Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 499 › Conversation 499-002
Nixon, Haldeman & Arends on Mansfield Amendment and NATO
Wednesday, May 12, 1971 · 5:28 PM–6:03 PM ET · Oval Office · 8 min
AI Summary
President Nixon consulted with various staff and political allies, including H.R. Haldeman, Leslie Arends, and Frank Bow, to coordinate strategy regarding House legislative votes and foreign policy objectives. A primary focus was managing opposition to the Mansfield Amendment, which proposed significant reductions to NATO troop levels, and leveraging John Scali to organize effective public and legislative pushback. Additionally, Nixon reflected on his upcoming foreign policy address, contrasting his broader vision for the nation with the mechanical nature of domestic initiatives like revenue sharing.
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Transcript (AI-generated)
This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 1 minute of this recording (about 13% 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.
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Well, I did talk to Jerry.
Yeah, really.
Jerry Ford just turned out to be strong under the house.
There's no question.
Here's what happened.
Here's what happened here.
He lost to the other panel.
You know what I mean?
And bitching and this, like the Scots and the Greglins and the rest, you know.
He told you he was going to do it.
Right.
So we got along very, very well.
Huh.
Well, then, this is a hell of a good day in the house.
I'm kidding.
You're welcome.
I heard you.
I heard you.
Frank Bowe of Ohio.
Congressman.
Edward Boland, B-O-L-A-N-D, of Massachusetts.
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Picking stuff up.
Now we get in and fight this goddamned Scali, who's just kind of fucked up in being with him.
Did Henry find the kick?
Yes.
Yes.
The eye pushed Henry, and he's going back down to the other meeting.
Scali, of course, just loves the fight.
Yeah.
Which way does he like?
Which one is he in?
The man's field of men.
What does he say about it?
Oh, he thinks he should fight him.
Damn right.
A lot of what Henry has told you, Scali's been cranking up since it turns out.
Scali's pushing him on the most grouped together in
and Henry's ecstatic in doing it, of course.
She's got to know how to do it.
And the idea of, I call everybody and ask them to join me in the letter, I can do that.
We're going to have, somebody else should do it.
We'll find a way to join us.
He likes to see the momentum of it.
One thing we ought to be sure to do is keep him cranky.
He ought to sit in that meeting tomorrow afternoon with the three women.
the kind of thing where it's just a wrench.
That's the way to pay it off.
Because he'll love that.
It'll give him the tone on how to fight it.
After the project he wanted you to take the responsibility, he's pretty serious.
He says, I'll accept that.
I'll accept it.
He said he would then check, though, to see what they were already doing.
The first thing is to
President, I want you to sit down individually with the people that you feel should be doing more briefing and find out what they really are doing.
And then determine for yourself, after you know what they're doing, why we aren't getting the results that you think we ought to be getting.
Yeah.
Hello.
Well, I do want to close with...
I just want to tell you how pleased I was, and I've been trying to reach you earlier, but you were running around.
Do you remember when you've been out burning trees?
Well, that was a wonderful job, a wonderful job.
Yeah, it's great now, you know, just good, good conferees, because we'll force that son of a, you know, we lose it there.
You can't receive completely, can you?
No, sir, never.
Okay.
How do our guys feel now that they won?
Do they feel good?
Is that water?
Good.
That's great.
That's great.
Well, well, I appreciate it, Les.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Hello?
Hello?
Hello?
I'm just thinking you and I can get on an SST and go over to China one day.
That's right.
But anyway, that's a great job, and I just want to thank you and all your team.
And incidentally, Frank, for God's sake, if we get a strong enough bunch of countries, the Senate can't back you down completely, can it?
How many countries will you have?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, of course, the countries have to take the House position, and you're not about to recede.
And if we could just get... Well, you really played it, and I appreciate it, and I'll take a good rest.
Bye.
Yeah, sure.
Sure you can.
Sure.
in this foreign policy speech of not just this very rehashing of the world as to where the country's going to be and our vision of the future.
Well, now that is goddamn good.
It's what I've been trying to get out of it for.
To be perfectly frank with you, it was what I was trying to get out for the state of the union.
I would have preferred that to revenue sharing.
See what I mean?
I would have preferred that to revenue sharing.
I would have preferred it to government reorganization.
Those are both interesting things, but that's revenue sharing and government reorganization basically, Bob, is the work of a mechanic.
We call it the American Revolution, all that sort of thing, but it's the work of a mechanic.
