Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 493 › Conversation 493-020

Nixon, Colson & Ziegler on Anti-war protests and Public relations

Thursday, May 6, 1971 · 5:05 PM–5:22 PM ET · Oval Office

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Colson, Charles W.; Ziegler, Ronald L.; Bull, Stephen B.Conversation493-020 on Tape 493 (tape position 03:39:19–03:55:58)StartThursday, May 6, 1971 at 5:05 PMEndThursday, May 6, 1971 at 5:22 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 493-020 ↗

President Nixon met with Charles Colson, Ronald Ziegler, and Stephen Bull to discuss public perception of the administration's firm handling of recent anti-war protests in Washington, D.C. The participants reviewed strategies for countering criticism from political opponents and the media, specifically focusing on documenting evidence of communist support behind the demonstrations. Additionally, they coordinated plans to leverage political allies, such as labor leader Peter Brennan, to mobilize public support and ensure the administration’s narrative regarding the restoration of order remained dominant.

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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 03:39:19 into the tape and ends around 03:55:58.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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· Timestamps are positions within the full tape recording.
3:39:16Most of these have gone.
3:39:18Most of these don't have gone.
3:39:20Most of them don't play, too.
3:39:21You don't have that paperweight.
3:39:25They're not going to be 60 congressmen there, in my opinion.
3:39:30We don't have to give them the staff.
3:39:34We don't have to give them the staff.
3:40:03All right.
3:40:05All right.
3:40:07All right.
3:40:10I don't even have the entitlement with your signature on it.
3:40:20Yeah.
3:40:20Yeah.
3:40:21Yeah.
3:40:21Yeah.
3:40:33Yes, sir.
3:40:37Yeah, I, uh, I think that the, uh...
3:41:15on the White House, anyone, any one of the candidates.
3:41:20The problem is that once it's done, then he's got to sort of comment on the muskie, the governor.
3:41:29He will, he's going to undertake strong support of our, of the position that I take.
3:41:36So that leaves, it leaves with somebody else, but it seems to me, Chuck, that the place here that he's going to be taken on is by his colleagues in the Senate.
3:41:44That's a hell of a goddamn statement from the man Trump.
3:41:49And it says, well, they didn't speak up, or they're all so afraid of your law.
3:41:53Well, as you know, there's certainly a need to attack the Senate.
3:41:56And we're right to leave it in.
3:41:58Why, they do.
3:41:59They do hate you.
3:42:00How does it matter?
3:42:00The crash taxes are a dole away.
3:42:03You can't do a dole away.
3:42:09Do you think I do?
3:42:11No, I think I do.
3:42:12You should not do it.
3:42:12He doesn't use that, right?
3:42:14Sure.
3:42:15That's what he's playing to.
3:42:16He's panicking.
3:42:17Normally, he would.
3:42:18Normally.
3:42:19What in the name of God would he do this for?
3:42:21I think he...
3:42:23I personally believe that he didn't intend to do it.
3:42:26He gave this speech at our own college last night.
3:42:28Yeah.
3:42:29I called Pete Brown this morning.
3:42:31That's a man.
3:42:32Yes, sir.
3:42:32I have a response about Jack Pompeo.
3:42:35Yes.
3:42:38And I said, well, he's pretty far off.
3:42:42And he said, it was terrible.
3:43:03I think what happened is he gave the speech, he gave it off the cuff, and a couple of lawyers started smiling, very smiling.
3:43:08He did not issue a press release, which he normally does.
3:43:13And I think that when he got on the wires, then he decided to put out the speech.
3:43:17After it had been partnered in dramatically.
3:43:25He's on the wrong side of the question.
3:43:27I don't know.
3:43:27It's not free movement yet.
3:43:30Are they all starting to squeal about this?
3:43:33Not that I have speculation or rights.
3:43:35Let me get out there.
3:43:37I think the American people are, I don't know, I may be wrong.
3:43:41I do not believe that the people disagree.
3:43:43Hell, they supported David.
3:43:45Do you know that?
3:43:46We all thought the statement that everybody was going to think David was a horrible person.
3:43:51I thought we pulled it quickly out of the convention.
3:43:54Thank God, before too many people popped off.
3:43:58We found a pair of six-foot people down above.
3:44:00They were riding the bus, those people.
3:44:02I remember because you were going to...
3:44:04I didn't take them on.
3:44:07I didn't take them on.
3:44:10And you got a great welcome from the police, which was helpful because they were glad to have us back.
3:44:16Now, one thing that I do think, I do think, Chuck, that you've got to get a column or a statement or something very simple, just chapter and verse the communist support of this thing.
3:44:30Hand-to-hand support, man-to-man support.
3:44:33In other words, if somebody can write it out, maybe if you get the candidate to just go over it, they're bound to have statements.
3:44:42What you really got to do is to hand that on.
3:44:47It's what it is, you know.
