Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 514 › Conversation 514-004

Nixon, Ehrlichman & Kissinger on Housing Policy and Public Relations

Tuesday, June 8, 1971 · 7:55 AM–8:02 AM ET · Oval Office · 7 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Ehrlichman, John D.; Kissinger, Henry A.Conversation514-004 on Tape 514 (tape position 00:02:04–00:09:00)StartTuesday, June 8, 1971 at 7:55 AMEndTuesday, June 8, 1971 at 8:02 AMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 514-004 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with John Ehrlichman to critique a draft of a major housing policy statement, specifically directing that the document be shortened and purged of moralistic language and unclear legal interpretations regarding housing referendums. Nixon emphasized the need to project a stronger, more precise stance that resonates with voters who support neighborhood exclusivity. Following Ehrlichman's departure, Nixon consulted briefly with Henry Kissinger regarding administrative messaging, including the release of casualty figures to demonstrate the success of presidential policies.

Audio

Download MP3 · 15.7 MB

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 1 minute of this recording (about 21% 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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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).
I want to tell you that I'd like to look at that housing bank for editing purposes.
I think it could be improved by cutting.
All right.
Did you read it all?
Oh, yes.
Yes, I did.
And it's in one line right over the gutter.
It's cut now.
I guess maybe that's my problem.
We cut it about in half from when it started out.
The difficulty I have with the job is that it
I just don't like all that crap about morality.
And I don't like the title.
There's one title in there, complexities.
I don't like that.
I mean, you can't ever admit that there's such a thing.
Well, let me get it back to you.
Well, you understand, the substance will abide.
The only one thing that I have some concern about is why we couldn't be a little bit more precise in interpreting those two things.
To me, it seemed to me that the, and it may be that you're trying to, we're trying to bend over too far and make you these, or the liberal slime there.
And the clear implication of those cases is that that was the,
in the case of people at large voting in a referendum.
That doesn't come true at all.
And the way that paragraph is written, it's got us along and all that.
It got us along.
We can sharpen that up.
Well, I think it should be sharpened up.
And read the case.
Because that doesn't actually give you the basis for doing the other one.
I think that the goddamn people want it.
They want to live in a neighborhood of higher-priced homes that they have a right to.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
This does not make that clear.
It has in the economic narration and all the rest.
I think it's there, the detention, but can we get through approximately 80, I think it's 22, 20, 20 to 5,000 words.
It's pretty much lost.
Well, we'll try and cut, say, cut 25 to 30 percent of it as a target and see what we can do.
That's quite small.
Yeah.
When we started, we cut pretty hard and
You know, when you live with a draft, then you figure, gee, this is bare bones at this point.
But we can do better.
Well, right.
It's ready to draft.
Yes.
All right, Joe.
I know.
All right.
So we were working on a draft.
Oh.
Yeah, I'd cut some more.
All right.
Just a second.
Would you want to do some cutting or want me to take another look at it?
Well, I'll get it back to you.
And then I can spend some time on it today.
No, no.
Well, let me arrange to get it back to you.
Well, I understand that I was supposed to be in the night.
Yeah, what I was talking about, on this assignment to the presentation of Laos, did we have anybody there that was trying to take up our side, or was there any preparation?
I understand what I mean.
They talked, they asked about the disclosure on laws and so forth and so on.
As a matter of fact, we disclosed the whole goddamn thing.
Because I was in a case, it was in San Juan, it calls upon the administration to disclose what we're doing.
We disclosed it.
It seems to me that when we've got somebody that can take the offensive open thing for us, what's been done on that?
I mean, who'd you talk to, Colson or who, McGregor?
I don't know what to say.
That's just a terrible thing.
They always dominate those, don't they?
The other thing, did you get that final casualty figure in him?
It is 19.
And that's your time.
Now, I want you to pass that, if you would, immediately to Scalia and tell him to develop a plan as to how we can get a maximum impact on that.
But they should say the president again proved right, you know, the president catched us in the holes.
What did you say they were?
This was pretty good.
It gets down to five and a half years.
Because we might as well crow online, don't you?
This is the first time it's been below 20, isn't it?
Good.
Thank you a lot.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, we've heard about you.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Why don't we just say that I'd like for him to go a later time.
He won't fit in on something we're doing with the Russians or something.

NARA Description

On June 8, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, John D. Ehrlichman, and Henry A. Kissinger met in the Oval Office of the White House from 7:55 am to 8:02 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 514-004 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 514-4

Date: June 8, 1971
Time: 7:55 am - 8:02 am
Location: Oval Office

The President met with John D. Ehrlichman

     Housing statement
          -Length
          -Morality statement
          -Titles
          -Substance
                -Precision of terms
                      -Liberal line
                      -Voters in referendum
         -Length
                -Effect
         -Further work
                -Details

     National Railroad Passenger Corporation/American Track [AMTRAK]
          -Criticism
                -John A. Volpe
                -Egil (“Bud”) Krogh, Jr.
                -Unknown person from Dwight D. Eisenhower Administration

Ehrlichman left at 7: 59 am

[Henry A. Kissinger talked with the President between 7:59 am and 8:02 am]

[Conversation No. 514-4A]

[See Conversation No. 4-66]

[End of telephone conversation]

Also recorded on June 8, 1971

  • 514-001 7:53 AM · 23 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 7:53 am and 8:03 am.
  • 514-002 7:53 AM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 7:53 am and 8:03 am.
  • 514-003 7:53 AM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 7:53 am to 7:55 am.
  • 004-066 7:59 AM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, and John D. Ehrlichman talked on the telephone from 7:59 am to 8:02 am.
  • 004-067 8:02 AM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 8:02 am and 9:44 am.
  • 060-001 8:03 AM · 1 hr 38 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, Cabinet officers, and staffers, including John B. Connally, Melvin R. Laird, John N. Mitchell, Winton M. ("Red"), Blount, Jr., Rogers C. B. Morton, Clifford M. Hardin, Maurice H. Stans, James D. Hodgson, Elliot L. Richardson, George W. Romney, John A. Volpe, George P. Shultz, Robert H. Finch, Donald H. Rumsfeld, George H. W. Bush, John D. Ehrlichman, Clark MacGregor, Peter M. Flanigan, Peter G. Peterson, Herbert G. Klein, Dr. Edward E. David, Jr., Raymond K. Price, Jr., Ronald L. Ziegler, Robert J. Brown, Edward L. Morgan, Edwin L. Harper, John C. Whitaker, Neal Ball, Egil ("Bud") Krogh, Jr., Raymond J. Waldman, Leonard Garment, John F. Evans, Jr., Lewis A. Engman, Roy D. Morey, Peter Michel, Geoffrey C. Shepard, Martin C. ("Marty") Anderson, Kenneth R. Cole, Jr., Paul W. McCracken, Caspar W. ("Cap") Weinberger, Arnold R. Weber, and Arthur J. Sohmer, met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 8:03 am and 10:31 am.
  • 514-020 8:03 AM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at 8:03 am.
  • 514-021 8:03 AM · 18 sec — unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:03 am and 9:40 am.

All 40 conversations from June 8, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 514-004, June 8, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/514-004 (accessed October 12, 2026).