Conversation 614-024

TapeTape 614StartThursday, November 4, 1971 at 6:28 PMEndThursday, November 4, 1971 at 6:47 PMTape start time02:04:50Tape end time02:18:57ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob")Recording deviceOval Office

On November 4, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the Oval Office of the White House from 6:28 pm to 6:47 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 614-024 of the White House Tapes.

Conversation No. 614-24

Date: November 4, 1971
Time: 6:28 pm - 6:47 pm
Location: Oval Office

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

     The President's previous meeting with Congressmen
          -John Rousselot

     Forthcoming White House dinner for Indira Gandhi
          -Entertainment
               -Ballet

     The President's schedule
          -Cabinet meeting, November 5, 1971
               -The President’s role
                                               28

                          NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

                                      Tape Subject Log
                                        (rev. 10/06)



                -Vice President [Spiro T. Agnew]
                -John A. Scali

Stephen B. Bull entered at an unknown time after 6:28 pm.

     Program for forthcoming dinner for Gandhi
          -Guest list

Bull left at an unknown time before 6:47 pm.

     Guest lists for White House dinners
          -White House staff
          -The President's conversation with Rose Mary Woods
                 -Military
          -White House staff
                 -Henry A. Kissinger
                 -Arrival

Stephen B. Bull entered at an unknown time after 6:28 pm.

     Forthcoming dinner for Gandhi

Bull left at an unknown time before 6:47 pm.

          -Guest list
               -Woods
               -State Department
                      -Advisory Panel on South Asian Relief
               -Maxwell Rabb
               -James A. Perkins
               -Joseph E. Johnson
                      -Wife, Catherine D. W. (Abbot) Johnson
                      -Carnegie Foundation
                           -Alger Hiss

     Guest lists for White House dinners
          -Woods
          -Charles W. Colson

     The President's welcoming remarks for Gandhi
          -Content
                                            29

                         NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

                                     Tape Subject Log
                                       (rev. 10/06)
                                                              Conv. No. 614-24 (cont.)


               -US-India relationship
          -Dissemination to press
               -Ronald L. Ziegler
               -Kissinger
               -Ziegler
               -Scali

     The President's schedule
          -Leonard Garment
                -Schedule
          -Kissinger
          -John C. Whitaker
          -William E. Timmons
                -Woods

     Timmons

     The President's schedule
          -Dwight L. Chapin
          -Guests' workload
          -William P. Rogers

     Forthcoming dinner for Gandhi
          -Guest list
               -Gandhi
                      -Charisma
               -Indians
               -Arthur F. Burns
               -Frank F. Church

     Guest lists for White House dinners
          -Haldeman
                 -Alexander P. Butterfield
                 -Forthcoming conversation with Woods

Manolo Sanchez entered at an unknown time after 6:28 pm.

     Weather

     Music box
                                             30

                          NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

                                     Tape Subject Log
                                       (rev. 10/06)
                                                                   Conv. No. 614-24 (cont.)


     Visitors to Oval Office

     Forthcoming dinner for Gandhi
          -Entertainment
               -Ballet

The President, Haldeman and Sanchez left at 6:47 pm.

This transcript was generated automatically by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite this transcript as authoritative. Consult the Finding Aid above for verified information.

