Nixon White House Tapes ›Tape 767 › Conversation 767-010
Nixon & Buchanan on 1972 Presidential Campaign and Media Bias
Friday, August 11, 1972 · 8:55 AM–9:28 AM ET · Oval Office ·17 min
AI Summary
President Nixon and Patrick J. Buchanan met to coordinate public relations and campaign strategies ahead of the 1972 election. They discussed managing media bias—specifically regarding crowd size reporting and the administration's record on hiring women for policy positions—and planned aggressive political attacks against George McGovern and Ramsey Clark. The discussion emphasized the need for consistent messaging from administration speakers regarding Clark's potential FBI appointment and the development of a forthcoming speech on amnesty by Vice President Spiro T. Agnew.
Audio
Transcript (AI-generated)
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Thank you.
and so on and so on and so on.
So, well, anyway, I didn't anticipate all that.
I would say on the base, well, you say that, I would say that, well, Chairman Prager has answered that question, and I think he's probably right.
Do you think that's the best way to do that?
Yeah, they'll follow up on that, don't you think?
If they open questions.
No, well, I just think that I understand.
just stay right there on that.
The first responsibility, for example, the vice president, except for the Chicago campaign, but the president, his first responsibility
It's also particularly true because the Congress is not going to be in session until it's third of April.
So until Congress is out of session, we can only say that whatever the President does is going to have to be on a very limited basis.
the responsibility.
It isn't the number of women that are in government accounts.
There's always a huge number of stenographers and the rest.
Finally, the important thing is, are they in policy positions?
And we have made historic changes in policy positions.
And you can say, yes, we should have a woman in the Supreme Court, but what about a woman in the Cabinet?
20.
We had decided that we were wrong.
Well, that was very .
I think they should say, well, there shouldn't be a double standard here.
We got Dan Sievers, NBC reporter that got on the track and was welcomed by a large New Zealand crowd in the Hampshire.
So he said 100.
100 showed up there.
100 people.
They said 100 people right there.
Incredible.
For Christ's sakes.
You know, that's, I mean, even for, when I was even a private citizen.
You showed up and got 100.
Remember in 64?
In 64 when I was nothing.
If you had less than that, they'd say it was a vacation.
Public support complete.
They only had 100 out of about 600 in the family.
And he had a perfect few, some good reason, a thousand partners.
You get crowds, but that shows you what you're up against.
You see, here, they can take 100 and make a lot of enthusiasm.
If we have 10,000,
I do agree with you.
I do agree with you.
I do agree with you.
I do agree with you.
Also related by the, that we're having today, the most vulnerable point now,
Ramsey Park would be a perfect environment for the FBI.
I'm a real man.
If they were comfortable, they'd have enough room by the name of John.
And I go to all of them, because they're meeting this morning.
And if I have questions, people will see whether they're doing it.
This may be a time to leave Shaggy with us.
OK. See, my question is.
We did something for Dole yesterday.
I know that.
It didn't make the.
They didn't make the FBI one.
You said, remember, they can't.
Right.
I know it.
But we told them to do that.
Say, your FBI chief is right over there in Illinois.
Yeah.
The point is, that should be repeated by every speaker from now on until he repudiates it.
Because Ramsey Clark, who has been giving aid and comfort to the enemy, who, you know, says that he apologizes to the enemy.
I agree 100%.
There is one thing.
I'm not for strife.
As a matter of fact, we weren't striving to sell them.
They forget that.
The only thing that was striving was to sell that film.
But the point is, there was no striving.
What we're talking about here is you get these guys, you've got to remember, all they're going to do is cram around about $10 million in the cave water.
That's bullshit.
You can call the beep up there.
I'm sure I could grab even a statement which you could read and release at the same time.
I'm going to make a speech tomorrow night.
Tomorrow night?
Saturday night.
Now.
As loud as the time.
Yeah, I know about it.
It is, but you can put the speech out at Saturday.
Okay.
Noon.
See?
Okay.
Delivered at night.
Okay.
All right.
His speech on amnesty, did you work with him?
No, I haven't read the speech on amnesty.
The hell with it.
NARA Description
On August 11, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Patrick J. Buchanan met in the Oval Office of the White House from 8:55 am to 9:28 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 767-010 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 767-10
(rev. Nov-03)
Date: August 11, 1972
Time: 8:55 am – 9:28 am
Location: Oval Office
The President met with Patrick J. Buchanan.
