Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 344 › Conversation 344-023

Nixon with unidentified visitors in his EOB office on Arms control

Thursday, June 22, 1972 · 1:08 PM–1:35 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); [Unknown person(s)]Conversation344-023 on Tape 344 (tape position 03:00:12–03:01:29)StartThursday, June 22, 1972 at 1:08 PMEndThursday, June 22, 1972 at 1:35 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 344-023 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon discusses the political strategy for securing defense funding from senators who support arms control measures. He emphasizes framing the legislative argument around the necessity of maintaining a strong defense posture to ensure the success of long-term arms limitation agreements. Nixon instructs his interlocutor to emphasize that failing to support these defense programs would undermine the progress made toward permanent offensive weapon limitations.

Audio

Download MP3 (part 1) · 111.9 MB ·Download MP3 (part 2) · 112.0 MB ·Download MP3 (part 3) · 33.4 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 03:00:12 into the tape and ends around 03:01:29.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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

3:00:12the president is that it would be ironic and it would be tragic if those, if there were senators who would support the arts control is limited and then vote against the
3:00:34defense funding, which would enable us to make the next step of a permanent agreement.
3:00:38In other words, that's what we want, see?
3:00:40And that's what, and to put the V right on it, they will destroy the changes.
3:00:44Those who got not supported, added an ongoing burden to deal with them, and destroyed the chances for a permanent limitation on offensive weapons.
3:00:57Well, okay.
3:01:01Now, you can say that,
3:01:05destroy that and put it on that basis rather than on the basis of, well, because we have our implementation agreement, we must have the other program.
3:01:21That isn't the point.
3:01:25is because we have this, we want to build another one.
3:01:27And in order to build another one, we must have an on-board drill.

NARA Description

On June 22, 1972, 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 1:08 pm and 1:35 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 344-023 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 344-23

Date: June 22, 1972
Time: Unknown between 1:08 and 1:35 pm
Location: Old Executive Office Building

The President talked with an unknown person.

     Day care

Also recorded on June 22, 1972

  • 025-122 12:15 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 12:15 pm and 12:56 pm.
  • 344-020 12:15 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 12:15 pm and 12:56 pm.
  • 344-021 12:15 PM · 16 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 12:15 pm and 12:56 pm.
  • 025-123 12:56 PM · 11 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler talked on the telephone from 12:56 pm to 1:08 pm.
  • 344-022 12:56 PM · 9 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 12:56 pm to 1:08 pm.
  • 344-024 1:35 PM · 11 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 1:35 pm to 1:45 pm.
  • 344-025 1:45 PM · 12 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 1:45 pm and 2:58 pm.
  • 344-026 1:45 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 1:45 pm and 2:58 pm.

All 38 conversations from June 22, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 344-023, June 22, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/344-023 (accessed September 30, 2026).