Nixon phone call with Rogers on Personnel Appointments and Watergate

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Bill, I talked to Dave Packard.

Is he over to see you yet?

No, he's coming over at 11.

Yeah.

His problem is the stock.

He seems to think it's almost insoluble.

And I said, well, Dave, we just need you, et cetera, et cetera.

And I put it to him very hard.

He's going to talk to you, to Elliot, and have lunch with Stennis.

But I don't know...

But you can tell him about the stock, Bill.

It's so complicated that I don't understand it, and you probably won't understand it.

Well, I think I will.

I talked to Ken Rush about the problem he had with the stock, and I think it's somewhat the same.

And I know the way Dave did it last time.

But he says the law has changed now or something.

I see.

Where he gave it all to charity, you mean?

Yeah.

What he did before was he agreed that all the dividends in the stock and any capital appreciation while he was in office would be given to charity.

Yeah.

Now, incidentally, if we can't make him, if we can't get him, you know what I mean, if it really comes down to it, I really think the only other choice is Rush.

I mean, that's a tough one for it.

Well, do you have any other thoughts?

No, I don't.

He doesn't really want it.

Of course.

Well, many people don't want things they have to do.

Isn't that correct?

That's right.

Well, let me talk to him and see.

I think Dave would be better.

I don't think Ken...

Ken's a good man, and I like him very much, and he's good over here.

He's not strong enough for that.

I know what you mean.

He didn't get along too well up there.

I talked to A-Bear.

I mean, I talked to George.

But they, though, lean on him terribly hard.

I told him that I called you and I was very distressed about this, and I just got to work this stock thing out.

Mr. President, I talked to Johnny Burns, and that's not possible, although he was very pleased about it.

He had a conflict problem I'd forgotten about with Bobby Baker one time, and he says he doesn't want that revised.

All right, got it.

The other thing, I talked to Bryce Harlow a little bit.

I didn't use your name, but I talked to him generally.

I think he probably would do something if you asked him.

Any other suggestions?

How about Ed Walsh for counsel?

It'd be great if he'd do it.

Gosh, if he'd do it, he'd be a great man to have around.

Yeah, he's... Well, he's such a mature, decent man.

He's a nice fellow to work with, too.

The only problem I see there is he was...

Yes, ITT.

ITT, but I don't think...

He doesn't have to have confirmation, and everybody knows that he's a fine man, and the fact that he happened to have a...

He didn't do anything wrong.

I don't think his name came out.

How did it come out, Bill?

I forgot.

He did something with, he went down to see Mitchell or Kleindienst or something in connection with other things.

It looked as if he was trying to get

You know, it's darn near impossible to find anybody who hasn't done—I mean, either has to be a moron or either a pauper or a thief.

Even priests are running around with women these days.

Well, I don't mind running around.

That's what they do.

But Ed Walsh, of course, is just exactly the kind of person you would want.

Why don't you call him and ask him to come down?

If I did it, he'd think that I was pushing him.

But if you call him, you know him.

Hell, you— Yeah.

But I'll tell you what.

I thought I would try to get away for this weekend, which I think you think is a good idea.

Sure, I do.

And then maybe under your—I might call him.

I don't want to do anything in a hell of a hurry right now— That's right.

—on that point.

Well, keep in mind, he would be a—I think he's

He's probably better qualified than anybody I know.

He's been Deputy Attorney General and did a hell of a lot of work with the Congress.

He's well regarded by the Congress.

He was a federal judge.

He was a lawyer for Dewey.

He was counsel for the Crime Commission when they investigated the waterfront in New York.

So he's had a very varied experience.

Yes, yes.

Oh, listen, listen, Mike.

My respect for him, as you know, is just enormous.

I never forget when we had the lunch at Saldabra.

That's right.

You had the chocolate ice cream with chocolate sauce.

Or vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce, sorry.

When are you going to leave?

About 1 o'clock.

Well, I'll do the very best I can.

I do appreciate your calling Johnny Burns.

It was thoughtful.

I bet he would probably like being asked.

Oh, he was very pleased.

Bryce... Bryce...

sort of said well but he said he had problems financial problems and he hoped you wouldn't do it wouldn't ask him and so forth but he he was pleased okay um again i think that george bush is is certainly available he's available that's just a hell of a problem to know what to do to move him around right i was talking to john conley i called john to congratulate him oh did you yeah what'd he say oh he was pleased that took guts on his part but you know what he did i just sort of thought

It was guts in a way, but it's also a typical Connolly move.

He bought at the bottom of the market.

Yeah.

And now he's got no place to go but up and up.

But Agnew's practically grinding his teeth.

Yeah.

Agnew made a good crack about it.

Well, first Agnew put out a good statement last night, I thought, about Connolly.

Did he?

Yeah, but then he made a—did you hear what he said?

No, no, I didn't.

I've been a little busy.

He made a speech over in the press—he got a Man of the Year award in the Press Association over in Baltimore, and he made a speech, a humorous speech.

And he said he hoped that John would realize his fondest dreams, he said, just the way John Lindsay did.

Okay.

Let me just know if you could get Packard, just say, let's just work it out, okay?

Yeah, say, one other thing.

The vice president did call me yesterday, and he was a little unhappy about his conversation with Ken Cole.

I don't know the nuances, but apparently he would like to,

Well, what it was, which I must have a talk with him, is this, that he, when I said he would be vice chairman, he came over and said that he now wanted to approve all members of the staff of the council and so forth.

Well, of course, he can't do that.

I mean, you know what I mean?

I'm not delegating any responsibilities like that to him.

I think that's what the argument was about.

Oh, I see.

Well, I think that there ought to be some way to work that out to give them a little more opportunity to call meetings and things like that.

Oh, he can do that.

All right.

And to be active in it.

I'll work it out.

Don't you worry about that one.

That's just internecine warfare.

Yeah, I understand.

But I wasn't going to work it out.

I just passed the message.

I told him it had nothing to do with it.

I know.

Let me see.

Well, I guess nothing else.

Oh, I know.

On the Latin American trip, when I talked to Conley, he asked me about it.

And I told him that I wasn't sure.

And I said, I'm a little concerned about changing direction now because we don't want it to appear that the government sort of bogged down.

And he said he agreed with that.

So I think maybe I better go ahead with it.

Well, I've got it in my little radio talk today.

You know, I'm making a little radio talk for five minutes today.

that you will soon embark on a trip.

Is that right?

Yeah, I think I better go as planned, though.

Right.

I agree, Bill.

All right.

And also, these things are going to pass.

What the hell?

Sure.

I mean, my God.

I mean, they're going to screw around now about the...

Why did they break in the site garage or something?

Everybody's going to think, well, what the hell stupid thing was that?

Yeah.

God damn.

Well, these things are going to come out and there's no way to stop it.

There's no reason, no, we shouldn't attempt to stop it.

That's right.

And you've made it clear you don't want to stop.

That's right.

So it's going to be unpleasant as hell while we're going through it.

That's right.

In the meantime, we want to keep the government working.

That's right.

All right, Mr. Button, have a little rest.

Thanks, Bill.

Fine, bye.

Nixon phone call with Rogers on Personnel Appointments and Watergate

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on May 3, 1973

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