Conversation: 437-019
Prev: 437-018 Next: 437-020Start Date: 18-May-1973 3:35 PM
End Date: 18-May-1973 4:34 PM
Participants:
Nixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob");Recording Device: Old Executive Office Building
NARA Description:
On May 18, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:35 pm to 4:34 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 437-019 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid:
Conversation No. 437-19
Date: May 18, 1973
Time: 3:35pm - 4:34 pm
Location: Old Executive Office Building
The President met with H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman.
Watergate
-Haldeman’s previous meeting with Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
-26-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2011)
Conversation No. 437-19 (cont’d)
-John D. Ehrlichman
-Suspicions
-Attitude toward facts
-Opinions regarding the President
-Desire for full disclosure
-Full disclosure
-President’s speech
-White Paper
-Effect on Ehrlichman and Haldeman
-John J. Wilson’s opinion
-President’s conversation with Henry E. Petersen and Richard G. Kleindienst,
April 15
-Resignations
-Haldeman, Ehrlichman and John W. Dean III
-Importance of the President’s continuance in office
-Pardons
-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-John N. Mitchell
-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Innocence
-Possible indictments
-President’s knowledge
-$350,000 used for cover-up
-Haldeman’s knowledge
-Herbert W. Kalmbach’s activities
-Ehrlichman
-Staff members’ memoranda of conversation [memcons] and notes
-President’s ownership
-Executive privilege
-President’s conversations with Haldeman
-Purpose
-Executive privilege
-Purpose
-Coverage
-Ehrlichman’s possible release of information
-Ervin Committee
-Dean
-27-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2011)
Conversation No. 437-19 (cont’d)
-Attempts to involve President
-Bruce A. Kehrli
-President’s schedule logs
-Possible future allegations
-Dean
-President’s forthcoming speech
-$350,000
-President’s knowledge
-Haldeman’s knowledge
-Need for full disclosure and avoidance of lying
-Clemency
-Ehrlichman’s conversation with the President at San Clemente
-Ehrlichman’s defense
-Presidency
-Full disclosure
-Issuance of White Paper
-President’s forthcoming speech
-Content
-Wiretaps
-Henry A. Kissinger’s involvement
-Plumbers
-J. Edgar Hoover
-John J. (“Jack”) Caulfield and Charles W. Colson
-Caulfield
-Activities
-Ehrlichman and Dean
-Conversation with James W. McCord regarding clemency
-Mitchell
-Bugging
-Approval
-Ehrlichman’s possible statement
-Conversation with the President at San Clemente regarding clemency
-President’s approval
-Money
-Ehrlichman’s knowledge
-President’s knowledge
-Purpose for raising
-28-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2011)
Conversation No. 437-19 (cont’d)
-Kalmbach
-President’s knowledge
-Timing
-Dean
-Feelings concerning Ehrlichman
-Meeting with the President and Haldeman, March 21
-Subornation of perjury
-Guilt of Mitchell and Jeb S[tuart] Magruder
-Planning and approval
-McCord
-Mitchell, Dean, Liddy
-Dean
-Veracity
-Role
-Central Intelligence Agency [CIA]
-Attempt to put Watergate defendants on payroll
-Meeting with Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] and CIA
-President’s subsequent order to Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Meeting with Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Haldeman’s and Ehrlichman’s meeting with Lt. Gen. Vernon A.
