Nixon White House TapesTape 686 › Conversation 686-001

Nixon with unidentified visitors in the Oval Office on Presidential meetings

Friday, March 17, 1972 · 7:51 AM–7:58 AM ET · Oval Office

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  [Unknown person(s)]Conversation686-001 onTape 686 (tape position 00:03:48–00:04:11)StartFriday, March 17, 1972 at 7:51 AMEndFriday, March 17, 1972 at 7:58 AMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 686-001 ↗

President Nixon held a brief morning meeting in the Oval Office with an unidentified individual. While no transcript exists to detail the specific dialogue, the interaction was logged as involving a private file. The meeting concluded in less than seven minutes, leaving no official record of substantive policy decisions or action items.

Download MP3 · 81.0 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 00:03:48 into the tape and ends around 00:04:11.

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

On March 17, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 7:51 am and 7:58 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 686-001 of the White House Tapes.

Conversation No. 686-1

Date: March 17, 1972
Time: Unknown between 7:51 and 7:58 am
Location: Oval Office

The President met with an unknown person.

     Private file [?]

The unknown person left at an unknown time before 7:58 am.
  • 686-002 7:51 AM · 31 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 7:51 am and 7:58 am.
  • 686-003 7:51 AM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 7:51 am and 7:58 am.
  • 686-004 7:58 AM · 10 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Ronald L. Ziegler, and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the Oval Office of the White House from 7:58 am to 8:04 am.
  • 686-005 9:54 AM · 41 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:54 am and 9:56 am.
  • 686-006 9:56 AM · 14 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Barbara H. Franklin, Judy Kaufman, Jacqueline G. Gutwillig, Virginia R. Allan, Dr. Margaret Long Arnold, Mrs. Paul Bethel, Lorraine L. Blair, Julie Casterman Connor, Sarah Jane Cunningham, Robert A. Griffin, Maxine R. Hacke, Mrs. Charles M. Hamel, Margaret J. Mealey, Hazel Palmer, Mrs. Chapman Revercomb, Mrs. Daniel H. Wasserman, Irene Wischer, Elizabeth D. Koontz, Catherine East, Bertha Whittaker, and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 9:56 am to 10:08 am.
  • 686-007 10:09 AM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger met in the Oval Office of the White House from 10:09 am to 10:13 am.
  • 095-002 10:13 AM — President Richard M. Nixon and members of the National Security Council, including Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, William P. Rogers, Melvin R. Laird, Gen. George A. Lincoln, John B. Connally, John N. Irwin, II, Richard M. Helms, Adm. Thomas H. Moorer, Ronald I. Spiers, David M. Kennedy, Gerard C. Smith, Philip J. Farley, Spurgeon M. Keeny, Jr., [Name withdrawn], Gen. Royal B. Allison, Paul H. Nitze, Henry A. Kissinger, Col. Richard T. Kennedy, Philip A. Odeen, Helmut ("Hal") Sonnenfeldt, and Gardiner L. Tucker, met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 10:13 am and 11:54 am.
  • 686-008 11:55 AM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:55 am to 12:00 pm.

Conversation 686-001, March 17, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/686-001 (accessed September 18, 2026).