On October 20, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, unknown person(s), Alexander M. Haig, Jr., and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 10:36 am to 10:56 am. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 371-012 of the White House Tapes.
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 Do not cite this transcript as authoritative.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 have more thoughts than you are.
One thing, first, are you sure?
Yeah, to the extent, let me tell you, I think that I've got the problem with the clock.
I can't get it off.
So that's what I'm going to do.
Second, you know this, I'm going to do the same thing.
So the people have a reason to get out and blast.
So therefore, I wonder.
I don't think Gray should be told at all.
Okay.
I think it's just that Gray acts as if nothing's happened to him.
I think it's a safer course of action.
Now, the other thing that concerns me is all of his relationships.
I mean, all of his relationships with his father.
He says that he does both, and a lot of problems for him.
I don't know what they are, but you've got to look there to find out.
Well, I think you've got to tell them what the situation is.
But also, he's got to see what kind of means he's got to follow up with the news.
You know what I mean?
I've been worried about the news and stuff, and all of your bonds for many days.
But I think everyone has said that he is the man, and he is.
You're not aware of anything else.
No, I did not.
I didn't know.
I didn't know.
I didn't know.
I didn't know.
I didn't know.
I didn't know.
last night, he just killed John, and the order's out, and the Norfolk is on their hands, and the night after, frankly, it's got to be the butter filled up.
I do want to see what happens.
It means he couldn't be punctured at this point.
He is set up.
It could be set up one way, or it could be a job on him in another way to deal with.
I think the latter is the reason.
Or, third, he could be an honest man, some timeline.
The fact is, it's hard for me to think that somebody with a timeline like Earl, who's been pretty busy for the last three months, could come to us and say, look, we've got a leak from the FBI that we're reporting.
Now, the other thing is that we need to know, actually, if we can have this now.
If we do or not.
If we have to.
What about the guy who did it properly?
and try to find out, in other words, try to get out, if you mean it or not, what the ties are here, that may give us some ideas, you know, who is changing this for us, and how we can do developments on top of this.
It could be that it's not possible to run through one if the guy is just doing his job and if they're not setting stuff.
If they get to the guy and there's some suggestions about the phone, no, he doesn't get to put it in touch with the person, the administration person, that's always possible.
But it's also possible if the other scenario is correct, that one way or the other.
That's correct.
And the other thing is that he may have a better insight into some of this kind of speculation, too.
Well, I think it's quite important to kind of use that time.
It's quite important to do that.
... ... ... ...
But that's not what's been happening unless you get felt on.
But felt, he assumes that felt is working on the basis that it's not going to be good and that it's not going to be fun.
And then there's the question of what is it supposed to be?
And that's a hard one to say.
That's quite funny.
Well, it's possible that a reporter came and originally did what struck me as a Jewish man.
I can't go down without either of you.
I said, well, what the hell?
And I said, well, I suppose they're both Jews.
I mean, they're not going to do it, but it is.
Here's your deal.
It's the possible motivation to beat down the liberal leftists.
Yeah, I feel last night.
I think that's what's fascinating.
It was a man or something like that.
Now, the fight that I made with him, the fight that I made with him, he really wanted to do it.
And I did a very good, warm story about how much he was afraid of certain things.
I don't think so.
The way you do the security problem is you're going to treat your kids under 12.
Right.
You don't want their parents or the older kids coming on the ground.
Right.
You've got to be under 12 years old.
You've got to be under 12 years old.
I don't mean you've got to be under a 12-year-old.
You've got to walk with your parents on the ground.
You've got to walk with your parents on the ground.
You've got to walk with your parents on the ground.
That's just tradition.
As you go out with your kids, get in the car, get your kids in the car, get your kids in the car, get your kids in the car.
As I can see, we've got to go now about this so that we can talk.
We'll be on the telephone.
Yes, sir.
And that's all.
I can chat a little on that.
Now the drill is that I go up after the ceremony and shake hands with everybody, you know, in the picture drill.
Yeah.
But not one where they have their wives or other activities.
You're the only one in their seat.
Nobody else.
The vice president wanted to be in line.
He said, no, we're going to have to receive them upstairs.
He's going to host the luncheonery upstairs.
They look like they're going to receive them.
I think that's a different sign than a souvenir.
They might be looking for their luncheon.
The vice president will be up there and hosting that.
I don't care about that.
I don't care about that.
It just meant that I just don't want to walk.
I mean, like we had in Texas.
They're pretty sure they're going to be there.
There will probably be too many.
We shouldn't let a lot of outsiders in.
Of course, I have to make sure I don't kick people out.
I don't want anybody to ask me.
I'm just going to let them in around 50% of the time.
And, uh, that button here is that, uh, you cover it up, and that changes the plan for the next cell or something, huh?
Yeah, I don't see that.
I don't see that.
It's a little bit later, but, uh, it gets you to, you know, get, you know, maybe a five instead of four.
You don't get out of there until 3.
I was an hour early the whole time.
I thought I was running an hour early.
I don't get to can't get to the line.
You get there at 5.
I may not get there.
You get stuck.
You leave there at 3.
You leave there at 3.
Yeah.
So you make it out of it?
Well, I don't know.
Let me put it right here.
Now, if I do do it, I'll have to have it.
But if I do do it, I'll have to have it.
They all understand that I'm laughing through the lines.
I guess there are no questions for me to start with that.
So I'm just waiting to see if there are any questions or comments.
Now, of course, you know that I was hired by my brother's time tonight.
I was told there was no problem.
But to get out of the point, they slipped me on that.
And I said, it's a good job.
It's a good job.
If at all that, unless you want to play something with it, I'm trying to look at it a little bit and see if it works.
You know, the other thing is, if you can't find it, I just, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.
Okay.