Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 354 › Conversation 354-029

Nixon & Laird on Political Strategy and Public Relations

Friday, October 6, 1972 · 2:28 PM–2:32 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 4 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Laird, Melvin R.Conversation354-029 on Tape 354StartFriday, October 6, 1972 at 2:28 PMEndFriday, October 6, 1972 at 2:32 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 354-029 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird met briefly to discuss political messaging and the strategic framing of administration policies in response to critics. They focused on countering adversarial rhetoric by emphasizing the administration's accomplishments rather than allowing opponents to define the public narrative. The President stressed the importance of seizing control of the debate to ensure his administration's perspective on national priorities takes precedence.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 2 minutes of this recording (about 56% of it) is represented by only a few words. Listen to the audio rather than relying on the text below; a corrected transcript is queued.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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So, I wanted to tell you that, uh...
I wanted to tell you that, uh...
Yeah, you might want to, what you might do is
Yeah, and Adam here, and the main point that I think is that at the beginning, whatever, his therapy, Blair's therapy, and Senator's, and so forth, and the way we've been here, we're here, and we've run, and so forth, is really not very much use of all the ideas, how much we've accomplished, and secondly,
Finally, that what they are advocating is strip it all away, strip all the camouflage.
I'll argue that they're advocating a common strip over itself, you know.
That's the key word of the Constitution.
It isn't just getting rid of you, but they, you know, they hit on you, but, you know, they're going to go ahead and allow the position where it really is.
If I want to kill you, you're not going to want to do the latter.
But, yeah, I'd wait till he kills me, and I'm going to be listening to his speeches, and I'm going to get the first word, and I'm going to get the second word.
But whatever each shot is mine.
But if they want to make, if they want to make, you know, if they want to make the world a better place, that's very much who I am.
Sure.
Sure.
Sure.
Sure.
Sure.
Well, I think on Sunday at one point there, the children continued to handle the fact that, you know, that all these defense companies tried to gloss over it and say, well, I agree, I agree, I agree, I agree, and that's all I've ever done.
But some people said, well, look at the facts.
But, you know, the mind, you know, he's proud of it, but here's what it does.
Okay.
Good luck.

NARA Description

On October 6, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Melvin R. Laird met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:28 pm to 2:32 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 354-029 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 354-29

Date: October 6, 1972
Time: 2:28 pm - 2:32 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

Melvin R. Laird talked with the President.

[See Conversation No. 31-21]

Also recorded on October 6, 1972

  • 031-019 2:26 PM · 18 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Thelma C. ("Pat") (Ryan) Nixon talked on the telephone from 2:26 pm to 2:27 pm.
  • 354-026 2:26 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Thelma C. ("Pat") (Ryan) Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:26 pm to 2:27 pm.
  • 031-020 2:27 PM · 15 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 2:27 pm and 2:28 pm.
  • 354-027 2:27 PM · 9 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 2:27 pm and 2:28 pm.
  • 354-028 2:27 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 2:27 pm and 2:28 pm.
  • 031-021 2:28 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Melvin R. Laird talked on the telephone from 2:28 pm to 2:32 pm.
  • 354-030 2:32 PM · 36 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 2:32 pm and 2:35 pm.
  • 354-031 2:35 PM · 45 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., Henry A. Kissinger, and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:35 pm to 3:22 pm.

All 64 conversations from October 6, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 354-029, October 6, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/354-029 (accessed October 1, 2026).