Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 627 › Conversation 627-001

Nixon, Haldeman & Butterfield on State of the Union and Foreign Policy

Wednesday, December 1, 1971 · 9:15 AM–10:05 AM ET · Oval Office

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob"); Butterfield, Alexander P.Conversation627-001 on Tape 627 (tape position 00:00:45–00:11:14)StartWednesday, December 1, 1971 at 9:15 AMEndWednesday, December 1, 1971 at 10:05 AMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 627-001 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with H. R. Haldeman and Alexander Butterfield to coordinate his upcoming schedule, specifically balancing personal travel to Florida and California with critical diplomatic and legislative demands. The discussion focused on managing the State of the Union timing in the face of potential Congressional conflicts and strictly curtailing foreign visitor meetings to prioritize administrative focus. Nixon also outlined a long-term strategic timeline for 1972, emphasizing the necessity of clearing his calendar for major diplomatic initiatives, including his upcoming trips to the People's Republic of China and the USSR.

Audio

Download MP3 (part 1) · 167.6 MB ·Download MP3 (part 2) · 68.7 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 00:00:45 into the tape and ends around 00:11:14.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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· Timestamps are positions within the full tape recording.
0:59He's got to work over plans.
1:25All that.
1:26Now you go down there.
1:27And you gotta come out for Christmas, I guess.
1:30And go right back down.
1:32Go down.
1:33It's my work.
1:33I need to look around.
1:35Stay.
1:35Go around.
1:36So you leave.
1:38I don't think it worries me that bad.
1:39I just...
1:40I don't think you can spend that much... You make yourself stay that long in Florida.
1:45I need to...
1:52If you'll slip into the back, it'll work fine.
1:55And you can take some breaks there.
1:56Like, at that time, there's no problem.
1:58Like, if you go back down to the 26th, you can go right out to the island if you wanted to.
2:04Sure.
2:04Come back the morning of the 28th for the run meeting, the night of the 27th.
2:08Like, go to the island.
2:10Or right after the run meeting, you can go out there.
2:14Stay out for a couple of days.
2:16Well, I kind of...
2:17You can see we're trying to work this out so that it's somewhat of a period of application of what you need to do.
2:23And I'm going to try to get rid of the button down there.
2:25I'm going to stick to the union thing because I don't know.
2:42We will come up here for New Year's Day.
2:46Pat, you don't know where the department is.
2:48No, I don't.
2:49I talked to them today and shared that together.
2:52But at any rate, I want to see you gain strongly.
2:55So, I'll stay here.
3:18Stay true tonight.
3:18Henry wants to stay out there and work, and work, and work.
3:26He's fine.
3:27You go to him and say, I'll play it.
3:31Now, in that period, you go out, what's on the second, do you think?
3:36Yes, you might as well.
3:38In that period, we ought to do our telephone person, perhaps.
3:41You're welcome to do that.
3:55Peace out.
4:07I've got to find a way after that truck here.
4:10Back into the... That might be the time to do the three-on-one interview.
4:37I understand it's on the 9th.
4:39It's your birthday all of a sudden.
4:51Yeah.
4:52That would be my account.
5:05I never thought I'd get back here.
5:10If you haven't had Thursday and Friday, you'll probably have to come back here on Saturday.
5:17Maybe not.
5:18Depends what time of day Tom gets back.
5:20I think we can come back Friday, because I thought it would be true.
5:30Yeah.
5:31If you want to, do you want to come back Friday?
5:37What do you do here?
5:37You can make sure I stand up here.
5:54There's a lot of things on Monday and Thursday.
5:56It's back to the end of the day.
5:57Sure.
6:01That will depend on whether you call a special session and all kinds of things like that.
6:05Yes.
6:12I am afraid this is going to be a special session problem.
6:19They cannot roll on this.
6:20I suggested to Henry to put the 21st for the Italian meeting, which would then, if for some reason Congress came back a week later, you could still have Thursday for your State of the Union, the 20th.
6:35And I have to tell you, I'm getting away, but I also suggested that he, and he was going to talk about it, is to make it clear to them that we have a congressional problem, and we may have to change the date.
6:45We'll set a tentative date now, but it would have to be somewhat dependent on what our Congress said.
6:51I told him that by the end of the day, there would be no more exceptions.
6:57I told him I don't care who he is.
7:04No more visits.
7:11No more recruitment.
7:12Yes.
7:12Well, you should be.
7:13It looks like the same orderly, well-conceived process, the way it's going.
7:16No more.
7:17I don't want to know.
7:20He also was going to wait two weeks on the entire time.
7:22I suggested that we ought to announce it this week.
7:24Absolutely.
7:25So that it looks like it's part of the pack, rather than something that's screwed up.
7:29Sure.
7:31And just do the writing cycle and then finish them off in the barber.
7:34But I had to do everything from Mexico to Argentina, just Barbados.
7:37Mexico's tied into the Latin American thing.
7:41We have a foreign minister's meeting at some point.
7:44Whatever Rutledge does, I'm not going.
7:49If I would be here, you'd have to do something for me.
7:52What I've had is that I don't want any more visitors, visitors of any kind, no Africans, no Europeans, no Mexicans, no non-Africans.
8:00Here's what I'm going to have.
8:07You've got one after that native secretary, but that's just an office appointment.
8:14I understand that kind of thing.
8:17I'm just saying I'm not going to have any business with the mayor.
8:23Oh, crap.
8:23And also, the mayor's secretary has to be at a very, very eventful.
8:27Right.
8:27It's just going to want to get a courtesy.
8:29Right.
8:30He, you know, I'll give him some time.
8:32I don't want to have the ambassador for this, or a secretary for that.
8:36Just all the political managers are natural crap that should be knocked off too, you know.
8:40You just thought, hey, you're going to work out that scheme, aren't you?
8:44No, he changed back on that and said, believe me, I want to go back to China.
8:51You shifted it back to this family, because he didn't have to talk to them, and we were going to leave it on on that basis.
9:00Listen, I've never seen it.
9:10But I can't see much more of it.
9:17From then on, it's... From then on, Bob, you've got to go to the schools.
9:24February is wiped out.
9:25February is wiped out for China.
9:45Then you have March and April to do the capitalizing on China, which would be stuff we do on our own initiative, like schools or whatever.
9:55Then May is wiped out for Russian preparation.
10:03We got ourselves basically clear, right?
10:08On March and April we can get your service buddies
10:15Gathering one evening in there.
10:18Yeah, man.
10:19I'm reminded of the other show that was on at the moment.
10:24After Russia.
10:24You want to show it at the law school after Russia and do the other one you said before Russia?
10:28Well, yeah.
10:29You should wait and see.
10:29You've got a couple months in there.
10:31It's not a bad time to do it.
10:31And you don't want both of them right together.
10:33Right.
10:55It's hard for me to get outside the first place.