3:44:48Look, most of the little batches couldn't be done unless somebody was paying.
3:44:52Now, we don't pay sometimes.
3:44:53It's hard to find people like that, but also the companies in it.
3:44:59Yes, it was into very difficult situations, a lot of other things.
3:45:04And could you get something done on that score or somebody would be doing something?
3:45:07Where is your person?
3:45:09The economy supported this.
3:45:10Right.
3:45:11Not only, the economy supports it.
3:45:12Did you get our statements?
3:45:14The admin supports it.
3:45:16You know, Juan, we supported it.
3:45:19But we haven't carried the Vietcong flag.
3:45:21Thank God they've only got one picture of the Vietcong flag.
3:45:25God, that network should have been saying that, you know.
3:45:27And we always refer to it as the commune's Viet Cong flag.
3:45:31Never the Viet Cong flag.
3:45:33The commune's flag.
3:45:35That's murder.
3:45:36I've gone back over the news the last few days.
3:45:40The Viet Cong flag is portrayed right in time in that fantastic picture.
3:45:46But do people know what's right under it in time is the Viet Cong flag flies over the Capitol.
3:45:51It was a damaged picture.
3:45:54And it was on television last night.
3:45:55I think that's coming through.
3:45:58We've had two different comments, Mr. President.
3:46:01One was, of course, that Muskie and McCruskey at this time, we asked them to go up there.
3:46:06We've got about 40,000 of those judiciously distributed.
3:46:10Lassie is doing one for us right on this line.
3:46:15Goldsmith, John Goldsmith, Goldsmith, that one, John, has done one.
3:46:19We've got a few of them going, and every time we do, we mail them.
3:46:30I know this is the only senator that I know that seems to speak out this account of Alabama.
3:46:38See, he spoke up and said he'd chip them all to Anaheim.
3:46:40There have been some fairly good statements by our side of the Senate Republicans.
3:46:46Yes, sir.
3:46:46There were some good ones yesterday.
3:46:48Nobody picked them up.
3:46:50The press didn't pick them up.
3:46:51God damn the press.
3:46:52Isn't it awful?
3:46:54Isn't it awful?
3:46:54Well, God damn them anyway.
3:46:56The only way you get at it is you just...
3:46:58When Scott spoke
3:47:03We weren't going to get any network.
3:47:06No network was going to pick it up.
3:47:08I had John Scali call ABC.
3:47:10And they ran it.
3:47:11But only because Scali told them.
3:47:12They never would have done it.
3:47:15You just have to fight away at these guys.
3:47:17They read you the way.
3:47:19Well, nevertheless, the network's not intending to do so.
3:47:25Well, by reason of their playing this damn game,
3:47:28I think have gotten a picture of the country.
3:47:31I think there's a bit of a, now you've made your calls around, with a little polling on it, but your calls indicate, what Brandon said, Brandon pissed off.
3:47:41And if he really thinks he can get through to him, does he think he's a horrible people?
3:47:45Do you think we're too rough on him now?
3:47:47Let's start something like, let's give Wilson a medal or some damn thing.
3:47:54Something like that.
3:47:55Absolutely.
3:48:00cotton anymore, so we can wrap around and put Wilson on and place around.
3:48:05And I think at the right time, we should have them.
3:48:08I think that Wilson is a, he's a folk hero type.
3:48:13He's got the, he's got the, what the Jewish people call chutzpah.
3:48:18He's got the, chutzpah, chutzpah, chutzpah.
3:48:22Yeah, good.
3:48:22But it's a little pizzazz.
3:48:24He's got a little bit of the,
3:48:33It is a cross in the country, I assure you.
3:48:34You call around, and I get this hall in this morning, and there are people who believe that this comes from liberals and from moderates and from conservatives.
3:48:46You just see what has come across television.
3:48:50We don't realize it because we're very close to it.
3:48:53The last time ABC News, they had the picture that demonstrated something in the Capitol.
3:48:58They had it demonstrated standing stark naked, which I've never seen on television.
3:49:02Was it on television?
3:49:03On television.
3:49:04Good.
3:49:04And they had everybody singing the God Bless America to the protesters with their fingers like this.
3:49:12It was a ferocious thing to see.
3:49:14I thought, who carried it?
3:49:17Why the hell didn't CBS carry it?
3:49:19They just carried it in the scene.
3:49:21But it's still getting across.
3:49:23People are seeing this.
3:49:24And everybody I talked to has seen it and has said, this is good for you guys.
3:49:30Keep going with it.
3:49:32From unusual sources, a couple of, well, Upholster, the one that I've dealt with for 20 years.
3:49:38Upholster?
3:49:39Well, he takes full responsibility.
3:49:40Well, Upholster, I know him.
3:49:42I know him better.
3:49:43And he's very good.
3:49:44And he said that he's a liberal Republican, but he said, yeah, you up yourself five minutes across the room over this.
3:49:53Because that's what people are talking about.
3:49:55They're saying that they're going to get radicals in Washington.
3:50:03I don't want the impression just to be that I'm concerned about it.
3:50:11I don't want that.
3:50:27impression that this big couple of these people was just the idea of Wilson and the Attorney General.
