867–40

Conversation No. 867-40

Date: March 2, 1973
Time: Unknown between 5:52 pm and 6:40 pm
Location: Oval Office

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

Ambassadors' murders in Sudan
-Release of Sirhan Sirhan
-Pressure on Jordan
-Dangers

Terrorism
-Origins
-Riots
-Black Panthers
-US condemnation

Charles L. Ill
-Meeting with the President
-Stephen B. Bull
-Relations with Roy L. Ash
-John W. Warner, Elliot L. Richardson
-Firing
-White House staff
-Frederick C. Malek, Ash

An unknown man entered at an unknown time after 5:52 pm.

Refreshment

The unknown man left at an unknown time before 6:30 pm.

Personnel management
-Departments
- Malek, Ash
-White House staff
-Discontent in department
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-2010)
Conversation No. 867-40 (cont’d)


Ambassadorial appointments
-Kenneth B. Keating
-John D. Lodge
-Change of posts
-[First name unknown] Reynolds
-Robert H. Finch
-Conflict of interest
-Latin American country
-Columbia
-Robert C. Hill
-Pakistan
-Henry A. Kissinger
-Philip K. Crowe
-John M. Olin's recommendation
-Maurice H. Stans
-Denmark [Norway]
-Retention
-State Department
-Knowledge of Salmon
-Move to Denmark
-Norway
-Age
-Norway, Sweden
-[First name unknown] Black [?], [unintelligible name]
-Delay
-Haldeman's telephone call to Olin
-Stans

Olin
-Background
-Spencer Olin
-Brother
-Residences
-Hunting, fishing

Ambassadorial appointments
-Crowe
-Charles A. Meyer
-Satisfaction with job
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-2010)
Conversation No. 867-40 (cont’d)


-Performance in job
-Position with Sears

Appointees
-Desire to stay in Washington
-Meyer
-New society

White House staff
-Dinners
-Service
-Length of time
-Governors conference dinner
-Delays


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[Begin segment reviewed under deed of gift]

-Thelma C. (‘Pat”) Nixon
-Julie Nixon Eisenhower
-Speed of service

[End segment reviewed under deed of gift]
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Swearing-ins
-Haldeman’s conversation with Bull
-President's attendance
-Importance
-Head of Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC]
-President's commitments
-William J. Casey
-Bradford Cook [SEC]
-George Cook
-Cabinet-level appointees

Bull entered at an unknown time after 5:52 pm.
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-2010)
Conversation No. 867-40 (cont’d)



Cook's swearing-in
-President's commitment
-Precedent
-Casey

Bull left at an unknown time before 6:30 pm.

Swearing-ins
-President's commitment
-Source
-Bernard J. (“Bunny”) Lasker

Bull entered at an unknown time after 5:52 pm.

-Bradford Cook
-Rose Mary Woods
-Arrangements
-President's commitment
-President's attendance
-Cabinet level
-Bradford Cook
-Woods
-George Cook
-Lasker
-Attendance
-President's attendance

Bull left at an unknown time before 6:30 pm.

Ambassadors

Charles Ill
-Meeting with President
-Conflict with Ash
-Litton industries
-Personnel management
-Departments, White House
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-2010)
Conversation No. 867-40 (cont’d)


John W. Warner
-Meeting with Carlos C. Villarreal
-Mexican-American
-US Naval Academy
-Navy Department job
-Assistant secretary
-President’s support
-Agency for International Development [AID]
-Villarreal’s appearance
-Surname

James M. Beggs
-Mrs. Beggs
-Retention by administration
-Job performance
-Wife
-New job at Hughes Aircraft
-Electronic Module Corporation
-Maryland
-Personality
-Job performance
-Wife
-Work for campaign
-Dynamism

Reorganization
“Blood on the floor”
-Improvements
-Problems
-Dismissal compared to transfer, promotion

Edwin S. Cohen
-Performance

Lawrence H. Silberman
-Wife
-Work for campaign
-New job
-Judgeship
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-2010)
Conversation No. 867-40 (cont’d)


-New law firm
-Sevetow and Johnson [?]


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[Begin segment reviewed under deed of gift]

John B. Connally
-Party switch
-President’s press conference
-Meeting with Jeb S. Magruder
-George Christian
-Houston
-Press agent
-Treasury Department
-Campaign organization
-George Christian
-Statements
-Dealings with Richard G. Kleindienst
-Republican delegates
-Discussions with President

Republicans
-Leadership
-President’s opinion
-Gerald R. Ford, Leslie C. Arends
-Dominick V. Daniels [?]
-Bryce N. Harlow, Harry S. Dent, Ford, Arends
-Work with Congressional Democrats
President’s dealings with Congressional Republicans
-Democratic crossovers
-Problems
-Committee seniority
-Ford
-Harlow
-Connally switch
-Impact
-Establishment
-Spiro T. Agnew’s constituency
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-2010)
Conversation No. 867-40 (cont’d)


-Presidential ambitions

[End segment reviewed under deed of gift]
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Ronald L Ziegler entered at 6:30 pm.

