Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 434-037
Date: Friday, May 11, 1973 at 3:45 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Haig, Alexander M., Jr.
Recording device: Old Executive Office Building
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/434-037

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Well, before I went to camp, they went over to the pre-tank and said, well, let's get out of your care.
[0:14] That's a good idea.
[0:15] Of course, that's where we went.
[0:18] Got to be with the man.
[0:21] Gordon's down here.
[0:22] Let me say, that's what, regarding Henry, I took him to the mountaintop, and I told him the scheme that was in.
[0:24] He wants to play ball after Roger's release, you know, and set him up so that he's the assistant to the president, and so he carries things like children.
[0:30] Fair enough, excellent, good.
[0:46] Not going to be, he gets to go soon as he may.
[0:50] Then right after the Soviet sign off, out he goes, and the cop will come in.
[0:52] That's, that's, that's the best way of doing it.
[0:53] That's fine.
[0:54] Second thing with regard to Walters, I want him to be sure to get his tail over there as quickly as possible to see Peterson, or call it that way.
[0:57] Calls are going to be to Peterson.
[0:57] And he's going to blow his way over.
[1:00] and she's not going over to see Walden.
[1:15] Walden is on his way to see Peterson.
[1:17] Yeah.
[1:17] And she will, I'm told, throughout the day, tell him he's ready to contribute to the CIA's science.
[1:21] Now, suppose Walden was asked about the documents and so forth.
[1:23] Let's go again to what you said.
[1:23] Well, in the first place, he's not going to volunteer anything.
[1:25] He's going to sit there right on his diet.
[1:27] They'll say, I don't think he means such and such.
[1:45] I have this discussion with me, me, me, me, me.
[1:46] And that's the bulk of it.
[1:47] I have one discussion with Gray, personally, and I think one telephone discussion with him.
[1:49] Well, and now, other than what is it that you're saying with regard to, can he get in touch with health?
[1:51] sure Helms knows what the hell the story is.
[2:02] Helms knows the truth.
[2:03] Helms knows that he came to see me and Helms said the CIA is not involved.
[2:10] I said, good.
[2:13] That's all.
[2:13] That's right.
[2:14] Helms is not back yet.
[2:14] I don't even know when he's going to be in.
[2:18] I'm not concerned about him because he told the world that he was getting out of
[2:21] He wanted Walrus to handle it personally, so he gave Walrus the charge.
[2:42] And, uh, well, it helped.
[2:42] And then, uh, well, he...
[2:43] I don't expect anything from him, you know, except, you know, to be frank, if he ever was under pressure, I wouldn't trust him on anything.
[2:46] He hasn't seen his men come, and he won't.
[2:47] He must not.
[2:47] He must not.
[2:47] On the mat, not.
[2:48] So, uh, Buckley's, uh,
[2:49] I asked Walter, I said, you know, I'm very concerned.
[3:07] I said, I read these things, and knowing what I know, they're perfectly innocent.
[3:11] But if you were looking for trouble, in the window is that Bob and John could possibly
[3:17] And even implied the president.
[3:30] And even the president.
[3:32] And I said, I'm concerned that these men haven't seen these men, which are out of context in the whole revolution, don't have a feeling that the president may have had knowledge of this thing.
[3:42] He said, there is no question of that, none whatsoever.
[3:43] There has never been in the agency.
[3:45] In fact, we knew that our greatest protection was the fact that the president did not know that.
[3:48] Therefore, he never has to come to the pressure, come to me.
[4:02] All right.
[4:03] Okay.
[4:03] What?
[4:04] He says here, I'll have to start something.
[4:09] With regard to this, they've got that hard line.
[4:10] God, I've got those that know.
[4:11] You agree?
[4:11] Well, if they come around and they really nail the law, he's not going to volunteer that.
[4:14] He's going to say, here, I'm using my diary.
[4:16] And I recall, he says very clearly, what did you have?
[4:17] Did you make some money?