3:50:36It was my idea, you know.
3:50:38I gave the signal to everybody.
3:50:40I said, now, bust these bastards.
3:50:42Is that getting across, or is that crossing your... Well, you said it, and you pressed it.
3:50:46I know I said it, but is it across?
3:50:48No, I don't know the fact that you gave the order yourself, of course, but does that know I can confirm everybody knows you're saying it?
3:50:56I don't care about the order.
3:50:58Are they very sure that we've, you see, do they know that if we hadn't, I didn't back it, that they wouldn't be standing?
3:51:05I've got a group of press in my office right now where we're moving this suddenly through, the wires and the networks.
3:51:13That's what we're doing.
3:51:14The President is responsible, basically, for Washington, D.C.
3:51:20I said that on the day I took office.
3:51:21I said it in the campaign.
3:51:23I'm going to meet the responsibility to keep this government going.
3:51:25I'm going to meet the responsibility to protect the right of citizens to go to and from their homes and their places of work without being molested.
3:51:33And we shall meet it with firmness and restraint.
3:51:37We have the right combination of firmness and restraint.
3:51:39This is an example of other cities in the country.
3:51:41Period.
3:51:42Well, of course, the thing about Kennedy's charge, which will be, I think he'll describe himself with it, although we've got to help him along.
3:51:50What he's really saying, which is different than a political attack, but it was different than anything else he said.
3:51:58He said the Attorney General suspended the Constitution.
3:52:01And the Attorney General, of course, was acting on your orders.
3:52:04Now that, for any senator, is a pretty wild charge.
3:52:18Well, you know, he said we're exercising our constitutional rights.
3:52:21Sure.
3:52:22He said what they would be like was just expressing the frustrations which all of us can understand that young people have, he said.
3:52:27Yeah, except I don't approve, he said.
3:52:29Well, he said we can't condemn what others have said.
3:52:34I think the president has postured, Chuck, at least the way I understand it.
3:52:38Well, I'm going to go back in and work with John on this, but I think the president has postured from the very outset on this of setting the tone, setting the guidelines,
3:52:48Delegating your responsibility all the way through.
3:52:52And staying in touch and following it.
3:52:54And, you know, although he was not there making this... Government kept working.
3:52:59No serious...
3:53:08That's correct.
3:53:09Okay.
3:53:10Let's do it.
3:53:11And definitely on the remarks tomorrow morning, I'm just going to be aware of the difference, but in these deep mutants, we're carrying on a wide range of .
3:53:22That's nice.
3:53:23They don't expect to be in any forms of .
3:53:25That's what I'm saying.
3:53:26Okay.
3:53:26Right.
3:53:26They don't worry .
3:53:36for whether or not they need to be gunned down.
3:53:39So their problem there is that the agriculture department should have done that.
3:53:43Why shouldn't they have had that meeting?
3:53:45They're an important group, you know.
3:53:47It's leaving it up to the Farm Bureau to try to play it out against us.
3:53:53Of course, the Farm Bureau is difficult, too.
3:53:56I mean, he doesn't have his way.
3:54:02We're doing, we're certainly doing agriculture up around now.
3:54:04I don't know if it's in terms of the farm.
3:54:07Oh, it's one of them.
3:54:08It definitely helps.
3:54:10They all have articles in the farm magazines.
3:54:12They have pictures and a little bit of agriculture.
3:54:15It's good timing, Mr. President, because farm prices are up in this month, which, of course, it's pricing.
3:54:20You know, that's the other one.
3:54:22That is a problem.
3:54:22The wholesale price is next month.
3:54:24The monthly figures shouldn't bother any of us.
3:54:26So it's what we've done.
3:54:28It's the current.
3:54:28The current is over there.
3:54:29The CBI is over there.
3:54:31The unemployment is a win.
3:54:37It won't come down much this year.
3:54:41Just to go back to Brandon, he's going to try to get his people organized.
3:54:51It's a long time.
3:54:53Yeah, well, there's more of us.
3:55:00March of the Oregon Flags and then Burnaby at Concord, which is marvelous.
3:55:06It could be a little bit of a twist.
3:55:07And you see that this evening, get a few mobilized.
3:55:11He's going to try.
3:55:12He said he would try this evening.
3:55:13He was going to call his executive council.
3:55:15He said he could get them to do it.
3:55:17He said they'd all feel very, very strongly, although last year was different because last year they personally confronted them.
3:55:26They were bothering him and everything.
3:55:28And they said, well, get out of here, you scum.
3:55:31I think if they went back to Wall Street, that would have a hell of an effect.
3:55:35It would have a hell of an effect.
3:55:38I'd reach them hard to do it.
3:55:41I'd support him all the way.
3:55:43If our support means anything.
3:55:45He ought to be the guy.
3:55:48He's the legend, though.
3:55:49He's a strong man.
3:55:51He's a strong man.

