Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 705 › Conversation 705-011

Nixon, Washington & Barker on Honor America Day and PRC gifts

Monday, April 10, 1972 · 12:25 PM–12:38 PM ET · Oval Office · 13 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Barker, Robert W.; Booth, Arch N.; Burch, William N.; Champion, George, Jr.; Lord, Mary Pillsbury; Low, James P.; Marks, Leonard H.; Marks, Herbert E.; Marriott, J. Willard; Marriott, Alice (Sheets); McManus, William J.; Oäó»Malley, Charles S., Jr.; Simons, A. Pollard; Swim, Katherine (Merrill); Washington, Walter E.; Yeager, C. Robert; Cosgrove, John P.; Kelly, John B., Jr.; Hoopes, David C.; White House photographerConversation705-011 on Tape 705 (tape position 03:11:38–03:27:22)StartMonday, April 10, 1972 at 12:25 PMEndMonday, April 10, 1972 at 12:38 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 705-011 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with a delegation of business and civic leaders to discuss non-partisan outreach initiatives, specifically regarding the 'Honor America Day' ceremonies and associated promotional films. The discussion touched on the administration's efforts to reduce crime in Washington, D.C., and the ongoing legislative challenges regarding the city's baseball team. The participants also shared updates on various administrative projects, including the distribution of gifts from the People's Republic of China, such as pandas and trees.

Honor America Day
Washington D.C. crime rates
PRC gifts
Pandas
Non-partisan outreach
Washington Senators

Audio

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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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Hello, how are you?

or the year after that.

Thank you very much.

uh... uh... uh...

I'm so glad to see you.

I'm sorry to have you here, but we're proud of you over here.

You're a great man.

You're strong.

I believe deeply in my friends.

I'm always a person.

Do you care a lot about me?

Thank you.

All right.

Oh, George Howard has it here.

It was waiting for you to see it.

I know.

I used to say, can you click off of it and everything?

There you go.

I got it.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Right.

Did you see what happened?

Thank you for helping me out.

Now that's a good one.

I want a real picture too.

No, we won't put your prison thing across.

Bill, you and I will sit in the middle here and don't lock doors.

We'll be right back.

if you ever play golf never had champions apart and he's my partner at least a dozen times did we ever win

I'll tell you, we always were partners, and we never left.

Oh, I know.

Jesus Christ.

All of a sudden, you've recorded this, and let me talk.

Well, I...

I just want to thank all of you while you're here for what you've done, the honor and the days.

I've been through two already.

Almost a lot of great, very honored, great services to the country.

And I wish we could do more to express appreciation.

I wish we could do more to be here.

Oh yes, right.

I mean, you've got to be particularly non-partisan this year.

I had a film resort all over the country after we started our American-American film.

And you were on for four minutes.

It's too long.

We had the issue of the 26th Amendment.

Oh, yeah.

Those speech-again-deaf people.

Yeah.

We had you on.

That's why you're best friends with them.

Well, that's good.

That's great.

That's true.

Well, it didn't just make it good non-political, right?

What I say is that it's one of the best showings in Washington.

You can see how much progress was made in reducing crime, tragedy, and all that.

That's all.

The only thing about it, we've got to say the mayor's presence on these two years for me.

It's been a long time since when he came in, remember, the crime was up, and we had all this, and now we've got, this is the one of the few major states where crime has been found.

Much, much greater than the marriage of the Shepard.

We don't know, but the other will be.

That's what the resources were.

We'd get crime now, and lose the baseball club.

I've got to get that back.

I can steal them.

Well, we've got to get the crime report.

We took the Congress down there, and we had a voice of charge.

We went to Phoenix, and I think it's over now.

I don't think we're going to have to battle them, that's all.

We're going to get them.

In the meantime, I'm doing the best I can to hold Georgia out of here.

You want to go?

No, sir.

You want to go?

More, more, more, more.

Well, you know, let's see.

We've got 200 of them.

We have a great deal of them.

We've got to get it.

