About this recording
435-040b
- President Richard M. Nixon
- J. Fred. Buzhardt
- Manolo Sanchez
- White House operator
May 14, 1973
Conversation No. 435-40
Date: May 15, 1973
Time: 5:21 pm-6:45 pm
Location: Executive Office Building
The President met with J. Fred Buzhardt, Jr.
President’s election reform speech
Watergate
-Intensity
-Public interest
-Ervin Committee
Manolo Sanchez entered at an unknown time after 5:21 pm.
Refreshment
Sanchez left at an unknown time before 5:45 pm.
President’s conversation with Alexander M. Haig, Jr., May 14
-29-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2012)
Conversation No. 435-40 (cont’d)
President’s record
-White House staff [?]
Ronald L. Ziegler
-Previous conversation with President
-Need for help with press briefings
Watergate
-Presidential papers
-Lt. Gen. Vernon A. Walters memorandum
-Ziegler [?]
-Possible White House staff testimony
-John W. Dean, III’s documents
-R. H. Shepherd
-Availability of copies to White House
-Committee to Re-elect President [CRP]
-Contents
-National security
*****************************************************************
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[National security]
[Duration: 56 s ]
INTELLIGENCE
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
*****************************************************************
Watergate
-Dean’s documents
-30-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2012)
Conversation No. 435-40 (cont’d)
-Hunt’s activities
-White House response
-FBI
-Hunt, Liddy
-President’s obligation to national security information
-Wiretapping
-Legality
-Compared to Lyndon B. Johnson
-Omnibus Crime Act of June 1972
-Leaks
-President’s orders regarding leaks
-John D. Ehrlichman and Egil (“Bud”) Krogh
-Joseph C. Kraft
-Buzhardt’s conversation with Ehrlichman
-President’s conversation with Ehrlichman
-Possible wiretaps by E. Howard Hunt, Jr. and G[eorge] Gordon
Liddy
-Plumbers operation
-Legality of wiretaps
-Army Signal Corps
-Daniel Ellsberg
-Pentagon Papers
-Hero status
-Pulitzer Prize to New York Times
-Effect on foreign policy
-Strategic Arms Limitation Talks [SALT]
-White House activities after June 1972
-National security
-Authority to order wiretaps
-President
-Court order
-Congress
-Secretary of Defense
-Central Intelligence Agency [CIA]
-Secretary of State
-Attorney General
-President
-31-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2012)
Conversation No. 435-40 (cont’d)
-Henry Brandon
-Possible White House statement
-Justification for wiretaps
-Disassociation from Watergate break-in
-Hunt and Liddy
-Hunt’s and Liddy’s activities
-James W. McCord, Jr.
-Donald H. Segretti
-Watergate break-in
-Cuban nationals operation “cover”
-CIA
-Hush money [?]
-Charles W. Colson
-Witness list for Ervin Committee
-Colson, Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and Dean
-Possible immunity for Dean
-Witness list for Ervin Committee
-Possible testimony
-Committee to Re-elect President [CRP]
-Liddy’s secretary
-Colson
-McCord
-Book
-John B. Connally [?]
-President’s conversation with John B. Connally
-McCord, Hunt
-McCord
-Book
-Colson, Haldeman, and Ehrlichman
-Executive privilege
-Dean
-John N. Mitchell
-Jeb Stuart Magruder
-Colson, Gordon C. Strachan, Haldeman, and Ehrlichman
-Possible testimony
-Executive privilege
-John J. Wilson
-32-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2012)
Conversation No. 435-40 (cont’d)
-Possible White House strategies
-Dean’s documents
Buzhardt talked with the White House operator at an unknown time between 5:21 pm and 5:45
pm.
[Conversation No. 435-40A]
[Begin telephone conversation]
[See Conversation No. 46-67]
[End telephone conversation]
Telephone service
Watergate
-Ervin Committee
-Legal research
-Possible assertion of executive privilege
-$350,000
-Haldeman’s role
-Ehrlichman’s conversation with Richard G. Kleindienst
Buzhardt talked with Doug Parker between an unknown time after 5:21 pm and 5:45 pm.
