919-027a

Conversation No. 919-27

Date: May 16, 1973
Time: 12:34 pm - 1:25 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Alexander M. Haig, Jr.

G. Bradford Cook

-Resignation


Watergate
-Elliot L. Richardson

-Possible contact with President

-Possible replacement by James T. Lynn

-Confirmation

-Ervin Committee

 -43-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. September-2012)

Conversation No. 919-27 (cont’d)

-Grand jury
-Delay
-Collusion, conspiracy

Polls

-Albert E. Sindlinger

-President’s popularity

-Foreign policy
-Domestic policy
-Downward trend
-Watergate, economy
-Sindlinger
-Watergate
-George H. Gallup

Watergate
-Confidence
-Polls
-President’s previous conversation with John B. Connally
-White House staff changes

An unknown man entered at an unknown time after 12:34 pm.

Ronald L. Ziegler’s press conference

-Leonard Garment

-Availability to President


The unknown man left at an unknown time before 1:25 pm.

Press relations

-Ziegler

-Frequency of press briefings
-Issues briefings
-President’s role
-Indictments

Watergate
 -44-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. September-2012)

Conversation No. 919-27 (cont’d)

-Effect on administration

-Administration’s response


White House staff
-Changes

-Connally

-John W. Byrnes

-Deputy for Haig

-Press secretary replacement

-Ziegler

-Haig’s role

-Public relations [PR]

-Patrick J. Buchanan and Raymond K. Price, Jr.

-Ziegler

-Possible replacement

-Robert J. McCloskey

-Loyalty, capabilities

-Southeast Asia policy
-Support for President
-Liability
-Compared with Henry A. Kissinger, Haig

Watergate
-H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman
-Resignations
-Lt. Gen. Vernon A. Walters’s testimony
-Walters’s memoranda of conversation [memcons]

-William E. Colby’s possible testimony

-Richard M. Helms

-Dr. James R. Schlesinger

-Colby

Personnel management and appointments
-Schlesinger
-Richardson
-Confirmation
-Washington Post editorial
 -45-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. September-2012)

Conversation No. 919-27 (cont’d)


Congressional relations
-Senate resolution
-Funds for Indochina

Watergate
-White House response

-Connally’s view

-Solid decision making

-President’s appointments

-Congress

William E. Timmons
-Congressional liaison office
-Weakness
-Possible replacement

-Byrnes

-Bryce N. Harlow

-Financial situation
-Retirement
-Clark MacGregor
-Investigation
-George H. W. Bush
-Republican National Committee [RNC]

Spiro T. Agnew
-Attendance at Cabinet meeting
-Reaction to Connally
-Statement [?]

-Leak

-Support for President

-Duties
-Compared to Connally
-Cabinet
-National Security Council [NSC]
-Senate
-Compared to President as Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Vice President
 -46-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. September-2012)

Conversation No. 919-27 (cont’d)

-Congress

-Domestic Council

-Reporting

-Forthcoming conversation with Haig


Vietnam
-Kissinger’s conversation with President

-Peace negotiations

-Congress

-Impeachment

-Bombing
-Compared to mining

-Armed Services Committee vote

-People’s Republic of China [PRC]

-Relations with United States

Poll
-Support for the President
-National reaction [to Watergate ?]
-Revulsion

-Marxist dialectic


Watergate
-J. Fred Buzhardt, Jr.
-Forthcoming call to Charles W. Colson

-Colson

-Executive privilege

-Grand jury

-Trials

-Ervin Committee

-Indictments

-Lawyers for Haldeman and Ehrlichman

-Buzhardt


Agnew
-Reaction to Connally
 -47-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. September-2012)

Conversation No. 919-27 (cont’d)

Connally’s schedule
-Bill Kintner

Declassification
-Bay of Pigs, Ngo Dinh Diem, Lebanon
-Effect on foreign policy

Watergate
-Wiretaps

-William D. Ruckelshaus

-John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson administrations

-United States Secret Service [USSS]
-William C. Sullivan’s statement
-News coverage
-Ziegler
-New York Times
-Federal Bureau of Investigations [FBI] leaks

