Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 579 › Conversation 579-007
Nixon, Haldeman & Bull on Hugo L. Black and Supreme Court
Tuesday, September 28, 1971 · 3:06 PM–3:15 PM ET · Oval Office · 8 min
AI Summary
President Nixon met with H. R. Haldeman and Stephen B. Bull to vent his frustration regarding his recent attendance at the funeral of Supreme Court Justice Hugo L. Black. Nixon characterized the decision to attend as a significant political error, arguing that it provided no genuine benefit to his administration's relationship with the public or the judiciary while fueling liberal expectations for future judicial appointments. He explicitly instructed his staff to stop pressuring him into similar ceremonial appearances, labeling the advice to attend as poorly conceived.
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Transcript (AI-generated)
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I've got to get it as soon as I can.
I'll have it right at work at the goddamn thing.
I'll have it right after the meeting.
But I don't know what the situation is.
The thought is, though, you think it's about 7.30 or 8 o'clock and I'm going to get into dinner before then.
As I understand it, it's
You've got to be an Italian guy to do what he's done to me.
The minister?
Yeah.
Terrible son of a bitch.
He's the most political one.
Well, I mean, I'm older, but that's what I want to be.
Smart.
I don't want all these people to be lost.
Yeah.
You should have put me through without that.
Yeah.
You got it there, man.
You got it on.
Make a straight-up business out of blacks.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
That's the last.
I'll do Harlins.
I happen to have to do Harlins now.
But I'm not going to do any more, and I've got that and that black guy.
I mean, that Marshal.
I'm not going to be a general.
I'm just not going to go.
It's a wrap.
I don't want the staff to think I proved this now.
I just want you to know that I went 100 degrees.
And after having gone, I think it was a very bad mistake.
I agree.
I think it was a bad mistake to have been there.
It's like going to that goddamn White House Correspondents thing.
Exactly the same.
You should know, as the president, in the position of going to somebody where it wasn't an enemy, you're throwing your proof of a false lie.
Early on, he doesn't understand this.
Even he understands most things.
But early on, he knows it's such a fucking card.
You know?
But God damn it, when is he going to learn that the courts are ending?
That's what we've got to understand.
This court has done this.
We're in this country.
It's convertible.
It's true.
That's right.
He is it.
The courts are made.
He is symbolic.
He is one of the worst.
Absolute worst.
That makes him worse.
He's more of an influence to Paul X. Stewart.
He's a little dumb, but that's why he's an influence.
I don't want the guys around here to think that I'm that dumb.
They've got to think things through a little better.
It's like the things that, it's the same thing that you had to fire Hershey.
The same thing that said go to church on election day and, you know, fire around and call in the college presidents.
Ah, we never, you know, I tell you, it was me, but I have gone weird right now.
having them in, having them in, inviting people, all that sort of thing.
Jesus Christ Almighty, I mean, what more do they want me to do?
I mean, I haven't met.
I mean, I just think it's, I don't think the images help one God in a bit.
We don't get a credit for it.
I was thinking of some, certainly a judge who died, but kind of a service to me that wasn't praised at all.
It's slaughtering.
I don't know about that, but Jesus Christ.
His words to man was the wisdom of the ages.
The death of James Waters is something out of his own.
It was mediocre, even his rhetoric.
One of the facts.
He's smart.
Just a total left-wing liberal.
That's all.
That's why I don't like earning it.
and more, a little better.
I understand Garmin.
He's a left-winger for himself.
God damn it, our conservative should not urge this.
On the ground, I know why they say it's gonna make much, I'll let you know, it'll be about 30 minutes before everybody gets lost.
On the ground, you see, they recommend it.
On the wrong ground.
Now, more than that, they gotta get some goddamn sense in their head, because they're gonna look for advice.
And I don't think that was a good decision.
I really don't think so.
I think it helps an actual one bit to deal with it.
Of course, it's going to help us one goddamn bit.
People will say, well, you went to the funeral.
Why doesn't he appoint a man like Black?
Yeah.
Which is what the whole funeral pitch was about, really.
Hell, sure.
The hell with you and your strict constructionists.
Put a great person in there.
And God, I didn't let the zippers hang a fucking crescent up there.
I hope you didn't inform them until they got there afterwards.