[Conversation No. 435-40B]
[Begin telephone conversation]
[See Conversation No. 46-68]
Buzhardt conferred with the President during the conversation.
[Begin conferral]
Buzhardt’s location
-33-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2012)
Conversation No. 435-40 (cont’d)
-Executive Office Building [EOB]
[End conferral]
[End telephone conversation]
Watergate
-Dean’s documents
-Amount of material in inches
-Length of a particular document
-Pages
-Possible content
-Authorship
-Camp David
-Dean’s attorney
-Partisanship
-Democrat
-Motives
President’s schedule
-Prisoners of War [POW] dinner
-Meeting with George J. R. Pompidou
-POW dinner
-Soviet summit
-Domestic issues
-Wage and price freeze
-George P. Shultz
Controversial uses of Presidential power
-Impoundment of funds
-Vetoes
-Congress
Watergate
-Grand jury
-President’s conversation with Henry E. Petersen
-34-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2012)
Conversation No. 435-40 (cont’d)
*****************************************************************
[Begin segment reviewed under deed of gift]
Smoking
-Ashtray
-Relaxation
[End segment reviewed under deed of gift]
*****************************************************************
Watergate
-Grand jury
-Possible indictments
-Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and Colson
-John J. Sirica
-Possible effect on Ervin Committee hearings
-Samuel J. Ervin, Jr.’s comments
-“Facts for American people”
-Ervin Committee members
-Herman E. Talmadge
-Ervin
-Howard H. Baker, Jr.
-Edward J. Gurney
President’s San Clemente property
-Santa Ana Register story
-Ervin Committee
-Denial
-Leonard Garment
-Robert H. Abplanalp
-Allegations of misuse of campaign funds
-Garment
Parker talked with Buzhardt at an unknown time between 5:45 pm and 6:45 pm.
-35-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2012)
Conversation No. 435-40 (cont’d)
[Conversation No. 435-40C]
[Begin telephone conversation]
[See Conversation No. 46-69]
[End telephone conversation]
Watergate
-Buzhardt’s previous telephone call
-Sirica’s actions
-Dean’s documents
-Sirica
-Possible motives
-Possible threat to Presidency
-Haldeman, Ehrlichman
-Funds for defendants
-Thomas A. Pappas
-Possible guilt
-Motives of participants
-Million dollar fundraising
-[Unintelligible name]
-Dean
-Knowledge
-William O. Bittman’s demand for $120,000
-Hunt
-President’s conversation with Dean, March 21
-Bittman’s demand of Paul L. O’Brien
-Blackmail
-Hunt and Liddy
-Dean
-Relationship with Ehrlichman
-Position of President’s counsel
-Activities in Watergate investigation
-Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI]
-Ziegler
-Possible actions
-36-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2012)
Conversation No. 435-40 (cont’d)
-Possible immunity
-Impact of Senate testimony
-Ehrlichman
-Possible actions
-Immunity
-Special Prosecutor
-Transactional immunity
-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-President’s conversation with Petersen
-Incentive to lie
-Peterson’s concern
-Hunt and McCord
-Dean’s possible actions
-Justification of testimony to Special Prosecutor
-John J. Wilson’s possible response
-Haldeman’s, Ehrlichman’s, and Colson’s future
-Contact with White House
-President
-Lawrence M. Higby
-Buzhardt
-Executive privilege
-Perception of cover-up
-Statements by Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Need for chronology
-Ervin Committee hearings
-Effect on possible trials
-Mitchell
-Compared with Bobby G. Seale’s trial
-Sirica
-Jury trial
-Juror’s race
-Christian Science
-Ehrlichman
-Unknown woman [?]
