Conversation: 926-004
Prev: 926-003 Next: 926-005Start Date: 23-May-1973 10:20 AM
End Date: 23-May-1973 10:53 AM
Participants:
Nixon, Richard M. (President); Haig, Alexander M., Jr.;Recording Device: Oval Office
NARA Description:
On May 23, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. met in the Oval Office of the White House from 10:20 am to 10:53 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 926-004 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid:
Conversation No. 926-4
Date: May 23, 1973
Time: 10:20 am - 10:53 am
Location: Oval Office
The President met with Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
President’s Republican Congressional leadership meeting
Watergate
-5-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2011)
Conversation No. 926-4 (cont’d)
-White House response
-White Paper [Statements about Watergate Investigation, May 22, 1973]
-National security
Vietnam peace settlement negotiation
-Henry A. Kissinger
-Report, May 22
-President’s knowledge
-Negotiations with South Vietnam
-Saigon
-William Sullivan
-Note from President
-Forthcoming communique
-Timing
-Kissinger’s statement
-North Vietnam’s statement
-South Vietnam
-Negotiations
-President’s opinion
-US aid to South Vietnam
Bryce N. Harlow
-Role on White House staff
-Conversation with the President, May 21
-Counselor to President
-William E. Timmons’s role
-Congressional relations
-George H. W. Bush
-Haig’s role
-Politics
-Bush
-Barry M. Goldwater
-Spiro T. Agnew
-Announcement
-Problem
-Stock option
-Timing
-6-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2011)
Conversation No. 926-4 (cont’d)
-Conversation with President
-Announcement
-Part-time
-July
Watergate
-Congressional reaction
-Carl T. Curtis
-Ervin Committee hearings
-Ervin Committee hearings
-Testimony, May 22
-John J. (“Jack”) Caulfield and James W. McCord, Jr.
-McCord
-Testimony
-James R. Schlesinger
-Ervin Committee hearings
-White House response
-White Paper [Statements about Watergate investigation, May 22, 1973]
-Possible allegations regarding the President
-John W. Dean III
-David R. Young
-Memoranda of conversation [memcons]
-H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman, John D. Ehrlichman and Charles W.
Colson
-White House response
-White Paper
-Effect
-Lt. Gen. Vernon A. Walters’s memcons
-Dean
-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-William L. Safire’s opinion
-Call to Haig, May 22
-Possible press conference
-President’s possible testimony before Ervin Committee
-President’s conversation with Harlow, May 22
-Bush
-7-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2011)
Conversation No. 926-4 (cont’d)
President’s schedule
-Forthcoming economic meeting
-Oil
-George P. Shultz
-Proposal for Haig
-Testimony
Energy
-Program planning
-Shultz
-Cabinet members
-Roy L. Ash
-Review by Haig
-Peter M. Flanigan
-Role
-Confidence by Haig
-Concerns
President’s schedule
-Economic meeting
-Prisoners of war [POWs]
-Briefing
-Evening at White House
-Cabinet meeting
-Length
-Economic meeting
-Timing
-Recommendations
White House staff
-Harlow’s role
-Flanigan’s role
Hugh Scott’s note to President
-State Department
-[David] Kenneth Rush
-Haig’s possible meeting with William P. Rogers
-8-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2011)
Conversation No. 926-4 (cont’d)
-Kissinger
Kissinger
-Possible statements
-Summit
-Georges J. R. Pompidou
-National security
-White House response
-White Paper
-Defense
Soviet summit
-Postponement
-President’s opponents
-New York Times
-Leonid I. Brezhnev
Watergate
-Effect on people
-Harlow’s view
-Compared to Cambodia
-White House response
-J. Fred Buzhardt, Jr.’s role
-Leonard Garment’s role
-Cover-up
-Central Intelligence Agency [CIA]
-Funds for defendants
-Funds for defendants
-President’s knowledge
-Haldeman’s and Ehrlichman’s knowledge
-Cover-up
-Dean’s conversation with the President, March 21
-President’s response
-Dean’s role
-John N. Mitchell
-Dean’s conversation with the President, March 21
-Content
-9-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2011)
Conversation No. 926-4 (cont’d)
-G[eorge] Gordon Liddy’s conversation with Dean, June
19, 1972
-CIA
-Clemency
-Dean’s role
-Dean’s conversation with the President, March 21
-White House response
-White Paper
-Effect
-Walters’s memcons
-Possible release
-Huston Plan
-Ziegler’s conversation with President
-Recommendations
-Richard M. Helms, J. Edgar Hoover, Adm. Noel Gayler, and
Donald Bennett
-Elliot L. Richardson
-Confirmation
-Hugh Scott’s efforts
-Daniel Ellsberg and John V. Tunney
-Ellsberg wiretap
-Scott
-White House response
-White Paper
-Future allegations
-Ziegler
-Memcons
-President’s schedule
-Egil (“Bud”) Krogh, Jr.
-Haldeman, Ehrlichman and Colson
-Future allegations
-Dean
-President’s schedule
-White House response
-White Paper
-Dean
-Possible allegations
-10-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2011)
Conversation No. 926-4 (cont’d)
-Memcons of meetings with President
-Conversation with President, March 21
-Blackmail
-Administration’s response
-Helms’s testimony
-Schlesinger
-William D. Ruckelshaus
-W. Mark Felt
-Termination
-Notice
-Confidence
-Source of heat
-Comparison to Dean
-Wiretaps
-White House response
-White Paper
-Content and phraseology
-Plumbers
-President’s orders
-President’s responsibility
-Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Krogh
Haig left at 10:53 am.