On May 6, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, Charles W. Colson, Ronald L. Ziegler, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 5:05 pm to 5:22 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 493-020 of the White House Tapes.

Conversation No. 493-20

Date: May 6, 1971
Time: 5:05 - 5:22 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Charles W. Colson

[Transcript #1: A transcript of the following portion of this conversation was prepared under
court order from December 1978 through March 1979 for Special Access [SA] 8, Ronald V.
Dellums, et al. v. James M. Powell, et al., No. 71-2271. The National Archives and Records
Administration produced this transcript. The National Archives does not guarantee its accuracy.]

[End of transcript]

Ronald L. Ziegler entered at 5:14 pm

[Transcript #2: A transcript of the following portion of this conversation was prepared under
court order from December 1978 through March 1979 for SA 8, Ronald V. Dellums, et al. v.
James M. Powell, et al., No. 71-2271. The National Archives and Records Administration
produced this transcript. The National Archives does not guarantee its accuracy.]

[End of transcript]

     President’s May 7, 1971 remarks at “Salute to Agriculture”
          -National Broadcasting Company [NBC] and Mutual Broadcasting Radio coverage

Ziegler left at 5:18 pm

     Agriculture
          -Farm bureau
                -Agriculture Department
                -President’s meeting
                -Leaders
          -”Salute to Agriculture”
                -Value
          -Farm prices
                -Importance of Wholesale Price Index, Consumer Price Index, unemployment
                      figures

     Peter J. Brennan
           -Organizing efforts

Stephen B. Bull entered at an unknown time after 5:18 pm

     President’s schedule
          -House Task Force on Revenue Sharing and Reorganization

Bull left at an unknown time before 5:22 pm

     Brennan
          -Possible New York demonstration
               -American, Viet Cong flags
               -Meeting with executive council of building trades union
               -1970 demonstration

                -Wall Street
                -Colson’s efforts
           -Support for President

[Transcript #3: A transcript of the following portion of this conversation was prepared under
court order from December 1978 through March 1979 for SA 8, Ronald V. Dellums, et al. v.
James M. Powell, et al., No. 71-2271. The National Archives and Records Administration
produced this transcript. The National Archives does not guarantee its accuracy.]

[End of transcript]

     President’s forthcoming conversation with Colson

The President and Colson left at 5:22 pm
  • 042-103 2:26 PM · 2 min — Alexander P. Butterfield, White House operator, unknown person(s), and John F. Evans, Jr.'s secretary talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 2:26 pm and 5:00 pm.
  • 493-018 2:30 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 2:30 pm and 5:05 pm.
  • 493-019 2:30 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 2:30 pm and 5:05 pm.
  • 056-001 3:32 PM · 37 min — President Richard M. Nixon and members of the President's Commission on Financial Structure and Regulation, including Reed O. Hunt, Atherton Bean, Morris D. Crawford, Jr., Morgan C. Earnest, James H. Edgerton, Richard G. Gilbert, William D. Grant, Alan Greenspan, Walter S. Holmes, Jr., [Joseph] Lane Kirkland, Donald S. MacNaughton, Edward H. Malone, Rex J. Morthland, William H. Morton, Ellmore C. Patterson, K. A. Randall, Ralph S. Regula, Dr. Raymond J. Saulnier, Ezra Solomon, Robert H. Stewart, III, Allen R. Rule, James Lynch, Lucille Mayne, Bertwing Mah, Dr. Donald Jacobs, Dr. Almarin Phillips, Dr. Samuel Chase, Clarence Scruggs, Henry Shine, Jr., Neil Murphy, Charls E. Walker, Peter M. Flanigan, and the White House photographer, met in the Cabinet Room of the White House from 3:32 pm to 4:15 pm.
  • 056-002 4:15 PM — Unknown person(s) met in the Cabinet Room of the White House on an unknown date, sometime between 4:15 pm on May 6, 1971 and 11:48 am on May 7, 1971.
  • 042-104 5:22 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 5:22 pm and 6:16 pm.
  • 042-105 5:22 PM · 38 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 5:22 pm and 6:16 pm.
  • 493-021 5:22 PM · 28 sec — Unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House on an unknown date, sometime between 5:22 pm on May 6, 1971 and 10:40 am on May 7, 1971.

Conversation 493-020, May 6, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/493-020 (accessed October 3, 2026).