convention.
42:24Ida, I so nicely know.
42:24Young will come, who tend to be the best.
42:49Tell Bill that he would like to work on a schedule for the year, and for him not.
NARA Description
On June 14, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:18 pm to 2:40 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 343-018 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 343-18 Date: June 14, 1972 Time: 2:18-2:40 pm Location: Old Executive Office Building The President talked with Charles W. Colson. [See Conversation No. 25-66]
Also recorded on June 14, 1972
- 025-065 1:05 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 1:05 pm and 2:18 pm.
- 343-017 1:05 PM · 56 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 1:05 pm and 2:18 pm.
- 025-066 2:18 PM · 23 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson talked on the telephone from 2:18 pm to 2:40 pm.
- 025-067 2:40 PM · 1 min — Unknown person(s) talked on the telephone on an unknown date, sometime between 2:40 pm on June 14, 1972 and 5:31 pm on June 15, 1972.
- 733-009 2:53 PM — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 2:53 pm and 2:54 pm.
- 733-010 2:54 PM — President Richard M. Nixon, Warren E. Burger, Manolo Sanchez, Stephen B. Bull, and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House from 2:54 pm to 3:59 pm.
- 733-011 3:59 PM — President Richard M. Nixon, Manolo Sanchez, and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 3:59 pm and 4:02 pm.
- 733-012 4:02 PM — President Richard M. Nixon, Clark MacGregor, Henry A. Kissinger, and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:02 pm to 6:03 pm.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 343-018, June 14, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/343-018 (accessed September 30, 2026).