On June 11, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, William H. Carruthers, Mark I. Goode, and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the Oval Office of the White House from 1:43 pm to 2:02 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 517-019 of the White House Tapes.
Transcript (AI-Generated)This transcript was generated automatically by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite this transcript as authoritative. Consult the Finding Aid above for verified information.
Although you've been thoroughly briefed on the wedding ceremony this Saturday, I want to be made aware of television cameras outside are clearly visible, obviously, from the time you come down the South Portico steps and into the Rose Garden and so on.
After the ceremony, sir, you will proceed to the red room where you will hold momentarily while Tricia goes upstairs for a moment to powder her nose or whatever and prepare for the official photographs which will take place in the blue room.
There will be real coverage, still photo coverage, and live TV coverage for the official family photographs.
Not live TV coverage.
No, tape.
Right, coverage.
There will be a microphone in that room, sir, to pick up ambient noise, room noise.
Upon the completion of the official photographs, the receding line will begin in the blue room.
The first 15 minutes of the receiving line will be televised.
The lights will dim out at 15 minutes into the receiving line, which will indicate to you that the coverage is over with.
For 15 minutes?
Yes, sir.
Upon the completion of the receiving line, the party will proceed into the East Room for the first dance.
Now Lucy will go over the dancing.
sequence with you, sir, but I thought I'd like to prepare you for it before you go into the rehearsal today.
Today, what we just talked through, the plan is as follows.
That Trisha and Ed will start dancing to a waltz from Dr. Zhivago, and Abe will be with you, sir.
After they've danced for an appropriate amount of time, you would then cut in on Ed, at which time the band leader will change the tempo of the dance from a waltz to a foxtrot.
Thank heaven for little girls.
Ed will leave the dance floor, go to his mother, bring his mother out on the floor.
Mr. Cox will go to Mrs. Nixon, bring Mrs. Nixon out on the floor, and
I would estimate, sir, within 45 seconds, 30 to 45 seconds, the entire wedding party will be on the floor.
It's my recommendation to Lucy at that juncture that once the wedding party is entirely on the floor, that the band leader concludes the first dance.
That dance will be covered by tape television.
I'd ask in that case, though, that only with Trisha.
The recommendation is, sir, that she would dance with Trisha.
finish the first dance with her.
No, sir.
Then dance with Mrs. Cox.
Well, how does that work?
That's all part of the first dance.
Yes, sir.
In other words, when Aaron comes on the floor with his mother, he'll be four eight bars of dancing, and then you and Ed with a switch.
And then you would end the dance with Mrs. Nixon.
And we'll be told to bring Mrs. Cox in close proximity to you and Tricia as you're dancing, so it'll be an easy move for you to change from Tricia to Mrs. Cox.
Oh, I change from Tricia to Mrs. Cox?
Yes, sir.
And then Mrs. Cox to Mrs. Nixon.
Now, that is the plan as it now stands.
I've just gone over.
We've got to get her.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
And it's over.
Yes, sir.
Yes, and that's the end of coverage.
Yes, sir.
The lights would then go out there, which of course would indicate the end of coverage.
Trisha will proceed upstairs.
When she returns from upstairs, the cake cutting will take place in the garage.
No, I think she's got powdering or got something.
When she returns, the party moves into the grand hall for the cake cutting.
There will be two tape television cameras and real coverage and still photo coverage there.
And again, a microphone to pick up room noise.
I see.
The cake cutting.
Trisha will proceed up the staircase, throw the bouquet.
Exit the North Quarter to the car.
The receiving line comes before the dance.
Yes, sir.
The receiving line follows immediately after the official photographs in the blue room.
Where do we stand for that?
Well, it will be staged today during the rehearsal, sir.
It is in the blue room.
Yes, it is in the blue room.
When, if you go to where we're receiving right now, will they be giving the guests the drinks and things so that they just won't be waiting?
There are drinks being served in the lady's garden.
The guests will be brought from the garden into the ground floor, up the stairs, and around a comfortable line from the east room into the blue.
Another weather in the east room waiting to be received.
That'll take an hour.
Yes, at least an hour.
Probably an hour, 30 minutes.
The guests will go in the basement into the diplomatic reception area.
They will be able to move through those rooms.
Also in the garden on the other side.
