Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 916 › Conversation 916-017

Nixon, Slemp & Bull on Religious journalism and International travel

Friday, May 11, 1973 · 12:44 PM–12:50 PM ET · Oval Office · 6 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Slemp, John C.; Bull, Stephen B.Conversation916-017 on Tape 916StartFriday, May 11, 1973 at 12:44 PMEndFriday, May 11, 1973 at 12:50 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 916-017 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with John C. Slemp and Stephen B. Bull to host a brief social visit and photo session. The conversation centered on Slemp’s extensive background in religious journalism, his global travels, and his literary work. The President concluded the meeting by presenting Slemp with personal gifts, including an autographed pen and cufflinks.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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John, any other things?

Yes, sir.

Well, I've never heard of it.

It's a great pleasure to be here.

Reverend Slinton, I have

religious journalism, and he's traveled around the world twice.

Yeah.

Well, I must say, you must have had a fascinating wife.

Yes, I have.

How did she get the wedding?

Well, you know, I've been working on it a long time, and I remember writing in the early 30s.

I don't know the sonnet, but I bought the sonnet.

And I said, it's a Christmas century publication.

And when it came out, one of the lines had a foot missing.

And instead of having 14 lines, it had 13.

And so they're writing ever since.

Published in the Christmas century in the Christian Herald.

And several periodicals and something, and policies.

But no book, just the periodicals here.

I became a journalist.

So I've been in religious journalism my whole life.

But there was a 15-year period of travel and studying in various parts of the world.

And so things worked out very interesting to me.

Let's do this mix and we'll go to China all around.

We didn't get to China because we were cut out of China, you know, of course.

But we were in Hong Kong and India and all over.

So a lot of Chinese people said, oh, a lot of Chinese.

All the work was fascinating, but Asia has a certain fascination in me.

It certainly does.

Asia.

Yeah, India and all of Hawaii.

And Thailand and all those countries are great.

Very much.

And then we got into Africa and then into, of course, over Europe.

Latin America.

Yeah.

And even got to Russia later on.

You got to give every state a little bit.

All every state in the union.

And she knows every president of the United States, the names of their wives, and she can say the back of her heart.

She certainly has been mentioned in her history.

And she said, be sure to write it.

The president will give me his autograph.

Be sure to write it.

I'm so happy to see you.

Thank you for your encouragement, your prayers.

I believe in you.

Thank you.

I love you.

I know it.

That might be related to that.

NARA Description

On May 11, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, John C. Slemp, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:44 pm to 12:50 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 916-017 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 916-17

Date: May 11, 1973
Time: 12:44 pm - 12:50 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with John C. Slemp and Stephen B. Bull.

     Greetings

     Arrangements for photograph session

     Poem

     Slemp’s life and experience
          -Travels
                 -Religious journalism
          -Pennsylvania
          -Poetry
                 -Sonnet
                 -Christian Century and Christian Herald
                 -Carson Newman College
                       -Teacher
                       -Former student
          -Biography
                 -Seminary
                 -Religious journalism
                       -Missions magazine [American Baptist]
          -Travels
                 -President’s previous trip to People’s Republic of China [PRC]
                 -Hong Kong, India and Thailand
                 -Chinese people
                 -Burma
                 -Africa, Europe, Latin America and Soviet Union
                 -US
                       -Wife, Ruth Slemp
                                              -61-

                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                                             Conversation No. 916-17 (cont’d)

           -Ruth Slemp

     Presentation of gifts by the President
          -Autograph
                 -Pen
          -Pin, cufflinks

Slemp and Bull left at 12:50 pm.

Also recorded on May 11, 1973

046-001 12:03 PM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 12:03 pm and 12:07 pm.
916-015 12:03 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at 12:03 pm.
916-016 12:03 PM · 36 min — President Richard M. Nixon, unknown person(s), Alexander M. Haig, Jr., and Pierre E. Trudeau met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:03 pm and 12:43 pm.
046-002 12:11 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Pierre E. Trudeau talked on the telephone from 12:11 pm to 12:13 pm.
916-018 12:50 PM · 33 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:50 pm and 12:53 pm.
916-019 12:53 PM · 1 hr 9 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:53 pm to 2:02 pm.
046-003 2:00 PM · 22 sec — Alexander M. Haig, Jr. and President Richard M. Nixon talked on the telephone from 2:00 pm to 2:01 pm.
916-020 2:02 PM · 1 min — United States Secret Service agents met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 2:02 pm and 11:59 pm.

All 78 conversations from May 11, 1973 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 916-017, May 11, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/916-017 (accessed October 5, 2026).