Nixon White House Tapes ›Tape 563 › Conversation 563-010

Nixon & Colson on Political Strategy and Busing

Friday, August 13, 1971 · 1:47 PM–1:51 PM ET · Oval Office ·4 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Colson, Charles W.Conversation563-010 onTape 563 (tape position 02:39:04–02:43:33)StartFriday, August 13, 1971 at 1:47 PMEndFriday, August 13, 1971 at 1:51 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 563-010 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Charles Colson met to discuss aggressive political strategy, specifically emphasizing the need for the administration to go on the offensive against Democratic rivals and media critics. Nixon instructed Colson to prioritize forcing prominent Democrats—specifically Muskie, Kennedy, and Humphrey—to take public stances on the controversial issue of busing. The President also suggested utilizing this issue to pressure these candidates, particularly among Southern voters, to further the administration's political agenda.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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the means of the Quadrant in about a half hour.

So, uh, do you have anything before we leave?

Quiet, then.

Right.

Keep the damn good speech.

Mm-hmm.

Exactly.

One thing I was going to tell you.

Just virtually everything we do to attack...

I think we should attack.

You've got to set up the strongmen, you've got to attack them for, you don't have the disarmament, you've got to attack them for the, uh, on the economy, you know.

I mean, get, particularly get the war, you know, he had enough brunt to get all the men.

You can hit, hit them harder than that.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Because that's the way that we can get our, the difficulty is.

And it seems that they're just all over us because of these commentators on these issues.

Because basically the other side is attacking and we've got to attack.

I don't see any other way.

I guess it would be negative to tell them to attack us.

I just wondered what you're doing, and I think it's terribly important, it's a top priority assignment, to get Muskie, Kennedy, and Humphrey to stand on bus end.

Have you done anything on that?

Well, well, no.

Get them on this now.

It's a hot issue.

It's a hot issue with these folks.

make statements now and then give them wide publication and apart from that, they won't make statements.

Some grads went up, well, grads went up in the past and circulated so that people, particularly through the South, that these men aren't for busing.

I get a major mail-in to all these people on that of the major editors with regard to this on the who's for busing.

And they put the president's statement in one way and their statement in another to get them in and then out.

I get attacked that hard on the busing issue to get out of that.

Now the other thing is,

I want you to be sure, it didn't get a great play, but it got noticed.

I'm on the early interview yesterday, we fed around particularly the columns in our advocates, because it's a good story, and it's one of the lessons that got nominated.

But nevertheless, nevertheless, if you could keep that one going, that would be a good idea.

Okay.

NARA Description

On August 13, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson met in the Oval Office of the White House from 1:47 pm to 1:51 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 563-010 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 563-10

Date: August 13, 1971
Time: 1:47 pm - 1:51 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President talked with Charles W. Colson.

[See Conversation No. 7-116; two items have been withdrawn from the conversation]

     President's schedule
          -Quadriad


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

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 2m 51s ]


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

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                                            27

                          NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

                                     Tape Subject Log
                                       (rev. 10/06)
                                                               Conv. No. 563-10 (cont.)


     John D. Ehrlichman's interview, August 12, 1971
          -Distribution


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

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 20s ]


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2

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Also recorded on August 13, 1971

007-114 12:32 PM · 43 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Thelma C. ("Pat") (Ryan) Nixon talked on the telephone from 12:32 pm to 12:33 pm.
007-115 12:33 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 12:33 pm and 1:47 pm.
563-007 1:45 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 1:45 pm and 1:47 pm.
563-008 1:45 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 1:45 pm and 1:47 pm.
563-009 1:45 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 1:45 pm and 1:47 pm.
007-116 1:47 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 1:47 pm and 1:51 pm.
563-011 1:54 PM · 31 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, and Manolo Sanchez met in the Oval Office of the White House from 1:54 pm to 2:10 pm.
563-012 2:23 PM · 47 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 2:23 pm and 2:28 pm.

All 18 conversations from August 13, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 563-010, August 13, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/563-010 (accessed September 18, 2026).