Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 848 › Conversation 848-014

Nixon, Nolde & Moore on Vietnam War casualties and Presidential condolences

Monday, February 5, 1973 · 12:56 PM–1:09 PM ET · Oval Office · 13 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Bull, Stephen B.; Moore, Richard A.; Golden, William L. (Lt. Col.); White House operator; Olson, Teresa; Olson, Kenneth; Weigal, Mary; Ullmer, Agnes; Ullmer, Henry; Lemery, Irene; Lemery, Loren; Best, Clara; Nolde, Joyce; Nolde, Blair; Nolde, Brent; Nolde, Kimberly; Nolde, Bryon; Nolde, Bart; Nolde, Henry Joseph; Nolde, Joseph; Nolde, Henry, Jr.; Nolde, IreneConversation848-014 on Tape 848StartMonday, February 5, 1973 at 12:56 PMEndMonday, February 5, 1973 at 1:09 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 848-014 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with the Nolde family, including the widow and children of a fallen soldier, to express his condolences and gratitude for their sacrifice during the Vietnam War. During the visit, Nixon presented the family with gifts, discussed the importance of peace and the dignity of military families, and arranged for them to receive a private tour of the White House and Capitol. The meeting served as a gesture of presidential support, honoring the service member's legacy while providing his family with a personal encounter with the administration.

  • Vietnam War casualties
  • Nolde family
  • Presidential condolences
  • White House tour
  • Military families

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 1 minute of this recording (about 10% of it) is represented by only a few words. Listen to the audio rather than relying on the text below; a corrected transcript is queued.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Just slowly, slowly.
Be sure to shake your head and touch your mouth.
Thank you.
Thank you.
now these are uh
How many brothers and sisters do you do?
Five.
Five sisters and two brothers, totally.
That's great.
There are five in our family, five boys and six sisters.
Oh yeah, we know about that.
Oh, Marilyn, why don't you sit down?
Right close here.
Come on.
You're the youngest.
I see.
You're the youngest.
I'm the youngest sister of the three boys here.
All of them.
All of them.
All of them.
All of them.
All of them.
All of them.
Now what we'll do so that the others can have a picture, you'll step up and I'll have
Come on, I'm a mother and father, so you can see me standing right here.
Now, we need to change that.
Each, each just starts to split right there.
That's not going to be natural.
Now, if we can all look out at Mr. Cole over here, and we'll get that done.
And, uh, we've got to have a dome for all these people.
How did we get out of business?
We also would like to get you something.
Oh, I know.
We're all the men we have in the presidential covenants.
We should, uh, go over to the city after the ladies.
Back to our bottom.
For the ladies, this is the presidential man.
You see the seal of the president.
That is the seal.
This was taken off the flag.
That's why it's in color.
I want to say to you that we are the first to think of all men serving in Vietnam, those who lost their lives.
Each one of them is a real great legend.
And the whole nation is perhaps more aware of
That's why we have a peace sound.
And that's why I don't worry about it very much.
You can't see it.
None of these boys have a certain impact on the future.
That's what it's all about.
That's why we had to go this far.
I also want to say, too, that it's very difficult to go through the loss of somebody like this.
I just don't think it's as challenging as it is.
Yes, sir.
And as some of you may have seen on television, she's here.
And I told her how much I admire her dignity and how much I admire her serenity for us.
But again, you would expect that from her.
And girl, she's in the first lady position.
Therefore, you've got to learn how to handle the situation.
But I do want you to know that she's involved in television.
very easy for you
What a terrible blow it was.
You had to be the last to rest.
The fact that you, uh, uh, actually went on your sense of loss and so forth, uh, that you talked to the television and stayed with people and the rest, uh, with no sense of pride, and also no sense of hatred, and all those things about, um, this, uh, analog here in the internet.
They just might not, and I'm sure you know that from me, too.
We have a flag.
As a very good member of President Eisenhower, you know that you make the most good, most important part of this, and that's the boldness of the flag presented to you.
You do need that.
Well, what it's all about, I think, on people's, their future.
We did.
Well, Senator Griffin's going to see that you've seen the house of Senator Griffin.
And I'm federal here in my office.
You'll see that he has a special order of five minutes.
And I want you to call him while you're over there.
Call him.
This is next to the pen.
The governor and I want to take you to the second floor.
The second floor is the pen and board, which is where he's going to get you.
But there you can see the link that will lead you to some of the famous places that the
Well, that's what your husband's going to want.
And that's what you're going to get.
Okay.
Now, you and Kelly are your children.
I know it's a hard day for you, but we wish I could be more of a girl.
But you have your children.
You can be sure, though, that you're still in school.
And it helps, because when you go back to school, you don't have to tell them about your trip to Washington.
You'll see the name on paper if you tell me not to have to teach.
So that you will know if you see the seal, the president is there.
That picture over there is the White House years ago when the river was much closer up.
It was 100 years ago.
Well, that's a view of history.
Let me show you something that's probably the most valuable in the lands.
This was belonged to a great Chinese man.
It was probably the trip from India.
It's the way that all of you know Jay, of course, the way that you know that it's very old, and therefore I invite you to share this, the fact that it's coming.
If you see jade that is just green, that's just new.
So this is the old jade.
And what this arrangement probably was was a nice fraction of a dispersion sign.
And over periods of years, I don't know about this they named it, but it's basically a cloud, a type of a cloud right there.
And the point is that when this particular item was presented by one Chinese family, for others only a very, very distinguished guest,
And what it means is all of your heart desires.
We can't do it.
And the...
Well, this is
Thank you.
Thank you.

