Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 724 › Conversation 724-006

Nixon, Haldeman & Butterfield on George Wallace and Assassination attempt

Monday, May 15, 1972 · 5:06 PM–5:14 PM ET · Oval Office

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Butterfield, Alexander P.; Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob"); White House operator; Nixon, Thelma C. ("Pat") (Ryan)Conversation724-006 on Tape 724 (tape position 03:06:50–03:15:17)StartMonday, May 15, 1972 at 5:06 PMEndMonday, May 15, 1972 at 5:14 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 724-006 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with Alexander P. Butterfield to receive an urgent update regarding the assassination attempt on Governor George Wallace, including details about the assailant, the victims, and the severity of Wallace’s injuries. Following this, the President consulted with H. R. Haldeman and First Lady Pat Nixon to assess how to handle a scheduled Blue Room reception in light of the national tragedy. They ultimately decided to restrict press access to the event to avoid optics that would appear inappropriate given the gravity of the shooting.

Audio

Download MP3 (part 1) · 167.1 MB ·Download MP3 (part 2) · 168.1 MB ·Download MP3 (part 3) · 44.9 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 03:06:50 into the tape and ends around 03:15:17.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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· Timestamps are positions within the full tape recording.
3:07:55The other shot was under the light armpit, so it's under the light armpit.
3:08:15But, uh, he has a temporary paralysis.
3:08:19It appears that way.
3:08:20Yes, sir.
3:08:20But it could be a permanent paralysis, I suppose.
3:08:22Yeah, but no one in the defense is on the edge.
3:08:24They're not associated anymore.
3:08:29They don't know anything.
3:08:30Um, but he's living.
3:08:31And we sent him to a gun shop.
3:08:36We dumped it on your behalf, just to offer him the best facilities that we have.
3:08:41And White Channel 3540 was there.
3:08:42We have no idea who he was or how much he had.
3:08:46And three other people were shot as well.
3:08:49By the same man?
3:08:52Yes, an Alabama State policeman.
3:08:55Where the hell was the service officer?
3:08:56I mean, where did the people who were supposed to be with him?
3:09:01One agent was shot.
3:09:02But they didn't see him?
3:09:03Well, a law guy had just come down into the crowd after speaking and was taking his coat off.
3:09:08This fellow was about three rows back, jumped out, fired, emptied his revolver.
3:09:13And then we've got three others as well, as well as twice.
3:09:16He hit a woman, Mrs. Thompson.
3:09:17They said the governor's staff, I assume, I mean, Wallace's staff, they may be from Maryland, which I guess they didn't want.
3:09:26He wouldn't be there.
3:09:29And a policeman, a state policeman, and a secret service agent.
3:09:32And another agent jumped on the fellow and hit the ground.
3:09:36Oh, good.
3:09:37The agent was there.
3:09:38The dog, yeah.
3:09:41One of them's dead.
3:09:42There were a bunch of, several agents there apparently.
3:09:44One guy dead, another was on the app.
3:09:49Yeah.
3:09:50Thank you.
3:09:50Well, what do we do about it?
3:09:54Well, I just got the report from the town.
3:09:58It's fixed on the opponent.
3:10:02The problem you got, this of course is just totally not made in the news.
3:10:07If you go out to open the blue room,
3:10:10You have full press coverage there.
3:10:13There you are, laughing around about the pretty new pictures on your wall, while everybody in the country is thinking about Jesus Christ that shot another candidate.
3:10:22Has anybody talked to Mr. Nixon about it?
3:10:26No, because we wanted to get a fix here.
3:10:31I don't think you can.
3:10:33I don't think you can.
3:10:35She could go ahead.
3:10:38I don't think she should do that.
3:10:41I think we should tell people at the gate when they arrive because of the unfortunate thing.
3:10:54Mr.
3:10:56And then open it by saying, let's have three minutes of silence.
3:10:59Oh, shit.
3:11:00And then say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
3:11:27We've got a problem.
3:11:27You've heard about Wallace?
3:11:31No, but he's quite serious.
3:11:33He's paralyzed in the past.
3:11:35The strong feeling is that, for me, to be there, smiling, laughing, and so forth, as we will have to in the preceding line, when the whole country is concerned about this as abolishing all things, is just not a good idea.
3:11:56Well, let me put it this way.
3:11:59I think you could, maybe.
3:12:02But I don't think I should.
3:12:03I mean, I think it's not a good thing.
3:12:08You don't think it could postpone it, do you?
3:12:16Well, my own view is that I, as much as we'd like to, you can see the problem.
3:12:21If anything happens during the time, or even when he's critically injured, he's got just one bullet in his stomach, near the spine, and they, I mean, who knows?
3:12:34They think he's alive.
3:12:35He may be paralyzed.
3:12:37He may not be, but he has pain.
3:12:44Well, do you want us to think a little about it when I call you back?
3:12:46I just want you to know a little bit.
3:12:47What do you feel about it?
3:12:48What do you feel?
3:12:50Maybe you, or maybe you and Quinn could do it without the breast cancer.
3:12:57But if you and Quinn could do it, well, without breast, that's the problem.
3:13:02Could you do it without breast and let the breast see it another time?
3:13:04I don't know.
3:13:05I don't see how you could do that.
3:13:13Yeah?
3:13:20The press has already had it.
3:13:22I don't believe, I think if you and Glenn Walter received them without, without any press pictures or, you see what I mean?
3:13:29I think that would be all right.
3:13:30In other words, if you just received them without... Why don't we just tell the press it's closed to the press because of this event?
3:13:40And then you receive them.
3:13:42How's that?
3:13:43So you've done your part already.
3:13:46Could that be all right?
3:13:49See, if you receive them without the press being there, I see no problem in it.
3:13:52No problem in it.
3:13:53I know, I know that if you receive them without the press being there, they aren't here to get their pictures in the paper.
3:14:00They aren't here to get their pictures.
3:14:06But I do feel... Yeah.
3:14:08Okay.
3:14:09All right, if you will, I'll call us back.
3:14:10All right.
3:14:17Ask Tommy and Mitchell to perform.
3:14:19Tommy and Mitchell.

