Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 439 › Conversation 439-004

Nixon & Haig on Watergate investigation and CIA

Monday, May 21, 1973 · 11:14 AM–11:17 AM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 3 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haig, Alexander M., Jr.Conversation439-004 on Tape 439StartMonday, May 21, 1973 at 11:14 AMEndMonday, May 21, 1973 at 11:17 AMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 439-004 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Alexander Haig discuss the management of information and materials related to ongoing investigations, specifically focusing on what should be disclosed to prosecutors versus what falls under security protections. Nixon expresses concern over the handling of CIA-related information and the legal implications of providing specific directives to the agency. The conversation underscores the administration's efforts to navigate the tension between cooperative transparency and the protection of sensitive executive branch records.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 1 minute of this recording (about 33% 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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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· Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).
A young, rather small tank, you know, hitting throughout the river.
That's something I've always not said.
Why don't we say it's now 11?
And why don't we say through a box?
I think you're going to need that time to get this moving.
Now, I think he would not want both of those.
That's what the bizarre thing to work with that.
But he knows the basic facts anyway.
And he knows what the netcoms say.
In other words, I think the first, I'm going to give the CIA one of the short courses here.
Well, they're right out of the terms that I ordered to be.
And it was an awful bunch of grits.
And I think so, you know, put a brush mark in it.
And he did, but we got out of there.
And then that grain later assured me that he had made a low-creation, flat-texturized grain.
Then the next thing he was interested in was the other one, which was more chemical because of the emphasis of the thing that it's working in for this thing.
On April 18th.
They should not be, that I consider to be, in any security area.
They should not be going into a large defense.
And that would then go on to say, in that same conversation,
I had to turn over to the prosecution and tell them their case and what I was doing.
Then, a few days later, he informed me that I had directed them to inform me that they were going to go into jail.
So I just laid it out there in the best way I could.

NARA Description

On May 21, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 11:14 am to 11:17 am. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 439-004 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 439-4

Date: May 21, 1973
Time: 11:14 am - 11:17 am
Location: Old Executive Office Building

President talked with Alexander M. Haig, Jr.

[See Conversation No. 46-123]
                                               -4-

                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Also recorded on May 21, 1973

  • 439-002 10:53 AM · 21 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 10:53 am to 11:13 am.
  • 046-122 11:13 AM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 11:13 am and 11:14 am.
  • 046-123 11:14 AM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. talked on the telephone from 11:14 am to 11:17 am.
  • 439-003 11:14 AM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 11:14 am.
  • 046-124 11:17 AM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 11:17 am and 11:48 am.
  • 439-005 11:17 AM · 10 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 11:17 am and 11:48 am.
  • 046-125 11:48 AM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. talked on the telephone from 11:48 am to 11:51 am.
  • 439-006 11:48 AM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 11:48 am to 11:51 am.

All 47 conversations from May 21, 1973 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 439-004, May 21, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/439-004 (accessed October 12, 2026).