Secret White House Tapes

940-002a

About this recording

940-002a
  • President Richard M. Nixon
  • Alexander M. Haig
  • Ronald L. Ziegler
  • UNKNOWN
  • Henry A. Kissinger
  • Spiro T. Agnew
June 14, 1973
Conversation No. 940-2

Date: June 14, 1973
Time: 9:30 am - 10:52 am
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Alexander M. Haig, Jr.

Vietnam

-Henry A. Kissinger’s schedule

Negotiations

-Kissinger’s view

-Military situation in South Vietnam

-South Vietnam’s performance
-North Vietnam
-Training
-Kissinger

-Briefings

-Cambodia

-Bombing

-Duration

-Possible cease-fire

-Kissinger’s view

-2-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. March-2011)

Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)

-Congressional action
-House of Representatives, Senate
-September 1973
-Kissinger

Ronald L. Ziegler and an unknown man entered at 9:31 am.

President’s schedule

-Clothing [?]


The unknown man left at an unknown time before 9:34 am.

President’s address to nation announcing price control measures, June 13, 1973
-Response
-News summary
-Democrats, business, Republicans, networks
-Public opinion
-Delivery
-Importance of beginning and end

-George P. Shultz

-Price freeze
-Calls to President
-Speechwriters
-President’s writing
-Washington Post
-Draft, war
-Labor response
-Charles W. Colson
-Frank E. Fitzsimmons’s call to President
-News summary

Kissinger entered at 9:34 am.

Vietnam negotiations

-President’s telegrams to Kissinger, Charles Whitehouse

-Communique

-Kissinger’s efforts
-Difficulty
-President’s recent conversation with Haig
-3-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. March-2011)

Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)

-President’s messages to Nguyen Van Thieu
-Tone
-Brent G. Scowcroft’s call to Thieu
-President’s conversation with Gen. Tran Kim Phuong
-Congressional leaders
-South Vietnamese mood


Kissinger’s forthcoming briefings
-Tone
-President’s activities
-Year of Europe

-Middle East

-Vietnam negotiations

-Year of Europe

-Forthcoming summit

-Duration

-Year of Europe

-Vietnam negotiations

-Communique

-Recent staff meeting

-Year of Europe

-Vietnam

-US leadership in world, peace
-President’s meetings with Georges J. R. Pompidou, Edward R. G. Heath, Willy
Brandt
-Pompidou
-Gen. Charles A. J. M. De Gaulle

-President’s possible trip to Europe

-Year of Europe

-Leonid I. Brezhnev’s Forthcoming Visit

-Compared to 1972 meeting

-Cancellation

-Dialog

-President’s meeting with Andrei A. Gromyko in October 1972
-Tone
-President’s address to nation announcing price control measures
-Watergate
-Wiretapping
-4-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. March-2011)

Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)

-Conduct of foreign policy

-Peace

-1971, 1972

-Compared to the Battle of the Bulge
-Follow-through
-Brezhnev
-Kissinger’s meeting with People’s Republic of China [PRC] Foreign Minister [Ji
Pengfei] in Paris, June 13, 1973
-Possible lunch with J. William Fulbright, Hugh Scott
-Kissinger

Kissinger’s meeting with PRC Foreign Minister in Paris

[Tape recording system malfunction: 36 seconds]

US-PRC relations

-Possible visit to San Clemente [by Huang Zhen]

-Nationalist ambassador

-Washington, DC

-Century Plaza Hotel


Mao Tse-tung and Chiang Ching

-Invitation to President



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


BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4

[National security]

[Duration: 13 s ]



PRC


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

*****************************************************************
-5-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. March-2011)

Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)


Vietnam negotiations
-Kissinger’s schedule
-May, July 1973

Brezhnev’s forthcoming visit
-San Clemente visit
-President’s airplane visit
-President’s conversation with Anatoliy F. Dobrynin

-Thelma C. (“Pat”) Nixon

-Guest rooms

-Gromyko

Vietnam negotiations
-Forthcoming briefings
-Tone
-Response
-Europe

Brezhnev’s forthcoming visit
-President’s conversation with Michael J. (“Mike”) Mansfield

