Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 432 › Conversation 432-028

Nixon & Haig on Watergate and Cambodia

Wednesday, May 9, 1973 · 12:03 PM–12:22 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 9 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haig, Alexander M., Jr.Conversation432-028 on Tape 432StartWednesday, May 9, 1973 at 12:03 PMEndWednesday, May 9, 1973 at 12:22 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 432-028 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Alexander Haig met to discuss administrative staffing, legal strategies regarding the Watergate scandal, and the political climate surrounding U.S. military operations in Cambodia. The pair evaluated the potential selection of a special counsel to handle ongoing investigations and assessed the likelihood of a difficult vote in the House of Representatives regarding war funding. Throughout the conversation, Nixon emphasized the need for his staff to maintain morale and adopt a more combative stance in defending his administration's policies.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 4 minutes of this recording (about 43% 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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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I have.
Anything else you want to tell me, please?
Good.
Good.
How about Lynn?
Do you have anything important you want to do?
No.
Good.
Good.
Good.
How about DeSantorello?
What did he say about him?
All right.
Good.
Good.
All right.
Good.
Good.
Well, uh, we've got a good team right there.
Glenn gets along well with the Bizarre, I'm sure.
Good.
Good.
Right.
Good.
Good.
Great.
Fine.
All right.
Uh, is all the cabinet office set tomorrow?
Is it, uh, is, uh, is Conley going to be able to get there?
Do we know or not?
Special counsel for this matter.
Yeah.
Well, where does that lead?
What are we talking about?
Yeah.
That's right.
Yeah.
Good.
Good.
Good.
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's great.
It would be excellent if you could get it.
Excellent.
Excellent.
Suburbed constitutional lawyer.
Suburbed constitutional lawyer.
I don't know whether he'd do it or not, but let's try.
He's telling me he's a judge now.
Fine.
All right.
Have Bryce check him out for us.
And tell Bryce to see whether he wants to come to the rescue of his party.
If he doesn't, it's fine.
Alright, alright.
Oh, we've got to start at the beach.
We've got to start at the beach.
We've got to start at the beach.
We've got to start at the beach.
We've got to start at the beach.
We've got to start at the beach.
We've got to start at the beach.
We've got to start at the beach.
We've got to start at the beach.
We've got to start at the beach.
We've got to start at the beach.
It's going to be, it's just well to know it, but it's just going to be a collection of, uh, I.D.
men, Tom, and so forth, and so on, and so on, and so on.
As you say, the credibility of a piece of paper is no greater than the credibility of a man's voice.
I understand, incidentally, they're going to have a hell of a tough vote in the House tomorrow.
What do you think?
I don't know.
I talked to Kevin a little about it.
He's a leader, as you mentioned.
Very confident, though.
Huh?
Yeah.
Well, if we don't have what I told Kevin to do, then, God damn it, we just go ahead and keep doing what we're doing.
And Dale and I are squinting that we are not doing it with constitutional authority, but we still have authority.
Did he?
All right.
We'll take anything out of the world, all right?
And you can say this as long as you can, both of you.
So that's a good sign.
And that's the way it's going to be.
We're going to work with the country on that issue, too.
They want to carry the bushes to the farm, the bushes to the farm.
It'll be a close phone.
Our guys are going to get a good one.
Well, can't hear you.
Can't hear you.
Okay, I'll be ready to meet up with you.
I underlined it about five lines up.
I don't mean I expect people to do what he did, but most people who I have told me.
I know.
I know.
You've got to keep her tight.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
How's your morale?
Well, I'll tell you that it's got to be...
I mean, that's the thing that, that's one weakness of the type of job, you know.
I don't mind it, but I want you to know that I know it's hard for the staff on the rest of the day.
Well, the point is that you think of those people
I'm not sure what's going on.
This is a war, and we're fighting a war against a whole bunch of bastards.
Now, I don't mean, I mean, but that's what's going on.
I'm not sure what's going on.
I'm trying to put it on the whole policy of this government, leading the president, and everything that's good that we've done.
Our people have got to get off their ass and start fighting.
And with what you've written, you have to, at that time, you have to, I don't know, somebody had to say something.
I say that as a cap.
I'm going to make that a very good show.
I'm sure it's a good show.
And, uh, I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
But we figure we pretty much do know the answer.
In other words, it's going to be bad, right?
So therefore, let's be prepared.
But everything is just a given.
I'm sure as hell.
I don't know.
I have it as flat as I can.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Whatever it is, we've got to remember it's going to be destroyed.
And we deserve it.
Thank you.

NARA Description

On May 9, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 12:03 pm and 12:22 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 432-028 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 432-28

Date: May 9, 1973
Time: Unknown between 12:03 pm and 12:22 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with Alexander M. Haig, Jr.

       Leonard Garment

       Donald E. Santarelli
             -Decision

       Garment
             -J. Fred Buzhardt, Jr.

       President’s schedule
              -Cabinet meeting
                      -John B. Connally’s attendance

       Watergate
             -Special counsel
                    -Leonard Garment
                    -[First name unknown] Quinn [?]
                             -Bryce N. Harlow
             -John W. Dean, III
                                              -31-

                 NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                                            Conversation No. 432-28 (cont’d)

                      -Documents
                             -Possible contents
                      -Ronald Ziegler

      Cambodia
           -House of Representatives
                 -Vote on funding US operations in Cambodia
                 -President’s conversation with William E. Timmons
           -Ongoing US operations
                 -Constitutional authority

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

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[National security]
[Duration: 5 s ]

      US OPERATIONS

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

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

      Cambodia
           -US victory
                  -Support of Lon Nol regime
           -House of Representatives vote

      President’s schedule
             -Meeting on long-term strategy
                     -Haig, Ziegler

      Haig’s morale
                                             -32-

                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                                            Conversation No. 432-28 (cont’d)

       President’s morale
              -President’s meeting with George H. W. Bush, David K. (“Pat”) Wilson, William
               E. Brock, III, Robert H. Michel
                      -Negativity
                      -Timmon’s role
              -Staff encouragement
                      -George P. Shultz [?]

       US military operations in Southeast Asia
              -Prisoners of war [POWs]
              -President’s policies
                     -Opponents
                     -Need for response
                     -Caspar W. (“Cap”) Weinberger

       Watergate
             -Dean
                     -Papers
                            -Contents
                     -White House response

Also recorded on May 9, 1973

  • 432-027 12:03 PM · 17 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 12:03 pm and 12:22 pm.
  • 432-029 12:03 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 12:03 pm and 12:31 pm.
  • 432-030 12:03 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 12:03 pm and 12:31 pm.
  • 045-167 12:05 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 12:05 pm and 12:31 pm.
  • 045-168 12:31 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler talked on the telephone from 12:31 pm to 12:34 pm.
  • 432-031 12:31 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 12:31 pm to 12:34 pm.
  • 432-032 12:31 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 12:31 pm and 2:24 pm.
  • 432-033 12:31 PM · 11 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 12:31 pm and 2:24 pm.

All 62 conversations from May 9, 1973 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 432-028, May 9, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/432-028 (accessed October 5, 2026).