NARA Description

On May 15, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, Alexander P. Butterfield, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, White House operator, and Thelma C. ("Pat") (Ryan) Nixon met in the Oval Office of the White House from 5:06 pm to 5:14 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 724-006 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 724-6

Date: May 15, 1972
Time: 5:06-5:14 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Alexander P. Butterfield.

     George C. Wallace
         -Condition
               -Possibility of paralysis
         -Offer of services by the President
               -Dr. William M. Lukash
               -Facilities
         -Assailant
               -Race
               -Sex
               -Identity
         -Other victims
               -Alabama state policeman
         -Secret Service protection
         -Shooting
         -Other victims
               -Dora Thompson
                     -Wallace staffer
               -State policeman
               -Secret Service agent
         -Assailant
               -Apprehension

Butterfield left and H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman entered at an unknown time after 5:06 pm.

     President's schedule
          -Blue Room reception
                 -Press coverage
                 -Possible public reaction
                 -Thelma C. (“Pat”) Nixon
                 -President's appearance
                 -Mrs. Nixon's schedule

The President talked with the White House operator at an unknown time between 5:06 and 5:10
pm.

[Conversation No. 724-6A]

[See Conversation No. 24-82]

[End of telephone conversation]

     President's schedule
          -Blue Room reception
                 -President's attendance
                       -Actions

The President talked with Mrs. Nixon between 5:10 and 5:13 pm.

[Conversation No. 724-6B]

[See Conversation No. 24-83]

The President conferred with Haldeman during the telephone conversation.

     Blue Room reception
          -Press coverage

[End of conferral]

[End of telephone conversation]

     President's schedule
          -Meeting with John B. Connally and John N. Mitchell

Haldeman left at 5:14 pm.

Also recorded on May 15, 1972

  • 724-005 4:54 PM · 12 min — President Richard M. Nixon, George P. Shultz, Caspar W. ("Cap") Weinberger, and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:54 pm to 5:05 pm.
  • 024-082 5:06 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 5:06 pm and 5:10 pm.
  • 724-010 5:06 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at 5:06 pm.
  • 024-083 5:10 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Thelma C. ("Pat") (Ryan) Nixon, and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone from 5:10 pm to 5:13 pm.
  • 724-007 5:14 PM · 52 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 5:14 pm and 5:16 pm.
  • 024-084 5:16 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon, White House operator, and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 5:16 pm and 5:21 pm.
  • 724-008 5:16 PM · 51 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, White House operator, Thelma C. ("Pat") (Ryan) Nixon, John B. Connally, Ronald L. Ziegler, Cornelia Wallace, Edward M. Kennedy, Eugene T. Rossides, and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House from 5:16 pm to 6:06 pm.
  • 024-085 5:21 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Thelma C. ("Pat") (Ryan) Nixon, and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone from 5:21 pm to 5:23 pm.

All 44 conversations from May 15, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 724-006, May 15, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/724-006 (accessed October 9, 2026).