Nixon White House Tapes ›Tape 795 › Conversation 795-015

Nixon, Butterfield & Woods on 1972 election campaign and Media strategy

Tuesday, October 10, 1972 · 1:20 PM–1:35 PM ET · Oval Office ·6 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Butterfield, Alexander P.;  Woods, Rose MaryConversation795-015 onTape 795StartTuesday, October 10, 1972 at 1:20 PMEndTuesday, October 10, 1972 at 1:35 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 795-015 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with Alexander P. Butterfield and Rose Mary Woods to finalize his upcoming schedule and handle administrative correspondence. Nixon reviewed various campaign-related requests, rejecting several proposals for television spots and public outreach meetings, including those involving ethnic leaders and minority groups. Ultimately, the President decided to limit his public appearances and media engagements, opting for radio over television for Veterans Day messaging as the election approached.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

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Well, I'll be about half an hour, an hour working these guns.
Just in a hurry.
This is a letter.
What?
Well, that's about an hour.
I should be running this off.
I'm going to be working on this letter.
Thank you.
Thank you.
On Friday, Jim Copley, I'd like you to bring Jim Copley in for about a 20-minute talk with yourself and his editorial address and put it out in his 16 papers.
Oh, all right.
All of them are sort of opposed to that.
The client is eager to push him on it.
That's the last one, no more.
There would be no more of these people coming down there.
Now we're going to be cut.
We've been sick.
Oh, it's not going to work.
Oh.
We'll have to come in.
We've done enough of that.
Bob was also opposed to this one, but Bolzano and Malik and Dick Moore were spontaneously brought by the Marriott Key Bridge, where the committee was entertaining about 200 ethnic leaders.
Just for you.
five- or ten-minute remarks to that group.
No.
They had your problem.
I'm glad.
Thursday, Thursday is my day of campaigning.
I'm not going to do that.
That would be Saturday.
Because that's making a difference.
I won't be here Saturday.
I'm going to try to be here next week.
A week from Thursday, the 19th, the signing ceremony of the Polish-U.S. Science and Technology Agreement that Dr. David and the Secretary of State signed.
No.
I don't want that to come to this level.
There are some reasons why that would not help with the pollution every year.
They don't understand.
The point is that the common discover of all this and all that popular pollution.
I don't want to do this thing here today about the motion picture.
I don't want to do that then.
I will not do it.
Veterans Day is October 23rd.
TV spot, 52nd TV spot, TV spot sometime in the next five or six days.
No.
No.
For what?
Well, to be a broadcast on the television and all the veterans hospitals around the nation.
No.
No.
I think they could do radio.
I'll do a radio spot for those, but I'm not going to do it.
I'm not going to exploit the better issue of the TV spot.
No.
They won't use the TV spot.
We're not going to do a better radio talk than any of that.
And that's what we'll do.
I'm not going to do a TV spot.
I'll do a radio spot.
Radio, not TV.
The last one is just any time, as a gap killer, had sort of a working session of about eight or ten of the administration blacks.
So is it there?
No, no, no.
No more blacks.
Even the administration?
No, no administration blacks, no blacks, no.
We just can't do it.
Yeah, no, we've done a lot.
Well, we've done a lot, but we're just not going to have to do it.
You've got to ask about this case, but now you know we're now on the guidance.
If you send in a letter to one of these editors, we can't do it.
It's too late.
It's four weeks from the election.
It's just not right to bring it in and take all this time.
I'm curious.
The Vice President is going to be going to this shindig tonight, this reception.
Do you want the Vice President, Mr. Dagan, to receive with you?
Or, alternatively, they could just go in the State Dining Room and serve a service post in there.
Thank you.

NARA Description

On October 10, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, Alexander P. Butterfield, and Rose Mary Woods met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 1:20 pm and 1:35 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 795-015 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 795-15

Date: October 10, 1972
Time: Unknown between 1:20 pm and 1:35 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Alexander P. Butterfield and Rose Mary Woods.

                                        (rev. Nov-03)

        Photocopy instruction

Wood left at an unknown time before 1:35 pm.

        The President's schedule
            -Letter

        Items for the President’s signature

        The President's schedule
            -Camp David
                -Senators, Elliot L. Richardson, George P. Shultz
                      -Spending ceiling legislation
                           -Passage in the House of Representatives
            -James S. Copley
                -H.R. (“Bob”) Haldeman
                -Herbert G. Klein
                -Ronald L. Ziegler
                -Copley’s health
            -Visit to ethnic leaders
                -Haldeman
                -Michael Balzano, Jr.
                -Frederic V. Malek
                -Richard A. Moore
                -Marriott Key Bridge Motel
                -Campaigning
                -President’s address on Crime and Drug Abuse, October 15, 1972
            - US-Poland Science and Technology agreement
                -Signing ceremony, October 19, 1972
                      -Dr. Edward E. David, Jr.
                      -William P. Rogers
                      -Polish-Americans
                           -Polish government
                               -Communism
                           -The President’s recent meeting [with Witold Trampczynski]
                               -Film presentation

        The President's schedule
            -Veterans Day
                -Television broadcast
                     -Veterans hospitals
                     -Radio

                                        (rev. Nov-03)

             -Meetings
                 -Blacks in the administration
                 -Jews
                 -Editors
             -Vice President Spiro T. Agnew
                 -Elinor I. (Judefind) Agnew
                      -State Dining Room

Butterfield left at an unknown time before 1:35 pm.

Also recorded on October 10, 1972

  • 795-009 12:27 PM · 24 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:27 pm and 12:30 pm.
  • 795-010 12:30 PM · 28 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:30 pm to 12:49 pm.
  • 795-011 12:51 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, unknown person(s), and Rose Mary Woods met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:51 pm to 12:56 pm.
  • 795-012 12:56 PM · 14 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:56 pm and 1:20 pm.
  • 795-013 12:56 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:56 pm and 1:20 pm.
  • 795-014 12:56 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:56 pm and 1:20 pm.
  • 795-016 1:35 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods met in the Oval Office of the White House from 1:35 pm to 1:37 pm.
  • 795-017 1:37 PM · 32 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Manolo Sanchez, Alexander P. Butterfield, Stephen B. Bull, and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the Oval Office of the White House from 1:37 pm to 2:30 pm.

All 27 conversations from October 10, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 795-015, October 10, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/795-015 (accessed September 18, 2026).