Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 44 › Conversation 044-071

Ehrlichman phone call on Watergate and Howard H. Baker, Jr.

Thursday, March 29, 1973 · 3:30 PM–4:05 PM ET · White House Telephone · 10 min

ParticipantsEhrlichman, John D.; White House operatorConversation044-071 on Tape 44StartThursday, March 29, 1973 at 3:30 PMEndThursday, March 29, 1973 at 4:05 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 044-071 ↗

AI Summary

John D. Ehrlichman calls Senator Howard H. Baker, Jr. to establish a formal channel of communication between the White House and the Senate Select Committee on Watergate, following a directive from President Nixon. The participants discuss logistical challenges in scheduling a meeting with Senator Sam Ervin, who is currently away for his brother's funeral. Baker expresses concern regarding the lack of centralized coordination within the White House, prompting Ehrlichman to confirm that he has been tasked with overseeing the administration's response to the committee's inquiries.

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Transcript (AI-generated)

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Did you get Senator, this is John Ehrlichman, did you get Senator Howard Baker for me, please?
Yes, sir.
I can hold if you want.
All right, all right.
Did you say this was Mr. Ehrlichman?
Yes.
Oh, I thought so, thanks.
Hmm.
He's out of the office, but she says she'll try to locate him momentarily.
And what, have him call?
Yes, sir.
I'm going to wait myself.
I don't know whether you want to.
I'll wait, too.
I've got a report back.
Yes, sir.
All right.
Mm-hmm.
I'm still waiting.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Hello.
How are you?
I'm pretty good.
Good.
And the Vice President talked with the President today, and the President in turn asked me to call you about the concern that apparently you expressed to the Vice President.
He suggested that I suggest to you that perhaps you and Senator Urban would sit down with me and talk through the concerns that the Select Committee has
Hope that we could work out some kind of a mutually agreeable procedure.
All right.
Our problem is that we're supposed to take off for this two meeting out in California tomorrow noon.
Yeah, Irvin's not going to be back until next week anyway.
He's gone.
His brother died in his funeral yesterday.
Oh.
He said he wasn't coming back until Sunday night.
I see.
Well, now...
um i can i can wait around here till next week or i could talk to you now and uh no i think really in view of the sensitivity of it you know and like that you really ought to do it well it gives them thought to how to approach it okay john and i my preference would be if you don't mind that you call urban
You're going to California this week?
I'm supposed to go tomorrow.
And be back when?
We're supposed to be gone all next week.
All right.
I don't think it's that big a rush, frankly.
I think if you don't mind that you might call Irvin from wherever you are on Monday and tell him that you and I talked today and that I suggested that you wait until he got back and then contact him directly and that we negotiate a time and a weather.
together now.
He may say that he's disinclined to do that because we ran into a buzzsaw and he and I met with Klein Deans and Little Riker, you know, and other staff to ask about making agreements in their instance on accessibility of FBI raw data.
So I'm not sure what Irvin's attitude will be except that I would report that his sensibilities are still all right and he wants to try to be civil and decent.
so uh if that accords with your ideas why don't you call irvin monday i'll do it feel free to tell him that we talked today and i suggested that i'll be here so someone can follow on and let me know what's decided then well uh you would you uh you'd be available to meet with us jointly i'd take it uh okay and and that would be of course preferable from our standpoint well it'd be preferable for mine too but uh you know whatever you all negotiate fine with me i see
Okay.
But you think this is the first step as a way to proceed?
Yeah, I think that is.
And it may be that the contact won't produce a conference.
It may be it produces an alternative suggestion by Irvin.
I don't know that.
Okay.
Well, we'll open conversations Monday then.
And if you think, if my availability to you would serve any purpose, I'm available.
For the same token, I'm available.
Okay.
I have had vibrations that you were concerned that you didn't have anybody that you could, you know, talk to down here.
And if that's so...
and you wish to, I'm available to you.
No, that's not quite right.
The vibration I got was emanating.
To be frank, John, and I'm not being critical, I was afraid that nobody's really in charge.
I kept getting information and feedback from three or four different sources.
It certainly dawned on me no one person's calling these shots.
I get you.
Well, that's what concerns me.
You will probably continue to get that sense of it because there are a great many people who are sort of first-party concerned around somebody, John.
Somebody needs to be in a position to have a broad overview of every piece of this puzzle.
Well, apparently, as of this afternoon, I'm the fall guy.
I'm delighted.
And so I don't know what's gone before, but the president said that he listened to the vice president loud and clear, and he called me in and said, I'd like you to get into this.
And so that's the reason for this telephone call.
Okay.
And finally, to reiterate what I'm sure your other conversation had already reflected, I have grave doubts that what the Vice President described to me will flow.
But we can talk about that at a more appropriate time.
Well, that's the reason we've got to talk, I guess, is to find out.
Feel free any time, John.
Thank you very much, Howard.
I appreciate it.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir.

NARA Description

On March 29, 1973, John D. Ehrlichman and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 3:30 pm and 4:05 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 044-071 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 044-071

Date: March 29, 1973
Time: Unknown between 3:30 pm and 4:05 pm
Location: White House Telephone

John D. Ehrlichman talked with the White House operator.

       Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, NARA Online Public Access Catalog Identifier: 597542

       Call to Howard H. Baker, Jr.

       Baker's location

       Return call

Ehrlichman talked with Baker at an unknown time between 3:30 pm and 4:05 pm.

       Watergate
            -President’s talk with Vice President Spiro T. Agnew
                  -Baker’s talk with Agnew
            -Proposed meeting between Baker, Samuel J. Ervin, Jr., and Ehrlichman
                  -Ground rules for Select Committee
                  -Ehrlichman’s schedule
                  -Ervin’s schedule
                         -Brother’s funeral
                  -Ehrlichman’s forthcoming call to Ervin
                         -Ehrlichman’s talk with Baker
                  -Baker’s and Ervin’s meeting with Richard G. Kleindienst
                         -Lowell P. Weicker, Jr.’s reaction
                         -Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] data
                         -Arrangements
                  -Ervin’s attitude
                  -Result

       Baker
               -Liaison with White House
               -Responsibility in White House
                     -Delegation
               -Conversation with Agnew

Also recorded on March 29, 1973

  • 426-004 2:45 PM · 1 hr 21 min — President Richard M. Nixon, John D. Ehrlichman, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, White House operator, Ronald L. Ziegler, John W. Dean, III, and Marjorie P. Acker met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:45 pm to 4:20 pm.
  • 044-068 2:46 PM · 42 sec — H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 2:46 pm and 3:01 pm.
  • 044-069 2:46 PM · 7 min — H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 2:46 pm and 3:01 pm.
  • 044-070 3:30 PM · 1 min — H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 3:30 pm and 4:05 pm.
  • 426-005 4:20 PM · 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 4:20 pm and 4:45 pm.
  • 044-072 4:45 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 4:45 pm and 4:53 pm.
  • 426-006 4:45 PM · 9 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 4:45 pm and 4:53 pm.
  • 044-073 4:53 PM · 18 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 4:53 pm.

All 77 conversations from March 29, 1973 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 044-071, March 29, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/044-071 (accessed October 1, 2026).