Conversation No. 425-44

Date: April 9, 1973
Time: 2:05 pm - 6:33 p.m.
Location: Executive Office Building

The President met with H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman.

       Weather

       John D. Ehrlichman [?]

       John W. Dean, III [?]

       White House taping system
            -Retention of national security related conversations
            -Disposal by Haldeman
            -Secret Service Locator
            -President's control
            -Telephones
                  -Locations
                  -Henry A. Kissinger
            -Camp David
            -Capability of recording phone conversations
            -Phone system
                  -New phone system
                  -Camp David
            -Operation of new system
            -Systematic disposal of tapes

Ehrlichman entered at 2:14 pm.

       Problems
             -Economy
             -Watergate

       Ehrlichman’s schedule
             -Kissinger
                                     -26-

           NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                              Tape Subject Log
                               (rev. Sep.-2010)
                                                     Conversation No. 425-44 (cont’d)



           -participation

Economic issues
     -Meeting with Ehrlichman
     -Pierre Rinfret
           -Scheduling
     -Arthur F. Burns
     -Economic legislation
           -Timing
     -Herbert Stein, Roy L. Ash, John T. Dunlop, Peter M. Flanigan
           -Diversity of opinions
                  -Laissez-faire
                  -Controls
     -Food prices
           -Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR] grain purchases
                  -Purchase of crate space [?]
                  -Kissinger
           -Effect of uncertainty
                  -Effect on markets
                        -Stock market
                        -Agricultural market
     -President's schedule
           -George P. Shultz
                  -Laissez-faire
     -Stein's view
     -Dunlop's view
           Phase III modification
     -Consumer Price Index [CPI] level
     -Previous meeting with President
           -Economists’ predictions
     -Rising prices
           -Reasons
                  -USSR grain purchases
                  -World inflation
                  -Energy crisis
                  -International agriculture
                  -Lumber
                  -Bulge or delay factors
                                     -27-

           NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                              Tape Subject Log
                               (rev. Sep.-2010)
                                                     Conversation No. 425-44 (cont’d)



                 -Corrections of Phase II
                 -Tightening capacity
                        -Forecasts
           -Austin H. Kiplinger's view
                 -Economic boom
           -Effect of controls
                 -Stein
     -Shultz
           -Hypothetical scenarios
                 -Politics
           -State of Economy
                 -Prosperity
                 -Job creation
                 -Food market
           -Forthcoming labor negotiations
           -Free markets
                 -Government interference
                        -Wages
           -Phase III
           -Phase IV
                 -Freedom
                 -Quotas
                 -Industry
                        -Construction
                        -Health
                 -Mediation groups
                 -Productivity committee
           -Free Economy compared with controls
                 -Prosperity
                 -Potential for rising prices
                        -Administration’s response
           -Congress’ role
                 -Politics
                 -Criticism

Watergate
     -Ehrlichman's conversation with Richard G. Kleindienst
           -Kleindienst's forthcoming testimony
                                 -28-

      NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                          Tape Subject Log
                           (rev. Sep.-2010)
                                                  Conversation No. 425-44 (cont’d)



             -Executive privilege
             -Richard A. Moore
                   -Executive privilege
                          -Separation of powers issue
                          -President's rights
                          -Exceptions
                                -Sherman Adams
                                -Dawson [First name unknown]
                   -Quote from Dean Acheson
      -Samuel J. Ervin, Jr.
-President's meeting with Michael J. "Mike" Mansfield
      -Ervin Committee Hearings
             -Ehrlichman
                   -Executive privilege
                          -John W. Dean, III
                          -Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI]
             -Televised hearings
             -Kissinger
                   -Hearings at Blair House
             -Wrong-doing exception
             -Haldeman
             -Mansfield's report to Ervin
             -Hard lining
                   -Ehrlichman's negotiations
                   -Dean
                   -Haldeman's desire to testify
                   -Charges
      -Ehrlichman's conversation with Dean
             -Conversations
                   -John N. Mitchell
                   -Jeb S. Magruder
             -Desire for subpoena
             -Mitchell
                   -Interest in Dean's grand jury appearance
      -Ehrlichman's talk with Leonard Garment
             -President's forthcoming contact with Garment
      -Dean
             -Executive privilege
                         -29-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                  Tape Subject Log
                   (rev. Sep.-2010)
                                         Conversation No. 425-44 (cont’d)



