Nixon White House Tapes ›Tape 5 › Conversation 005-070

Nixon, Mitchell & Kissinger on Pentagon Papers and New York Times

Monday, June 14, 1971 · 7:19 PM–7:22 PM ET · White House Telephone ·3 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Mitchell, John N.;  Kissinger, Henry A.Conversation005-070 onTape 5 (tape position 02:19:21–02:22:19)StartMonday, June 14, 1971 at 7:19 PMEndMonday, June 14, 1971 at 7:22 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 005-070 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon consults with John Mitchell and Henry Kissinger regarding the legal response to the New York Times' publication of classified documents. The participants agree to take a low-key, formal approach by putting the newspaper on legal notice while simultaneously initiating a covert investigation to identify the leakers. Nixon secures support for this stance by leveraging Henry Kissinger's report that former President Lyndon Johnson would publicly back actions taken to defend the integrity of government against such security breaches.

Audio

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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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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What is your advice on that Times thing, John?
You would like to do it?
I would believe so, Mr. President.
Otherwise, we will look a little foolish in not following through on our legal obligations.
Has this ever been done before?
uh publication like this or no no no as the government ever done this to a paper before oh yes advising of their oh yes we've done this before have we all right yes sir
I would think that... How do you go about it?
You do it sort of low-key?
Low-key.
You call them and then send a telegram to confirm it.
And say that we're examining the situation and we just simply are putting you on notice.
We're putting them on notice that they're violating a statute because we have a communication from Mel Laird as to the nature of the documents and they fall within a statute now.
I don't know whether you've noticed it, but this thing was...
uh mel was henry henry's on the other i just he just walked in i'll put him on the other line go ahead uh mel uh had a pretty good go up there before the committee today on it and it's all over town and all over everything and i think we'd look a little silly if we just didn't take this low-key action of advising them about the publication mel take a fairly uh hard line on it
Yes, he gave a legal opinion, and it was a violation of the law, which puts us at where we have to get.
Well, look, as far as the Times is concerned, hell, they're our enemies.
I think we just ought to do it.
And anyway, Henry, tell them what you just heard from Rostow.
Well, Rostow called on behalf of Johnson, and he said that it is Johnson's strong view that this is an attack on the whole integrity of government, that if you, that if whole
whole file cabinets can be stolen and then made available to the press.
You can't have orderly government anymore.
And he said if the president defends the integrity, any action we take, he will back publicly.
Well, I think that we should take this, do some undercover investigation, and then open it up after your McGovern hat film.
We've got some
information we've developed as to where these copies are and who they're likely to have leaked them and the prime suspect according to your friend rostow you're quoting is a gentleman by name of ellsberg who's a left-winger that's now with the rand corporation who also have a set of these documents yeah so subpoena them christ get them
So I would think that we should advise the times.
We will start our covert check and after McGovern-Hatfield just open it up.
Right.
Go ahead.
Does that agree with you?
Yep.
All right, sir.
Will do.

NARA Description

On June 14, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, John N. Mitchell, and Henry A. Kissinger talked on the telephone from 7:19 pm to 7:22 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 005-070 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

None

Also recorded on June 14, 1971

  • 519-018 7:07 PM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 7:07 pm and 11:59 pm.
  • 005-068 7:13 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman talked on the telephone from 7:13 pm to 7:15 pm.
  • 258-007 7:13 PM · 37 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 7:13 pm to 7:15 pm.
  • 005-069 7:15 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 7:15 pm and 7:19 pm.
  • 258-008 7:15 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 7:15 pm and 7:19 pm.
  • 258-009 7:15 PM · 3 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 7:15 pm and 7:19 pm.
  • 258-010 7:19 PM · 12 min — President Richard M. Nixon, John N. Mitchell, and Henry A. Kissinger met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 7:19 pm and 7:37 pm.
  • 005-071 7:22 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 7:22 pm and 7:37 pm.

All 57 conversations from June 14, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 005-070, June 14, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/005-070 (accessed September 18, 2026).