Secret White House Tapes

908-24

About this recording

908-24
  • President Richard M. Nixon
  • UNKNOWN
  • Spiro T. Agnew
  • Kenneth R. Cole
  • Ronald L. Ziegler
May 1, 1973
Conversation No. 908-24

Date: May 1, 1973
Time: 4:16 pm - 5:10 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with an unknown man.

Spiro T. Agnew’s arrival

The President met with Agnew.

Watergate
-President’s previous Cabinet meeting
-President’s comments
-40-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2012)

Conversation No. 908-24 (cont’d)

-Charles H. Percy, Jr.

-Percy

-Elliot L. Richardson

-Agnew’s telephone call to H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman

-Grand jury investigation of Spiro T. Agnew

-President’s instructions to Haldeman

-J. Glenn Beall, Jr.

-George Beall

-Prosecutor

-Agnew’s possible statements

-Percy

-Agnew’s press conference, April 30

-Agnew’s possible statements

-Agnew, Ronald W. Reagan, and Nelson A. Rockefeller

-Agnew’s possible statements

-President with Dwight D. Eisenhower
-John D. Ehrlichman, Haldeman, and John N. Mitchell
-Agnew’s knowledge
-Assistance to President
-Press
-Previous attacks on press
-November 3, 1969 speech

-1976 election

-Possible press attacks on Agnew

-Agnew’s possible role in second term

-Effects on administration

-Mitchell’s indictment

-Haldeman’s telephone call to Agnew


Agnew
-Relationships
-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Possible role in administration
-Help

Wounded Knee incident
-Law and order
-41-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2012)

Conversation No. 908-24 (cont’d)


Watergate
-George H. W. Bush’s comments
-Anne L. Armstrong’s comments

Agnew
-Possible role in administration
-Foreign travel
-Vietnam War

Congressional relations
-Agnew’s role

-Percy

-Edward W. Brooke

-Support for administration

-Percy

-Barry M. Goldwater

-Charles McC. Mathias, Jr.

-Lowell P. Weicker, Jr.

-Agnew’s previous experience campaigning

-Ambition

-Publicity


Agnew
-Possible foreign travel
-Asia
-William P. Rogers

-Europe

-Middle East

-Egypt

-Peace settlement

-Interim agreement

-Suez Canal

-Egypt, Algeria, Israel

-Role in administration

-Intergovernmental relations

-Governors

-42-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. October-2012)

Conversation No. 908-24 (cont’d)

-Quell newspaper speculation


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

1976 election

-Edward M. (“Ted”) Kennedy

-Agnew, Reagan, and Rockefeller

-John B. Connally


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


Agnew
-Role in administration

-Kenneth R. Cole, Jr.

-Domestic policy

-Intergovernmental relations

-First 1968 campaign trip

-Press attacks

-President’s previous Cabinet meeting
-Haldeman, Ehrlichman
-President’s warning
-Credibility
-Impact on Agnew’s friends
-Role in administration

-Intergovernmental relations

-Cole

-Policy making

-Meetings

-Cabinet, National Security Council [NSC]
-Quadriad
-Wage, price control
-Political overtones in economy
-Access to President
-43-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. October-2012)

Conversation No. 908-24 (cont’d)

-Haldeman’s role
-Stephen B. Bull
-Role in administration

-Cole

-Domestic Council

-Vice Chairman

An unknown man entered at an unknown time after 4:16 pm.


Bull’s location

Cole

-Presence at present meeting


The unknown man left at an unknown time before 4:35 pm.

Agnew

-Role in administration

-Domestic Council
-Vice Chairman
-Cole’s role
-Senators, Congressmen
-Possible statements on Watergate
-Magazine reports on statements regarding President
-Agnew’s goals
-Richardson’s advice
-Ziegler
-Goldwater
-Statements by Percy and Goldwater
-Special Prosecutor
-Press treatment
-Cessation of statements
-Offer of assistance to President

Cole entered at 4:35 pm.
-44-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. October-2012)

Conversation No. 908-24 (cont’d)

Agnew
-Role in administration
-Domestic Council
-Vice Chairman
-Staff
-Intergovernmental relations
-Governors
-Quadriad meeting, May 2
-Bull
-Cole’s, Agnew’s attendance
-George P. Shultz
-Domestic Council
-Quadriad meetings
-Shultz

Cole left at 4:39 pm.

