Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 269-034
Date: Tuesday, August 3, 1971 at 1:47 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob")
Recording device: Old Executive Office Building
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/269-034

This transcript was made by an AI model listening to the recording (google/gemini-3.8-flash) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Speaker names are the model's inference. Verify against the audio before citing.

[4:16:24] HALDEMAN: Maybe it's not. 3:00? 3:30 is what Ziegler told him, apparently. 3:00.
[4:16:30] NIXON: Yeah, it was 4:00.
[4:16:32] HALDEMAN: Uh, Ziegler told him 3:30, and please hold until 4:00. Connally says Connally's taking it at 3:00.
[4:16:38] NIXON: The Tex-Texans expect it at 3:00. No, Connally says Connally's Texans expect it at 4:00. He says 3:00 his time.
[4:16:52] HALDEMAN: Jesus Christ. We put everything out, but we didn't send Ziegler at 3:00, I don't think. Also, 4:00 is the time that I had, and we don't have to worry about anymore.
[4:17:02] HALDEMAN: Well, again, then there's nothing. So, they're they're just making- I'm not gonna talk to Ziegler. No, they made up their own.
[4:17:11] NIXON: Not Ron, not Buchanan, not anybody else. Let him prepare a goddamn thing about ourself now. There's no reason to have these leaks. We can Buchanan just we don't have to tell Buchanan when the press conference is. We just tell him what what book he's to read.
[4:17:28] HALDEMAN: Well, Buchanan started calling around asking people if they had any idea of what's there because of the timing. Well,
[4:17:36] NIXON: I It is much better to go on without them, and a lot of that crap. I mean, you know, and it clutters up the room. Buchanan, is just too big a crowd. And, uh, Buchanan and hole,
[4:17:48] NIXON: and uh, Buchanan's a very useful.
[4:17:52] HALDEMAN: Don't let Ziegler question Connally. [unintelligible] Texas school teachers.
[4:18:01] NIXON: Right. Yeah, like you were saying. Can't be talkative here. And that's like saying that we have to is there some other way to for him and Ben to to kill to build, you know, like the Dallas Times?
[4:18:15] HALDEMAN: There what it boils down to is sir, you don't have to do it here, but, oh, it's better to do it, and get it done. It's better to do it in Austin than in Dallas. And, uh,
[4:18:31] HALDEMAN: you have the same problems in Dallas because that quarter doesn't get at the Austin.
[4:18:39] NIXON: [unintelligible]
[4:18:55] NIXON: [unintelligible]
[4:19:06] HALDEMAN: Well, Ron uh uh, John, the press about the press conference, thing that uh your point that events would fudge it up or would be one of uh we moved it to 2:30 or something like that. It's an odd time, but that's uh to force them to uh to applaud.
[4:19:26] NIXON: [unintelligible]
[4:19:48] HALDEMAN: You can fall out, so you either do it at a regular briefing time. What is regular time? 11:00? 11:00 or 4:00.
[4:19:56] NIXON: [unintelligible]
[4:19:59] HALDEMAN: Well, what about doing it at 3:00? Then you start the fallout at that.
[4:20:04] NIXON: [unintelligible]
[4:20:20] HALDEMAN: Yeah.
[4:20:27] HALDEMAN: Now what, it's it's sure. Uh, What about going to the to the uh big fool plan for it? Oh,
[4:20:47] HALDEMAN: Well, what did they have tomorrow to do? You can do it at 11:30 or 12:00.
[4:21:04] HALDEMAN: You could do it at 12:00. You could just stall them on what he's briefing on. They wake them up, what'd they say?
[4:21:16] HALDEMAN: You could do it at 12:00. Jerry went out at 11:00 instead. Jerry went out at 11:30, they sat around waiting for you anyway then, Jerry went out at 11:30 and said,