{"conversationCode":"380-028","tapeNumber":380,"conversationNumber":28,"identifier":"37-wht-conversation-380-028","startDateTime":"1972-12-28T19:26:00.000Z","endDateTime":"1972-12-28T19:30:00.000Z","startDate":"28-Dec-1972","startTime":"2:26 PM","endDate":"28-Dec-1972","endTime":"2:30 PM","dateCertainty":"certain","timeCertainty":"certain","participants":"Nixon, Richard M. (President); Williams, Maurice J.;","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.","locationCode":"EOB","recordingDevice":"Old Executive Office Building","latitudeEstimated":38.897567,"longitudeEstimated":-77.039147,"chronCode":"5.2","chronRelease":"Fifth Chronological Release: Part II","chronReleaseDate":"2-Dec-2008","aogpRelease":null,"aogpSegment":null,"lastModified":"2015-07-27T17:04:10.235Z","findingAid":"Conversation No. 380-28\n\nDate: December 28, 1972\nTime: 2:26 pm - 2:30 pm\nLocation: Executive Office Building\n\nThe President talked with Maurice J. Williams.\n\n[See Conversation No. 35-28]","filename":["380-028.mp3"],"tapeStart":"","tapeEnd":"","participantsList":["Nixon, Richard M. (President)","Williams, Maurice J."],"prevCode":"380-027","nextCode":"380-029","transcript":[{"start":0.03,"end":21.78,"text":"Hello, yes."},{"start":21.8,"end":22.5,"text":"I guess I got you in West Virginia."},{"start":22.52,"end":22.82,"text":"Oh, yeah, yeah."},{"start":22.84,"end":23.88,"text":"Well, I very much am sorry to have to call you back."},{"start":23.9,"end":24.82,"text":"There's a heavy responsibility at this moment."},{"start":24.84,"end":27.68,"text":"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."},{"start":27.7,"end":27.95,"text":"So we'd like"},{"start":34.56,"end":53.75,"text":"It won't be as tough a thing with us, thank God."},{"start":53.77,"end":54.41,"text":"They aren't fighting each other."},{"start":54.43,"end":55.25,"text":"They're living, but they're not fighting."},{"start":55.27,"end":57.47,"text":"But we, as you know, we've had a very close personal relationship with Hector Rockridge over many, many years."},{"start":57.49,"end":58.25,"text":"And they got to feel in a serious way."},{"start":64,"end":86.3,"text":"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."},{"start":86.32,"end":87.04,"text":"That's the nature of the assignment."},{"start":87.06,"end":87.46,"text":"I'd like to hear it."},{"start":88.29,"end":110.59,"text":"We get a report about, say, once a week or so without spending time making reports."},{"start":110.61,"end":114.61,"text":"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."},{"start":114.63,"end":115.27,"text":"We've already done a great deal."},{"start":115.66,"end":140.39,"text":"And we're not going to break them apart."},{"start":140.41,"end":142.55,"text":"We've got to remind them so that our friends all through Latin America realize that we're helping out here."},{"start":142.57,"end":144,"text":"So you know how to handle the thing, but as I said, the only part of it"},{"start":144.8,"end":166.93,"text":"It varies somewhat."},{"start":166.95,"end":170.72,"text":"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."},{"start":170.74,"end":171.7,"text":"It's a pretty big story about what we are doing."},{"start":171.72,"end":173.82,"text":"In other words, what we are doing is very important, and I'd like to do this responsibility on that, too."},{"start":173.84,"end":174.08,"text":"Take a step."},{"start":177.05,"end":202.33,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":202.53,"end":225.5,"text":"I don't know what it's going to be, but we can hope so."},{"start":225.52,"end":225.6,"text":"Bye."}],"aiSummary":{"text":"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.","topics":["Humanitarian aid","Maurice J. Williams","Disaster relief","Public relations","Foreign policy","Inter-agency coordination"],"generatedAt":"2026-04-06T17:38:07.120Z"},"topicSlugs":["humanitarian-aid","maurice-j-williams","disaster-relief","public-relations","foreign-policy","inter-agency-coordination"],"audioDurationSec":230,"audioFiles":[{"file":"380-028.mp3","bytes":5532081,"durationSec":230.37,"bitrate":192108,"missing":false}],"audioIsShared":false,"audioProbedAt":"2026-09-18T02:19:44.876Z","transcriptGapSeconds":158,"transcriptGapShare":0.69,"transcriptQuality":"incomplete","audio":["https://nixon.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/audio/380-028.mp3"],"url":"https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/380-028","nixonLibraryUrl":"https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/white-house-tapes/380/conversation-380-028","license":"Public domain (U.S. Government work). AI-generated fields (transcript, aiSummary) are provided as-is without warranty."}