Conversation 438-025

TapeTape 438StartTuesday, May 22, 1973 at 9:34 AMEndTuesday, May 22, 1973 at 9:55 AMParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Haig, Alexander M., Jr.Recording deviceOld Executive Office Building

On May 22, 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 9:34 am and 9:55 am. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 438-025 of the White House Tapes.

Conversation No. 438-25

Date: May 22, 1973
Time: Unknown between 9:34 am and 9:55 am
Location: Old Executive Office Building

The President met with Alexander M. Haig, Jr.

       Watergate
             -Presentation of White Paper to Congressional leaders
             -President’s conversation with Ronald L. Ziegler
             -Congressional leaders
                    -Bryce N. Harlow’s view
                    -President’s conversation with Ziegler
                    -Content
                    -Attendees
             -Correspondents
             -President’s previous conversation with Stephen B. Bull
                    -Meeting with Haig
                    -Cabinet meeting

       National economy
              -Haig’s forthcoming meeting at 4:00 pm
                     -Attendees
                             -William E. Simon, George P. Shultz, Kenneth R. Cole and Roy L.
                               Ash
                     -Agenda
                             -Congressional committee
                     -Possible wage and price freeze
                             -Simon’s recommendation
                     -Politics
                             -Need for action
                                    -24-

           NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                             (rev. October-2011)

                                                    Conversation No. 438-25 (cont’d)

Watergate
      -Study on leaks by National Security Council [NSC]
      -Forthcoming White Paper on Watergate
             -Composition
             -Authorship
                    -Raymond K. Price, Jr.
                    -Patrick J. Buchanan
                    -J. Fred Buzhardt, Jr.
             -Timing of release

National economy
       -Press coverage
       -Ziegler
       -Haig’s meeting at 4:00 pm
       -Need for action
               -Ash and Shultz

Watergate
      -Effect on the President’s activities
              -Communications
              -Haig’s conversation with Ziegler
                      -Prisoners of war [POW] issue and forthcoming summits
              -Georges J. R. Pompidou meeting
              -William J. Baroody, Jr. and Herbert G. Klein
      -White House staff meetings
              -Ziegler
              -H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman, John D. Ehrlichman, Dwight L. Chapin, and
       Charles W. Colson
      -Government operations
              -Responsibility
      -Effect on White House staff
              -Attitude
              -Confidence
      -Number of resignations
              -Ziegler [?]
      -Elections
              -Lyndon B. Johnson
                               -25-

    NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                       (rev. October-2011)

                                               Conversation No. 438-25 (cont’d)

-Elliot L. Richardson
        -Conversation with Haig
        -Confirmation
               -Dr. James R. Schlesinger
        -Mood
-Richard M. Helms
        -Connotations from news summaries
               -Lt. Gen. Vernon A. Walters’s memoranda
        -Opinion regarding President’s role in cover-up
        -John W. Dean, III’s visits
-Forthcoming White Paper
        -Walters’s memoranda of conversation [memcons]
               -Allegations on use of Central Intelligence Agency [CIA] in cover-
                 up
        -L[ouis] Patrick Gray
               -Conversations with President
                       -Topics
        -Dean
               -Documents
        -Support from Congressional leaders
               -John C. Stennis
               -Henry M. (“Scoop”) Jackson
                       -Possible conversation with Haig
               -Harry F. Byrd, Jr.
               -Conversation with Haig
        -Jackson
        -Haldeman’s and Ehrlichman’s possible testimony
               -Executive privilege
        -Executive privilege
               -Documents
               -Buzhardt’s view
               -Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Richardson
-News stories
-Martha Mitchell
        -Telephone call
-President’s role
                                               -26-

                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                     (rev. October-2011)

                                                           Conversation No. 438-25 (cont’d)

                     -Cover-up
                     -National security
              -Forthcoming White Paper
                     -Purposes
                     -Audience
              -Popular concern
              -Forthcoming White Paper
                     -Composition

Haig left at an unknown time before 9:55 am.

This transcript was generated automatically by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite this transcript as authoritative. Consult the Finding Aid above for verified information.

