Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 325 › Conversation 325-001
Nixon, Haldeman & Haig on Foreign Trade and White House Staff
Tuesday, March 14, 1972 · 4:55 PM–5:52 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building
AI Summary
President Nixon met with key advisors, including H. R. Haldeman, Alexander Haig, and John Ehrlichman, to discuss a range of administrative, political, and public relations concerns. The conversation focused on managing the political implications of foreign trade and business relations, specifically regarding the roles of Peter Flanigan and Henry Kissinger, as well as addressing ongoing press inquiries about campaign financial contributions. Additionally, the President reviewed his upcoming schedule, including planning for staff meetings at Camp David and strategies for the Republican National Convention.
Audio
Download MP3 (part 1) · 111.9 MB ·Download MP3 (part 2) · 87.7 MB
This conversation has not yet been cut into its own clip, so the player above contains the full tape segment shared with neighbouring conversations. It begins about 00:00:20 into the tape and ends around 00:34:30.
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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.
Download transcript (.txt) · JSON data
· Timestamps are positions within the full tape recording.
0:56I want to thank God for this.
0:59And I want to thank God on the coast.
1:01Supposedly, we were on a quam on the coast.
1:04What the hell would we do without it?
1:09We wouldn't be able to do it.
1:12We wouldn't be able to do it.
1:19All right, we see.
1:19All right, I have some reservations on Boston, at least.
1:24I wouldn't stand by it.
1:29You've got to like the fight.
1:30That's the coastal thing.
1:32You love to fight people.
1:37We don't have many that we don't like to fight.
1:43We're basically a decent, irresponsible... Just keep the job done.
1:49Right.
1:51Frankly, it's my nature to accept the time.
1:52I'm just trying to decide...
2:28I have a question.
2:47And third, for Christ's sake, I knew about a goddamn thing.
2:48I trust everybody around here knows.
2:49I didn't know about it, but I read about it.
2:51And I had the slightest idea that they were out there financing a goddamn convention.
2:54They didn't care.
2:55And Ziegler's already said that.
2:56He said that last week.
2:56That's what I learned.
2:58But I knew it was wrong.
2:59The record should have passed.
3:00You said it.
3:02Well, I'm going home now.
3:04Well, I'm going home now.
3:17Reason why?
3:23Reason why?
3:28Reason why?
3:32Reason why?
3:42Reason why?
3:43Reason why?
3:47Yeah, 150 gold to oil people and black-tie static headers.
3:49Can you imagine what they'd do to us if they didn't take business in?
3:54If they didn't take business in.
3:57If they didn't take business in.
3:59If they didn't take business in.
4:02If they didn't take business in.
4:05If they didn't take business in.
4:07If they didn't take business in.
4:09If they didn't take business in.
4:11If they didn't take business in.
4:16You said we got to talk to you at the dinner.
4:19You said you didn't spend all the dollars for one thing, for their own interests.
4:26You know, like I'm discussing.
4:29I think we can add that across the board event.
4:31On the board, you had a job partner who said, what about that?
4:32On the fair line, I don't know which one.
4:38I think we've come out of the question.
4:43How many TWA was that?
4:43We're aware of that.
4:45Thank you very much.
5:28World reaction stuff.
5:49Uh, I keep trying to see somebody, uh, go back and show you a mistake and have them be canned and be that somebody that's on the board of the trip.
6:01Yeah.
6:02Yeah.
6:02I think it is a good idea to revise it and revise it.
6:05You've got to have it all figured.
6:06Keep writing on the issue.
6:14Just one question, John, is, uh,
6:18the whole business of the scenario of Soviet trade on the planet was concerned about, but I don't want the planet to get in that.
6:28See, that's a parcel of how the department's plan is and the department's argument.
6:38And we ought to somehow get it spelled out, this Henry, and sort of, you know, basically walk some of it out.
6:44But that's a good heard on.
6:45He's trying to pull his ends from getting it.
6:51Well, I'll have to keep talking to him.
6:54That's the last thing.
6:56I'm not going to talk to people.
7:00Again, this is not one of those things where people are not going to do something.
7:05It has nothing to do with trade with people.
7:08It has to do with politics.
7:13That's what the whole trade is about.
7:14He will talk to Henry.
7:15How do you want to talk to him?
7:16No, he thought maybe you and he and Henry had a...
7:19Well, just so it's understood, it's like having Henry talking over it, and I'll come in and bless him.
7:23Henry knows exactly what we're up to here.
7:26He should tell him everything about it.
7:30Let's stay on stage.
7:37Let's stay on stage.
7:43It's hard for me to have a meeting with him until I get there.
7:45I'll get it screwed down tight, and I'll be glad to meet him.
