Secret White House Tapes

919-017b

About this recording

919-017a
  • President Richard M. Nixon
  • John B. Connally
May 16, 1973
Conversation No. 919-17

Date: May 16, 1973
Time: 10:31 am - 11:35 am
Location: Oval Office

The President met with John B. Connally.

Connally’s schedule

White House social affairs
-Forthcoming Prisoners of War [POW] dinner

-Structure under construction

-Attendees

-Wives, mothers

President’s schedule

-Armed Forces Day

-POWs

-Dallas

-President’s need for travel

-20-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. September-2012)

Conversation No. 919-17 (cont’d)

-Georges J. R. Pompidou
-Iceland
-Bob [Robert H. Abplanalp or Leslie T. (“Bob”) Hope?]
-Golf
-Bahamas


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

Golf

-President’s and Connally’s activities

-Regularity of playing

-Frustrations

-Houston

-Connally’s ranch [?]


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


President’s schedule
-Dallas visit

-Golf

-Friends

-Invitation

-Fairmont Hotel

-Private residence

-United States Secret Service [USSS]
-Connally’s ranch
-San Antonio

Connally
-Conversation with Alexander M. Haig, Jr. and Roy L. Ash
-Conversation with George P. Shultz
-White House staff
-Ehrlichman and Haldeman
-21-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. September-2012)

Conversation No. 919-17 (cont’d)

-Possible role in administration
-State Department

-Haig

-President’s plan

-Delay


US foreign policy
-Forthcoming Soviet summit
-Agreement on the Prevention of Nuclear War
-State Department’s knowledge
-Great Britain’s approval
-People’s Republic of China [PRC] approval
-Henry A. Kissinger, Haig [?]
-Edward R. G. Heath [?]

-Chou En-lai

-Strategic Arms Limitation Talks [SALT]

-Middle East peace negotiations

-General principles
-Israel
-US pressure
-Egypt
-Soviet Union pressure
-Interim settlement

-Kissinger’s meeting with Le Duc Tho

-Kissinger’s meeting with Hafiz Ismail [?]

-Soviet summit

-Public relations [PR]
-Secretary of State

-Kissinger

-William P. Rogers

-Decency, strength
-Resignation
-Trip to Latin America
-Soviet summit
-Andrei A. Gromyko
-Agreements
-Middle East
-22-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. September-2012)

Conversation No. 919-17 (cont’d)

-Soviet summit
-Preparations
-Leonid I. Brezhnev’s meeting with President
-President’s visit to Soviet Union

-San Clemente

-Key Biscayne

-Camp David

-”Spirit of Yalta”

-Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston S. Churchill, Josef V.
Stalin
-President’s strategy

-Middle East, Southeast Asia

-Arms race

-Impact of Watergate

-Secretary of State
-Rogers’s resignation
-Kissinger’s role
-Knowledge

-European summit

-October

-Difficulty

-Replacement

-Timing

-Role compared to National Security Council [NSC]

-Gen, Brent G. Scowcroft

-Replacement

-Timing

-European summit

-Kissinger’s role

-Connally’s appointment

-Timing

-Southeast Asia

-Soviet summit

-Europe

-Kissinger’s role

-John F. Dulles’s role with Dwight D. Eisenhower

-Timing and importance of change

-23-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. September-2012)

Conversation No. 919-17 (cont’d)

-Dr. David K. E. Bruce
-Age
-PRC liaison post
-Health
-Harry F. Byrd, Jr.

-Connally

-Nelson A. Rockefeller

-Ronald W. Reagan

-President’s meeting with Hailie Selassie

-Preparation

Connally’s trip to Soviet Union
-Timing
-Attendance at Soviet summit
-Kissinger [?]
-Signal

-Timing, length

-Meeting with Brezhnev

-Soviet summit

-Brezhnev
-Hunting trip

-Connally

-Boar

-YO Ranch

-Exotic game

-Texas home

-San Clemente
-Demonstrations
-Cities
-Hungarian-Americans, Polish-Americans
-Texas Hill Country for hunting trip

-Secretary of State

-Timing of change

-Problems

-Defense budget

-Foreign aid

-Trade bill

-24-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. September-2012)

Conversation No. 919-17 (cont’d)

-Balance of payments

-State Department and Defense Department

-Leadership


White House staff
-Need for change

-John J. McCloy

-Bruce

-Bryce N. Harlow

-David Packard

-Melvin R. Laird

-John W. Byrnes

-William E. Timmons

-Robert C. Hill
-Defense Department
-Byrnes

-Children

-Honesty

-Finances

-Clark MacGregor [?]
-Work with Committee to Re-elect the President [CRP]
-Ronald L. Ziegler

-Press relations

-Possible replacement

-Gerald L. Warren
-Herbert G. Klein
-George Christian

Press relations
-President’s press conferences
-Timing
-Grand jury indictments
-Questions and answers [Q&A]
-President’s openness
-Secret negotiations

