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Conversation: 425-044

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Start Date: 9-Apr-1973 2:05 PM

End Date: 9-Apr-1973 2:45 PM

Participants:

Nixon, Richard M. (President)Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob")Ehrlichman, John D.Garment, LeonardWhite House operator

Recording Device: Old Executive Office Building

425-044.mp3

NARA Description:

On April 9, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, John D. Ehrlichman, Leonard Garment, and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:05 pm to 2:45 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 425-044 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid:

Conversation No. 425-44

Date: April 9, 1973
Time: 2:05 pm - 6:33 p.m.
Location: Executive Office Building

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

       Weather

       John D. Ehrlichman [?]

       John W. Dean, III [?]

       White House taping system
            -Retention of national security related conversations
            -Disposal by Haldeman
            -Secret Service Locator
            -President's control
            -Telephones
                  -Locations
                  -Henry A. Kissinger
            -Camp David
            -Capability of recording phone conversations
            -Phone system
                  -New phone system
                  -Camp David
            -Operation of new system
            -Systematic disposal of tapes

Ehrlichman entered at 2:14 pm.

       Problems
             -Economy
             -Watergate

       Ehrlichman’s schedule
             -Kissinger
                                     -26-

           NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                              Tape Subject Log
                               (rev. Sep.-2010)
                                                     Conversation No. 425-44 (cont’d)



           -participation

Economic issues
     -Meeting with Ehrlichman
     -Pierre Rinfret
           -Scheduling
     -Arthur F. Burns
     -Economic legislation
           -Timing
     -Herbert Stein, Roy L. Ash, John T. Dunlop, Peter M. Flanigan
           -Diversity of opinions
                  -Laissez-faire
                  -Controls
     -Food prices
           -Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR] grain purchases
                  -Purchase of crate space [?]
                  -Kissinger
           -Effect of uncertainty
                  -Effect on markets
                        -Stock market
                        -Agricultural market
     -President's schedule
           -George P. Shultz
                  -Laissez-faire
     -Stein's view
     -Dunlop's view
           Phase III modification
     -Consumer Price Index [CPI] level
     -Previous meeting with President
           -Economists’ predictions
     -Rising prices
           -Reasons
                  -USSR grain purchases
                  -World inflation
                  -Energy crisis
                  -International agriculture
                  -Lumber
                  -Bulge or delay factors
                                     -27-

           NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                              Tape Subject Log
                               (rev. Sep.-2010)
                                                     Conversation No. 425-44 (cont’d)



                 -Corrections of Phase II
                 -Tightening capacity
                        -Forecasts
           -Austin H. Kiplinger's view
                 -Economic boom
           -Effect of controls
                 -Stein
     -Shultz
           -Hypothetical scenarios
                 -Politics
           -State of Economy
                 -Prosperity
                 -Job creation
                 -Food market
           -Forthcoming labor negotiations
           -Free markets
                 -Government interference
                        -Wages
           -Phase III
           -Phase IV
                 -Freedom
                 -Quotas
                 -Industry
                        -Construction
                        -Health
                 -Mediation groups
                 -Productivity committee
           -Free Economy compared with controls
                 -Prosperity
                 -Potential for rising prices
                        -Administration’s response
           -Congress’ role
                 -Politics
                 -Criticism

Watergate
     -Ehrlichman's conversation with Richard G. Kleindienst
           -Kleindienst's forthcoming testimony
                                 -28-

      NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                          Tape Subject Log
                           (rev. Sep.-2010)
                                                  Conversation No. 425-44 (cont’d)



             -Executive privilege
             -Richard A. Moore
                   -Executive privilege
                          -Separation of powers issue
                          -President's rights
                          -Exceptions
                                -Sherman Adams
                                -Dawson [First name unknown]
                   -Quote from Dean Acheson
      -Samuel J. Ervin, Jr.
-President's meeting with Michael J. "Mike" Mansfield
      -Ervin Committee Hearings
             -Ehrlichman
                   -Executive privilege
                          -John W. Dean, III
                          -Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI]
             -Televised hearings
             -Kissinger
                   -Hearings at Blair House
             -Wrong-doing exception
             -Haldeman
             -Mansfield's report to Ervin
             -Hard lining
                   -Ehrlichman's negotiations
                   -Dean
                   -Haldeman's desire to testify
                   -Charges
      -Ehrlichman's conversation with Dean
             -Conversations
                   -John N. Mitchell
                   -Jeb S. Magruder
             -Desire for subpoena
             -Mitchell
                   -Interest in Dean's grand jury appearance
      -Ehrlichman's talk with Leonard Garment
             -President's forthcoming contact with Garment
      -Dean
             -Executive privilege
                         -29-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                  Tape Subject Log
                   (rev. Sep.-2010)
                                         Conversation No. 425-44 (cont’d)



