Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 357 › Conversation 357-009

Nixon & Haldeman on John C. Lungren and Watergate

Thursday, September 21, 1972 · 2:16 PM–3:15 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 3 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob")Conversation357-009 on Tape 357StartThursday, September 21, 1972 at 2:16 PMEndThursday, September 21, 1972 at 3:15 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 357-009 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and H.R. Haldeman discuss the political implications of a break-in at the office of Dr. John C. Lungren, the President's personal physician. They deliberate on how to leverage the incident for public relations purposes and draw strategic parallels between this intrusion and the ongoing Watergate scandal. The discussion emphasizes the need to control the narrative surrounding the break-in and ensure the story is disseminated effectively to the public.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 1 minute of this recording (about 23% of it) is represented by only a few words. Listen to the audio rather than relying on the text below; a corrected transcript is queued.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Oh, he's not wondering yet.
What's his reaction?
What about his idea of putting her in reality?
Yeah.
It's all physical, I mean.
I don't think physical's too bad, actually.
Yeah.
Cholesterol, you love it a lot.
to talk about going to his own staff.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I thought this was almost a little bit incredible because I hadn't thought about what she said about the wiring.
I don't know what her answer was to that.
Huh?
This is worse.
This is the president's medical record.
This is an involved approach.
And has anything been reported in the police yet at all?
You see what I mean?
I just don't want to blow up.
We've got it.
He's leading everything as it is.
How do we get the story out?
There's going to be a charge.
There's going to be a topic.
Better talk to some people and see how the
I really think, I really don't think that we ought to just forget it, you know what I mean?
I just think we've got to make something out of it, because they didn't do this for any, they did this for a purpose, and they've got to, they've got to do something about it.
Okay, thanks.

NARA Description

On September 21, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 2:16 pm and 3:15 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 357-009 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 357-9

Date: September 21, 1972
Time: Unknown between 2:16 pm and 3:15 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with H.R. (“Bob”) Haldeman.

            Haldeman's conversation with Dr. John C. Lungren
                -Reactions to release of information to establish record
                    -The President’s view
                -Lungren’s staff
                -Watergate break-in
                    -Compared with break-in of Lungren’s office
                         -The President’s view
                         -Police report
                -Break-in of Lungren’s office
                    -Public relations
                         -Need to disseminate information
                         -Public reaction
                    -Rose Mary Woods
                         -Conversation with unknown person
                    -Dealing with Watergate

Also recorded on September 21, 1972

  • 784-020 12:23 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Robert R. Casey, John E. Nidecker, White House photographer, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:23 pm to 12:25 pm.
  • 784-021 12:25 PM · 1 hr 11 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, unknown person(s), and Rose Mary Woods met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:25 pm to 2:01 pm.
  • 784-022 2:13 PM · 43 sec — United States Secret Service agents and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House on an unknown date, sometime between 2:13 pm on September 21, 1972 and 8:49 am on September 22, 1972.
  • 030-013 2:16 PM · 15 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 2:16 pm and 3:15 pm.
  • 357-007 2:16 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 2:16 pm and 3:15 pm.
  • 357-008 2:16 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 2:16 pm and 3:15 pm.
  • 357-010 2:16 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 2:16 pm and 3:15 pm.
  • 357-011 3:15 PM · 56 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Charles W. Colson, Manolo Sanchez, unknown person(s), and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:15 pm to 5:02 pm.

All 43 conversations from September 21, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 357-009, September 21, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/357-009 (accessed October 1, 2026).