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Conversation 627-001

TapeTape 627StartWednesday, December 1, 1971 at 9:15 AMEndWednesday, December 1, 1971 at 10:05 AMTape start time00:00:45Tape end time00:11:14ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob");  Butterfield, Alexander P.Recording deviceOval Office
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.

Presidential SchedulingState of the UnionForeign PolicyDiplomatic VisitsCongressional Relations
AudioNARA 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.
Transcript (AI-Generated)

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.

He's got to work over plans.
All that.
Now you go down there.
And you gotta come out for Christmas, I guess.
And go right back down.
Go down.
It's my work.
I need to look around.
Stay.
Go around.
So you leave.
I don't think it worries me that bad.
I just...
I don't think you can spend that much... You make yourself stay that long in Florida.
I need to...
If you'll slip into the back, it'll work fine.
And you can take some breaks there.
Like, at that time, there's no problem.
Like, if you go back down to the 26th, you can go right out to the island if you wanted to.
Sure.
Come back the morning of the 28th for the run meeting, the night of the 27th.
Like, go to the island.
Or right after the run meeting, you can go out there.
Stay out for a couple of days.
Well, I kind of...
You 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.
And I'm going to try to get rid of the button down there.
I'm going to stick to the union thing because I don't know.
We will come up here for New Year's Day.
Pat, you don't know where the department is.
No, I don't.
I talked to them today and shared that together.
But at any rate, I want to see you gain strongly.
So, I'll stay here.
Stay true tonight.
Henry wants to stay out there and work, and work, and work.
He's fine.
You go to him and say, I'll play it.
Now, in that period, you go out, what's on the second, do you think?
Yes, you might as well.
In that period, we ought to do our telephone person, perhaps.
You're welcome to do that.
Peace out.
I've got to find a way after that truck here.
Back into the... That might be the time to do the three-on-one interview.
I understand it's on the 9th.
It's your birthday all of a sudden.
Yeah.
That would be my account.
I never thought I'd get back here.
If you haven't had Thursday and Friday, you'll probably have to come back here on Saturday.
Maybe not.
Depends what time of day Tom gets back.
I think we can come back Friday, because I thought it would be true.
Yeah.
If you want to, do you want to come back Friday?
What do you do here?
You can make sure I stand up here.
There's a lot of things on Monday and Thursday.
It's back to the end of the day.
Sure.
That will depend on whether you call a special session and all kinds of things like that.
Yes.
I am afraid this is going to be a special session problem.
They cannot roll on this.
I 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.
And 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.
We'll set a tentative date now, but it would have to be somewhat dependent on what our Congress said.
I told him that by the end of the day, there would be no more exceptions.
I told him I don't care who he is.
No more visits.
No more recruitment.
Yes.
Well, you should be.
It looks like the same orderly, well-conceived process, the way it's going.
No more.
I don't want to know.
He also was going to wait two weeks on the entire time.
I suggested that we ought to announce it this week.
Absolutely.
So that it looks like it's part of the pack, rather than something that's screwed up.
Sure.
And just do the writing cycle and then finish them off in the barber.
But I had to do everything from Mexico to Argentina, just Barbados.
Mexico's tied into the Latin American thing.
We have a foreign minister's meeting at some point.
Whatever Rutledge does, I'm not going.
If I would be here, you'd have to do something for me.
What 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.
Here's what I'm going to have.
You've got one after that native secretary, but that's just an office appointment.
I understand that kind of thing.
I'm just saying I'm not going to have any business with the mayor.
Oh, crap.
And also, the mayor's secretary has to be at a very, very eventful.
Right.
It's just going to want to get a courtesy.
Right.
He, you know, I'll give him some time.
I don't want to have the ambassador for this, or a secretary for that.
Just all the political managers are natural crap that should be knocked off too, you know.
You just thought, hey, you're going to work out that scheme, aren't you?
No, he changed back on that and said, believe me, I want to go back to China.
You 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.
Listen, I've never seen it.
But I can't see much more of it.
From then on, it's... From then on, Bob, you've got to go to the schools.
February is wiped out.
February is wiped out for China.
Then 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.
Then May is wiped out for Russian preparation.
We got ourselves basically clear, right?
On March and April we can get your service buddies
Gathering one evening in there.
Yeah, man.
I'm reminded of the other show that was on at the moment.
After Russia.
You want to show it at the law school after Russia and do the other one you said before Russia?
Well, yeah.
You should wait and see.
You've got a couple months in there.
It's not a bad time to do it.
And you don't want both of them right together.
Right.
It's hard for me to get outside the first place.
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