Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 508 › Conversation 508-012

Nixon, Butterfield & Woods on Congressional Club and Anastasio Somoza Debayle

Wednesday, June 2, 1971 · 9:20 AM–9:40 AM ET · Oval Office · 9 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Butterfield, Alexander P.; Woods, Rose MaryConversation508-012 on Tape 508 (tape position 00:21:40–00:30:42)StartWednesday, June 2, 1971 at 9:20 AMEndWednesday, June 2, 1971 at 9:40 AMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 508-012 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with Alexander P. Butterfield and Rose Mary Woods to address logistical arrangements for upcoming events and resolve technical issues with his dictation equipment. The discussion covered protocols for a meeting with Anastasio Somoza Debayle, ensuring the encounter remained informal and strictly limited in scope. Additionally, they coordinated the physical arrangements and gift selection for the 80th Congressional Club reception and finalized the scheduling and venue logistics for a bipartisan congressional briefing on international economic policy.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 2 minutes of this recording (about 27% 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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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· Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).
You want to ask?
Yeah.
You want to ask?
This one must be .
Take those and that'll work.
There's a letter.
Well, let's see.
Where did any of them come out?
That's all I know.
Yes, in fact, most of them did.
I don't care.
Sorry, I had three pages.
Did you get three back?
Yeah, we got three.
You got four of them?
Three or four.
We got four of them.
And this was going around for so many minutes.
That's right.
I told Manola he had to get that one repaired.
I heard a singing noise in it and I said, all right.
What else?
Yeah.
Very modest in price.
I'd like to know what the proposition is.
All right.
Quick questions on the 8th Congressional Club reception tomorrow night.
Yeah.
You're going to Eastern.
Do you want to enter with the Speaker and Mrs. Albert?
Is that the co-host?
Is that tomorrow night?
Yes, it is tomorrow night.
I thought Samosa was tomorrow night.
Yeah, I thought Samosa.
How are you?
How are we not getting to him, Bob?
I don't want him to, I don't want to make, I don't want anyone to make that to a meeting and for discussions.
I don't want him to sit there for a second.
I'm just receiving him, Alex, because for Don Hughes's sake, Don wanted me to have him.
He's a nice man for Nicaragua, but it's very bad.
I don't want him to be at all an official, because there's nothing
So the man with the breathing paper, he has himself at the meeting.
He doesn't need to come.
We have him treated upstairs so that you're already there.
Well, where the hell is, how the hell is his wife around then?
His wife comes with Smoke's wife, the codice from the protocol.
They bring him in.
Who welcomes him to the protocol?
Go ahead.
Go down and get him.
No, sir.
I think I have...
If they do that, then I won't do it.
But they've got him.
They've got him.
I will not go down and get him, do you understand?
No, I didn't go down.
No, I shouldn't.
I shouldn't go down and get him.
I don't want to do anything like that.
Well, Mr.
Professor, keep him.
Just have him brought up, and that's that.
Then we'll go down and give him the evidence.
If that's the case, if he's going to come separately, Henry can't come.
And I don't mean to do it that way.
We're just taking the place of the meeting that way back here.
Okay, the 8th Congressional Club reception tomorrow, do you want to interview the speaker in the East Room?
Yes.
The speaker must be out.
He had a few remarks and had a receiving line in the East Room.
Those are the only questions I have.
Had a receiving line.
How many are going to be here?
Well, right now, there are 228 invited total.
That's total questions.
This isn't much, but it's different.
We don't have a heck of a lot of things that people haven't received before.
I assume you have every guest to get one, not just the quantified members of the club.
There's so many of them.
Albert and the rest haven't had any.
They haven't received those.
Well, we could go into the cocktail glasses, which are considerably more, but if we were going to do it just for the club members and not for everyone there, we could do the cocktail glasses.
Everybody.
Well, there aren't only 50 or 60 members who are in Congress for the 80th Congress.
Yes, sir.
I don't know.
I really don't think there is anything to give up.
There were a total of three tapes on a spool and an extra tape, four tapes.
And I don't know what she got.
What she did again, she gave me.
And that's just these two items.
Now, let me check with her and see what she got.
Well, I know that one, there were only three tapes.
So I know there's apparently nothing on that.
So I'm pretty sure it's not here.
Let me check with her what she got.
These didn't seem, I knew this wasn't too important.
Again, I'm pretty sure it wasn't.
you understand a certificate of some sort signed by me no reason to get married
bipartisan congressional briefing, perhaps next Tuesday on the international economy.
This is next Tuesday.
That's, yeah, if you'd approve that, we'd have it at 4.30 to 5.00.
It'll be next Tuesday.
One hour.
It'll take more than that.
It'll take a hell of a lot.
I think it should be, where are they going to have it?
Oh, Christ, no, not the goddamn theater.
Where is it?
Ever.
Ever, ever, ever, ever.
It's the most gloomy, horrible room for a reading that I've ever seen.
I'm going to put it in that theater.
Put it in the dining room.
Or something like that.
So it's nice and pleasant.
Okay.
Now we have to set up a theater that might be
If it's a nice day, we'll take them out along the bridge.
It's the last recording.
Good.
We don't ever use a figure or anything like that.
That's okay.
Henry sits in the briefing as long as it's... Oh, it's fine.
It's fine.
I was trying to downgrade it to half this, but I don't want it to be...
It'll save me trouble if he doesn't have it.
That's fine.
I think we'll also put this here.

NARA Description

On June 2, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, Alexander P. Butterfield, and Rose Mary Woods met in the Oval Office of the White House from 9:20 am to 9:40 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 508-012 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 508-012

Date: June 2, 1971
Time: 9:20 am - 9:40 am
Location: Oval Office

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

The President met with Alexander P. Butterfield and Rose Mary Woods

     President’s dictation equipment
           -Malfunction
           -Peter G. Peterson
           -Malfunction
           -Manolo Sanchez

Woods left at an unknown time before 9:40 am

     The President’s schedule
          -80th Congressional Club reception June 3
                -Mr. and Mrs. Carl B. Albert
          -Meeting with Anastasio Somoza Debayle
                -Tone
                -Henry A. Kissinger
                -Major General James D. (“Don”) Hughes
                -Maurice H. Stans
                -Meeting protocol
                      -Mrs. Somoza
                      -Marion A. Smoak
                      -William R. Codus
          -80th Congressional Club reception June 3
                -Physical arrangements
                      -Number of attendees
                -Gifts for attendees
                      -Ash trays, cocktail glasses, cuff links

     The President’s dictation equipment
          -Woods

     Forthcoming Congressional Club reception
          -Gifts

     The President’s schedule
          -Congressional briefing, June 8, 1971
               -International economic policy
               -Peterson
               -Timing

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

               -Location
           -Somoza
               -Kissinger
               -H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman

Butterfield left at 9:40 am

Also recorded on June 2, 1971

  • 508-001 8:55 AM · 34 sec — President Richard M. Nixon met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:55 am and 9:20 am.
  • 508-002 8:55 AM · 47 sec — President Richard M. Nixon met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:55 am and 9:20 am.
  • 508-003 8:55 AM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:55 am and 9:20 am.
  • 508-004 8:55 AM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:55 am and 9:20 am.
  • 508-005 8:55 AM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:55 am and 9:20 am.
  • 508-006 8:55 AM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:55 am and 9:20 am.
  • 508-007 8:55 AM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:55 am and 9:20 am.
  • 508-008 8:55 AM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:55 am and 9:20 am.

All 42 conversations from June 2, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 508-012, June 2, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/508-012 (accessed September 26, 2026).