Secret White House Tapes

916–8

About this recording

916–8
  • President Richard M. Nixon
  • Ronald L. Ziegler
  • Rose Mary Woods
  • White House operator
  • Henry A. Kissinger
May 11, 1973
Conversation No. 916-8

Date: May 11, 1973
Time: 8:27 am - 9:16 am
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Ronald L. Ziegler.

Lead news stories
-4-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. August-2012)

Conversation No. 916-8 (cont’d)

-Watergate indictment

Rose Mary Woods entered at an unknown time after 8:27 am.


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[Begin segment reviewed under deed of gift]

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

[Personal returnable]

[Duration: 5 s ]


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

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President’s schedule
-Camp David
-Church
-Woods’s forthcoming telephone calls to Julie Nixon Eisenhower and Tricia Nixon
Cox

[End segment reviewed under deed of gift]
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Telephone calls

-John N. Mitchell

-Maurice H. Stans

-Kathleen (Carmody) Stans

-Devotion

-Ties to Herbert W. Kalmbach


Woods left at an unknown time before 8:30 am.
-5-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. August-2012)

Conversation No. 916-8 (cont’d)

Television [TV] appearances after Robert L. Vesco case indictments
-Stans
-Statement
-Mitchell’s statement

Forthcoming press briefing

-Gerald L. Warren

-Pending cases

-Mitchell, Stans

Julie Nixon Eisenhower’s TV appearance


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[Begin segment reviewed under deed of gift]

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2

[Personal returnable]

[Duration: 3 s ]


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[End segment reviewed under deed of gift]
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Watergate

-White House response

-John W. Chancellor’s

-Vesco

-Daniel Ellsberg

-Wiretaps

-Morton H. Halperin

-6-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. August-2012)

Conversation No. 916-8 (cont’d)

-W. Matthew Byrne’s forthcoming ruling
-Pentagon Papers
Leaks, 1969-1971

-Patrick J. Buchanan

-Ralph Nader and Ellsberg


The White House operator talked with the President at 8:30 am.

[Conversation No. 916-8A]

[Begin telephone conversation]

[See Conversation No. 45-220]

[End telephone conversation]

Watergate
-Press coverage
-President’s conversation with Charles G. (“Bebe”) Rebozo
-Press
-John W. Dean, III
-Ziegler’s conversation with Nicholas P. Thimmesch, May 10
-Thimmesch’s experience with Time
-Hugh S. Sidey
-1960 campaign
-Pierre Salinger
-John F. Kennedy’s statement regarding blacks
-Press standards
-News media’s opinion of the President
-Use of news media

-1968

-1970-1971

-Ervin Committee hearings

-Robert C. Odle, Jr.

-Lawrence M. Higby

-James W. McCord, Jr.

-Dean and Mitchell

-7-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. August-2012)

Conversation No. 916-8 (cont’d)

-Dean

-Comments, May 10

-President’s handling

-Ziegler’s conversation with Thimmesch

-President’s opponents in media

-Goal
-H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman, John D. Ehrlichman, Mitchell and Stans
-President
-President’s principles
-Katherine L. Graham and Thomas W. Braden
-Goals
-Chancellor
-Washington Post and New York Times
-Goal
-White House response
-Buchanan
-Raymond K. Price, Jr.
-Franklin R. Gannon
-Tex McCrary
-Goal

-President’s principles


The President talked with Henry A. Kissinger between 8:43 am and 8:44 am.

[Conversation No. 916-8B]

[Begin telephone conversation]

[See Conversation No. 45-221]

[End telephone conversation]

Watergate

-President’s opponents in news media

-Goal

-President’s principles

-Domestic policy

-8-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2012)

Conversation No. 916-8 (cont’d)

-Foreign policy
-President compared to others
-Edward M. (“Ted”) Kennedy
-John B. Connally
-Spiro T. Agnew
-Ziegler’s press briefing, May 10
-President’s foreign policy
-President’s opponents in news media
-Goal
-President
-White House reaction

-Ziegler’s forthcoming meeting with Alexander M. Haig, Jr.

