921–8

Conversation No. 921-8

Date: May 17, 1973
Time: 10:31 am - 11:30 am
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Ronald L. Ziegler, Alexander M. Haig, Jr. and J. Fred Buzhardt, Jr.

Watergate

-Ziegler’s forthcoming press briefing

-Content

-Central Intelligence Agency [CIA]

 -16-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 921-8 (cont’d)

-Other news leads
-CIA
-Vernon A. Walters and Richard M. Helms
-H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman
-Walters’s and Helms’s possible statements
-President’s knowledge of meeting
-Involvement in Watergate
-John W. Dean III
-Helms’s conversation with President
-Walters’s conversation with L[ouis] Patrick Gray,
III
-Robert Woodward’s story, May 17
-Daniel Ellsberg break-in
-Buzhardt’s efforts
-Affidavits
-White House strategy
-Ziegler’s forthcoming press briefing
-Woodward’s story

-Dean’s documents

-Ziegler’s forthcoming press briefing

-David R. Young
-Thomas F. Eagleton’s medical file
-Allegations concerning Ehrlichman
-Allegations concerning Patrick J. Buchanan
-Burglary of doctor’s office
-Doctor’s letter

-Press report, May 17

-Doctor’s letter to Haig

-Possible White House response
-Forwarding of letter to Henry E. Petersen
-Ehrlichman
-Press reports
-Buchanan
-Ehrlichman’s possible activities
-Dean
-Lawyer
-Request for access to Dean’s chronological files
 -17-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 921-8 (cont’d)

-Haldeman and Ehrlichman

-Access to files

-Prosecutors’ allegations

-Buzhardt’s response
-Access to White House files
-Staff perquisites
-Departure from White House payroll
-Transition activities
-Lawrence M. Higby
-Move to Old Executive Office Building [EOB]
-John J. Wilson’s statement
-President’s conversation with George P. Shultz, May 16
-John J. (“Jack”) Caulfield

-Allegations against

-Possible removal

-Higby

-Haldeman and Ehrlichman

-Removal from White House payroll

-Dean

-Haig’s conversation with Barry M. Goldwater

-Carpenters [?]

-National support for President

-Public relations [PR]

-Armed Forces Day

-President’s speech

-Prisoners of War [POW] Day

-Television [TV] coverage

-Visits

-Tuscon, Arizona

-Everett M. Dirksen [Center dedication]

-Goldwater’s view

-POW Day

-Exploitation

-Support for President

-Press coverage


Watergate
 -18-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 921-8 (cont’d)

-Dean

-Press actions

-Dan Rather
-Treatment by White House
-Appearance on TV
-Huston Plan
-President’s call to Ziegler, May 16
-Sequence of events
-Haldeman
-J. Edgar Hoover
-Clyde A. Tolson
-Possible meetings
-John N. Mitchell and President
-Termination
-William C. Sullivan
-Implementation
-Buzhardt’s activities
-Louis W. Tordella
-Sullivan
-Tom C. Huston
-Date of departure
-Files

Ziegler and Buzhardt left at 10:56 am.

-White House response

-Meetings

-Public relations

-Buzhardt compared with Leonard Garment
-Ziegler’s view
-President’s meeting with Buzhardt
-President’s motive concerning CIA
-National security
-Possible White Paper
-President’s role
-Defendant
-Goldwater’s viewpoint
 -19-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 921-8 (cont’d)

-Shultz, Connally, Republican leadership

-Dean’s documents

-Buzhardt’s possible conversations

-James R. Schlesinger

-William D. Ruckelshaus

-White House response

National economy
-Meeting with Shultz
-Wage and price controls
-Political effects
-Economic effects
-Indicators
-Balanced budget
-Boom
-Inflation
-Poll numberes
-Connally’s view
-Watergate
-President’s leadership role
-Wage and price controls
-Shultz’s view
-Oil and gas

President’s leadership role
-Political effects
-Record
-Soviet Union
-Initiatives
-Watergate
-Domestic front
-Professionalism
-Sound management
-Confidence

President’s schedule
-Congressional leaders’ meeting
 -20-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 921-8 (cont’d)

-Hugh Scott
-Goldwater
-Robert J. Dole

Watergate

-Dean’s documents

-Schlesinger

-Conversation with Buzhardt, 5/13
-Shultz’s reaction
-Haig’s forthcoming calls
-Elliot L. Richardson
-Schlesinger
-William P. Clements, Jr.
-Buzhardt
-Opinion regarding President

Ronald L. Ziegler entered at 11:08 am.

Watergate
-Ervin Committee hearings
-Samuel J. Ervin, Jr.
-Goldwater’s opinion
-Robert C. Odle, Jr.’s testimony
-Haldeman’s and Ehrlichman’s forthcoming testimony
-Ziegler’s forthcoming press briefing
-Helen Thomas

Ziegler left at 11:09 am.

Watergate
-Walters’s memoranda of conversation [memcons]
-Possible effect of release
 -21-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 921-8 (cont’d)

*****************************************************************


BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4

[National security]

[Duration: 15 s ]



SURVELLIANCE


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4

*****************************************************************


Watergate

-Walters’s memcons

-National security

-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Removal from White House staff
-Access to papers
-Dean
-Request for access to papers
-President’s conversation with Petersen, April 17
-National security
-Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] investigation
-Ellsberg case
-Wiretap
-Evidence of misconduct
-Burglary
-National security
-Results
-Dean’s documents
-Huston Plan
-Possible White House response
-President’s role
-Intelligence community
 -22-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 921-8 (cont’d)

-Adm. Noel Gayler, Gen. Bennett Helms, Ruckelshaus and
Sullivan
-White Paper
-Statement by President
-Possessors
-Possible reaction by liberals
-Possible White House response
-Possible popular reaction
-Possible White House response
-President’s role
-Compared to previous administrations
-President’s schedule
-Ziegler’s forthcoming press briefing

-News story

-Huston Plan
-President’s opponents’ knowledge
-Petersen, Ruckelshaus, Schlesinger and Helms
-Helms

-Possible conversation with Haig

-Resignation as ambassador

-Conversation with Buzhardt



*****************************************************************


BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5

[National security]

[Duration: 27 s ]



SURVELLIANCE


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5

*****************************************************************
 -23-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 921-8 (cont’d)


Watergate

-Philadelphia doctor’s letter to Haig

-Allegations regarding burglary
-Haig’s possible conversation with John D. Ehrlichman
-Burglary of President’s doctor’s office
-Haig’s possible conversation with Haldeman

Haig left at 11:30 am.