1. Home
  2. Research
  3. Almanac

September 15, 1971

Introduction

This almanac page for Wednesday, September 15, 1971, pulls together various records created by the federal government and links to additional resources which can provide context about the events of the day.

Previous Date: Tuesday, September 14, 1971

Next Date: Thursday, September 16, 1971

Schedule and Public Documents

  • The Daily Diary files represent a consolidated record of the President's activities. Visit the finding aid to learn more.

    The President's day began at The White House - Washington, D. C.

  • The Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents made available transcripts of the President's news conferences; messages to Congress; public speeches, remarks, and statements; and other Presidential materials released by the White House.

    Digitized versions can be found at HathiTrust.

  • The Federal Register is the official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other Presidential documents.

  • The Congressional Record is the official daily record of the debates and proceedings of the U.S. Congress.

Archival Holdings

Any selection of archival documents will necessarily be partial. You should use the documents and folders identified below as a starting place, but consult the linked collection finding aids and folder title lists and the collections themselves for context. Many documents to be found this way do not lend themselves to association with specific dates, but are essential to a complete understanding of the material.

  • Selective document listing

    President's Office Files

    The President's Office Files consists of materials drawn together by the Special Files Unit from several administrative subdivisions within the White House Office. It is the handwriting and sensitive papers sent to the Staff Secretary that now comprise much of the President's Office Files. Visit the finding aid to learn more.

  • The H. R. Haldeman Diaries consists of seven handwritten diaries, 36 dictated diaries recorded as sound recordings, and two handwritten audio cassette tape subject logs. The diaries and logs reflect H. R. Haldeman’s candid personal record and reflections on events, issues, and people encountered during his service in the Nixon White House. As administrative assistant to the President and Chief of Staff, Haldeman attended and participated in public events and private meetings covering the entire scope of issues in which the Nixon White House engaged in during the years 1969-1973. Visit the finding aid to learn more.

    • Transcript of diary entry (PDF)
      Wednesday, September 15.

      President spent the whole day at the EOB in preparation for his press conference tomorrow. I heard nothing from him until 1:00, when he called me over for about an hour while he was taking a break. He got into the Kissinger-Reston question and broadened that to the general subject of interviews with newspapermen, and he feels that it's not in his interest now to have any more personal interviews until after the election. The problem they create, even if it's with Dick Wilson, or Stu Alsop, or Sulzberger, is the relationship with our other friends, and that it's not the best use of our time-- of his time. He feels that he'll be having more press visibility, generally, as we move into the election period, and that this will help to preclude the need for individual interviews. He intends to turn down the ones he already scheduled, such as Stu Alsop and U.S. News. He says he'll write an article for U.S. News.

      He then got into some thoughts on general scheduling and overall use of his time. He wants to keep his Wednesdays totally free, so that he can have snap press conferences if he wants to on Thursday. So for the same reason, he wants to keep Thursday scheduled on a cancelable basis, so that he can make a snap decision at the last minute as to whether he wants to call the press in. He feels we should keep cutting down on the meetings with groups, and after pondering it a bit, came to the basic conclusion that the least productive of all the things we do are the small meetings in the Cabinet room, or in his office, the meetings that are set to lay us hands on a group or to stir up some support. He raised the question that we can't show any results from any of these, and no color stuff ever gets out about how he handles them. He feels that we have been so heavy now on the big moves that we can do some more things on the warm side and get away with it, which indicates a reaction to the overdose of the warm stuff we had early in the year. He really keeps coming back to the basic point of how much he should be out in front as the leader, and what is leadership, and the fact that the real problem we have to deal with is the myth created by the media. He called me later with the idea of reassembling the Camp David economic group, by having all of the principals and their wives up for a dinner at Camp David on October 1 or 2. Then let them stay over the weekend if they want to. So we'll explore this possibility.

      End of September 15.
    • Original audio recording (MP3)

  • The National Archives Catalog is the online portal to the records held at the National Archives, and information about those records. It is the main way of describing our holdings and also provides access to electronic records and digitized versions of our holdings.

    The Catalog searches across multiple National Archives resources at once, including archival descriptions, digitized and electronic records, authority records, and web pages from Archives.gov and the Presidential Libraries. The Catalog also allows users to contribute to digitized historical records through tagging and transcription.

    Nixon Library Holdings

    All National Archives Units

National Security Documents

Audiovisual Holdings

Context (External Sources)