-Buchanan

-Price

-Haldeman

-President’s reception for prisoners of war [POWs]

-Mitchell, Stans, L[ouis] Patrick Gray, III, Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and Charles W.
Colson

-Effect of allegations

-Actions

-Compared with Robert F. (“Bobby”) Kennedy and the President in 1960
and 1962
-Compared with Lyndon B. Johnson and Barry M. Goldwater
-J. Fred Buzhardt, Jr.
-Effect of allegations
-President
-Compared with John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Johnson, and Federal Bureau
of Investigation [FBI]
-The President’s conversation with J. Edgar Hoover
-Focus
-Wiretapping
-Colson, E. Howard Hunt, Jr. and G[eorge] Gordon Liddy
-Wiretapping
-Compared with previous administrations
-Campaign dirty tricks
-“Canuck Letter”
-Henry M. (“Scoop”) Jackson letter
-9-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2012)

Conversation No. 916-8 (cont’d)

-Cover-up

-White House response

-President’s orders for full disclosure

-Haldeman and Ehrlichman

-Ziegler’s conversation with Haldeman

-Richard A. Moore

-Donald H. Segretti

-Ehrlichman’s report

-Ellsberg case
-Possible wiretaps

-Hunt

-Hoover

-Halperin

-Wiretaps
-Ziegler’s forthcoming press briefing

-National security leaks

-FBI procedures

-Mitchell

-Files


Declassification
-Ngo Dinh Diem’s death

Watergate
-Gray

-Statement concerning conversation with the President

-Telephone conversation with the President

-Central Intelligence Agency [CIA]

-Telephone conversation with Ziegler

-Gray’s conversation with the President

-Gray’s meeting with the President

-President’s conversation with Dean, September 15, 1972

-Investigation

-Haldeman

-White House involvement

-Dean

-Documents

-10-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2012)

Conversation No. 916-8 (cont’d)

-Credibility

President’s forthcoming speech on election reform
-Blue ribbon commission
-Timing
-Hugh Scott
-President’s schedule
-Possible meeting with Congressional leaders

-Ziegler’s forthcoming conversation with Leonard Garment

-President’s schedule

-Bipartisan Congressional leaders
-William E. Timmons

-Preparation by Ziegler and Garment

-Scope of Election Reform Commission

-Financing
-Abusive practices

-Reform

-Violence

-Legal reform

-Leak by White House

-Draft by Garment

-Scope of Election Reform Commission

-Size of contributions

-George S. McGovern and teachers’ union

-President and milk producers

-Restrictions on unions, other groups


1972 presidential campaign
-Effect on election

Watergate
-White House response
-President’s efforts for full disclosure

-Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Moore and Ziegler

-Forthcoming news story

-Democrats’ campaign violations

-Haig

-11-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2012)

Conversation No. 916-8 (cont’d)

-Buchanan
-Violence
-Finances
-Robert J. Dole’s office
-White House staff replacements for Haldeman and Colson
-Ehrlichman’s report to the President, April 14
-President’s meeting with Richard G. Kleindienst, April 15
-Dean
-Mitchell

White House staff
-William J. Baroody, Jr.

-Office staff

-Function

-George H. W. Bush and Republican National Committee [RNC]
-Communications office

-Herbert G. Klein

-Manipulation of press

-Kenneth W. Clawson

-Thimmesch

-Timmons’s office

-Congressional relations

-Memoranda

-Veracity

-Communication strategy

-Timmons

-Departmental officials

-Goldwater


Press coverage

-Lead news stories

-Ziegler’s mood

-Henry A. Kissinger

-Soviet Summit announcement

-Traction

Ziegler left at 9:16 am.
-12-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. August-2012)
Secret White House Tapes |

916–8

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