Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 422 › Conversation 422-005

Nixon, Dean & Sanchez on Watergate and Administration Strategy

Tuesday, March 20, 1973 · 7:29 PM–7:43 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 14 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Dean, John W., III; Sanchez, ManoloConversation422-005 on Tape 422StartTuesday, March 20, 1973 at 7:29 PMEndTuesday, March 20, 1973 at 7:43 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 422-005 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and John Dean discussed strategies for responding to escalating political pressure, specifically focusing on how the administration could handle inquiries regarding potential wrongdoing. Nixon urged Dean to prepare a general, carefully controlled statement or oral report that would exonerate specific White House staff members without providing exhaustive details. The conversation centers on navigating public and congressional scrutiny while minimizing the administration's exposure to further investigation.

Audio

Download MP3 · 4.8 MB

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 4 minutes of this recording (about 32% 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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

Download transcript (.txt) · JSON data

· Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).
Well, you have rather long days these days, aren't you?
I guess we all have.
Yeah.
What happened today, Senator?
This is in the committee room floor.
We don't have solos here.
Yes, sir.
Yeah, go ahead.
Go.
Thank you.
That's not bad.
Hold there.
Why did you do that?
Why did you do that?
Why did you do that?
Why did you do that?
What's your feeling, though, John, when you get this comfortable with that?
What do you want?
We can put some pressure on them.
That's my point.
Isn't it really the case that they want to make you the monitor?
They're going to make you the monitor.
Would you agree or not?
Or do you feel differently?
Let me know.
feet ahead of the barrel.
The thing is too, Craig was going to make up his mind on that.
In fact, I was thinking he ought to look very soon.
What's Coyne used to do with the whole thing?
What is 7-7 in the committee?
What's the trouble, for Christ's sake?
I just got re-elected and I helped a hell of a lot.
to get over it.
Well, on that score, I don't consider this to be that good.
Maybe that's the way they're doing it, or what's up on it.
They didn't bite them both, with regards to meaning.
I'm much rather interested in the way they made it happen.
Well, would you like to do that plan?
You can do it.
You can do it.
You can do it tomorrow.
You just want to go along with anybody else there.
Better than nobody else there.
Better than anybody else.
They're all part of the generation.
All right.
Fine.
The other thing I was going to say is this, that you're doing what you can.
I still want to see, though, you know, if you want to take that, I guess, and show where it comes from, the letter and all that sort of thing.
All right.
You don't want to ask me.
And so you're coming up then with the idea that you stole them all.
Is that what you've come down on?
I never will.
There's no way that you could make even a general statement.
You understand what I mean?
You see, for example, I was .
I want to know where all the bodies are first.
I think for example,
You could do orally, for example, if you don't want to make the written statement, you could do orally.
You could lay it all out on paper.
I would not do that.
You could lay it all out on paper.
That's one thing.
The other thing is, I do think there's something to be said for this.
Not maybe just a clean answer for this phone, but maybe just a written statement from me.
My conclusions are this big, big, big thing.
I think that's a possibility.
So what I mean is we need something to answer somebody.
What are you basing this on?
I know, but I mean, can't you say that?
Or do you want to put it out?
How would you do it?
That's what I meant.
Isn't that something that you would say?
We want to publish the FBI report.
That's fine.
All right.
But you could say, I have this and I do that.
All right.
See, what I'm getting at is, if apart from the statement that's come out here, you know, there's many statements here, we can do, you know, we can't come up with answers to answers to questions and so forth.
You've got to, you've got to have something where, where it doesn't appear that I'm just looking at somebody else.
the hell with the Congress and the hell with the people.
We're not going to study them because they're different.
That, they don't understand.
But if you say, no, we're willing to cooperate, and you've made a statement, see, but make it very incomplete.
See, that's what I mean.
I don't want to go too much in chapter first, but if you did in your letter, I just want you to generalize.
That's right.
But try to do something general.
If I have checked into this matter, I can say categorically, based on my investigation, the following.
Mr. Harlan was not involved in this manhunt.
Mr. Colson did not do this.
Mr. So-and-so did not do this.
Mr. McGrath did not do this.
But it is right down the line, see, taking the most glaring thing.
And is there any further questions?
See?
But that's why it's necessary.
Anyway, let's take a look at that.
We'll see you at 10 o'clock tomorrow.
All right.
Take the evening off.

NARA Description

On March 20, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, John W. Dean, III, and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 7:29 pm to 7:43 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 422-005 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 422-005

Date: March 20, 1973
Time: 7:29 pm and 7:43 pm

       Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, NARA Online Public Access Catalog Identifier: 597542

Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with John W. Dean, III.

[See Conversation No. 37-176]

Manolo Sanchez entered at an unknown time after 7:29 pm.

The President conferred with Sanchez.

       Schedule book
            -Oval Office

Sanchez left at an unknown time before 7:43 pm.

Sanchez entered and left at an unknown time before 7:43 pm.

[End of telephone conversation]

Also recorded on March 21, 1973

  • 037-173 7:10 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 7:10 pm and 7:24 pm.
  • 037-174 7:24 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Julie Nixon Eisenhower talked on the telephone from 7:24 pm to 7:26 pm.
  • 422-003 7:24 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Julie Nixon Eisenhower met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 7:24 pm to 7:26 pm.
  • 037-175 7:26 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 7:26 pm and 7:29 pm.
  • 422-004 7:26 PM · 10 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 7:26 pm and 7:29 pm.
  • 422-034 7:26 PM · 9 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 7:26 pm and 7:29 pm.
  • 037-176 7:29 PM · 14 min — President Richard M. Nixon, John W. Dean, III, and Manolo Sanchez talked on the telephone from 7:29 pm to 7:43 pm.
  • 037-177 7:43 PM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 7:43 pm and 7:48 pm.

All 80 conversations from March 21, 1973 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 422-005, March 21, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/422-005 (accessed October 2, 2026).