Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 911 › Conversation 911-011

Nixon & Rogers on Personnel Appointments and Executive Delegation

Thursday, May 3, 1973 · 10:13 AM–10:21 AM ET · Oval Office · 8 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Rogers, William P.Conversation911-011 on Tape 911StartThursday, May 3, 1973 at 10:13 AMEndThursday, May 3, 1973 at 10:21 AMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 911-011 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Secretary of State William P. Rogers discuss the difficulty of finding qualified personnel for an unspecified position, weighing the challenges of legal and financial complications against the need for a mature, capable candidate. The conversation touches on the frustrations of delegating authority to individuals who attempt to overreach their roles, specifically mentioning a candidate who demanded control over staff appointments. Nixon ultimately expresses a desire to avoid hasty decisions regarding these personnel matters and briefly confirms Rogers’s upcoming diplomatic trip to Latin America.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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· Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).
So, Bill, I talked to Jay Packer.
Has he ever seen you yet?
Yeah.
His problem is the stock.
He seems to think it's almost insoluble.
And I said, well, Dave, we just need to, et cetera, et cetera.
And I put it to him every time I talked to you that Elliot didn't have much of a sense.
But I don't know what you can tell him about the stock, Bill.
It's so complicated that I don't understand it.
You probably won't understand it.
But...
But he says the law has changed now, in some way.
But somewhere, you know, Brady's in all the charity, I mean.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Now listen, if we can't make him, if we can't get him, you know what I mean, if we really come down to it, I really think the only other choice is Russia.
So something weird, well, do you have any other thoughts?
Of course, well, many people don't want things they have to do, isn't that correct?
Right, right.
But you're not strong enough for that, I know what you mean.
Yeah.
But with me, though,
Terribly hard.
We've done that.
I told you that I was very stressed about this.
I just got to work this thing out.
Okay.
I see.
Any other suggestions?
He'd be great if he'd do it.
Gosh, if he'd do it, he'd be a great man to have around.
But such a, such a, such a mature, decent man.
He had IPT.
How did it come up, the idea?
You know, it's darn near impossible to find anybody who hasn't done, I mean, either a moron, or either a pauper, or a thief.
yeah yeah yeah well i'll tell you what i i thought i could try to get away from this weekend which i think you need to do and then maybe under practice
I don't want to do anything in a hell of a hurry right now on that point.
Yeah.
Oh, listen, listen, uh, my, my, my respect for him, you know, it's just enormous.
I'll never forget, we had, we had the lunch at Solid Water.
Yeah, we had the chocolate ice cream and the chocolate sauce.
Or vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce, sorry.
Yeah.
What about my father?
Well, I do appreciate your calling John's parents, and that was not as thoughtful of any, probably, uh, like being asked, maybe.
Oh, did you?
What'd he say?
Well, that joke cuts on his part, but you know what he did?
I just sort of thought,
It was guts in a way, but it's also a typical economy.
He bought at the bottom of the market, you know.
And now he's got no place to go without them.
I'll bet you Agnes is practically grinding his teeth.
Did he?
When I said he would be vice-chairman, he came over and said that he now wanted to approve all members of the staff of the council and so forth.
Well, of course, he can't do that.
I mean, you know what I mean?
I'm not delegating anything.
I can't delegate responsibility.
That's what you're talking about.
Oh, he always did that.
All right.
little radio talk today, you know, amazing little radio talk on the 5th and 6th, and I said, you will soon embark on a trip, is that right?
To Latin America?
Yep.
Right.
I agree, though.
And also, these things are, you know, I mean, my God, I mean, they're going to screw around now, doctor.
Why are they breaking the site, right?
There's also everything.
Well, what the hell stupid thing was that?
That's right.
That's right.
That's right.
That's right.
That's right.
That's right.
That's right.
Thank you, Bill.

NARA Description

On May 3, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon and William P. Rogers met in the Oval Office of the White House from 10:13 am to 10:21 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 911-011 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 911-11

Date: May 3, 1973
Time: 10:13 am - 10:21 am
Location: Oval Office

The President talked with William P. Rogers.

[See Conversation No. 45-157]

Also recorded on May 3, 1973

  • 045-156 10:12 AM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 10:12 am and 10:13 am.
  • 911-010 10:12 AM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 10:12 am and 10:13 am.
  • 045-157 10:13 AM · 8 min — President Richard M. Nixon and William P. Rogers talked on the telephone from 10:13 am to 10:21 am.
  • 911-012 10:21 AM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 10:21 am and 10:30 am.
  • 911-013 10:21 AM · 20 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 10:21 am and 10:30 am.
  • 911-014 10:21 AM · 36 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 10:21 am and 10:30 am.
  • 911-015 10:21 AM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 10:21 am and 10:30 am.
  • 911-016 10:30 AM · 30 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Ronald L. Ziegler, and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House from 10:30 am to 11:01 am.

All 42 conversations from May 3, 1973 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 911-011, May 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/911-011 (accessed October 5, 2026).