Nixon White House Tapes ›Tape 472 › Conversation 472-007

Nixon & Arends on Supersonic Transport and Defense spending

Tuesday, March 23, 1971 · 10:20 AM–10:24 AM ET · Oval Office ·4 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Arends, Leslie C.Conversation472-007 onTape 472 (tape position 00:30:01–00:34:16)StartTuesday, March 23, 1971 at 10:20 AMEndTuesday, March 23, 1971 at 10:24 AMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 472-007 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with House Minority Whip Leslie C. Arends to discuss legislative strategy, defense spending, and the upcoming congressional briefing regarding the Laos operation. The two men addressed concerns over Federal Communications Commission activities and the potential impact of network regulation, while also touching upon the status of various presidential nominees. The President emphasized the importance of ensuring bipartisan participation—specifically including Democrats—in the scheduled briefing to maintain support for his foreign policy initiatives.

Audio

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Oh, that's nice.
I didn't know I was going to take the time.
Well, please take it.
Thank you.
I wish we'd had it last week at our site.
I haven't gotten over that one yet.
It was five of our so-called retreats from grace.
Oh, you said it beautifully this morning.
But Les, I feel very strongly about it.
Well, so do I.
Good God Almighty, you can't retreat from grace.
Are we going to be consulted in our figures?
Yeah, yeah.
Good God, and let the God-man run you through it.
or the Japanese, or the British.
Jesus Christ, where are we coming to?
I don't know.
I've taken a hard line on everything.
I mean, whether it's in defense or space or anything else, they talk about putting it in the gallows.
Where do you guys get the money to put it in the gallows?
You put it so well in there.
You know what the opening line of my book is going to be when I write it?
Exactly.
After all these years.
Congress ain't what it used to be, no good.
I was disappointed in some of the guys.
I have a little letter here.
Maybe you'll get a chance to look at it sometime.
This has to do with what's going on down in the Dean Burch's shop down there.
There's 24 guys who are terribly interested.
They've come to see me.
Augie Myers went up.
These guys are so concerned about this thing, and rightfully so, I think.
So I sent a copy to Bill Springer and to Bob Wilson.
He's all right, isn't he?
He's all right, isn't he?
Well, I don't know.
They have some fear about what he may eventually do.
You don't have to look at it now, Mr. President.
All right.
And I sent a copy of this to Birch.
Don't worry, I'll get it.
Yeah, and the... Birch is our friend.
I know it is.
Of course he is.
He's in the network's head all the time.
They've got a fellow here by the name of Wrench or somebody who's a great Democrat.
Well, that's it.
And he's the guy that's working on these boys on the commission.
And apparently he's making a successful name.
Wrench.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And, uh...
Good.
Well, that's all I wanted to do.
I'm just going to leave it with you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Sure.
We can't send him up there and have him tear into pieces.
It would kill him.
It would kill him, you know.
What do you think?
Well, I agree.
I agree.
That's why we didn't kill him.
I told Johnny, I said, look, they've got trouble enough.
Mike finally told him, I said, Johnny, they've got trouble enough now.
I said, Casey's up there, and I said, they're in a little trouble.
And I said, well, we're going to try.
and find something else for him.
He's our friend.
You keep right after this.
I will.
I'm going to keep right after the gun.
I know that means guys lose their guns a lot because they don't keep college, you know.
Well, that's all that is.
You know, last week we were supposed to come down here because we were going to rape a few of us down here.
I thought it was great and it was called off for some reason because I guess we had to look.
So I called Clark Ketchum and said, Clark, get that thing set up again.
I didn't.
You've got to get guys like some of these guys down here to tell them some of these things because the question that they're asking is, we're not in position to be able to inform this president.
But they're going to do it at 3 o'clock today.
Yeah, we're going to do it at 10 o'clock.
Yeah.
Democrats.
Yeah, I think this is them.
We'll get the Democrats down.
I do follow up to be sure Democrats come as well as Republicans.
Yeah, it's going to be even this morning, I think, quarter after 11.
Yeah, but I'll follow that up.
I'll check it out.
Well, be sure some Democrats come through that box.
Because we're going around on this.
You know, it's a tough deal to get up there.
We're just kicking the shit out of these people.
Well, you clarified an awful lot of things last night.
I told you.
First place, he asked some good questions.
You know, hey, he asked some very good questions.
You know, thank you.
You made the answer.
People got to be happy.
Thank you very much.
Okay.
Is that a couple?
No, sir.
A little trouble.
Okay.
All right.
Be sure the Democrats get to that meeting now.
I will.
All right.

