Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 598 › Conversation 598-001

Nixon & Haldeman

Thursday, October 21, 1971 · 11:42 AM–11:45 AM ET · Oval Office · 1 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob")Conversation598-001 on Tape 598 (tape position 00:00:35–00:01:39)StartThursday, October 21, 1971 at 11:42 AMEndThursday, October 21, 1971 at 11:45 AMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 598-001 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and H. R. Haldeman discussed the efficiency and logistics of scheduling diplomatic credential presentations. Nixon expressed frustration regarding the excessive time currently allocated to these meetings, which included extended conversations with the diplomats. He instructed Haldeman to streamline future sessions by limiting them strictly to photo opportunities to conserve his official schedule.

Audio

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Position in tape: 00:00:35 – 00:01:39

0:33

598a.mp3

NARA Description

On October 21, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 11:42 am and 11:45 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 598-001 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 598-1

Date: October 21, 1971
Time: Unknown between 11:42 am and 11:45 am
Location: Oval Office

The President talked with H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman.

     The President's schedule
          -Presentation of diplomatic credentials
               -Length
               -Photographs

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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

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

There must be some mistake here.

He tells me that this is to be a sit-down meeting.

I'm supposed to have a 15-minute meeting, or a 10-minute meeting with these people, sitting down and talking to them.

Is that right?

I thought it was a picture, but in the future, only pictures of these things.

Just, you give them a sit-down.

Talking points would take 30 minutes if they prepared you to receive them.

But the moment we have it, we're going to be late for the diplomatic thing.

So in the future, only photographs.

But he's, you know, he's .

All right, are you ready?

Also recorded on October 21, 1971

012-034 10:52 AM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone from 10:52 am to 11:04 am.
012-035 10:52 AM · 41 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 10:52 am and 11:04 am.
281-026 10:55 AM · 38 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, White House operator, John B. Connally, and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 10:55 am to 11:40 am.
012-036 11:04 AM · 9 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John B. Connally talked on the telephone from 11:04 am to 11:14 am.
012-037 11:14 AM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 11:14 am and 12:39 pm.
598-002 11:42 AM · 46 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 11:42 am and 11:45 am.
598-003 11:45 AM · 17 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Ruth Voss, Edwin D. Etherington, James W. McLane, Stanley S. Scott, Stephen B. Bull, and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:45 am to 12:06 pm.
598-004 12:06 PM · 1 min — unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:06 pm and 7:28 pm.

All 128 conversations from October 21, 1971 →

Nixon phone call with Bull on Wage and price controls and Edward Heath January 8, 1973 · 7 min
Nixon with unidentified visitors in his EOB office July 1, 1971 · 1 min
Nixon & Haldeman August 15, 1971 · 2 min
Nixon & Bull on Workload management June 4, 1973 · 1 min
Nixon & Butterfield on Henry Kissinger and John Ehrlichman June 22, 1971 · 1 min
Nixon with unidentified visitors in the Oval Office November 24, 1971 · 1 min

Cite this conversation

Conversation 598-001, October 21, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/598-001 (accessed November 12, 2026).