-Possible trials
-Obstruction of justice
-Conspiracy
-37-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2012)
Conversation No. 435-40 (cont’d)
-Grand jury
-Petersen
-Certainty of case
-Indictments
-Ehrlichman and Haldeman
-Walters
-L[ouis] Patrick Gray and Richard M. Helms
-Helms
-Walters’s conversation with Gray
-Dean
-CIA involvement
-Walters
-Gen. Robert E. Cushman, Jr.’s statement
-Date confusion
-Ehrlichman’s alleged conversation with Cushman
-Departure for California
-Krogh
-Break-in at Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office
-Colson
-Hunt
-Cushman
-Possible legal penalties
-Intent of break-in
-Breaking and entering
-Burglary
-Copying documents
-Misdemeanor
-Felony
-California law
-Krogh
-Dean
-Hunt
-Timing of Ehrlichman’s knowledge
-President’s conversation with Petersen
-Film
-FBI
-Dean
-38-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2012)
Conversation No. 435-40 (cont’d)
-Conversation with Peterson, April 15
-Conversation with President, March 21
-President’s conversation with Kleindienst
-Photograph
-Psychiatrist’s office
-Handling by Justice Department
-Hunt
-Petersen
-Embarrassment
-Dean’s knowledge
-Kleindienst
-Petersen
-John J. Martin [?]
-Buzhardt’s testimony
-President’s conversation with Petersen
-Ehrlichman
-Accusations against Buzhardt
-William M. Byrne, Jr.
-Buzhardt’s testimony
-Ellsberg’s hearing
-Document
-Public Affairs office
-Author’s testimony
-Byrne
-United States Attorney Dave Nissen
-Haig and Henry A. Kissinger
-Wiretaps
-Dean’s documents
-Buzhardt’s instructions
-Bob Frankel
-Possible contents
-Presence of classified information
-Executive privilege
-Earl J. Silbert
-Timing of delivery of information to White House
-Possible contents
-Dean
-39-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2012)
Conversation No. 435-40 (cont’d)
-Motive for production of documents
-Possible contents
-Relation to wiretaps
-Immunity
-Ehrlichman’s knowledge of Ellsberg break-in
-Dean’s documents
-Possible advantage to White House
-Dean’s testimony
-Value to possible defendants
-Wilson and David Shapiro
-Dean
-Sensationalism
-President’s involvement
-Contacts with President regarding Watergate
-March 21, 1973 meeting
-“Cancer on the Presidency”
-Camp David trip
Buzhardt left at 6:45 pm.
Date: May 15, 1973
Time: 5:21 pm-6:45 pm
Location: Executive Office Building
The President met with J. Fred Buzhardt, Jr.
President’s election reform speech
Watergate
-Intensity
-Public interest
-Ervin Committee
Manolo Sanchez entered at an unknown time after 5:21 pm.
Refreshment
Sanchez left at an unknown time before 5:45 pm.
President’s conversation with Alexander M. Haig, Jr., May 14
-29-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2012)
Conversation No. 435-40 (cont’d)
President’s record
-White House staff [?]
Ronald L. Ziegler
-Previous conversation with President
-Need for help with press briefings
Watergate
-Presidential papers
-Lt. Gen. Vernon A. Walters memorandum
-Ziegler [?]
-Possible White House staff testimony
-John W. Dean, III’s documents
-R. H. Shepherd
-Availability of copies to White House
-Committee to Re-elect President [CRP]
-Contents
-National security
*****************************************************************
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[National security]
[Duration: 56 s ]
INTELLIGENCE
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
*****************************************************************
Watergate
-Dean’s documents
-30-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2012)
Conversation No. 435-40 (cont’d)
-Hunt’s activities
-White House response
-FBI
-Hunt, Liddy
-President’s obligation to national security information
-Wiretapping
-Legality
-Compared to Lyndon B. Johnson
-Omnibus Crime Act of June 1972
-Leaks
-President’s orders regarding leaks
-John D. Ehrlichman and Egil (“Bud”) Krogh
-Joseph C. Kraft
-Buzhardt’s conversation with Ehrlichman
-President’s conversation with Ehrlichman
-Possible wiretaps by E. Howard Hunt, Jr. and G[eorge] Gordon
Liddy
-Plumbers operation
-Legality of wiretaps
-Army Signal Corps
-Daniel Ellsberg
-Pentagon Papers
-Hero status
-Pulitzer Prize to New York Times
-Effect on foreign policy
-Strategic Arms Limitation Talks [SALT]
-White House activities after June 1972
-National security
-Authority to order wiretaps
-President
-Court order
-Congress
-Secretary of Defense
-Central Intelligence Agency [CIA]
-Secretary of State
-Attorney General
-President
-31-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2012)
Conversation No. 435-40 (cont’d)
-Henry Brandon
-Possible White House statement
-Justification for wiretaps
-Disassociation from Watergate break-in
-Hunt and Liddy
-Hunt’s and Liddy’s activities
-James W. McCord, Jr.
