On January 12, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, Julie Nixon Eisenhower, and Stephen B. Bull talked on the telephone from 11:43 am to 11:49 am. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 035-153 of the White House Tapes.
Transcript (AI-Generated)This transcript was generated automatically by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite this transcript as authoritative. Consult the Finding Aid above for verified information.
Oh.
Daddy?
Yeah.
You getting all ready for your little trip?
Let me call you and talk about it, and I'll let you know later, yeah.
I'm talking to Steve.
Oh.
I'll call you about it, Steve, in about 15, 20 minutes.
Yeah, what's that, honey?
I used to say, you getting ready for your little trip?
Yeah, yeah, I'm working here in the EOB, getting a lot of things done.
I got my...
I tried on my club coat and everything fits fine.
Oh, good.
I'm all set for the inauguration.
Got my ties and everything.
And there's a lot of odds and ends.
They're coming along very well.
Good.
And I'm going to check now.
I'm checking my schedule to see if I can get over there for a few minutes to the Chinese thing.
You think it's a good idea?
Be nice, but, you know.
Not absolutely essential.
Yeah, but if you can, be nice.
I'm glad your machine's working all right.
If you have any problems with it, why, be sure and ask Rose or somebody.
You know, it's very simple.
Yeah, it is simple.
It's not complicated at all.
Once you get the knack of it, and then you just say it and go through about nine or ten minutes and take it off and
and file, don't have it transcribed.
Just say, I'll file this, and then years later we might want to take a look and see what the heck you did.
But remember, too, that even the small incidents, as a matter of fact, I should say even more so, I do a lot of reading of history and so forth.
Well, take the book Jenny, and you'll find that what people are interested in are, I mean, who ate what, and who looked a little, you know, purple, and so forth.
They really do.
They love it.
They love it.
You're a good observer, and you can point that out.
I mean, the idea that you always have to simply report the big news, you know, like the birthday party was sort of a big story to write, but there are things that you do and see, the people you see, and if you see some kid from Iowa that was getting a thrill out of the house, and just the little things.
Some days you won't have much, and other days you'll have a great deal.
But I do think that you're just sort of starting to keep an oral diary, which you don't transcribe,
just put it down and put it down will be a great idea and and your thoughts about anything you know you can uh talk you know about how you're getting along and the house thing is working and you're pleased with this and you heard from david and a letter and in other words make it truly a diary because i just know that a diary of somebody of any kind of importance is enormously
It's a good thing to have, and you may never use it.
You may decide, oh, heck, I don't want to do it.
But then someday you just may decide, well, I'd like to write something.
And then you have some stuff to flesh out, the papers and the summaries and everything else, you see.
Right.
That's really true.
Uh-huh.
That's right.
That was fine.
Do you think there'll be nice weather down there?
I hope so.
You know, I never guess anymore on a darn place.
Some days you go down there and they say it's going to be good and it's cold, and other days you go down and it's going to be bad and it's sunny.
So we hope so, and if it isn't, I'll work there, of course, for two or three days anyway and then come back here.
Right.
If it's bad, then I'll go from here right to Camp David and finish my inaugural.
I've got to finish it by Thursday, of course, because we have the big events Friday and Saturday and Sunday.
We really are doing an excellent job on the inaugural.
I was talking with people about the plans, you know, we're
I mean, we're going to go to all the balls and all the concerts, and we're going to have the church service, and I'm going to have a reception for the family and a reception for the National Committee on Sunday.
So, in other words, everybody who's here will feel that he's gotten some very special attention.
Oh, I think it'll be great.
And that's what we will do.
Everybody should be up for it.
And, uh, mm-hmm.
So I'm getting that.
Mm-hmm.
That's good.
That's good.
And once the inaugural's over, then we start the next four years, right?
Right.
I think I'm all for it.
Four more years.
Okay, honey.
Thank you.
Okay.
Bye.