Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 450 › Conversation 450-001

Nixon & Butterfield on White House Taping System and Oval Office

Tuesday, February 16, 1971 · 7:56 AM–8:58 AM ET · Oval Office · 4 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Butterfield, Alexander P.Conversation450-001 on Tape 450 (tape position 00:01:18–00:05:18)StartTuesday, February 16, 1971 at 7:56 AMEndTuesday, February 16, 1971 at 8:58 AMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 450-001 ↗ · National Archives Catalog, NAID 417175851 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met to discuss the technical operation and maintenance of the White House taping system. The discussion focused on the practical challenges of monitoring recordings in the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room, as well as the limited group of personnel privy to the system's existence, including H.R. Haldeman and the Secret Service. The dialogue confirmed the operational status of the equipment and established expectations for the ongoing management of the recording process.

Audio

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NARA Description

On February 16, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 7:56 am and 8:58 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 450-001 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 450-1

Date: February 16, 1971
Time: Unknown between 7:56 am and 8:58 am
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Alexander P. Butterfield

     White House taping system
          -Operation
          -Purpose
          -Cabinet Room
               -Butterfield
          -Operation
               -Monitoring
          -Knowledge of system
               -H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman
               -The President
               -Secret Service

Butterfield left at an unknown time before 8:58 am

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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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Oh, it's working now.
Oh, I hear it.
It's not working.
It's not working now.
Uh, something's pissed off.
It's working.
It's not working.
Oh, my God.
See, the purpose of this is to get some hand-off and then the file changes, or eventually...
Right, but if it were way back in the day, we can't remember so much that kept going on in there all the time.
We'd be using up a lot of stuff, and we'd be using it for a bunch of other jobs, where we'd have to turn it off and make it look like, I can't tell if it's my mom or if it's only my mom's.
There's no way to tell you what's going on.
But it is what I want you to say.
You know, it was what you were trying to say.
All right.
You know, you did it.
It seems like I was doing the same thing.
All right.
Fine.
Uh, I'm at work, uh, Alex is at work.
Are you here?
Uh, no, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm,
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.

Also recorded on February 16, 1971

  • 450-026 6:56 AM · 41 sec — unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 6:56 am and 8:58 am.
  • 450-002 7:56 AM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 7:56 am and 8:58 am.
  • 047-001 8:04 AM · 2 hr 11 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, and members of the Cabinet, including William P. Rogers, John B. Connally, Melvin R. Laird, John N. Mitchell, Winton M. ("Red") Blount, Jr., Rogers C. B. Morton, Clifford M. Hardin, Maurice H. Stans, James D. Hodgson, Elliot L. Richardson, George W. Romney, John A. Volpe, George P. Shultz, Robert H. Finch, and staffers H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, John D. Ehrlichman, Henry A. Kissinger, Clark MacGregor, William E. Timmons, Peter M. Flanigan, Herbert G. Klein, Raymond K. Price, Jr., Alexander P. Butterfield, Ronald L. Ziegler, William L. Safire, Dr. Edward E. David, Jr., Robert J. Brown, Paul W. McCracken, Arnold R. Weber, Caspar W. ("Cap") Weinberger, Arthur J. Sohmer, Robert E. Patricelli, Kenneth R. Cole, Jr., John R. Price, Jr., and Gary Cook, met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 8:04 am and 11:59 pm.
  • 450-003 8:58 AM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at 8:58 am.
  • 450-004 8:58 AM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:58 am and 9:17 am.
  • 450-005 9:17 AM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Mrs. B. Everett Jordan met in the Oval Office of the White House from 9:17 am to 9:19 am.
  • 450-006 9:19 AM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:19 am and 9:35 am.
  • 450-007 9:19 AM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:19 am and 9:35 am.

All 20 conversations from February 16, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 450-001, February 16, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives (NAID 417175851). Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/450-001 (accessed November 2, 2026).