Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 650 › Conversation 650-002

Nixon, Butterfield & Woods on State of the Union and Public relations

Tuesday, January 18, 1972 · 9:48 AM–10:05 AM ET · Oval Office · 12 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Butterfield, Alexander P.; Woods, Rose MaryConversation650-002 on Tape 650 (tape position 00:20:05–00:32:05)StartTuesday, January 18, 1972 at 9:48 AMEndTuesday, January 18, 1972 at 10:05 AMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 650-002 ↗ · National Archives Catalog, NAID 417180419 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with Alexander P. Butterfield and Rose Mary Woods to manage a variety of administrative and scheduling tasks, ranging from locating missing Treasury Department memoranda to coordinating the President’s personal correspondence. The President emphasized the urgent need for a final draft of his State of the Union speech by late afternoon and directed his staff to compile favorable editorial coverage regarding First Lady Pat Nixon’s trip to Africa. These discussions served to streamline White House operations and ensure the timely completion of key policy and public relations materials.

Audio

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NARA Description

On January 18, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, Alexander P. Butterfield, and Rose Mary Woods met in the Oval Office of the White House from 9:48 am to 10:05 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 650-002 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 650-2

Date: January 18, 1972
Time: 9:48 am - 10:05 am
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Alexander P. Butterfield.

     President's schedule
           -H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman’s schedule
                 -Talk at Cathedral School
           -John B. Connally's memorandum on Chile
                 -Treasury Department
                 -Peter G. Peterson
                       -Paris monetary group session
                 -Paul A. Volcker

Rose Mary Woods entered at 9:53 am.

Butterfield left at 9:54 am

     Item for the President's signature

     Correspondence
          -Hal [Surname unintelligible]
                -L[ouis] Patrick Gray, III’s request for letter

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

[Previous PRMPA Personal Returnable (G) withdrawal reviewed under deed of gift 04/29/2022.
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     The President's clothes
          -Sports coats, shirts
               -Manolo Sanchez
               -Zosimo T. Monzon
               -California
               -Cost

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

     The President's schedule
Show the rest of the log (59 more lines)
          -Alice Roosevelt Longworth
                -Christmas gift of elephant figure
                      -Telephone call
                      -Thank you letter
          -J. Edgar Hoover

     Wiley T. Buchanan
          -Possible ambassadorship to Spain
                -Peter M. Flanigan
          -Wife
          -State Department

     Copy of draft of State of the Union speech
         -Raymond K. Price, Jr.
               -Deadline for delivery of final copy to the President
                      -William L. Safire

     Thelma C. (“Pat”) Nixon's trip to Africa
          -Monday magazine
               -Preparation of article for mailing
          -Editorials

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3
[Previous PRMPA Personal Returnable (G) withdrawal reviewed under deed of gift 05/02/2022.
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END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3

**********************************************************************
     Thelma C. (Ryan) (“Pat”) Nixon's trip to Africa
          -Editorials
                -Responsibility for compilation
                      -Charles W. Colson
                      -Lyndon K. (“Mort”) Allin
                      -Herbert G. Klein
          -Television coverage
          -Editorials
          -Newspaper photographs
                -New York Times
          -Allin
          -Colson
                -Assignment for staff member
          -Memorandum
                -Distribution
                      -H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman, Ronald L. Ziegler, Allin, Colson, the President
                      -Constance M. Stuart
                            -Mrs. Nixon

     Speech draft
          -Price
          -Safire
          -Allin's duties

Woods left at 10:05 am.

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).

