Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 002-088
Date: Wednesday, May 5, 1971 at 12:43 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Dean, John W., III
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/002-088

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Mr. Dean, Mr. President.
[0:03] Hello.
[0:04] Yes, sir.
[0:04] What's the situation on the hill?
[0:06] Are they up there yet?
[0:07] We have about 2,000 down on the foot of the hill.
[0:11] And they're sitting under the trees and generally peaceful at this point in time.
[0:14] Yeah.
[0:15] What are they planning to do?
[0:16] Well, their intention is to march on the Capitol and attack it.
[0:21] Oh, is that right?
[0:22] Siege.
[0:23] What time?
[0:23] At what time?
[0:25] Roughly two o'clock.
[0:27] Two o'clock.
[0:29] And we will do nothing.
[0:30] That's the Capitol Police's problem.
[0:32] That is correct.
[0:33] Are they prepared for it?
[0:34] Yes, sir.
[0:36] Do they have enough personnel and everything?
[0:37] Yes, sir.
[0:38] Have they asked any help from us?
[0:39] No, sir.
[0:40] They have not.
[0:41] MPD is prepared to give them any assistance down there.
[0:44] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[0:45] That's fine.
[0:46] That's fine.
[0:47] We'll just leave it right there.
[0:48] That's their problem.
[0:50] And about 2,000 of them going up the hill, huh?
[0:52] Correct.
[0:53] Okay.
[0:53] I have a status report on the way over on the rest of the city and it's generally quiet yeah yeah yeah things have sort of cooled off apparently I think I think the spirit has been broken you really think so yes I do they had a meeting last night and a good bit of internal dissent amongst the demonstrators on what to do at this point in time yeah like like what why did they dissent what were they dissenting about tactics you mean tactics
[1:20] Rennie Davis, who's out on bond now, was urging that they go to the Lincoln Memorial with the Southern Christian Leadership Group, but the others would not buy that.
[1:33] Yeah.
[1:37] Okay, fine.
[1:38] Yes, sir.