{"conversationCode":"504-019","tapeNumber":504,"conversationNumber":19,"identifier":"37-wht-conversation-504-019","startDateTime":"1971-05-28T00:27:00.000Z","endDateTime":"1971-05-28T01:00:00.000Z","startDate":"27-May-1971","startTime":"8:27 PM","endDate":"27-May-1971","endTime":"9:00 PM","dateCertainty":"certain","timeCertainty":"estimated","participants":"Nixon, Richard M. (President); Fletcher, Thomas W.;","description":"On May 27, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Thomas W. Fletcher met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:27 pm and 9:00 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 504-019 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. 504-19\n\nDate: May 27, 1971\nTime: Unknown between 8:27 pm and 9:00 pm\nLocation: Oval Office\n\nThe President dictated a letter to Thomas W. Fletcher.\n\n     Fletcher\n          -Deputy Mayor, Washington, DC\n          -San Jose\n\n          -John D. Ehrlichman","filename":["504-019.mp3"],"tapeStart":"06:39:46","tapeEnd":"06:41:01","participantsList":["Nixon, Richard M. (President)","Fletcher, Thomas W."],"prevCode":"504-018","nextCode":"504-020","transcript":[{"start":0.03,"end":11.7,"text":"This letter is to Mr. Fletcher, who is the former deputy mayor of Washington and is now in the Senate, saying, I check with Ervin as to his first name."},{"start":11.72,"end":12.61,"text":"I think I should call him by his first name."}],"aiSummary":{"text":"President Nixon consulted with his staff regarding the drafting of a letter to Thomas W. Fletcher, the former Deputy Mayor of Washington, D.C. The discussion focused on confirming the first name of Senator Sam Ervin to ensure the appropriate level of formality in the correspondence. Nixon ultimately decided that addressing the recipient by his first name was the preferred tone for the letter.","topics":["Correspondence","Sam Ervin","Thomas W. Fletcher","White House Protocol","Presidential Communication"],"generatedAt":"2026-04-06T22:30:32.442Z"},"topicSlugs":["correspondence","sam-ervin","thomas-w-fletcher","white-house-protocol","presidential-communication"],"audioDurationSec":13,"audioFiles":[{"file":"504-019.mp3","bytes":508652,"durationSec":12.59,"bitrate":323219,"missing":false}],"audioIsShared":false,"audioProbedAt":"2026-09-18T02:19:49.683Z","audio":["https://nixon.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/audio/504-019.mp3"],"url":"https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/504-019","nixonLibraryUrl":"https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/white-house-tapes/504/conversation-504-019","license":"Public domain (U.S. Government work). AI-generated fields (transcript, aiSummary) are provided as-is without warranty."}