Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 659 › Conversation 659-008

Nixon with unidentified visitors in the Oval Office on White House logistics

Friday, January 28, 1972 · 1:35 PM ET · Oval Office

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); White House operatorConversation659-008 on Tape 659 (tape position 02:53:48–03:05:47)StartFriday, January 28, 1972 at 1:35 PMEndFriday, January 28, 1972 at 1:35 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 659-008 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon consulted with the White House operator to finalize the logistics and program details for an upcoming formal dinner involving the Wallaces. They discussed the sequence for toasts, the handling of the musical entertainment, and the necessity of preparing a typed script to ensure the President could read his remarks clearly during the event. The conversation also included a brief administrative request to facilitate a phone call for Joanne Goldwater Ross regarding her wedding.

Audio

Download MP3 (part 1) · 168.3 MB ·Download MP3 (part 2) · 168.5 MB ·Download MP3 (part 3) · 84.7 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 02:53:48 into the tape and ends around 03:05:47.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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.
2:52:40No, I can read this, but all it is is a line.
2:53:07It's not so bad in this scenario.
2:53:12You can see it from the dinner.
2:53:15So I...
2:53:42but I can just briefly tell you what it is in conclusion.
2:53:46Well, in the evening, as would normally be the case, you would stand up to introduce the entertainer.
2:53:54There will be, after dinner, guests who will moderate your toast to the wallaces, be appropriate on that, to use that as a preface to talk about the wallaces again.
2:54:09I think what I'm trying to do is to say something brief about the losses at the dinner and let this be the talk.
2:54:18I'm not going to make any speech.
2:54:21I'm not going to make another speech in the other room, Judge Hank.
2:54:23This is it.
2:54:24What, you're going to do this at dinner?
2:54:26Nope.
2:54:26When I go to the other room, that's what I'm going to do, but I'm not going to make any progress here.
2:54:31All right, so you are going to toast him at dinner?
2:54:33Toast him at dinner.
2:54:34He'd respond at dinner.
2:54:36All right.
2:54:36In the name of that, in order for the guests to know, in the name of this middle drill,
2:55:06If that sounds like it, then I see that we can't tell them that, so it's kind of a surprise to them, kind of a surprise to the guests.
2:55:14There is now press coverage of it, and this involves the first lady.
2:55:18It also enables you, enables us to get Mr. and Mrs. Wallace back down so you can introduce the next in.
2:55:24Maybe put that so that it's easier to read, have it typed off.
2:55:29Yeah, maybe you'd better read that because it's a little hard to read that kind of script without light and everything.
2:55:42If you would do that, it would be helpful.
2:55:45The only other thing, you've asked for a program of that team as a standard policy piece in your folder.
2:55:52They had to send it back.
2:55:53It was, they found some time to wrap it up.
2:56:00The way you kind of say it, he's an inductor and they have, I think, about 16 or 18 singers.
2:56:08That's a program of community.
2:56:11Yeah.
2:56:11I understand it's a very good one.
2:56:12It includes God Bless America.
2:56:15That's right.
2:56:16I understand it's a very good program.
2:56:17It includes God Bless America.
2:56:33Joan Goldwater Ross, she's the daughter of Senator Goldwater and she's in Arizona and she's going to be married in about a half hour, so we're trying to get her on the phone, please.

NARA Description

On January 28, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at 1:35 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 659-008 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 659-8

Date: January 28, 1972
Time: 1:35 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President talked with the White House operator.

[See Conversation No. 19-146; one item has been withdrawn from the conversation]

Also recorded on January 28, 1972

  • 659-005 12:21 PM · 13 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Myles J. Ambrose, John N. Mitchell, Paul A. Volcker, John D. Ehrlichman, Egil ("Bud") Krogh, Jr., Dr. Jerome H. Jaffe, Geoffrey C. Shepard, Mark W. Alger, John J. Caulfield, Ronald L. Ziegler, White House photographer, Stephen B. Bull, Elaine (Miller) Ambrose, Myles J. Ambrose, Jr., Kevin Ambrose, Elise Ambrose, Nora Ambrose, Kathleen Ambrose, and Christopher Ambrose met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:21 pm to 12:34 pm.
  • 659-006 12:34 PM · 48 min — President Richard M. Nixon, John D. Ehrlichman, Stephen B. Bull, Max M. Fisher, Yitzhak Rabin, Jeremiah Kaplan, Herbert Stein, Lawrence Y. Goldberg, and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:34 pm to 1:21 pm.
  • 659-007 1:21 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 1:21 pm and 1:35 pm.
  • 019-146 1:24 PM · 27 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 1:24 pm and 1:35 pm.
  • 019-147 1:35 PM · 15 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 1:35 pm.
  • 659-009 1:35 PM · 8 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 1:35 pm and 2:24 pm.
  • 659-010 2:24 PM · 27 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Rose Mary Woods, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 2:24 pm to 2:51 pm.
  • 659-011 2:51 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 2:51 pm and 2:59 pm.

All 37 conversations from January 28, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 659-008, January 28, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/659-008 (accessed October 12, 2026).