883-005a

Conversation No. 883-5

Date: March 19, 1973
Time: 10:30 am - 12:34 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman.

Weather
-Snow
-Cherry blossoms

President’s schedule
-Willy Brandt’s visit
-Confirmation of date
-Kakuei Tanaka's visit
-Confirmation of date
-May 1, 1973 date for Brandt visit
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2010)
Conversation No. 883-5 (cont’d)


-Possible trip to Africa
-Dates
-Prisoners of war [POWs] dinner
-Problem of scheduling
-Congressional fundraising dinner
-Mid-week departure
-Press coverage
-Meeting with Brandt
-Gen. Brent G. Scowcroft’s participation
-Advice from Henry A. Kissinger

Haldeman talked with an unknown person at an unknown time between 10:30 am and 11:06 am.

[Conversation No. 883-5A]

Brandt visit
-Scowcroft
-Date
-Status report

[End of telephone conversation]

President's schedule
-Meetings with foreign heads of state
-Brandt
-Guilio Andreotti
-Paris visit
-Georges J. R. Pompidou
-Kissinger's recommendations
-Visit by Pompidou to US
-North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO] country objections
-President’s concerns
-US-Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR] summit
-Brandt's trip to US
-Public relations trip
-Paris
-Haldeman's meeting with Kissinger
-Pompidou's visit
-President's meetings with European leaders
 -4-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2010)
Conversation No. 883-5 (cont’d)


-Kissinger’s recommendation
-Location of meetings in Europe
-Azores
-Paris
-President’s concern
-Kissinger
-State Department
-President’s trip to Africa
-Two country visit
-Favors
-NATO
-President’s security during visits
-Europe
-Netherlands
-Denmark
-Belgium
-NATO base
-Luxembourg
-Spain
-Portugal
-Azores
-Frequency of visits

Julie L. Pineau
-Departure from National Security Council [NSC] job
-Reasons
-Kissinger
-Abilities


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[Begin segment reviewed under deed of gift]

John B. Connally
-Party switch
-Arrangements
-George Christian
-Announcement
-Paul Latt [?]
 -5-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2010)
Conversation No. 883-5 (cont’d)


-Follow-up
-Delays
-Timing
Christian
-Democratic Party

[End segment reviewed under deed of gift]
*****************************************************************


Gen. John P. Flynn
-Health
-Announcement
-Telephone call to Flynn
-Timing
-Senior officer status

Pineau
-Competence
-Dealings with Kissinger

Julie Nixon Eisenhower’s schedule
-White House weekend events
-Church services
-Evenings at the White House
-Rigor of schedule
-Rex W. Scouten
-Lucy A. Winchester

President’s schedule
-Head of state Visits
-Number of Evenings at the White House
-Lists of invitees
-Rose Mary Woods and William E. Timmons
-Individuals sought by President
-Completion
-Maurice H. Stans
-Worship services
-Local guests
 -6-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2010)
Conversation No. 883-5 (cont’d)


-Purpose of events
-Compared with purpose of audience
-Evenings at the White House
-Political figures
-Stans's group
-Campaign contributors
-Frequency of Evenings at the White House
-Limitations
-Rest
-Press conference
-Congressional relations
-Trip to west coast
-Nguyen Van Thieu
-Lee Kuan Yew's dinner
-Andreotti's visit
-Florida trip
-Easter holiday
-Brandt's visit
-Evening at the White House
-Finance dinner
-USSR visit
-Dates
-Evening at the White House
-Visit by African head of state
-President’s trip to Africa
-[Shah of Iran] Mohammed Reza Pahlavi’s visit
-Dinners
-Entertainment
-Gifts for attendees
-Foreign visitors
-Congress members
-Congressional assistants
-Length of time

Julie Nixon Eisenhower’s schedule
-Meetings with young people
-Value to administration
-Symbolism
-Committee to Re-Elect the President [CRP]
 -7-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2010)
Conversation No. 883-5 (cont’d)


-Party at White House
-Church service
-Oswald Hoffman [?]

