438–27

Conversation No. 438-27

Date: May 22, 1973
Time: 9:55 am - 11:28 am
Location: Old Executive Office Building

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

Haig’s and Buzhardt’s health

Watergate
-Forthcoming White Paper [Statements about the Watergate investigation, May
22, 1973]
-Checking facts
-H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman, John D. Ehrlichman, Charles W. Colson
and Henry E. Petersen
-Possible press questions for Ronald L. Ziegler
-Phraseology
-Content
-Staff assistance
-Bryce N. Harlow, Raymond K. Price, Jr., Patrick J. Buchanan,
Leonard Garment, David N. Parker, and Ziegler
-Phraseology

-Leak

-Thomas C. Huston’s testimony

-Forthcoming White Paper

-Huston Plan
-Memoranda
-Ehrlichman, Haldeman
-J. Edgar Hoover
-Henry A. Kissinger

-Phraseology

-[William] Stuart Symington [?]

-President’s knowledge


President’s discussion with Kissinger and Haig

-North Vietnam

 -28-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2011)

Conversation No. 438-27 (cont’d)

-Daniel Ellsberg [?]

-Nuclear war

-Attacks

-Consideration of options

-Discussion

-Approval


Watergate
-Forthcoming White Paper
-Phraseology
-Egil (“Bud”) Krogh, Jr. and E. Howard Hunt, Jr.
-David R. Young, Jr. and G. Gordon Liddy
-Colson
-Krogh
-President’s knowledge of break-in at Ellsberg’s psychiatrist office
-Phraseology

-Young’s memos

-Plans for Ellsberg

-President’s knowledge
-Approval
-Staff
-Krogh
-President’s possible conversation with Hoover

-Memoranda of conversation [memcons]

-President’s meeting with Marco [?] Hooper

-Huston Plan

-Hoover

-Forthcoming White Paper

-President’s role

-Phraseology

-Krogh

-Break-in at Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office

-President’s role

-Forthcoming White Paper

-Phraseology

-President’s role

-Authorization of illegal activities

 -29-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2011)

Conversation No. 438-27 (cont’d)

-John N. Mitchell
-Forthcoming White Paper
-Phraseology

-Watergate compared to national security

-Hunt [?]

-Ellsberg break-in
-Ehrlichman’s knowledge
-John W. Dean, III’s knowledge
-Petersen’s knowledge
-Petersen’s conversation with President
-President’s meeting with Petersen and Richard G. Kleindienst
-Petersen’s knowledge
-Earl Silbert’s memo, April 15

-Ehrlichman and Haldeman

-Jeb S[tuart] Magruder

-President’s phone conversation with Petersen, April 18
-President’s motives
-Silbert
-Views regarding informing William M. Byrne, Jr.
-Effect on court case
-Ellsberg wiretap
-Effect on court case

-Hunt

-Leaks

-Wiretap
-Release to court
-General [First name unknown] Corbett [?]
-Haig
-Content
-Libel [?]
-Possible leak
-Forthcoming White Paper
-Phraseology
-Release of information to Byrne
-President’s conversation with L[ouis] Patrick Gray, III
-Committee to Re-elect the President [CRP]
-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
 -30-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2011)

Conversation No. 438-27 (cont’d)

-Dean
-Lt. Gen. Vernon A. Walters
-Symington’s efforts

-Richard M. Helms

-Senate Armed Services Committee

-John C. Stennis and Henry M. (“Scoop”) Jackson

-Helms’s testimony
-Dr. James R. Schlesinger’s call to Haig, May 22
-Perjury
-President’s conversation with Helms
-Central Intelligence Agency [CIA] involvement in Watergate
-Book by former CIA man, Lt. Col. Lucien E. Conein
-Helms
-Conversation with President

-Kleindienst

-White House tapes

-Schlesinger’s call to Haig, May 22
-Robert S. McNamara

-Forthcoming White House White Paper

-Conversation with President

-[Watergate investigation]
-Compared to Gray
-Testimony
-Ervin Committee
-Concern
-Forthcoming White Paper
-Phraseology
-Money for defendants, clemency
-Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] interviews with White
House staff

-Political espionage

-Donald H. Segretti

-1972 campaign

-Wiretaps

-National security

-Ziegler

-President’s role

 -31-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. October-2011)

Conversation No. 438-27 (cont’d)

-Archibald Cox
-Walters’s memcons

-Time of creation

-Helms

-Schlesinger

-Elliot L. Richardson

-Cox

-Statement regarding investigation
-Forthcoming White Paper
-Executive privilege

-Focus of world opinion

-1972 campaign

-United States Secret Service [USSS]
-Danger to the President
-George S. McGovern’s role
-California, Florida, and New York incidents
-Comparison of violence and wiretapping
-Forthcoming White Paper
-Phraseology
-Price
-Obstruction of justice
-Clemency
-President’s knowledge of Ellsberg break-in
-Timing

-Executive privilege

-White House strategy

-Ziegler


Refreshments

The President left at an unknown time after 9:55 am.

The President entered at an unknown time before 11:28 am.

Watergate

-Harlow

-William E. Timmons

 -32-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2011)

Conversation No. 438-27 (cont’d)

-Forthcoming meetings
-Hugh Scott, George H. W. Bush, Leslie C. Arends, Gerald R.
Ford, and Robert P. Griffin
-Stennis and Strom Thurmond
-Haig
-Forthcoming meeting with Jackson
-George H. Mahon

-Harlow
-President’s schedule
-Bipartisan congressmen
-Harlow
-Republicans
-Buchanan
-Forthcoming meeting with Spiro T. Agnew
-Forthcoming White Paper
-Distribution

-Cabinet

-Schlesinger and Richardson

-Peterson, Cox

-Petersen, Richardson

-President’s schedule
-Republican congressmen and Bush
-Forthcoming White Paper
-Distribution

-Howard H. Baker, Jr., Samuel J. Ervin, Jr.

-Foreign Relations [Committee]

-Leonard Garment [?]
-Price, Buchanan
-Young
-Contact with President

-Krogh

-Ehrlichman’s opinion
-Dean
-White House strategy
-Forthcoming White Paper
 -33-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. October-2011)

Conversation No. 438-27 (cont’d)

Haig and Buzhardt left at 11:28 am.