683–4

Conversation No. 683-4

Date: March 13, 1972
Time: 10:15 am - 12:01 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman and Alexander P. Butterfield.

Swearing-in ceremony
-Marina von N. Whitman
-Religion
-Bible
-Father’s name

Butterfield left at an unknown time before 10:22 am.

Whitman

Busing
-Draft
-Timing

William P. Rogers
-Henry A. Kissinger
-William S. White column
-The President’s forthcoming trip to the Soviet Union
-Clark MacGregor
-Kissinger’s meeting with the House Foreign Affairs Committee
-MacGregor’s dinner with Rogers
-State Department
-Clement J. Zablocki
-William S. Mailliard
-Wayne L. Hays
-Comments
-Rogers’s forthcoming testimony before the committee
 8

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Aug-01)
Conv. No. 683-4 (cont.)

-Rogers’s call to Haldeman
-Peter M. Flanigan
-House of Representatives
-Senate
-Kissinger
-MacGregor
-Stewart J.O. Alsop
-Newsweek article
-Rogers’s possible resignation
-Mao Tse-tung meeting with the President
-Chou En-lai meeting with Rogers
-Kissinger
-Secretary of State
-Kissinger
-Previous conversation with Alsop
-Meeting with Rowland Evans
-Joseph C. Kraft
-Walter W. Rostow
-The President’s view
-Evans’s talk with Kissinger
-Richard G. Kleindienst’s confirmation as Attorney General
-Possible Democratic attacks on Kissinger
-Secret diplomacy
-Kissinger’s talks with members of the Senate
-Possible resignation
-Timing

Butterfield entered at 10:22 am.

Whitman
-Bible to use in swearing-in ceremony
-Background
-Caspar W. Weinberger
-Ezra Solomon
-Arnold R. Weber
-Weinberger
-Herbert Stein
-Jewish identity
-Solomon
-Stein

Butterfield left at an unknown time before 11:10 am.
 9

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Aug-01)
Conv. No. 683-4 (cont.)


Kissinger
-Possible resignation
-Effect
-Evans
-Rogers’s call to Haldeman
-MacGregor
-Soviet trip
-The President’s view
-Secretary of State
-Management skills
-Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
-Rogers
-Robert J. McCloskey’s call to Anatoliy F. Dobrynin
-Dwight L. Chapin
-Protocol

Rogers
-The President’s view
-White story
-Soviet trip
-Leonid I. Brezhnev
-Possible trip to the US
-Aleksei N. Kosygin
-United Nations [UN] visit
-Possible meeting with the President in Glassboro, New Jersey
-Brezhnev

John N. Mitchell
-Schedule
-Possible trip to Florida
-Daughter

The President’s schedule
-Florida
-Easter


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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2
[Personal Returnable]
 10

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Aug-01)
Conv. No. 683-4 (cont.)

[Duration: 8s ]


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2

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-Camp David
-Timing
-The President’s forthcoming press conference
-John B. Connally
-Trip to Texas
-Timing


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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 6s ]


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3

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-Texas
-Timing
-White House correspondents dinner
-[Dwight] David Eisenhower, II
-Soviet trip
-White House photographers dinner
-American Society of Newspaper Editors [ASNE] dinner
-Camp David
-Gridiron dinner
-Connally
-Unknown person
-Walter H. Annenberg
-Palm Springs
-Weather
 11

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Aug-01)
Conv. No. 683-4 (cont.)

-Florida
-Connally
-Mitchell’s schedule
-School
-Timing
-Camp David
-Easter
-Gridiron dinner
-Press conference
-California

Rogers
-Kissinger
Meetings with senators and congressmen
-Zablocki
-Hays
-MacGregor
-Dinner
-Blair House
-Armed services representation
-Thomas E. (“Doc”) Morgan
-J. William Fulbright
-John Sherman Cooper
-Testimony
-Kissinger
-The President’s press conference
-Nguyen Van Thieu’s possible resignation
-Kissinger’s forthcoming meeting with Fulbright’s committee [Senate Foreign
Relations Committee]
-Blair House
-Testimony
-Kissinger’s meeting with Senate Foreign Relations Committee
-Timing
-Kissinger’s “secret activity”
-Kissinger’s possible resignation
-The President’s view
-Alsop article
-White
-News summary
-The President’s previous conversation with Ronald L. Ziegler
-Martin Z. Agronsky’s show
-Joseph C. Kraft column
 12

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Aug-01)
Conv. No. 683-4 (cont.)

