Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 395 › Conversation 395-026

Nixon, Haldeman & Ziegler on White House administration and Federal budget

Friday, January 12, 1973 · 10:00 AM–10:30 AM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 11 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob"); Ziegler, Ronald L.; Woods, Rose Mary; Acker, Marjorie P.Conversation395-026 on Tape 395StartFriday, January 12, 1973 at 10:00 AMEndFriday, January 12, 1973 at 10:30 AMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 395-026 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with H.R. Haldeman, Ronald Ziegler, Rose Mary Woods, and Marjorie P. Acker to discuss various administrative, political, and personal matters. The conversation touched upon federal budget allocations, the media's portrayal of a recent sniper incident, and Nixon's views on educational policies regarding racial integration. The group also spent significant time troubleshooting and learning the technical operation of a portable dictation recording device.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 4 minutes of this recording (about 35% 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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Make every day count.
Do anything.
That's what I like to do.
Every day to the full.
To the good.
You should work every day.
And it could be the last day.
Make every day count.
That's the time.
That's the time.
Don't let it play too long.
I would ask for greater than that.
Oh, yes.
Where does the light come from?
I don't want to steal those papers.
What I want to steal them is somebody leaving the prison and saying, I don't want to let those people stop me.
I don't want to do it.
Okay, we can go ahead and just make that quick.
We'll be good.
One last question.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The D.C.A.
is typically an Undersecretary's Assistant Secretary, so it should be another $500,000.
Sure.
There are 33 expenses to bring in this expensive process, but I think it's roughly the amount that basically we've raised to come to us, and I think it's all absolutely $25,000.
And I've actually given it to a large major crisis, but I feel very fortunate to be able to do that.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Yes.
And we can ask the measures that you give to some of the, I don't want to circle the race, but if there's something, you can just make it, well, that one, you got one of these for that vehicle.
That's right.
That's right.
It's a wonderful momentum for people to follow.
Another thought, your recommendation was to put people in turn January 20, 1973, and then January 20, 1977.
I don't know if any of you know this, but...
Thank you.
Yes, sir.
Sir, the, uh, came from a very quiet, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,
I have really been discouraged to read the most sickening ways of making a hero out of a goddamn sniper.
I read the paper this morning.
He was a sexy, uh, you know, uh, lad, uh, who got what would be just a wonderful mother's boy, and he went to the Navy, and the Navy collected him, and as a result, he's understood his people.
I'll make a statement, and of course, there's quite an articulate and impressive Bible in it, and, uh, that's the one that's really fabulous to acknowledge the death of Jesus.
I said, you know, check it out, guys.
And just probably because the kids apparently wasn't a really nice kid in the solar panel.
Because I've only watched them having problems.
A lot of us don't even know solar panels.
A lot of us are nice kids.
But when you get out in the real world, and then people start to stop.
And then people with parents who survive, people with adults start to do something.
And this guy didn't have it.
But apparently the little place where he grew up didn't have it.
um um
I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said,
I don't want to be here.
We cannot, we cannot help the blacks at the expense of the education of the whites.
That's wrong.
That should never have gotten through.
.
.
.
.
.
But they did not get the college, or the college they wanted.
Our kids went to Forest Man, which was practically where I went.
But the district schools were so lousy, we had to pay the money to South Carolina, because they wanted to go to college.
The kids went to Forest Man, and they went to college.
You know, I thought, you know, my high school said, they've got the other daughters, some of them are here, some of them are there, you know.
I know.
It's really easy.
It's really easy.
That's all I want.
That's all I want.
That's all I want.
What about what's the situation on that?
Well, because you're turning around.
What's that?
.
The problem is, does Mickey have a mic on his or does he just have a machine like that?
Well, this is not a microphone.
This is not a microphone.
No, that's just the starting stop.
There's a prop right in there.
No, this is the remote control.
No, let me explain to you.
The mic is here.
The prop right in the back.
You do not have to hook up a bunch of wires with this thing.
It's not on the other end.
I use this one when I'm traveling.
I have the other one I'm using.
The only basis for getting this is...
I don't need the other one I was consuming because these look perfectly bad and in fact better for things that I dictate to the car that I don't dictate to the operator.
One straight button.
But for charges that my memorandums were filed, I had to put an hour on them and then turn it over they got another hour on them.
Therefore, I don't have to horse you around pulling out the keys.
Are you taking that off?
That's what I don't see.
I will not use that button.
That's the start and stop button you have to use.
To record you have to push the red button and move that over.
All right, here's the thing now.
There's no, that's the microphone.
And if you don't have to, you can put it over here.
Track five, okay, five.
How do you start?
To start, you switch it like that.
That's it, stage five.
Yes.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, five.
Now, I want to see what is on.
How do you find out?
I'm going to move this back.
Push this to rewind.
Now, I'll push this to play.
Rewind.
I never rewind except to see that the goddamn thing is working.

NARA Description

On January 12, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Ronald L. Ziegler, Rose Mary Woods, and Marjorie P. Acker met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 10:00 am and 10:30 am. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 395-026 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

None

Also recorded on January 12, 1973

  • 395-024 8:55 AM · 28 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 8:55 am to 9:23 am.
  • 395-025 9:23 AM · 49 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Ronald L. Ziegler, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, and Rose Mary Woods met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 9:23 am and 10:30 am.
  • 396-001 10:30 AM · 45 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Rose Mary Woods, and Marjorie P. Acker met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 10:30 am and 11:25 am.
  • 035-152 11:25 AM · 16 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 11:25 am and 11:43 am.
  • 396-002 11:25 AM · 7 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Zosimo Monson, and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 11:25 am and 11:43 am.
  • 396-003 11:25 AM · 7 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 11:25 am and 11:43 am.
  • 396-004 11:25 AM · 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 11:25 am and 11:43 am.
  • 396-005 11:25 AM · 6 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Stephen B. Bull, and Julie Nixon Eisenhower met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 11:25 am and 11:49 am.

All 27 conversations from January 12, 1973 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 395-026, January 12, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/395-026 (accessed October 11, 2026).