Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 763 › Conversation 763-025

Nixon & Butterfield on political strategy

Monday, August 7, 1972 · 4:13 PM–4:25 PM ET · Oval Office · 8 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Butterfield, Alexander P.; [Unknown person(s)]Conversation763-025 on Tape 763StartMonday, August 7, 1972 at 4:13 PMEndMonday, August 7, 1972 at 4:25 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 763-025 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with Alexander P. Butterfield to streamline the attendee lists for an upcoming official meeting and dinner. The President expressed a desire to reduce the number of participants, specifically aiming to separate his policy advisors from purely political activities and to ensure staff focused on substantive work rather than social obligations. They reviewed various senior staff members—including Henry Kissinger, John Ehrlichman, and Peter Flanigan—to determine who was essential for briefings versus those whose presence was unnecessary.

Audio

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NARA Description

On August 7, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, Alexander P. Butterfield, and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:13 pm to 4:25 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 763-025 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 763-25

Date: August 7, 1972
Time: 4:13 pm – 4:25 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Alexander P. Butterfield.

       The President's schedule
            -Forthcoming dinner and meeting
                  -Lists of attendees for dinner
                  -Lists of attendees for meeting
                  -Attendees
                         -John D. Ehrlichman
                         -Peter M. Flanigan
                         -Henry A. Kissinger
                         -Frederic V. Malek
                               -Committee to Re-elect the President [CRP]
                         -Separation of advisors from political activities
                         -Briefers
                               -Malek
                               -Jeb Stuart Magruder
                               -Kenneth S. Rietz
                               -Kissinger
                         -Ehrlichman
                         -Flannigan
                         -Kenneth R. Cole, Jr.
                         -Limits on size of political meetings
                               -Kissinger
                                            59

                      NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

                                    -Foreign policy
                              -Ehrlichman
                              -Flanigan
                              -Cole
                       -Butterfield
                       -H.R. (“Bob”) Haldeman
                       -Ehrlichman
                       -Flanigan
                       -Cole
                       -Butterfield
                       -Cabinet members
                       -Briefers
Show the rest of the log (43 more lines)
                       -Dinners
                              -Presence of advisors
                                    -Ehrlichman
                                    -Flanigan
                                    -Kissinger
                       -Ehrlichman
                       -Flanigan
                       -Herbert Stein
                       -Flanigan
                       -John A. Scali
                       -Dr. Edward E. David, Jr.
                       -Stein
                              -Economy
                       -Ehrlichman
                       -Kissinger
                       -Ehrlichman
                       -Stein
                       -Flanigan
                       -The President's forthcoming meeting with Ehrlichman
                       -Number of attendees
                       -Robert J. Brown
                       -Charles W. Colson
                       -Harry S. Dent
                       -John N. Mitchell

[Signing documents]

The President talked with an unknown person at an unknown time between 4:13 pm and 4:25
pm.
                                                60

                       NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

[Conversation No. 763-25A]

       Unknown person’s schedule

[End of telephone conversation]

