{"conversationCode":"005-050","tapeNumber":5,"conversationNumber":50,"identifier":"37-wht-conversation-005-050","startDateTime":"1971-06-13T16:18:00.000Z","endDateTime":"1971-06-13T16:42:00.000Z","startDate":"13-Jun-1971","startTime":"12:18 PM","endDate":"13-Jun-1971","endTime":"12:42 PM","dateCertainty":"certain","timeCertainty":"estimated","participants":"Nixon, Richard M. (President); Haig, Alexander M., Jr.;","description":"On June 13, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 12:18 pm and 12:42 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 005-050 of the White House Tapes.","locationCode":"WHT","recordingDevice":"White House Telephone","latitudeEstimated":38.89767,"longitudeEstimated":-77.03655,"chronCode":1,"chronRelease":"First Chronological Release","chronReleaseDate":"5-Oct-1999","aogpRelease":null,"aogpSegment":null,"lastModified":"2015-07-27T17:04:10.235Z","findingAid":"Conversation No. 5-50\n\nDate: June 13, 1971\nTime: Unknown between 12:18 pm and 12:42 pm\nLocation: White House Telephone\n\nThe President talked with Gen. Alexander M. Haig, Jr.\n\n[See Conversation No. 256-31F]\n\n     Vietnam War\n          -Weekly casualty figures\n          -Pentagon Papers\n               -New York Times expose\n               -Leak\n               -Robert S. McNamara, Clark M. Clifford\n               -Administration response\n               -Possible time of theft\n               -Hatfield-Mansfield Amendment\n               -Reflection on John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson\n               -Effect\n\n[The conversation was cut off at an unknown time before 12:42 pm]","filename":["005-050.mp3"],"tapeStart":"01:24:33","tapeEnd":"01:26:52","participantsList":["Nixon, Richard M. (President)","Haig, Alexander M., Jr.","Nixon, Richard M. (President)","Haig, Alexander M., Jr."],"prevCode":"005-049","nextCode":"005-051","transcript":[{"start":2.12,"end":2.94,"text":"Hello."},{"start":3.02,"end":4.35,"text":"General Haig, sir."},{"start":4.73,"end":5.15,"text":"Hello."},{"start":5.41,"end":5.89,"text":"Yes, sir."},{"start":6.07,"end":7.01,"text":"Hi, Al."},{"start":7.39,"end":8.62,"text":"What about the casualties last week?"},{"start":8.64,"end":9.44,"text":"You got the figure yet?"},{"start":10.1,"end":12.11,"text":"No, sir, but I think it's going to be quite low."},{"start":13.61,"end":15.95,"text":"It should be as last week or better."},{"start":15.99,"end":17.62,"text":"Yeah, it should be less than 20."},{"start":18.09,"end":20.67,"text":"20, I would think, yeah."},{"start":20.95,"end":21.73,"text":"When do you get that?"},{"start":21.79,"end":22.67,"text":"Do you, would you know?"},{"start":22.98,"end":27.52,"text":"We don't get it officially until Monday afternoon, but we can get a reading on it."},{"start":27.54,"end":29.18,"text":"Right, well, Monday afternoon, officially."},{"start":29.23,"end":30.05,"text":"Well, let's wait till then."},{"start":30.59,"end":31.89,"text":"Fine."},{"start":31.95,"end":32.33,"text":"Okay."},{"start":32.89,"end":34.33,"text":"Nothing else of interest in the world?"},{"start":34.45,"end":34.95,"text":"Yes, sir."},{"start":34.99,"end":42.95,"text":"Very significant, this goddamn New York Times expose of the most highly classified documents of the war."},{"start":43.72,"end":44.3,"text":"Oh, that."},{"start":44.6,"end":45.08,"text":"I see."},{"start":45.8,"end":49.69,"text":"I didn't read the story, but you mean that was leaked out of the Pentagon?"},{"start":50.45,"end":65.31,"text":"Sir, the whole study that was done for McNamara and then carried on after McNamara left by Clifford and the peaceniks over there, this is a devastating security breach of"},{"start":65.61,"end":68.09,"text":"of the greatest magnitude of anything I've ever seen."},{"start":68.11,"end":69.85,"text":"Well, what's being done about it then?"},{"start":69.89,"end":72.52,"text":"I mean, I didn't... Did we know this was coming out?"},{"start":72.7,"end":73.72,"text":"No, we did not, sir."},{"start":74.16,"end":74.8,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":74.82,"end":77.08,"text":"There are just a few copies of this."},{"start":77.16,"end":78.87,"text":"But what about the... Volume report."},{"start":78.97,"end":82.95,"text":"But what about the... Let me ask you this, though."},{"start":83.27,"end":84.09,"text":"What about Laird?"},{"start":84.13,"end":85.17,"text":"What's he going to do about it?"},{"start":85.44,"end":89.42,"text":"Now, I'd just start right at the top and fire some people."},{"start":89.81,"end":92.77,"text":"I mean, whatever department it came out of, I'd fire the top guy."},{"start":93.49,"end":100.48,"text":"Well, I'm sure it came from defense, and I'm sure it was stolen at the time of the turnover of the administration."},{"start":100.86,"end":101.88,"text":"Oh, it's two years old then."},{"start":101.9,"end":107.74,"text":"I'm sure it is, and they've been holding it for a juicy time, and I think they've thrown it out to affect Hatfield McGovern."},{"start":107.76,"end":108.78,"text":"That's my own estimate."},{"start":109.58,"end":112.17,"text":"But it's something that is a mixed bag."},{"start":112.25,"end":114.41,"text":"It's a tough attack on Kennedy."},{"start":115.61,"end":118.83,"text":"It shows that the genesis of the war really occurred."},{"start":119.17,"end":121.89,"text":"Yeah, that's Clifford."},{"start":121.97,"end":122.31,"text":"I see."},{"start":122.33,"end":125.26,"text":"And it's brutal on President Johnson."},{"start":125.28,"end":129.71,"text":"They're going to end up in a massive gut fight in the Democratic Party on this thing."},{"start":129.95,"end":130.23,"text":"Are they?"},{"start":132.48,"end":134.08,"text":"But also massive against the war."},{"start":134.36,"end":135.1,"text":"Against the war."},{"start":136.81,"end":138.39,"text":"But it's a Pentagon study, huh?"}],"aiSummary":{"text":"President Richard Nixon and General Alexander Haig discussed the publication of the Pentagon Papers by the New York Times, characterizing the leak as a massive security breach. Haig suggested the documents were likely stolen during the transition from the Johnson administration, aiming to influence the Hatfield-Mansfield Amendment vote. Nixon expressed frustration over the security failure and speculated that the internal Democratic discord caused by the documents might ultimately damage the reputations of Kennedy and Johnson.","topics":["Pentagon Papers","New York Times","Alexander Haig","National Security","Vietnam War","Democratic Party"],"generatedAt":"2026-04-05T21:54:43.039Z"},"topicSlugs":["pentagon-papers","new-york-times","alexander-haig","national-security","vietnam-war","democratic-party"],"audioDurationSec":139,"audioFiles":[{"file":"005-050.mp3","bytes":1727768,"durationSec":139.38,"bitrate":99165,"missing":false}],"audioIsShared":false,"audioProbedAt":"2026-09-18T02:19:21.076Z","audio":["https://nixon.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/audio/005-050.mp3"],"url":"https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/005-050","nixonLibraryUrl":"https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/white-house-tapes/5/conversation-005-050","license":"Public domain (U.S. Government work). AI-generated fields (transcript, aiSummary) are provided as-is without warranty."}