{"conversationCode":"006-062","tapeNumber":6,"conversationNumber":62,"identifier":"37-wht-conversation-006-062","startDateTime":"1971-06-30T23:22:00.000Z","endDateTime":"1971-06-30T23:27:00.000Z","startDate":"30-Jun-1971","startTime":"7:22 PM","endDate":"30-Jun-1971","endTime":"7:27 PM","dateCertainty":"certain","timeCertainty":"certain","participants":"Nixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. (\"Bob\");","description":"On June 30, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. (\"Bob\") Haldeman talked on the telephone from 7:22 pm to 7:27 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 006-062 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":"Abuse of Governmental Power Release","aogpSegment":"Segment 0","lastModified":"2015-07-27T17:04:10.235Z","findingAid":"Conversation No. 6-62\n\nDate: June 30, 1971\nTime: 7:22 pm - 7:27 pm\nLocation: White House Telephone\n\nThe President talked with H.R. (“Bob”) Haldeman.\n\n     Melvin R. Laird\n\n     John D. Ehrlichman\n          -Forthcoming conversation with Haldeman\n          -John A. Scali, Leonard Garment\n          -Patrick J. Buchanan\n\n     Pentagon Papers\n          -Laird\n                -Break-in of Brookings Institution\n          -White House staff\n                -Tom Charles Huston\n                -John W. Dean III\n\n     Elliot L. Richardson\n           -Conversation with Haldeman\n           -Unknown man\n\n     Daniel Ellsberg\n          -Family\n          -Marriage\n\n******************************************************************************\n\n[Previous PRMPA Privacy (D) reviewed under deed of gift 05/08/2023. Segment cleared for\nrelease.]\n[Privacy]\n[006-062-w001]\n[Duration: 5s]\n\n     Daniel Ellsberg\n          -Marriage\n                -Patricia Marx\n                      -Father-in-law Louis Marx\n\n******************************************************************************\n\n     President's conversation with Charles W. Colson\n           -Crime issue\n\n     Television coverage of story\n\n     Pentagon Papers\n          -John N. Mitchell\n          -Reaction to Supreme Court decision\n          -Security issue\n          -Administration's response\n          -Haldeman's forthcoming conversation with Ehrlichman\n          -Freedom of the press\n          -Scali, Garment","filename":["006-062.mp3"],"tapeStart":"01:09:52","tapeEnd":"01:14:55","participantsList":["Nixon, Richard M. (President)","Haldeman, H. R. (\"Bob\")"],"prevCode":"006-061","nextCode":"006-063","transcript":[{"start":1.48,"end":3.96,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":3.98,"end":4.22,"text":"The hardest."},{"start":4.25,"end":4.33,"text":"Bob?"},{"start":4.34,"end":4.45,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":4.46,"end":29.35,"text":"First, the way that the layer thing is going to be handled, I guess, is that he's got to handle it."},{"start":29.37,"end":29.81,"text":"He's not a good story."},{"start":29.83,"end":30.27,"text":"He's not a good story."},{"start":30.29,"end":30.73,"text":"He's not a good story."},{"start":30.75,"end":31.15,"text":"Second point is that"},{"start":31.91,"end":50.24,"text":"But on the other hand, I want you to tell him that, because I know that you're going to have Scali and Garmin."},{"start":50.26,"end":50.98,"text":"I've decided on the hard line on it."},{"start":51,"end":60.53,"text":"Maybe you've got to get the hard line with regard to this thing, rather than the line that just came out."},{"start":60.98,"end":82.25,"text":"and I want John to develop his thoughts along that line."},{"start":82.27,"end":83.05,"text":"I'm not sure I should make a statement."},{"start":83.07,"end":83.79,"text":"I'm not sure I should at this point."},{"start":83.81,"end":84.33,"text":"But, you know what I mean?"},{"start":84.35,"end":85.23,"text":"This may be, you want to let it ride, right?"},{"start":85.25,"end":87.1,"text":"Most important is we've got to know in this layer, oh, they've got a huge espionage network."},{"start":87.12,"end":87.64,"text":"We've got to look at them."},{"start":87.66,"end":88.46,"text":"We've got to look at their institutions."},{"start":88.48,"end":89.14,"text":"We've got to look at their files."},{"start":89.16,"end":89.86,"text":"We've got to look at their screens."},{"start":96.5,"end":113.99,"text":"Also, we've got to get all of this information regarding the cops."},{"start":114.01,"end":114.27,"text":"I don't know."},{"start":114.29,"end":115.86,"text":"I guess we don't have anybody on our staff that's working on this other thing."},{"start":115.88,"end":116.17,"text":"Except Houston."},{"start":116.2,"end":116.9,"text":"We've got a team can in this group."},{"start":116.92,"end":118.92,"text":"Well, but do they understand how we want to play the game?"},{"start":119.7,"end":121.96,"text":"Can you tell them?"},{"start":121.98,"end":123.53,"text":"They know how tough it has to be playing?"},{"start":123.55,"end":123.63,"text":"Yes."},{"start":124.86,"end":130.24,"text":"Dean, you say?"},{"start":132.91,"end":140.07,"text":"Yeah, I think what we may want to do is..."},{"start":140.09,"end":144.44,"text":"Better have two pockets."},{"start":144.46,"end":144.82,"text":"It's a tough game."},{"start":144.84,"end":148.67,"text":"Now, the Richardson thing is terribly important."},{"start":148.69,"end":149.01,"text":"What did he say?"},{"start":149.03,"end":149.95,"text":"He said, fine, he would get him in right away."},{"start":149.97,"end":151.01,"text":"He then started telling me what a fine fellow he is."