Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 559 › Conversation 559-009

Nixon, DiChiara & Castaldo on 1964 election and Barry Goldwater

Tuesday, August 10, 1971 · 1:10 PM–1:15 PM ET · Oval Office · 4 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); DiChiara, Aldo F.; Castaldo, Crensenzi W.; Bell, George T.; White House photographerConversation559-009 on Tape 559 (tape position 02:16:46–02:21:54)StartTuesday, August 10, 1971 at 1:10 PMEndTuesday, August 10, 1971 at 1:15 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 559-009 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with Aldo F. DiChiara, Crensenzi W. Castaldo, and George T. Bell for a brief ceremonial visit that included a photo opportunity and the presentation of gifts, such as cufflinks and presidential seals. The participants engaged in light conversation regarding the 1964 presidential campaign and Barry Goldwater before discussing Nixon's upcoming speaking engagements, including an address to the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The group also briefly touched upon federal assistance for parochial schools and expressed their organizational support for the President.

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 47% 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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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).
Yeah, I thought so.
I wasn't running for president.
No, you were not, sir.
I was trying to help you out.
That's correct, sir.
And you came to, as we said, that time in Lexington County, and I was running for the 15th congressional district that year.
That was when our friend Marigold was running.
Yeah, that's interesting.
Well, Barry looks a lot better today than he did then, as I do.
Yeah, a lot of people now are beginning to realize that, yeah, he wasn't prepared.
Here we are.
Oh, come on.
I guess I can hang up.
Thank you very much.
I'll be glad to take care of you.
I had to go out throughout the nation, sir, and of course, this goes for all posts and members of this post, and we do have a certain, uh, we have, we have, you know, this is the right experience.
Also, I'd like to point out, you had a word with that man, his, uh, on it as a message, and I'm sorry about that.
It was a connection to what they both, both Nixon's war.
So, pick up.
Put that in on that.
If you will, go to the director and get ready for that interview.
And, uh, as I told you, uh, Val, you are going to send all this to me, Sam, to make sure that you do not.
Just one other thing.
For our present, I've been asked to have you fire at the Morpho Regiment, which here we are in person.
You're going to bring them back to some of our people.
They're not going to be able to make it in before it's too late.
Mr. President, we're behind you 100%.
Well, we say that we're behind you, too.
Thank you very much, Mr. President.
The organization is really a mere invention.
I get it that you've been hooked up on me to be a president this year.
You know, this will be the first time our President of the United States ever addressed the National Guard.
That's true.
Isn't that correct?
I didn't know that, but that inspired me, and I said, okay, I'll go.
It's a great organization.
Yes, it's not my level.
They are a very great organization.
Every agency is kind of...
Oh, I know, I know.
I mean, it's correct that you support us on it.
One thing, of course, we try to help out on it.
The Supreme Court, when our Supreme Court president, you know, the Supreme Court office out of the box was at the, you know, trying to get us some assistance for your, for the broken school.
Yeah.
We argued the case, the case that we were arguing on it.
There's the president of the Congress.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. President, for your wife.
Thank you very much.
This is the beast that was made the CEO of the President of the United States of America.
His daughter.
Oh, yes.
Thank you very much.
This is the presidential office.
This is the president of the House of Seals.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you, sir.

NARA Description

On August 10, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, Aldo F. DiChiara, Crensenzi W. Castaldo, George T. Bell, and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 1:10 pm to 1:15 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 559-009 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 559-009

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

Date: August 10, 1971
Time: 1:10 pm - 1:15 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Aldo F. DiChiara, Cresenzi W. Castaldo, and George T. Bell; the White
House photographer and members of the press were present at the beginning of the meeting.
[The recording begins while the conversation is already in progress]

     Castaldo's name

**********************************************************************

[Previous PRMPA Personal Returnable (G) withdrawal reviewed under deed of gift 06/14/2019.
Segment cleared for release.]
[Personal Returnable]
[559-009-w001]
[Duration: 41s]

     1964 election
          -The President’s campaign work
          -Barry M. Goldwater, Sr.

**********************************************************************

     Presentation of gifts
     Plaque

     Photograph

     Expression of support for President

     President's schedule
           -Convention
           -Veterans of Foreign Wars [VFW]
                 -Dallas
           -Knights of Columbus

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

      Parochial schools
           -Federal assistance
                 -Supreme Court

      Presentation of gifts
           -Cufflinks
           -Gold balls
                 -Presidential seals

DiChiara, et al. left at 1:15 pm.

**********************************************************************

[Previous archivists categorized this section as unintelligible. It has been rereviewed and
released 06/14/2019.]
[Unintelligible]
[559-009-w002]
[Duration: 5s]

[This portion of the tape is mostly room noise with some muffled background conversation.]

**********************************************************************

Also recorded on August 10, 1971

  • 068-008 11:54 AM · 25 min — Richard M. Nixon, Sisowath Sirik Matak,Sophia Porson, Ronald L. Ziegler, Oliver ("Ollie") Atkins, Henry A. Kissinger, and members of the press met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 11:54 am and 12:00 pm.
  • 559-007 11:54 AM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 11:54 am and 11:59 am.
  • 559-008 11:59 AM · 1 hr 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Sisowath Sirik Matak, Sophia K. Porson, Oliver F. ("Ollie") Atkins, Henry A. Kissinger, unknown person(s), and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:59 am to 1:04 pm.
  • 559-025 1:04 PM · 11 sec — United States Secret Service agents met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 1:04 pm and 1:10 pm.
  • 559-010 1:15 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House from 1:15 pm to 1:16 pm.
  • 559-011 1:16 PM · 49 sec — President Richard M. Nixon, A. Blaine Huntsman, Jon M. Huntsman, and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 1:16 pm to 1:17 pm.
  • 559-012 1:18 PM · 14 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, and Manolo Sanchez met in the Oval Office of the White House from 1:18 pm to 1:30 pm.
  • 559-013 1:30 PM · 29 sec — Alexander P. Butterfield and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 1:30 pm and 2:31 pm.

All 40 conversations from August 10, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 559-009, August 10, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/559-009 (accessed October 9, 2026).