[4:19] Yes, I made some notes.
[4:36] Now these subjects covered a number of things involving CIA techniques, foreign nations of great sensitivity, and embassy of Mr. Powell.
[4:43] That's right.
[4:43] And therefore, I took these to the Council of the White House because of this.
[4:45] And there you can come on here.
[4:46] But I assure you, Colin, that everything that has to do with this case is totally legal, freely.
[5:07] If there are any questions about it, presidential papers of the national security area are totally, I mean, cannot be legal.
[5:11] That's right.
[5:24] And these are, after all, only my recollections, and I haven't viewed them by hand.
[5:33] Right.
[5:34] These are not more valuable than his testimony.
[5:35] He's going to go talk to Colby on this.
[5:35] He's going to do it, but in a very careful way, other than that, I don't know.
[5:37] He's just going to say that he wants to use the lawyer here from the papers because they've covered national security, and he has to start going to testify completely.
[5:42] But I've got to point out that all the CNA operations, and I'm sure they did, just kept picking it up.
[6:01] Therefore, I mean that was, that was the concern that generated the meeting between Colby and Hill.
[6:04] I mean earlier, and Hill himself was concerned that CNA was involved in the security, in the belief that that was going on.
[6:07] Right.
[6:10] So that's all he's going to do.
[6:29] And I told him to do it lightly because he has to be very careful with people who say, you know, if they don't have a dog in their mind, then you're going to start hitting them too hard.
[6:33] And then it placed there.
[6:34] And he said, if all this is going to be here, at least they're concerned about it.
[6:35] It's going to come.
[6:36] It's a problem when you shut it in.
[6:36] But they were concerned with it.
[6:37] So they were going to tell him about it.
[6:47] Okay, now, let me tell you about the PR Center.
[7:04] We've got a different type of PR game now.
[7:08] We've brought up a lot of people that can't do it.
[7:09] First, when you buy that memorandum and you read it, tell me if you can't make it what the scientific says.
[7:11] I don't want to know the whole thing.
[7:12] And then, I think the proper way, I want you to talk to your superiors.
[7:14] The proper way of leaving is to find a way to make Jack eggs.
[7:34] He's known to have searches in the White House.
[7:35] You know what I mean?
[7:35] A search to find a way that he gets it through a... Well, I'm sure that Zipper will know how to touch eggs.
[7:37] Do you agree with that?
[7:38] I think eggs is a better place to do it, that's for sure.
[7:40] We are tied to Washington Post and Chicago Tribune.
[8:03] I've been thinking about it, sir.
[8:04] Let me tell you why I think it would be better to send the judge first.
[8:05] This goddamn crap of hunts and changing tables and what have you, the fact that the nuns had to capes themselves to back up the transcript, will result in a quick response by people who listen to this sort of goddamn fabricated
[8:11] Okay, so, and the judge?
[8:32] The judge is more likely to leave.
[8:32] Yeah, but if he doesn't, we've got to get him out.
[8:33] Oh, we've got to get him out.
[8:34] We've got to get him out.
[8:35] We can't let the judge sit there.
[8:35] I'm not sure that we need to knock on his head.
[8:36] It's a kind of challenge.
[8:37] If they're coming out, we're going to be a little bit faster to take control of us than we will say, this is a fabrication.
[8:39] All right, bye.
[8:41] We've got to send it out to the judge, but quick.
[8:54] Get it out towards the day.
[8:56] We have to.
[8:56] We have to cancel the case on this.
[8:58] Is that it, Mark?
[8:59] Okay.
[8:59] I'll let the judge know.
[8:59] I'll let the judge know.
[9:01] We're at work.
[9:01] We're getting it.
[9:03] He'll get it right away.
[9:04] You know what I'd like to do is pay him for this son of a bitch over there.
[9:07] Because we can't even help.
[9:07] And we have to kind of work our house down.
[9:09] That's what I'm sure we can do.
[9:10] I don't care whether he's being presented or not like this.
