Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 630 › Conversation 630-006

Nixon & Butterfield on White House protocol and Diplomatic relations

Monday, December 6, 1971 · 12:35 PM–12:39 PM ET · Oval Office · 3 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Butterfield, Alexander P.Conversation630-006 on Tape 630 (tape position 00:38:45–00:42:40)StartMonday, December 6, 1971 at 12:35 PMEndMonday, December 6, 1971 at 12:39 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 630-006 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Alexander Butterfield met to coordinate administrative logistics regarding upcoming visitor protocols, ambassadorial nominations, and executive scheduling. Nixon issued specific directives to curb unnecessary gift exchanges and redundant photograph distributions for White House guests. The discussion also addressed the status of specific diplomatic nominations and confirmed the protocol for providing gifts to Portuguese representatives.

Audio

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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· Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).
It's not any better, okay?
It's not any better yet.
Hang on a minute.
And the two ambassadorial nominations that we discussed in the first question.
Strasburg State of Delta.
Tony Marshall.
Tony Marshall.
Kenzie.
Kenzie.
Jeff.
Jeffrey Watts.
No, no photographs.
They all have them.
You don't send an autographed photograph to somebody who already has an autographed photograph, is that what you're talking about?
No, they do not have them, sir.
We just recommend stopping by this one.
Tom has one.
I mean, I didn't know we could save all of it.
Anybody who's made a visit here and has an autographed photograph already, we'll check that out.
So be sure to check that out.
There should be no exchange of gifts.
There should be no photographs.
Because if they have a, and if they don't have one, well normally you strike them with an official photograph for the first time.
If they don't have one for the first time, they do have one for the first time.
I have a lot of photographs.
unless that is discussed with them and they want one.
What I think would be a better idea would be to simply get a photograph of the meeting, of the two of us meeting, and, uh, should we take?
No, we can't do that.
We're not going to host each other.
That's all right.
We're trying to, uh, yeah, the Portuguese should have a gift.
Slow.

NARA Description

On December 6, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:35 pm to 12:39 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 630-006 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 630-006

Date: December 6, 1971
Time: 12:35 pm - 12:39 pm
Location: Oval Office

       Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, NARA Online Public Access Catalog Identifier: 597542

The President met with Alexander P. Butterfield.

     Schedule
          -Bill signing
                -Ambassadorial nominations
                -Ronald L. Ziegler [?]
          -Memorandum
                -Emil (“Bus”) Mosbacher, Jr.

     President’s instructions
           -Photographs
           -Autographs
                -Visitors
                -Exchange of gifts
                -First Family
                -Gifts
                       -Portuguese

Butterfield left at 12:39 pm.

Also recorded on December 6, 1971

  • 016-020 12:18 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Romana A. Banuelos talked on the telephone from 12:18 pm to 12:19 pm.
  • 016-021 12:19 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 12:19 pm and 12:49 pm.
  • 016-022 12:19 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 12:19 pm and 12:49 pm.
  • 630-004 12:32 PM · 4 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:32 pm and 12:35 pm.
  • 630-005 12:32 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Stephen B. Bull, and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:32 pm and 12:35 pm.
  • 630-007 12:39 PM · 19 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Rose Mary Woods, White House operator, Alexander P. Butterfield, Milton R. Young, Stephen B. Bull, Willard Edwards, the White House photographer, and unknown person(s) from a National Broadcasting Channel (NBC) film crew met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:39 pm to 12:59 pm.
  • 016-023 12:49 PM · 41 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Milton R. Young talked on the telephone from 12:49 pm to 12:50 pm.
  • 016-024 12:50 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 12:50 pm and 1:05 pm.

All 62 conversations from December 6, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 630-006, December 6, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/630-006 (accessed October 11, 2026).