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Conversation 343-027

TapeTape 343StartWednesday, June 21, 1972 at 4:00 PMEndWednesday, June 21, 1972 at 5:15 PMTape start time00:59:41Tape end time02:17:00ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Colson, Charles W.;  White House operator;  Delaney, James J.Recording deviceOld Executive Office Building
AI Summary

President Nixon met with Charles W. Colson to review the political landscape in the immediate aftermath of the Watergate break-in. The discussion focused on managing public relations, specifically utilizing support from veterans' organizations, and addressing rising meat prices through potential administration intervention. They also discussed concerns regarding media reports linking Bebe Rebozo to the Watergate burglars and analyzed current polling data on the President’s handling of the Vietnam War.

WatergateBebe RebozoInflationVietnam WarPublic RelationsVeterans of Foreign Wars
AudioNARA Description

On June 21, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, Charles W. Colson, White House operator, and James J. Delaney met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 4:00 pm to 5:15 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 343-027 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 343-27

Date: June 21, 1972
Time: 4:00-5:15 pm
Location: Old Executive Office Building

The President met with Charles W. Colson.

     Foreign policy
          -Nelson A. Rockefeller

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 5m 6s      ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

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     International Telephone and Telegraph [ITT]

     Watergate
         -E. Howard Hunt
               -Work on campaign
         -Cubans
         -Charles G. ("Bebe") Rebozo
               -Veterans of Foreign Wars [VFW]
                     -Support for President
               -George S. McGovern
         -Amnesty
         -Radio Hanoi
               -Statement
         -VFW
               -Support for the President
         -Bugging reports
               -Reaction of members
         -Break-in
               -Wiretapping

                                        (rev. Jan-02)

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 4m 5s      ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2

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     Public relations
          -Letters
                 -Labor leaders
                 -American Legion Post Commanders
                 -VFW post leaders
                 -Veterans Administration [VA]
                 -Support for President’s policies
                 -Reactions

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 19m 15s    ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3

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The President talked with the White House operator.

[Conversation No. 343-27A]

[See Conversation No. 25-111]

[End of telephone conversation]

                                        (rev. Jan-02)

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 2m 32s     ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4

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The President talked with James J. Delaney.

[Conversation No. 343-27B]

[See Conversation No. 25-112; one item has been
withdrawn from this conversation.]

[End of telephone conversation]

     Rebozo
         -Delaney's Florida apartment
              -Miami convention

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 6m 35s     ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5

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     The President
          -Image
          -Moscow trip
               -Impact
               -Timing
                    -ITT

                                      (rev. Jan-02)

         -Cambodia
              -Henry A. Kissinger
              -H. R. Haldeman
         -Moscow trip
              -Impact
         -Louis P. Harris poll
              -Trip to Moscow
         -The President’s trip to People’s Republic of China [PRC]
              -Time magazine

*****************************************************************

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 6
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 6m 42s     ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 6

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    Economy
        -Meat prices
             -Previous Quadriad meeting
                   -The President’s view
             -Herbert Stein's view
             -Arthur F. Burns's view
             -George P. Shultz
             -Increases
                   -Action by administration
             -Strategy
                   -Imports
             -Public view
                   -Foreign beef imports
                   -Consumer Price Index [CPI]
             -Retailers
             -Colson's view
                   -Cattlemen
                         -George S. McGovern
             -Burns
             -Price freeze
             -Roll-back of prices

                                         (rev. Jan-02)

                      -The President's reaction
                 -Effect on voters

     Vietnam as political issue
          -The President's handling
               -People's reactions
                     -Polls
                            -Figures
                     -McGovern supporters
                     -George C. Wallace supporters
               -Cease-fire
                     -Impact

*****************************************************************

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 7
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 4m 39s     ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 7

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     Watergate
         -Jack N. Anderson column
               -Rebozo
                     -Bank
         -Cubans
         -Bugging
         -Real estate connection
         -Bernard L. Barker
         -Colson's son

     Delaney

Colson left at 5:15 pm..
Transcript (AI-Generated)

This transcript was generated automatically by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite this transcript as authoritative. Consult the Finding Aid above for verified information.

