Conversation 888-001

TapeTape 888StartTuesday, March 27, 1973 at 8:29 AMEndTuesday, March 27, 1973 at 8:54 AMParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Bull, Stephen B.Recording deviceOval Office

On March 27, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:29 am and 8:54 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 888-001 of the White House Tapes.

Conversation No. 888-1

Date: March 27, 1973
Time: Unknown between 8:29 am and 8:54 am
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Stephen B. Bull.

        President's schedule
              -Review by Ronald L. Ziegler

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[Begin segment reviewed under deed of gift]

                -Friday

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 50s         ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
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                -Appointment

[End segment reviewed under deed of gift]
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        President's schedule
              -Advisory Committee on Labor-Management
                     -Postponement
                     -George P. Shultz
                           -Preferences
                               -2-

     NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                         (rev. July-2010)
                                                  Conversation No. 888-1 (cont’d)

     -George Meany [?]
     -Location
-Meeting with John D. Ehrlichman and Shultz
     -Arrangements
-Cabinet meeting
     -Date
-Republican leaders meeting
-Organization of American States [OAS] function
     -Ambassadors reception
-Upcoming events
     -H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman
     -California
           -John Ford dinner
                  -Remarks
                        -Length
           -Nguyen Van Thieu's arrival
                  -Ceremony
                  -Toasts
                  -President's remarks
                        -Length
           -Thieu's departure
                  -Ceremony
                  -Remarks
           -Length of stay
                  -Palm Springs
           -Weather
     -Return to Washington, DC
-Meeting with state legislative leaders
     -Haldeman
     -Number attending
     -Budget briefing
     -William J. Baroody, Jr.
     -Press briefing
-Meetings
     -Chet Holifield
     -Perkins McGuire
     -Gen. John B. Flynn
           -Date
           -Arrangements
                                        -3-

           NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                (rev. July-2010)
                                                          Conversation No. 888-1 (cont’d)

          -Lee Kuan Yew
                -Date
          -Capt. James Stockdale
                -Problem
                -Mrs. Stockdale
                       -Supporters
                              -Mrs. Phillip [?], Mrs. Galanti [?]
                -Meeting time, date
          -Prisoners of war [POWs]
                -Number of meetings
     -Meetings this week
          -Labor-Management Advisory Board
          -State legislative leaders
          -Holifield
          -Meeting with Shultz and Ehrlichman
          -President's speech
                -Work
          -Quadriad meeting
          -Departure for California
          -Corinne C. ("Lindy") Boggs
                -Photograph opportunity
          -Meeting with Ehrlichman and Shultz
                -Price freeze
          -Mrs. Boggs
                -Thelma C. (“Pat”) Nixon
                -Press photograph
                -Arrival at Capitol

White House social events
     -Bull's meeting with Mrs. Nixon and Julie
      Nixon Eisenhower
     -Use of risers in East Room
     -Schedule of forthcoming events
           -US-Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR] summit
           -Guilio Andreotti's visit
           -Willy Brandt
           -Lee Kuan Yew
           -Brandt visit
                 -Entertainment at State dinner
                                       -4-

            NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                (rev. July-2010)
                                                           Conversation No. 888-1 (cont’d)

                       -Paul W. Keyes
           -Evening at the White House
           -White House church service
                -Edward V. Hill
                       -Church choir
                -Use of different choir to maintain non-sectarian
                 nature of service
                       -Madalyn Murray O'Hair
                             -Legal suit
                                   -Senate chaplain, White House
           -Keyes

President's schedule
      -Young Republicans
             -Julie Nixon Eisenhower's appearance
             -President's appearance
                    -Arrangements
                    -Broadcast
             -Julie Nixon Eisenhower's remarks
                    -Writer
                          -Keyes
                          -Leadership
                          -[Dwight] David Eisenhower, II

Weather
     -Cherry blossoms

President's schedule
      -POW dinner
             -Leslie T. (“Bob”) Hope
                   -Commitments
             -Les Brown
             -Keyes's recommendations on number of entertainers
                   -Broad base
             -Entertainment
                   -Haldeman
                   -Music
                   -Marine Drum and Buggle Corps
                   -Gridiron Dinner
                                                -5-

                      NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                         (rev. July-2010)
                                                            Conversation No. 888-1 (cont’d)

                            -Monologue
                            -Dinner
                      -Attendees
               -Meeting with Mrs. Boggs
               -Julie Nixon Eisenhower
                      -Contacts with Bull
               -Foreign leaders
                      -Lee Kuan Yew, Andreotti, Brandt
                            -Head table
                                  -Seating arrangements
                                  -Shape of tables
                                  -William P. Rogers
                                  -Ambassadors
                            -Red room
                                  -Tables
                                        -Location
                                  -Chairs
                      -Dinners
                            -Arrangements
                                  -Mrs. Nixon

Bull left at an unknown time before 8:54 am.

This transcript was generated automatically by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite this transcript as authoritative. Consult the Finding Aid above for verified information.

