Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 685 › Conversation 685-001

Nixon, Ehrlichman & Bull on Busing and School Desegregation

Tuesday, March 14, 1972 · 8:24 AM–9:03 AM ET · Oval Office

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Ehrlichman, John D.; Bull, Stephen B.Conversation685-001 on Tape 685 (tape position 00:09:35–00:11:37)StartTuesday, March 14, 1972 at 8:24 AMEndTuesday, March 14, 1972 at 9:03 AMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 685-001 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and John Ehrlichman reviewed a draft of an upcoming speech on school busing prepared by Raymond Price. Nixon emphasized the need to modify specific segments, particularly arguing against the characterization of black schools as inherently inferior and questioning the effectiveness of including numerous anecdotal examples. The meeting also included a brief administrative update from Stephen Bull regarding the President's schedule and an upcoming meeting with Henry Kissinger.

Audio

Download MP3 (part 1) · 167.9 MB ·Download MP3 (part 2) · 167.8 MB ·Download MP3 (part 3) · 161.3 MB ·Download MP3 (part 4) · 40.1 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 00:09:35 into the tape and ends around 00:11:37.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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.
9:47I wrote over an eighth draft in the race.
9:50Left last night and made that, I mean, I was reading basically the editorial notes and had a few changes, and it's been a challenge coming along.
10:00Well, that's funny, but I want to do the, if you've got somebody, make sure I know who you're working with.
10:06So, he left out this time.
10:10What I wrote was a very effective paragraph in one of the 32nd drafts, or a few sentences.
10:16about that black schools are not necessarily inferior.
10:21You know, I don't mean a part where he's going through all the examples for a black school.
10:27The word he says, it reverses.
10:29You remember that very hard line, which I want to end.
10:39Ah, good, good.
10:41Yeah, yeah.
10:42Well, I think that he's come around to the other things.
10:47He's done an awfully good job.
10:51Yeah.
10:51And he doesn't, he seems to want to leave in all those examples, but I don't think they added up a lot.
10:57Yeah.
10:58Well, he's already, he's already turned a lot, turned a lot.
11:06You know, the thing that I think about it is that it loses momentum.
11:10If you see it, it's going along at a pretty good pace, and then you start giving examples of this happening in California, and this happening in Connecticut, and this happening in Florida, and so forth and so on.
11:21That is not, that's just how crazy the car is actually.
11:26I'm going up to New York today to meet the Chinese ambassador in the afternoon to set up all these
11:53I'm lunching with the Wall Street Journal.

NARA Description

On March 14, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, John D. Ehrlichman, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:24 am and 9:03 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 685-001 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 685-1

Date: March 14, 1972
Time: Unknown between 8:24 am and 9:03 am
Location: Oval Office

The President talked with John D. Ehrlichman [?].

       Busing speech
            -Draft
                  -Raymond K. Price, Jr.
                  -Editing
                        -Black schools
                             -Inferiority

An unknown person [Stephen B. Bull?] entered at an unknown time between 8:24 am and 9:03
am.

       The President’s schedule
            -Forthcoming meeting with Henry A. Kissinger [?]

The unknown person [Bull?] left at an unknown time between 8:24 am and 9:03 am.

                  -Examples
                       -Elliot L. Richardson
                             -Supplemental paper

Also recorded on March 14, 1972

  • 685-021 8:24 AM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:24 am and 9:03 am.
  • 685-002 9:03 AM · 48 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger met in the Oval Office of the White House from 9:03 am to 9:51 am.
  • 685-003 9:52 AM · 1 hr 56 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Henry A. Kissinger, Manolo Sanchez, Ronald L. Ziegler, Stephen B. Bull, unknown person(s), Edward L. Morgan, John D. Ehrlichman, and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. met in the Oval Office of the White House from 9:52 am to 11:49 am.
  • 685-004 11:49 AM · 25 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Stephen B. Bull, Emil ("Bus") Mosbacher, Jr., Nassir Assar, Nazmi Akiman, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:49 am to 12:15 pm.
  • 685-005 12:15 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:15 pm and 12:18 pm.
  • 685-006 12:18 PM · 16 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Wes H. Bartlett, Darrell Coover, Jack R. Miller, Jaynie K. Miller, William E. Timmons, Henry C. Cashen, II, and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:18 pm to 12:32 pm.
  • 685-007 12:32 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:32 pm and 12:36 pm.
  • 021-063 12:36 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 12:36 pm.

All 41 conversations from March 14, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 685-001, March 14, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/685-001 (accessed October 12, 2026).