Murder of ambassadors in Sudan
-Plane to pick up bodies
-Families
-Release of bodies
-Delays
-Remaining hostages
-Jordan
-William B Macomber, Jr.
-Travel
-Presidential plane
-Families
-Bodies

Confirmation of deaths
-US statement
-Reports
-Sudan government
-Radio broadcasts
-US embassy
-Saudi Arabia’s ambassador
-Telephone conversation to Sudan’s interior minister

Haldeman talked with an unknown person at an unknown time between 6:30 pm and 6:32 pm.

[Conversation No. 367-40a]

Presidential plane
-Transportation for ambassadors’ families, bodies
-Macomber

Draft statement
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-2010)
Conversation No. 867-40 (cont’d)


-Condolence, outrage
-Delivery
-President

Ziegler left at 6:32 pm.

Foreign service personnel
-Deaths
-Ambassador, charges d’ affaires, Agency for International Development
[AID] official

Connally
-Intelligence
-Dealings with Jews
-Connally's statement about Jews

Press relations
-Ziegler
-1972 election
-Amount
-President's schedule
-Number of events

President's schedule
-Florida
-California
-Working trip
-Florida
-Date
-Weather
-Date
-Return
-Necessity of trip
-California

Press relations
-Conferences in Oval Office
-Waste of time
-Conferences
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-2010)
Conversation No. 867-40 (cont’d)


-Television [TV]
-Frequency
-Questions
-President’s press conference
-Questions
-Domestic compared to foreign topics
-Watergate
-L[ouis] Patrick Gray
-Number
-International and domestic economic issues
-Wage-price guidelines
-Dollar devaluation
-POWs
-Vietnam settlement
-Cease-fire
-Sudan incident
-Aid to North Vietnam
-Conferences
-Frequency
-TV
-Schedule
-California meeting with Nguyen Van Thieu


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[Begin segment reviewed under deed of gift]

Connally
-Switch to Republican Party
-Impact
-Compared to Alfred E. Smith
-Presidential campaign
-Age
-Endorsement of Herbert C. Hoover
-Impact
-Connally’s age
-Texas constituency
-Marvin Watson
Regular Republicans
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-2010)
Conversation No. 867-40 (cont’d)


-Agnew

[End of segment reviewed under deed of gift]
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Agnew
-Campaign for president
-Desire
-Abilities
-Performance in office
-King compared to prime minister metaphor
-Assistance for assignment

Capt. Jeremiah A. Denton, Jr.
-POW
-Letter to President
-Physical difficulties in captivity
-Opinion about US
-Softness
-Press reception
-Live TV

POWs
-Critics of the war
-Unnamed sergeant
-Jew
-Youth hippie
-Exception to rule
-Majority
-Officers
-Stories of adversity
-December 1972 bombing of North Vietnam
-Reaction
-Support for President
-Public reaction at home compared with POWs

Press relations
-Conferences in Oval Office
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-2010)
Conversation No. 867-40 (cont’d)


-Conferences
-TV
-Power of medium
-POWs
-Atmosphere
-TV cameras, microphones
-Podium
-Compared to Oval Office
-Established correspondents

Attendance at formal social functions
-White House Correspondent’s, Gridiron dinners
-Haldeman
-President
-Cabinet
-Multiple functions
-George P. Shultz, Elliot L. Richardson
-Golda Meir state dinner

Shultz
-Conversation with Connally
-Attendance at White House functions
-Frequency

Ziegler entered at an unknown time after 6:32 pm.

Macomber
-Flight to Sudan
-Aircraft
-Size
-Return with officials’ bodies
-State Department
-President’s orders

Sudan
-Report from US ambassador
-Belgian charge d’ affaires
-Death of US diplomat
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-2010)
Conversation No. 867-40 (cont’d)


Ziegler left at an unknown time before 6:40 pm.

Deaths of two diplomats
-Reasons
-President's statement on blackmail
-Sirhan Sirhan
-President’s statement
-Public opinion

Press conferences
-Frequency

Newsweek article
-Watergate
-Absence of questions
-Interview with John N. Mitchell
-Background sources

News magazines
-Impact
-Newsweek, Time, U.S. News and World Report article

Zielger entered at an unknown time after 6:32 pm.

State Department
-Flags at half mast
-President’s order
-All federal agencies
-All State Department installations
-White House flag, State Department, embassies
-President's order
-White House flag
-Clement E. Conger

Ziegler left at an unknown time before 6:40 pm.

News magazines
-Impact
-Washington, DC compared to general populace as readership
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-2010)
Conversation No. 867-40 (cont’d)


-U.S. News and World Reports
-John D. Ehrlichman's interview
-Readership
-Impact
-Haldeman's interview
-Impact
-People compared with programs
-Public interest

Ezra Solomon
-Departure
-Meeting with Council of Economic Advisors [CEA]
-Breakfast

Frank J. Shakespeare’s note to Haldeman
-William S. Paley
-Contact with White House
-Charles W. Colson
-Haldeman’s role
-William J. Baroody, Jr.’s role

Haldeman left at 6:40 pm.