923-5

Conversation No. 923-5

Date: May 19, 1973
Time: Unknown between 11:02 am and 12:47 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Ronald L. Ziegler.

Ziegler’s schedule

-Press briefing


President’s forthcoming speech

-Peace [?]


Ziegler’s morale

Watergate
-White House response

-Alexander M. Haig, Jr.

-Forthcoming White Paper

-Possible television [TV] speech

-Wiretaps
-Domestic intelligence
-Egil (“Bud”) Krogh, Jr. and plumbers
-Central Intelligence Agency [CIA]
-Clemency
-Cover-up by President
-Forthcoming White Paper
-President’s possible meeting with Congressional leaders
-Possible TV speech
-Lt. Gen. Vernon A. Walters’s testimony
-Previous speech regarding H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman and John D.
Ehrlichman
-Ervin Committee hearings
-Charles W. Colson
-Martha (Beall) Mitchell
-Forthcoming White Paper
 -9-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 923-5 (cont’d)

-Briefing

-Haig

-Ziegler

-J. Fred Buzhardt, Jr.

-Bryce N. Harlow

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

-Conversations with Ziegler

-Forthcoming White Paper

-Preparation

-Further revelations
-Walters’s memoranda
-Ervin Committee hearings
-Walters
-Memoranda of conversation [Memcons]

-Haldeman and Ehrlichman

-John W. Dean, III

-Possible release

-Buzhardt’s view
-President’s schedule
-Newspapers

-Robert U. (“Bob”) Woodward

-New York Times

-White House response
-Forthcoming White Paper
-Executive privilege
-White House staff members’ notes of conversations with President
-Haldeman, Ehrlichman and Colson
-Dean
-George H. W. Bush
-President’s freedom of discussion
-Clemency
-Conversations with President

-Haldeman

-Ehrlichman

-Colson

-Dorothy Hunt

-President’s authorization

 -10-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 923-5 (cont’d)

-Conversations with President
-John J. (“Jack”) Caulfield

-John N. Mitchell

-Dean

-Dean
-Allegations regarding Ehrlichman and President
-White House response
-National security
-Relationship to Watergate break-in
-Mitchell’s role
-Martha (Beall) Mitchell
-Statement concerning President
-White House response
-Executive privilege
-Walters’s memcons
-White House staff members’ notes of conversations with President
-Ziegler’s conversation with Buzhardt, May 18
-Possible order by John J. Sirica

-Notes of Haldeman and Ehrlichman

-Colson

-Notes
-President’s meeting with Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Clemency
-President’s discussions
-Motive
-E. Howard Hunt, Jr.
-James W. McCord, Jr.’s testimony
-Rose Mary Woods’s opinion
-TV coverage
-Credibility
-G[eorge] Gordon Liddy
-Ervin Committee hearings
-Impact on public
-Purpose of attacks on President
-White House response
-President’s previous TV speeches
 -11-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 923-5 (cont’d)

-December 1972 bombing of North Vietnam

-Congress

-Press

-Reaction of public
-Compared to Dita D. Beard
-White House response
-Resignation and impeachment
-Future allegations
-Forthcoming White Paper
-Possible effects
-President’s opponents
-Support for President
-White House response
-Ziegler’s press briefing, May 18

-President’s possible resignation

-R. Sargent Shriver

-Joseph A. Califano, Jr.’s speech

-President’s election mandate

-President’s possible resignation

-Harris poll

-Courtney Sheldon’s question to Ziegler

-New York Times story

-Peace issue

-Harris poll
-Impeachment
-President’s meeting with Haldeman
-Congressional procedure

-Bella S. Abzug

-Buzhardt’s theory

-Effect of possible vote

-Possible outcome of vote

-White House response
-Forthcoming White Paper
-Possible effect
-President’s schedule
-Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and Dean’s roles in White House
-Dean
 -12-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 923-5 (cont’d)

-Allegations regarding August 19, 1972 meeting with President
-Investigation

Lyndon B. Johnson comparison

White House staff operation

Watergate
-Unknown doctor’s letter to Haig
-Justice Department’s investigation
-Wiretaps
-Morton A. Halperin’s conversation with Daniel Ellsberg
-Forthcoming leak by White House

White House staff operation

-Doctor’s letter to Haig

-Notification of President

-Congress

-Press and bureacracy

-Cabinet meeting

-Strategy

-Tone

-Momentum

-John B. Connally

-Cabinet meeting
-Bryce N. Harlow
-Ziegler’s forthcoming conversation with Connally
-Connally’s schedule

-Economic meeting

-Quadriad


Stephen B. Bull entered at an unknown time after 11:02 am.

President’s schedule

-Haig

-Richard M. Helms

-Haig’s recommendation
 -13-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 923-5 (cont’d)


Bull left at an unknown time before 11:48 am.

Watergate

-Special Prosecutor

-Archibald Cox

-“Kennedy man”

-Elliot L. Richardson

-Reaction

-White House response

-Morale


Haig entered and Ziegler left at 11:48 am.