             -Brief by Office of Legal Counsel
             -Attorney-client
                   -Legal problems
      -Work product
      -Ehrlichman's forthcoming meeting with Ervin
             -Dean's role in White House
             -Executive privilege
-John N. Mitchell
      -Contact with White House
             -Moore
             -Paul L. O'Brien
             -Garment
      -Relationship with Garment
             -Mitchell's involvement
      -Lowell P. Weicker, Jr.
      -President's forthcoming contact
      -White House attitude toward Mitchell
-Possible statement
      -Moore
      -President
-Moore
      -Dean
      -Informing President
      -Knowledge of whole story
-Ervin Committee
-White House testimony
-President's meeting with Mansfield
      -Pace of hearings
-Moore's analysis
      -Timing of climax
      -Howard H. Baker, Jr.
-Kleindienst's forthcoming testimony
      -Role and function of the Senate committee
      -Compared to Alger Hiss case
      -Newsworthiness
             -Executive privilege
      -Effects
             -Ervin
                                             -30-

                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                       Tape Subject Log
                                        (rev. Sep.-2010)
                                                             Conversation No. 425-44 (cont’d)



                                    -Ehrlichman
                  -Ehrlichman meeting with Ervin
                        -Negotiations on forthcoming hearings
                        -Baker
                        -Procedures
             -Charles W. Colson's dinner with unknown man
                  -Lie Detector Test suggested
                  -Garment [?]
                  -David Shapiro
             -Mitchell
                  -View of situation
                        -Garment's opinion

The President talked with the White House operator at 2:39 p.m.

[Conversation No. 425-44A]

[See Conversation No. 44-112]

[End of telephone conversation]

             -Mitchell
                  -State of mind
                  -Ervin Committee
                        -Money given to the Watergate burglars
                  -Relationship with Dean
                  -Dean's conversations with Ehrlichman about money
                        -Requests for Ehrlichman to call Mitchell
                              -Money
                              -James W. McCord, Jr.
                                    -William O. Bittman
                        -Ehrlichman's response
             -Cubans' lawyer, Henry B. Rothblatt
                  -Knowledge
                        -Money

Leonard Garment entered at 2:43 p.m.
                                             -31-

                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                      Tape Subject Log
                                       (rev. Sep.-2010)
                                                              Conversation No. 425-44 (cont’d)



       Ehrlichman's economic meeting
             -Report
             -Burns
             -Shultz
             -Rinfret
                   -Phase II
                   -Controls
                   -Effect on economy

       Watergate
            -Ehrlichman's conversation with Garment
                  -Garment's role with Ervin Committee
                        -Enforcement of ground rules
            -Ervin Committee's investigation of campaign activities
                  -White House
                        -Haldeman
                        -Colson
                              -Concern
                  -Garment's analysis
                  -Haldeman's statement
                  -Negotiation
                        -Hearsay evidence
                  -White House strategy
                        -Executive privilege
                        -Weicker
                        -White House cooperation
                              -Howard Hughes
                  -Magruder
                        -Possible testimony
            -Mitchell
                  -Involvement in Watergate
                        -Dean
                        -White House involvement in Watergate break-in
                              -President, Colson, Haldeman
                              -Ronald L. Ziegler's statement, June 22, 1972, regarding the
break-in
                        -Committee to Re-elect the President [CRP]
                              -Liddy
                                             -32-

                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                      Tape Subject Log
                                       (rev. Sep.-2010)
                                                            Conversation No. 425-44 (cont’d)



                         -Approval of plans
                         -Vulnerability
                         -Grand jury
                   -Need for White House staff to believe
             -Magruder
                   -Dean
                   -Indictment
             -Mitchell
             -Magruder
                   -Knowledge
             -White House goal
                   -Colson
                   -Haldeman
                   -Dean
             -Possible developments
                   -White House response
                         -Mitchell
                         -Grand jury
             -Magruder

       Martha Mitchell

The President and Garment left at 3:00 pm.