Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 584 › Conversation 584-005

Nixon, Woods & Bull on Official Photography and Presidential Health

Tuesday, October 5, 1971 · 1:11 PM–1:25 PM ET · Oval Office · 15 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Woods, Rose Mary; Bull, Stephen B.Conversation584-005 on Tape 584 (tape position 04:01:44–04:16:34)StartTuesday, October 5, 1971 at 1:11 PMEndTuesday, October 5, 1971 at 1:25 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 584-005 ↗ · National Archives Catalog, NAID 417179127 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with his personal secretary Rose Mary Woods and aide Stephen B. Bull to address various administrative and personal tasks. The discussion covered drafting correspondence to medical staff, organizing a guest list for church services, and reviewing potential official photographs for distribution to friends. Additionally, the President discussed his personal wardrobe preferences and emphasized the importance of maintaining his health and schedule to manage the demands of the presidency.

Audio

Download MP3 · 33.7 MB

NARA Description

On October 5, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, Rose Mary Woods, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 1:11 pm to 1:25 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 584-005 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 584-5

Date: October 5, 1971
Time: 1:11 pm - 1:25 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Rose Mary Woods.

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 18s ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

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Stephen B. Bull entered at an unknown time after 1:11 pm.

     The President's schedule
          -Barber

Bull left at 1:15 pm.

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 52s ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2

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     Letter to medical staff of unknown hospital
           -Sending Presidential gifts

     [Woods took dictation]

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 1m 41s ]
Show the rest of the log (50 more lines)
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3

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     [Dictation ended]

     Guest list for church services
          -Ralph Bateman

         -Perle Mesta
         -Dr. D. Elton Trueblood

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 4m 39s ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4

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    Pictures of the President
          -Japanese
          -The President and Thelma C. (“Pat”) Nixon
                -Wedding of Tricia and Edward R.F. Cox
          -Marjorie P. Acker
          -Possible recipients
          -Official family portrait
          -Julie Nixon Eisenhower
          -Mrs. Nixon
          -Possible recipients

    The President's schedule
         -Speech, October 7, 1971
              -Woods’ schedule
                     -Typing of speech

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 6
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 1m 50s ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 6

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

Woods left at 1:25 pm.

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 3 minutes of this recording (about 19% 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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Oh, wow.
How are you doing?
I'm fine, thank you.
You look fine.
Much better.
Well, it's a little like I have an eagle.
That's a good match.
It's all better.
I mean, it's real bright red.
It's as bright as my whole body.
It's great to be out here.
Sir, if you'd just like to see what he's done.
He's a great guy.
He's a partner.
All right, sir.
He is here.
Oh, when would you like to see him?
That's really the only thing.
You don't have anything until three.
Two-thirty.
Two-thirty.
It looks like you got the colors right.
Yeah.
They're really nice.
I'll, you know, I'll give you a little... Yeah, Peter's been knocked down.
Just to get rid of you a little.
Just to get rid of y'all.
I thought they'd be all sorry.
Horrible.
Horrible.
You know, with so much in that, that guest bedroom is really, if you ever spend any time resting, it's a great spot because with the door open, you just look right out into that lovely courtyard.
And it was just wonderful.
Those doctors at both hospitals, the California and the Polk, like, it was just absolutely marvelous.
Shall we start it up?
I don't know if I'd rather write a letter than read this to the captain.
He's running back to the hospital.
That's one of the few members of my family that's here to be unstoppable.
Back to the back.
Oh, this is a good one.
Here.
So it's to me and my responsibilities.
Some of the old people were trying to do the same thing.
But thanks to the parish, it's always so hard.

