Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 409 › Conversation 409-005

Nixon & Ziegler on Press relations and Operational management

Thursday, February 1, 1973 · 6:51 PM–6:55 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 4 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Ziegler, Ronald L.Conversation409-005 on Tape 409StartThursday, February 1, 1973 at 6:51 PMEndThursday, February 1, 1973 at 6:55 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 409-005 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Press Secretary Ronald Ziegler met to review the success of recent high-level meetings and discuss ongoing administrative priorities. The two focused on managing press arrivals and addressing specific operational challenges from earlier in the day. Nixon emphasized the need for consistent messaging to ensure their political points were effectively communicated moving forward.

Audio

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NARA Description

On February 1, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 6:51 pm to 6:55 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 409-005 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 409-5

Date: February 1, 1973
Time: Between 6:51 pm and 6:55 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with Ronald L. Ziegler.

[See Conversation No. 43-15]

                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 1 minute of this recording (about 21% 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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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

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Ron.
Oh, yes, good.
And we met with the group of kitcheners for a half hour, and I met for another hour and a half.
And we went a little bit after that.
I just, I don't know, I don't know if I meant to show this.
So I want to be sure that's up.
Okay.
Okay.
Did they use any of these arrivals?
Good.
Good.
Good.
Good.
Good.
Did you get that?
Did you handle that problem?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It isn't really just a question of .
Yeah.
Yeah.
Good.
Good.
Good.
Good.
Fine.
Fine.
Can we finish this?
How did it go?
Sorry, I had all the work to do.
I'm sure we didn't question.
Oh, you and I are both on that.
I'm just telling you this time to try to do the best we can in some of our points here.
Well, we'll try to cure him now.
Good.
All right, fine.
Thank you.

Also recorded on February 1, 1973

  • 846-018 4:03 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:03 pm to 4:05 pm.
  • 409-001 4:08 PM · 27 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Sir Burke Trend, Henry A. Kissinger, George P. Shultz, and Edward R. G. Heath met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 4:08 pm to 6:05 pm.
  • 409-002 6:07 PM · 35 min — President Richard M. Nixon, George P. Shultz, and Stephen B. Bull met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 6:07 pm to 6:41 pm.
  • 409-003 6:47 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 6:47 pm to 6:49 pm.
  • 409-004 6:49 PM · 11 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 6:49 pm and 6:51 pm.
  • 043-015 6:51 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler talked on the telephone from 6:51 pm to 6:55 pm.
  • 409-006 6:55 PM · 41 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 6:55 pm and 7:10 pm.
  • 409-007 6:55 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and United States Secret Service agents met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 6:55 pm and 7:10 pm.

All 27 conversations from February 1, 1973 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 409-005, February 1, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/409-005 (accessed November 15, 2026).