Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 700 › Conversation 700-013

Bull on White House administration and Presidential travel

Monday, April 3, 1972 · 5:49 PM–11:59 PM ET · Oval Office

Participants[Unknown person(s)]; Bull, Stephen B.Conversation700-013 on Tape 700 (tape position 04:25:35–04:28:15)StartMonday, April 3, 1972 at 5:49 PMEndMonday, April 3, 1972 at 11:59 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 700-013 ↗

AI Summary

Stephen B. Bull and an unknown participant discuss the logistical feasibility of managing White House operations from California during the summer, specifically in August. They evaluate the political optics of travel commitments and public perception regarding presidential involvement in ongoing military operations. The discussion culminates in a tentative consensus that moving White House operations to the West Coast is a viable strategy to manage press scrutiny and workload during the campaign season.

Audio

Download MP3 (part 1) · 168.1 MB ·Download MP3 (part 2) · 168.2 MB ·Download MP3 (part 3) · 44.1 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 04:25:35 into the tape and ends around 04:28:15.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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.
4:25:38If we get into a box, just almost, time and time again, I've been pretty, I mean, pretty much asleep this night, but if we get into a box of not going,
4:25:44Every time we think there's some people think we ought to be here, I'm just not going to get there often enough, you know what I mean?
4:25:52There's going to be something else that week, you know?
4:25:56Something else is going to be affected.
4:25:57I mean, maybe they think, well, you ought to be up working on the bus this week, or you ought to be preparing for this this week, or you ought to be doing this this week, you know?
4:26:09I don't know.
4:26:10This may be a different kind of thing.
4:26:12But the other side of this coin, of course, is that in terms of this one, if this were American involvement, in other words, like a Cambodian or Laotian operation, I wouldn't dream of joining.
4:26:27Cambodia certainly not, and Laotian probably not, because we were pretty heavily involved with our helicopters.
4:26:34But here, where it is basically American involvement only,
4:26:39and air, it's a quite different kind of a ball game.
4:26:45Do you think it is?
4:26:46Or do you not?
4:26:47Yes, I do.
4:26:48I don't think it's a problem.
4:26:51As I said, unless just, you know, all of a sudden all hell breaks loose or something.
4:27:04But I feel it's the...
4:27:07the need to, you know, let that sun salt and so forth.
4:27:12But yeah, it's very difficult for us.
4:27:15You've just got to take all you can of it at this period of knowingness.
4:27:19And you know, we're going to do pretty well.
4:27:20A trip to California will be a good time.
4:27:23In August, John's got July.
4:27:26And it's really, I think we may operate out of California soon.
4:27:29The more I think of it, I think we could operate out of California soon in August.
4:27:34I do, too.
4:27:35You know what I mean?
4:27:37I think that the press corps will be out of here anyway.
4:27:40I mean, I think we can, I mean, they're going to be covered, the Democratic candidate may be covered, and I think we can run the damn White House thing out of there to a certain extent.
4:27:49We might.
4:27:51Sometimes, sometimes, sometimes.
4:27:54Can we?
4:27:54I don't think you want to stay for an extended, a long extended period.

NARA Description

On April 3, 1972, unknown person(s) and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 5:49 pm and 11:59 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 700-013 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 700-13

Date: April 3, 1972
Time: Unknown between 5:49 pm and 11:59 pm
Location: Oval Office

Unknown persons and Stephen B. Bull met.

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

[Non-historical returnable]
[Duration: 2m 40s ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

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The unknown persons left at an unknown time before 11:59 pm.

Also recorded on April 3, 1972

  • 328-031 3:05 PM · 54 sec — President Richard M. Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 3:05 pm and 3:19 pm.
  • 022-067 3:19 PM · 14 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson talked on the telephone from 3:19 pm to 3:33 pm.
  • 328-035 3:19 PM · 8 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Charles W. Colson, and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:19 pm to 3:33 pm.
  • 328-036 3:55 PM · 28 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:55 pm to 4:26 pm.
  • 700-009 4:27 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:27 pm to 4:31 pm.
  • 700-010 4:32 PM · 1 hr 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Alexander P. Butterfield, John D. Ehrlichman, Manolo Sanchez, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:32 pm to 5:36 pm.
  • 700-012 5:36 PM · 11 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the Oval Office of the White House from 5:36 pm to 5:48 pm.
  • 022-068 6:35 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 6:35 pm and 7:12 pm.

All 31 conversations from April 3, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 700-013, April 3, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/700-013 (accessed October 11, 2026).