Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 046-098
Date: Thursday, May 17, 1973 at 3:11 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Buzhardt, J. Fred, Jr.; Ziegler, Ronald L.
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/046-098

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Hello?
[0:00] This is your doctor, sir.
[0:02] Great.
[0:02] How are you coming in?
[0:03] David, is it getting any in?
[0:04] Pretty good.
[0:05] I do not actually have any in hand yet, but I have them all working at the present.
[0:10] Give me a quick rundown, can you?
[0:11] All right, sir.
[0:12] I have Minnit and Gowler that are due in here in the morning.
[0:17] They're coming in, but they don't know what it's about yet.
[0:19] Yes, sir.
[0:20] I've got the plow to talk to them on secure plow and tell them that they had keynotes on the subject matter to bring them with them.
[0:28] Uh, Houston, I'm trying to get his prepared on the telephone.
[0:33] He told us where his notes were here.
[0:35] If any exist, we're looking for them.
[0:38] I'm working with him on the telephone to get his affidavit there.
[0:42] I've been following his...
[0:44] I found his note kit.
[0:45] Well, just have him get his ass on that phone from Indianapolis and get in here.
[0:49] All right, sir.
[0:51] We'll...
[0:51] There you go.
[0:52] We've got, uh...
[0:54] He has read it.
[0:56] He's going to bring the draft in here to me tonight.
[1:02] Of all his recollections, I have located, in addition to Sullivan, and Sullivan, as I say, is flying back from New Hampshire, a fellow named Miller and a fellow named Brennan at the Bureau worked on this.
[1:17] Brennan has files.
[1:19] He's searching his files.
[1:21] And affidavits from both of them.
[1:25] What are their recollections, if that's worth louder than we know?
[1:28] You know, the same thing we know already.
[1:31] But they seem to recollect the same thing, that it was approved and then disproved.
[1:36] Yes, sir.
[1:37] Approval and then withdrawn, basically.
[1:38] Yes, sir.
[1:40] It never really went.
[1:42] Right.
[1:43] It's the story we get everywhere.
[1:44] That's what we want to get.
[1:45] It's been inconsistent.
[1:47] That's what I want to know.
[1:48] I have Helms making an affidavit now.
[1:52] Well, have you found him?
[1:53] Because Al Haig can't reach him.
[1:55] Well, Jim Schlesinger reached him for me.
[1:58] Jim's getting it late.
[2:02] Helms, but does Helms have the same recollection?
[2:07] Jim tells me that nothing happened out there.
[2:10] That it never went.
[2:12] Now, we have found, and I'm fixing to call him over here, McManus in the situation room.
[2:17] assisted Houston.
[2:22] Houston track election and getting this thing turned off.
[2:27] So we're moving on the whole front.
[2:37] I hope before tomorrow night we have a whole series of affidavits set in time.
[2:43] Stuff.
[2:44] Be ready for them because then we're ready to fire with a big gun if we need to.
[2:49] Right.
[2:50] So we're good.
[2:51] What else is new?
[2:53] I guess that's good news that not too much more is popping today, Mr. President.
[2:59] That's the Urban Committee coming, that great big sideshow.
[3:02] It's interesting.
[3:04] I think...
[3:05] Frankly, we have finally managed to get the idea across to the newsmen, and I'm sure you knew we were working on this hard.
[3:12] They were going to mess up the trials.
[3:15] They went through with this thing.
[3:16] We've got a story in the Post this morning that discussed the implications of my hearings in connection with the...
[3:22] And we've got the television commentators actually talking about it as they go in their commentary.
[3:29] So we're beginning to get this idea surfaced.
[3:33] Well, I hope they mess the trials up, frankly, the way I feel about it now.
[3:39] We hope that this will keep surfacing as it goes along.
[3:43] Otherwise, it's moving along very well.
[3:47] All right.
[3:47] How about... Oh, one other thing.
[3:52] Ron just walked in.
[3:53] I just want to be sure I'm correct on this.
[3:55] We checked this business that you were concerned about so much this morning about that crazy doctor.
[4:02] Yes, sir.
[4:03] This man was never treated in New York or Philadelphia or Washington or anyplace else.
[4:08] He was treated only in Mayo Clinic and...
[4:12] Lawrence Hospital in St. Louis, so... You have no idea what this is about, Sal.
[4:16] Sal, we... Look, understand.
[4:18] Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
[4:20] That's not the way to look at it.
[4:21] Sure, we aren't interested.
[4:22] We're interested in the facts, of course.
[4:24] Right.
[4:24] But goddamn, this sort of thing should be put out.
[4:28] Do you understand?
[4:29] Yes, sir.
[4:29] Let's understand.
[4:30] This son of a bitch should be destroyed for this sort of thing.
[4:33] You get my point?
[4:34] Yes, sir.
[4:35] This is a crank letter, which we have hundreds, you know.
[4:39] Don't you agree?
[4:41] This is a crank litter, you know, where they write Al Haig and said that he was burglarized.
[4:46] Now, they made nothing out of the fact that they broke into my doctor's office twice, Fred, and photographed all of my medical files.
[4:54] Now, God damn it, here's a guy that says that two federal officers approached him.
[4:59] First, get the facts, but as soon as the facts get out, then leak them out in a proper way.
[5:04] Don't you agree?
[5:04] Yes, sir.
[5:05] Absolutely.
[5:05] I mean, play the game the way they play it.
[5:07] And we're fixing the record, you know.
[5:10] So we'll have a very complete run.
[5:11] That's the stuff, boy.
[5:12] Okay.
[5:13] We're being careful.
[5:14] Good luck.
[5:14] Good luck.
[5:15] Thank you, sir.