Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 615 › Conversation 615-026

Nixon & Colson on Political strategy and Internal administration

Friday, November 5, 1971 · 12:52 PM–12:55 PM ET · Oval Office · 4 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Colson, Charles W.Conversation615-026 on Tape 615 (tape position 04:39:39–04:43:24)StartFriday, November 5, 1971 at 12:52 PMEndFriday, November 5, 1971 at 12:55 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 615-026 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Charles Colson met briefly to discuss the status of an ongoing, unspecified operation referred to as the 'captain.' The conversation remains largely cryptic due to the informal nature of the exchange and lack of specific context regarding the objective. The participants briefly touched upon the management of public or internal reactions before concluding the discussion.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 1 minute of this recording (about 26% 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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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).
Yeah.
Uh, Chuck?
Oh, uh, I just want to check how the captain is doing.
Good.
Great.
That's a good stroke.
You got a flat finger already out.
You should have cleared it with that.
I don't think it's still good.
Mark, you should have cleared me out with that finger.
That one may be that bad.
A lot of the others, it is just a reaction to the customer.
Yeah.
No.
All right, it better go.
It better go, right?
Oh, did you start to lose air or something after this?
Yeah, if you want to get in, call.
See how he likes it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.

NARA Description

On November 5, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:52 pm to 12:55 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 615-026 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 615-026

Date: November 5, 1971
Time: 12:52 pm - 12:55 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President talked with Charles W. Colson.

[See Conversation No. 13-154]

Also recorded on November 5, 1971

  • 615-018 11:13 AM · 9 sec — United States Secret Service agents met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 11:13 am and 11:20 am.
  • 615-019 11:13 AM · 7 sec — United States Secret Service agents met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 11:13 am and 11:20 am.
  • 615-023 11:21 AM · 1 hr 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Indira Ghandi met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:21 am to 12:20 pm.
  • 615-024 12:20 PM · 55 sec — United States Secret Service agents met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:20 pm and 12:25 pm.
  • 013-153 12:25 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 12:25 pm and 12:52 pm.
  • 615-025 12:25 PM · 24 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:25 pm to 12:49 pm.
  • 013-154 12:52 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson talked on the telephone from 12:52 pm to 12:55 pm.
  • 615-027 12:55 PM · 29 sec — President Richard M. Nixon, John K. Andrews, Jr., John K. Andrews, Sr., and Mrs. John K. Andrews, Sr. met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:55 pm and 12:57 pm.

All 53 conversations from November 5, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 615-026, November 5, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/615-026 (accessed October 12, 2026).