Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 524 › Conversation 524-019

Nixon, McClellan & MacGregor on Pentagon Papers and Censorship

Thursday, June 17, 1971 · 12:12 PM–12:17 PM ET · Oval Office · 5 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); McClellan, John L.; MacGregor, Clark; Bull, Stephen B.; White House photographerConversation524-019 on Tape 524 (tape position 02:30:11–02:35:10)StartThursday, June 17, 1971 at 12:12 PMEndThursday, June 17, 1971 at 12:17 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 524-019 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with Senator John L. McClellan and Clark MacGregor to accept a ceremonial Bowie knife and exchange gifts before shifting the discussion to the recent leak of the Pentagon Papers. Nixon and his guests analyzed the implications of the unauthorized disclosure, comparing the publication of the classified documents by the press to the illegal sale of stolen property. They expressed frustration over the media's defense of the act as protected speech, framing the situation instead as a dangerous institutional threat that necessitated government censorship.

Audio

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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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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This friend of mine down in Arkansas has made this armor.
There's a letter there that he wrote me.
He wanted to present it out at the, uh, let's send it around so you can get the picture of it.
Do you want, do you want it open?
So he would have preferred to have it open at a different time.
So it's there on the dash.
It comes right out of the box.
I'll put it over there.
This is what you call one of those buoy nuts, buoy nuts, buoy nuts.
And he made it, and you can look on the side of it, and that shows you something about the river then.
These nights were used for, they were buoy nuts.
We had to buy some big, pretty do-overs.
This is Henry.
Look at this engraving here on it.
The name is on it.
Look at that.
The steamboat, the steamer there.
I've met him.
I'm not a real ghost.
We don't see anybody.
Don't worry.
I thought this was worthy of your acceptance.
I always liked this stuff.
I didn't think it was.
I want to put it over there.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Now this is the, this is the new, the paper that's with the signature.
That's for you.
Now, the smallest one.
This is for your right.
This is the, that's the seal.
That's all you've got to do.
You've got everything out.
All right.
Thank you very much.
I didn't write it on there, so it's fine.
Well, they can't do it.
This guy stood up.
He doesn't.
Well, it's hard.
What do you mean?
You know something?
I heard you.
I had this person, you know, somebody who came in and said, you know, you know, let's get over here.
And he said, after all that, you know, Johnson, you know, you need to come back from there.
And Johnson said, you know,
But the government is not going to declassify some of the World War II stuff.
It hasn't declassified any of the very ancient little Korean stuff.
And this is an attack on the whole institution of government.
If somebody can walk out with top secret documents,
and give them to a paper we will and we cannot have nothing happen.
Do you realize that people will take auctions on some of the papers and rent them?
That's right.
We will.
I was actually reading some feedback here now.
You may have seen a headline by one of the colleagues.
Access to over 300 million dollars worth of...
securities in the last four years.
We've made over a hundred.
That hundred million dollars is accounted for.
What difference is there in the New York Times or any other paper taking stolen documents and publishing them?
And a thief that takes stolen merchandise and sells it.
The same principle in any book.
Except only they squeal censorship.
Well, my God.
They have to have something.
That's something.
That's exactly right.
A thief.
A thief takes... That's what occurred to me.
Whoever, whoever, not knowingly, knowingly sells stolen goods.
You know those, you see those, isn't it?
Whoever, knowingly, takes stolen goods.
And they know this is counter-intentional.
It wasn't given out by a party.
It wasn't given out by a party.
So there was the tape.
And you knew that it hurt something.
The president knew the tape.
All right, thank you.

NARA Description

On June 17, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, John L. McClellan, Clark MacGregor, Stephen B. Bull, and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:12 pm to 12:17 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 524-019 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 524-19

Date: June 17, 1971
Time: 12:12 pm - 12:17 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with John L. McClellan, Clark MacGregor and Stephen B. Bull; the White
House photographer was present at the beginning of the meeting.

      Greetings

      Presentation of gifts to President (Bowie knife)
           -Origin
           -Engraving
           -Use

     Presentation of gifts to McClellan

     Pentagon Papers
          -Lyndon B. Johnson
          -Robert S. McNamara
          -Declassification
          -Use of stolen material
          -Censorship
               -Necessity
          -Impact on country

McClellan and MacGregor left at 12:17 pm.

Also recorded on June 17, 1971

  • 524-016 12:03 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:03 pm and 12:06 pm.
  • 524-017 12:06 PM · 7 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Alexander P. Butterfield, Christian deGuigne, III, Christian deGuigne, IV, and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:06 pm to 12:11 pm.
  • 524-018 12:12 PM · 4 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at 12:12 pm.
  • 524-020 12:18 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at 12:18 pm.
  • 524-021 12:18 PM · 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Wendell Wyatt, Clark MacGregor, Stephen B. Bull, and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:18 pm to 12:22 pm.
  • 524-022 12:22 PM · 24 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Stephen B. Bull, White House operator, and George P. Shultz met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:22 pm to 12:46 pm.
  • 524-023 12:46 PM · 4 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:46 pm and 2:41 pm.
  • 524-030 12:46 PM · 1 min — unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:46 pm and 2:41 pm.

All 75 conversations from June 17, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 524-019, June 17, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/524-019 (accessed October 23, 2026).