-Briefings on agreements

-President’s trip to Soviet Union, 1972

-News summaries
-William P. Rogers, Kissinger, President
-Agreements during President’s 1972 trip to Soviet Union
-Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty [SALT], communique
-Agreements
-Number
-SALT, principles [on prevention of nuclear war], communique
-Briefings
-Rogers, William H. Sullivan, Martin J. Hillenbrand
-Camp David
-Rogers and Gromyko’s schedule

-Dobrynin’s view

-Sequoia trip

-Security

-Dobrynin’s views

-Dinner

-6-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. March-2011)

Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)

-Fulbright

-Sequoia trip

-Agenda

-Briefings on agreements
-California
-Number
-US-Soviet Agreement on Prevention of Nuclear War
-California
-Camp David
-Casa Pacifica
-Peaceful uses of nuclear energy, SALT communique
-Cancellation

-Security

-Brezhnev
-Scowcroft’s message
-Politics
-San Clemente
-Doctor
-Schedule
-Possible demonstrators
-Quakers

Kissinger’s schedule

-Vacation

-Sophia Loren

-Paris

Kissinger left at 9:51 am.

President’s address to nation announcing price control measures
-Response
-Press relations
-News summary
-Controversy
-Phase I, Vietnam, SALT
-Beginning and end
-President’s leadership
-Status quo
-Consumers
-7-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. March-2011)

Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)

-Gasoline and food prices

-“Rollback”

-Public relations

-Confusion

-Raw agricultural products


President’s schedule
-Bryce N. Harlow
-Announcement

-Spiro T. Agnew

-Harlow

-Lawyers

-William W. Scranton

-George Putnam

-Photograph opportunity

-Scranton


White House staff
-Council to President

-Leonard Garment

-J. Fred Buzhardt

-Compared to Garment
-Garment

-Possible ambassadorship

-Personality

-John W. Dean, III

-Buzhardt

-Harlow

-Garment

-Role

-Legal work


Watergate
-Ervin Committee hearings
-President’s conversation with William F. (“Billy”) Graham
-Maurice Stans’s testimony
-Edward J. Gurney
-Polls
-Television [TV] coverage
-8-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. March-2011)

Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)

-Senators
-Samuel J. Ervin
-Possible opponents in election
-President’s conversation with Graham
-Dean’s interview, June 15, 1973
-Dean’s forthcoming testimony
-White House response

-Buzhardt, Charles A. Wright

-Possible allegations against President

-Dean

-White House response

-News summary coverage

-Background

-Elliot L. Richardson

-News summary coverage


President’s schedule
-TV speeches
-Frequency

President’s speeches
-Beginning and end
-Public relations

-Raymond K. Price, Jr.

-Speechwriters

-Substance

-President’s role

-Politics

-President’s address to nation announcing price control measures
-Brezhnev
-Draft
-“Best-fed,” “best-clothed”
-First draft

-Price

-Demagoguery

-Gas prices, inflation, food prices, labor

-President’s address to nation announcing price control measures

-Press relations

-9-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. March-2011)

Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)

White House staff

-Harlow

-Timing of announcement


National economy

-TV appearance of Earl L. Butz and James W. McLane

-National Broadcasting Company [NBC]’s Today Show

-Congressional relations

-William E. Timmons’s forthcoming efforts
-Ticklers
-Future speeches

Ziegler left at 10:03 am.

Congressional relations

Cabinet

President’s schedule
-Forthcoming conversation with Agnew
-Agnew’s speech to National Association of Attorneys General, St. Louis,
MO, June 11, 1973
-Role in administration

-Melvin R. Laird

-Harlow

-Presidency

-Speeches
-Congressional relations
-Farm legislation
-Economy
-Quadriad

President’s address to nation announcing price control measures

-Timing

-Tone


Agnew entered at 10:05 am.

