{"conversationCode":"460-016","tapeNumber":460,"conversationNumber":16,"identifier":"37-wht-conversation-460-016","startDateTime":"1971-02-26T18:18:00.000Z","endDateTime":"1971-02-26T18:23:00.000Z","startDate":"26-Feb-1971","startTime":"1:18 PM","endDate":"26-Feb-1971","endTime":"1:23 PM","dateCertainty":"certain","timeCertainty":"certain","participants":"Nixon, Richard M. (President); Ziegler, Ronald L.; Bull, Stephen B.;","description":"On February 26, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, Ronald L. Ziegler, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 1:18 pm to 1:23 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 460-016 of the White House Tapes.","locationCode":"OVAL","recordingDevice":"Oval Office","latitudeEstimated":38.8974,"longitudeEstimated":-77.0374,"chronCode":1,"chronRelease":"First Chronological Release","chronReleaseDate":"5-Oct-1999","aogpRelease":null,"aogpSegment":null,"lastModified":"2015-07-27T17:04:10.235Z","findingAid":"Conversation No. 460-16\n\nDate: February 26, 1971\nTime: 1:18 pm - 1:23 pm\nLocation: Oval Office\n\nThe President met with Ronald L. Ziegler\n\n     Public relations\n          -National Association of Retarded Children\n                 -Bonnie Cook\n                 -Dissemination to press\n\n     Ziegler’s previous press conference\n          -Ziegler’s handling\n                -National Security Council [NSC] meeting\n\nStephen B. Bull entered at an unknown time after 1:18 pm\n\n     Henry A. Kissinger’s schedule\n\nBull left at an unknown time before 1:23 pm\n\n     Ziegler’s previous press conference\n                -Welfare reform\n\n     Media\n         -Holmes Alexander\n              -Column, 2/26\n         -George W. Romney\n              -New York Times\n              -Washington Post\n              -Ziegler’s comments to press\n                    -Administration policies\n                          -Communications\n         -Foreign policy radio address\n              -Prisoners of War [POWs]\n                    -View of unknown Department of State employee\n                    -William P. Rogers\n                    -Administration policy\n                          -Ziegler’s comments\n                          -Kissinger’s comments\n\nZiegler left at 1:23 pm","filename":["460-016.mp3"],"tapeStart":"01:00:23","tapeEnd":"01:08:04","participantsList":["Nixon, Richard M. (President)","Ziegler, Ronald L.","Bull, Stephen B."],"prevCode":"460-015","nextCode":"460-017","transcript":[{"start":0.03,"end":17.49,"text":"Oh, did you get the whole note of the retarded child?"},{"start":17.51,"end":17.69,"text":"Yes, sir."},{"start":17.71,"end":18.31,"text":"So I gave that to the marshal."},{"start":18.33,"end":18.95,"text":"She said, what do I say to her?"},{"start":18.97,"end":19.41,"text":"She said, an American."},{"start":19.43,"end":19.87,"text":"So I clapped her hand."},{"start":19.89,"end":20.51,"text":"She smiled and said, who is it?"},{"start":20.53,"end":20.97,"text":"She said, an American."},{"start":20.99,"end":21.79,"text":"I thought that was a nice little touch."},{"start":21.81,"end":26.42,"text":"It's a sweet job."},{"start":26.44,"end":27.02,"text":"And I told her she loved you."},{"start":27.04,"end":27.44,"text":"And she said, right."},{"start":27.46,"end":28.2,"text":"And I told her the story of my girls."},{"start":28.22,"end":28.98,"text":"And I thought I said, well, she knows."},{"start":29,"end":29.26,"text":"She knows me."},{"start":29.58,"end":33.93,"text":"I can get along here, trust me."},{"start":33.95,"end":34.17,"text":"It's fine."},{"start":36.72,"end":37.04,"text":"No problem."},{"start":37.06,"end":42.9,"text":"Mr. President, how do you figure that, you know, I will never deny it, but I just wanted to say anything on the NSC."},{"start":42.92,"end":43,"text":"Yes."},{"start":44.33,"end":52.02,"text":"Well, I know what the main thing is."},{"start":52.04,"end":53.98,"text":"We never want these subjects entertained, or otherwise they'd be entertained."},{"start":54.01,"end":54.85,"text":"Just say that we don't discuss the agenda."},{"start":54.87,"end":55.15,"text":"Right, I know."},{"start":55.17,"end":55.49,"text":"I never do that."},{"start":55.51,"end":56.65,"text":"I don't want them to know that."},{"start":56.67,"end":57.09,"text":"That's not my thing."},{"start":57.11,"end":58.67,"text":"I don't want them to know that."},{"start":58.69,"end":59.13,"text":"I would never do that."},{"start":59.15,"end":60.08,"text":"But it's valuable to me to get a feel of this."},{"start":60.1,"end":61.56,"text":"Raise it up until 2.33."},{"start":61.58,"end":61.82,"text":"Raise it up."