NARA Description

On December 1, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:15 am and 10:05 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 627-001 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 627-1

Date: December 1, 1971
Time: Unknown between 9:15 am and 10:05 am
Location: Oval Office

The President met with H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman and Alexander P. Butterfield.

     Christmas season
          -Congress
                -Christmas

     President's schedule
          -Upcoming meetings
          -Florida
                 -Willy Brandt
                      -Timing
                            -Raymond K. Price, Jr.
                                 -State of the Union speech
          -California trip dates
                 -Thelma C. (“Pat”) Nixon's trip
                      -Unknown departure time
                            -Timing

[Pause]

                 -Henry A. Kissinger
                       -Timing
                 -Press conference in California
                 -Eisaku Sato meeting
                 -Announcement
                 -President’s schedule
                       -Mrs. Nixon’s arrival
                            -Conflict [?]
                                  -President’s upcoming meeting with the Director of Central
                                       Intelligence Agency [CIA]
                                        -The President’s birthday
                       -Suggestions
          -Congress
                 -Special session
          -Italian meeting
                 -Kissinger

                      -Timing
          -State of the Union
                -Potential Congressional problem
                      -Timing
                            -Congress
          -President’s instructions to Haldeman
                -Foreign visitors
                -Mexico
                -Argentina
                -Barbados
                      -Upcoming foreign ministers meeting
                -William P. Rogers
                -Africans
                -Europeans
                -Mexicans
          -Upcoming events
          -Joseph M. Luns
                -North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO]
          -Spiro T. Agnew
          -People's Republic of China [PRC]
          -Schools
                -Presidential visits [?]
          -February
                -Schedule conflict
          -December, January, February [PRC]
                -State of the Union
          -March and April
                -Publicity from PRC visit
          -May
                Trip to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR]
          -Possible veterans meeting
          -Unknown law school

Haldeman and Butterfield left at an unknown time before 10:05 am.

Also recorded on December 1, 1971

  • 627-002 9:15 AM · 35 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:15 am and 10:05 am.
  • 627-003 9:15 AM · 21 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Henry A. Kissinger, Stephen B. Bull, and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:15 am and 10:05 am.
  • 084-015 9:57 AM — President Richard M. Nixon and members of the National Security Council, including William P. Rogers, Melvin R. Laird, Gen. George A. Lincoln, John N. Mitchell, Richard M. Helms, Adm. Thomas H. Moorer, John N. Irwin, II, Martin J. Hillenbrand, David Packard, Philip J. Farley, Henry A. Kissinger, Col. Richard T. Kennedy, Philip A. Odeen, Helmut ("Hal") Sonnenfeldt, Gen. Alexander M. Haig, Jr., William G. Hyland, and Lt. Col. Walter B. Ratliffe, met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 9:57 am and 11:59 pm.
  • 015-178 11:00 AM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 11:00 am and 12:15 pm.
  • 627-004 11:00 AM · 21 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, and William P. Rogers met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 11:00 am and 11:29 am.
  • 627-005 11:29 AM · 8 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:29 am to 11:30 am.
  • 627-006 11:30 AM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Stephen B. Bull, and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 11:30 am and 11:36 am.
  • 627-007 11:36 AM · 7 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Richard W. Mallary, Raymond H. Nutter, Harry S. Dent, Alexander P. Butterfield, and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:36 am to 11:42 am.

All 19 conversations from December 1, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 627-001, December 1, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/627-001 (accessed October 9, 2026).