Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 380 › Conversation 380-028

Nixon & Williams on Humanitarian aid and Disaster relief

Thursday, December 28, 1972 · 2:26 PM–2:30 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 4 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Williams, Maurice J.Conversation380-028 on Tape 380StartThursday, December 28, 1972 at 2:26 PMEndThursday, December 28, 1972 at 2:30 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 380-028 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon recruited Maurice J. Williams to lead a high-level humanitarian mission in response to a crisis, tasking him with coordinating efforts across both government and volunteer agencies. Nixon emphasized that Williams should maintain a high media profile to highlight U.S. aid efforts, specifically for both domestic and Pan-American audiences. The President directed Williams to provide brief, regular updates while managing the complex inter-agency response to the disaster.

Audio

Download MP3 · 5.3 MB

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 3 minutes of this recording (about 69% 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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

Download transcript (.txt) · JSON data

· Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).
Hello, yes.
I guess I got you in West Virginia.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Well, I very much am sorry to have to call you back.
There's a heavy responsibility at this moment.
But after we talked about it last night, today, I determined about you're our best man, and the government's going to take a tough assignment.
So we'd like
It won't be as tough a thing with us, thank God.
They aren't fighting each other.
They're living, but they're not fighting.
But we, as you know, we've had a very close personal relationship with Hector Rockridge over many, many years.
And they got to feel in a serious way.
Under the circumstances, I want you to know that you will go with the bullet already to handle all the agencies, not only the government agencies, but also the volunteer agencies involved.
That's the nature of the assignment.
I'd like to hear it.
We get a report about, say, once a week or so without spending time making reports.
And another thing, if you would, particularly because this involves Black America very specifically, I think you should make yourself available to the media as much as you can and explain what we are.
We've already done a great deal.
And we're not going to break them apart.
We've got to remind them so that our friends all through Latin America realize that we're helping out here.
So you know how to handle the thing, but as I said, the only part of it
It varies somewhat.
In other instances, this time, we were interested not only in actions, but we were interested in functions as possible, not only for American consumption, but for Pan-American consumption.
It's a pretty big story about what we are doing.
In other words, what we are doing is very important, and I'd like to do this responsibility on that, too.
Take a step.
Yeah.
I don't know what it's going to be, but we can hope so.
Bye.

NARA Description

On December 28, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Maurice J. Williams met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:26 pm to 2:30 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 380-028 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 380-28

Date: December 28, 1972
Time: 2:26 pm - 2:30 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with Maurice J. Williams.

[See Conversation No. 35-28]

Also recorded on December 28, 1972

  • 380-026 2:20 PM · 2 min — 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 2:20 pm and 2:26 pm.
  • 380-027 2:20 PM · 15 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 2:20 pm and 2:26 pm.
  • 035-028 2:26 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Maurice J. Williams talked on the telephone from 2:26 pm to 2:30 pm.
  • 035-156 2:30 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 2:30 pm and 2:39 pm.
  • 380-029 2:30 PM · 10 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 2:30 pm and 2:39 pm.
  • 035-029 2:39 PM · 43 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Marjorie P. Acker talked on the telephone from 2:39 pm to 2:40 pm.
  • 380-030 2:39 PM · 43 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Marjorie P. Acker met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:39 pm to 2:40 pm.
  • 035-030 2:40 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 2:40 pm and 3:14 pm.

All 76 conversations from December 28, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 380-028, December 28, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/380-028 (accessed October 11, 2026).