President's schedule
-Church services
-Monthly schedule
-White House correspondents dinner
-Palm Sunday [?]
-May schedule
-Brandt’s visit
-President’s trip to Africa
-Mother’s Day
-President's revisions
-White House correspondents dinner
-Saturday events
-Use of White House
-Effectiveness
-Summer schedule
-California
-Frequency
-Difficulty of scheduling
-International monetary situation
-Speeches
-Evenings at White House
-Preparations
-Early scheduling
-Arrangements
-Quality of show
-Audience
-Congress member
-Kentucky
-Thelma C. (“Pat”) Nixon's birthday
-Personal touch
-Green bow tie
-Entertainment
-Poem
-Bonnie Owens of Merle Haggard's group
-Birthday poem
 -8-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2010)
Conversation No. 883-5 (cont’d)


-Merle Haggard
-Personality
-Guests
-Visits upstairs
-Value
-Flowers
-Dining room
-[Dwight] David Eisenhower, II's comparison of President, Dwight D.
Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy
-Availability
-Rose Mary Woods
-Attendance of White House dinner
-Spiro T. Agnew
-Secretary’s attendance
-[First name unknown] Summers
-Camp David and Sequoia
-Cabinet
-Use
-David Eisenhower's observations
-Social events
-Frequency
-First term
-Psychology
-Pressures of election
-Congressional relations
-Camp David and Sequoia
-Cabinet
-Upstairs of White House
-Use by outsiders
-Mrs. Nixon’s birthday
-POWs
-Evening at the White House
-Stag dinners
-Campaign contributors
-Compared with state dinner
-Dwight D. Eisenhower's approach
-Number attending
-Conversation with White House staff
-Cabinet
 -9-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2010)
Conversation No. 883-5 (cont’d)


-Governors
-Value and format
-William T. Cahill
-Foreign visitors
-Length of dinner
-Chief of protocol
-Identification of campaign contributors
-Foreign visitors
-Congress members
-Church services
-Invitees
-William F. (“Billy”) Graham's recommendation of minister
-Reasons for having services
-Religious observance
-Church in Florida
-Compared with White House for holidays
-Assistant secretary invitees
-Evening at the White House
-Campaign contributors
-Social events
-Types
-Church services
-Evening at the White House
-State dinner
-Youth events
-Frequency
-Brandt’s visit
-Lee Kuan Yew's visit
-Stag dinner
-Woods, Charles W. Colson and Patrick J. Buchanan
-Invitees
-New establishment compared with New Majority
-Educators
-Columnists
-Broadcasters
-Editors
-Publishers
-Government managers
-Foundations
 -10-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2010)
Conversation No. 883-5 (cont’d)


-Labor unionists
-George Meany
-Jay Lovestone
-Blacks and Mexican-Americans
-Quota basis
-New Majority
-Italian-Americans
-Brandt dinner
-Invitees
-Campaign contributors
-Pahlavi [Shah of Iran] dinner
-Invitees
-Campaign contributors
-Haldeman's conference with Kissinger and Agnew
Nguyen Van Thieu's visit
-Visit to Washington, DC
-California
-Isolation
-Demonstrators
-Impact
-Possible cancellation by Thieu

Ronald L. Ziegler entered at 11:06 am.