-George Putnam’s show
-Compared to Agronsky’s show

State Department
-Leaks
-Kissinger’s report
-Cambodia
-State Department cables
-Lon Nol
-[Emory C. Swank]

Press
-News summaries
-Effect on the President’s approval rating
-Television
-Columns
-Ziegler
-International Telephone and Telegraph [ITT]
-The People’s Republic of China [PRC] trip
-Clayton Fritchey
-News stories
-New Hampshire primary
-Bombing of an airplane
-Announcement of US-PRC communication channel
-ITT
-Clement F. Haynsworth, Jr. and Harrold G. Carswell
-John D. Ehrlichman
-Kissinger
-Alsop column
-The President’s view
-Rogers
-Joseph W. Alsop
-Stewart Alsop
-Kissinger
-State Department

The President’s schedule
-Gridiron dinner
-Herbert G. Klein
-Ziegler
-Seating list
-Women
 13

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Aug-01)
Conv. No. 683-4 (cont.)

-Liberation movement
-Thelma C. (“Pat”) Nixon
-Constance M. Stuart
-Nancy Hanks
-Helen Bentley
-Unknown woman
-Mrs. Nixon
-Elinor I. (Judefind) Agnew
-Bentley
-PRC trip

The President left at an unknown time after 10:22 am.

[No conversation]

The President entered at an unknown time before 11:10 am.

The President’s schedule
-Gridiron dinner
-Administration staff
-Virginia H. Knauer
-Gridiron Club
-Mixed reactions
-Examples of Hillcrest
-The President’s attendance
-Public reaction

Press relations
-Left and right wingers divided
-Evans
-Kissinger
-Foreign policy
-Kissinger
-Kraft
-Ziegler
-The President’s trip to the PRC
-Hugh S. Sidey
-The President’s visit to the Great Wall of China
-Kraft
-William F. Buckley, Jr.
-Dallas News
-Peter Lisagor
 14

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Aug-01)
Conv. No. 683-4 (cont.)


Rogers
-Kissinger
-Foreign affairs meeting
-Postponement
-Morgan
-Schedule
-Senate and House
-Congress
-Anti-ballistic missiles [ABM]
-Cambodia
-Michael J. Mansfield’s resolutions
-North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO]
-[Vietnam]
-Kissinger
-The President
-Soviet trip
-Rogers’s meeting with Haldeman
-House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee
-Morgan
-Kissinger
-MacGregor
-Leaders
-Armed Services Committee
-Leaders of the Senate
-[Thomas] Hale Boggs
-Gerald R. Ford
-Speaker of the House [Carl B. Albert]
-Rogers
-Kissinger
-Kissinger’s backgrounder
-Rogers’s reading of transcript
-Briefing papers
-Foreign policy
-The President’s speech on Soviet television
-Kissinger’s background
-Shanghai Communiqué
-Chinese audience
-The President’s appearance on Soviet television
-Soviet audience
-The President’s memorandum
-Haldeman
 15

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Aug-01)
Conv. No. 683-4 (cont.)

-Kissinger’s backgrounders
-Qualities of the President
-Rogers
-MacGregor’s view
-Soviet Trip
-Sightseeing by the President
-Tbilisi
-Mrs. Nixon
-Rogers
-Kraft

Press
-Kissinger’s view
-Kraft
-Evans and Robert D. Novak
-Ziegler
-Report on a Columbia Broadcasting System [CBS] special
-Dan Rather
-[Arnold] Eric Sevareid
-Ziegler
-Walter L. Cronkite, Jr.
-Shanghai Communiqué
-John F. Kennedy’s administration
-Rhetoric
-Relationship with the present administration
-New York Times
-PRC trip
-Significance

PRC
-Mrs. Nixon’s talk with Chou En-lai
-Pandas
-Washington National Zoo
-Environment
-Previous animals given as state gifts
-Musk oxen
-Director [Theodore H. Reed]

Stephen B. Bull entered at an unknown time after 10:22 am.

