Nixon White House Tapes ›Tape 725 › Conversation 725-031

Nixon, Haldeman & Connally on Resignation and George P. Shultz

Tuesday, May 16, 1972 · 11:55 AM–12:03 PM ET · Oval Office

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  [Unknown person(s)];  Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob");  Connally, John B.;  Shultz, George P.;  Weinberger, Caspar W. ("Cap");  Ziegler, Ronald L.Conversation725-031 onTape 725 (tape position 03:46:30–03:53:36)StartTuesday, May 16, 1972 at 11:55 AMEndTuesday, May 16, 1972 at 12:03 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 725-031 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with H. R. Haldeman, John Connally, George Shultz, Caspar Weinberger, and Ronald Ziegler to coordinate the logistics and press strategy surrounding Connally's resignation as Secretary of the Treasury. The participants discussed handling media inquiries regarding Connally's potential political future, including questions about the Vice Presidency and the Democratic National Convention. Following the discussion, the group planned a walk to the Treasury Department to introduce Shultz to the staff and address the transition publicly.

Audio

Download MP3 (part 1) · 167.3 MB ·Download MP3 (part 2) · 168.1 MB ·Download MP3 (part 3) · 100.2 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 03:46:30 into the tape and ends around 03:53:36.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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

3:45:23All this stuff just doesn't, she's not caught up in it.
3:45:27She isn't interested in it.
3:45:27That would be a problem.
3:45:30Well, she is interested.
3:45:31She's a damn direct part of it as far as politics and all that stuff.
3:45:37A lot more than most.
3:46:02You know the...
3:46:27All right.
3:48:24If these ambassadors are not here, when will they be here, do you know?
3:48:27Well, we just called and checked, and none of them has arrived yet.
3:48:41Do you want to start getting here earlier?
3:48:42Well, I'm afraid not.
3:48:43Well, these ambassadors, I think we better call and delay them, okay?
3:48:46The issue is that we're just going to have our residents delayed, and just delay each of them a half hour.
3:48:53I just think they can wait a little while.
3:48:57You go kind of out ahead.
3:48:58I don't think there's much to do about it.
3:49:04It's going to sound a little rude, but now we understand.
3:49:21Well, I think we've got a survive, Mr. Secretary.
3:49:27Thank you.
3:49:28No, 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, no, no
3:49:50And I sit and they ask me, did this provide me a perfect opportunity?
3:49:53And it is for me to go home and campaign with my brother.
3:49:56I sit down with my brother and look after himself.
3:49:59And he's not over the left, but you might as well find out where he's at.
3:50:04Do they get into the politics?
3:50:06Oh, sure.
3:50:07I just said that I have no, I've told you before, that I have no political ambitions or aspirations whatsoever.
3:50:17I want to ask if I was going to be a candidate for vice president.
3:50:19I said I don't think that event would occur, and I would like to strike a date on things that I think would ever come to pass.
3:50:27I'm not going to withdraw from the human race or withdraw my interest in political affairs.
3:50:31It's been a part of my life, all of my life.
3:50:34It's been an obligation.
3:50:36I've never said it would be interesting.
3:50:39I've never been interested.
3:50:40That's about it.
3:50:41That was an excellent job.
3:50:44Really worth all of it.
3:50:46Mr. President, I'm very grateful for your extravagant remarks.
3:50:51They were extravagant.
3:50:54They didn't push us.
3:50:55They asked us to go to the Democratic Convention.
3:50:58No, no.
3:50:59We really cut it off before.
3:51:00They cut it off.
3:51:00Sarah McClendon asked a question, and I took her question.
3:51:07And many of our patients had read it before.
3:51:09I quite finished it.
3:51:10They started wholesale access from the back of the room.
3:51:13So it broke it up hilarious.
3:51:16I was mad as hell because I didn't mean to ask the question.
3:51:22See, Cora Mayer goes, thank you.
3:51:25Oh, sure.
3:51:25Well, we're going to screw a couple of them.
3:51:30I'll tell you that.
3:51:31I spent hours with ABC and NBC and CBS and the film.
3:51:38And NBC and ABC didn't run it.
3:51:41CBS did the next morning, about 10 minutes in.
3:51:44The other two kids they ran, the fella had some.
3:51:46So I just said, my fella came in, so he talked to the early part of me, and so he just said, I want to take this into account.
3:52:00I really don't think it's a conspiracy in New York.
3:52:04He said, I just don't want you to think that.
3:52:07Well, ABC came in and said the same thing.
3:52:09He said, Jim Donahue said, I don't want you to think that it's a conspiracy in New York.
3:52:12Jim said, as a matter of fact, they used those same words in different meetings.
3:52:16In this meeting, there was no conspiracy.
3:52:18And I said, well, that's fine, Jim.
3:52:19They'll want me before I want them.
3:52:21And they'll be over there today wanting to have a say in what I'm going to say.
3:52:27All right, great.
3:52:29I'm going to have one.
3:52:30Give one to me.
3:52:32I'm going to have one.
3:52:33I'm going to give one.
3:52:36Right.
3:52:37Oh, the rock.
3:52:41Oh, I guess probably we're ready to take our little struggle across.
3:52:58and uh say hello to the folks at the first meeting that i had with the staff of the office yeah
3:53:28You've got a lot of, one thing that you could, that you could be, that I promise, and totally not now, is the idea, you know, that he's going back because of Texas, and he's going back because of the wall.