Retail sales
Stock market
*****************************************************************
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 4m 3s ]
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
*****************************************************************
Public relations
-Possible questions for the President’s family
-Republican National Convention
-Activities of the President’s family
-Activities of the President
-Presidential debates
-Clark MacGregor
-Activities of the President
-1972 campaign contrasted with the 1960 and 1968 campaigns
-Responsibilities of a Vice President relating to a campaign
-Responsibilities of a President during a campaign
-Duties of the Office of the President
-Foreign policy
-Congress
-Schedule
*****************************************************************
(rev. Nov-03)
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 3m 32s ]
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2
*****************************************************************
The Administration’s record of appointing women
-Unimportance of number of appointments
-Stenographers
-Filing clerks
-Appointments to policy positions
-Supreme Court
-Cabinet
-Atomic Energy Commission [AEC] [Dixy Lee Ray]
-Council of Economic Advisors [CEA] [Marina von N. Whitman]
-Federal Maritime Commission [Helen D. Bentley]
*****************************************************************
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 47s ]
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3
*****************************************************************
Campaign
-Press
-News summary stories
-The Administration’s response to perceived media bias
-Depiction of crowd response at George S. McGovern event in New
Hampshire
(rev. Nov-03)
-Lyndon K. ("Mort") Allin
-John Dancy
-National Broadcasting Company [NBC]
-Associated Press [AP]
-Actual size of crowd
-New Hampshire
-Compared to crowds from the President’s
appearances in the 1964 campaign
-Barry M. Goldwater
-Fairness
-Kenneth W. Clawson
-John A. Scali
-John W. Chancellor
-Melvin R. Laird
-David Brinkley
-Chancellor
-W. Ramsey Clark
-Remarks on J. Edgar Hoover
-Possible appointment as director of the Federal Bureau
of Investigation [FBI]
-H.R. (“Bob”) Haldeman
-Robert J. Dole’s previous remarks
-Efforts relative to North Vietnamese
-Possible remarks by Administration speakers
-Tone of campaign
-Compared with 1970 campaign
-Film
-William L. Safire
-Charges against Republicans
-Campaign fundraising
-Watergate
-James J. Kilpatrick, Jr.
-Possible indictments
*****************************************************************
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 2m 10s ]
(rev. Nov-03)
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4
*****************************************************************
Vietnam related issues
-Clark
-Media interest
-Haldeman
-Vice President Spiro T. Agnew
-Possible statement
-Forthcoming speech
-Timing
-Agnew
-Speech on amnesty
-Writers
-Issue of the President's position on amnesty
-Carl Sandburg's anecdote on Abraham Lincoln
-Civil War-era deserter who moved to Canada
-Lincoln's action
-Recent Supreme Court decision
-[John] Calvin Coolidge
-Harry S. Truman
-Quakers
-The President’s view
-Peace Corps
-Lincoln
-Buchanan’s view
Agnew's possible speeches
-Questions for McGovern
-John P. Sears
-Clark
-Possible appointment as FBI director
-Previous trip to Hanoi
-Hoover
-Role as anti-communist
-Contrasted with Clark
-Possible speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars [VFW] national convention
-McGovern’s forthcoming VFW speech
(rev. Nov-03)
*****************************************************************
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 5m 2s ]
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5
*****************************************************************
The President's schedule
-Forthcoming meeting with Henry A. Kissinger
Buchanan left at 9:28 am.Also recorded on August 11, 1972
- 767-007 8:16 AM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:16 am and 8:55 am.
- 767-008 8:16 AM · 23 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:16 am and 8:55 am.
- 767-009 8:16 AM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:16 am and 8:55 am.
- 767-011 9:28 AM · 6 min — 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 9:28 am and 9:35 am.
- 767-012 9:28 AM · 25 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:28 am and 9:35 am.
- 767-013 9:28 AM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:28 am and 9:35 am.
- 767-014 9:28 AM · 21 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:28 am and 9:35 am.
- 767-015 9:28 AM · 17 sec — President Richard M. Nixon, Alexander P. Butterfield, and Manolo Sanchez met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:28 am and 9:35 am.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 767-010, August 11, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/767-010 (accessed September 18, 2026).