NARA Description

On February 5, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, Stephen B. Bull, Richard A. Moore, Lt. Col. William L. Golden, White House operator, Teresa Olson, Kenneth Olson, Mary Weigal, Agnes Ullmer, Henry Ullmer, Irene Lemery, Loren Lemery, Clara Best, Joyce Nolde, Blair Nolde, Brent Nolde, Kimberly Nolde, Bryon Nolde, Bart Nolde, Henry Joseph Nolde, Joseph Nolde, Henry Nolde, Jr., and Irene Nolde met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:56 pm and 1:09 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 848-014 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 848-14

Date: February 5, 1973
Time: Unknown between 12:56 pm and 1:09 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Joyce Nolde, Blair Nolde, Brent Nolde, Kimberly Nolde, Bryon Nolde,
Bart Nolde, Henry Joseph Nolde, Teresa Olson, Kenneth Olson, Mary Weigal, Agnes Ullmer,
Henry Ullmer, Dorothy Nolde, Joseph Nolde, Irene Lemery, Loren Lemery, Clara Best, Henry
Nolde, Jr., Irene Nolde, Richard A. Moore, Lt. Col. William L. Golden and Stephen B. Bull; the
White House photographer was present at the beginning of the meeting.

       Greetings and introductions
              -Mrs. Nolde
              -Children
                      -Age
              -Michigan

       Nolde's brothers and sisters
              -The President’s siblings

       Photographs
             -Arrangements

       Presentation of gifts
              -Cuff links
              -Pins
                                      -44-

            NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                                    Conversation No. 848-14 (cont’d)

Casualties in Vietnam
       -Appreciation
               -Debt
       -Families
       -Pride
       -Peace
       -Claudia A. (Taylor) (“Lady Bird”) Johnson
               -Dignity
                      -First Lady
                              -Mrs. Nolde

Dwight D. Eisenhower’s funeral
      -Presentation of flag

Tour of Washington
       -Nolde’s wishes
       -Robert P. Griffin
              -Capitol
       -Tour of the White House
              -Michael J. Farrell
              -Call to Thelma C. (“Pat”) Nixon
                      -Tour of the second floor
                             -Lincoln bedroom
       -School report

Presidential seal

Pictures in Oval Office
       -5th Century BC Chinese jade
               -Description
       -Crewel embroidery
               -Girl Scouts
               -Julie Nixon Eisenhower

Farewells
                                               -45-

                     NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                                              Conversation No. 848-14 (cont’d)

Nolde, et al., left at 1:08 pm.

        Meeting with John D. Ehrlichman

Bull left at an unknown time before 1:09 pm.

Also recorded on February 5, 1973

  • 848-011 12:39 PM · 45 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:39 pm and 12:42 pm.
  • 848-020 12:39 PM · 15 sec — Stephen B. Bull and Manolo Sanchez met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:39 pm and 12:42 pm.
  • 848-012 12:42 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Gen. Brent G. Scowcroft, White House photographer, Cmdr. Alexander R. Larzelere, Alexander R. Larzelere, Jr., William Larzelere, Paul Larzelere, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:42 pm to 12:45 pm.
  • 848-013 12:45 PM · 8 min — President Richard M. Nixon, John D. Ehrlichman, Robert J. Brown, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:45 pm and 12:56 pm.
  • 848-015 1:09 PM · 48 min — President Richard M. Nixon, John D. Ehrlichman, and Manolo Sanchez met in the Oval Office of the White House from 1:09 pm to 1:58 pm.
  • 043-213 1:38 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 1:38 pm and 4:08 pm.
  • 043-030 1:54 PM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 1:54 pm.
  • 848-016 1:58 PM · 34 sec — President Richard M. Nixon, Stephen B. Bull, and Manolo Sanchez met in the Oval Office of the White House from 1:58 pm to 1:59 pm.

All 38 conversations from February 5, 1973 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 848-014, February 5, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/848-014 (accessed October 12, 2026).