Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 683 › Conversation 683-001

Nixon & Ehrlichman on Busing and Black Caucus

Monday, March 13, 1972 · 8:54 AM–9:41 AM ET · Oval Office

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Ehrlichman, John D.Conversation683-001 on Tape 683 (tape position 00:15:08–00:18:45)StartMonday, March 13, 1972 at 8:54 AMEndMonday, March 13, 1972 at 9:41 AMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 683-001 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and John Ehrlichman met to coordinate the administration's response to the politically sensitive issue of school busing. They discussed the reaction of the Black Caucus to current policies and reviewed a draft of the President's upcoming public statement on the matter. The discussion resulted in a specific decision to excise a controversial paragraph from the final version of the announcement to better manage the political fallout.

Audio

Download MP3 (part 1) · 167.7 MB ·Download MP3 (part 2) · 168.1 MB ·Download MP3 (part 3) · 164.4 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 00:15:08 into the tape and ends around 00:18:45.

Transcript (AI-generated)

No transcript is available yet for this conversation. The recording may contain no audible speech, or it may not have been processed.

NARA Description

On March 13, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:54 am and 9:41 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 683-001 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 683-1

Date: March 13, 1972
Time: Unknown between 8:54 am and 9:41 am
Location: Oval Office

The President talked with an unknown person [John D. Ehrlichman?].

     Busing
          -Black caucus comments
          -The President’s forthcoming statement
               -Paragraph removal

Also recorded on March 13, 1972

  • 683-002 8:54 AM · 49 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:54 am and 9:41 am.
  • 683-003 9:41 AM · 34 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Ronald L. Ziegler, Stephen B. Bull, and Julie Nixon Eisenhower met in the Oval Office of the White House from 9:41 am to 10:15 am.
  • 021-048 10:06 AM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Julie Nixon Eisenhower, and unknown person(s) talked on the telephone from 10:06 am to 10:07 am.
  • 021-049 10:07 AM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 10:07 am and 11:16 am.
  • 683-004 10:15 AM · 1 hr 45 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Alexander P. Butterfield, Stephen B. Bull, Ronald L. Ziegler, White House operator, Croby S. Noyes, Constance M. Stuart, and Henry A. Kissinger met in the Oval Office of the White House from 10:15 am to 12:01 pm.
  • 021-050 11:16 AM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Croby S. Noyes talked on the telephone from 11:16 am to 11:21 am.
  • 021-051 11:21 AM · 7 sec — H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 11:21 am and 3:50 pm.
  • 021-052 11:21 AM · 2 min — H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman and Constance M. Stuart talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 11:21 am and 3:50 pm.

All 72 conversations from March 13, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 683-001, March 13, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/683-001 (accessed October 3, 2026).