Well, if they were, it was good to spend a little time with them.
You know, just go out and make a little help.
A lot of times they may go out and
Did Russo get them?
Yeah.
Good.
Rally?
It's a little gorgeous, huh?
Makes it all worthwhile.
That's all right.
I thought it was a great accompaniment.
Excuse that.
I'll go back.
I didn't apologize.
I want to be heard.
We don't need live dancing.
I'm just great.
I'm fine.
I don't like it.
The only thing I ever liked about ballet was the music.
Yeah.
So I despise it, and I'll close my eyes.
Ballet is great.
This is the music.
That's all I despise about it.
Good God, oh, I can't be any more.
Well, but just bury it.
You know, you just give him a shot and leave.
And that's all set up.
He's taken away his mind.
Well,
No, it's not off.
It goes far away.
And when you scale it up, you're all right, I've got it.
And he's really cranked up.
He's all set to really go.
Okay.
Copy of the program you have for the entertainment tonight.
Yes, sir.
I understand.
I know what the program is.
I want to see what the guests are looking at.
And you should always be able to spy on them, too.
He's got an amnesia.
Hard working people realize you have to go through this shit ass list to see who the hell is kind.
So that I can recognize everybody.
Because the people that are used to do the best they can are most of them.
Don't you, don't we have to tell you what you know?
I don't have to do it.
I believe that we can cut down our own statues.
I got that through the road.
She said, what do you want?
She's lucky.
And you've covered the military establishment.
And now I don't want to quit.
I'll go to a good job.
We should be happy to pick one.
Let's just not have people bother the future, except for Kissinger, who've been to dinners before.
Would that be a good idea?
On our own staff.
Let's just do that.
I don't think you need to let them come to the after dinner.
If they come to the after dinner, then they should come in a special way.
Come right in after coffee.
They'll come with the other moms and come and eat together.
See what I mean?
Yeah.
You see, the dinner is just a bullshit thing anyway.
So have them come in right there and talk to you at that time.
I bet you use these for all the work, huh?
Yep.
Well, Rose, I've got a track on this one.
Somebody from the goddamn State Department put 50 people on them.
The Indian America Society.
Well, Steve, there's some relief.
Advisory panel on South Asian relief.
Well, I've got them.
They don't need to come to this event.
I'll put them on the panel.
That's enough.
Yeah, Max Drive.
Max Drive shouldn't get his feet in this White House.
Jim Perkins.
Perkins is a follow-up.
Joe Johnson.
The Carnegie Foundation and the Love of Wings Foundation.
Yes, I know who he is.
Oh, yes.
Yes, Bob.
We're doing a good enough job, and he says I know that it's very sensitive roles, but, you know, we're not going to have any more dinners, but I just don't think that we ought to let the activists get in here and force things on the list that should be on it.
Bob, yes.
Yeah, and the guy, well, I'll get, who is the guy?
No, Charlie Colson's the guy whose name should be on the list, because he's the one that's got the names of the, you know, the people who do some political good.
And that, he's the guy who's got my name on the list.
Because I do not like to do people's work.
Well, I don't think people would appreciate me before I get some labor guy who's got a terrible record.
They won't let him in.
I want you to be made a character, particularly, if you will, in the reading that I gave when she came in.
Right?
Because it was a goddamn, it was a, it was a special line about not bound by dreams, but by a higher morality and so forth and so on.
And the sunshine's in her relation.
How do you give that to somebody to see if maybe, just maybe, if you get the conversation, right?
One of the major purposes is not to get it in the column, to get our people like wrong, to get us thinking about it.
See, Ron saw the point of it.
Maybe he did.
You know, sometimes.
And he may see more of it than I realize.
It's not his job, because he basically has to do anything.
But he looks for stuff like that, and that was one of the best ones.
And Henry was the first to recognize it.
And I did it, of course, myself, because I spent some time on it.
Goddamn, I just want to see.
Do you want to do a report?
Yep.
Or anybody else?
If they did, they need somebody.
Yep.
You know, I wonder if anybody else is going to go over to the side and just see that.
I think Garnison has to stay here because he's got to do some arts pencil thing this weekend.
Definitely.
I'm trying to think where he's worked here.
You can think of anybody else.
Yes, there's one other which, well, no, that...
I thought it was just Bill Timmons.
It was actually really Buzz Hacker's ass and X.
You've heard it.
I couldn't agree more.
I want to do a frazzle that never gets in on anything like that.
You know, these results, I'm going to try to improve on them.
And the basis is that I want to be there to watch the bulls and so forth, sir.
Now there's a kind of a...
Here's a kind of a... Oh, he is.
He's going to go to the library.
He's going to go to the way back.
That's right.
The boy that you met.
But he bothers us too much.
He has a very high... As you know, for you and anybody else who goes, the kid and so forth, whenever you go, it's a total cool birdie.
And he has to have to go to the rest room.
People say, gee whiz, only the people in the present dispose of the present.
They would go, we don't need to go.
You know, it's that bullshit.
And I just, there was some of that, you know, I'm curious.
They know that, they don't.
Well, no, they know that you have to.
People who are there don't give a shit about anything.
Most of them.
The ones who've been, well, they know who we're.
Because they're on the phone to us all the time, I'm sure.
Oh, it's good to do.
It's very good to do.
Oh, it's good to do.
I wouldn't have it.
I wouldn't have it.
How's that it?
You know, is there any way you can get Wally?
Don't have Alex go through with it.
She doesn't get it off of him.
But I think you could do it with Rose.
She wants to do the right thing.
And she does.
She carries on that line.
She's skillful at it.
But I really believe it would.
It's worth my time.
Because the time is so precious.
Remember, it's the time we spend in here.
We're going to see some assholes.
And it's worth my time.
Yeah.
All right, good.
Stand there.
It's one thing to tell a guy that some great people are in the office and you've got to show them something.
Well, that's what I've heard with the kids.
We love that one.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, that's nice.
Well, okay.
Get a lovely nice dinner tonight.
Thank you.
Oh, yeah, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you.