NARA Description

On May 16, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, unknown person(s), H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, John B. Connally, George P. Shultz, Caspar W. ("Cap") Weinberger, and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 11:55 am and 12:03 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 725-031 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 725-31

Date: May 16, 1972
Time: Unknown between 11:55 am and 12:03 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with an unknown woman.

      President's schedule
          -Meeting with ambassadors
                -Time
                      -Call to check

H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman entered at an unknown time.

               -Call to delay
          -Walk to Treasury Department
          -Idanell B. (“Nellie”) Connally

John B. Connally, George P. Shultz, Caspar W. Weinberger and Ronald L.Ziegler entered at
11:57 am.

      Connally
         -Resignation as Secretary of Treasury
               -Press briefing
               -Title
               -Work with Shultz
               -Press briefing
                     -Questions
                           -[Wayne] Connally
                           -Political future
                                 -Vice-Presidency
                                 -Continued interest
                           -Connally's performance evaluated
                     -President's statement
                           -Connally’s view
                     -Questions
                           -Democratic National convention
                           -Sarah McLendon

                                 (rev. Jan-02)

               -Conclusion
               -Questions
                     -Larry [surname not known]
                     -Frank Cormier
         -Interviews
               -American Broadcasting Corporation [ABC]
               -National Broadcasting Corporation [NBC]
               -Columbia Broadcasting System [CBS]
                     -Vietnam
               -NBC and ABC
                     -Connally’s view
                     -Bella S. Abzug interview
               -CBS
                     -Time
               -Irving R. Levine
               -ABC
                     -James W. Donley
               -Conspiracy
               -Possible interviews
                     -Possibility
                     -Connally’s response
                     -CBS
                     -NBC and ABC

President's schedule
    -Walk to Treasury Department
          -Greeting tourists
    -Meeting with Treasury staff
          -Shultz's first meeting
                -Office of Management and Budget [OMB]

Connally
   -Resignation as Secretary of Treasury
         -Reasons
              -Texas election
              -George C. Wallace shooting
                    -Repudiation of story
              -Speculation

President's schedule
    -Meeting with Treasury staff
          -President's statement
          -Statements by Connally, Shultz
          -President's departure

                                         (rev. Jan-02)

                        -Walk from Treasury to White House

The President, Connally, Shultz, Weinberger, Ziegler and Haldeman left
at 12:03 pm.

Also recorded on May 16, 1972

  • 725-027 11:30 AM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the Oval Office of the White House at 11:30 am.
  • 725-028 11:31 AM · 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John B. Connally met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:31 am to 11:35 am.
  • 024-149 11:49 AM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 11:49 am and 11:54 am.
  • 725-029 11:49 AM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:49 am to 11:56 am.
  • 725-030 11:49 AM · 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, White House operator, and Thelma C. ("Pat") (Ryan) Nixon met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 11:49 am and 11:57 am.
  • 024-150 11:54 AM · 59 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Thelma C. ("Pat") (Ryan) Nixon talked on the telephone from 11:54 am to 11:55 am.
  • 725-041 12:45 PM · 49 sec — John D. Ehrlichman and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the Oval Office of the White House at 12:45 pm.
  • 725-032 12:46 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon, John D. Ehrlichman, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:46 pm to 12:49 pm.

All 113 conversations from May 16, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 725-031, May 16, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/725-031 (accessed September 18, 2026).