Nixon White House Tapes ›Tape 646 › Conversation 646-004

Nixon, Ehrlichman & Manarin on Urban revitalization and Domestic Council

Wednesday, January 12, 1972 · 4:30 PM–4:34 PM ET · Oval Office

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Ehrlichman, John D.;  Manarin, RosemaryConversation646-004 onTape 646 (tape position 00:30:31–00:34:26)StartWednesday, January 12, 1972 at 4:30 PMEndWednesday, January 12, 1972 at 4:34 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 646-004 ↗

AI Summary

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.

  • Urban revitalization
  • Domestic Council
  • George W. Romney
  • Federal Executive Boards
  • Publicity

Audio

Download MP3 (part 1) · 169.3 MB ·Download MP3 (part 2) · 41.9 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 00:30:31 into the tape and ends around 00:34:26.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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 · Timestamps are positions within the full tape recording.

30:51with about 200 cities to completely revamp their cities.
31:22And then that would be narrowed down to 40.
31:27And then again, it would be narrowed down to 20 other winners who would use the balance of the $650 that was left after the full planning process to do this job in their cities.
31:44OMB and our guys have insisted this on and they have 20 wills like the reason why it's a bad idea.
31:52They've told you?
31:55They've told me.
31:56And so we have insisted on pitching you on this.
32:02In order to screen you against the necessity of giving him a yes or no, we have set up a Semester Council meeting on Friday where he's going to present this, where people will be called on to comment.
32:17And then we have said that you have asked for individual recommendations from members of the Council who will attend this meeting on Friday.
32:27If other departments are involved, they'll have to get through it out of their budgets to make this thing happen and so forth.
32:34So he knows that he's coming in simply to post you on there.
32:48Then there's another issue.
32:52That is, whether or not the heads of the federal executive board...
33:03It says that she's having a cultural group here tomorrow for a tour of tea.
33:09Is that the Soviet cultural group?
33:13Let me know.
33:14If so, I want to get it to the sailor so that he can give it a bigger publicity.
33:21If it's okay.
33:23You should appoint the chairman of the federal executive boards in the federal regions.
33:35Romney is the only member of the cabinet who takes the charge.
33:40He sees this as the White House preempting his control over his regional directors.
33:51And so he's going to make an issue of this.
33:53We told him he ought to air that at the cabinet meeting tomorrow, and he will do so.
33:58Tell him you still have an opening.
34:00All right.

NARA Description

On January 12, 1972, 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. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 646-004 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 646-4

Date: January 12, 1972
Time: 4:30 pm - 4:34 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with John D. Ehrlichman.

     Forthcoming meeting with George W. Romney, Ehrlichman and John C. Whitaker
          -Briefing the President
                -Cities
                      -Revitalization
                           -Competition for funds
                                 -Winners
                                      -Office of Management and Budget [OMB]

                                      -Romney's views
                                  -Domestic Council meeting, January 14, 1972
                                      -Romney's presentation
                                      -The President’s request for recommendations from
                                            Cabinet
                                            -Department budgets

     Federal Executive Board heads

[The President talked with an unknown person [Rose Mary Woods?] at an unknown time
between 4:30 pm and 4:34 pm.]

[Conversation No. 646-4A]

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

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 6s ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

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

     Thelma C. (“Pat”) Nixon's schedule
          -Soviet cultural group tour and tea
               -Ronald L. Ziegler
                     -Publicity

[End of telephone conversation]

     Federal Executive Board
          -Regionalization
               -George P. Shultz's and Frank C. Carlucci's suggestion
                     -Romney's objection
                           -Cabinet meeting

     Whitaker

           -Departure from forthcoming meeting

Ehrlichman left at 4:34 pm.

Also recorded on January 12, 1972

  • 646-001 4:02 PM · 1 min — 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.
  • 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 · 50 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.
  • 646-005 4:34 PM · 1 hr 47 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 · 13 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.

Cite this conversation

Conversation 646-004, 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/646-004 (accessed September 18, 2026).