             -Brief by Office of Legal Counsel
             -Attorney-client
                   -Legal problems
      -Work product
      -Ehrlichman's forthcoming meeting with Ervin
             -Dean's role in White House
             -Executive privilege
-John N. Mitchell
      -Contact with White House
             -Moore
             -Paul L. O'Brien
             -Garment
      -Relationship with Garment
             -Mitchell's involvement
      -Lowell P. Weicker, Jr.
      -President's forthcoming contact
      -White House attitude toward Mitchell
-Possible statement
      -Moore
      -President
-Moore
      -Dean
      -Informing President
      -Knowledge of whole story
-Ervin Committee
-White House testimony
-President's meeting with Mansfield
      -Pace of hearings
-Moore's analysis
      -Timing of climax
      -Howard H. Baker, Jr.
-Kleindienst's forthcoming testimony
      -Role and function of the Senate committee
      -Compared to Alger Hiss case
      -Newsworthiness
             -Executive privilege
      -Effects
             -Ervin
                                             -30-

                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                       Tape Subject Log
                                        (rev. Sep.-2010)
                                                             Conversation No. 425-44 (cont’d)



                                    -Ehrlichman
                  -Ehrlichman meeting with Ervin
                        -Negotiations on forthcoming hearings
                        -Baker
                        -Procedures
             -Charles W. Colson's dinner with unknown man
                  -Lie Detector Test suggested
                  -Garment [?]
                  -David Shapiro
             -Mitchell
                  -View of situation
                        -Garment's opinion

The President talked with the White House operator at 2:39 p.m.

[Conversation No. 425-44A]

[See Conversation No. 44-112]

[End of telephone conversation]

             -Mitchell
                  -State of mind
                  -Ervin Committee
                        -Money given to the Watergate burglars
                  -Relationship with Dean
                  -Dean's conversations with Ehrlichman about money
                        -Requests for Ehrlichman to call Mitchell
                              -Money
                              -James W. McCord, Jr.
                                    -William O. Bittman
                        -Ehrlichman's response
             -Cubans' lawyer, Henry B. Rothblatt
                  -Knowledge
                        -Money

Leonard Garment entered at 2:43 p.m.
                                             -31-

                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                      Tape Subject Log
                                       (rev. Sep.-2010)
                                                              Conversation No. 425-44 (cont’d)



       Ehrlichman's economic meeting
             -Report
             -Burns
             -Shultz
             -Rinfret
                   -Phase II
                   -Controls
                   -Effect on economy

       Watergate
            -Ehrlichman's conversation with Garment
                  -Garment's role with Ervin Committee
                        -Enforcement of ground rules
            -Ervin Committee's investigation of campaign activities
                  -White House
                        -Haldeman
                        -Colson
                              -Concern
                  -Garment's analysis
                  -Haldeman's statement
                  -Negotiation
                        -Hearsay evidence
                  -White House strategy
                        -Executive privilege
                        -Weicker
                        -White House cooperation
                              -Howard Hughes
                  -Magruder
                        -Possible testimony
            -Mitchell
                  -Involvement in Watergate
                        -Dean
                        -White House involvement in Watergate break-in
                              -President, Colson, Haldeman
                              -Ronald L. Ziegler's statement, June 22, 1972, regarding the
break-in
                        -Committee to Re-elect the President [CRP]
                              -Liddy
                                             -32-

                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                      Tape Subject Log
                                       (rev. Sep.-2010)
                                                            Conversation No. 425-44 (cont’d)



                         -Approval of plans
                         -Vulnerability
                         -Grand jury
                   -Need for White House staff to believe
             -Magruder
                   -Dean
                   -Indictment
             -Mitchell
             -Magruder
                   -Knowledge
             -White House goal
                   -Colson
                   -Haldeman
                   -Dean
             -Possible developments
                   -White House response
                         -Mitchell
                         -Grand jury
             -Magruder

       Martha Mitchell

The President and Garment left at 3:00 pm.