Secret White House Tapes

891–1

About this recording

891–1
  • President Richard M. Nixon
  • H. R. Haldeman
  • Stephen B. Bull
April 9, 1973
Conversation No. 891-1

Date: April 9, 1973
Time: 9:47 pm - 11:49 am
Location: Oval Office

The President met with H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman. This recording began while the conversation
was in progress.

Unknown issue [abortion?]

-Public opinion

-Clergyman’s statement


President’s schedule

-John D. Ehrlichman

-Economy


Press relations

-Carl T. Rowan’s column

-President’s weekly reading

-Stanley S. Scott’s rebuttal
-Black
-Quality
-Poverty professionals
-Office of Economic Opportunity [OEO]
-Past abuses
-Community action programs
-Patrick J. Buchanan
-News summary

-Vietnam

-Cambodia and Laos

-Prisoners of War [POWs]

-Torture

-Jane Fonda


Watergate
-2-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. April-2011)

Conversation No. 891-1 (cont’d)

-National interest
-Forthcoming Senate hearings
-Network coverage
-John D. Ehrlichman
-Samuel J. Ervin, Jr.
-Time
-Press coverage
-New York Times, Washington Post
-New York Times story
-James W. McCord, Jr.

-Kenneth W. Parkinson

-Newsweek story

-John N. Mitchell

-New York Times story

-Fear of libel

-Possible suit
-Depositions

-Statute of limitations

-Haldeman’s suit against Lowell P. Weicker, Jr.

-Mitchell’s denial
-Charles W. Colson
-Ehrlichman
-Colson
-Lie detector test
-E. Howard Hunt, Jr.
-Bugging of Edward M. (“Ted”) Kennedy
-Haldeman’s conversation with John W. Dean, III
-Retention of attorneys

-Colson

-Jeb Stuart Magruder

-Dean

-Obligations

-President

-Nation

-Truth

-Dean’s response

-Appearance before grand jury

-3-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. April-2011)

Conversation No. 891-1 (cont’d)

-Fifth Amendment

-Imprisonment

-Position on White House staff


National news stories
-Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
-Rogers C. B. Morton
-L[ouis] Patrick Gray, III
-Government stories
-Government’s role

-White House

-Departments

-Ronald L. Ziegler

-White House correspondents

-President’s role

-John B. Connally’s theory

-Vacuum of leadership

-Popular interest

-Television [TV]

-Government stories

-Baseball

-Local news

-Fires, crime

-Weather


Watergate
-Popular interest
-Letter in Washington Post, April 9, 1973
-Bugging

-Illegality

-Harmlessness

-Sentences for burglars


White House taping system
-Access to recordings
-President’s uneasiness
-Duration
-4-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. April-2011)

Conversation No. 891-1 (cont’d)

-Value

-Memorandums for file

-Difficulty in using


[A transcript of the following portion of this conversation was prepared for Special Access 57,
Harry R. Haldeman v. Rowland G. Freeman, III, et al.,United States District Court for the
District of Columbia, Civil Action No. 80-325. The National Archives and Records
Administration produced this transcript. The National Archives does not guarantee its accuracy.
Please refer to the logging below.]

White House taping system

-Value

-Notes of participants

-Ehrlichman

-Haldeman’s practice

-Dictation

-Arthur F. Burns

-Memorandums for file

-Utility

-People who could listen

-Contents

-Henry A. Kissinger
-Rose Mary Woods
-Haldeman
-Kissinger

White House taping system

-Destruction

-End of taping

-Knowledge

-Operation

-United States Secret Service [USSS]

-Alexander P. Butterfield

Stephen B. Bull

-Copies

-Monitoring

-Instructions for Haldeman
-5-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. April-2011)

Conversation No. 891-1 (cont’d)

-San Clemente

-End of taping

-Destruction

-Excess of material

-Notes compared with tapes

-People’s Republic of China [PRC]

-Improved file keeping

-Journalists

-Earl Mazo [?]
-Destruction
-President’s future writing
-Tapes as burden
-Options for President
-Control of system

