Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 6 › Conversation 006-026

Nixon phone call with Haig on Security clearances and Brookings Institution

Tuesday, June 29, 1971 · 5:03 PM–5:06 PM ET · White House Telephone · 3 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haig, Alexander M., Jr.Conversation006-026 on Tape 6 (tape position 00:24:24–00:27:31)StartTuesday, June 29, 1971 at 5:03 PMEndTuesday, June 29, 1971 at 5:06 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 006-026 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon directs Alexander M. Haig, Jr. to revoke security clearances for personnel at private entities like the Brookings Institution and Rand Corporation, citing a need to tighten the classification system. Nixon expresses alarm upon learning that over a million individuals currently hold top-secret access, demanding a drastic reduction to 10,000 clearances. He requests a legal memorandum on modifying classification executive orders to establish a more exclusive, restrictive hierarchy for sensitive government documents.

  • Security clearances
  • Brookings Institution
  • Executive Orders
  • Document classification
  • Government bureaucracy

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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· Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).
Yeah.
General Hanks.
Al, you want to be sure that we're going forward on that study, I mean, that action I asked on immediately checking to see who has Q clearances outside this government and start getting those shut off.
Yes, sir.
I've got a group...
The Brookings Institute, the Rand Corporation, and all the rest.
And we just do it solely on the basis that we're...
changing the classification system and that we're at the present time just shutting them off.
Well, we've got a massive legal problem, sir.
I've got all of the departments in there with me right now on this subject.
You have?
Oh, good.
Yes, sir.
There are existing contracts, you see, that may have legal basis.
Brookings?
Is Brookings out of contract?
They think Brookings does.
But Brookings doesn't have any contracts that I ever approved.
Now, God damn it, I want to know how that got by me, if they have one with Brookings.
Now, I really want to know.
All right, sir, we have to go through the whole contract.
If it was done in this administration, I want to know why.
I want to know who signed it, who approved it, okay?
All right, sir, fine.
On Brookings, because I gave specific orders in January of 1969 not to do anything to Brookings.
Oh, well, that's been promulgated, but some of these things are quite old, you know.
All right.
I have to get all this.
Well, anyway, now what about the business about having the various agencies, I mean, like the Defense Department and the State Department and the rest, immediately reexamine their own, I mean, reduce the number of people who have access to classified documents?
Yes, sir.
We're doing this.
First, we're having them submit to us the numbers, and they're astronomical.
They're over a million, sir.
A million?
Top secret and above, yes, sir.
That's the estimate right now.
A million people have access to top secret and above documents?
Yes, sir, very probably.
Well, don't you see the problem?
Sure.
It's unbelievable.
It's ridiculous.
Probably a lot of that is in defense, of course, isn't it?
A great number in defense, a great number in state.
Almost every State Department employee apparently has a top secret.
all right all right well let's get at it and just just shake them up and tell them we're gonna we're gonna read and then i want recommendations to cut that to one hundred thousand well no ten thousand you understand yes sir let me get the number straight ten thousand now we're gonna have a new top secret classification also i want you to give me what how how how is the top secret secret so forth done is that set up by law
By executive order or how?
Yes, two executive regulations.
Can the regulations be changed?
Yes, sir, they can.
Without going to the Congress?
I believe they can.
All right, give me a memo on that.
I want to know.
And we'll change the classification.
And then what I want to tell is a new classification.
And I'm going to limit it to people that need it.
And let the little shitasses have their $100,000.
I don't care.
And they can see all the stuff that is not and call it top secret.
But we've got to have a new classification for documents that are really secret.
We've got to separate the cats from the dogs.
Now, this has got to be done, Al.
And I want you to crack the whip on these bastards.
We've got them all hopping right now.

NARA Description

On June 29, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. talked on the telephone from 5:03 pm to 5:06 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 006-026 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 6-26

Date: June 29, 1971
Time: 5:03 pm - 5:06 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with Alexander M. Haig, Jr.

[See Conversation No. 531-28C]

     Special security clearances outside government
          -Restriction
          -Defense-related industries
          -Brookings Institution
          -Rand Corporation
          -Government contracts
                -Brookings Institute

     Agency clearances
         -Department of Department
         -State Department
         -Estimates
         -Reduction to 10,000 clearances
         -New top secret classification
         -Executive Orders governing classifications

Also recorded on June 29, 1971

  • 006-025 4:32 PM · 14 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 4:32 pm and 5:03 pm.
  • 531-028 4:32 PM · 1 hr 10 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Manolo Sanchez, White House operator, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., Stephen B. Bull, John D. Ehrlichman, Clark MacGregor, Frederic V. Malek, Lawrence M. Higby, Mary Swann, and John N. Mitchell met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:32 pm to 5:50 pm.
  • 006-027 5:06 PM · 7 sec — H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 5:06 pm and 5:35 pm.
  • 006-028 5:06 PM · 59 sec — H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman and Clark MacGregor talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 5:06 pm and 5:35 pm.
  • 006-029 5:06 PM · 5 sec — H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 5:06 pm and 5:35 pm.
  • 006-030 5:06 PM · 53 sec — H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman and Frederic V. Malek talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 5:06 pm and 5:35 pm.
  • 006-031 5:06 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 5:06 pm and 5:35 pm.
  • 006-032 5:35 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Clark MacGregor talked on the telephone from 5:35 pm to 5:39 pm.

All 54 conversations from June 29, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 006-026, June 29, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/006-026 (accessed October 5, 2026).