919-032a

Conversation No. 919-32

Date: May 16, 1973
Time: 3:02 pm - 4:08 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with J. Fred Buzhardt, Jr. and Alexander M. Haig, Jr.

Watergate
-John W. Dean, III’s documents

-Huston Plan

-Memoranda [memos]

-H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman
-J. Edgar Hoover
-Phraseology
-Surreptitious entry
-Huston
-Illegality
-Hoover’s objections
-President’s approval
-Possible use by Ervin Committee
-Possible White House response
-Executive privilege
-Executive privilege
-Lt. Gen. Vernon A. Walters’s memoranda of conversation [memcons]
 -56-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. September-2012)

Conversation No. 919-32 (cont’d)

-Possible court order

-Dean’s documents

-Possible White House response
-National security
-Timing
-Patrick J. Buchanan
-William D. Ruckelshaus
-Implementation
-President’s meeting with Hoover
-Demonstrations
-Intelligence reports to Buzhardt
-Purpose
-Content
-Electronic surveillance


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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

[National security]

[Duration: 25 s ]



TARGETS


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

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Watergate
-Dean’s documents
-Content
-Agents
-Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI]
-Surreptitious entry
 -57-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. September-2012)

Conversation No. 919-32 (cont’d)



*****************************************************************


BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2

[National security]

[Duration: 3 s ]



TARGETS


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2

*****************************************************************


Watergate

-Dean’s documents

-Content

-President’s approval
-Haldeman’s memorandum
-Absence of President’s signature
-Impeachment and resignation
-Possible Congressional action
-Possible White House response
-Effect on Watergate
-Huston Plan

-President’s memory

-Ervin Committee

-Samuel J. Ervin, Jr.’s possible statements
-Interest in civil liberties
-Possible White House response
-National mood
-Cambodia
-Kent State University
-Break-in at Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office
 -58-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. September-2012)

Conversation No. 919-32 (cont’d)

-President’s role
-Duration of implementation
-Buzhardt’s conversation with Henry E. Petersen, May 16
-Robert C. Mardian
-Role
-Executive privilege
-Walters’s memcons
-Central Intelligence Agency [CIA] papers
-Attorney-client privilege
-Buzhardt’s conversation with Charles W. Colson, May 16
-Assistance to President
-John N. Mitchell’s possible testimony
-President’s knowledge of Democratic National Committee
[DNC] bugging
-Refutation of Mitchell
-Colson’s possible statements
-Effects
-Dean
-Huston Plan

-Possible White House response

-Relation to Watergate burglary



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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3

[National security]

[Duration: 24 s ]



SURVEILLANCE


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3

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 -59-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. September-2012)

Conversation No. 919-32 (cont’d)


Watergate
-Huston Plan

-Meeting in President’s office

-J. Edgar Hoover

-Restrictions

-Defense Intelligence Agency [DIA] [?]
-Implementation

-Tom C. Huston

-Haldeman

-Effect on Watergate burglary scandal

-Richard M. Helms

-Walters’s memcons

-Walters’s memcons
-Dean
-Accuracy of account of meeting with Ehrlichman, Haldeman, and
Richard M. Helms
-Cubans
-Bay of Pigs
-E. Howard Hunt, Jr.
-Huston Plan
-Helms, Hoover, Adm. Noel Gayler, and Donald V. Bennett
-Huston’s memo to Haldeman
-Phraseology
-Huston Plan
-Sol Lindenbaum’s referral to Dean
-Justice Department, Legal Counsel’s office
-Implementation
-Army

-White House response

-Lindenbaum’s referral, March 3, 1972

-Dean’s possible plan

-Dean’s documents
-Possessors
-John J. Sirica, Ervin, and District Attorney
-Possible return to White House
-Ervin
 -60-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. September-2012)

Conversation No. 919-32 (cont’d)

-National Security Agency [NSA]
-Possible White House response
-Huston Plan
-Relation to Watergate burglary
-Mitchell
-Hunt
-Product
-Distribution
-Internal Security Division at Justice Department
-Analysis group
-Mardian and FBI
-President’s and Haig’s knowledge
-Interagency group


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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4

[National security]

[Duration: 3 s ]



TARGETS


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4

*****************************************************************


Watergate
-Huston Plan
-Surreptitious entry into private residence
-Possible White House response
-Hoover’s opposition
 -61-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. September-2012)

