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Conversation 702-005

TapeTape 702StartTuesday, April 4, 1972 at 3:12 PMEndTuesday, April 4, 1972 at 3:45 PMTape start time00:43:00Tape end time00:44:05ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Bull, Stephen B.Recording deviceOval Office
AI Summary

President Nixon and aide Stephen B. Bull discussed the perceived decline of character among American leadership classes, specifically critiquing various religious and business demographics. Nixon expressed skepticism toward liberal religious groups while praising the perceived integrity and resolve of fundamentalist leaders. This informal assessment of the national social and political climate served as a framework for evaluating the President's support base within the American public.

American leadershipReligion in politicsSocial valuesPublic opinionRichard Nixon
AudioNARA Description

On April 4, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 3:12 pm and 3:45 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 702-005 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 702-5

Date: April 4, 1972
Time: Unknown between 3:12 pm and 3:45 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Stephen B. Bull.

     Meeting with Henry A. Kissinger

Bull left at 3:23 pm.
Transcript (AI-Generated)

This transcript was generated automatically by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite this transcript as authoritative. Consult the Finding Aid above for verified information.

The business community, except for Main Street business, and Midwest and Southern and some Western businesses, curious and silent.
Labor leaders are pretty good as leaders.
Religious leaders, a terror bag.
You've got some of the conservative Catholics who still have it, but you've got the Catholics that have, some of them have broken away and had an erection there.
The ultra-liberal Catholics are as bad as our Protestants.
I mean, like the Northern Presbyterians, the Congregationalists, the Quakers, of which I am one, and so forth.
And the only character that you find in religion in this country happens to be among the fundamentalists.
People laugh at them in the arguments of Beals and Billy Grahams and all the rest of the Southern Baptists and so forth, but they've got character and guts and they believe in something.
What I'm getting at is, what is happening to this leader class in the United States?
Let me put it this way.
I still have to answer my own question, that a majority of the people in this country
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