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

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Chapin, Dwight L.Conversation450-024 onTape 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

Download MP3 (part 1) · 167.3 MB ·Download MP3 (part 2) · 167.8 MB ·Download MP3 (part 3) · 67.3 MB

This conversation has not yet been cut into its own clip, so the player above contains the full tape segment shared with neighbouring conversations. It begins about 04:18:09 into the tape and ends around 04:21:46.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

Download transcript (.txt) ·JSON data · Timestamps are positions within the full tape recording.

4:18:09They all play in the farm mode, and it has a hell of an effect in Ohio, and Indiana, and Illinois, and the rest of Minnesota, you know.
4:18:12Staff-wise, I think the thing we should do is take quicker, with the devoid of an inordinate amount of his time in the environmental thing, and ask him to put at least half his time on the problems of rural, state, and central demand, and understand that he's done things for the outcome here.
4:18:36So that he will work with Dole on developing a program.
4:18:41And hopefully by the time you're ready to drive, I can read four weeks.
4:18:46Four weeks.
4:18:47I want to be sure that that business is on a waiting price.
4:18:52Of course, yep.
4:18:53I'm sure that's getting around.
4:18:59Oh yeah, that's very thorough, that's what it is to me, because I know a lot of the houses building here.
4:19:05I think.
4:19:07They're reacting to the enormous pressures for wasting price controls for businessmen.
4:19:11They're not very strong men, except for Stein.
4:19:16Stein has to see for this.
4:19:17I don't know.
4:19:18I have no idea.
4:19:18My thought is that... John?
4:19:23High-density work.
4:19:25I really don't know how that, although they, they, we've got the construction thing right out there, and I think it was Fidderi Virtual Sustainability Center.
4:19:35Do you hear what I said?
4:19:36Yeah.
4:19:36There's high wages, low cost.
4:19:41We're going to do something.
4:19:45Those guys get scared.
4:19:46Well, they're scared already because of the scary one.
4:19:48Leaking down there, you know, with this harder dog that went down.
4:19:55But 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 accident.
4:20:02Everything from doing nothing to doing the most extreme thing.
4:20:06And so it's somewhere in that spectrum.
4:20:08But as I say, it just came in today.
4:20:09Okay.
4:20:10And we haven't had a chance to vet it out at any point.
4:20:14And you may not ever hear any more about it.
4:20:16George doesn't think well of it, and Jim Hodges doesn't think well of it.
4:20:20Why?
4:20:20I don't know if I can talk to them when I get through here.
4:20:23We've got to figure out our way.
4:20:29The nation problem is that
4:20:45If you realize that, we just have to, and if you don't like it, we just have to keep the... Oh, sure.
4:20:54What about with the need from the mayors of the county people, we'll begin to leave the town in a matter of three or four weeks, and it's pretty mean, you know.
4:21:04So we just have to keep everybody fluid, right?
4:21:05That's right.
4:21:06They're going to look around.
4:21:08They're going to look around.
4:21:33So you've got a spoke briefly, and then you hit the way out, and then you go to this side, and you know, the trick there is just to get on and get off at this point, and then you start to stammer, and then you turn to the right, and then you want to pull it from the side.

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
                                                               Conv. No. 450-23 (cont.)
     Schedule

     Signatures

Chapin left at 5:59 pm

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 September 18, 2026).