Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 678 › Conversation 678-002

Nixon & Butterfield on White House administration

Monday, March 6, 1972 · 3:58 PM–4:00 PM ET · Oval Office

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Butterfield, Alexander P.Conversation678-002 on Tape 678 (tape position 01:02:27–01:03:19)StartMonday, March 6, 1972 at 3:58 PMEndMonday, March 6, 1972 at 4:00 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 678-002 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with Alexander P. Butterfield to coordinate administrative tasks and manage the President's schedule. The discussion centered on the handling of specific correspondence, with the President instructing Butterfield to prioritize a formal letter over other pending paperwork. This interaction served to streamline workflow efficiency regarding office documentation and outgoing communication.

Audio

Download MP3 (part 1) · 167.8 MB ·Download MP3 (part 2) · 164.9 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 01:02:27 into the tape and ends around 01:03:19.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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

1:02:35I'm sorry I didn't get what you used, but did you notice that you might make it?

1:02:41Otherwise, we're going in, huh?

1:02:43Yeah, I'm not going to be making any use of it.

1:02:47If you have, say, one and a half, it's a virgin right there.

1:02:50Okay, virgin there.

1:02:51I hope so.

1:02:52Yeah.

1:02:57My letter's having a new carrier.

1:02:59We'd rather just do the letter.

NARA Description

On March 6, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 3:58 pm and 4:00 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 678-002 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 678-2

Date: March 6, 1972
Time: Unknown between 3:58 pm and 4:00 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Alexander P. Butterfield.

     The President’s schedule
          -Rose Mary Woods
          -Signing papers
          -Letter

Butterfield left at an unknown time before 4:00 pm.

Also recorded on March 6, 1972

678-001 3:00 PM · 59 min — President Richard M. Nixon, George W. Romney, and Manolo Sanchez met in the Oval Office of the White House from 3:00 pm to 3:58 pm.
021-001 4:00 PM · 19 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 4:00 pm.
678-003 4:00 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at 4:00 pm.
678-004 4:00 PM · 1 hr 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, unknown person(s), Rose Mary Woods, Jayne Brumley, Stephen B. Bull, Ronald L. Ziegler, Henry A. Kissinger, and James C. H. Shen met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:00 pm to 5:04 pm.
021-002 4:12 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Jayne Brumley talked on the telephone from 4:12 pm to 4:13 pm.
021-003 4:13 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 4:13 pm and 7:14 pm.
678-005 5:05 PM · 8 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House from 5:05 pm to 5:10 pm.
678-006 5:10 PM · 52 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 5:10 pm and 5:15 pm.

All 32 conversations from March 6, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 678-002, March 6, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/678-002 (accessed October 12, 2026).