Is there about to be a talk in the school this morning?
When you check the scene, where is it?
It's not possible.
I need a report immediately.
All right.
It's not a Saturday.
We sent over here a memorandum in regard to the treasuries in Paris on the...
Yes, sir.
It is not here.
I want it in here with my desk.
I've already decided what to do about it.
It's called the Paris Roof.
But he and Conway still don't remember it.
Now don't bother Conway with it.
You understand?
Get a hold of Volker, if necessary.
And get it over here fast.
But I've got to have enough.
I've got to prove it to Smart before they get off.
Okay.
Yeah, it's fine.
I don't care.
Thank you.
If you're going to sign it, you have to do it carefully.
Yeah, I will.
And how letters?
This is a letter.
He died.
No, no.
He got promoted and had gray ass for that letter.
Did you open it up?
Uh-huh.
Do you have, do you have, uh, six sports shirts that corrode a lot for you?
Towers?
Sports, sports, sports.
I'm trying to find out.
I don't know what, what do you mean you've got a bunch of those?
I don't know how.
Do you have, does the person have six, uh, sports shirts that corrode a lot for you?
Sports, sports.
Do you have that?
I'll ask where they are.
I'll take it.
I got her sports shirts.
Maybe they're great for Californians.
Okay, but...
I was paying $37.50 a piece for them.
Well, right, right.
I wouldn't order those same shirts.
Oh, that's fine.
I don't talk to them, man.
I know.
That's why I got a ticket for that.
Hey, could I check a couple things with this gift?
Alice Lawler gave me an elephant apparently on my envelope for Christmas.
Did you talk with her or should we write a letter to her?
Too late, by the way.
Oh, no, we've been traveling around.
We can get one done right away today.
I talked to her about it at home.
She told me she was starting to get a little cranked by.
Oh.
And I didn't mention it, so I... Well, they can do that.
They can do it.
Well, I don't know what the hell it was, but...
You understand, Rose, I talked to her on the phone.
And she told you to send it to him.
Well, maybe that's correct.
I don't think that's any of the necessary.
And what about Taylor, Derek?
He sent an email.
I can't do it.
All right.
And why did you cannot send it?
I didn't send it.
I didn't handle him.
All right.
He said, because the reason I didn't is that he wants to come in and see me.
And I cannot do it.
We can't get him to send it to me.
I wish we could dig in some local country.
Did they try?
Because Pete didn't think that she'd get one.
That's why I didn't think they asked me.
I only think that, you know, we can't get him out of the country.
It's the only reason I'm thinking about it.
I, you know what I mean.
I love talking to her.
I mean, I... No, I, I, you shouldn't talk to her.
I just can't do it.
You're kind of a bitch.
Just go over.
You're a bitch about everything.
And I, uh...
The only reason I want to be out of the country is so he won't do that.
I'm trying to.
We're going to take up time with him.
I know.
We have a lot of church.
He has a church.
His wife is fine.
Well, actually, we probably wouldn't be in church.
Oh, I know.
A lot of our people are .
I want to assure you, Joe Ray, that I have to have the final, absolute final copy of this damn thing out.
You got what I said this morning.
I'll have a copy of that.
Ray is diddling around again, you know, diddling and so forth.
I've got to have it with no changes.
In other words, I can't have any more recommendations or changes after.
I need it by 5, so I call it 4.
4 o'clock.
4.30.
4.30.
But you know, I hate to flip her and put her to rape.
I know, but you have to.
He is.
Well, he even wants to try to make it be perfect.
He does, but maybe 4 then.
You stay by 4 o'clock.
Maybe 4.30.
4.30, if you don't need it.
4.30, I need it 5.
Or maybe 4.30, you'll get on the phone.
Just say, send it, but just say that this...
You know, if there isn't anything more I can do after that, then I have something that's come up where I'm going to be tied up all day tomorrow.
But I have to finish it tonight, so I need to have the final copy by 4.30.
I think it would be a nice thing to send the people along.
You know whether Monday did a piece on Patrick Turner or not?
I didn't see this week, so I'll look.
I'm sure they were there.
Well, I didn't.
They did do it, I don't think, this week.
I suggested that I'd like to have that done.
It's an awfully good piece to mail to a person, one, two, three.
I do think.
Yeah, to get some of the women to get in there.
Then would you ask...
because they read the stuff.
I think it's all done over at Colson's shop, where they pick up all these calls and editorials and things.
Yeah, well, the editorials have done more dollars than those people reading off my papers.
I'll check both of them.
That's what you do.
What I have in mind is the editorials, or you've got a lot of them.
Have somebody write them up.
I said, I'll give it to the client.
You know, I want somebody to read right up to me.
Well, the editorial reaction to this coverage, the talking coverage, I started to think that this next strip was without question the most successful single activity of anybody in the administration.
We're versioning all of them.
And, uh, we had it hardly any years ago.
So, we're receiving messages and all the coverage, you know, every day and so forth.
One of these avoidances was smart, too.
We, you know, received on the editorials, the re-editorials, around the time we did the re-editorial,
I want that prepared.
Allen's office is finding it prepared.
Allen and Colson together, they're deciding where to get it.
The Colson office gets a little paper, see?
The office, they read the 78 papers or whatever it is.
And I give it to, my guess is that Alex's office is probably too busy to write this kind of thing.
Because they're very close to me.
I have a man there who just writes this thing.
I want to put up a copy from one of his people.
And it's a bad person in regard to, let's see,
Send it, uh, and then do it so that there's no, they never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never.
Sure.
Okay.
So this is your head.
This is the skull.
Very good.
I'm going to give you so much.
See, we're just going to lay down here and go.
as soon as you get to the heart of the nation.
Don't read it every day if you don't understand it, you can work on it.
Now we've done it already, if you want a piece, it says you work on it that way.
Right.
I've written, I just wrote down a few little things.
And now, but he's got to get the damn thing to me.
I need to run your safe work on it.
So, I'm going to get to Sapphire 1 and 3.
If Christ is enrolled in 5, I'll have it.
She doesn't have a lot to do.
Yeah.
Thank you.

Also recorded on January 18, 1972

  • 650-001 9:25 AM · 23 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:25 am and 9:48 am.
  • 650-003 10:07 AM · 35 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House from 10:07 am to 10:09 am.
  • 650-004 10:09 AM · 6 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 10:09 am and 10:14 am.
  • 018-098 10:14 AM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 10:14 am.
  • 650-005 10:14 AM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at 10:14 am.
  • 650-006 10:17 AM · 1 hr 8 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Charles W. Colson, Rose Mary Woods, unknown person(s), White House operator, and William L. Safire met in the Oval Office of the White House from 10:17 am to 11:27 am.
  • 018-099 10:23 AM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 10:23 am and 10:55 am.
  • 018-100 10:55 AM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and William L. Safire talked on the telephone from 10:55 am to 10:58 am.

All 28 conversations from January 18, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 650-002, January 18, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives (NAID 417180419). Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/650-002 (accessed November 2, 2026).