Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 391 › Conversation 391-023

Nixon & Brooke on 1972 Election and Vietnam War

Friday, November 3, 1972 · 9:12 AM–9:16 AM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 4 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Brooke, Edward W.Conversation391-023 on Tape 391StartFriday, November 3, 1972 at 9:12 AMEndFriday, November 3, 1972 at 9:16 AMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 391-023 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Senator Edward W. Brooke discuss the upcoming 1972 election and the status of Vietnam peace negotiations. Nixon conveys confidence regarding the progress of the peace talks, emphasizing the critical importance of finalizing technical details to avoid the pitfalls of previous agreements. The two men briefly touch upon political campaign dynamics in Massachusetts and the necessity of maintaining discretion regarding the ongoing diplomatic process.

Audio

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NARA Description

On November 3, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Edward W. Brooke met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 9:12 am to 9:16 am. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 391-023 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 391-23

Date: November 3, 1972
Time: 9:12 am - 9:16 am
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with Edward W. Brooke.

[See Conversation No. 32-162]

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 1 minute of this recording (about 31% 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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Hello?
Hello?
Yeah, I just called to be sure your coattails were long enough for me in Massachusetts.
I have to tell you that I'm delighted because I take off in about an hour, 2, 6, 8, 12, 5.
We have one that we're sure of, and that's yours.
Yeah.
Well, my wife said she had a great meeting up there, despite the little messiness with the... Yeah.
All right.
Well, you know, it wasn't our people.
Well, we're going, uh, right down the wire, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,
Uh, I would say that, uh, I wouldn't speculate about it if I were you, but I would, for this reason, I believe, just can't say, uh, my own, uh, my, uh, my, my destiny, because I just want to hold on to my destiny, and they're, uh, probably going to wait for that to happen.
You know, obviously, which is fine, but, uh,
But the major thing is we'll find out .
No.
You can be very confident.
You can be very, very confident on that point.
As I go to the website, I'm going to be very confident.
You say that you're going to make it right through the agreement on the major items.
I'm going to be very confident.
I'm going to be very confident.
I'm going to be very confident.
Oh, yes.
Yes, there has to be another meet.
That's the whole point.
To work out the details.
The details are terribly important, as I pointed out.
Because we didn't work out the details of bombing off 68.
We were only a cause, and not a fault.
So, uh, but I, we still need, you know, details.
There don't have to be another meet.
But, but you can, but you can still, you can still be confident on that point.
No, there's, I would say, I wouldn't say anything about the date.
I can only say that the, uh, you can well see that they have to re-recognize the, uh, group.
I'm very confident.
Oh, shit.
Yeah, they, they, well, they, uh, that's a little bit, uh, that's a take on what you said.
In fact, no, they're in that direction, but, uh, they're there.
Well, good for you.
Thank you.

Also recorded on November 3, 1972

  • 391-020 8:46 AM · 37 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 8:46 am and 9:00 am.
  • 032-161 9:00 AM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 9:00 am and 9:12 am.
  • 391-021 9:00 AM · 15 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 9:00 am and 9:12 am.
  • 391-022 9:00 AM · 2 min — 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 9:00 am and 9:12 am.
  • 032-162 9:12 AM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Edward W. Brooke talked on the telephone from 9:12 am to 9:16 am.
  • 032-163 9:22 AM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Clifford P. Case talked on the telephone from 9:22 am to 9:24 am.
  • 391-024 9:22 AM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Clifford P. Case met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 9:22 am to 9:24 am.
  • 391-025 9:24 AM · 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 9:24 am and 9:38 am.

All 50 conversations from November 3, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 391-023, November 3, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/391-023 (accessed November 13, 2026).