[9:27] But it gives it a tighter workout scheme.
[9:30] Second point.
[9:30] The most important thing to get out.
[9:33] That's why I want Walter to be sure to hammer this home.
[9:36] I want him to hammer it home.
[9:40] I don't know what Greene has said, but we've got to be sure.
[10:03] He's already marked that in the paper.
[10:07] We'll never realize the importance of that particular point.
[10:09] That's what he said.
[10:23] That's exactly what happened.
[10:25] He said, that's what I was told.
[10:27] And I said, what did you say?
[10:28] That's what I told the lady sitting right over there.
[10:30] I told that Porter Soloveitch, or anybody called when I talked to him on the phone.
[10:34] I said, say it wherever it is, how high it goes.
[10:40] That's what I, those are my words.
[10:45] You know, Gray cannot, must not be alone.
[10:49] I don't think he wants to, but he must not, he must leave no influence.
[10:56] The president is trying to restrict Gray.
[10:57] Now, how do we get that?
[10:59] He'll tell that to them, but how does that get into the press?
[11:01] I want that in.
[11:06] That particular part of that is fairly simple.
[11:31] You don't have to be able to get that out.
[11:32] That's great.
[11:32] You don't have to be able to get out of it.
[11:33] No, the fact is, while there's a discussion on this, so far, we've been able to get that out.
[11:36] This is very important to get out as soon as we possibly can.
[11:58] I agree with the table a lot.
[11:58] The judge had a crack at it first.
[11:59] In this case we have a good table here.
[12:01] But I liked that cable out there.
[12:19] It was smeared on every page.
[12:22] In other words, let the son of X be found not guilty by this trial.
[12:23] Let him be.
[12:23] The cable was not helpful to him, was it?
[12:24] Yeah, Steve.
[12:25] Or to help him.
[12:25] It was devastating.
[12:25] And I, you know, as I recall, it may be that time was,
[12:28] Well, you see, for that, if you can get that out early, so I can get it out this week, even after Ballers gets over there today.
[12:56] ... ... ... ...
[13:24] I think it's very bad.
[13:39] Oh, it must be up here.
[13:43] How do we get it then leaked out of justice?
[13:50] I don't know.
[13:50] I don't know.
[13:51] I don't know.
[13:51] I don't know.
[13:57] Oh, I see.
[14:07] I've got to do this job down here and send a batch of documents.
[14:25] This might be done.
[14:31] I can't read all the crap, but you'll probably buy it.
[14:50] That's a 30, so look for the date.
[14:53] I've been trying to get to it very quickly.
[14:54] Well, I'll be available by a golden dollar and a half.
[14:55] I should get one.
[14:56] Don't you understand?
[14:56] See, I want to do enough to be sure that it's just the one.
[14:57] I don't want to recall one.
[14:58] But the baby didn't want any drugs back then, so I'll go through it.
[14:59] He's done it.
[15:00] The judge has done everything that I should do to prove it.
[15:08] You see, the way the FBI packaged that stuff was always by name.
[15:32] Calvert was trying to figure out how to get books.
[15:33] So if that's the way they broke it, I don't know what they're calling it.
[15:34] If they were, I'd get right to it.
[15:35] All right.
[15:35] Now.
[15:35] I think you went back to today.
[15:36] No, I had a call with the guy.
[15:36] I had talked to him last night.
[15:45] It's all right.
[16:10] That would be .
[16:11] We've got Ash working on a list of constructives for .
[16:12] I don't think that's .
[16:12] It's terribly interesting .
[16:13] We're ready for action .
[16:14] That's exactly right.
[16:33] That would be a great place for us to go.
[16:38] God, I seem to be a hearer of the brain.
[16:39] How are you?
[16:39] I'm fine.
[16:39] I'm a little bit tired around here.
[16:40] That's right.
[16:40] Other than that, it looks like a great place to be.
[16:46] .
[17:08] .
[17:08] .
[17:08] .