The President’s schedule
-Ziegler
 16

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Aug-01)
Conv. No. 683-4 (cont.)

-Meeting with the President

Bull left at an unknown time before 11:10 am.

Pandas
-Washington National Zoo
-Smithsonian Institution
-National Park Service
-San Diego
-St. Louis
-Bronx

Ziegler entered at 11:10 am.

Current press briefing
-Gerald L. Warren
-News story
-Washington National Zoo announcement
-Pandas
-Mrs. Nixon
-Selection process
-Other zoos
-Gift to the nation
-Environment of Washington, DC
-Timing of announcement
-Washington Star editorial
-Musk oxen
-Reed

Ziegler left at 11:12 am.

-Morning press briefing
-Haldeman’s view
-Panda story
-Washington Star
-Washington Post
-Crosby S. Noyes
-Newbold Noyes

The President talked with the White House operator at an unknown time between 11:12 am and
11:16 am.
 17

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Aug-01)
Conv. No. 683-4 (cont.)

[Conversation No. 683-4A]

[See Conversation No. 21-49]

[End of telephone conversation]

The Washington Star
-Crosby Noyes
-Columnist
-Newbold Noyes
-Editor
-Crosby Noyes and Smith Hempstone, Jr.
-Compared to Los Angeles Time

Kissinger
-Schedule
-Forthcoming trip to Acapulco
-New York

Ziegler entered at an unknown time after 11:12 am

Pandas
-Washington National Zoo

Ziegler left at an unknown time before 11:16 am.

Pandas
-Chinese host explanation
-Mating habits
-Food
-Bamboo and sugar cane

Rogers
-Kissinger

The President talked with Crosby Noyes between 11:16 am and 11:21 am.

[Conversation No. 683-4B]

[See Conversation No. 21-50]

[End of telephone conversation]
 18

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Aug-01)
Conv. No. 683-4 (cont.)


Vietnam
-Troop withdrawal

Pandas
-Crosby Noyes
-Washington Star
-Mating habits
-Chicago
-Quantity outside China
-London
-Life span
-Compared to bears, dogs, cats and horses
-Mrs. Nixon’s role
-Haldeman’s forthcoming call to Stuart

Haldeman talked with the White House operator at an unknown time between 11:21 am and
11:25 am.

[Conversation No. 683-4C]

[See Conversation No. 21-51]

[End of telephone conversation]

Pandas
-Mrs. Nixon’s role

Rogers and Kissinger
-MacGregor

Bull [?] entered and left at an unknown time before 11:21 am.

Request for MacGregor to some to the Oval Office
-Dinner
-Leaders

Haldeman talked with Stuart between 11:21 am and 11:25 am.

[Conversation No. 683-4D]

[See Conversation No. 21-52]
 19

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Aug-01)
Conv. No. 683-4 (cont.)


Bull [?] entered at and left at an unknown time before 11:25 am.

MacGregor’s schedule

[End of telephone conversation]

MacGregor’s schedule

Kissinger and Rogers
-MacGregor
-Dinner

Kissinger entered at 11:25 am.

PRC
-Arthur K. Watson
-Meeting with the Chinese
-Press
-Two forthcoming ambassadorial meetings
-British recognition
-Peter G. Peterson and Flanigan
-Meeting with Kissinger

Cambodia
-Lon Nol
-Llewellyn E. (“Tommy”) Thompson, Jr.
-News summary
-US embassy cables
-Leaks
-State Department
-Emory C. Swank
-Jack N. Anderson
-Norodom Sihanouk [?]
-Thompson
-State Department
-Separate negotiations
-Sihanoukville
-Lon Nol
-Marshall Green
-Lon Nol
-Leaks
 20

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Aug-01)
Conv. No. 683-4 (cont.)