-Donald H. Segretti
-Watergate break-in
-Cuban nationals operation “cover”
-CIA
-Hush money [?]
-Charles W. Colson
-Witness list for Ervin Committee
-Colson, Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and Dean
-Possible immunity for Dean
-Witness list for Ervin Committee
-Possible testimony
-Committee to Re-elect President [CRP]
-Liddy’s secretary
-Colson
-McCord
-Book
-John B. Connally [?]
-President’s conversation with John B. Connally
-McCord, Hunt
-McCord
-Book
-Colson, Haldeman, and Ehrlichman
-Executive privilege
-Dean
-John N. Mitchell
-Jeb Stuart Magruder
-Colson, Gordon C. Strachan, Haldeman, and Ehrlichman
-Possible testimony
-Executive privilege
-John J. Wilson
-32-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2012)
Conversation No. 435-40 (cont’d)
-Possible White House strategies
-Dean’s documents
Buzhardt talked with the White House operator at an unknown time between 5:21 pm and 5:45
pm.
[Conversation No. 435-40A]
[Begin telephone conversation]
[See Conversation No. 46-67]
[End telephone conversation]
Telephone service
Watergate
-Ervin Committee
-Legal research
-Possible assertion of executive privilege
-$350,000
-Haldeman’s role
-Ehrlichman’s conversation with Richard G. Kleindienst
Buzhardt talked with Doug Parker between an unknown time after 5:21 pm and 5:45 pm.
[Conversation No. 435-40B]
[Begin telephone conversation]
[See Conversation No. 46-68]
Buzhardt conferred with the President during the conversation.
[Begin conferral]
Buzhardt’s location
-33-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2012)
Conversation No. 435-40 (cont’d)
-Executive Office Building [EOB]
[End conferral]
[End telephone conversation]
Watergate
-Dean’s documents
-Amount of material in inches
-Length of a particular document
-Pages
-Possible content
-Authorship
-Camp David
-Dean’s attorney
-Partisanship
-Democrat
-Motives
President’s schedule
-Prisoners of War [POW] dinner
-Meeting with George J. R. Pompidou
-POW dinner
-Soviet summit
-Domestic issues
-Wage and price freeze
-George P. Shultz
Controversial uses of Presidential power
-Impoundment of funds
-Vetoes
-Congress
Watergate
-Grand jury
-President’s conversation with Henry E. Petersen
-34-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2012)
Conversation No. 435-40 (cont’d)
*****************************************************************
[Begin segment reviewed under deed of gift]
Smoking
-Ashtray
-Relaxation
[End segment reviewed under deed of gift]
*****************************************************************
Watergate
-Grand jury
-Possible indictments
-Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and Colson
-John J. Sirica
-Possible effect on Ervin Committee hearings
-Samuel J. Ervin, Jr.’s comments
-“Facts for American people”
-Ervin Committee members
-Herman E. Talmadge
-Ervin
-Howard H. Baker, Jr.
-Edward J. Gurney
President’s San Clemente property
-Santa Ana Register story
-Ervin Committee
-Denial
-Leonard Garment
-Robert H. Abplanalp
-Allegations of misuse of campaign funds
-Garment
Parker talked with Buzhardt at an unknown time between 5:45 pm and 6:45 pm.