},{"start":151.03,"end":151.23,"text":"All right."},{"start":151.25,"end":152.01,"text":"I don't know about that."},{"start":152.03,"end":153.41,"text":"The point is, we have got to find out if he did that."},{"start":153.43,"end":153.51,"text":"Yep."},{"start":153.59,"end":155.34,"text":"Oh, I told him."},{"start":167.37,"end":168.03,"text":"You told him it's ready to break."},{"start":168.05,"end":174.1,"text":"I told him the story may break tomorrow, but they've got a hot story on it, and then we've got to get the guy in it, because it could really blow up into a big one."},{"start":174.12,"end":176.66,"text":"We've got to get him in and find out what the story is."},{"start":176.68,"end":179.78,"text":"And then, see, it's just the type of guy that would be bad, father and admiral, gone to Harvard, you know, one of that sort of thing, you know what I mean?"},{"start":179.8,"end":180.22,"text":"He gets brainwashed."},{"start":180.24,"end":181.31,"text":"That's just the kind of Bob we're going to find."},{"start":181.91,"end":187.46,"text":"Ellsworth probably comes from a good family."},{"start":187.48,"end":195.45,"text":"I don't think he's too surprised."},{"start":195.47,"end":197.83,"text":"Well, he married into a good family."},{"start":197.85,"end":199.2,"text":"He sure did."},{"start":199.22,"end":199.3,"text":"See?"},{"start":199.32,"end":199.42,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":199.44,"end":209.13,"text":"The other thing, I've already talked to Colson on, of course, we unfortunately destroyed the Monday, but I do hope that we are able to continue to hit our prime thing now that we've started this."},{"start":209.15,"end":209.27,"text":"Right."},{"start":209.73,"end":210.53,"text":"I'm sure that we'll get to do something."},{"start":217.03,"end":231.48,"text":"Did you see any of the television?"},{"start":231.5,"end":232.98,"text":"Okay, well, I'm glad you got Richardson."},{"start":233,"end":233.56,"text":"Let's follow through on it."},{"start":233.58,"end":236.29,"text":"In the morning, I think we'd better get together in turns after I run the meeting."},{"start":236.31,"end":236.87,"text":"We'll get together in turns."},{"start":236.89,"end":243.03,"text":"And do I understand, in terms of getting this whole, we've got to get it steamed at all."},{"start":243.05,"end":243.68,"text":"But I decided on the hard line."},{"start":243.69,"end":244.18,"text":"I'm going to go on that."},{"start":244.19,"end":246.9,"text":"And rather than just turning it all over because it's... You see, John Mitchell is obviously..."},{"start":247.89,"end":255.5,"text":"I don't care about the repression issue."},{"start":255.52,"end":258.35,"text":"I'm not concerned one damn bit about a time before that."},{"start":258.37,"end":260.65,"text":"I don't think that hurts us politically at all."},{"start":260.67,"end":270.75,"text":"If we can make a security issue about it, that's what we have to do."},{"start":270.77,"end":271.73,"text":"If we throw in the towel, we'll lose both."},{"start":271.75,"end":273.63,"text":"Okay, well, I'll go over that with John, and we'll see what he does."},{"start":273.65,"end":273.75,"text":"Good."},{"start":273.77,"end":275.11,"text":"Tell John Ehrlichman when he gets back."},{"start":277.54,"end":291.07,"text":"going to go with a complete cave-in on the whole security system as a result of this."},{"start":291.09,"end":294.29,"text":"I mean, very strict, very tough, bite-off, invincible thing."},{"start":294.31,"end":295.53,"text":"Not concerned."},{"start":295.55,"end":297.46,"text":"Don't get the freedom of the press."},{"start":297.48,"end":301.83,"text":"Don't listen to Scali and the people like that, you know, who are, etc., who will be, and they should be, they will be terribly concerned because they're under enormous pressures."},{"start":301.85,"end":303.63,"text":"But that is not my view."},{"start":303.65,"end":303.75,"text":"Okay."}],"aiSummary":{"text":"President Nixon and H.R. Haldeman discuss the administration’s aggressive strategy regarding the release of the Pentagon Papers and the subsequent national security implications. Nixon explicitly directs Haldeman to adopt a 'hard line' approach, rejecting concerns over press freedom and potential political backlash in favor of framing the situation as a critical security issue. Furthermore, the two coordinate efforts to investigate Daniel Ellsberg and potential institutional espionage, with Nixon tasking his staff—specifically John Dean and Tom Charles Huston—with executing a tough, decisive response.","topics":["Pentagon Papers","National Security","Daniel Ellsberg","Freedom of the Press","White House Staff","Espionage"],"generatedAt":"2026-04-05T22:11:21.125Z"},"topicSlugs":["pentagon-papers","national-security","daniel-ellsberg","freedom-of-the-press","white-house-staff","espionage"],"audioDurationSec":304,"audioFiles":[{"file":"006-062.mp3","bytes":7291685,"durationSec":303.72,"bitrate":192066,"missing":false}],"audioIsShared":false,"audioProbedAt":"2026-09-18T02:19:21.079Z","transcriptGapSeconds":64,"transcriptGapShare":0.21,"transcriptQuality":"incomplete","audio":["https://nixon.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/audio/006-062.mp3"],"url":"https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/006-062","nixonLibraryUrl":"https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/white-house-tapes/6/conversation-006-062","license":"Public domain (U.S. Government work). AI-generated fields (transcript, aiSummary) are provided as-is without warranty."}