I got over that.
Thank you.
No, no.
He went out of his way to do what he had to do.
That's correct.
Sure.
I don't believe that.
He didn't do anything wrong.
He did do some stuff that he did.
But not for us.
No, he didn't do anything for us.
But I believe he did do it for us.
He would ask a question.
He would ask a question.
I don't know what's wrong with sending someone like this, but I don't know.
I don't understand why.
I think that we could go from the terrorists to the CIA.
I don't know.
You know what?
You know what?
It's time for these people to leave.
They work for them.
But we need to get lost.
I'll tell you, I would think that this would have one plus.
I don't know.
They don't know him, and he said, I quote, Radio Hanoi and the government, and he said, I'm sorry, there are a few people I'd like to say this to, but Radio Hanoi said no.
And he said, I just want to tell you that as far as the veterans community is concerned, it's powerful, and big, and the LW is almost two million.
He said, we've got a campaign organization that will really go to town.
The second thing he said was, I hope you're not paying any attention to the budget, because
He said, every place I go in small groups, I say, you're right about it.
And he said, in very small groups, I don't care.
And he said, the reaction of those who had it is, well, the Republicans wouldn't do that, because they're in power.
And they could do it a hell of a lot more skillfully than that, if they would do it.
He said, you're right about it.
Nobody believes that you're wrong about it.
You know, surprised and shocked.
I believe it makes a horrible revolution just now.
When people learn all about how you develop.
Wiretaping.
Let's just look at wiretaping.
The country's foreign to you.
We're actually trying to control the country.
There's a wiretaping on this thing like this.
So now we're going to break in the wiretaping.
I don't know.
I don't think...
I don't know.
I don't know.
No, I said...
I said...
I've also been intrigued with another thing is the, I don't know what about it, but it is that we did a personalized letter to every local labor leader in the country, every American agent, post commander, BFW post commander, DAB post commander.
We sent out 45,000 letters.
They were vaccinal.
It really was.
He came out as not very much of a person, but we should thank him for this support.
We did this not only to support the people who could get it, but also to get the mainstream campaign.
Anybody who writes back, better have a letter to know what you used.
Clearly, there clearly is not too much.
Congressman Jim DeLay of New York City.
Hello?
Yeah.
Hello?
Hi Jim, how are you?
I just wanted to call to tell you that just one pulse that you just found.
I'm sure glad to see you come through yesterday.
I hope that you can support him in some of these tough problems in Southeast Asia.
It didn't hurt you too much.
Well, I'll tell you, I hope you take a good night out.
You get out Friday and take off a couple of weeks.
Yeah, right.
I know what you do, right in the sand, right?
Right, right, fine.
Sometime I'll get down there while I drop into the bank and see my old friend Ramonzo.
Yeah, you do, yeah.
Alright, good, good, good.
And if the water is better on your side, go over and sit on the beach on my side.
It's pretty good.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah, you know, I was a good man.
Nice people.
Okay.
Wasn't he curtain?
Yeah.
He was marvelous.
Yeah.
Well, it still is, you know.
They've kept up that one thing.
A lot of places were taught that there is a date.
And so that way, according to both of them, he tells me the pub has deteriorated.
It's very good.
Isn't that a shame?
Remember, they used to have the best hamburgers there that I've ever had.
Well, that's the building, yeah.
Is that good?
Yeah.
I couldn't agree, I looked.
Well, you just take care, and I'll see you down there maybe sometime.
Fine, okay.
Tell me about Bozo, about Jeff Delaney.
He probably doesn't remember.
The Congress, his double bank is his bank.
He has an apartment in the Sands.
He's coming over there, I don't know if he mentioned it.
Do we get it?
Yes, and we don't mention it.
You said that...
Whatever you want, you know what I mean?
I mean, he's got a tool for it.
A few of our friends.
It said three cheaters ran away, carrying a pig.
It was a speech, a speech by the book.
I noticed it wrong.
It said that wasn't her own fault.
That affected the suspense over the summer.
It affected the game a lot.
It affected that according to Harris, nobody expected to accomplish anything.
My feeling was kind of true.
The question really is what do you want me to do?
I signed the half-assed business.
We don't know.
What I'm concerned about is what was the last storm.
And if you move down, the prices go up.