These little trees that are down there are from the time of the war.

There's more competition about those pandas

All right.

Well, thank you.

I appreciate your interest.

or or or or or or or or or or or or or or

Don't lose it.

It's got my name on it.

Most important for you, y'all.

Thank you very much.

Well, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Well, I'm sorry to interrupt.

I'm sorry to interrupt.

You've got to mind your own business.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Very good.

NARA Description

On April 10, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, Robert W. Barker, Arch N. Booth, William N. Burch, George Champion, Jr., Mary Pillsbury Lord, James P. Low, Leonard H. Marks, Herbert E. Marks, J. Willard Marriott, Alice (Sheets) Marriott, William J. McManus, Charles S. O???Malley, Jr., A. Pollard Simons, Katherine (Merrill) Swim, Walter E. Washington, C. Robert Yeager, John P. Cosgrove, John B. Kelly, Jr., David C. Hoopes, and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:25 pm to 12:38 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 705-011 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 705-11

Date: April 10, 1972
Time: 12:25 pm - 12:38 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Robert W. Barker, Arch N. Booth, William N. Burch, George Champion,
Jr., Mary Pillsbury Lord, James P. Low, Leonard H. Marks, Herbert E. Marks, J. Willard
Marriott, Alice (Sheets) Marriott, William J. McManus, Charles S. O'Malley, Jr., A. Pollard
Simons, Katherine (Merrill) Swim, Walter E. Washington, C. Robert Yeager, John P. Cosgrove,
John B. Kelly and David C. Hoopes; the White House photographer was present at the beginning
of the meeting.

     Introductions and greetings

     Unknown team

     News report

     Photographs

     Dudley Swim

     Marriott

     [General discussion]

     Group photograph
         -Arrangements

     Golf
            -Partner
                  -Champion

     Filming of event

     Honor America Day
         -Recognition
         -Need for ceremonies
         -Non-partisanship
         -Film
               -Distribution
               -The President's appearance
                     -Twenty-sixth amendment

     The President's administration
          -Washington, DC crime rates
               -Decline
                      -Walter Washington
                      -Baseball club [Washington Senators]
                           -Congress

     George E. Allen
          -Stadium seating

     Gifts from the People's Republic of China [PRC]
           -Trees
                -Growing conditions
           -Pandas
                -Thelma C. (“Pat”) Nixon
                 -Zoos
                      -San Diego, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, St. Louis and Washington

     Presidential gifts
           -Women
           -Golf balls
                -The President’ inscription

     Arbor Day
          -Mrs. Nixon

     Golf
            -Champion

     The President's trip to Florida

     Golf

Barker et al left at 12:38 pm.

Also recorded on April 10, 1972

705-009 11:45 AM · 38 min — President Richard M. Nixon, William J. Porter, Henry A. Kissinger, Stephen B. Bull, and Oliver F. ("Ollie") Atkins met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:45 am to 12:23 pm.
705-010 12:23 PM · 58 sec — President Richard M. Nixon, Alexander P. Butterfield, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:23 pm and 12:25 pm.
705-012 12:38 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:38 pm and 12:44 pm.
022-094 12:44 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 12:44 pm and 12:50 pm.
705-013 12:44 PM · 22 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, Stephen B. Bull, Manolo Sanchez, Thelma C. ("Pat") (Ryan) Nixon, Anatoliy F. Dobrynin, Ronald L. Ziegler, and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:44 pm to 1:06 pm.
022-095 12:50 PM · 54 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Thelma C. ("Pat") (Ryan) Nixon talked on the telephone from 12:50 pm to 12:51 pm.
022-096 12:51 PM · 8 sec — Henry A. Kissinger, White House operator, and President Richard M. Nixon talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 12:51 pm and 12:59 pm.
022-097 12:51 PM · 1 min — Henry A. Kissinger and Anatoliy F. Dobrynin talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 12:51 pm and 12:59 pm.

All 36 conversations from April 10, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 705-011, April 10, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/705-011 (accessed October 1, 2026).