7:49But there is a blessing on it.
7:52I'll tell him to come down and find it.
8:01He's just concerned that nobody's riding heard of him.
8:05I guess it's just waltzing around.
8:10I'm sure everybody's on the same track and ending up where everybody wants to end and not to .
8:20And then I'll get upset that everybody doesn't know what's going on.
8:26I get you.
8:27All right.
8:28I get you.
8:28I get you.
8:28I get you.
8:29I get you.
8:32I get you.
8:36I get you.
8:46He says that he thinks that people really think they should be going to Peterson.
9:05Well, maybe they should be.
9:07He's just not sure that they really know where they're supposed to be.
9:15That's fine if they are.
9:17You can see out of their eyes if you want to.
9:30Exactly right.
9:32I thought it was above 80.
9:38I don't know if it's too great.
9:43Hello?
9:56Yeah.
9:58If he is free...
10:22I don't know.
10:28I don't know.
10:34I don't know.
10:46You know?
10:47Yeah.
10:47Oh, gosh.
10:48You're just a terrible person to be.
10:49That isn't true.
10:51He's got to make some Johnson people struggle.
10:55So, uh, it can't be stolen.
11:03Hey.
11:06Now, I've been talking to Bob Haldeman about a problem that's finding a new way, and that is to be sure that we've got this trade thing under 110.
11:19I had a problem with Henry, and pretty much
11:25You see what I mean?
11:26We've got Butts working on the thing.
11:29We've got Peterson working on the thing.
11:32I have kind of gotten from the way it's going.
11:37The point is that I would think that we would follow through and check to see whether when I get back,
11:51And I don't want too many cooks in the brawl.
11:52And of course, you've got to state how we're behaving now.
11:54It is true.
11:55But I've got to go about our issues, political, not economic here.
11:59The economic was not to be a byproduct.
12:01Do you know whether that's going to impact on the resilience of all the countries?
12:12That's a long question.
12:15What is it?
12:23Well, Henry would do that, and we're planning on it, but we'll be sure that the, you know, we just need to tighten it on Henry, and we'll be planning on it, and we'll be working with the police, and we'll see what it means.
12:51Hmm.
12:53Hmm.
12:54Hmm.
12:54Hmm.
14:19He's got these guys like Peterson under control.
14:22He's got a cousin under control.
14:25He's got a lot of important money.
14:29No, but he does.
14:31No, he does.
14:32No, he's got a lot of money.
14:33No, but he's got a job, too.
14:34He's got a job, too.
14:35Sure, they all talk.
14:43That's right.
14:44Totally loyal.
14:45That's great.
14:47I know him.
14:48The irony of the attack on Flanagan is that if there's anybody in the White House that is persona non grata with a hell of a lot of businessmen, it's Peter Flanagan.
14:56That's the funny thing.
14:58He is the son of a bitch.
14:59Said no to him.
15:01There's no way I don't want to talk to you, Mr. Mayor.
15:05Am I wrong?
15:05Sure.
15:05No.
15:06Sure.
15:06Remember, I reported to you with Rodney, and everybody was saying, Flanagan is a hell of a lot of businessmen.
15:09Yeah.
15:09Yeah.
15:09And he is what he says a lot of the business people do.
15:13Yeah.
15:13Yeah.
15:16John Kendall, the rest of them.
15:19Jack Brown, I'm going to read the others.
15:20I don't know.
15:20I don't know.
15:31I'm going to read the others.
15:33I don't know.
15:37I don't know.
15:39I agree.
15:41Sure.
15:42We've got to get out of it.
15:44And also, the right of the Democratic .
15:48They had .
15:49They worked positively, too, as one of them .
15:55Must be .
16:05Of course, yes.
16:05I did.
16:12He's coming.
16:12He's coming along.
16:17Yeah, yeah.
16:17He's a little bit jam-packed.
16:23He's going to show up.
16:24He's going to make you kill him.
16:30You get, you get such a, you get such a, I don't know how to say it, two or three people, you know, there's, you know, there's barrages and, you know, there's sort of this, you know, planning, you know, IT and all that crap.
16:48And right now there's one big story, and that's ours.
16:50And we're going to play it.
16:51And we're going to do, you know, what I might do, I'm going to do it.
16:56You know, we're going to do it.
17:34That's an idea.
17:35Can I see a bad idea?
17:39OK, here's something you can't say, but it's a word that's going on.
17:50There.
17:50There we go.
17:58I think 1030 is the discussion number.
18:00Agreed.
18:02He had his best time, and he had his best, and he had his worst one, I think that's what it was.
18:11And that's just one of the reasons why they can't interrupt the meeting.
18:19They were like, for the one I was going to comment earlier on.
18:30I'm sorry.