},{"start":61.84,"end":64.98,"text":"Let's listen."},{"start":65,"end":65.2,"text":"All right."},{"start":65.94,"end":84.81,"text":"The briefing this morning, I talked to the chairman of the middle."},{"start":84.83,"end":85.69,"text":"He said, Ron, go ahead and say this."},{"start":85.71,"end":88.8,"text":"I didn't tell the White House that I was going to propose anything."},{"start":88.81,"end":90.7,"text":"He said, I talked to the White House about better control of welfare, of the price of welfare."},{"start":90.72,"end":91.32,"text":"He said, I'm for reform of it."},{"start":91.34,"end":92.06,"text":"He said, now, move on down the line."},{"start":92.08,"end":92.42,"text":"That'd be reform."},{"start":92.44,"end":93.18,"text":"He said, that may have not been fine."},{"start":93.2,"end":93.76,"text":"But he said, don't say that."},{"start":93.78,"end":95.12,"text":"So he agreed that I was going to support the welfare of the people."},{"start":95.14,"end":95.34,"text":"Thank you."},{"start":95.73,"end":100.82,"text":"How is he?"},{"start":100.84,"end":101.08,"text":"How is he?"},{"start":120.94,"end":126.29,"text":"He sure is."},{"start":126.31,"end":138.04,"text":"Holmes Alexander has a very good column today, too."},{"start":151.04,"end":177.27,"text":"Well,"},{"start":177.54,"end":188.09,"text":"He's so sensitive about it."},{"start":188.61,"end":193.68,"text":"He thinks that these are reasonable people, and they're not so reasonable, thankfully."},{"start":193.69,"end":198.82,"text":"You know what I said to these guys when they said, well, there's really, you know, it's a nice report that explains the policies, but there's nothing new in it."},{"start":198.84,"end":207.43,"text":"I say to them that that just demonstrates the thing that we've been trying to do, which you haven't come directly, don't seem to give us credit for, and that is that we must have communicated our policies damn well over the last two years."},{"start":208.03,"end":228.83,"text":"complete outline of our policies appear here and you feel there's not a great deal new in it, then you know our policies."},{"start":228.85,"end":229.59,"text":"And that kind of takes us back a bit."},{"start":229.61,"end":230.09,"text":"Thank you for all of it."},{"start":230.11,"end":230.61,"text":"One policy radio address."},{"start":232.7,"end":254.97,"text":"You know, that's our position."},{"start":254.99,"end":256.1,"text":"We're never going to get out of there without our POWs."},{"start":256.12,"end":256.82,"text":"That's not even possible."},{"start":256.84,"end":257.44,"text":"Have you ever tackled on that?"},{"start":258,"end":258.08,"text":"No."},{"start":258.1,"end":258.24,"text":"I've..."},{"start":259.06,"end":268.4,"text":"I've said what you've said, and also I say the President's view is when U.S., as U.S. forces withdraw, the POWs come with us."},{"start":269.04,"end":278.5,"text":"And that is, you know, the posture I've said and indicated that their forces will be there until POWs are released."},{"start":278.52,"end":281.66,"text":"And Henry's followed that up in his background briefings, too."},{"start":284.92,"end":293.31,"text":"That's what we will be doing, yes sir."}],"aiSummary":{"text":"President Nixon met with Press Secretary Ronald Ziegler and Stephen Bull to coordinate administration messaging and manage public perception. The discussion focused on Ziegler's handling of press inquiries regarding the National Security Council, welfare reform, and media coverage by columnists like Holmes Alexander. Additionally, they reviewed strategies for communicating foreign policy, specifically emphasizing the administration's non-negotiable stance on securing the release of prisoners of war (POWs) during U.S. force withdrawals.","topics":["Public Relations","Welfare Reform","Foreign Policy","Prisoners of War","Press Strategy","National Security Council"],"generatedAt":"2026-04-06T21:07:07.546Z"},"topicSlugs":["public-relations","welfare-reform","foreign-policy","prisoners-of-war","press-strategy","national-security-council"],"audioDurationSec":294,"audioFiles":[{"file":"460-016.mp3","bytes":7048671,"durationSec":293.62,"bitrate":192049,"missing":false}],"audioIsShared":false,"audioProbedAt":"2026-09-18T02:19:47.662Z","audio":["https://nixon.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/audio/460-016.mp3"],"url":"https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/460-016","nixonLibraryUrl":"https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/white-house-tapes/460/conversation-460-016","license":"Public domain (U.S. Government work). AI-generated fields (transcript, aiSummary) are provided as-is without warranty."}