And then they will flow up after they have had an opportunity to have refreshments and so forth.
So no one will just be standing around waiting in line.
And they have that all worked out.
The cabinet members go through it first.
That's why we have the television for the initial early part.
And then bring it down.
Well, of course, that's the media family.
Right.
Mr. President, one more note.
If you go out onto the North Portico as Trish and Ed leave, after the cake-cutting bouquet exit North Portico, there will be a microphone out there as well as a television camera.
Again, it's a microphone only for ambient noise and to hear mumble, mumble, mumble, goodbye and so on.
And that concludes the introduction.
30% was the prediction of chance by the Weather Bureau.
They've lowered that now, I think so.
Well, a light amount.
I go right outside in the little rain.
But that prediction is not true.
Yes, sir.
One other note.
Walk slowly with Tricia as you come down the steps and
Proceed around.
You are a fast walker.
You move quickly.
She's got the train to be in Centerwood.
Particularly on the steps.
Yes, of course.
Nobody takes her train.
She comes down.
She's now sitting down by herself.
How do we look after the ceremony?
Oh, we walk through that.
How do we?
Who leaves with whom?
Do I have a certain section of the occasion?
I would pass on that to Lucy Winchester.
I guess she will add Lucy early.
The wedding party, she'll know exactly what to do.
And she's also going to arrange the next.
Yes, sir.
So we don't want anybody else coming in.
We don't want any other.
When it's over, can we leave that room?
Let's see, as soon as the first match is over, can we leave?
What happens after the first match?
dance longer.
We understand that currently is that she will leave the room after the first dance.
Now that may go up very well.
Yes, sir.
But when she leaves the room, does she draw a bouquet?
No, sir.
She goes upstairs, comes back down, cuts the cake, goes up on the balcony, throws the bouquet, and then leaves.
Yes, sir.
So she's likely to leave after the first dance.
That's her understanding.
That's a good idea.
She should have left the dance.
Yeah, it'd be neat.
It'd be very nice, I think, otherwise you're gonna have a lot of clots, and it'll get in there, but it should not detract from the official party.
All right.
Yes, he did.
But now there's no sound of the ceremony, is there?
No, sir.
No, sir.
No coverage of any kind.
Oh, what do they cover, though?
Well, they'll cover, they'll cover that, and they cover how far, and then they, if the camera's present, it's so that you get to the altar with Christian, and they cut out.
So the ceremony's totally fine.
Then, after the ceremony, when there's no more Christian, the Navy covers.
Then when Tristan had turned after the ceremony, when they were walking out, coverage picks up again.
So you get them going in, you get them going to the altar and returning from the altar.
Thank you.
Okay, thank you.
We'll see y'all.
Bye.
Thank you very much.
It went fine.
the Burlington environment were out there, and they stuck to the, kept referring back to what the message said and didn't cover any new ground in the briefing.
But John gave a little bit of the process, and I thought it went fine.
And then, of course, Romney and Mitchell will cover things on Monday.
They have the press numbers on Monday.
question on blackjack.
The leads are fine.
The leads are great.
Well, they said, no, there's no lead on blackjack.
That's why we're doing it.
No, that's what I had to say.
They don't indicate we're going all out.
No, what they say is that the Administrative President's next initiative statement, they indicated we'd enforce the law on racial housing.
Next sentence is,
However, it also made clear that the federal government was not going to force economic integration onto the suburbs.
It leaves it just the way they want to judge it.
So anyone who picks that up, reads it, will say, OK, fine, I don't want the other guy.
We're not going to force it out.
Although it's brilliantly a well-structured statement,
Because the lead is just right.
And on the one hand, no one can say, well, the president is not providing moral leadership and enforcing the law.
But on the other hand, they have to say, we're not going to force it out.
There's a critical sense in there.
He said that he would enforce the letter in the spirit of the law.
I struck off the spirit.
It's always that, you know, spirit of the law.
I mean, whenever you talk spirit of the law, that means going beyond the law.
We're not going to enforce the law, period.
The law is the law, and that's all.
There's no letter and spirit.
The other thing is the whole paragraph.
We're going to enforce this law, but we can take other actions and sort of let them in the haste and then bring about this great goal.
I don't think of a goal.
Of course, with this lead today, and then the, I guess the Attorney General will respond on the blackjack.
