Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 419 › Conversation 419-018

Nixon alone in his EOB office on Prisoners of war and Jeremiah A. Denton, Jr.

Wednesday, March 14, 1973 · 8:59 AM–9:25 AM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 5 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President)Conversation419-018 on Tape 419StartWednesday, March 14, 1973 at 8:59 AMEndWednesday, March 14, 1973 at 9:25 AMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 419-018 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon dictates a letter to Hobart D. Lewis praising Captain Jeremiah A. Denton, Jr. and the resilience of returning Vietnam prisoners of war. Alongside this tribute, the President expresses concern regarding the perceived moral deterioration of the United States. Furthermore, Nixon discusses strategies for addressing government spending, specifically targeting the Office of Economic Opportunity as he seeks to counter negative public perception regarding fiscal waste.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 3 minutes of this recording (about 53% 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.

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I received a very, very, very...

Yeah.

I just want to agree that this is supposed to happen to you.

You have to take off with you for the purpose of that.

whether you have to go through a radical market change, which is true, I think, 20% we have to think is powerful, and at the right time to buy it.

And I'm really curious what you guys are thinking, please.

And I can tell you that, personally, it's a great question.

Uh, I guess it was a trip.

Uh, it was a trip.

And people like that.

You know, we're both like that.

And there's some others who we do.

But, but it's not, it's not a waste of time.

It's a waste of time.

And she deserves far better time.

And I don't want to say that we might be able to provide as many of them as I do a good bunch of people to do that as well as we do.

As I read again the article, quote, Philadelphia, quote, England, I felt even more strong to see a list of kind of good things.

It's a horrible example of how much money can be wasted on a city, and how much money can be spent.

As a matter of fact, we're going to start a plan to make sure that the money that we're going to spend on the city, the money that we're going to spend on the city, the money that we're going to spend on the city, the money that we're going to spend

A few of these are, for example, well scheduled.

I'm actually looking for a market that's kind of a record, kind of a lofty record, which we are doing now, which I'm sure is by great fortune.

I know people, I work with regular people, and they've done, and they've done with sharp,

uh...

NARA Description

On March 14, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 8:59 am and 9:25 am. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 419-018 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 419-18

Date: March 14, 1973
Time: Unknown between 8:59 am and 9:25 am
Location: Executive Office Building

The President dictated a letter to Hobart D. (“Hobe”) Lewis.

       Prisoners of war [POWs]
             -Capt. Jeremiah A. Denton, Jr.
                   -Remarks
                   -Letter to President
                         -Meeting with President
                         -Admiration by President
                   -Ordeal in prison
                         -Suffering
                         -Solitary confinement
                   -Book
                         -Concern for moral state of US
                                -deterioration
                         -Letters
                         -Theme
                         -Peace

       Contact with someone [?]

       Denton
            -Article in Reader’s Digest
            -Respectability
            -Praise for POWs
            -John D. Ehrlichman
                                             -20-

                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                                            Conversation No. 419-18 (cont’d)

       Government spending
            -Publicity
                  -Historical examples
                  -Philadelphia magazine article
                  -Washington Post article
            -Office of Economic Opportunity [OEO]
                  -Distribution
                        -Congress
                  -Public reaction
                        -Antidote

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
*****************************************************************

Also recorded on March 14, 1973

037-097 8:36 AM · 19 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 8:36 am.
037-098 8:36 AM · 16 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 8:36 am and 8:55 am.
419-010 8:36 AM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 8:36 am.
419-011 8:36 AM · 12 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 8:36 am and 8:55 am.
037-099 8:55 AM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John W. Dean, III talked on the telephone from 8:55 am to 8:59 am.
419-015 8:55 AM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John W. Dean, III met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 8:55 am to 8:59 am.
419-016 8:59 AM · 10 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 8:59 am and 9:25 am.
419-017 8:59 AM · 9 min — President Richard M. Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 8:59 am and 9:25 am.

All 47 conversations from March 14, 1973 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 419-018, March 14, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/419-018 (accessed October 5, 2026).