Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 450 › Conversation 450-024

Nixon & Chapin on Midwestern politics and Rural policy

Wednesday, February 17, 1971 · 5:53 PM–5:59 PM ET · Oval Office · 4 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Chapin, Dwight L.Conversation450-024 on Tape 450 (tape position 04:18:09–04:21:46)StartWednesday, February 17, 1971 at 5:53 PMEndWednesday, February 17, 1971 at 5:59 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 450-024 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Dwight Chapin discuss strategic political outreach, specifically focusing on building support among rural populations in the Midwest. The President instructs Chapin to reallocate staff resources to emphasize rural and state policy issues in collaboration with Senator Robert Dole. They also briefly touch upon economic concerns regarding wage and price controls and the necessity of maintaining political flexibility in their administrative messaging.

Audio

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Position in tape: 04:18:09 – 04:21:46

part C, 36:30

450a.mp3
450b.mp3
450c.mp3

NARA Description

On February 17, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Dwight L. Chapin met in the Oval Office of the White House from 5:53 pm to 5:59 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 450-024 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 450-24

Date: February 17, 1971
Time: 5:53 pm - 5:59 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Dwight L. Chapin

     Schedule

     Signatures

Chapin left at 5:59 pm

Transcript (AI-generated)

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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A lot of people related to the farmers, and let's face it, they've always been our friends, and we could use a whole lot of them.
Well, do we currently have that?
We have a whole bunch of them in Arlington, Southern, Ohio, Montana.
They all play in the farm vote, and it has a hell of an effect in Ohio and Indiana.
Staff-wise, I think the thing we should do is take Quaker, who has been devoting an inordinate amount of his time to the environmental thing, and ask him to put at least half his time on the problem of the rural state of San Antonio.
And he understands that he's done things for the outcome here.
So that he will work with Bill on developing a program.
And hopefully by the time you're ready to drive in three or four weeks, I want to be sure that that business is on a wage price.
Of course.
I don't know.
I have no idea.
My thought is
John, I guess if it didn't work, I'd really come down to that.
Although they, uh, they, uh, we've got the construction thing right out there, and I think it was Hillary Virgil who was the same as John.
Do you hear what he says?
Yeah.
And, uh, there's high wages, low costs.
We've got to do something.
Those guys get scared.
Well, they're scared already because of this scary small leak down there, you know, with this harbor dog that went down.
But the only reason that I approached them is the reason we did the research on it is that we want to be able to look at every possible avenue.
Everything from doing nothing to doing the most extreme thing.
And so it's some order in that spectrum.
But as I say, it just came in today.
And we haven't had a chance to vet it out at any point.
And you may not ever hear any more about it, because George doesn't think well of it, and Jim Hudson doesn't think well of it.
Why?
You don't know that they don't know?
I don't know.
I can talk to them when I get through here.
We've got a major, or a way to get to the...
The main problem is that
But, if you realize that, we just have to, as you know, thank you for having me, we just have to keep the... Oh, sure.
What about we do the need from the mayor's and the county people?
We'll be tenderly cut off in a matter of three or four weeks, and it's a pretty big deal.
So, we just have to keep everybody through the market, and they're actually there to look around, and they're here to do it.
That's what they were asking themselves after
So you've got to spoke briefly and then you can hit the way off and then make your way over to the side and get off.

Also recorded on February 17, 1971

  • 450-019 12:00 AM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:00 am and 4:04 pm.
  • 450-020 4:04 PM · 50 min — President Richard M. Nixon and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:04 pm to 4:51 pm.
  • 450-021 4:52 PM · 31 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Walter Scheel, William P. Rogers, Henry A. Kissinger, and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:52 pm to 5:24 pm.
  • 450-022 5:25 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the Oval Office of the White House from 5:25 pm to 5:26 pm.
  • 450-023 5:26 PM · 42 min — President Richard M. Nixon, John D. Ehrlichman, Daniel J. Evans, White House photographer, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 5:26 pm to 5:53 pm.
  • 450-025 6:20 PM · 22 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the Oval Office of the White House from 6:20 pm to 6:32 pm.

Cite this conversation

Conversation 450-024, February 17, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/450-024 (accessed November 2, 2026).