FBI director
-Jerry H. Jones’s forthcoming meeting with Haig
-Ruckelshaus
-Herbert J. Miller, Jr., head of Robert F. Kennedy’s criminal investigations
division

-Republican

-Service

-Latin America

-Haig

-Criminal charges

-Lyndon B. Johnson

-Robert D. (“Bobby”) Baker

-John F. Kennedy’s assassination
-Ticket
-Johnson’s knowledge
-1964 election
-Robert F. Kennedy’s problem

Watergate
 -48-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. September-2012)

Conversation No. 919-27 (cont’d)

-Compared to Bobby Baker

-Cook


FBI director
-Miller
-Haig’s list

-Requirements

-Miller

-Republican

-John F. Kennedy administration

-Legal career

-Toughness, dedication


Watergate
-Buzhardt
-John W. Dean, III’s documents
-Defense Department visit
-Melvin R. Laird
-Dean
-Documents

-Possible release

-National security

-Criminal liability

-White House response

-Ronald L. Ziegler


Connally
-Previous meeting with President
-Attitude
-Beliefs regarding White House staff
-Motive
-Richardson’s confirmation
-Dislike
-Laird
-Dislike

-Lockheed

-Monetary issues

 -49-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. September-2012)

Conversation No. 919-27 (cont’d)

-Pay ceiling

Watergate
-Press briefings

-Ziegler

-Garment’s role

-LaCosta


Personnel management and appointments
-Ziegler

-Value

-Haig’s deputy

-Buzhardt

-Possible role

-Watergate

-Counsel

-Work with Garment

-Domestic Council
-Kenneth R. Cole, Jr.
-Staff
-Ehrlichman
-Relations with George P. Shultz and Roy L. Ash
-Need for in-house intellectual

-Price and Buchanan

-Policy area

-Agnew

-Intellectual

-Compared to operational functions

-Intellectual’s role

-Public speaking

-Performance

-Cabinet

-Shultz

-Time commitment

-Connally

-Possible Cabinet position

-Timing after Soviet summit

 -50-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. September-2012)

Conversation No. 919-27 (cont’d)

-Kissinger

-Secretary of State

-Connally

-Liabilities

-Democratic Party

-Kissinger

-Assets

-Haig’s experience

-Congressional testimony

-Soviet Union and People’s Republic of China [PRC] initiatives
-Kissinger

-Overseas trips

-Social engagements

-William P. Rogers’s resignation

-State Department morale

-Soviet summit

Nuclear agreements
-US concessions
-Interpretation
-President’s control
-Kissinger’s role
-Announcement
-State Department morale
-Rogers’s reaction
-Connally’s viewpoint
-Rogers’s resignation

-Willingness

-Kissinger

-Haig

-Connally

-Kissinger’s possible response


Presidential papers
-Haldeman
-President’s notes to Kissinger

Ziegler
 -51-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. September-2012)

Conversation No. 919-27 (cont’d)

-Duration of press briefing
-Garment

-Toughness

-Retention on staff

-Loyalty


Watergate
-Walters
-Testimony
-Confirmations of Schlesinger and Colby
-Memcons

Schlesinger
-Relations with Congress
-Selection as candidate
-Defense Secretary

-Ability

-Experience

-Knowledge

-Missile

Richardson
-Confirmation

-President’s support

-Conversation with President

-Conversation with Haig
-Ziegler

-Possible actions as Attorney General

-Liberalism

-Judicial appointments

-FBI director

- President’s prerogative

-Haig


Watergate
-Cook
-Maurice H. Stans
 -52-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. September-2012)

Conversation No. 919-27 (cont’d)

-Texas

-Telephone call from Dean

-Dean

-Role

-Possible testimony

-Meeting with President, March 21
-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-President’s response
-President’s announcement, April 17

-Haldeman and Ehrlichman

-President’s opponents

-Shifts in national mood
-Great Society, social welfare, and permissiveness

Haig left at 1:25 pm.