Nixon White House Tapes ›Tape 781 › Conversation 781-010

Nixon, Hicks & Keller on Veterans affairs and Disabled veterans

Monday, September 18, 1972 · 11:37 AM–11:44 AM ET · Oval Office ·6 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Hicks, Jack O.; Keller, John J.; Rhatican, William F.; White House operatorConversation781-010 onTape 781StartMonday, September 18, 1972 at 11:37 AMEndMonday, September 18, 1972 at 11:44 AMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 781-010 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with representatives from veterans' organizations, including Jack O. Hicks, John J. Keller, and William F. Rhatican, primarily for a photo session and an informal discussion regarding veteran support. During the meeting, Nixon emphasized his administration's commitment to disabled veterans and discussed his personal history with veterans' groups dating back to his 1946 congressional campaign. The conversation also touched upon recent flooding in Pennsylvania and the President's upcoming meeting with Representative William M. Colmer regarding a memorial for the Seabees.

Audio

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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How are you?

Glad to see you.

Glad to welcome you here.

Yes, how are you?

You mean the Queens?

Well, you guys... That's right.

We always have our formal picture with us.

No, no, let's get one

Well, I just want to wish you the very best in your activities.

My father was thinking of writing my first campaign.

I was mentioning his daughter.

My oldest daughter, Patricia, was born in 1946.

That was before they were born, of course.

And I remember that first campaign, traveling through my congressional district in California, which was on the outskirts, the east of Los Angeles, that I visited the end of the American-Asian Veterans World War II, and that's just depending on the age.

So I've known your organization all that time.

And you know what service to this country is about, what your people do.

And we want to support you in everything that we can with all of our limitations that we can.

You can be sure that John Johnson, all of our lawyers, the door is always open here.

I'd like to insure you .

Your guy, of course, your boss, of course, you know, you've got to support those two, but when it comes to the disabled veteran, and you know, you've really got a heck of a strong case, and we just go balls out on that.

Johnson knows that, you see, but you, but you call us a

Yeah.

I tried to tell him he was going.

Well, he'd come to Chicago, which was a long time to get there.

See, I had a public convention in my entry to Chicago that day, a public convention that he flew out of here or something.

But he's a strong man.

He's a big man.

But he was a big dude.

Oh, he's big.

Watch out.

Good people, strong people.

They had a terrible, terrible tragedy.

But what impressed me is that those people, some of them were poor, but all of them were proud.

And they had guts.

They'll come back.

The biggest crybabies I know were not the poor people, the working people, the rest of them were some of the bankers, big business guys that had five million and only two million left.

I said, well, isn't that too bad?

But the people that were doing it, you know, the people who lost their homes, I'm going to get a word with you that it's not going to work.

Those are the people who make this country.

You're over it.

I mean, it's a little difficult.

Yeah.

I live about five miles from my home.

I live in Boone now, of course.

Yeah, Boone.

Yeah, right, right, right, right.

Sorry to have the race.

I don't go to the tracks.

My friend, Edgar Cooper, helped me with it.

Now, each commander has the new presidential complex seal on it.

There's yours.

You've got these.

You've got the old ones.

Thank you very much.

The same thing, it's as close, not as colorful as the seal.

You see the seal on the road there.

Thank you.

That's all we got.

How's that, Collin?

Except for the wishes.

We certainly appreciate your time.

Well, it does.

I appreciate it.

I had an interesting guy come in a few minutes.

He sort of reminds me of World War II.

Bill Caldwell, who was retiring and all that, got in on this.

And as I agreed with my parents, come in and get me to sign Bill's memorial for CDs.

And when I was in the Navy, but in air operations, but when I was in the subject, and it's all on us, I lived with CDs.

They sure did.

They used to steal it.

You know where Green Island is?

Right off of New Guinea.

I was there at Green Island.

Right off of New Guinea.

NARA Description

On September 18, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, Jack O. Hicks, John J. Keller, William F. Rhatican, and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:37 am to 11:44 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 781-010 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 781-10

Date: September 18, 1972
Time: 11:37 am - 11:44 am
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Jack O. Hicks, John J. Keller, and William F. Rhatican.

                                       (rev. Oct-06)

[The White House photographer was present at the beginning of the meeting]

            Greetings

            Miss America [Terry Ann Meeuwsen]

            Photograph session
                -Service flags
                -Navy
                -Marine Corps
                -Air Force
                -Coast Guard
                -Army
                -Navy

[Photograph session]

            1946 Congressional campaign
                -The President's conversation with [Meeuwsen and Laurie Lee Schaefer]
                    -Tricia Nixon Cox
                -Veterans of Foreign Wars [VFW]
                -American Legion
                -American veterans [AMVETS]
                -Disabled American Veterans [DAV]
                -Support to disabled veterans
                    -"Open door" policy
                         -Donald E. Johnson
                    -The President’s view
                         -Johnson

            American Legion national convention
               -Chicago
                   -Johnson
                   -The President’s schedule
                       -Republican National Convention, Miami

            Johnson

            Hometowns
               -LaRue, Ohio

                                          (rev. Oct-06)

                       -Columbus
                       -Jim Thorpe
                   -Thorpe
                       -Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
                   -Character of Pennsylvania residents
                       -Recent floods in Wilkes-Barre

              J. Edgar Hoover

              Presentation of gifts by the President
                  -Cuff links
                       -Presidential seal
                  -Pins

              The President's forthcoming meeting with William M. Colmer
                  -Colmer
                      -Signing ceremony for memorial to Seabees
                  -The President's war experience
                      -Solomon Islands
                      -Seabees
                           -Green Island, New Guinea area
                                -Rabaul
                                -Finah Haven
                                -Goodenough Island
                                -Tanahmerah Bay

Hicks, et al., left at 11:44 am.

Also recorded on September 18, 1972

781-033 11:17 AM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Ronald L. Ziegler, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:17 am to 11:18 am.
781-007 11:18 AM · 8 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Ronald L. Ziegler, Terry Ann Meeuwsen, Beverly Meeuwsen, Laurie Lee Schaefer, Dorothy Schwager, and Henry C. Cashen, II met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:18 am to 11:33 am.
781-008 11:33 AM · 22 sec — United States Secret Service agents met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 11:33 am and 11:36 am.
781-009 11:37 AM · 28 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the Oval Office of the White House at 11:37 am.
781-011 11:45 AM · 35 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at 11:45 am.
781-012 11:45 AM · 7 min — President Richard M. Nixon, David N. Henderson, John E. Nidecker, and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:45 am to 11:52 am.
781-013 11:53 AM · 30 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at 11:53 am.
781-014 11:54 AM · 23 min — President Richard M. Nixon, William M. Colmer, Adm. Wallis M. Enger, George Ryder, John E. Nidecker, White House photographer, William E. Timmons, Manolo Sanchez, and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:54 am to 12:16 pm.

All 44 conversations from September 18, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 781-010, September 18, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/781-010 (accessed September 18, 2026).