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 on Tape 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

part B, 1:44:40

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 players above hold the full tape, shared with neighbouring conversations. By the archivists' log it runs from 03:46:30 to 03:53:36 into the tape; their log often drifts a minute or two from the audio, so listen for the subjects in the finding aid.

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

               -Conclusion
               -Questions
                     -Larry [surname not known]
                     -Frank Cormier
         -Interviews
Show the rest of the log (44 more lines)
               -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

                        -Walk from Treasury to White House

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

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; click one to play the tape from there.

All this stuff just doesn't, she's not caught up in it.
She isn't interested in it.
That would be a problem.
Well, she is interested.
She's a damn direct part of it as far as politics and all that stuff.
A lot more than most.
You know the...
All right.

— 1 min 56 s with no transcribed speech —

If these ambassadors are not here, when will they be here, do you know?
Well, we just called and checked, and none of them has arrived yet.
Do you want to start getting here earlier?
Well, I'm afraid not.
Well, these ambassadors, I think we better call and delay them, okay?
The issue is that we're just going to have our residents delayed, and just delay each of them a half hour.
I just think they can wait a little while.
You go kind of out ahead.
I don't think there's much to do about it.
It's going to sound a little rude, but now we understand.
Well, I think we've got a survive, Mr. Secretary.
Thank you.
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, no
And I sit and they ask me, did this provide me a perfect opportunity?
And it is for me to go home and campaign with my brother.
I sit down with my brother and look after himself.
And he's not over the left, but you might as well find out where he's at.
Do they get into the politics?
Oh, sure.
I just said that I have no, I've told you before, that I have no political ambitions or aspirations whatsoever.
I want to ask if I was going to be a candidate for vice president.
I 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.
I'm not going to withdraw from the human race or withdraw my interest in political affairs.
It's been a part of my life, all of my life.
It's been an obligation.
I've never said it would be interesting.
I've never been interested.
That's about it.
That was an excellent job.
Really worth all of it.
Mr. President, I'm very grateful for your extravagant remarks.
They were extravagant.
They didn't push us.
They asked us to go to the Democratic Convention.
No, no.
We really cut it off before.
They cut it off.
Sarah McClendon asked a question, and I took her question.
And many of our patients had read it before.
I quite finished it.
They started wholesale access from the back of the room.
So it broke it up hilarious.
I was mad as hell because I didn't mean to ask the question.
See, Cora Mayer goes, thank you.
Oh, sure.
Well, we're going to screw a couple of them.
I'll tell you that.
I spent hours with ABC and NBC and CBS and the film.
And NBC and ABC didn't run it.
CBS did the next morning, about 10 minutes in.
The other two kids they ran, the fella had some.
So 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.
I really don't think it's a conspiracy in New York.
He said, I just don't want you to think that.
Well, ABC came in and said the same thing.
He said, Jim Donahue said, I don't want you to think that it's a conspiracy in New York.
Jim said, as a matter of fact, they used those same words in different meetings.
In this meeting, there was no conspiracy.
And I said, well, that's fine, Jim.
They'll want me before I want them.
And they'll be over there today wanting to have a say in what I'm going to say.
All right, great.
I'm going to have one.
Give one to me.
I'm going to have one.
I'm going to give one.
Right.
Oh, the rock.
Oh, I guess probably we're ready to take our little struggle across.
and uh say hello to the folks at the first meeting that i had with the staff of the office yeah
You'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.

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 · 6 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 · 6 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 · 56 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 74 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 November 2, 2026).