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September 24, 1972

Introduction

This almanac page for Sunday, September 24, 1972, 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: Saturday, September 23, 1972

Next Date: Monday, September 25, 1972

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 Camp David, Maryland

  • 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.

    No Federal Register published on this date

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.

    • Annotated and Unmarked News Summaries [Note: Although there was no News Summary on this date, due to the way News Summary products were compiled, you should also consult nearby days for potentially relevant materials.]

  • 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)
      Sunday, September 24.

      The President has spent most of the weekend working on his speech preparation for next week. Had me over mid-afternoon, said he was very pleased with the job Heedner had done on the cancer speech. It had more flair than any of the others generally have and was done very dependably. He had some other speech needs. He was concerned that they never use the word "New Majority" in the political stuff they prepared. Had some ideas for Ray on radio speeches for Atlanta and Boston. He now wants to do those as regional radio networks. In Atlanta, pitch to Democrats and to the South, on defense, patriotism, character, a high level appeal for votes in the South. In Boston, he wants to talk about the problems of the New England area and so forth. Got into some more schedule things. He still wants to do a group of towns in Southern Illinois, maybe a little of Indiana and then Ohio. Has a real question of whether we ought to go back to Texas and do the Astrodome, which I raised with him on the plane yesterday. He's concerned that we'll have to get involved with the Texas Republicans and also that there's not much point in doing it because we just don't need it.

      He went through the poll thing. I had the issue question and answers from our wave three poll, which he found only moderately interesting, and also the report on the Iowa poll, which shows us not as strong as we should be there but no major effect from the grain deal. He cited the point Scammon had made to him that anything in the magnitude of 60 or 65 is so unprecedented that the fringes of it have to be soft. The key is whether the bedrock is hard, and in our case, it certainly appears to be, but we will lose some off the soft fringes and that will cause some slippage. He says it will be with youth, because as they get back to college and get under pressure, they'll start fading away; with Jews, where we should have no expectation of doing better than 30 percent; and with blacks, where we'll only get 10 percent at best, because there is a race issue and we're on the wrong side of it as far as the blacks are concerned.

      End of September 24.
    • 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)