18:34I'm sorry.
18:36I'm sorry.
18:37I'm sorry.
18:38I'm sorry.
18:39I'm sorry.
18:40I'm sorry.
18:40I'm sorry.
18:59Gallup on the China thing had a 98% awareness, which is the highest awareness that Gallup has ever had in any event since they've been told.
19:11It's one thing we can hope for, and it's another thing we can hope for.
19:23I figure that from the first day of July on,
19:28In fact, you ought to check to see when the platform is going to start streaming.
19:35And that will tell you something, no matter what our schedule ought to be.
19:39My own feeling is that we should do nothing during the period of that intervention.
19:44We've got to show the truth.
19:49And now, I'm going to tell you a story.
19:52You ought to stay out there for a while.
19:55It's nice to have her a couple weeks, you know, through their convention in Mississippi, too.
20:01And then we'll hold on to the government business.
20:06Our Congress was wrong.
20:08The convention was there.
20:11The convention was on the end.
20:13I mean, the convention was on the very top.
20:16And it's on the TV.
20:16And I just thank you for getting out of Washington.
20:19It's not a bad idea to force the press out of here.
20:24That weekend, the fourth of July weekend, it starts in the foot of July.
20:41I think we should leave right then.
20:46Don't plan to try to do anything.
20:48I have a few others.
20:53Or you could take a vacation, let's face it.
20:56Well, it would be a hell of a lot to do.
20:59I mean, that's a good time to go to the beach.
21:04It really is.
21:04And what they make for this.
21:10Yeah.
21:11Comment or nothing.
21:13I'd like to say the president is working in his western land.
21:22We always have stuff we can give them along.
21:24I think we don't have to make any money out of it.
21:26We just need some pieces to keep them.
21:30Keep them cool.
21:34Oh, I just picked the right time today.
21:35Now they have to take it easy.
21:35It's one of their reasons.
21:36Yeah.
21:36Just think if you run away for a day, twice a day, you're going to lose your money.
21:46Yeah.
21:46Do you agree with me?
21:47It's a much better operation.
21:49Why give them two shots?
21:51It's not a bargain, Chris.
21:53Hello?
21:55I'm just trying to report, if you want me to watch it.
30:19I'll tell you what the county came up with in San Francisco.
30:24We came in here today, someone had turned this down.
30:30The old San Francisco man, one building survived the earthquake in 06.
30:36Great old antique building in 08.
30:43Has been publishing various things.
30:52PSA is going to turn it back over to the man.
30:54And Mary Brooks is going to take it and use it for their computer center.
30:58And they're going to take part of it and set it up as a museum.
31:01And Tom has got some of the old furniture from the original San Francisco man in the lab.
31:07He's going to put it back in there.
31:13He said, you know, I was reporting up to the president.
31:16I didn't want to tell him.
31:18Not for you to go to, but just for us.
31:20And you can go to if you want to do it.
31:24But that's an announcement in San Francisco that you have resorted them in and make it back into part of the museum.
31:31I didn't have a home.
31:33Because that city is so narcissistic about justice.
31:37It's so, it's history now.
31:40We've got, we've got that.
31:43We've got that Gateway West apartment.
31:45We can do any time we want to.
31:46We can.
31:47Or, we've been holding that for, you know, to pop into at some point.
31:57We've got some good ideas.
32:11I don't think that I, frankly, can put it together that we can't take it tonight.
32:16It's 6 o'clock now and the stalls are $300.
32:24You probably can't.
32:26If you want to go up, go on up, and then join either of you tonight.
32:33It's easier for them to go in and go up in the morning and get organized tonight.
32:38Yeah, of course.
32:42Yeah, see you later.
33:13Okay.
33:15Okay.
33:49Okay, but obviously it would be better to go tomorrow.
33:52Okay.
33:57They've got a lot of work to do.
33:58Right.
33:59Get up there and work on them up there.
34:02I really think for them to go up there will help them around.
34:05They're scared.
34:05They have a lot of work to worry about.
34:11I don't know.
NARA Description
On March 14, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, unknown person(s), Alexander M. Haig, Jr., and John D. Ehrlichman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 4:55 pm and 5:52 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 325-001 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 325-1
Date: March 14, 1972
Time: Unknown after 4:55 pm until 5:52 pm
Location: Executive Office Building
The President met with H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman.