They got there, yeah.
All right.
Just the way I look, what it's about to seem to me is, you know, you get out there just about as fast as you got back to, and you have no answer for it going out.
Except where we got a man running around a few cars earlier there.
No, I tell you, I think this whole, I don't know if you can, it just falls all the time.
Well, we have gained this person here.
Don't you agree?
Yes.
I used to.
Or did you?
No, I didn't.
I didn't.
I think there's some kinds of things we need to gain, but this is kind of what you and I, and this guy, you know, hang in there.
So what the hell harder do you want us to do?
I want you to know that I'm just pissed off about it, and I really think it was insane.
Okay, don't push me again on these, okay?
Cold generals or anything else where we're letting go of those guys.
NARA Description
On September 28, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 3:06 pm to 3:15 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 579-007 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 579-7
Date: September 28, 1971
Time: 3:06 pm - 3:15 pm
Location: Oval Office
The President met with H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman.
The President's schedule
-Forthcoming event with National League of Families convention
-Time
Funeral of Justice Hugo L. Black
-Unknown Unitarian minister
-Euology
-John N. Mitchell
-John D. Ehrlichman
-Strict construction
-Length of service
-Justice John M. Harlan
-The President's attendance
-Justice Thurgood Marshall
-The President's attendance at Justice Black's funeral
-Reaction
-Impact
-The President's position
-Staff
-Compared to White House correspondents' event
-Ehrlichman
-Relationship between administration and Supreme Court
Supreme Court
-Justice Black
-Influence
-Justice Potter Stewart
The President’s schedule
-Tenure of Gen. Lewis B. Hershey
-Kennedy family
Funeral for Justice Black
-Wording of service
-Rhetoric
-Justice Black
-Political stance
-Ehrlichman
-Richard A. Moore
-Leonard Garment
-Conservatives
Stephen B. Bull entered at an unknown time after 3:06 pm.
The President's schedule
Bull left at an unknown time before 3:15 pm.
Funeral for Justice Black
-Reasons for the President's attendance
-Ehrlichman and Moore
-Mitchell
-Press corps
-Ronald L. Ziegler
-Escorts for the President
-Value to the President's attendance
-Patrick J. Buchanan
-The President’s handwritten note
-Liberals
The President and Haldeman left at 3:15 pm.Also recorded on September 28, 1971
- 579-006 3:05 PM · 47 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at 3:05 pm.
- 077-007 3:15 PM · 38 min — President Richard M. Nixon and members of the Organization of African Unity, including Moktar Ould Daddah, Hamdi Ould Mouknass, Dr. Njoroge Mungai, Capt. Charles Sissoko, Elijah Mudenda, Jean Keutcha, Diallo Telli, Mohamed Sahnoun, William P. Rogers, Henry A. Kissinger, Emil ("Bus") Mosbacher, Jr., David D. Newsome, W. Marshall Wright, Robert Bruce, Alec G. Toumayan, and members of the press, met in the Cabinet Room of the White House from 3:15 pm to 3:52 pm.
- 579-008 3:59 PM · 13 min — President Richard M. Nixon, John C. Stennis, Gordon L. Allott, Leslie C. Arends, F. Edward Hébert, Melvin R. Laird, Clark MacGregor, William E. Timmons, Peter M. Flanigan, Ronald L. Ziegler, and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 3:59 pm to 4:13 pm.
- 579-009 4:14 PM · 7 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Manolo Sanchez, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Stephen B. Bull, and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:14 pm to 4:23 pm.
- 010-011 4:21 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone from 4:21 pm to 4:22 pm.
- 010-012 4:23 PM · 12 sec — Ronald L. Ziegler and Julie Nixon Eisenhower talked on the telephone from 4:23 pm to 4:55 pm.
- 010-013 4:23 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 4:23 pm and 4:55 pm.
- 579-010 4:23 PM · 1 hr 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon, White House operator, Hugh Scott, Robert P. Griffin, Gerald R. Ford, Leslie C. Arends, Clark MacGregor, Ronald L. Ziegler, George P. Shultz, John D. Ehrlichman, Julie Nixon Eisenhower, and Charles W. Colson met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 4:23 pm and 5:21 pm.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 579-007, September 28, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/579-007 (accessed October 2, 2026).