Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 646
Nixon White House Tape 646 (January 12, 1972)
7 conversations · Oval Office
Featuring Nixon, Bull, Woods, Agnew, Ehrlichman
President Nixon met with Rose Mary Woods and Alexander P. Butterfield to discuss administrative matters, including the handling of a specific letter and a speech draft. Following Butterfield’s departure, Stephen B. Bull joined the President to review scheduling arrangements regarding meetings with Vice President Spiro Agnew, a Joint Chiefs of Staff representative, and George Romney. The brief session focused on managing the President's immediate office workflows and upcoming appointments.
President Nixon and Vice President Spiro Agnew met to discuss strategies for addressing media leaks and the "right to know" movement within the liberal intellectual community, which they viewed as a threat to national security and executive authority. Agnew proposed legislation that would simplify the declassification of documents to gain public favor while establishing strict, legally shielded classification powers for the President that would be immune to judicial review. The two also coordinated Agnew’s upcoming campaign schedule, emphasizing a public relations approach that would allow him to critique the press and Democratic challengers in a controlled, non-abrasive manner, while also touching upon the ongoing Vietnam War and the political challenges of the upcoming election year.
President Nixon met with Vice President Spiro Agnew and staff member Stephen Bull to coordinate administrative scheduling and internal communications. The discussion centered on organizing a series of briefings involving John Ehrlichman, John Dean, and others to align key personnel on policy priorities. Nixon directed the participants to facilitate these discussions to ensure that the individuals involved were properly prepared for upcoming consultations.
President Nixon and John Ehrlichman met to coordinate an upcoming presentation by HUD Secretary George Romney regarding an urban revitalization initiative. They strategized on how to manage Romney's proposal by routing it through a Domestic Council meeting to solicit broader Cabinet feedback, thereby shielding the President from an immediate decision. Additionally, they discussed Romney's resistance to a proposed regionalization plan for Federal Executive Boards and made arrangements to secure publicity for a Soviet cultural group’s visit with First Lady Pat Nixon.
President Nixon met with George Romney, John Ehrlichman, and John Whitaker to discuss the administration's new "Operation TACLE" initiative, a national growth policy designed to address urban and rural decay through decentralized, competitive consortia. The President and Romney also addressed sensitive political matters, including the upcoming departures of cabinet members Maurice Stans and John Mitchell, as well as the need for coordination between Secretary of State William Rogers and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger. Nixon emphasized his desire for Romney to remain in the cabinet while encouraging him to maintain a low-profile approach to sensitive housing issues during an election year.
President Richard Nixon met briefly with his personal valet, Manolo Sanchez, in the Oval Office. The two-minute interaction consisted primarily of personal matters, as indicated by the withdrawal of sensitive or private material from the archival record. No substantive policy discussions or administrative decisions were documented during this short encounter.
President Nixon expresses deep frustration regarding Henry Kissinger’s rigid control over information flow and foreign policy execution within the White House. The President complains that Kissinger is creating an unhealthy bottleneck, filtering out essential perspectives and isolating the President from necessary intelligence. Consequently, Nixon emphasizes the need for alternative channels of communication to bypass Kissinger’s restrictive influence.