Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 810 › Conversation 810-011

Nixon & Haldeman on Presidential travel and Campaign strategy

Tuesday, October 31, 1972 · 2:41 PM–2:42 PM ET · Oval Office · 3 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob")Conversation810-011 on Tape 810StartTuesday, October 31, 1972 at 2:41 PMEndTuesday, October 31, 1972 at 2:42 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 810-011 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and H.R. Haldeman reviewed logistics for upcoming presidential travel, focusing on campaign appearances at O'Hare International Airport and potential trips to Oklahoma and North Carolina. They weighed the strategic benefits of specific crowd locations and decided to finalize and announce the Illinois schedule immediately while keeping other travel plans tentative. The discussion also included a brief interlude involving Stephen B. Bull regarding a signing ceremony for the 1973 Appropriations Act.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Do I just come up with that?
Now he says, he thinks that's a good idea.
Let's do it.
Let's do it on the military side of O'Hare, at the far end.
Because it's in the middle of a dang good suburban area.
And he said, you've got a good crowd.
It's a good place to do it for you.
And he says, that's the right thing.
It's not the right thing.
It's the feeling of a hell of a lot of things.
That's much better.
A pretty good crowd doesn't make any difference.
All right, guys, let's go.
Dick Moore was really disturbed by going into the movie.
He thinks the O'Hare thing was fine.
We decided to go back and we're going to announce it.
We're going to get it done.
We'll work it out.
Well, we just got it right.
We'll go back and we'll... We'll go home.
Get that set.
Get it over with on the set and announce it as soon as we can.
Well, if you want, what you can do is just announce that today.
get Oklahoma and the other one set and announce it tomorrow.
Yeah, we can announce it.
We don't have to announce it.
We can read it and post it.
Right.
If you wanted to do that, I would announce Illinois now, but we'll go back there because they're waiting for that.
We'll do an airport shot there.
All right.
Now we've got a question that might make more sense.
To reverse Oklahoma and North Carolina,
Well, just could you do the Midwest twice that way?
But it doesn't make more sense for me.
No, I mean it makes more sense to do it on Friday.
I'm going to do it on Friday, so that's that.
Go home on Friday.
Or I'll get it out of the way, and then I can spend that time on doing it on Friday.
You can have it.
Yeah, I think you haven't got time to get a little more.
We may have because we're starting to work on it anyway.
They're ready to release the president.
And then after, if you want to ask, we're going to hear from you.
And this is just a picture.
Yeah, it's not.
Okay, what do you do?
You mean you can get something from Oklahoma?
You can announce?
We may be able to put it all together.
If we can't, we'll let Chicago have it anyway.
What I would do would be to announce to COCO that there will probably be another, and later it will be another announcement to be made as we are able to do so.
Thank you.

NARA Description

On October 31, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 2:41 pm and 2:42 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 810-011 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 810-11

Date: October 31, 1972

Time: Unknown between 2:41 pm and 2:42 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman.

        The President’s schedule
            -Possible appearance O'Hare International Airport
                -Dwight L. Chapin's conversation with John H. (“Jack”) Riley
                      -Possible size of crowd
            -Possible trip to Duluth, Minnesota
                -Richard Moore
            -Announcement of forthcoming trips
                -Illinois
                -Oklahoma
                -Illinois
            -Possible trips to Oklahoma and North Carolina

Stephen B. Bull entered at an unknown time after 2:41 pm.

             Signing ceremony of 1973 Appropriations Act
                 -Henry A. Kissinger
                 -Photograph session

Bull left at an unknown time before 2:42 pm.

        The President's trip to Chicago and Oklahoma
            -Announcements

Haldeman left at 2:42 pm.

Also recorded on October 31, 1972

  • 810-009 2:38 PM · 16 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House from 2:38 pm to 2:41 pm.
  • 810-010 2:41 PM · 18 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 2:41 pm and 2:42 pm.
  • 810-012 2:42 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 2:42 pm to 2:44 pm.
  • 810-013 2:44 PM · 18 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 2:44 pm and 2:52 pm.
  • 810-014 2:44 PM · 21 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 2:44 pm and 2:52 pm.
  • 810-015 2:52 PM · 26 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House from 2:52 pm to 3:23 pm.
  • 810-016 3:23 PM · 18 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 3:23 pm and 3:25 pm.
  • 810-017 3:25 PM · 17 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the Oval Office of the White House from 3:25 pm to 4:08 pm.

All 45 conversations from October 31, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 810-011, October 31, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/810-011 (accessed October 5, 2026).