       The President’s schedule
            -Forthcoming meeting with Ehrlichman

Butterfield left at 4:25 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

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Yeah.
No, thanks.
I'm going to go to the other side.
Okay.
Thank you.
All right.
The point is, I cut this down.
This isn't bad.
Maybe we ought to cut it more.
These are the people going to the meeting and the dinner.
These are the people who would not go to the dinner.
And would not be going?
What do you mean?
Well, yeah, that's right.
They wouldn't have to go to the meeting.
Well, I don't know.
We can have all the dinners, don't you know what I mean?
Well, I don't care.
That's fine.
Except that I wouldn't have these present.
See what I mean?
I think that I don't want, in that category, early on, finding that this is your present.
That's what is basically, uh, a, uh, uh, yeah.
Why does somebody, does somebody... Well, I don't know if you've ever made a follow-up guy.
I don't know.
I know, but he works for the committee.
Yeah.
He works for me.
He works for me.
He works for me.
I wouldn't have any of it.
But since you've got the time, all of these go to the tenor.
If you've got room, that's no problem.
See?
But what I meant is I want to get...
I'm trying to separate the stuff that he's got.
The political life, you know what I'm saying?
What's the problem?
They should be there, too.
Yeah, well, the ringers are all committed to being a matter of the greater peace.
I mean, I should find them.
What I mean is, the only ones that I can leave off there are the girl who finds them in the cold.
So they don't have to go off to dinner.
Well, they don't go, you know, because they're already buried down.
If they're not going to be briefed, I don't see any reason for them to go, you know, they can stay here.
That's true.
Yeah, that was really something, but I was wondering if they'd go up there.
No, no, no, I want them off the elevator.
I just don't think they should go, because there's a hell of a lot of work to be done here.
I mean, they're working on all sorts of things, and there's no reason for them to shoot them after they're there.
Yeah, go ahead and sit it through and brief them.
Yeah, that makes sense.
Anyone who doesn't have to attend a meeting, should they even go up there?
Here's the point.
It is, if you've got people always sitting in every goddamn little thing, they can't do anything else.
So I wouldn't invite them.
Actually, just in general, at least it's not everything.
A lot of them may have foreign policy, I'm sure.
Agreed.
I would hope so.
They're talking about the issues.
They've got to talk about the foreign policy.
So I wouldn't have Irwin.
I wouldn't have Flanagan.
I wouldn't have Cole.
But I just have a, you'd be there because it's a capital meeting, and the others are all Canadian.
So what if there's a bargain?
I mean, I'm probably willing to be convinced that there's something.
No, no, I'm with you now.
I see what you mean.
You have Baldwin there because he's basically a political man.
Irwin is not political.
Flanagan is not political.
Cole is not political.
See?
All of my names.
You're there as a reefer.
Everybody else is either a captain or a reefer.
But I see no reason for hurting them.
In other words, if they go, they've got to go to the dinner.
You have people that rank not go to the dinner.
Because they basically ran for the House of Representatives.
I just meant they're his people, and I don't, I do not have early plans, or just, they are the three top subjects in the White House, and I don't think they should be here.
Understood.
That's all I was saying.
Okay, really good.
If I didn't hear it at the beginning, if I didn't know it was done, I don't know what the hell would have come.
The people that we're talking about here are growing.
For example,
Just to give you an example, you're not in Stein.
That's right.
Now, we eliminate him.
All right.
Then why do you have, why do we have Blanigan then?
Because you might find, we eliminated Scali, we eliminated Stein.
Well, they're not Scali on the same rank.
You see, well, we eliminated Dr. David.
I said, I want David.
All right, fine.
Let's take Stein.
Stein will have more to contribute to this kind of a meeting.
If he participates in anything else, he's an economic man.
If they're going to discuss anything in terms of the
I didn't sit down and try to break it, but earlier we did.
I kicked it up, and I came back over here.
God, how do you think?
Are you sure as hell sure we've got a lot of bears in the economy?
Well, if they do, then I'll bite each tree.
I'm not going to have a damn thing without animals.
That's not right either, see.
But why do you have Earth and the sky?
Well, planning, for example, needs not to be it.
I just told him I don't want to keep him in the hell out of politics.
I want him for another reason, because he's vulnerable.
And it would be a nice way to keep others out, too.
They all have a chance, but if they don't want to go, Christ, I don't care.
But if you have, frankly, if you have early on in the planning, that's fine.
That's just true.
I mean, it all should be fine.
I'll tell you what, we are looking at his trajectory pretty good on this.
I mean, you know, I've been talking to him, I don't think he's nothing to do with us.
Yeah, he has a little more sense than a bunch of people.
Well, he, uh, well, I know that everybody wants to bring all of this to the case, Gary, but not that.
We really do know that we can watch our channel.
It's just as amazing.
There are more here than there are here.
That's why I'm checking to see.
I'm trying to cut the goddamn thing down.
I don't know how hard it is, but it's going to make sense.
Oh.
Thank you.

Also recorded on August 7, 1972

  • 763-021 3:46 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Otto E. Passman, and William E. Timmons met in the Oval Office of the White House from 3:46 pm to 3:51 pm.
  • 763-023 3:51 PM · 20 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Peter M. Flanigan, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 3:51 pm to 4:12 pm.
  • 763-024 4:12 PM · 18 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 4:12 pm and 4:13 pm.
  • 763-026 4:25 PM · 20 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 4:25 pm and 4:33 pm.
  • 763-027 4:33 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 4:33 pm and 4:34 pm.
  • 764-001 4:33 PM · 56 min — President Richard M. Nixon, John D. Ehrlichman, Henry A. Kissinger, White House operator, and Anatoliy F. Dobrynin met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:33 pm to 5:21 pm.
  • 029-034 4:34 PM · 2 min — Henry A. Kissinger, Arthur F. Burns, and President Richard M. Nixon talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 4:34 pm and 5:21 pm.
  • 029-035 4:34 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 4:34 pm and 5:23 pm.

All 38 conversations from August 7, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 763-025, August 7, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/763-025 (accessed November 2, 2026).