Nixon White House Tapes ›Tape 569 › Conversation 569-012

United States Secret Service agents on Public relations and Media coverage

Friday, September 10, 1971 · 2:05 PM–3:03 PM ET · Oval Office

ParticipantsUnited States Secret Service agentsConversation569-012 onTape 569 (tape position 02:21:02–02:22:48)StartFriday, September 10, 1971 at 2:05 PMEndFriday, September 10, 1971 at 3:03 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 569-012 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with Secret Service agents to discuss the challenges of managing his public image and media relations ahead of the upcoming campaign season. The conversation focused on the influence of the press in shaping public perception and the difficulty of countering unfavorable media coverage. Nixon reflected on his previous electoral experiences to illustrate how media narratives can negatively impact a candidate's polling lead regardless of their actual performance.

Audio

Download MP3 (part 1) · 170.7 MB ·Download MP3 (part 2) · 32.1 MB

This conversation has not yet been cut into its own clip, so the player above contains the full tape segment shared with neighbouring conversations. It begins about 02:21:02 into the tape and ends around 02:22:48.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

Download transcript (.txt) ·JSON data · Timestamps are positions within the full tape recording.

2:21:04That's the one force of fear because it's the most potent and least controllable.
2:21:06Well, except that it's got that enormous ability to go over areas of water and at times, and we've got some events to go over areas with the Chinese and the Russians.
2:21:37You've got to go on and do press conferences.
2:21:38Those are events.
2:21:38That's not it.
2:21:38Otherwise, they let the country see you through their eyes.
2:21:39That's the problem with the campaign, though.
2:21:40They need it.
2:21:55You know, we, for example, I put it this way.
2:21:56We came out of the 68th convention on top of an acceptance speech from the faculty.
2:21:58So we had a big one through their eyes.
2:21:59And, you know, we had a very, very substantial lead.
2:22:00Now, actually, we held that thing very well.
2:22:29So I walked through that period.
2:22:30Night after night, they checked us away.
2:22:31No matter what we were doing.
2:22:32They were showing us through their eyes and knocking us down.
2:22:33We'd break our neck.
2:22:34I'd all of a sudden have all of our neck traveling.
2:22:35In a sense, maybe they didn't have much time.
2:22:36I don't know.

NARA Description

On September 10, 1971, United States Secret Service agents met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 2:05 pm and 3:03 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 569-012 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 569-12

Date: September 10, 1971
Time: Unknown between 2:05 pm and 3:03 pm
Location: Oval Office

Unknown men [Secret Service agents] met.

     The President's location
          -Executive Office Building [EOB]

     [Unintelligible]

This recording was cut off at an unknown time before 3:03 pm.

Also recorded on September 10, 1971

  • 569-008 12:36 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:36 pm and 12:39 pm.
  • 569-010 12:39 PM · 52 sec — United States Secret Service agents met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:39 pm and 12:58 pm.
  • 569-011 12:58 PM · 1 hr 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon, unknown person(s), United States Secret Service agents, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, and Manolo Sanchez met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:58 pm to 2:05 pm.
  • 008-083 2:05 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 2:05 pm and 3:53 pm.
  • 276-001 2:05 PM · 2 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 2:05 pm and 3:03 pm.
  • 276-002 2:05 PM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 2:05 pm and 3:03 pm.
  • 276-003 2:05 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 2:05 pm and 3:03 pm.
  • 276-004 3:03 PM · 40 min — President Richard M. Nixon, John D. Ehrlichman, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:03 pm to 3:51 pm.

All 28 conversations from September 10, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 569-012, September 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/569-012 (accessed September 18, 2026).