Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 831 › Conversation 831-015

Nixon & Bull on White House management and Public relations

Wednesday, January 3, 1973 · 2:52 PM–2:59 PM ET · Oval Office · 3 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Bull, Stephen B.Conversation831-015 on Tape 831StartWednesday, January 3, 1973 at 2:52 PMEndWednesday, January 3, 1973 at 2:59 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 831-015 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with his aide, Stephen B. Bull, to overhaul the management of his daily schedule and limit the number of unnecessary ceremonial meetings. Nixon expressed frustration with routine requests from outside groups, such as teachers and truck drivers, and directed Bull to restrict engagements to those that serve the administration's strategic goals rather than the visitors' interests. The President instructed that meetings should be strictly limited to one per day, prioritizing efficiency and exclusivity to protect his time.

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Transcript (AI-generated)

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and so forth and so on and so on.

You know what I mean?

You could really have about one a day.

And I'm not even sure that you've got that coach coming in, but you're getting lots of pressures for basically the jackass kind of stuff.

And generally speaking, I don't think it's worth an hour a day at this point.

I mean, I think about...

Basically, as we know, this is not something that is done for our purposes.

It's basically done for the purposes of the people coming in.

And you'll have to sit down and talk about this issue.

It's just written right now.

I don't want a congressman, senator to

You know, treating at the limit of two or just one day.

I was thinking really just the other way with regards to things like that.

It's not that worship is really important, but as long as any interruption, I think probably a five minute interruption on any day really is a thing of life.

It's true, it's true, but the point is, I just shouldn't, I mean, just don't do it at all.

You see what I'm saying?

Don't be legit, have to do these, that sort of thing at all.

Or to do it always for our purposes and not for anybody else's purposes.

So if you have a bike interruption, you can do it and that's it.

That's what I mean.

Be one of them.

But, gee, they say, well, I have to get this one in and get that in.

Well, of course, there are some things that I'm going to have to do.

Like, say, you could buy the food for three people after the 20 and so forth.

But that I understand.

But I am like, this is a mess.

I'm a truck driver.

That's a nice thing to do with a truck driver.

He doesn't know what to do with the teachers.

And of course I said, no, no, no, lunch is over.

He said, I'll have the president and the teachers and all that sort of thing.

You see, we're just not going to do it this way.

We mustn't be available for that.

It'll be making it more scarce.

It'll make it a hell of a lot more bad.

Put in two or three things because a day is free.

Let's take one thing a day.

If you have one thing in order to have an event, if you want to have an event, just have it.

NARA Description

On January 3, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 2:52 pm and 2:59 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 831-015 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 831-15

Date: January 3, 1973
Time: Unknown between 2:52 pm and 2:59 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Stephen B. Bull.

       The President's schedule
            -Meetings
                  -Truck drivers
                  -Limit
                  -Purpose
                  -H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman
                  -Congressional relations
                  -Requirements
                  -Teamsters
                  -Value of limiting
                                               -44-

                    NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                                              Conversation No. 831-15 (cont’d)

Bull left at 2:59 pm.

Also recorded on January 3, 1973

035-073 2:48 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Richard A. Moore talked on the telephone from 2:48 pm to 2:52 pm.
831-011 2:48 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Richard A. Moore met in the Oval Office of the White House from 2:48 pm to 2:52 pm.
035-074 2:52 PM · 14 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 2:52 pm and 2:59 pm.
831-012 2:52 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 2:52 pm and 2:59 pm.
831-013 2:52 PM · 29 sec — President Richard M. Nixon, Stephen B. Bull, and William E. Timmons met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 2:52 pm and 2:59 pm.
831-014 2:52 PM · 14 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 2:52 pm and 2:59 pm.
035-075 2:59 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, and Thomas P. ("Tip") O'Neill, Jr. talked on the telephone from 2:59 pm to 3:03 pm.
831-016 2:59 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Thomas P. ("Tip") O'Neill, Jr., and Gerald R. Ford met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 2:59 pm and 3:03 pm.

All 39 conversations from January 3, 1973 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 831-015, January 3, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/831-015 (accessed October 12, 2026).