Walters and Richard M. Helms
-National security
-Walters’s conversation with L. Patrick Gray
-Mitchell
-Mitchell
-Role
-Robert L. Vesco
-William J. Casey
-Vesco
-Ehrlichman
-F. Donald A. Nixon
Spiro T. Agnew
-Grand jury in Maryland
$65,000 for Lowell P. Weicker
-29-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2011)
Conversation No. 437-19 (cont’d)
Watergate
-Ervin Committee
-Kehrli’s testimony
-Edward J. Gurney
-Haldeman’s possible testimony
-Effect on possible prosecutions
-Comparison to Bobby G. Seale case
*****************************************************************
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5
[National security]
[Duration: 26 s ]
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5
*****************************************************************
Watergate
-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Possible trials
-Administration’s other agenda items
-Soviet Union
-People’s Republic of China [PRC]
-Problem of documentation
-President’s possible resignation
-Impeachment
-House of Representatives procedures
-Popular support for the President
-Haig
-Raymond K. Price, Jr. and Leonard Garment
-President’s possible response
-Ehrlichman
-Possible speech
-30-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2011)
Conversation No. 437-19 (cont’d)
-Tone and content
-Caulfield
-Colson
-Dean
-Ehrlichman
-Conversation with McCord regarding immunity
-Position in government
-Treasury Department
-Mitchell
-Role
-Possible testimony
-Presidency
-Dean
-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Dean
-Statements regarding meetings with the President
-Kleindienst
-Possible conversations with Mitchell
-Role
-Motives
-Attempted CIA cover-up
-Walters’s memcons
-Dean
-Role
-Motives
-Appearance with Walter L. Cronkite, Jr., May 17
-Desire for immunity
-Possible deal with Justice Department
-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Possible evidence against Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Mitchell
-Guilt
-Vesco
-F. Donald A. Nixon
-31-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2011)
Conversation No. 437-19 (cont’d)
*****************************************************************
[Begin segment reviewed under deed of gift]
Watergate
-Vesco
-F. Donald A. Nixon
-Activities
[End segment reviewed under deed of gift]
*****************************************************************
Watergate
-Vesco
-Mitchell
-Maurice H. Stans
-Mitchell
-Mitchell
-Perjury
-Robert C. Odle, Jr.’s testimony
-Role in campaign
-Magruder’s possible testimony
-Magruder
-Possible testimony
-Meeting with Mitchell and Frederick La Rue
-President’s forthcoming speech on full disclosure
-Need for truth
-Fundraising
-Ehrlichman
*****************************************************************
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 6
[Statute]
[Duration: 50 s ]
-32-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2011)
Conversation No. 437-19 (cont’d)
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 6
*****************************************************************
Watergate
-Fundraising
-President’s knowledge
-Motive
-Payment of legal expenses
-Odle
-Gordon C. Strachan
-Strachan
-Magruder’s possible testimony
-Bugging reports
-Wiretaps
-President’s access to reports
-Kissinger
*****************************************************************
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 8
[Statute]
[Duration: 2 m ]
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 8
*****************************************************************
Watergate
-President’s forthcoming speech
-Walters
-Timing
-Committee hearings
-Caulfield
-33-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2011)
Conversation No. 437-19 (cont’d)
-Need for truth
-Content
-Ervin Committee
-Witness list
-Haldeman, Ehrlichman and Mitchell
-Schedule
-Motive
-Hearings
-Members
-Samuel J. Ervin, Jr.
-Joseph M. Montoya
-Daniel K. Inouye
-Howard H. Baker, Jr.
-Quotes from Washington Post
-Gurney
-Weicker
-Haldeman’s forthcoming conversation with Haig
-President’s forthcoming speech
-Possible effects
-White Paper
-Haldeman’s possible review
-Statements by Ehrlichman and Haldeman
-President’s forthcoming speech
-Timing
President’s schedule
-Camp David
-Norfolk, Virginia
Watergate
-President’s forthcoming speech
-Viewers’ possible reaction
-Tone
-President’s possible response
-President’s role in world
-Effect on the President
-Aims of the President’s opponents
-34-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2011)
Conversation No. 437-19 (cont’d)
-Colson
-Role
-Caulfield
-President’s possible response
-President’s enemies
-Resignation
-Effects
-President
-Nation
-World
-President’s role
-Ehrlichman
-Conversations with President regarding payoff
-Hunt
-Colson
-Conversation with President regarding Hunt
-Dorothy Hunt’s death
-Possible actions
-Dean
-Possible White House response
-Ziegler
-Role
-Subornation of perjury
-Magruder
-Conversation with Liddy regarding Mitchell, June 19
-Subsequent conversation with Ehrlichman and Haldeman
-Timing
-Content
-President’s statement to Henry E. Petersen
-Conversations with Haldeman
-O’Brien
-Magruder
-Payoff to William Bittman
-Mitchell’s meeting in Haldeman’s office, March 22
-Dean
-Possible telephone conversations from Camp David to President
-White House response
-35-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2011)
Conversation No. 437-19 (cont’d)
-Protection of Ehrlichman and Haldeman
-Veracity
-Ziegler [?]
-Ehrlichman
-Meeting arrangement
-President’s role
-President’s assurance
Haldeman left at 4:34 pm.