{"conversationCode":"489-027","tapeNumber":489,"conversationNumber":27,"identifier":"37-wht-conversation-489-027","startDateTime":"1971-04-27T00:30:00.000Z","endDateTime":"1971-04-27T00:51:00.000Z","startDate":"26-Apr-1971","startTime":"8:30 PM","endDate":"26-Apr-1971","endTime":"8:51 PM","dateCertainty":"certain","timeCertainty":"estimated","participants":"Nixon, Richard M. (President); Ehrlichman, John D.;","description":"On April 26, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:30 pm and 8:51 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 489-027 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. 489-27\n\nDate: April 26, 1971\nTime: Unknown between 8:30 pm and 8:51 pm\nLocation: Oval Office\n\nThe President dictated a memorandum for John D. Ehrlichman.\n\n     Elford A. Cederberg\n          -Housing projects\n                -Democrats and dissident Republicans\n                -Administration's position","filename":["489-027.mp3"],"tapeStart":"05:36:18","tapeEnd":"05:37:13","participantsList":["Nixon, Richard M. (President)","Ehrlichman, John D."],"prevCode":"489-026","nextCode":"489-028","transcript":[{"start":1.01,"end":17.36,"text":"Memorandum of the Right of Congressman Al Cederberg of Michigan, a man with a hard core of administration proponents in the House."},{"start":18.14,"end":33.63,"text":"The White House projects and other projects are going to Democrats and dissident Republicans."},{"start":33.65,"end":43.93,"text":"So I'm going to be urged that every draft be examined, as we went through this so before the campaign, and we and our opponents, and our friends, into this and around it."}],"aiSummary":{"text":"President Nixon directs John Ehrlichman to initiate a comprehensive review of federal housing project allocations to ensure administration supporters receive appropriate consideration. Nixon expresses frustration that project funding has been disproportionately awarded to Democrats and dissident Republicans instead of loyal allies like Congressman Elford Cederberg. This directive mandates a systematic vetting process for future project drafts to strengthen political patronage before the upcoming campaign season.","topics":["Patronage","Federal housing policy","Elford Cederberg","Political strategy","Executive branch influence"],"generatedAt":"2026-04-06T21:59:22.492Z"},"topicSlugs":["patronage","federal-housing-policy","elford-cederberg","political-strategy","executive-branch-influence"],"audioDurationSec":44,"audioFiles":[{"file":"489-027.mp3","bytes":1761489,"durationSec":43.89,"bitrate":321098,"missing":false}],"audioIsShared":false,"audioProbedAt":"2026-09-18T02:19:48.989Z","audio":["https://nixon.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/audio/489-027.mp3"],"url":"https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/489-027","nixonLibraryUrl":"https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/white-house-tapes/489/conversation-489-027","license":"Public domain (U.S. Government work). AI-generated fields (transcript, aiSummary) are provided as-is without warranty."}