Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 039-035
Date: Tuesday, May 29, 1973 at 9:23 PM
Participants: White House operator; Nixon, Richard M. (President); Haig, Alexander M., Jr.
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/039-035

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Hello.
[0:01] General Haig, sir.
[0:02] Yes.
[0:05] Hello.
[0:05] Yes, sir.
[0:05] Hi, Al.
[0:07] Sir, I talked to both men.
[0:11] In the case of Bill, I told him to handle it exactly as we discussed.
[0:15] And he seemed very satisfied.
[0:17] Right.
[0:18] And he did say, well, let's, on the timing of the announcement, he said that
[0:24] Let's just wait a little bit about that so we do it at the right time in the context of the— Watergate.
[0:31] Yeah, exactly.
[0:32] Well, that's all right.
[0:33] Well, I said yes or fine.
[0:35] It'll be end of July or by the first of August, and then we'll count on the other Labor Day.
[0:42] And he didn't ask about Henry, and that's just fine.
[0:46] And I said, I don't think we should discuss this.
[0:49] It's just between the two of us.
[0:51] That's right.
[0:53] And there will be no discussion here about it with anyone.
[0:56] Good, good.
[0:57] Then I talked to Mel.
[0:59] Right.
[1:00] And he said he was just shocked at this, that he really hadn't thought about it or thought about coming back in so soon.
[1:15] He'd like to think about it, and we'd come up to Camp David Saturday morning.
[1:21] I think he's— You don't think he'd go to Iceland, though?
[1:24] No, I asked him that.
[1:25] He said if he did that, it would cause a hell of a stir.
[1:28] Right, right, okay.
[1:30] But I have a feeling— He probably enjoyed being asked, though.
[1:33] I have a feeling he'll come.
[1:35] I may be wrong, but I have that feeling.
[1:39] Did you mention that to him in terms of counselor for the domestic czar and the inside group?
[1:45] Yes.
[1:45] And I said Bryce was coming and he would be a floating commissar, but that he would have—that email would have total responsibility for the whole domestic side.
[1:56] And that the NSC was available, too, if he wanted to participate in that as a member.
[2:05] He said, well, he said, you know, quite frankly, he said, I just didn't know what the hell was going on for the last year and a half.
[2:11] He said, I said, well, I just want you to know that I've talked to the president about this, and he feels he'd be very enthusiastic about your coming, and he needs you.
[2:26] And that I don't think we can afford to have any postmortems.
[2:31] I said, it's one thing to be a member of a cabinet,
[2:34] And another thing to be a member of the inner council of the White House, right?
[2:39] And a member of the cabinet.
[2:41] Right, exactly.
[2:42] Right.
[2:44] So he was quite enthusiastic about it.
[2:48] Okay, good.
[2:49] So I think we have a very good possibility of this one coming up.
[2:54] Well, we'll get him up there Saturday morning and put it right to him strong.
[2:57] Yes, sir.
[2:59] So in the meantime, I'll get Baruti to work on him, because also another one you might call Bryce.
[3:06] I'll call Bryce, too.
[3:08] Bryce is very close to him and say, look, this is the only thing, and see if he'll work on it.
[3:12] If Bryce could come up Saturday morning, too, that would be a good idea, you know.
[3:16] Good.
[3:17] Okay.
[3:17] We'll all work him over.
[3:19] All right.
[3:19] Fine.
[3:20] Okay.
[3:21] All right, sir.
[3:22] Thank you.
[3:25] Good.