-Switch activation

-Foreign visitors

-Herman Kahn

-Operation
-Sound activation
-Switch activation
-Cabinet Room
-Bull

-Mayors

-Ehrlichman

-Instructions for Haldeman
-Destruction
-Dismantling
-Al Wong

-Destruction

-Erasure
-Storage
-Alternative recording system
-Oval Office

-Executive Office Building [EOB]

-Kissinger

-Lincoln Sitting Room

-Meetings to be recorded

-6-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. April-2011)

Conversation No. 891-1 (cont’d)

-Note taking

-Foreign visitors

-Possible leaks
-Pentagon papers
-USSS
-Duplication
-Selling
-Effects

-Radio broadcasts

-President’s swearing

-Instructions for Haldeman
-Destruction
-Cabinet Room
-Switches

-Bull

-Continued recording

-Material documenting past years
-1972
-Cambodia
-Utility
-Access
-Transcription
-Cambodia
-Kissinger’s notes
-Haldeman’s notes
-Retention of tapes
-Vietnam War
-May 8, 1972, decision

-1972 Moscow Summit

-November 1969

-Installation

-Retention of tapes

-Cambodia

-Connally

-Significant meetings

-May 8, 1972 decision

-EOB office
-7-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. April-2011)

Conversation No. 891-1 (cont’d)

-Installation
-May 8, 1972 decision
-EOB meetings
-Oval Office meetings
-Kissinger
-William P. Rogers, Melvin R. Laird
-Retention of tapes
-Cambodia
-Removal of system
-Storage of tapes
-Retention of tapes
-Cambodia
-May 8, 1972 decision
-December 1972 bombing
-Florida
-Camp David
-Dictabelts for President’s private file
-President’s notes
-Haldeman’s diary
-Dictation
-President’s dictations
-Value
-Comparisons with Henry Morgenthau, Jr. diaries
-Privacy
-Destruction
-Retention of tapes
-November 3, 1969 speech
-August 15, 1971 decision
-Camp David
-Cambodia
-May 8, 1972
-Vietnam settlement

-January 1973

-December 1972 bombing

-Kissinger

-India-Pakistan War of 1971
-8-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. April-2011)

Conversation No. 891-1 (cont’d)

Case against unknown woman
-Evidence
-Adm. Thomas H. Moorer
-Spying
-Joint Chiefs of Staff [JCS]

-Jack M. Anderson


Internal Revenue Service [IRS] commissioner
-Confimation

Watergate
-Colson

-David Shapiro

-Lie detector tests

-Alger Hiss and Whittaker Chambers

White House taping system
-Instructions for Haldeman
-Retention of tapes
-May 8, 1972 decision

-November 3, 1969 speech

-Laos

-Analysis of President’s daily diary

-Poll analysis
-Destruction

-Watergate

-Kissinger

-Rogers

-Utility

-1972 campaign


Watergate
-White house taping system
-EOB office
-President’s first impression of break-in
-Michael J. (“Mike”) Mansfield
-Ronald L. Ziegler’s initial statement
-9-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. April-2011)

Conversation No. 891-1 (cont’d)

-Ehrlichman’s report
-Dean’s concerns
-Coaching of witnesses
-Money
-Mitchell
-Grand jury
-Ervin Committee
-McCord’s testimony
-Parkinson’s response
-Press coverage
-Mitchell
-Richard A. Moore

-Dean

-Ehrlichman

-Magruder
-Lawyer
-Appearance before grand jury
-Perjury

-Dean

-US Attorney

-Editorials
-Dean and Magruder
-Procedures
-Hearsay

-Magruder, Dean, Mitchell, Haldeman

-Colson

-Colson
-Lie detector test
-Involvement
-Hunt

-G. Gordon Liddy

-Liddy
-Relationship with Magruder
-Procedures
-McCord

-Hunt

-Bernard L. Barker

-10-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. April-2011)

Conversation No. 891-1 (cont’d)

-Conversation with Dean after break-in

-Magruder

-Mitchell

-White House involvement

-Pressure from Magruder

-Break-in

-White House involvement

-Magruder

-Mitchell

-Magruder
-Lowell P. Weicker, Jr.’s story in Washington Post
-Robert U. (“Bob”) Woodward
-Haldeman and staff
-Responsibility

