Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 37 › Conversation 037-109

Nixon, Dean & Ziegler on Watergate and FBI files

Wednesday, March 14, 1973 · 4:34 PM–4:36 PM ET · White House Telephone · 2 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Dean, John W., III; Ziegler, Ronald L.Conversation037-109 on Tape 37StartWednesday, March 14, 1973 at 4:34 PMEndWednesday, March 14, 1973 at 4:36 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 037-109 ↗ · National Archives Catalog, NAID 417195351 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon, John Dean, and Ron Ziegler discussed the administration's policy on providing FBI raw files to congressional committees. Nixon expressed frustration with agency responsiveness and emphasized the need to "shake them up." Dean clarified that while formal submissions of raw files were unprecedented, informal access had been granted in past cases, such as the Valachi and Harry Dexter White cases, without leaks. The discussion centered on whether congressional committees should be allowed to formally receive and record such sensitive information.

Watergate
FBI files
Congressional access
John Dean
Ronald Ziegler
Richard Nixon
Agency responsiveness
Informal file access

Audio

Download MP3 · 0.9 MB

NARA Description

On March 14, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, John W. Dean, III, and Ronald L. Ziegler talked on the telephone from 4:34 pm to 4:36 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 037-109 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 37-109
                                            - 79 -

                            NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY

Date: March 14, 1973
Time: 4:34 pm-4:36 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with John W. Dean, III. The President and Ronald L. Ziegler conferred
during the conversation.

[See Conversation No. 419-34C]

       Watergate
             -Comments on agencies' responsiveness
             -Congressional access to Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] raw files
                   -James O. Eastland
                           -Judicial hearings
                   -John J. McClellan
                           -Joseph Valachi case
                   -Harry Dexter White case
                   -J. Edgar Hoover's policy
                           -Public statement by the administration

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript was made by an AI model listening to the recording (gemini-3.8-flash) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Speaker names are the model's inference from the voices and the participant list. Words and names can still be wrong — verify against the audio and the finding aid before citing.

Download transcript (.txt) · JSON data

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OperatorAll right, sir.

NixonWho is this?

OperatorDean. Thank you, just a moment.

NixonCan't get action around here unless you kick 'em in the ass. [chuckles] This business, you know, of these agencies taking two or three days to get a response to a simple little question like that. Now they know what the answer is. Hello?

ZieglerShake 'em up a little.

OperatorMr. Dean, sir.

NixonOkay. Yeah.

DeanThe, uh, unless I get a counter information upon further checking, the the answer is no, there have been no formal uh submissions of FBI material like this ever before. Have however, been informal.

NixonIn other words, what they mean is if they have never formally turned over raw files to a committee, though informally they have taken the files up and shown them to Jim Eastland, when he, for example, is conducting a judge, that I understand.

DeanYeah. And they have let McClellan and his investigative committee come down and look at, uh for example, the Valachi case.

NixonThat's right. They can look they can look at files informally.

DeanApparently so, or in the Harry Dexter White case, uh, files available that time.

NixonMm-hmm.

DeanBut, uh, as a formal turning over as in this instance, there is

NixonYeah. And so in other words, we have been, Mr. Dean has been very forthcoming in turning over uh information of this type to a committee.

DeanNow the committee really shouldn't use it then, should it? It shouldn't put it in a record, they shouldn't.

NixonThat's the point. What I'm getting at is this: I'm going to say that it was always Mr. Hoover's practice never to turn over formal, formally to a committee, because he knew this, and he would only do it on a, on, on a basis of uh total security

Deanfor the purpose of conducting investigations and so forth. And there has never been a leak

NixonAnd never been and there's never been a leak of those, of those things before.

DeanThat's right.

NixonAnd it's it's, uh, therefore, we think that this should be reevaluated in terms of that, huh?

DeanMhm.

NixonOkay, well, keep him scared over there.

DeanYes, sir.

Also recorded on March 14, 1973

037-105 4:09 PM · 18 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler talked on the telephone from 4:09 pm to 4:10 pm.
419-032 4:09 PM · 17 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 4:09 pm to 4:10 pm.
037-106 4:10 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 4:10 pm and 4:25 pm.
037-107 4:10 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 4:10 pm and 4:25 pm.
419-033 4:10 PM · 14 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 4:10 pm and 4:25 pm.
037-108 4:25 PM · 39 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and John W. Dean, III talked on the telephone from 4:25 pm to 4:26 pm.
419-034 4:25 PM · 1 hr 10 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Ronald L. Ziegler, White House operator, John W. Dean, III, Manolo Sanchez, and Henry A. Kissinger met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 4:25 pm to 5:40 pm.
419-035 5:40 PM · 16 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 5:40 pm.

All 53 conversations from March 14, 1973 →

Nixon, Dean & Ziegler on Watergate and FBI files March 16, 1973 · 50 min
Nixon & Dean on Watergate investigation and Executive privilege March 1, 1973 · 10 min
Nixon phone call with Kleindienst on Watergate and L. Patrick Gray March 1, 1973 · 7 min
Nixon, Eisenhower & Camp David Operator on Leonid Brezhnev June 19, 1973 · 4 min
Nixon, Dean & Moore on Watergate and Executive Privilege March 19, 1973 · 22 min
Nixon, Dean & Sanchez on Congressional investigations and Watergate March 1, 1973 · 26 min

Cite this conversation

Conversation 037-109, March 14, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives (NAID 417195351). Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/037-109 (accessed November 2, 2026).