Yes, sir.
This paper still on the back of us is getting all the ex-fire.
I think it's done a marvelous job to get this far.
Give me a little rundown.
While I was waiting for you, I talked to Dicker.
He told me that the committee was very good, and I want to be sure that you agree with the plan.
A formal leader is being embraced as an idea.
Do you agree with that, Dicker?
Yes, I do.
I don't know about you, but that's probably a good
We have to give the message to the world that you have the right people in a very different setting than, say, you know, you did go to the United States.
Oh, I do.
Well, no.
And he's an activist now.
Oh, I hadn't understood that.
When I had thought about it, when I, when we talked about the problem, apparently, what John said is wrong.
And he said, bring in some others from time to time.
It was disgusting.
And maybe he meant that evening to bring somebody in here tonight.
I don't know.
I heard about that.
So if they would be done by me, then I could probably go, well, we're just supposed to look at this church.
We're hungry.
We're supposed to look at this church.
How about they not accept it?
And then we go and have this session with the fourth order.
And then we're going to pray.
And then we're going to find the whole thing.
He would have that.
He would have that.
And then follow that up.
Right.
Yes, I agree.
I agree.
Probably pretty good.
That was mine.
Right now, I'm in the county.
I just posted this and said it was a good one.
It was a good one.
And I just told him.
I didn't let him speak.
He said, I didn't want to meet him.
I didn't want to speak to him.
I said, I'm going to have to check with you.
Is that what's going to happen?
Are you ready for a meeting?
I'm already ready.
I think you're going to be looking forward to that.
.
.
.
.
.
We may decide, we may come out of this with a decision.
But if we do, we want to do it in a way in which
I don't know if it's just me, but I don't know if it's just me.
I don't know if it's just me, but I don't know if it's just me.
I don't know if it's just me, but I don't know if it's just me.
Well, when you're at the forefront, it feels very strong in that direction.
Economically, we've got to balance the economic and the political side.
Political conference back, we're going to take a few wraps.
Thank you very much.
And right now, we think we need some tough action now.
Right now, let's act on this front and act in a very effective way.
Now, I had this paper back in the building board meeting.
We had some studies made.
There's about almost 20 pages of this in that book.
The only clue to that is there's no shape that's in here now.
They put a tab on it, being quite specific with some of the challenges.
The paper starts out with a list of a listing of what you haven't done.
That shouldn't be in the beginning.
So that's the last thing.
so that it doesn't go as long as you're facing.
Move it.
Well, yes, sir, by doing all this dedication, we got together and then we reached out to them.
And we worked back and forth, and we worked on them.
So we're off to town.
We're talking about something soon.
So now it's ready for you.
You had a head and a foot?
Very heavy.
Very heavy.
They still need some work.
The bazaars work on it, too.
The bazaars work on it throughout.
I have a new ally who will help throughout the whole country.
He'll drop the balls throughout the country.
Now, don't you worry about the other party.
I'll get the harder guys.
I'll find you what you want.
Then we'll go to this unit for Tuesday.
Don't worry about it.
Don't worry about it.
Don't worry about it.
Don't worry about it.
Yeah, that's a great subject.
On your economics meeting, I don't think you need to give it to him.
If you're trying to do something else, you just know it's a private matter.
I have on this thing.
You know, their things are just like we have in the POW thing.
There's so much that they're putting out.
All of these things have to be very, very strong and push.
It's just a, it's not going to do anything.
I can't say this is an important thing.
I know it is.
So, you need to sell what's brewing.
I've been here, and I've got a very good idea.
Mine would be very helpful.
Very helpful.
Nobody spoke to me.
See, we've, uh, we've really laid down an awful lot of people, you know, in particular.
I don't know how many.
Two.
That's right.
A lot of them have, uh, had jobs and they don't want to pressure them unless you have some guidance.
You, you take a little try and, you know, you have to strengthen the staff, but, but help.
The government's still working.
So we're only here to start building up something.
We're just building up through the job.
I mean, that's the way we've got it.
I think that's sort of the attitude that we all come out of the league with.
I guess there's no reason for me to be self-confident.
Our courage, our... What is the courage of a person?
The fact that these are such small things, that's the place where we want to be.
I asked him a couple of other questions.
What was the situation?
Let me ask this.
In Holmes' case, I know there's a really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really,
The higher up.
yes it is
the next day
I don't think that's just a Walters memorandum.
My discussion with Ray had to do with whether he'd seen Walters.
I think that was on the invention of money.
The question was, the question was,
I do.
See what I want to do is keep this business going, you know, but I definitely didn't.
Keep going, I'm focusing on it.
You know, they, you know, you know, if anything comes out of football, it's going to be out of the big question.
I don't care if this is going to happen.
The whole thing is, you emerge, and don't deal with Mr. Crickett.
Very precisely with him.
You know, if they weren't made public or were about
Now,
I don't want to do it myself.
I'm in a position where I can review Jackson.
I'll let him say how.
You know, there's a lot of the president that's been like, you know, the whole land, the continent, the world, the black land, all the Washington, the Newfoundland.
If you think you can do that, yes.
If the Japs did it, like, you know, it's a plan.
People need to know what they're up to.
You know, and I think it's a problem.
I want to
I talked to all of them.
This is an articulated question again.
Well, my
It takes on the fact that there was some guys down in the woodwork making a living out of it.
I don't know
either the war or the hunger.
At one time, I wasn't over it.
So that's what this victory is.
But yes, you were a constant aggression for national security, but those aspects of this thing, which you had a reason to believe quite a bit about, were unclear.
What do you think of that?
So, what I'm trying to do is lay down residential retention.
Which is now a comprehensive study that we've just been coming up with.
Everybody is something like that.
I mean, it's even more important than that.
It's close to this massive problem that you're looking at right now.
The man is the man.
He's the man.
He's the man.
He's the man.
He's the man.
He's the man.
He's the man.
It helps them at the same time.
It's invaluable to the presence.
It helps both of them.
You see, there's a lot of fun to do.
I was listening to Simon and John's mind and other people that's been counseling for a long time.
This gives them a chance to lay out their strategies for their testimonies.
Now, the audience seems to be a little more appreciative than they were before.
The rationale is that any responsible congressional leaders in the next century that aren't concerned may be depressed, right?
Without making a big deal out of this thing, countrywide, right?
It's not a big deal yet.
Now, it's good.
After last week, there was a great increase in popular concern.
You can say they want this to go down.
We'll have another draft here, except that it says that you can take it to the, uh, the switch part, I believe, or, uh, starting on page three, you'll see that they're looking at it, but I did not.
And that should be in here, but that's the way it is.