-White House response

-Haldeman’s possible statement on 1972 campaign

-Demonstrations organized by George S. McGovern supporters
-Campaign financing
-McGovern’s contributors
-Haldeman’s possible statement
-Press corps
-Haldeman’s involvement
-Dean’s involvement
-Dean’s conversation with Liddy
-President’s involvement
-Conversations with Haldeman

-Murray M. Chotiner

-[Horace] Chapman (“Chappie”) Rose

-Rose’s friend
-Editorials

-Mitchell

-Haldeman

-Weicker

-New York Times

-Haldeman

-Points of attack on Administration

-Wounded Knee incident

-11-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. April-2011)

Conversation No. 891-1 (cont’d)

-Donald H. Segretti

-Edward M. Kennedy’s interest

-Effect in Administration

-People to testify

-Dwight L. Chapin

-Haldeman

-Chapin

-Letter on Henry M. (“Scoop”) Jackson’s stationery
-Segretti
-Violent demonstrations against President
-San Francisco

-Republican Party Convention

-Editorials

-Methods

-Dean’s view

-Problem for prosecutor and Senate committee

-President’s knowledge of break-in

-Haldeman’s knowledge of break-in

-White House involvement in break-in

-Haldeman’s response

-Liddy

-Investigations

-Justice Department
-Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI]
-Dean
-Knowledge of Magruder’s involvement
-Moore
-Mitchell
-Possible statement

-Questions on involvement

-Allocation of money

-Haldeman’s involvement

-Magruder’s role

-Contact with Dean
-Role in campaign
-Frank Dale
-Dean’s testimony
-12-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. April-2011)

Conversation No. 891-1 (cont’d)

-Magruder
-Possible immunity
-Ehrlichman
-Trial
-Liddy’s possible testimony
-Prosecutors
-Ehrlichman
-Dean
-Motives
-Magruder
-Prosecutors
-McCord’s statements
-Interests
-Haldeman
-Colson
-Ehrlichman
-Dean
-Dean’s view

-Mitchell

-Future subpoenas

-Magruder

-Date book
-Meeting with Mitchell
-Paul L. O’Brien [?]

Bull entered at an unknown time after 9:47 am.

President’s schedule

-Filming

-Arrangements
-Timing
-Cameras
-EOB
-Diplomatic credentials
-National Security Council [NSC] meeting
-Kissinger
-Mutual and Balanced Force Reduction [MBFR]
-13-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. April-2011)

Conversation No. 891-1 (cont’d)

-Elliot L. Richardson, Adm. Thomas H. Moorer
-Testimony to Congress

-Economic meetings

-White House Correspondents dinner

-Ziegler

Bull left at an unknown time before 11:47 am.

Watergate

-Dean’s view

-Mitchell

-Magruder

-Mitchell

-Possible statement on responsibility
-Rejection of illegal activities
-Dean
-Magruder
-Possible testimony

-Magruder

-Magruder

-Haldeman

-Buchanan

-Colson

-Moore

-Mitchell

-Colson



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

[Dwight] David Eisenhower, II’s possible Congressional race

-Haldeman’s call to George H.W. Bush

-Julie Nixon Eisenhower

-Historical significance

-Residence

-Charles G. (“Bebe”) Rebozo
-14-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. April-2011)

Conversation No. 891-1 (cont’d)

-White House
-Appearance to public

-Kennedy

-John D. Rockefeller, IV

-Race for governor of West Virginia

-Bush’s role


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


Watergate
-Ervin Committee hearings

-Weicker

-Mitchell

-President’s conversation with Mansfield

-TV broadcast of hearings

-Dean

-Haldeman

-Length of hearings

-Connally’s line

-Scapegoat

-Administration’s position

-Magruder’s involvement

-Mitchell’s involvement


Haldeman left at 11:49 am.
Secret White House Tapes |

891–1

This recording is currently not available on millercenter.org. To listen to it, please email Mike Greco at mdg4u@virginia.edu

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