[Recording begins while the conversation is in progress]
Press conference
Media relations
-Ronald L. Ziegler
-Charles W. Colson
-Herbert G. Klein
-Kenneth W. Clawson
-Colson
-Staff
-The President’s view
-The President’s role
-Dwight D. Eisenhower
Financial contributions
-Richard G. Kleindienst
-Ziegler’s press conference
-$400,000.00
-Republican National Committee [RNC]
-President’s knowledge
-Ziegler
-White House
-Blair House dinners
-John B. Connally
-Companies and industries
-Business
-Anti-Trust
-F. Donald Nixon
-Trans World Airlines [TWA]
-Democrats
-Hubert H. Humphrey
The People’s Republic of China [PRC]
-Material for speakers
-Taiwan, Republic of China
-World reaction
-Patrick J. Buchanan
Foreign trade
-Soviets-Peter M. Flanigan
-Involvement
-Henry A. Kissinger
-Forthcoming meeting with Flanigan
-Politics
-Kissinger
-Possible meeting with Flanigan and the President
-State Department
-Flanigan compared with Kissinger
-Forthcoming meeting between Flanigan and Kissinger
The President talked with an unknown person at an unknown time between 4:55 pm and 5:52
pm.
[Conversation No. 325-1A]
[See Conversation No. 21-71]
[End of telephone conversation]
Foreign trade
-Kissinger’s concerns
-Peter G. Peterson
-Earl L. Butz
-Flanigan
An unknown person talked with the President at an unknown time between 4:55 pm and 5:52
pm.
[Conversation No. 325-1B]
[See Conversation 21-72]
[End of telephone conversation]
Administrations
-The President’s view
-Lyndon B. Johnson
-John F. Kennedy
The President talked with Alexander M. Haig, Jr. at an unknown time between 4:55 pm and 5:52
pm.
[Conversation No. 325-1C]
Foreign trade
-The President’s previous conversation with Haldeman
-Flanigan
-Kissinger
-Butz
-Peterson
-State Department
-Politics and economics
-Flanigan
-Kissinger
-Peterson
-Butz
[End of telephone conversation]
-Kissinger
-Flanigan and Peterson
-White House
-Kissinger
-Peterson
-Butz
-Flanigan
Flanigan
-The President’s view
-Businessmen
-Charles G. (“Bebe”) Rebozo
-Donald McI. Kendall
-Jack Drown
-Colson
-Democrats
-Edmund S. Muskie
The President talked with Ehrlichman at an unknown time between 4:55 pm and 5:52 pm.
[Conversation No. 325-1D]
The President’s forthcoming speech on busing
-Camp David
-Possible staff meeting
-News stories
-Flanigan
-International Telephone and Telegraph [ITT]
-Helicopter
-Writers
-William L. Safire
-Raymond K. Price, Jr.
[End of telephone conversation]
The President’s schedule
-Camp David
-Meeting
-Republicans
-Vice President Spiro T. Agnew
-Interruption
-Unknown woman
-Letter
-Baseball
The PRC trip
-George H. Gallup poll
-Awareness of the American public
-Percentage
The President’s schedule
-Republican National Convention
-California
-Democrats
-National Convention
-Congress
-Republican Convention
-Miami
-Television
-Press
-The President’s view
-Congress
-Recess
-Vacation
-San Clemente
Ziegler
-Press briefings
-Frequency
The President’s schedule
-Republican National Convention
-Washington
*********************************************************************
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 8m 17s ]
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3
*********************************************************************
San Francisco
-Connally
-Historic buildings
-1906 earthquake
-General Services Administration [GSA]
-U.S. Mint
-Mary T. Brooks
-Computer center
-Museum
-Connally
-Restoration of the original furniture
-The President’s possible announcement
-Haldeman’s view
-Gateway West Park
The President’s schedule
-Camp David
-Timing
-Forthcoming staff meeting
-Helipad
Haldeman talked with an unknown [Ehrlichman?] person at an unknown time between 4:55 pm
and 5:52 pm.
[Conversation No. 325-1E]
Camp David
-Forthcoming staff meeting
-Timing of the President’s trip
-Safire
-Price
-Edward L. Morgan
-Ehrlichman [?]
-Secretaries
-Rose Mary Woods
[End of telephone conversation]
Forthcoming staff meeting at Camp David
Historic building in San Francisco
Haldeman left at 5:52 pm.Also recorded on March 14, 1972
- 021-069 4:37 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 4:37 pm.
- 021-070 4:37 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 4:37 pm.
- 021-071 4:37 PM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 4:37 pm and 7:00 pm.
- 021-072 4:37 PM · 20 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 4:37 pm and 7:00 pm.
- 021-073 4:37 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 4:37 pm and 7:00 pm.
- 322-057 4:37 PM · 4 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 4:37 pm.
- 322-058 4:37 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 4:37 pm and 4:42 pm.
- 322-059 4:42 PM · 15 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Ronald L. Ziegler, and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 4:42 pm and 5:52 pm.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 325-001, March 14, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/325-001 (accessed October 3, 2026).