Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 836
Nixon White House Tape 836 (January 9, 1973)
10 conversations · Oval Office · about 4 hr 33 min of released audio
Featuring Nixon, Bull, Woods, Haldeman, Ehrlichman
President Nixon initiates a brief communication with the White House operator to facilitate a connection with a congressman. The exchange focuses on establishing a line with Congressman John, likely for an urgent legislative or political consultation. This interaction serves as a routine administrative step to manage the President's official outreach and scheduling requirements.
President Nixon held a brief, routine administrative interaction with the White House operator to facilitate communication. This exchange functioned primarily as a procedural check for connectivity within the White House switchboard system. No substantive policy matters or executive decisions were addressed during this brief connection.
President Nixon met with his aide Stephen B. Bull in the Oval Office to conduct a review of his daily schedule. The primary focus of the discussion concerned upcoming engagements with Press Secretary Ronald L. Ziegler and Soviet Ambassador Anatoliy F. Dobrynin. This briefing served as a routine administrative coordination of the President's morning agenda.
In this recording, President Nixon reflects on his recent birthday and discusses press relations, the personal impact of media coverage on his family, and his daily work-life balance. He also evaluates the status of Vietnam peace negotiations, expressing skepticism regarding the North Vietnamese and emphasizing the necessity of securing a ceasefire that addresses concerns over POWs and MIAs. The discussion includes considerations of military options and the political challenges of managing congressional relations during this sensitive period of administration reorganization.
President Nixon met with Rose Mary Woods and Press Secretary Ronald L. Ziegler to discuss personal administrative tasks, the management of press relations, and upcoming media strategies. The President addressed recent inaccurate press coverage, specifically criticizing reporting regarding his administration's staffing decisions and internal power dynamics. The participants also evaluated the benefits of low-key media engagements versus formal interviews and finalized plans for how the administration would handle press inquiries regarding the Vietnam settlement and wage-price controls during the transition period.
President Nixon met with H. R. Haldeman and other staff to discuss administrative restructuring, press strategy, and the implementation of a new audio recording system. The participants addressed the potential reassignment of Herbert Klein to a Counselor for Communications role to maintain his utility to the administration, while also reviewing the status of upcoming Cabinet confirmations and Watergate-related concerns involving Egil Krogh. Additionally, Nixon directed staff to install transcription equipment at various locations to enhance the president’s ability to record personal notes and historical documentation.
President Nixon met with George Shultz, Herbert Stein, and John Ehrlichman to strategize on economic messaging and upcoming policy announcements, specifically regarding the Cost of Living Council and rising food prices. They discussed plans to implement targeted administrative actions—such as reducing export subsidies and adjusting stockpiles—to mitigate inflation while framing congressional overspending as the primary threat to the nation's economic prosperity. Nixon emphasized the need for an aggressive public relations campaign to highlight the administration's economic record and to shift the political burden for potential fiscal instability onto the Democratic-controlled Congress.
President Nixon met with staff and officials, including Maurice J. Williams and Col. Richard T. Kennedy, to discuss relief efforts in Nicaragua and the status of Vietnam peace negotiations. During the meeting, Nixon received a birthday gift from his staff and praised Williams for his coordination of disaster relief, advising him on how to characterize these efforts to the press. Following these discussions, Nixon shifted the focus to the Vietnam peace talks, expressing skepticism about the North Vietnamese negotiators' sincerity and reiterating his preference for a negotiated agreement over a unilateral military withdrawal.
In this meeting, President Nixon and his staff, particularly Frederic Malek and Roy Ash, focused on the management reorganization of the federal government for his second term. Nixon emphasized the critical need for absolute loyalty among appointees to ensure that government agencies act in accordance with presidential directives, specifically noting the importance of controlling the IRS and staffing departments with loyalists. Additionally, the President reviewed economic messaging strategies for the upcoming budget, instructed his team to minimize unnecessary paperwork, and discussed sensitive developments regarding potential Vietnam peace negotiations, tasking Henry Kissinger and Alexander Haig with maintaining absolute secrecy.
The recording captures an unidentified meeting in the Oval Office involving President Nixon and one or more unknown participants. Due to the lack of audible or preserved content in the transcript, no substantive policy discussions, political developments, or specific action items can be identified. The conversation remains categorized as an unrecoverable segment of the White House taping system.