President’s address to nation announcing price control measures
-10-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. March-2011)

Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)

-Response

-Agnew’s schedule


Agnew’s speech in St. Louis

Watergate
-Ervin Committee hearings
-Possible attacks by witnesses

-Howard Hughes

-Buzhardt

-Howard H. Baker, Jr. Gurney
-Audience response

-TV

-Stans and Ervin, June 13, 1973

-White House response

-Victor Lasky
-1972 voting
-George McGovern
-Nixon

Investigation of Agnew
-Republican Party
-George Beall
-Staff

-Democrats

-[Barney Skolnik]

-Edmund S. Muskie supporter
-Muskie
-Elliot L. Richardson
-Agnew’s administrative officer [William E. Fornoff]

-[N. Dale Anderson]

-Kick-backs

-Indictment

-Relations with Agnew

-Transactions
-Baltimore County

-Engineers, architects

-[Fornoff]

-Agnew’s role

-11-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. March-2011)

Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)

-Compared to New York State

-Nelson A. Rockefeller

-Compared to California

-President’s conversation with Ronald W. Reagan

-Political contributions by highway and other contractors

-Grand Jury

-Income Tax investigation
-Watergate

-Scale

-1972 election

-Celebrity night for Agnew

-Leslie T. (“Bob”) Hope, Francis A. (“Frank”) Sinatra

-Congressional candidates committee

-Maryland
-District of Columbia
-Julie Nixon Eisenhower
-Loan from Committee to Re-elect the President [CRP]
-Indictment of fund-raiser [Blagdon H. Wharton]
-Records falsification
-Anne Arundel County, Maryland
-1972 election
-Press coverage
-Agnew
-Agnew’s contacts

-Background

-Haig

-Harlow

-Laird

-White House response

-Beall

-Baltimore County

-Agnew’s possible role

-Inability to interfere


Watergate
-Possible accusations against Agnew
-Compared to allegations concerning President and Watergate
-Cover-up
-Fund for the burglars
-12-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. March-2011)

Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)

-San Clemente home

-Denials

-Strategy

-Democrats

-Beall

-Investigation of Agnew’s successor [Anderson]

-[Fornoff]

-Plea bargaining and guilty plea

-Implication of engineers

-Immunity

-President’s knowledge of criminal law


Watergate
-Dean
-Immunity
-New York Times article
-Meetings with President
-Removal of classified documents from the White House

Investigation in Baltimore County, Maryland
-White House response
-Special prosecutor
-Lack of necessity
-Possible accusations

-Agnew

-[Mandel]

-Anne Arundel County executive

-Mayor of Baltimore

-Agnew

-Kick-back

-Federal judge

-Engineer [Matz]

-Plea bargaining

-Background

-Political contributions

-Plea bargaining

-Fornoff

-Guilty plea

-Timing

-13-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. March-2011)

Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)

-Engineers [Matz et al.]
-Effects on Maryland politics

-Governor [Marvin Mendel]

-J. Glenn Beall, Jr.


Watergate
-Ervin Committee hearings
-Lowell Weicker’s possible questioning of H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman
-Origin of $350,000
-Herbert Kalmbach
-Weicker’s campaign contributions

Investigation of Agnew
-George Beall

-Internal Revenue Service [IRS] investigators

-Glenn Beall

-Campaign contributions
-1970 campaign
-Colson
-Handling of investigation

-Glenn Beall, George Beall

-Possible indictment

-Skolnik

-Muskie supporter

-Administration enemies

-Bureaucracy


Watergate
-Popular opinion
-Ervin compared to President
-Agnew’s speech in St. Louis
-Response
-John N. Mitchell

-Possible prison term

-Martha (Beall) Mitchell’s health

-New Jersey, Maryland
-Possible investigation of Democrats

-Files

-Murray M. Chotiner

-14-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. March-2011)

Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)

-Steve Sachs

Investigation of Agnew
-President’s and Haig’s role
-Buzhardt
-Agnew’s conversations
-Haldeman
-Colson
-Possible letter
-Advisability

-Jud Best

-David Shapiro

-Possible legal relationship with Agnew

-Jeb Stuart Magruder’s possible testimony concerning Colson
-Press coverage

Watergate
-Magruder’s possible testimony
-Colson
-Lawrence O’Brien
-International Telephone and Telegraph [ITT]
-Haldeman

-Mitchell

-Dean

-Dean’s possible testimony

-John D. Ehrlichman

-Haldeman

-President

-Meetings with President

Investigation of Agnew
-Agnew’s legal relationship with Colson and Best

Watergate
-Egil (“Bud”) Krogh, Jr.
-Transportation Department
-Firing by Claude S. Brinegar
-Ken Rietz
-Firing by George H. W. Bush
-15-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. March-2011)

Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)

-Activities

-San Diego

-Demonstrations


Investigation of Agnew
-Agnew’s legal relationship with Colson and Best
-Colson as witness
-[Metz]
-Plea-bargaining
-Effect on other accused’s reputation

Watergate
-President’s opponents’ goal

-Carl B. Albert

-President’s resignation or impeachment

-1972 election

Agnew
-Role in administration
-Energy
-Inadvisability
-Workload
-Salesmanship
-Economic, energy, and foreign policies

President’s address to nation addressing price control measures
-Importance of beginning and end
-Telephone calls
-Vietnam, draft, Brezhnev visit
-President’s role

Agnew
-Role in administration

-Republican Party leaders

-Influence-makers

-Chicago clubs, New York City clubs
-Press
-Editors, publishers
-Labor
-16-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. March-2011)

Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)


National economy
-Wages
-Lack of freeze

Agnew
-Role in administration
-Compared to President’s role with Dwight D. Eisenhower
-Eisenhower’s health
-Meetings
-Compared to President’s
-Cabinet, National Security Council [NSC]

-Meeting with President, May 2, 1973

-Quadriad meetings

-Specialization
-Federal Reserve Board [FRB]
-Shultz
-Domestic Council
-Cabinet
-Rogers, Laird, Dr. James R. Schlesinger
-Soybeans
-France

President’s address to nation addressing price control measures
-Consumers
-State Department, NSC staff
-Possible resignations

Agnew
-Role in administration
-Quadriad
-Foreign policy
-Avoiding appearance of “Froth”

-Press reports of Africa trip


Press relations
-President’s experience
-Watergate compared to Hiss case
-Herbert L. Block
-17-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. March-2011)

Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)

-Caracas

Agnew
-Role in administration
-Asia
-Kissinger
-Possible trips
-Confidentiality
-PRC
-Mansfield, Congress
-August 1973
-Kissinger
-Timing
-September, October 1973
-Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR]
-Negotiations
-President’s trips under Eisenhower
-Reporting
-East Europe
-Poland, Hungary, Romania, Italy, Greece
-North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO]
-Past trips
-Italy, Iran, Greece, Spain
-Latin America
-Africa
-Chad
-Confidentiality
-PRC, USSR, Eastern Europe
-Congressional relations
-Alaska pipeline
-Export controls
-Trade bill
-Meat surcharge
-Farm legislation
-Inflation
-Republicans
-Government spending
-Attacks on Ervin Committee
-18-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. March-2011)

Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)

Watergate

-Attacks on Ervin Committee

-Possible jail terms

-Mitchell, Stans

-Agnew’s speech

-Hugh Scott’s statements

-Wiretapping, plumbers

-Agnew’s possible response
-President’s comments to POWs
-Agnew’s possible statements
-Scott’s statement
-Robert F. (“Bobby”) Kennedy
-Newsmen, civil rights leaders, politicians
-Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI]


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


BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 9

[National security]

[Duration: 23 s ]


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

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


Agnew’s role in administration

-Forthcoming conversation with Harlow

-Trips

-Congressional relations

-Liberals


Charles McC. Mathias, Jr.
-Record of support for President
-Comments concerning Maryland State Republican Chairman [Alexander
Lankler]

-Alleged disloyalty

-Congressional relations

-19-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log
(rev. March-2011)

Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)


Agnew

-Possible guilt


Watergate
-Mitchell
-Possible conversation with President

Agnew

-Investigation


Harlow
-Role on White House staff
-Politics
-Bush

Agnew
-Speeches
-Patrick J. Buchanan
-Harlow

Agnew left at 10:49 am.

President’s schedule

-Scranton


Agnew
-Possible investigation
-Fear
-Administration support
-Possible trip to PRC
-Harlow
-Dignity

Watergate

-Dean

-President’s activities

-Richardson

-20-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. March-2011)

Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)

Cabinet
-Brinegar
-Performance
-Future

President’s schedule
-Scranton

Haig left at 10:52 am.
Secret White House Tapes |

940-002a

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