Watergate
-President’s schedule
-Helms
-Haig’s recommendation
-Helms
-Conversation with Haig
-Helms’s testimony before Senate Foreign Relations Committee
-Equipment
-National Security Council [NSC] meeting
-Conversation with President concerning CIA involvement
-Helms’s possible resignation
-Daniel P. (“Pat”) Moynihan

Moynihan

-Letter to Haig


Watergate

-Haig’s activities

-Conversation with Helms

-Huston Plan

-Huston Plan

-Possible release

-Compared with Pentagon Papers

 -14-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 923-5 (cont’d)



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


BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

[National security]

[Duration: 5 s ]



INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

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


Watergate
-Huston Plan
-Possible release
-Tom C. Huston’s memorandums
-Executive privilege
-President’s previous conversation with Ziegler
-Buzhardt
-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Need for presidential confidentiality
-Buzhardt’s possible conversation with Leonard Garment
-White House staff members’ notes of conversations with President
-Haldeman
-Walters’s memcons
-President’s conversations with Henry A. Kissinger


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

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2
[National security]
 -15-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 923-5 (cont’d)

[Duration: 51 s ]


TACTICS


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2

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


Watergate
-Executive privilege
-White House staff members’ notes of conversations with President
-Criminal activities
-CIA cover-up
-Colson
-Possible statement
-Location of files
-Leaks during India-Pakistan conflict
-Instructions for Buzhardt
-Colson
-Haldeman and Ehrlichman

Haldeman

Mitchell

-Telephone call to Helen A. Thomas

-Martha (Beall) Mitchell

-White House activities


Watergate
-Dean

-Possible immunity

-Documents

-Huston Plan

-Forthcoming roles

 -16-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 923-5 (cont’d)

-Haldeman, Ehrlichman and Colson

-Dean

-White House response
-Congress, press and public
-President’s forthcoming speech at Norfolk, Virginia
-Forthcoming speeches
-Connally, Spiro T. Agnew, and Cabinet members
-Content
-President’s schedule

-Possible TV speech

-San Clemente

-Time spent away from Washington, DC

-Key Biscayne

-George P. Shultz

-Richardson

-Special Prosecutor

-Forthcoming White Paper

-Preparation
-Huston Plan
-Background

-J. Edgar Hoover

-Haldeman’s memorandum to Huston

-Termination
-Documentation

-Louis W. Tordella

-William C. Sullivan

-Hoover
-Meetings with Mitchell and Clyde A. Tolson
-Mitchell’s possible meeting with President
-Huston’s telephone calls to rescind report implementation
-Copies of memorandum
-Sullivan
-Huston’s possible conversation with Haldeman
-Implementation
-Robert C. Mardian
-Domestic intelligence
-Krogh and plumbers
 -17-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 923-5 (cont’d)

-Ellsberg

-Pentagon Papers

-Hoover

-President’s order

-Activities

-Brookings Institution

-Alleged possession of Pentagon Papers
-Huston
-1968 bombing halt study
-Efforts to locate

-Pentagon

-Leslie Gelb, Morton K. Halpern

-Activities

-Burglary in Georgetown

-Studies for President

-Pentagon Papers
-Break-in of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office
-Contrasted with break-in of President’s doctor’s office
-Allegations concerning President
-White House staff operation
-White House response
-Forthcoming White Paper
-Distribution
-President’s possible TV speech

-Escalation of charges

-Timing

-Ervin Committee witness schedule

-Mitchell, Haldeman, Ehrlichman and Colson

-Indictments

-Walters’s memcons

-Release
-Timing
-[William] Stuart Symington and Henry M. (“Scoop”) Jackson
-Timing
-John C. Stennis
-President’s forthcoming meeting with Congressional leaders
-Haig’s conversation with Helms
 -18-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 923-5 (cont’d)

-Buzhardt’s conversation with Stennis
-Forthcoming White Paper
-Ehrlichman
-Mitchell
-White House staff involvement
-Cubans
-Plumbers
-Mexican money
-Recollections of Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Walters
-Affidavit
-Content
-Compared with memcons
-Memcons
-Problem areas for President
-White House response
-Forthcoming White Paper
-Walters’s memcons
-President’s order to Ehrlichman and Haldeman to meet with Helms and
Walters
-President’s motive
-President’s call to L[ouis] Patrick Gray, III
-Inclusion of Walters in meeting with Helms, Haldeman, and Ehrlichman
-President’s motive
-President’s telephone call to Gray
-Explanation of problem areas for President
-President’s conversation with Gray
-President’s meeting with Gray
-FBI investigation
-Gray
-Walters
-Memcons
-Possible testimony
-Dean
-Memcons
-Possible allegations regarding President and cover-up
-Dean’s conversation with President, May 21
 -19-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 923-5 (cont’d)

-White House response
-Walters
-Testimony before Armed Services Committee
-Dean
-Dean
-Activities
-Walters
-Memcons
-Gray’s conversation with President
-President’s possible order to Walters
-President’s conversations with Henry E. Petersen
-National security

-Ehrlichman’s concern

-Plumbers

-President’s conversation with Petersen, 4/17
-Delivery of Ellsberg break-in material to court
-Hunt
-Ehrlichman’s conversation with President
-Request for President to call Petersen
-Hunt
-Ellsberg break-in
-President’s subsequent call to Petersen
-Ehrlichman
-Telephone call to Haig, May 17
-Ehrlichman’s meeting with Walters, Haldeman, and Helms
-National security
-Petersen and plumbers
-President’s conversation with Petersen, 4/17
-Ellsberg break-in

President’s schedule

Haig left at an unknown time before 12:47 pm.
 -20-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. August-2011)