Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 880 › Conversation 880-006
Nixon, Kissinger & Ziegler on Watergate scandal and Press relations
Thursday, March 15, 1973 · 12:11 PM–12:25 PM ET · Oval Office · 14 min
AI Summary
President Nixon met with Henry Kissinger and Ronald Ziegler to review the President’s recent press conference performance regarding the Watergate scandal and ongoing geopolitical issues. They discussed the administration's defensive posture toward press inquiries, including the involvement of John Mitchell and the Committee to Re-elect the President, as well as the status of military aid to India and Pakistan. The group also touched upon future international travel plans and the announcement of a U.S. liaison office in the People's Republic of China.
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Transcript (AI-generated)
This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Names and numbers are often wrong; speakers are not identified. Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.
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to see if you're holding on.
This is Dick Nixon.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I'll tell you here, we're just thinking about you, and we miss you, but you keep an old stairlift around.
No, I thought it was very effective.
I thought the tone was very good, too.
Maybe you were relaxed and confident and strong and everything.
I mean, they ought to protect you.
I mean, quite seriously, they ought to protect you.
That's exactly right.
I mean, this was not a mature operation that Mitchell had done.
You or Haldeman, it would have been a professional... Well, we're out there.
You don't want to build it, but that's a story by itself.
Well, we committed to sell this stuff, but he committed to sell something.
The policy.
The policy he made.
That's right.
The policy was made.
No, it was deformed.
It was perfect.
And it was, again, one of these things where if we had written it all out ahead of time, you had read it, you wouldn't have said it.
Well, I was thinking to the state.
And besides, we have a problem with the Chinese.
The Indians have an enormous barrier to serve.
We're talking about the fact that this is not a happy environment.
That's what you have to say.
Mrs. Gandhi was trying to point a hand about fueling the arms race when there's so much poverty.
How is he spending 15 times as much on arms as...
I didn't want to get into that.
I said that they have a big arms production there.
No, no, you handled that one.
That was perfect.
I'm not so sure the trip to Latin America this spring is going to be easy.
So, a piece, as President Nixon said today, he would not allow his legal counsel, John Dean, to testify on Capitol Hill in the Watergate investigation and challenge the Senate to test him in the Supreme Court.
But if the Senate feels they want a court test, we would welcome it.
The President told Desmond at the White House at the same time, he said, the former Attorney General Mitchell and Republican fundraisers' stands are not shielded by executive power.
Mayor Cotton is here.
Senator Towers, I have a question.
And they thought it was excellent.
Moore was very enthusiastic about it.
Well, it is a perfect, perfect, as Moore said, it was brilliantly handled because it totally sets up
They are.
working hard, which is what I do.
And it was a good time to do it.
If you don't, it seems to me that you don't take it on.
You just don't get talked about.
Because now, in the press conference that you have, you've dealt with that.
The position's been made clear.
I'm not going to comment on that.
I'm not going to comment on that.
I'm not going to comment on that.
We've got a line.
You will comment on that.
main, what is it, in terms of the throne, but no matter that we take a show of it.
It's different.
It's different.
And then we'll have to listen.
You know, I don't want to say anything very exciting in the context that we are more important than the other thing.
I did this because I didn't like what happened to me when I was a congressman.
God damn it, that's a good thing.
NARA Description
On March 15, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, Ralph H. Cake, Ronald L. Ziegler, and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:11 pm to 12:25 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 880-006 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 880-6
Date: March 15, 1973
Time: 12:11 pm-12:25 pm
Location: Oval Office
The President met with Henry A. Kissinger.
President's press conference
-Vietnam
-Questions
-President's handling
The President talked with Ralph H. Cake between 12:11 pm and 12:12 pm.