It really is.
It just is tinkering with the goddamn machinery.
This Senate is sure to sell the answer for the State of the Union in 72 as contrasted to a mechanical program.
Congressman Mills, please, of Arkansas.
Well, you see my point.
He sees more clearly than, yeah, and he thinks like a politician more than any of the other people do, you know.
They, more than Price, more than Buchanan, more than Sasse.
Well, and with Stennis, just reading.
Right.
Yeah, the 12, 12, 14, perhaps.
Well, this is my...
I'm going to see whether he can come.
I think I'm going to invite him.
He's in Georgia, of course.
This guy.
NARA Description
On May 12, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, White House operator, Leslie C. Arends, Stephen B. Bull, Frank T. Bow, John B. Connally, and John D. Ehrlichman met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 5:28 pm and 6:03 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 499-002 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 499-2/ 498-1
Date: May 12, 1971
Time: 5:28 pm - unknown before 6:03 pm
Location: Oval Office
The President met with H.R. (“Bob”) Haldeman; the recording begins while the meeting is in
progress.
Gerald R. Ford
-Previous conversation with President
-Hugh Scott
-Robert P. Griffin
-Supersonic Transport [SST] vote
House of Representatives votes, May 12, 1971
-Welfare reform
[The President talked with the White House operator at an unknown time between 5:28 pm and
5:29 pm]
[Conversation No. 499-2A]
[See Conversation No. 3-25]
[End of telephone conversation]
House of Representatives votes
John A. Scali
-Previous conversation with Henry A. Kissinger
-Views and activities
-Michael J. (“Mike”) Mansfield Amendment
-Kissinger
-North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO]
Mansfield Amendment regarding NATO
-President's possible actions
-President's schedule
-Scali meeting
Public relations
-Scali's role
[The President talked with Leslie C. Arends between 5:29 pm and 5:31 pm]
[Conversation No. 499-2B]
[See Conversation No. 3-26]
[End of telephone conversation]
[Unintelligible]
Conv. No. 499-2/498-1 (cont.)
Stephen B. Bull entered at 5:31 pm.
George P. Shultz's schedule [?]
John D. Ehrlichman's schedule
Bull left at 5:32 pm.
The President talked with Frank T. Bow between 5:32 pm and 5:33 pm.
[Conversation No. 499-2C/498-1A]
[See Conversation No. 3-27]
[End of telephone conversation]
[The remaining portion of this conversation was recorded intermittently with Conversation No.
498-1]
President's forthcoming speech on foreign policy
-Previous State of Union speech
-Revenue sharing
-Government reorganization
-"New American Revolution"
-1972 State of the Union speech
[The President talked with the White House operator at an unknown time between 5:33 pm and
5:41 pm]
[Conversation No. 499-2D]
[See Conversation No. 3-30]
[End of telephone conversation]
Peterson
-Raymond K. Price, Jr.
-Patrick J. Buchanan
-William L. Safire
[The President talked with John B. Connally between 5:41 pm and 5:45 pm]
Conv. No. 499-2/498-1 (cont.)
[Conversation No. 499-2E]
[See Conversation No. 3-32]
[End of telephone conversation]
-Georgia
Ehrlichman entered at an unknown time after 5:41 pm.
Paul W. McCracken
The conversation was cut off at an unknown time before 6:03 pm.Also recorded on May 12, 1971
- 003-025 5:28 PM · 24 sec — President Richard M. Nixon, White House operator, and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 5:28 pm and 5:29 pm.
- 003-026 5:29 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Leslie C. Arends talked on the telephone from 5:29 pm to 5:31 pm.
- 003-027 5:32 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Frank T. Bow talked on the telephone from 5:32 pm to 5:33 pm.
- 498-001 5:33 PM · 21 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Frank T. Bow, Stephen B. Bull, White House operator, John B. Connally, and Wilbur D. Mills met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 5:33 pm and 6:03 pm.
- 003-028 5:34 PM · 48 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Edward P. Boland talked on the telephone from 5:34 pm to 5:36 pm.
- 003-030 5:37 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 5:37 pm and 5:41 pm.
- 003-031 5:37 PM · 3 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 5:37 pm and 5:41 pm.
- 003-032 5:41 PM · 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John B. Connally talked on the telephone from 5:41 pm to 5:45 pm.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 499-002, May 12, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/499-002 (accessed September 28, 2026).