Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 435 › Conversation 435-042

Nixon & Price on Term limits and Speechwriting

Monday, May 14, 1973 · 6:57 PM–7:01 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 4 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Price, Raymond K., Jr.Conversation435-042 on Tape 435StartMonday, May 14, 1973 at 6:57 PMEndMonday, May 14, 1973 at 7:01 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 435-042 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with speechwriter Raymond K. Price, Jr. to provide final revisions for an upcoming address regarding presidential and congressional term limits. Nixon directed Price to advocate for a single six-year presidential term while deliberately omitting specific proposals for the Senate to avoid political controversy. The President emphasized adjusting the draft's language to ensure the messaging remained focused on the executive office and the House of Representatives.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 1 minute of this recording (about 19% 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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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So, Ray, I've got to get busy now on this dinner for the night, but I've been rubbing over this final draft, and it's fine.
I just, I mean, a couple more things.
The one point that I want you to, that I want you to really have is the matter of the, which I think is rather unique, I think, here, and perhaps raise more questions.
because I don't have a view about it, that if they do leave six years or eight years for the present, that the fight is on the four years for the house is the pattern where I have a strong view that something or the other, where I can express the view and where I do express
uh at least the guy that i don't have a problem with you on that and so forth and so on but there are people that say this or that so what i'm saying is this uh i would rather i would rather you perhaps say there's another guy who's really important to our election president and all of us can be concerned whether we can't do anything to change the life of the tribes of office and the members of the house
I would say, for example, that they are strong.
There are many proponents, many political scientists who believe that the president should be given the six-year term, one single six-year term.
We all consider the merits of this proposal.
And then go in directly and what we have as far as the House is concerned, the state of it, my question.
You got my question?
We don't touch the Senate at all.
I think with the president, I don't want to put in which I think will play much bigger than the whole thing.
And it's really much less possible.
It's less than it's likely.
By the way, the Secretary of State has not discussed the term of office with the President of the Senate, although we did mention it to the leader today.
They probably went, all right, then the thing to do then is you would just change the language to read along those lines so that we don't put it in the air.
For example, we're going to pay for their proposals.
We're going to pay for both of these.
I don't know very much, but she is a real thing.
So as opposed to the fact that I have this final house and that I would not be able to borrow it, but I don't know what I'd do with it.
I'd have to buy it.
Or I'd have it around 11 o'clock.
All right, that's it.
Thank you.

NARA Description

On May 14, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon and Raymond K. Price, Jr. met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 6:57 pm to 7:01 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 435-042 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 435-42

Date: May 15, 1973
Time: 6:57 pm-7:01 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with Raymond K. Price, Jr.

[See Conversation No. 46-71]

Also recorded on May 14, 1973

  • 917-044 6:28 PM · 56 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Ronald L. Ziegler, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., and Leonard Garment met in the Oval Office of the White House from 6:28 pm to 7:27 pm.
  • 435-041 6:45 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 6:45 pm and 6:57 pm.
  • 435-043 7:01 PM · 25 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 7:01 pm and 7:06 pm.
  • 046-032 7:12 PM · 59 sec — Alexander M. Haig, Jr. and President Richard M. Nixon talked on the telephone from 7:12 pm to 7:13 pm.
  • 046-033 7:19 PM · 2 min — Ronald L. Ziegler, White House operator, President Richard M. Nixon, and Leonard Garment talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 7:19 pm and 7:26 pm.
  • 046-034 7:27 PM · 44 sec — Ronald L. Ziegler and Leonard Garment talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 7:27 pm and 8:15 pm.
  • 046-035 7:27 PM · 2 min — Leonard Garment and Ronald L. Ziegler talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 7:27 pm and 8:15 pm.
  • 046-036 7:27 PM · 11 sec — Ronald L. Ziegler and White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 7:27 pm and 8:15 pm.

All 102 conversations from May 14, 1973 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 435-042, May 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/435-042 (accessed October 1, 2026).