— 1 min 55 s with no transcribed speech —

Oh, I'll check that.
Oh, hey, I saw them out there.
They might be good ones to have.
And if you don't have an old girl, that's a good time.
We'll have this quater this time of year.
Another thing I'd like you to check with the interior there, I have some new suits mapped out.
We have changed the style a little in terms of the colors and so forth.
I have several suits that I particularly like in terms of coverage, et cetera, that I would, if they ain't useful,
I think maybe he offered one time to maybe change something.
While you're thinking about clothes, uh, Duke Rose called, uh, called, you know, Bowers down there.
He, uh,
Keep changing, you know, while he goes on.
Yeah, is that all?
She's probably.
She's still a washing machine.
That's her mom.
Probably.
She's probably.
I don't know where she is.
Hey, what?
He has several kinds that make slacks, different types, and he's going to send you a lot of different ones.
He's got the major thing.
The major thing is...
He wants to know if you want cuffs or not cuffs for any golf slacks.
He doesn't wear cuffs on his golf slacks because they get... No, I would like to try them without cuffs.
The only thing that I would suggest is that for slacks, I don't like them too tight.
And that's why I like them pleated.
In the slide, I'm going to go about these real tiny things.
I like a really long line.
And I like to have this sort of thing that likes light batteries, you know, just because sometimes I can do very warm places.
OK.
He said they had all different colors and different things, and he thought he might enjoy the... And you, do you want all without cuffs or just one?
Sure, I want without cuffs.
He's right.
It didn't get, it just didn't get to the left.
It didn't get to the left.
Well, and Julie, one time she said yesterday, one time she said, Daddy looks so, so well.
She said, I hope he, I think he got a little bit of rest this time, which was so cute.
Thank God.
Yeah, I feel so, as though I don't know what's going on in the world almost.
It's so hard to do that.
It's all right, but isn't that a problem?
I think we've written, well, I did have him write a letter to, you know, George Garrett.
Oh, okay.
Oh, I told him to prepare a letter.
You didn't know him, but I still thought he should write a letter to his wife with him.
I was thinking of a new picture for a reserve, too.
The one we're using now, we used for the Japanese, is the one at the wedding, which is a great picture.
Don't you think so?
I think it's nice.
And I was thinking we might send that to a few people.
What would you think of that?
That'd be good.
Well, she can't do it.
You know, everybody can't imitate, right?
She can imitate mine.
What's funny is that she can sign things for me.
Well, I'm going to hear it.
Well, I think it's terribly important that you just continue to do it.
But try to get down to it.
Use it.
Use it as much as you can.
It's not a deal.
The other thing is about our, I was thinking that you can discuss this, if you would, Bob, I haven't talked about it, is whether it might be a few of our very close friends would love to have that, you know what I mean, some picture of the, and also we've got a thing in terms of our new picture that you've now improved, which is a great improvement, don't you think?
I thought it was, I had about four or five out of that group that I thought were excellent.
Great improvement.
It goes out.
That's been selected down, everything?
Yeah, I've worked it out.
They select things.
They probably, out of the four, they pick two.
So they're all bad.
And two for a greater use.
Another two would be used for anything, you know.
I thought they were very good.
I think we can even make up a list of friends who would love to have that picture.
We're going to have a speech Thursday night by 7 o'clock, so we won't have to meet you, though.
But we'll talk Thursday.
Well, I'll be fine.
I'm going to go home probably a little early today.
Just to feel so up and up like Wednesday.
Tomorrow I'll be stronger.
I'll be stronger every day.
Yeah, it's awfully hard to come back.
Julie said he had some kind of pink grouper.
Is it a grouper?
That looks good.
I bet he was so sweet.
Being in your house was so wonderful.
That's such a lovely spot.
Well, the night, the last night we were there, we had one of those fucks that you saw one time where the whole sky was red and looking through those trees.
It was amazing.
So subtle, isn't it?
I know.
It's the other one.
You know, I had been going to some lady and her, we had...
I'm just going to do this.
I'm going to take off my, every three weeks in Florida, come hell or high water.
And I believe you can't live.
You've just got to stay in shape in this job state.
And, you know, I don't have the other parents of that creation.
Like, I don't see movies during the week.
And I don't do it.
play bridge and I don't play golf.
You know, I just figured that you could just wear yourself down a little bit.
You have to stay up for hours and hours.
Three or four days down there is good for me.
I feel better.
Well, when you look, yeah, you look great.
Better is part of the reason we live.
I saw him for a minute on the property.
He was so, he was so lazy to sing.
He's just a nice person.
Oh, he's great.

Also recorded on October 5, 1971

  • 584-004 1:11 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods met in the Oval Office of the White House at 1:11 pm.
  • 584-006 1:25 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 1:25 pm and 1:32 pm.
  • 584-007 1:25 PM · 16 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 1:25 pm and 1:32 pm.
  • 584-008 2:13 PM · 19 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, Stephen B. Bull, and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House from 2:13 pm to 2:29 pm.
  • 584-009 2:29 PM · 29 sec — unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 2:29 pm and 11:59 pm.
  • 585-001 3:03 PM · 22 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Dudley Swim, Peter M. Flanigan, White House photographer, Manolo Sanchez, Stephen B. Bull, and Jon M. Huntsman met in the Oval Office of the White House from 3:03 pm to 3:26 pm.
  • 585-002 3:26 PM · 28 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 3:26 pm and 3:27 pm.
  • 585-003 3:26 PM · 38 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 3:26 pm and 3:27 pm.

All 40 conversations from October 5, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 584-005, October 5, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives (NAID 417179127). Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/584-005 (accessed November 2, 2026).