Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 510 › Conversation 510-004

Nixon, Stephany & Laughter on Boy Scouts of America and Explorers

Wednesday, June 2, 1971 · 4:16 PM–4:20 PM ET · Oval Office · 9 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Bull, Stephen B.; Stephany, William; Laughter, Wade; Bordes, Robert, Jr.; Jaspar, Robert; Cross, Gary; Carter, Robert; White House photographerConversation510-004 on Tape 510 (tape position 00:58:37–01:07:47)StartWednesday, June 2, 1971 at 4:16 PMEndWednesday, June 2, 1971 at 4:20 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 510-004 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with an advisory committee of the Boy Scouts of America's Explorer division to discuss their organization, the integration of female members, and the age demographic of the program. The President engaged in brief conversation regarding his personal history with the Boy Scouts and his upcoming travel plans to Rochester, New York. The group also reviewed the logistics and schedule for an outdoor ceremony where Nixon would provide remarks and present gifts to the attendees.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 4 minutes of this recording (about 40% 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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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They're great.
They're among the few good kids I've worked with.
I'll tell you, they're breaking into the others.
They just want to go.
And they're making...
Well, there are people that are in, and they're very dedicated.
Yeah, that's true.
It's like people that are in boys' lunch.
Yeah, exactly.
Thank you.
Mr. President, Mr. President, I'd like to meet you.
You know, Stephanie.
Well, how are you?
You're good.
Hey, Juan.
Hi.
This is Derek.
Why don't we get a little better picture?
Here we are.
Here you go.
Well, Mr. President, this is the advisory committee, and Mr. Phillips is the chairman of it, and I'm sitting in front of that, and he's taking them all outside after their own decision to go to class.
Well, I want to tell you that I don't want to have a chance to see all of you personally.
I'm sorry they all can't come in here.
But are you having a good meeting here at that?
How many of you have been in Washington before?
How many of you have been to a jamboree?
Have you had a jamboree since you've been scouted?
You know, they take over five years, you know.
I mean, probably less.
I just remember when I was in the Jamboree way back, I remember when Irvine, Atlanta, she helped our youngster try to reach the sand in 1954.
And then about 15 years later, I, you know, about five years later, I recall they had one up in Stony Fork.
It's been 50,000 scouts all year.
They light candles at the end, which is one of the most impressive things you've probably heard about in a restaurant.
But I'm certainly grateful for the leadership that you have provided for our new explorers.
How old are you?
What is all your age group here?
The oldest, how old do you mean to be?
You're 21?
You're 21.
18.
About that age group, right?
14 to 21.
Right, I'm 19.
14 to 21.
So let's give her something.
What do you have here?
Well, we...
And we're going to give them, for individual photographs and pictures that I've done, Mr. Ross.
Thank you.
Two of the leaders.
This office has the seal, the seal here, the presidential seal.
And these are the presidential complex, the seal.
So I have to give each one of you a picture.
Here.
It's completely nonpartisan.
It doesn't have my name on it.
Good morning.
There you go.
All right.
Those cities in the town, all of them, they'll send me out, Mr. President.
Right.
He and I go out.
Yes.
Yes, that's fine.
We have a pretty girl to take you out.
All right.
All right.
All right.
All right.
Thank you.
You refer to yourself as an explorer, right?
It's a branching by the way it sounds, right?
Meaning it's 7th through the 6th.
How many young ladies do you think you have with the explorers?
Well, right now we've just expanded the other half of it.
Anything that's necessary.
I don't know if that's going to be a particular function, but if it does, it's necessary.
They come out of Girl Scouts.
No, these are explorers.
Explorer.
Yes, we did the job today.
Allowing them to become these explorers.
They can't do a very deep... No, sir.
No, sir.
Yeah, what is it?
Explorers.
Explorers, that's right, of course.
I understand.
I understand.
You're not really...
There's three phases of it.
The oldest, which is the sea sky, or sea expiring, which is another chain of tension, which is usually a chain.
You're one of the signals.
That's a great understanding.
Excuse me, Mr. Pressler, what's your state?
Rochester, New York.
Rochester.
I'm going to be up there in July.
We were supposed to come earlier for a regional briefing, and so we got snowed out.
So I didn't know it was going to be sometime in the middle of July or so.
I'm going to be up here.
It's a beautiful city.
There's a great golf person there.
O'Keele, when he played the, maybe you golfed with him.
No, no.
No, no.
You do.
You do.
If I could just take this opportunity to explain to Bill what we're going to do, Mr. President.
We'll just go right outside the door there, and Bill will be to your left, Mr. President.
And there will be a musical fan there, an announcement, and then some other music, and you'll walk down the steps there.
Commander Campbell will direct you to the second chute.
We'll just go right up to the platform, sir.
Bill will go directly to the microphone and present you in this spot.
It's basically an appreciation of your care and gesture.
And just a few sentences and then you respond and we'll depart.
Explore.
Explore.
Explore.
Explore.

NARA Description

On June 2, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, Stephen B. Bull, William Stephany, Wade Laughter, Robert Bordes, Jr., Robert Jasper, Gary Cross, Robert Carter, and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:16 pm to 4:20 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 510-004 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 510-4

Date: June 2, 1971
Time: 4:16 pm - 4:20 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Stephen B. Bull, William Stephany, Wade Laughter, Bruce Michel,
Robert Bordes,Jr., Robert Jasper, Gary Cross, Wadell Keeling, and Robert Carter; the White
House photographer was present at the beginning of this meeting

     General conversation

     Agenda

     White House tours

     Explorers' meeting
     Boy Scout Jamboree
          -Irvine Ranch, California
          -Valley Forge, Pennsylvania
          -Ceremony

     Ages of Explorers

     Presentation of gifts by President
          -Photographs
                -Oliver F. (“Ollie”) Atkins
          -Cufflinks

     Female Explorers

     Explorers
          -Relation to Boy Scout Organization

     Rochester, New York

     Arrangements for outdoor activity
          -Commander Craig Campbell

President et al. left at 4:20 pm

Also recorded on June 2, 1971

  • 508-018 12:26 PM · 30 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at 12:26 pm.
  • 508-019 12:26 PM · 1 hr 39 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Robert H. Finch, Ronald L. Ziegler, and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:26 pm to 2:25 pm.
  • 510-001 2:25 PM · 46 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House from 2:25 pm to 3:15 pm.
  • 510-002 3:15 PM · 15 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 3:15 pm to 3:16 pm.
  • 510-003 3:16 PM · 56 min — President Richard M. Nixon, John D. Ehrlichman, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 3:16 pm to 4:15 pm.
  • 510-005 4:38 PM · 1 hr 6 min — President Richard M. Nixon, John B. Connally, Alexander P. Butterfield, Manolo Sanchez, and John D. Ehrlichman met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:38 pm to 5:42 pm.
  • 510-006 5:42 PM · 2 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House from 5:42 pm to 5:54 pm.
  • 510-007 5:54 PM · 26 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, and Manolo Sanchez met in the Oval Office of the White House from 5:54 pm to 6:25 pm.

All 42 conversations from June 2, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 510-004, 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/510-004 (accessed October 18, 2026).