-Alexander M. Haig, Jr.'s advice

Watergate
-News report on Samuel J. Ervin, Jr.
-Image
-Partisanship
-Gerald L. Warren's briefing
-Arrests of potential witnesses
-Administration response
-Approaches
-John D. Ehrlichman, Richard A. Moore, and John W. Dean, III
-President's statement
-Comments on Ervin's comments
-Ehrlichman
-President's response to Ervin's threats
 -11-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2010)
Conversation No. 883-5 (cont’d)


-White House cooperation on information
-Separation of powers
-Supreme Court test
-White House cooperation
-Ziegler's statement for press
-Ervin's partisanship
-Confrontation with administration
-\"Face the Nation\" appearance
-Emphasis on administration's cooperation
-Ehrlichman
-News media
-Congress
-Reporting on Watergate
-Peter M. Flanigan's testimony
-Ziegler's response on question
-Sherman Adams testimony
-Ziegler's statement
-Charge of crime
-Flanigan's testimony
-Precedent
-Written statement in Sansinena oil tanker case [1970]
-International Telephone and Telegraph [ITT] case
-Circumstances
-Parallels with Watergate
-White House aides
-Testimony
-Court case
-Delays
-Ervin Committee
-Ehrlichman's advice
-Threats of imprisonment
-President's reply
-Separation of power
-Cooperation
-Justice Department
-Sensationalism
-Central issues
-White House cooperation
-Separation of powers
 -12-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2010)
Conversation No. 883-5 (cont’d)


-Examination of Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] raw files
-White House staff morale
-Ervin Committee
-Sensationalism
-Dean
-ITT case
-Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] investigation
-Justice Department
-Ziegler's comments
-Files on case
-SEC subpoena
-William J. Casey
-Summary of contents
-Agnew, Connally, and Peter G. Peterson
-Leaks from committee
-Comments

Press relations
-Proper length of briefing
-Ziegler's judgment
-Ehrlichman's briefings
-Compared with Kissinger’s briefings
-Length
-Limits
-Earl L. Butz
-Department briefings
-Press objective
-Cut-off point
-Press hostility
-Clark R. Mollenhoff
-Biases of reporters
-Announcements of positive stories
-[First name unknown] Alexander
-Food White Paper
-Herbert G. Stein

Watergate
-Press briefings
-Warren
 -13-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2010)
Conversation No. 883-5 (cont’d)


-Briefings
-Administration's cooperation
-William J. Baroody's office
-Publicity
-Jeremiah O'Leary story in Washington Star
-Raw files
-Alger Hiss analogy
-Cooperation

Ziegler left at 11:26 am.

-Public relations efforts
-Someone to direct
-White House staff
-Public relations sense and coordination of efforts

Public relations
-POW story

President’s schedule
-POW party
-Press presence
-Risk
-Coverage
-Restrictions on behavior
-Ziegler
-Entertainment
-Response by women attendees
-Leslie T. (“Bob”) Hope
-Format
-President's toast and Flynn's response
-Press coverage
-Entertainment
-Hope
-Personality
-Gags
-Haggard
-Straight lines
-Welfare recipients
 -14-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2010)
Conversation No. 883-5 (cont’d)


-Patriotism
-Bumper stickers

An unknown person entered at an unknown time after 11:26 am.

President’s schedule
-President's meeting with Theodore H. (“Teddy”) White
-White’s notebook
-Memorandums on Brandt

The unknown person left at an unknown time before 12:34 pm.

POWs
-Reception
-State Department
-Defense Department
-Briefing
-Value
-Flynn’s opinion
-Wives
-Activities
-Tea at State Department

President's schedule
-Social events
-Amount of effort
-Range of invitees
-Value
-President’s popularity
-Job responsibility of President
-Renewal of country’s faith
-Event in Topeka
-Value
-Motorcade
-Chicago trip
-Format
-Walk
-Thieu’s visit
-President's trip to California
 -15-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2010)
Conversation No. 883-5 (cont’d)


-Florida
-President's visit
-Weather compared to California
-Location
-Washington, DC
-California
-Demonstration
-Jane Fonda
-Beaches in California
-Camp Pendleton
-Capistrano State Park
-Protesters
-Fonda’s presence
-POWs

POWs
-North Vietnam
-Viet Cong
-Absent without leave [AWOL]
-Public relations
-Determination
-Confinement
-Prayers
-Patriotism

