Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 596 › Conversation 596-023

Nixon, Meares & Lawry on Multiple Sclerosis

Tuesday, October 19, 1971 · 12:23 PM–12:30 PM ET · Oval Office

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Meares, Charles W. V.; Lawry, Sylvia; Cole, Kenneth R., Jr.; White House photographer; Bull, Stephen B.Conversation596-023 on Tape 596 (tape position 02:10:25–02:18:13)StartTuesday, October 19, 1971 at 12:23 PMEndTuesday, October 19, 1971 at 12:30 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 596-023 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with representatives of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, including Sylvia Lawry and Charles W. V. Meares, to discuss the organization's ongoing medical research efforts. During the visit, the group presented the President with a Paul Revere-style silver tray to commemorate the society’s 20th anniversary and acknowledge his support for voluntary service. Following the presentation and photo session, Stephen B. Bull briefly joined the President to review scheduling matters.

  • Multiple Sclerosis
  • National Multiple Sclerosis Society
  • Voluntary service
  • Presidential gifts
  • Medical research

Audio

Download MP3 (part 1) · 167.9 MB ·Download MP3 (part 2) · 124.8 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 02:10:25 into the tape and ends around 02:18:13.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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.
2:11:48Okay, this is a presentation of the National Sports Society of the U.S. Army of the United States.
2:11:58The U.S. Army of the United States has been out there.
2:12:03They started a little press photo on this.
2:12:06The U.S. Army of the United States has been out there.
2:12:08They started a little press photo on this.
2:12:09The U.S. Army of the United States has been out there.
2:12:45You can hold on to that.
2:12:47Oh, Mr. President, this is Mr. Bill DeLaurie.
2:12:50How are you, Mr. President?
2:12:51How are you, Mr. President?
2:12:54Very good to see you.
2:12:55Pleasure to see you.
2:12:57What do we want?
2:12:58Well, we can air this up somewhere.
2:12:59I want to set you up with a picture.
2:13:01Oh, yeah.
2:13:01I don't have a picture.
2:13:05You will see that with any course you have to be certain that you are on the right track.
2:13:06You are about to be lucky.
2:13:07This is a very, very long and, from all standards, I bet it wasn't even clear that early.
2:13:09No, it wasn't clear that early.
2:13:22Excuse me.
2:13:22I'll speak to the rest of you.
2:13:23No, I'm just going to turn.
2:13:24Thank you.
2:13:24Thank you.
2:13:24Thank you.
2:13:46your resources, and finally, your greatest concern is that it has no cost to privatize your funds for MSP resources.
2:13:48It's estimated that around $500,000 in American dollars will be sold to the public for your services.
2:14:07and a lot of the movement and the members are ready with various problems in their lives and problems in their dreams.
2:14:15We hope for you to be blessed and blessed.
2:14:16Thank you.
2:14:23We know that true progress can only be made with 100 years.
2:14:43People throughout the country voluntarily respond to our continuing appeal for the purpose of having on us a network of research and social media.
2:14:55We thank you for your concern and commitment to the voluntary movement for which our society is a part.
2:15:03And to mark our 20th anniversary, it is a special honor to present you with this silver tray, which represents an expression of both the worth and the words of one of this nation's first volunteers, Paul Javierz.
2:15:18The tray itself, a reproduction of an 18th century design,
2:15:25And Lord, at Cologne and Greensburg, on Paul Revere's alma mater, commemorates the 20th anniversary of the Society and gratefully acknowledges the presidential support and gift to its continuing service to mankind.
2:15:41The inscription, from the rare public speech by Paul Revere, seems to us to capture the spirit of the voluntary movement, and at the same time expresses so well the guiding principle of the National Multicultural Society.
2:15:59It reads, May we so square our actions through life as to shelter the world of mankind that we mean to live within the compass of good citizens.
2:16:09Board is at July 4th, 79th.
2:16:11Mr. President, please accept Mr. Trey's deep appreciation of your continuing support of voluntary actions and our own society's work.
2:16:25Well said.
2:16:26Thank you very much.
2:16:28And I think Mr. Trey is commemorating in front of the anniversary of his death.
2:16:38a lot of people, all of their, they inspire a lot of people to support a lot of people across the country.
2:16:41I'm here to think about all of those grosses in the department.
2:16:43Thank you.
2:16:43And the fact that there's people who do not afford to do things like that.
2:16:45That's the reason they're all, they're young people, and that's, you know, that'd be life-threatening.
2:16:47And I don't know if that's the reason.
2:16:48I'm here to talk to them.
2:16:49Yeah, I'm here to talk to them.
2:16:50I'm here to talk to them.
2:16:50I'm here to talk to them.
2:17:10Thank you very much.
2:17:12July 4th.
2:17:14As far as we know, the only other public speech that we have made was at the British Academy.
2:17:24Yeah, right.
2:17:25Other than that, no.
2:17:26What a no.
2:17:27All right.
2:17:29Now, would you like to get the picture, too, if you could?
2:17:38This is for you.
2:17:39This is for you.
2:17:39This is for you.
2:17:39This is for you.
2:17:40This is for you.
2:17:40This is for you.
2:17:40This is for you.
2:17:41This is for you.
2:18:00Now, you were the first to present your document.
2:18:01I just wanted to make sure of that.
2:18:02What it is is a seal of your sentence as a student here.
2:18:03There it is.
2:18:03Thank you.
2:18:03There it is for you to sign.
2:18:04All right.
2:18:04It's a small thing.
2:18:05You've got to have something to do with it.
2:18:06It's a long time coming.
2:18:06I don't know if you remember the day.
2:18:07Well, I don't remember.
2:18:07I suppose you're off here.

NARA Description

On October 19, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, Charles W. V. Meares, Sylvia Lawry, Kenneth R. Cole, Jr., White House photographer, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:23 pm and 12:30 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 596-023 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 596-23

Date: October 19, 1971
Time: Unknown between 12:23 pm and 12:30 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Charles W. V. Meares, Sylvia Lawry, and Kenneth R. Cole, Jr.
[Members of the press and the White House photographer were present at the beginning of the
meeting]

     Introductions
           -Weather

     Photographs

     Multiple Sclerosis research

     Presentation of Paul Revere tray to the President
          -Support to National Multiple Sclerosis Society
          -Paul Revere

     Photographs

     Presentation of Presidential gifts

     Meares
         -New York

     Scientific research
          -Multiple Sclerosis
          -Cancer

     The President's appreciation

Meares, et al. left and Bull entered at 12:30 pm.

     Bull's schedule
           -Television appearance
                -Two imposters

Bull left at an unknown time before 12:31 pm.

Also recorded on October 19, 1971

  • 596-005 12:14 PM · 1 min — unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:14 pm to 12:15 pm.
  • 596-006 12:15 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:15 pm and 12:17 pm.
  • 596-007 12:17 PM · 47 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:17 pm to 12:18 pm.
  • 596-008 12:23 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at 12:23 pm.
  • 596-009 12:23 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at 12:23 pm.
  • 596-010 12:30 PM · 24 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:30 pm and 12:31 pm.
  • 596-011 12:31 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Stephen B. Bull, Ross Tomkins, Charlton (Rink) ("Rink") Reynders, and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:31 pm to 12:33 pm.
  • 080-003 12:33 PM · 11 min — Stephen B. Bull and unknown person(s) met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 12:33 pm and 11:59 pm.

All 93 conversations from October 19, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 596-023, October 19, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/596-023 (accessed September 28, 2026).