It's got to be out of the way.
People don't understand that too much, but they do, they don't, the majority of people won't interpret that as a move against the suburbs.
They'll understand it there.
It's amazing.
The guys' questions out here weren't very hostile today.
Had they read it before?
Well, they had an hour to read it.
See, I remember in the school thing, when that was put out, they came with sharp and claws.
But on this, they weren't quite as sharp.
Uh, one thing, uh, on the wedding, Mr. President, I wanted to cover with you.
Connie Stewart has covered it with Mrs. Nixon.
Sweet.
I didn't want to bother Tricia with it, but I wanted her to be aware.
Um, Candy Stroud from the Women's Wear Daily.
We have an existing policy that she is on no fool.
She hasn't been.
She will not be.
Now, I don't want her in my presence.
Well, that is the policy we operate under.
There is, however, this point I would like to raise with you here.
She is going to be doing about a 15-minute commentary for CBS.
Not a commentary, but she'll be sitting there talking now.
There are two levels of bad.
Because she's going to be on television and because she's going to have to talk about something,
I would like to withdraw from her the opportunity from talking about the negative and force her into talking about the wedding and thereby put her on an innocuous pootie.
Why don't you tell C.P.S.
Well, that won't matter, she said anyway.
But it would not be, it would be a minor pool.
It would be toward the end of the reception line.
You wouldn't even, you know, note her, it would be very quick.
She would not move amongst the guests or anything.
But I would like, first of all, I want to say we have a policy that Andy Stroud is not on the pool.
But I just think from our, looking at our interests,
But in the future, she's not to be anything.
She hasn't been in the past.
In the future, she's not to be anything.
The White House or any service.
Absolutely not.
Never to be anything.
Never to be anything.
We control this family.
Those evening affairs.
Yes, sir.
Totally.
She has not been on the pool.
Yes, sir.
We select the pool.
She has not been on the pool.
Keep her off the trip.
Okay.
Just so I know, who, what power does it take?
For CBS, it's going to be Dan Rather is going to anchor it together with Mark Rocklin.
And they will have others around.
Those will be the anchor people.
For NBC, it will be Barbara Walters and Ed Newman.
That's the way they have it set now.
These will be the anchor-type positions.
But there will be other TV guys.
Now, ABC does not have an anchor position.
Well, they're going to have, ABC will have a 7 to 7.30 special, but they're going to do it from in-studio.
Just with the highlights of the thing.
CBS has a special from 6 to 7.
NBC has... Oh, yes.
Well, NBC 6 to 7.
Excuse me.
CBS is 6 to 7.
ABC is 7 to 7.30.
NBC is 6 to 6.30, and then again from 7.30 to 8.30.
NBC is doing the most.
Right.
It'll be the wedding.
Why aren't they doing more?
Well, NBC is noted for doing more on these events.
From 7 to 8.30, you'll have a great audience.
Well, they'll have a big audience all the way through.
You see, the good thing about this is
The CBS feed from 6 to 7 and the NBC feed from 6 to 6.30 will run on the west coast at the same time.
It would be in the afternoon on the west coast now.
So that would give some, the people who are home in the afternoon who want to tune in will be able to tune in.
It will not be running 6 o'clock out there.
Right.
8 o'clock out there.
But then the ABC will be running in pattern.
which means it will be run at 7 o'clock here, 7 o'clock in the West.
The special will run in pattern, 7 o'clock here, 7 o'clock, excuse me, 7.30 here, 7.30 in the West.
So NBC, right?
So NBC.
So both afternoon and prime time is covered.
Some people look at it twice.
Some people look at it twice.
And the wedding is an event that attracts an audience.
So people will be able to tune in virtually throughout the, for example, as you go west through 2.30 on and be able to pick up weddings, I mean, wedding coverage, although it won't be my domain.
There's a lot of people that cover anything there.
Are they after the wedding is over anyway?
Oh, no.
Nothing starts until 6.
Nothing starts until 6.
And then all the news shows.
Actually, this is better doing it this way than live.
And then CBS is doing a special tonight, Deb.
special tonight on weddings, White House weddings, the history of White House weddings.
They're 10 to 11, I believe.
You're the thing, aren't you?
Yes, sir.
Thank you so much.
We told them a week ago we were going to do it.
We did it.
We're so glad to be here.