Watergate

-Possible statements by Agnew

-Integrity of President

-Duration

-Mitchell

-Public reaction

-Maurice H. Stans
-John W. Dean, III’s involvement
-Ehrlichman and Haldeman
-Guilt
-Ehrlichman and Haldeman
-Dean
-Ehrlichman and Robert L. Vesco
-Double standard
-International Telephone and Telegraph [ITT]
-Agnew
-Relations with press
-Cabinet
-Richard G. Kleindienst
-Mitchell
-45-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2012)

Conversation No. 908-24 (cont’d)

-Prosecution
-Richardson

-Appointment

-Support

-“Eastern establishment”

-Prospects for administration

-Ervin Committee

-Ehrlichman and Haldeman

-Mitchell

-Samuel J. Ervin, Jr.

-Publicity

-Statement regarding Haldeman

-Howard H. Baker, Jr.

-Agnew’s possible statements

-Cabinet

-Harold L. Ickes

-Agnew’s avoidance


President’s previous meeting with Willy Brandt

Berlin
-Future

US-Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR] relations
-Detente
-Soviet Jewry
-President’s meeting with Henry M. (“Scoop”) Jackson, Abraham A.
Ribicoff, Jacob K. Javits, and Agnew
-USSR position
-Diplomatic cable
-Accommodation
-Domestic affairs

Public relations
-Announcement
-Agnew’s Vice Chairmanship
-46-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. October-2012)

Conversation No. 908-24 (cont’d)

An unknown person entered at an unknown time after 4:39 pm.

Meeting with Ziegler

-Announcement


The unknown person left at an unknown time before 4:48 pm.

President’s previous meeting regarding Soviet Jewry
-Senators’ reaction
-Jackson’s constituency
-Candidacy for President
-US military aid for Israel
-“Hardline”
-Jews

Jews

-Political constituency

-Agnew

-Baltimore
-President
-Maintenance
-Soviet Jewry
-President’s meeting with Jewish leaders, April 19

Ziegler entered at 4:48 pm.

Agnew’s role in administration
-Domestic Council

-Cole

-Vice Chairman

-Intergovernmental relations
-Quadriad
-Announcement

Watergate
-Agnew’s possible statements
-President’s comments in previous Cabinet meeting
-47-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2012)

Conversation No. 908-24 (cont’d)

-Percy

-President’s instructions to Cabinet

-Richardson’s opinion

-Leonard Garment
-Special Prosecutor

-Percy’s statement

-Richardson

-Agnew’s previous statements

-Press coverage

-Time, Newsweek


President’s meeting with Agnew
-Agnew’s role in administration
-Vice Chairman of Domestic Council
-Governors, mayors, county officials
-Announcement

Previous Cabinet meeting
-Announcement
-Rogers C. B. Morton’s health

Ziegler’s morale

Agnew’s morale
-President’s speech

Watergate
-Departures of Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Compared with Sherman Adams and Eisenhower
-Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] guards in office
-President’s reaction
-William P. Rogers
-Memorandum

-Haldeman’s and Ehrlichman’s papers

-Orders

-Press reports

-Haldeman’s and Ehrlichman’s wishes

-48-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2012)

Conversation No. 908-24 (cont’d)

-Richardson, William D. Ruckelshaus, and Leonard Garment
-Cosmetics, perceptions
-President’s reaction
-President’s statement in Cabinet meeting
-Richardson
-Press story

-Garment

-United Press International [UPI]

-Handling of papers

-President’s meeting with Agnew

-Possible relations with press

-Avoidance of confrontation

-Maryland Press Association

-Agnew’s conversation with William S. White
-Agnew

-Possible statements on Watergate

-Previous statement on Watergate

-Relations with press
-Tone of White House

-White House staff

-Press

-Haldeman and Ehrlichman

-Use of offices

-Dean

-Treatment by White House


Ash

Shultz

Agnew’s role in administration
-Quadriad meeting
-NSC, Congressional leaders meetings
-Press announcement
-Domestic Council
-Cole
-49-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. October-2012)

Conversation No. 908-24 (cont’d)

Ziegler left at an unknown time before 5:10 pm.


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

Agnew’s meeting with Republicans

-Arkansas

-Pennsylvania

-Liberal contingent
-Clifford L. Jones
-Sarah Ann (“Sally”) Stauffer
-Thomas B. McCabe

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


Eastern liberals
-President’s counterattack
-New York-Washington, DC axis
-People’s Republic of China [PRC], USSR, Vietnam War
-Bombing in Cambodia

-Legal justification

-Violations


President’s decisions

-Haiphong harbor


Watergate

-Agnew’s possible statements

-Press


Agnew

-Political ambitions


President’s, Agnew’s schedules
-50-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. October-2012)

Conversation No. 908-24 (cont’d)

-Executive Office Building [EOB]

The President and Agnew left at 5:10 pm.
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908-24

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