Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 646 › Conversation 646-001

Nixon, Woods & Butterfield on Speechwriting and Spiro Agnew

Wednesday, January 12, 1972 · 4:02 PM–4:04 PM ET · Oval Office · 1 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Woods, Rose Mary; Butterfield, Alexander P.; Bull, Stephen B.Conversation646-001 on Tape 646 (tape position 00:01:23–00:02:31)StartWednesday, January 12, 1972 at 4:02 PMEndWednesday, January 12, 1972 at 4:04 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 646-001 ↗

AI Summary

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.

Audio

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Position in tape: 00:01:23 – 00:02:31

part A, 1:33

646a.mp3

646b.mp3

NARA Description

On January 12, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, Rose Mary Woods, Alexander P. Butterfield, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 4:02 pm and 4:04 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 646-001 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 646-1

Date: January 12, 1972
Time: 4:02 pm - unknown before 4:04 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Rose Mary Woods and Alexander P. Butterfield.

     Letter

     Speech draft
          -West Wing

Butterfield left at an unknown time before 4:03 pm.

*****************************************************************

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 32s ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

*****************************************************************

Stephen B. Bull entered and Woods left at 4:03 pm.

     The President’s schedule
          -Vice President Spiro T. Agnew
          -Unknown general
               -Joint Chiefs of Staff [JCS]
          -George W. Romney

Bull left at an unknown time before 4:04 pm.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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).

Say, Rose, I wondered if you would pick up.

There was a big speech at your office.

It wasn't a job.

Go back tomorrow.

All right.

Also recorded on January 12, 1972

646-002 4:04 PM · 27 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Vice President Spiro T. Agnew met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:04 pm to 4:30 pm.
646-003 4:30 PM · 57 sec — President Richard M. Nixon, Stephen B. Bull, unknown person(s), and Vice President Spiro T. Agnew met in the Oval Office of the White House at 4:30 pm.
646-004 4:30 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon, John D. Ehrlichman, and Rosemary Manarin met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:30 pm to 4:34 pm.
646-005 4:34 PM · 1 hr 50 min — President Richard M. Nixon, George W. Romney, John D. Ehrlichman, John C. Whitaker, Manolo Sanchez, Stephen B. Bull, John N. Mitchell, Rose Mary Woods, and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:34 pm to 6:21 pm.
646-006 6:21 PM · 16 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 6:21 pm and 6:23 pm.
646-007 6:23 PM · 2 min — United States Secret Service agents met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 6:23 pm and 10:59 pm.
018-071 7:30 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 7:30 pm and 8:09 pm.
018-072 8:09 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler talked on the telephone from 8:09 pm to 8:11 pm.

All 13 conversations from January 12, 1972 →

Nixon phone call with Woods on Speechwriting and Spiro Agnew June 4, 1971 · 1 min
Nixon & Ehrlichman on State of the Union and Spiro Agnew January 13, 1972 · 5 min
Nixon, Moore & Uccello on Ping-pong diplomacy and Public relations strategy April 21, 1971 · 11 min
Nixon & Haldeman on Public relations strategy and John Connally April 3, 1972 · 6 min
Nixon phone call with Haldeman on Press management and George Romney August 13, 1972 · 3 min
Nixon phone call with Ehrlichman on George Romney and Richard Van Dusen August 13, 1972 · 11 min

Cite this conversation

Conversation 646-001, January 12, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/646-001 (accessed November 2, 2026).