Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 868 › Conversation 868-005

Nixon & Brennan on Labor policy and Workplace safety

Saturday, March 3, 1973 · 9:17 AM–9:19 AM ET · Oval Office · 1 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Brennan, Peter J.Conversation868-005 on Tape 868StartSaturday, March 3, 1973 at 9:17 AMEndSaturday, March 3, 1973 at 9:19 AMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 868-005 ↗

President Nixon met with Secretary of Labor Peter Brennan to discuss a recent industrial accident and the administration's response to it. Nixon encouraged Brennan to personally visit the site to demonstrate federal concern for worker safety and to emphasize the administration's commitment to safety regulations. Brennan was directed to investigate whether any federal safety violations occurred and to report his findings back to the President.

  • Labor policy
  • Workplace safety
  • Industrial accidents
  • Peter Brennan
  • Executive oversight

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Say, it occurred to me, and probably you've already thought this, that a terrible accident out there, and maybe you want to get out there and just show the flag and show that we're concerned about the safety regulations and so forth.
I don't know, what do you think?
Of course, it's not a federal thing, but, you know, we have very, we've got through a lot of very, very good legislation on safety, as I recall, and I'm not familiar with it, but you probably are.
Good.
Well, what you can do is to tell the trust that I've called, and I trust my concern, that you and I will talk about this, that we have a great understanding to see whether safety regulations were in any way violated.
I don't know, I don't know on second accident what this, I don't know whether it is in federal.
Federal?
Yeah, yeah.
Uh, I saw the paper, the paper said that this, uh, this phone, the, uh, I think that, you know, because of your background and everything, you're just, you're just a very good, a good thing to do.
And that you're going to, you're going to report to me.
Okay.
Good.

On March 3, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon and Peter J. Brennan met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:17 am and 9:19 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 868-005 of the White House Tapes.

Conversation No. 868-5

Date: March 3, 1973
Time: Unknown between 9:17 am and 9:19 am
Location: Oval Office

The President talked with Peter Brennan.

[See Conversation No. 37-40]
                                             -3-

                  NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
  • 037-039 9:10 AM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 9:10 am and 9:17 am.
  • 868-001 9:10 AM · 16 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:10 am and 9:17 am.
  • 868-002 9:10 AM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:10 am and 9:17 am.
  • 868-003 9:10 AM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:10 am and 9:17 am.
  • 868-004 9:10 AM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:10 am and 9:17 am.
  • 037-040 9:17 AM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and William J. Baroody, Jr. talked on the telephone from 9:17 am to 9:19 am.
  • 868-006 9:19 AM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:19 am and 9:49 am.
  • 868-007 9:40 AM · 26 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:40 am and 10:05 am.

Conversation 868-005, March 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/868-005 (accessed October 1, 2026).