Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 167 › Conversation 167-029

Nixon phone call with Haig on Watergate and White Paper

Sunday, May 20, 1973 · 6:52 PM–6:55 PM ET · Camp David Study Table · 3 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haig, Alexander M., Jr.Conversation167-029 on Tape 167StartSunday, May 20, 1973 at 6:52 PMEndSunday, May 20, 1973 at 6:55 PMRecording deviceCamp David Study TableSourceNixon Library record for 167-029 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Alexander Haig discuss the ongoing development of a White House White Paper intended to address the Watergate scandal and associated controversies. Nixon emphasizes that the document must move away from a defensive tone, focusing instead on national security justifications and a more aggressive political posture. They agree to involve Patrick Buchanan in refining the draft's specifics while setting a firm strategy to reject talk of impeachment and confront political critics directly.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Names and numbers are often wrong; speakers are not identified. Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Al?
Yes, Mr. President.
Are you home?
No, sir.
We're going over this first cut.
Are you getting along?
Well, it needs a lot of work, yes.
Yeah.
But you're making progress, I hope.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Well, I'll be ready in the morning, and we'll just hack the thing out, you know, and hit the tough subjects and hit them all.
All right, good, sir.
We're going to try to get it straight in this thing.
It needs a lot of beefing up right now.
And he's beefing up particularly, I think, without knowing what you're doing, the fact that this is all for the national security, you know, hit that damned hard, you know.
That's one of the main criticisms I had.
That we put this whole so-called plumber's operation that was on national security value over it.
You know, we really did.
Well, that's right.
And that's pretty good in the paper, but we had to set the climate better than it's been set.
Yes.
And hit all the issues, hit the CIA thing.
My view about that is rather than putting out the papers, just stay to our side of it and let them put out the goddamn papers.
That's right.
And with regard to the...
Well, the other banners, I think with regard to the big paper, you know, the Dean paper, I don't think we ought to put the whole thing out.
Yeah, I don't either.
That's very irresponsible.
We'd be joining their club.
Yes, sir.
But put out the part that we want to and say, all right, if you want to, you're taking responsibility for it.
Exactly.
Because as far as the approach out, you still rather feel that the better approach is to hit it with the leaders hard.
Tuesday morning and put it out as a Tuesday afternoon statement.
Basically, is that what you have in mind at the moment or something else?
No, that would be the way.
It's still got to be better from my point of view.
And this is a question of working intensively to get these things put in.
I don't want it defensive, and it has a little tone of defensiveness right now.
Yeah, I know.
And we need more specifics.
Yes.
Yeah.
Is Buchanan working on some of that detailed stuff?
Yes.
He's got a lot of information on this, you know.
That's right.
Right.
Well, the main thing I want to tell you as a soldier is this, that I've thought a lot about this all day long, and the...
reporter is come hell or high water fight all the way absolutely do you agree all the way now that's it you tell all these people that and particularly bazaar and so forth that no more talk about uh impeachment and all the rest the hell with that we are fighting to the end we're going to beat the bastards that's that's exactly what that's got to be the tone of this that's that's don't you or do you agree i agree completely and i think uh
is to get a very strong environmental setting for this thing.
That's right, pal.
And we can do a hell of a lot better than the first cut at it.
Okay, boy.
Thank you.
Bye.
See you tomorrow at 9 o'clock.
Yes, sir.

NARA Description

On May 20, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. talked on the telephone at Camp David from 6:52 pm to 6:55 pm. The Camp David Study Table taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 167-029 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 167-29

Date: May 20, 1973
Time: 6:52 pm - 6:55 pm
Location: Camp David Study Table

The President talked with Alexander M. Haig, Jr.

     Haig’s location

     Watergate
          -White House response
               -Forthcoming White Paper
                     -Preparation
                                             -27-

                  NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                                              Conversation No. 167-29 (cont’d)

                        -President’s schedule
                        -Content
                              -National security
                              -Central Intelligence Agency [CIA]
                              -Huston plan
                                    -Release of selected portions
                        -President’s possible meeting with congressional leaders
                        -Content and wording
                              -Patrick J. Buchanan
                 -J. Fred Buzhardt, Jr.
                 -Context

     President’s schedule

Also recorded on May 20, 1973

  • 167-023 3:35 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator talked on the telephone at Camp David at an unknown time between 3:35 pm and 3:36 pm.
  • 167-024 3:36 PM · 14 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles G. ("Bebe") Rebozo talked on the telephone at Camp David from 3:36 pm to 3:37 pm.
  • 167-025 4:11 PM · 10 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone at Camp David from 4:11 pm to 4:21 pm.
  • 167-026 4:21 PM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator talked on the telephone at Camp David at an unknown time between 4:21 pm and 5:30 pm.
  • 167-027 5:30 PM · 12 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone at Camp David from 5:30 pm to 5:41 pm.
  • 167-028 5:44 PM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator talked on the telephone at Camp David at an unknown time between 5:44 pm and 6:52 pm.
  • 167-030 6:55 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator talked on the telephone at Camp David at an unknown time between 6:55 pm and 7:05 pm.
  • 167-031 7:05 PM · 14 sec — Camp David operator and President Richard M. Nixon talked on the telephone at Camp David at 7:05 pm.

All 27 conversations from May 20, 1973 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 167-029, May 20, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/167-029 (accessed October 12, 2026).