Conversation No. 919-32 (cont’d)

*****************************************************************


BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5

[National security]

[Duration: 18 s ]



TARGETS


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5

*****************************************************************


Watergate

-Huston Plan

-Approval authority
-Mitchell
-Richard G. Kleindienst
-Delineation
-Buzhardt’s possible conversations
-Huston, Mardian, and William C. Sullivan
-Possible White House response
-Ervin
-Dean’s testimony
-Haldeman
-Television [TV] appearance by President
-1969 wiretaps
-New York Times telephone call to Kissinger
-Possible White House response
-White Paper
-Buchanan
-Ervin’s role
-Possible leak to press
-Possible White House response
-Burglary
 -62-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. September-2012)

Conversation No. 919-32 (cont’d)

-Lack of implementation
-Break-in of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office
-Egil (“Bud”) Krogh, Jr.
-President’s letter to Hoover
-Plumbers
-Possible White House response
-Press handling of story
-Compared to New York Times’s use of Pentagon Papers
-Compared to Congressional reports
-Dean’s documents
-Locations
-US Attorney office, Congress, bureaucracy
-Possible White House response
-Press handling of story
-Huston Plan
-Hoover’s demurrers
-FBI role
-Tapping
-Breaking and entering
-Central Intelligence Agency [CIA] role


*****************************************************************


BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 6

[National security]

[Duration: 38 s ]



TARGETS


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 6

*****************************************************************
 -63-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. September-2012)

Conversation No. 919-32 (cont’d)

Watergate

-Dean’s documents

-Buzhardt’s forthcoming conversations
-Haldeman
-Huston
-Sullivan
-Mardian

President’s schedule

-George P. Shultz

-Message problems [?]


Watergate

-Huston Plan

-Justification

-Ervin

-1968 riots
-Washington, DC
-Use of military to gather intelligence

Buzhardt left at 3:52 pm.

Watergate
-Dean’s documents
-Possible White House response
-Executive privilege
-Application of executive privilege to Walters’s documents
-Possible White House response

-Dean’s documents

-Krogh

-Walters

-Walters
-Conversation with Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Possible White House response
-Krogh’s operation
-Ehrlichman’s statement

-Huston Plan

 -64-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. September-2012)

Conversation No. 919-32 (cont’d)

-Implementation
-Haig’s conversation with Huston
-Possible White House response

-Ervin’s release of material

-White Paper

-Compared to television [TV] announcement
-President’s role
-Temper of the times
-Huston Plan

-Ervin

-Dean

-Reasons

-Hoover’s study

-Impeachment

-Buzhardt

-President’s possible resignation

-Huston Plan

-Relationship to Watergate burglary
-Walters and Helms conversation with Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-CIA involvement
-Haig’s conversation with Haldeman
-Haldeman’s family
-Haldeman’s lawyers’ opinion of Buzhardt
-Haldeman’s meeting with Walters, Ehrlichman, and Helms
-Topics
-Bay of Pigs
-Hunt
-Internal Security Committee operation
-Walters’s testimony
-L[ouis] Patrick Gray
-Haig’s forthcoming call to Haldeman

-Ehrlichman

-President’s support

-Walters’s testimony regarding meeting with Haldeman
-FBI investigation of CIA involvement

An unknown man entered at an unknown time after 3:52 pm.
 -65-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. September-2012)

Conversation No. 919-32 (cont’d)


President’s schedule

-George P. Shultz


The unknown man left at an unknown time before 4:08 pm.

Watergate
-Possible White House response
-President’s role
-Huston Plan
-Civil libertarians
-1972 election
-Implementation
-President’s role
-Instructions to Krogh
-Hoover
-Instructions to Ehrlichman and Haldeman
-Conversation with Walters and Helms
-Huston Plan
Hoover’s demurrer
-Possible White House response
-Buzhardt’s view
-Walters
-Krogh
-Huston Plan
-Ervin
-Wiretaps
-Reasons for creation
-Security
-Law and order
-Dean’s documents
-Leaks

President’s schedule

-Shultz


Haig’s schedule
 -66-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. September-2012)

Conversation No. 919-32 (cont’d)

-Dinner

-Sequoia

-Forthcoming call to Haldeman


Haig left at 4:08 pm.