NARA Description

On March 23, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Leslie C. Arends met in the Oval Office of the White House from 10:20 am to 10:24 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 472-007 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 472-7

Date: March 23, 1971
Time: 10:20 am - 10:24 am
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Leslie C. Arends

     Supersonic Transport [SST]
          -President’s morning meeting with Republican leaders
          -House vote
          -US role in world
                -President’s view
                      -Soviet Union
                      -Japan
                      -Great Britain
          -Defense spending compared with domestic spending

     Congress

     Federal Communications Commission [FCC]
          -A letter to Arends
          -Dean Burch
          -Augie Meyer
          -A letter to Arends
                -William L. Springer
                -Robert C. (“Bob”) Wilson
                -Contents
                -Burch
          -Burch’s actions
                -Networks
          -[Forename unknown] Rench [?]
                -Actions

     President’s nominees [?]
          -Congressional scrutiny
                -William J. Casey
                -John B. Connally [?]
                -Casey

     Congress

          -Arends’ work
          -Laos operation (Lam Son)
               -A planned briefing
               -Clark MacGregor
          -A meeting, March 23, 1971
               -[Thomas] Hale Boggs
               -Democrat and Republican attendees

     President’s previous interview with Howard K. Smith
          -Questions

     Congress
         -A meeting, March 23, 1971
              -Democrat attendees

Arends left at 10:24 am

Also recorded on March 23, 1971

  • 050-010 9:55 AM — unknown person(s) met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 9:55 am and 10:35 am.
  • 472-003 9:56 AM · 15 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Hugh Scott, Gerald R. Ford, Ronald L. Ziegler, and Clark MacGregor met in the Oval Office of the White House from 9:56 am to 10:15 am.
  • 472-004 10:16 AM · 3 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at 10:16 am.
  • 472-005 10:16 AM · 18 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at 10:16 am.
  • 472-006 10:16 AM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John B. Connally met in the Oval Office of the White House from 10:16 am to 10:19 am.
  • 472-008 10:25 AM · 11 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Stephen B. Bull, and Clifford M. Hardin met in the Oval Office of the White House from 10:25 am to 10:35 am.
  • 051-001 10:35 AM — President Richard M. Nixon and leaders of the dairy industry, including Clifford M. Hardin, J. Philip Campbell, Paul Affeldt, Paul Alagia, Melvin Besemer, John E. Butterbrodt, Bill Eckles, Don Gregg, W. R. Griffith, Carlyle Hansen, Marion Edwyn Harrison, Patrick J. Hillings, Wesley Johnson, John A. Moser, Harold S. Nelson, David L. Parr, Bill Powell, P. L. Robinson, Avery Vose, Frank White, Clarence D. Palmby, Richard E. Lyng, William E. Galbraith, George P. Shultz, John D. Ehrlichman, Donald B. Rice, Henry C. Cashen, II, and John C. Whitaker, met in the Cabinet Room of the White House from 10:35 am to 11:25 am.
  • 472-009 11:30 AM · 42 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Peter G. Peterson, Stephen B. Bull, Edwin D. Etherington, Robert H. Finch, and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:30 am to 12:13 pm.

All 29 conversations from March 23, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 472-007, March 23, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/472-007 (accessed September 18, 2026).