Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 476 › Conversation 476-028

Nixon, Piazza & Pollard on American Cancer Society and Cancer research

Friday, April 9, 1971 · 3:34 PM–3:37 PM ET · Oval Office · 6 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Piazza, Marguerite; Bergtholdt, F. Harry; Condon, William J.; Condon, Anna B.; Pollard, Herman Marvin (Dr.); Pollard, Herman Marvin (Mrs.); Rimer, Irving I.; Cole, Kenneth R., Jr.; White House photographerConversation476-028 on Tape 476 (tape position 06:00:23–06:06:48)StartFriday, April 9, 1971 at 3:34 PMEndFriday, April 9, 1971 at 3:37 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 476-028 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon hosted opera singer Marguerite Piazza and representatives from the American Cancer Society, including Dr. Herman Marvin Pollard and Irving I. Rimer, for an Oval Office meeting. The visit centered on the presentation of the Society's Annual Courageous Person Award to Piazza and a brief discussion regarding cancer research initiatives. The President provided official mementos, including presidential cufflinks, to the guests before the brief session concluded.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 4 minutes of this recording (about 71% 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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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· Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).
Mr. President.
President, how are you?
Hi, this is Mark Green.
Yes, how are you?
Nice to see you again.
Nice to see you.
This is Dr. Pollard.
Yes, how are you?
Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Billy.
That's one boy, huh?
Yeah.
Mrs.
Flowers.
Mrs.
Flowers.
And my new husband, Harry Breckholm.
Yeah, very nice of you.
Very nice of you.
And Mr. Brian.
Oh!
From the Hampshire side.
Well, let's get over here where we are now.
We're going to have a picture of this, record all of it, so we can get one group shot.
This is a good passage.
There you go.
Oh, there's one.
Look out.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Great.
This is the other end of the wall.
And this is how we do it at the end of the line.
The iron can't be provided, so it's great to do it the way I do it.
So I'm going to carry over another person, and I'm going to take a look at the other end of the bridge, and I'm going to give it a thousand times, and I'm going to write it down.
This year, we're going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be
.
.
.
.
.
You get one.
You get one.
You get one.
This is for everybody.
This is one of those Apollo things, you know, you like to see what goes on in space.
I don't know much about it.
I can listen to you.
Thank you.
We've got you all wanted.
We've got you all wanted.
I do want to express to you the American Cancer Society appreciating all your experience.
Thank you.
At this time, this may be the time that you're ready to go over.
As you know, it's a question of time.
We want to hear from you.
Thank you very much.
Well, we are all out.
As I said in that message, if we find a result in initial research, then more next year will come.
We'll have to do that.
We'll have to do that.
We'll have to do that.
We'll have to do that.
We'll have to do that.
We'll have to do that.
Oh, you've got it any time.
You're my favorite.
All right, thank you.

NARA Description

On April 9, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, Marguerite Piazza, F. Harry Bergtholdt, William J. Condon, Anna B. Condon, Dr. Herman Marvin Pollard, Mrs. Dr. Herman Marvin Pollard, Irving I. Rimer, Kenneth R. Cole, Jr., and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 3:34 pm to 3:37 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 476-028 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 476-28

Date: April 9, 1971
Time: 3:34 pm - 3:37 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Marguerite Piazza, F. Harry Bergtholdt, Shirley Condon, William J.
Condon, Anna B. Condon, Dr. and Mrs. H[erman] Marvin Pollard, Irving I. Rimer, and Kenneth
R. Cole, Jr.; the White House photographer and members of the press were present at the
beginning of the meeting

      Introductions

      Photo session

      Presentation of award to Piazza
           -[American Cancer Society’s Annual Courageous Person Award]

      Presentation of gifts
           -Cufflinks

      Cancer research

      Farewells

Piazza, et al. left at 3:37 pm

Also recorded on April 9, 1971

  • 001-060 1:35 PM · 3 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 1:35 pm and 1:47 pm.
  • 001-061 1:35 PM · 16 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 1:35 pm and 1:47 pm.
  • 001-063 1:47 PM · 6 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Arthur F. Burns, and Peter G. Peterson talked on the telephone from 1:47 pm to 1:54 pm.
  • 476-025 1:47 PM · 48 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Arthur F. Burns, Henry A. Kissinger, Peter G. Peterson, Stephen B. Bull, and Phil Watts met in the Oval Office of the White House from 1:47 pm to 2:37 pm.
  • 476-026 3:16 PM · 16 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Stephen B. Bull, Thomas F. Murphy, and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the Oval Office of the White House from 3:16 pm to 3:33 pm.
  • 001-064 3:20 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Thomas F. Murphy talked on the telephone from 3:20 pm to 3:21 pm.
  • 476-027 3:34 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at 3:34 pm.
  • 476-029 3:40 PM · 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Bowie K. Kuhn, Joseph E. Cronus, Charles S. Feeney, Robert E. Short, Theodore S. ("Ted") Williams, and Henry C. Cashen, II met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 3:40 pm and 3:50 pm.

All 42 conversations from April 9, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 476-028, April 9, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/476-028 (accessed October 12, 2026).