Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 496 › Conversation 496-003

Nixon White House recording on White House Taping System and Technical testing

Monday, May 10, 1971 · 8:00 AM–12:46 PM ET · Oval Office · 9 min

Participants[Unknown person(s)]Conversation496-003 on Tape 496 (tape position 00:09:15–00:18:56)StartMonday, May 10, 1971 at 8:00 AMEndMonday, May 10, 1971 at 12:46 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 496-003 ↗

AI Summary

Technical personnel performed routine system checks and calibration of the Oval Office recording equipment. The participants verified audio levels and channel functionality by counting and reciting test phrases. No substantive policy discussions or political business occurred during this session.

Audio

Download MP3 · 21.4 MB

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 5 minutes of this recording (about 54% 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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

Download transcript (.txt) · JSON data

· Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).
Three, two, one.
Three.
Four.
Three.
Five.
Six.
Yes.
Thrust.
Thrust.
Okay.
Okay.
Good night.
What do you think I can do about it?
Oh, my goodness.
... ... ... ... ...
What are you doing?
What are you doing?
One, two, three, four.
One, two, three, four.
One, two, three, four.
One, two, three, four.
Over.
Over.
One ear, see?
You know how many of them?
Three.
You know, there's a group.
There's so many of them.
In their head.
Three.
Three.
Three.
Three.
.
.
.
.
.
I don't know.
Here you go.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.

NARA Description

On May 10, 1971, unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:00 am and 12:46 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 496-003 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 496-003

Date: May 10, 1971
Time: Unknown between 8:00 am and 12:46 pm
Location: Oval Office

Unknown persons met.

**********************************************************************

[Previous archivists categorized this section as unintelligible. It has been rereviewed and
released 05/17/2019.]
[Unintelligible]
[496-003-w001]

       Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, NARA Online Public Access Catalog Identifier: 597542

[Duration: 9m 20s]

[This portion of the tape is mostly tape noise with some muffled background conversation. ]

**********************************************************************

The unknown persons left at an unknown time before 12:46 pm

Also recorded on May 10, 1971

  • 496-001 8:00 AM · 4 min — unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:00 am and 12:46 pm.
  • 496-002 8:00 AM · 26 sec — unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:00 am and 12:46 pm.
  • 496-004 8:00 AM · 3 min — United States Secret Service agents met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:00 am and 12:46 pm.
  • 496-005 12:46 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:46 pm to 12:48 pm.
  • 496-006 12:48 PM · 32 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:48 pm and 12:57 pm.
  • 496-007 12:48 PM · 3 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:48 pm and 12:57 pm.
  • 496-008 12:48 PM · 3 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:48 pm and 12:57 pm.
  • 496-009 12:57 PM · 30 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:57 pm to 1:30 pm.

All 26 conversations from May 10, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 496-003, May 10, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/496-003 (accessed October 3, 2026).