And if you move, the weeks that are going up, the weeks before they go up.
I was in favor of your going away.
The reason that I was in favor was that I thought the prices were going to go up this week.
They didn't.
And therefore, my goal was to have it ready again.
And by executive order, the president, the very next day,
I don't think that's so long period of time, because it will be heard in the end.
It will be very much like the kind of war that was just during that psychology.
Of course, there was also the price to die on.
You don't know how long it will last.
And you feel it.
The cattle growers understand this is not a decisive deal.
What would you say then?
He froze and died.
I need a reason, Mr. President, for him.
He wanted to do what he did.
Do the political thing.
Roll it back.
If it crept up until I noticed, on September 1st, I don't agree.
He's going to roll that to 30 levels.
I think we have it for now.
I've talked to this president.
I talked to Clark when we were standing at the recommendation meeting before.
And I've made two other deals with him over the last three weeks.
I've put him in the president's meeting and said, if you tell me this is the balance of this year at all, I'm going to support you.
They won't put this with any president.
It's going to be a quiet response.
I didn't appreciate this president before.
He wanted to do what he did, do the political thing, roll it back in the Senate.
If it crept up in July, I don't know, September 1st, you know, it's not only free, it's going to roll back to 30,000.
I think we haven't provided for it.
It is a terrible sense of issue, because people build it up in their own minds, and they get mad, and they've got nobody else to sort of take it out.
And they make it worse than it is, and even when prices go up, people can't pay up.
And so there's the present before you issue a very strong order that people interpret it.
And that's the only issue that the owner had to see.
The only thing that we have is the issue with the sport.
There are issues with Japanese.
It would be a bad thing if it just stayed the way it is.
If it just stayed the way it is today.
But the one issue, it'll be better.
It's all our committee, it's all of us.
It's all of us.
And there's more police and reptile than there is folk or anything else.
That's my governance.
That's supposedly what I'm trying to do.
More people to live with your hand than you have today.
And Harrison did admit it.
What is that?
Handling the war in Vietnam is up in May of 2759.
Very much, most of the press are going to be there.
The government is going to be very excellent, very, very important for Israel.
Wanting to have the war in Vietnam, the handling of the war in Vietnam in 3759, what is now going to be done, which is a significant thing, but I mean, my agency,
Very, very similar.
64, 25, approval, disapproval.
My governor vote is 39, 51.
My Nixon vote is 80, 50, 10.
My Wallace vote is 76, 14.
Next question, the impact of the mining on the water.
Length of the water, 18%.
I said yes.
Shortfall of the water, 43%.
So the church really is
That issue is struggling.
That issue today is impossible.
Take these figures.
And so, 82 will die.
I think 86% of the people will be able to still be involved in the event.
So it'd be quite significant, the event, that we had this huge fire here.
Oh yeah, I'll send that down.
What does it say?
President Nixon's favorite Cuban figure of all time has been associated through a family real estate firm with a Cuban bugging crew that allegedly attempted to install listening devices inside an Albright party headquarters.
The suspected leader of the bugging group, Bernard Parker, is a joint investor in the real estate development of another company in Cuba, as well as Suarez.
We let sources say that D.P.
Rozo has been involved in some of the appeals.
Now I've been unable to reach for Rozo or Swearer as for Conner.
However, I was able to arrange an exclusive interview with some of the suspects in the D.C. jail.
They denied that D.P.
Rozo had anything to do with the bugging attempt.
However, they took their instructions, and Bernard Barker never told them who was putting up the cash, their hotel accommodations, and the fashion we're working in, before the legging was attempted.
And now all the legal expenses have been provided by a mysterious man like Mr. Jones.
Son of a bitch.
Yes.
Well, it's horrible, isn't it?
I don't know if anybody heard of that, but I think Roboto did.
Absolutely.
My 18-year-old son and I were watching him, and he said, that sounds like Roboto.
Isn't that awful?
Yeah, it's terrible.
Of course, he was mad.
He was mad.
I call him.
I just call him.
I'll call him.
Call him, greet him, and send him down.
Okay.
Yes, sir.
I held it by delay.
Yes, I will.
← 343-026343-028 →