Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 574 › Conversation 574-010

Nixon, Ziegler & Bull on Press Relations and Racial Politics

Friday, September 17, 1971 · 12:01 PM–12:05 PM ET · Oval Office · 6 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Ziegler, Ronald L.; Bull, Stephen B.Conversation574-010 on Tape 574 (tape position 03:08:36–03:15:07)StartFriday, September 17, 1971 at 12:01 PMEndFriday, September 17, 1971 at 12:05 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 574-010 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with Press Secretary Ronald Ziegler and aide Stephen Bull to coordinate responses to potential press inquiries following the President's recent news conference. The discussion focused on maintaining a firm stance against political speculation regarding a Black vice-presidential candidate and clarifying U.S. economic relations with Japan. Additionally, the group finalized arrangements for the President to pose for photographs at the White House bowling alley.

Audio

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Position in tape: 03:08:36 – 03:15:07

part B, 1:07:17

574a.mp3
574b.mp3

NARA Description

On September 17, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, Ronald L. Ziegler, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:01 pm to 12:05 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 574-010 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 574-10

Date: September 17, 1971
Time: 12:01 pm - 12:05 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Ronald L. Ziegler.

     Announcement
         -Additional event
              -Bowling

     Press relations
           -Edmund S. Muskie's statement on a Black Vice President

          -Possible questions directed at Ziegler
          -Black Vice President
               -Potential candidacy
               -Propriety of White House response on issue
               -Preferences of electorate
          -Black President
          -Voting prerogatives
          -Creed or color
          -US people
               -Voting for Presidents
     -Trade
          -Canada
               -Ziegler’s possible responses
               -Jim Deakin of St. Louis Post-Dispatch
                     -Japan
                           -US position
                           -Overseas
                                 -Customer
                           -As US customer
                     -Canada
                           -Japan compared to Canada
                           -Overseas relations
                     -Japan
                           -Overseas customer
                                 -Percentage
                           -Exports
                                 -US

The President’s news conferences of September 16, 1971
     -Press reaction
Show the rest of the log (30 more lines)
          -Peter A. Lisagor
          -Ziegler’s comments
                -Story
          -Stories
     -Vietnam
          -Ngo Dinh Diem
          -Nguyen Van Thieu

The President's schedule
     -Upcoming meeting with bowlers
          -Pictures

                      -Bowling alley

Stephen B. Bull entered at an unknown time after 12:01 pm..

     The President's schedule
          -Group
                -Size
          -Picture
                -White House photographer [Oliver F. (“Ollie”) Atkins]
          -Bowling alley
          -Press
                -Location
          -Photographs
                -Slides
          -Executive secretary
                -Introduction

Ziegler and Bull left at 12:05 pm.

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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Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).

I may get one of our enemies out there to question along this line.
Ron, going back to President's remarks in press conference yesterday on the black vice president, does the president feel that a black vice president could win?
No, no, no.
The President will not discuss, and you as the press secretary will not discuss, will not go into the... Will not add to what you said.
Will not add to what I said.
The President's statement is complete.
I'm not going to go on.
I don't want you to get into the political side.
I'm simply... You could simply say that what the President said was that he believes that...
that to suggest to suggest that the American people is that the American people are will vote down.
Vote their presence.
I think it's said so well.
I do, too.
I just wanted to get a feel of it.
I was going to say, well, the main thing is to get a more political question out of the president.
I don't have an answer.
I think that's the best way to go.
I agree.
I just wanted to get your feel out of it.
I don't have an answer.
I don't have an answer.
But I don't want to say that, because that's, I think, I think what I should say to the President, I'm not going to get into it.
The President said yesterday that he doesn't believe that the American people would or should vote against any man because of race, creed, color, period.
That attempt to suggest that the American people, and it's not, will be motivated primarily by prejudice, I think is a misjudgment.
I don't know that this will come up.
I just know that we did it.
I didn't want to go that far.
I heard a little point that was great.
You were quiet about the phrase that Canada doesn't cover the present.
If they ask you to come cover it, but it wasn't all who asked the question.
It wasn't who was.
who said I have the confidence to go.
Jim Beacon.
Jim Beacon, the central justice.
Jim Beacon, the central justice.
What is it?
What I was referring to is that Japan is our biggest overseas customer.
Right.
We are Japan's biggest customer.
We migrate to all of Japan's ex-worlds.
They are our biggest overseas customer.
Right.
As a matter of fact, with Canada, you could buy something just because of that.
You could do that.
It comes very close to Japan.
I don't think there'll be a follow-up.
You might just, if you think it's no good, you just might say our biggest overseas customer.
He gets flattered, though, if I walk up to him.
Yeah, that's a pretty good sensation.
That's just a second.
What I meant to say is that Japan is our biggest overseas customer.
It's bigger than any customer in Europe.
It's bigger overseas.
In the Americas, it wasn't related to Asia.
It wasn't related to China and so forth.
that we are, of course, Japan's biggest customer.
About 30% is the biggest price of all of Japan's exports sold to the United States.
Good.
Well, it seems that they have said, you know, I know this was a good, you know, they seem to have quite a good reaction.
Yes, they have.
Well, they're very positive, aren't they?
They're very positive.
They were, yes, they did.
As I mentioned to a couple of people, the sword was out in the sheet and back in it so fast.
Now, I'm sorry.
I'm on the cuspy thing.
That was beautiful.
And that's their general reaction to it.
Just because they didn't, they didn't have a lot of E.R.
columns.
Well, they did.
There were stories.
Yes, they handled it quite well.
One thing that I have taken from both of you is, in fact, the way you got into the office by murder in the end, the way to get out is not the murder queue.
Right.
Right.
Right.
I guess whatever I meant.
I'm sorry if I'm wrong, but you should have stayed up to the time.
I told you what several of them said, and you were really late.
I don't know how long that was.
I think I'm going to take that picture here.
Well, there's some discussion about you going over the bowling alley in town.
Let's see what we've got.
Thank you.
There are nine people.
If you'd like to just bring me in here so that we can meet you.
Yeah.
We can just sit here.
Weigh out some time, then take a picture, and then walk over to the bowling alley.
If you're going to have to press over there, you better get down there.

Also recorded on September 17, 1971

  • 574-006 11:29 AM · 11 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:29 am to 11:41 am.
  • 574-007 11:41 AM · 29 sec — Alexander P. Butterfield and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 11:41 am and 11:43 am.
  • 574-008 11:41 AM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Stephen B. Bull, unknown person(s), and Kay Gardella met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 11:41 am and 11:43 am.
  • 009-061 11:43 AM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Kay Gardella talked on the telephone from 11:43 am to 11:45 am.
  • 009-062 11:45 AM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 11:45 am and 4:28 pm.
  • 574-009 11:45 AM · 13 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Jack F. Kemp, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:45 am to 12:01 pm.
  • 574-011 12:05 PM · 6 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Aida L. Gonzalez, Edwin R. Luther, Mrs. Edwin R. Luther, Frank K. Baker, Mrs. Albert E. Crowe, Mabel Marrs, Harold Davis, John Meek, Michael Wilson, Henry C. Cashen, II, and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:05 pm to 12:14 pm.
  • 574-012 12:14 PM · 3 min — Alexander P. Butterfield and United States Secret Service agents met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:14 pm and 12:34 pm.

All 38 conversations from September 17, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 574-010, September 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/574-010 (accessed November 10, 2026).