Vietnam War
-Definitive history
-Sir Robert Thompson
-Kissinger
-Joseph W. Alsop
-Thompson's book
-President's impressions
-Sequel
-President's support and collaboration
-Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
-Kissinger
-Sensitivity to left-wing criticism
-December 1972 bombing
-Conflicts with Haig
 -16-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2010)
Conversation No. 883-5 (cont’d)


-Success
-Behavior
-December 1972 bombing
-POW reaction
-Support for President’s decision
-Release from captivity
-Decision
-Haldeman's conversation with William L. Safire
-Relation to May 8, 1972 decision
-Use of B-52's
-President’s decision
-Carpet bombing
-Terror bombing
-Military targets
-Stewart J. O. Alsop's column
-Criticism of President
-Lyndon B. Johnson and Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
-Reasons
-Defending troops and POWs
-Grounds to resume bombing
-Bombing of military targets
-Hanoi
-Future US bombing
-Dikes
-Civilian targets
-Previous accusations
-Cease fire
-Sources
-Herman Kahn
-Abandonment of settlement effort
-POWs
-Cease-fire
-Limited scope
-Press reports
-Stories of massive destruction
-Earlier bombing
-Dikes
-Prison camps
-Hospitals
 -17-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2010)
Conversation No. 883-5 (cont’d)


-Reaction of POWs
-Kissinger's ambivalence
-Appearance of objections
-Safire
-May 8, 1972 decision
-Safire's writing on President's and Kissinger's behavior
-Cambodia
-Role of Kissinger in decision
-Inaccuracies
-Demeanor of Kissinger compared with President
-Dr. G[eorge] Alexander Heard
-College students
-Association with protester
-Safire
-Rebuttals to Kissinger's accounts
-Role as Jew
Kissinger
-Cambodia
-India-Pakistan War of 1971
-Laos
-Anxieties
-Vietnam War
-Bombings
-TV
-Safire
-December 1972 bombing
-Paris messages
-Proposed TV appearance by President
-Henry Brandon
-Conflicts with William P. Rogers and Melvin R. Laird
-Disruption
-Safire
-Brandon
-Comments on Rogers
-Safire’s opinion
-Role in Cambodia invasion
-Self-delusion
-Talks with James B. (“Scotty”) Reston
-Haldeman's comments
 -18-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2010)
Conversation No. 883-5 (cont’d)


-Kissinger's reactions to Reston's column
-State Department
-Meeting with Reston
-Personality
-Integrity
-Self-delusion
-Oriana Fallacci interview
-Haig
-Tape recording
-Safire
-Haig
-Cambodia
-Kissinger's conversations with Haldeman
-May 8, 1972 decision
-Military’s role
-Kissinger's role
-1972 Moscow summit
-Cancellation
-December 1972 bombing
-Responsibility
-Connally's role
-Kissinger's approach
-Mining
-Bombing
-Surgical bombing
-Ports
-Ship withdrawal
-Menu strikes
-Johnson

Vietnam War
-Gradual escalation
-Vietnam settlement
-Military fears of losing B-52's
-Kissinger
-Bombing
-Use of B-52's
-Kissinger’s reaction
-Adm. Thomas H. Moorer's conversation with the President
 -19-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2010)
Conversation No. 883-5 (cont’d)


-President’s responsibility for decision
-Expansion of strikes
-Kissinger’s opinion
-Publicity
-President's record of conversations with Kissinger
-President’s memory
-Revisionism
-Cambodian invasion
-President's role in decision
-Heard
-Determination
-Military advice
-Public relations
-Kissinger on offensive
-Ehrlichman’s public appearances
-Connally [?]
-Herbert G. Klein, Bryce N. Harlow and Haldeman’s role
-Arms capture
-Compared with heroin seizure
-Significance
-Talking points
-Press coverage
-Ziegler, Moore, David R. Gergen, Buchanan and Ehrlichman
-Domestic side
-Ehrlichman compared with Kissinger