-35-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2012)
Conversation No. 435-40 (cont’d)
[Conversation No. 435-40C]
[Begin telephone conversation]
[See Conversation No. 46-69]
[End telephone conversation]
Watergate
-Buzhardt’s previous telephone call
-Sirica’s actions
-Dean’s documents
-Sirica
-Possible motives
-Possible threat to Presidency
-Haldeman, Ehrlichman
-Funds for defendants
-Thomas A. Pappas
-Possible guilt
-Motives of participants
-Million dollar fundraising
-[Unintelligible name]
-Dean
-Knowledge
-William O. Bittman’s demand for $120,000
-Hunt
-President’s conversation with Dean, March 21
-Bittman’s demand of Paul L. O’Brien
-Blackmail
-Hunt and Liddy
-Dean
-Relationship with Ehrlichman
-Position of President’s counsel
-Activities in Watergate investigation
-Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI]
-Ziegler
-Possible actions
-36-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2012)
Conversation No. 435-40 (cont’d)
-Possible immunity
-Impact of Senate testimony
-Ehrlichman
-Possible actions
-Immunity
-Special Prosecutor
-Transactional immunity
-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-President’s conversation with Petersen
-Incentive to lie
-Peterson’s concern
-Hunt and McCord
-Dean’s possible actions
-Justification of testimony to Special Prosecutor
-John J. Wilson’s possible response
-Haldeman’s, Ehrlichman’s, and Colson’s future
-Contact with White House
-President
-Lawrence M. Higby
-Buzhardt
-Executive privilege
-Perception of cover-up
-Statements by Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Need for chronology
-Ervin Committee hearings
-Effect on possible trials
-Mitchell
-Compared with Bobby G. Seale’s trial
-Sirica
-Jury trial
-Juror’s race
-Christian Science
-Ehrlichman
-Unknown woman [?]
-Possible trials
-Obstruction of justice
-Conspiracy
-37-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2012)
Conversation No. 435-40 (cont’d)
-Grand jury
-Petersen
-Certainty of case
-Indictments
-Ehrlichman and Haldeman
-Walters
-L[ouis] Patrick Gray and Richard M. Helms
-Helms
-Walters’s conversation with Gray
-Dean
-CIA involvement
-Walters
-Gen. Robert E. Cushman, Jr.’s statement
-Date confusion
-Ehrlichman’s alleged conversation with Cushman
-Departure for California
-Krogh
-Break-in at Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office
-Colson
-Hunt
-Cushman
-Possible legal penalties
-Intent of break-in
-Breaking and entering
-Burglary
-Copying documents
-Misdemeanor
-Felony
-California law
-Krogh
-Dean
-Hunt
-Timing of Ehrlichman’s knowledge
-President’s conversation with Petersen
-Film
-FBI
-Dean
-38-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2012)
Conversation No. 435-40 (cont’d)
-Conversation with Peterson, April 15
-Conversation with President, March 21
-President’s conversation with Kleindienst
-Photograph
-Psychiatrist’s office
-Handling by Justice Department
-Hunt
-Petersen
-Embarrassment
-Dean’s knowledge
-Kleindienst
-Petersen
-John J. Martin [?]
-Buzhardt’s testimony
-President’s conversation with Petersen
-Ehrlichman
-Accusations against Buzhardt
-William M. Byrne, Jr.
-Buzhardt’s testimony
-Ellsberg’s hearing
-Document
-Public Affairs office
-Author’s testimony
-Byrne
-United States Attorney Dave Nissen
-Haig and Henry A. Kissinger
-Wiretaps
-Dean’s documents
-Buzhardt’s instructions
-Bob Frankel
-Possible contents
-Presence of classified information
-Executive privilege
-Earl J. Silbert
-Timing of delivery of information to White House
-Possible contents
-Dean
-39-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2012)
Conversation No. 435-40 (cont’d)
-Motive for production of documents
-Possible contents
-Relation to wiretaps
-Immunity
-Ehrlichman’s knowledge of Ellsberg break-in
-Dean’s documents
-Possible advantage to White House
-Dean’s testimony
-Value to possible defendants
-Wilson and David Shapiro
-Dean
-Sensationalism
-President’s involvement
-Contacts with President regarding Watergate
-March 21, 1973 meeting
-“Cancer on the Presidency”
-Camp David trip
Buzhardt left at 6:45 pm.