[Conversation No. 880-6A]
[See Conversation No. 37-118]
5-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Conversation No. 880-6 (cont’d)
[End of telephone conversation]
Ralph H. Cake
-Illness
President’s Press conference
-Watergate
-Questions on Donald H. Segretti
-President's handling of questions
-Dwight L. Chapin
-President's demeanor
-Watergate
-Ed Kempler's question
-Press double standard
-Alger Hiss case
-Harry S Truman
-Hiss case
-President's involvement
-Reasons
-John N. Mitchell
-Committee to Re-elect the President
-Involvement
-Mitchell's involvement
-Kissinger's view
-H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman
-People's Republic of China [PRC] liaison office announcement
Ronald L. Ziegler entered at 12:15 pm.
Greetings
Press statements
-North Vietnam
-India
-Pakistan
India
-US aid
-Suspension
-Commitments
-Lyndon B. Johnson
6-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Conversation No. 880-6 (cont’d)
-Sales
-Policy
-State Department
-Tanks
-Johnson
-Personnel carriers
-Lethality
-PRC
-Military expenditures
-Indira Gandhi's comments to Daniel P. Moynihan [?]
-Arms race
-Poverty
-Comparison with Pakistan
-Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR]
-Arms production
President's trips
-Plans
-Africa
-Latin America
-Latin America
-Value
-William P. Rogers
-Requests
-Commitments
-Japan
Vietnam
Dr. David K. E. Bruce
-US liaison office to PRC
-Lead story
-Alfred L. Jenkins
-John H. Holdridge
Kissinger left at 12:18 pm.
Press relations
-Vietnam
-Watergate
7-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Conversation No. 880-7 (cont’d)
Watergate
-L. Patrick Gray, III
-Testimony before committee
-News reports
-John W. Dean, III's testimony
-Restrictions
-Executive privilege
-Court challenge
-Mitchell, Maurice H. Stans
-News
An unknown person entered at an unknown time after 12:18 pm.
President’s schedule
-President's meeting with James M. Collins
-John G. Tower
The unknown person left at an unknown time before 12:25 pm.
Watergate
-Press conference
-Richard A. Moore's, Patrick J. Buchanan's and Dean's opinion
-Moore's opinion
-Ziegler's comments
-Ervin hearings
-Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] raw files
-White House viewing
-Disclosure to Ervin Committee
-Dealings with press
-J. Edgar Hoover's practices
-Press
-Frustrations
President’s press conference
-Length
-Sarah McClendon
-Frances L. Lewine
-Cut-off of press conference
-Clark R. Mollenhoff
-President's handling of questions
-Martin K (“Ken”) Worthy
8-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Conversation No. 880-7 (cont’d)
-[Unintelligible name]
-Timing
-Advantages
-Moore's view
-Press hostility
-Watergate
-Comments
-Future press conference responses
-Tone
-Kissinger
Watergate
-Executive privilege
-President's experiences as congressman
-Cooperation with committee of Congress
-Administration's record
President's schedule
-Meeting with Debbie Ploch
-"1973 Maid of Cotton"
-Photographer
-Oliver F. (“Ollie”) Atkins
-Distribution of photograph
-Texas
Ziegler left at 12:25 pm.Also recorded on March 15, 1973
- 880-003 11:58 AM · 6 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:58 am to 12:05 pm.
- 037-117 12:05 PM · 15 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 12:05 pm and 12:11 pm.
- 880-004 12:05 PM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:05 pm and 12:11 pm.
- 880-005 12:05 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:05 pm and 12:11 pm.
- 037-118 12:11 PM · 58 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Ralph H. Cake talked on the telephone from 12:11 pm to 12:12 pm.
- 880-007 12:25 PM · 44 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:25 pm and 12:26 pm.
- 880-008 12:26 PM · 9 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Max L. Friedersdorf, Debbie Ploch, and James M. Collins met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:26 pm to 12:35 pm.
- 880-009 12:35 PM · 46 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Stephen B. Bull, and Henry A. Kissinger met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:35 pm to 1:02 pm.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 880-006, March 15, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/880-006 (accessed September 19, 2026).