Hello, sir.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
They, uh, all that came through, I suppose, but I just want to get down to the point that you have to get down to the point that you have to get down to the point that you have to get down to the point that you have to get down to the point that you have to get down to the point that you have to get down to the point that you have to get
Yeah, he wants it.
He wants it.
That's what they have.
And he does want it.
You still want to have a private meeting with Schultz?
You might have to see him in the middle of this week.
That should be good.
Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,
the determination would be made after uh
I have one.
Just tell them that now.
All right, sir.
And that's the obelisks and the temples.
Yeah, yeah.
I will do that, OAS.
You want to have that as a reception in which you'll speak?
Breathe.
All right, sir. 13.
for the upcoming events we have this weekend.
Just to ensure that we're getting you the proper remarks and speaking materials for the upcoming California events.
but I don't want to let you remark on any pages.
So I want just a memo that will be able to let me go over.
That's the text.
All right.
Ready to arrive will give you arrival remarks for the arrival ceremony.
Don't worry.
We're just going to stand in the arrival.
Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
You're right.
I don't have any ghosts.
I thought we might, the suggestion was they could make some general, make some general remarks.
Yeah, I've got a lot to write.
That's next time.
It's, uh, you see, uh, it is, I, I don't have circumstances.
Is it too early for you to be able to get a few days?
So he would get to me and he'd like to try to get a couple days at the present two parts.
If that's the case, go for it.
Stay there.
Yeah, we'll stay here for the week.
I can't come back down.
I'm back here.
The weather's bad.
We're in Palm Springs.
I'm going to turn Sunday night into Washington.
That'll be that.
That's what everybody knows.
this time this week to see what kind of things we can have and what sort of requests we have.
This has not come to you yet.
We may have already killed him.
There was a recommendation to you one day for Friday meeting with state legislative leaders.
Can you think of a statement that's not supposed to be read?
Thursday through Monday night, then at 9-7 we erase it.
Yeah, what is it?
When there's a cruise, who's playing?
Bob the Monitor.
What is this?
How many are there?
I don't know if you can totally remember that here, but it's a group of state legislators, meeting with speakers in the House, speakers in the Assembly.
This is something that you want to re-raise someplace on Thursday, because it's a Friday event.
It's essentially a budget briefing, similar to the Baroody group that was in there.
All right.
I will do that.
And we have some other things.
All right, we have comments from Hallfield and McGuire.
We'll put those in on Friday.
We need to see them before the end of the month.
Yeah, bye.
Schedule.
Detective, did you want to see Colonel Flynn this week?
He still has some pneumonia or- Well, that's when we come back.
make a date where I can tell if the president wants to be, and I want to see him, and make a date that I definitely would like to see him.
When he comes back, I generally say, because it would be important for me to be here in California, I'd say that, uh, schedule it for the 11th, so he can plan it.
No, the 10th.
Well, the 10th will be the 11th.
You haven't promised to leave yet.
I haven't said anything.
I know.
But I'll be terribly busy.
I'm probably waiting, waiting to do the schedule for the night.
I'm going to go to bed.
Yeah.
It was kind of a slippery slope concept last week.
Well, I listened to Dr. Stockdale, who is the senior game officer, and this is Stockdale.
She's been a good supporter of stroke support throughout many years.
All right, fine.
All right, well, let's get ahead of it.
So when I pulled that thing,
I just try to think what we can do about it.
Mr.
Principal, please, this week we're going to have a leader management advisory board and some state legislative leaders.
We'll put in some of the other things like Chet Holifield.
Yeah, right.
I'll check with John Burlick and see if our shows or meetings are on Friday.
Anything that I can can be put on Friday.
I want to keep my head clear this week to do work with my speaker for Thursday night.
Absolutely.
Yeah, so it is the whole day here.
If you've got any of the odds in this department that you want to do today, I can do somewhere else that doesn't.
That's about all.
We really don't have a well-prepared system.
You can see Mrs. Boggs, for example.
That might be interesting.
And then we'll bring her in today for her picture.
That's a good idea.
And I'll have, but then tomorrow and Thursday, it's just totally clear.
And I've just seen her and Schultz and the rest of them that he don't like.
Again, the only thing is they may want to come in and talk about Christ's grace.
But I, I mean, Schultz may, but...
Well, I'll have to see it on that, but it's going to be damn free.
That must be the day he raises the point.
at uh
Well, I'll tell you, we're probably going to get down to the Congress and call.
Call when it fits her, or 1130.
She has to be at the House at 12, but otherwise, 1130.
Sometimes today, I'll be meeting with Mrs. Nixon in June, and I'll be meeting with some of the associates.
Yep.
Mrs. Nixon.
and interesting and listening.
Yeah, some of your other decisions.
Yeah, I didn't get a chance, unfortunately, to raise it with Julie.
I don't raise it with her.
The idea of using the risers, of course, we will not use them except for an evening at the White House.
But given the feel, Steve, of everything that's coming, all the events that we have, the writing event, what have we got?