Personnel management and appointments
-25-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. September-2012)

Conversation No. 919-17 (cont’d)

-Ziegler

-Intelligence, loyalty, honesty

-Statements regarding John W. Dean, III report

-Usefulness

-Credibility as press officer

-Compared with other staff members

-Conversation with Connally

-Likabilty

-Cabinet

-Ash

-Limitations

-Shultz

-Communication skills

-Compared with William E. Simon

-Loyalty, competence

-Possible changes

-Dr. James R. Schlesinger

-Defense Department

-Earl L. Butz

-Rogers C. B. Morton

-Peter J. Brennan

-James T. Lynn

-Caspar W. (“Cap”) Weinberger

-Elliot L. Richardson

-Possible departure

-Schlesinger

-White House staff

-Press office, Congressional liaison office

-Byrnes

-Responsibilities

-Council of Economic Advisors [CEA]

-Herbert G. Stein

National economy
-President’s meeting with Shultz
-Possible freeze
-Import surcharge
-26-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. September-2012)

Conversation No. 919-17 (cont’d)

-International reaction

-Balance of payments

-US exports

-Bilateral agreements
-South America
-Venezuela [?]
-Canada
-Taiwan
-Japan
-Effect on US jobs
-Appeal to labor

-Tax legislation

-Multinational corporations

-Labor unions

-Import surcharge

-Nationalism

-Possible freeze

-Effects of conclusion

-Inflation

-Unemployment


Personnel management and appointments
-Shultz
-Cabinet
-Communication
-Spiro T. Agnew

-Domestic Council leadership

-Ability

-Cabinet meeting

-Connally’s advice

-Ash’s follow-up

-Personnel problems
-Clearance
-Federal Bureau of Investigations [FBI] record
-Contacts with President
-27-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. September-2012)

Conversation No. 919-17 (cont’d)

Congressional relations
-President’s meetings with leadership
-Bipartisan election commission
-President’s conversation with Gerald R. Ford, Hugh Scott
-Timmons
-Congressional liaison office in White House
-Perceptions of liaison’s stature

-Timmons

-Byrnes


Ziegler
-Role on White House staff
-Press conferences
-Frequency

-Conversation with President

-Replacement


Watergate
-Defined
-Washington, DC’s feelings regarding White House staff
-Press actions
-Indictments
-Mitchell
-John D. Ehrlichman and H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman
-John N. Mitchell, Jeb Stuart Magruder
-Seale Rule
-President’s papers

-White House cooperation

-President’s response

-Grand jury indictments

-President’s possible resignation

-Impeachment

-White House response

-Rebuild confidence

Personnel management
-Appointments
-28-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. September-2012)

Conversation No. 919-17 (cont’d)

-Harlow, Clark MacGregor, and George H. W. Bush’s recommendations
-Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] chairman[?]
-G. Bradford Cook

-Resignation

-Robert L. Vesco case

-Replacement

-Recommendations

-Connally

-Republican machinery

-Resignations

-Robert C. Seamans, Jr.

-Air Force
-Howard (“Bo”) Calloway
-Robert F. Froehlke
-Second term
-Private sector
-Experience
-White House favors
-Effect of Vesco case
-White House staff role

-Operations compared to policy

-Compared to Cabinet, agencies

-President’s responsibility

-Domestic Council

-Operations
-Compared to policy
-Dams
-Political patronage
-Shultz, Morton, Schlesinger, and Byrnes

-Cabinet officers

-President’s culpability


President’s possible resignation
-Agnew

Watergate
-Connally’s conversation with Haig
-29-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. September-2012)

Conversation No. 919-17 (cont’d)

-Daniel Ellsberg
-Wiretaps
-Connally’s conversation with unknown man
-Samuel J. Ervin, Jr.
-Hearings
-Pace
-President’s reaction
-Possible release of information

-Lyndon B. Johnson

-J. Edgar Hoover

-Destruction of records
-United States Secret Service [USSS]
-John F. Kennedy
-Removal of Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] files
-Marvin Watson
-Johnson’s files
-Lyndon B. Johnson Library
-Criticism
-President’s possible response
-Press irresponsibility
-Compared with McCarthyism

-Charges concerning President’s San Clemente property

-Los Angeles Times headline

-Connally’s law firm

-Gulf Resources

-Bob Adams[?]

-President’s possible response
-Effect of forthcoming Soviet summit
-Indictments
-Special Prosecutor
-Warren M. Christopher

-Partnership

-Edward M. (“Ted”) Kennedy and John V. Tunney
-Party for Bob Pressler
-1976 campaign
-Carmine Bellino
-Christopher
-30-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. September-2012)

Conversation No. 919-17 (cont’d)

-Relationship to Edward M. (“Ted”) Kennedy
-Tunney
-Information gathering on the President’s opponents
-FBI, USSS

-Connally’s mood


Connally left at 11:35 am.
Secret White House Tapes |

919-017b

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