Kissinger
-TV briefings
-Popularity
-Integrity
-Accounts of personal involvement in decisions
-Self-delusion
-Cambodia decision
-Sunday Supplement magazine excerpt
-Brandon’s book on Kissinger
-Leaks on Cambodia
-Kent State University
-Speech
-Heard
 -20-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2010)
Conversation No. 883-5 (cont’d)


-Meeting with Ivy League presidents

Book by Safire
-Potential controversy
-View of Kissinger
-Haig's role on Vietnam


*****************************************************************
[Begin segment reviewed under deed of gift]

1972 campaign
-Surplus finds
-Disposal
-George H.W. Bush
-State committees
-Candidate selection
-Bills
-Apportionment around states
-California
-New York
-Advertising
-Stans
-Republic National Committee [RNC] plans
-Announcement
-Bush
-Role of RNC
-Candidate selection
-President’s concern
-RNC
-Press coverage
-Washington Post
-Limits of role
-Grassroots organization
-Candidate selection
-Committees
-Ethnics
-Women
-Youth
 -21-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2010)
Conversation No. 883-5 (cont’d)


-National and county organization
-Campaign
-Candidates for House of Representatives
-Senate

1974 election in Illinois
-Senate race
-John B. Anderson
-Donald H. Rumsfeld
-Delay of decision
-President’s non-involvement in primary
-Pre-emption of primaries
-Candidate selection
-Bush
-Robert H. Finch
-Indecision on race in California
-Senate
-Governor

[End segment reviewed under deed of gift]
*****************************************************************


Agnew
-David Eisenhower
-Statements
-Quotations from liberals
-Intellectual pretensions
- John K. Galbraith and Plato
-Press relations
-Gridiron comments
-Texas
-Credibility
-Comments on Southern Republicans
-Harry S. Dent’s support for Connally
-Compared with support for Agnew
-Colson

Speech to Congress
 -22-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2010)
Conversation No. 883-5 (cont’d)


-Delays
-Cooperation with Congress
-Conditions
-TV coverage
-Edward M. (“Ted”) Kennedy and Roman L. Hruska
-Contents
-Domestic concerns
-Responsibility of Congress

Press conference
-Watergate questions
-Public interest
-Media interest
-Testimony before Congress
-Cooperation
-Press reports
-Stories of confrontation
-Scheduling
-Last troop withdrawal from Vietnam
-Return of POWs

President’s speech
-TV speech
-Reading
-White House
-Congress
-Personal role
-Dwight Eisenhower
-Tone
-Microphone technique
-Franklin D. Roosevelt and President
-Speech before Congress
-Advantages
-Congressional relations
-Willingness to cooperate
-Public perception of conflict
-Reassurance of cooperation
-Reception of President by Congress
-Press conference
 -23-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2010)
Conversation No. 883-5 (cont’d)


-Disadvantages
-Attention on Watergate
-Scheduling
-Watergate hearings
-Options
-Press conference
-TV coverage
-Timing
-East Room
-Advantages to President
-TV coverage
-Timing
-Advantages to press
-Speech to Congress
-Haldeman's preference

Book by Safire
-Deadline
-Interview of President
-President’s schedule
-California
-Biases
-Jew
-Analysis of Kissinger
-Critique of book by Brandon
-Rogers, Laird
-Impression of President
-Treatment
-Brandon's background
-Jew
-Czech

An unknown person entered at an unknown time after 11:26 am.

Items for Old Executive Office Building [EOB] office
-Dictabelts for private file


The unknown person left at an unknown time before 12:34 pm.
 -24-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2010)
Conversation No. 883-5 (cont’d)



State dinners
-Lists of guests
-Preparation by President
-Staff member's aid at receiving line
-African dinner
-Brandt dinner
-Guests
-Selection and announcement
-Arthur F. Burns and Hugh Scott
-Guests
-Invitation

Weather

Speech
-Work by President

Haldeman left at 12:34 pm.