-Evans

PRC
-Taiwan, Republic of China
-Washington Daily News
-Taiwanese independence movement
-Chiang Kai-Shek
-Chinese
-Japanese
-Kissinger’s view
-New York Times editorial
-State Department papers
-Rogers
-Shanghai Communiqué
-US Support

Soviet trip
-Flanigan and Peterson
-Meeting with Kissinger
-Haldeman
-Trade
-Commerce Department
-Rogers
-Connally
-Flanigan

Kissinger’s schedule
-Acapulco

Busing
-Statement
-Leonard Garment
-Raymond K. Price, Jr.
-Domestic policy statements compared to foreign policy statements
-Chicago
-Blacks
-David Rockefeller
-Call to Kissinger

Press
-PRC trip coverage
-Kissinger’s schedule
 21

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Aug-01)
Conv. No. 683-4 (cont.)

-New York
-News summary
-ITT
-Announcements
-Strategic Arms Limitation Talks [SALT]
-Soviet summit
-PRC summit
-Berlin
-Biological weapons
-The PRC trip
-Television
-Rockefeller
-Kissinger’s dinner at Cote Basque Restaurant
-Unknown woman
-Head of programming, American Broadcasting Company
[ABC]
-Comments
-Wife
-People in restaurant
-Rockefeller
-Nelson A. Rockefeller
-Vice President of National Broadcasting Company [NBC],
[Herbert S. Schlosser]
-News summary
-Columns
-Agronsky’s show
-The PRC trip
-Sidey
-The President
-Notes
-Chou En-lai
-Kissinger
-Stewart Alsop column
-Rogers
-Kissinger’s previous telephone conversation with Alsop
-Secretary of State
-Ziegler
-Kraft
-Stewart Alsop
-Impact of columns

Kissinger
 22

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Aug-01)
Conv. No. 683-4 (cont.)

-Testimony
-Meetings with members of the House of Representatives and the Senate
-MacGregor
-Morgan
-State Department
-Senate
-Hugh Scott and Mansfield
-Senate Foreign Relations Committee
-John C. Stennis
-Fulbright
-Ford
-Albert
-Boggs
-Rogers’s testimony
-Motive
-Senate Foreign Relations Committee
-Number of meetings
-Armed Services Committee
-Dean Rusk
-Senate
-Rogers
-Previous briefing
-Fulbright
-Rogers’s testimony
-MacGregor

Kissinger left at 11:44 am.

Kissinger
-The President’s view
-Rogers

State Department
-Soviet trip
-Planning
-Haldeman’s call to Rogers
-McCloskey’s call

ITT case
-Columnists
-Richard G. Kleindienst
-Newsweek and Time
 23

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Aug-01)
Conv. No. 683-4 (cont.)

-Dita D. Beard
-Cleared to testify
-Ehrlichman
-Edmund S. Muskie
-Finance issue
-Maurice H. Stans
-Talk with Mitchell
-Contributions
-Reporting
-Mailing
-Hubert H. Humphrey
-Private committee for the reelection of the President
-According to the law


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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 9
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 17s ]


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 9

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Campaign contributions
-Mitchell
-Stans
-Reporting
-Timing
-Public relations people
-Stans
-Ziegler
-Muskie’s reporting schedule
-Stans
-Reporting
-Statement
-William L. Safire
-Stans
-Consistency
 24

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Aug-01)
Conv. No. 683-4 (cont.)

-Mitchell

ITT case
-Marlow W. Cook
-Executive session
-James O. Eastland
-Beard testimony


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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 10
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 38s ]


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 10

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Campaign contributions
-Reporting


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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 11
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 1m 41s ]


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 11

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Kissinger
-Schedule
-MacGregor
-Relationship with the State Department
-Rogers
 25

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Aug-01)
Conv. No. 683-4 (cont.)

-Meeting
-Morgan
-Rogers’s testimony
-Hays
-Rogers
-MacGregor’s dinner

MacGregor
-Dinners
-Democrats
-Press
-Social occasions
-Compared to Gridiron dinner

Campaign contributions
-Mitchell
-Favors
-Reporting
-Democrats

The President’s schedule
-Forthcoming meeting with Ronald S. Berman
-National Endowment for the Humanities [NEH]
-Haldeman’s view

White House staff
-Efforts
-News summary
-Balance needed
-Kissinger

Haldeman left at 12:01 pm.