We've got three, for sure.
Well, we have... Actually, we have Brent on the first.
I don't get it.
Starting with April 10th, we have this equal in years.
Yeah, we got Lee.
I remember we got Lee in the process.
We did.
Then Andriana.
Andriana from the 17th.
That's...
Right.
And then Brent.
From the first.
Yes.
We don't have an entertainer yet for that one.
Well, he's starting to work on it.
What about the evening at the White House?
The evening at the White House?
I have another one, I hope.
I guess we're glad that the 8th, probably the 8th, 8th would be a good time.
Yes, sir.
And you've got a church for the 15th.
Yes, that's an evening hill.
That's going to help the choir.
They're going to bring a different choir.
The reason we use a different choir is so we can
maintain this non-sectarian service so that while this is uh we're here there is
Oh, sure, if you were coming, who's got ideas?
We can talk to Paul about another thing.
Julie has to make a little talk before the Young Republicans, Thursday night.
Incidentally, I don't want to say anything about that, but if that thing runs long enough, if I finish my broadcast, I just might go over and give him a little wave.
You know, just, but I, you know, I mean, and I've got to see.
I think I'll broadcast.
We don't know yet if I'll go over at 9, maybe 9.30.
But nevertheless, it's beautiful.
But Julie, and she doesn't have, I don't know if she's got any writers out there.
Ask Paul if he could, you know, think of a few lines.
The Young Republic Leadership Schools.
One line is about David being an admiral.
Yeah.
I don't know what day it was.
We may be wrong.
One final thing, sir.
What are you talking about on that day after he kissed you?
After the dinner we had here?
Was there any further debate with regard to 824 and other things other than the EU and India and the U.S. government?
The U.S. government, yeah.
We didn't talk about all of that.
I mean, I can't keep talking for somebody else's sake.
You've got to get everybody that's been out there.
But whatever we want, we want to be confident.
I'm sure it's a big, broad base that the president didn't want to hold spiritually to us.
That's exactly the point of Paul Kiesling.
All right.
He feels it should be... Yeah.
Well, the point that Paul should make to Bob is that we, we've got to extend it in a refined role here in a lot of time.
And Paul can just force on Bob a number of top entertainers, right there, go right through the head and do it again.
Mention to Paul that we're going to have definitely the Marines strolling the strength.
I think we want to sort of, we're going to have that Marine drop fuel then.
The broad spectrum of the business.
Yeah.
But I could just have a fast movie.
Fast looking thing and not just a long monologue.
And it just takes about an hour for the show.
Oh, it's going to be illusion.
It's going to be in our hearts.
And they can run through the thing.
And I'll take it.
It could be in choruses.
Well, choruses are big.
Well, I don't know what they could do with the choruses.
If they could have instrumental music with main choruses, well, that's probably where they could play.
Especially if they can't have a singer with main choruses, that would be in the end.
Well, this is exactly what Paul's got at this point in the series.
about what we're really showing.
But if I did just say to Bob that, you know, there's a lot of it.
They said that other people might not be as competitive, lots of people that want to come, you know.
You just got to be sure that, let's say, you come as you can.
You can't have too many awfully big fires because they all have to eat.
Okay.
And he worked out with Julia.
He's very close to her over there.
They put on all the shows and produced them on their way.
Well, then they got to do this.
Serve them faster.
Oh, one thing I want you to discuss with those two is that they've got to work out.
I haven't talked to them, but I've talked to them.
We've just got to work out a couple of things that we want you to put on the basis, and this is true, we want you, the academy and the therapy, are all so status conscious that we will have to have a sort of head table of, say, ten people.
You see what I mean?
Where they are at a head table and not at a round table, so that they also, we also can't do that.
That would be a really fine thing to do.
That doesn't make sense.
That doesn't make sense.
And maybe the two of them, maybe you, and maybe the bad ambassadors too.
The ambassadors of some sort, but we should be, we've got to have that.
I want to go for other reasons.
I said we're wrong.
We don't have that, but have that.
The other way is we use brown people.
So you're back to the red ones.
Yeah.
The other thing is to put the damn table up in the front of the room this way.
You don't necessarily have to be in the middle.
You know, like, you know, like you have a shade table, or everybody has a head table there.
You can do that.
You can do it up by the serving pantry, by the cellar.
Well, you're right up there, and then everybody's a little up there.
That would be another way to do it, so it's a little more elegant.
You're not right.
I want to sort of have the feeling that we guys had better starting with different chairs, you know what I mean?
I mean...
big chairs at the table, and so forth.
But the big chairs, not the board, but the yellow chairs at that table, and then everybody else around the table is around.
So if we were to come there, all the work would stay the same.
But on that basis, I didn't do it.
I just want it done that way.
I think it can be solved very easily on that basis.
It's just our task, of course, is to make some changes or make some processes.
That's right, because she's got a lot of good ideas about her business.