Nixon & Haig on Watergate and White Paper

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I seem always to be trying to rush, I didn't mean to.

Uh, this, uh, no sir, where are you coming from?

Just, uh, I thought that I might help you.

It seems like Dan's coming, sir, sir.

Right, I've heard technical, uh, tell me the what to do.

Why don't they want to do this?

In fact, if they're...

The fellow who came in to see me, I asked him, I thought, I directed the FBI.

I said I didn't have any questions about that because I was worried about it.

There's some conversation I don't know that you know.

No, no, we're very, we're using the best three criteria here.

One is not to give any of the press a bridge that they can go in.

I asked somebody else at pinpoint culpability, John or Peterson or somebody else, and some of them were pretty troublesome because of the press play at the time.

And as you see, we're checking everything we've got here.

We've got all the press play, all the...

I see, sure.

Well, if you're going to...

I just know that you said that to me.

I went over that with Greg, like I said about that, because I had raised out a lot of...

I heard everybody was insisting on it.

That's right.

And that was all out of the park.

Doesn't matter.

Okay, what parts can you add?

Well, we've got much better language.

Because Bryce and I have both already been conserved already this morning.

The welders, that helps me.

So we've got much better language in there now, explaining it and fleshing it out.

Good.

in a way that might be troublesome for Bob or John, and yet, it says that I was trying to avoid national security, and avoid the CIA, and not for the purpose of getting a cover-up, and not to get into anything in the context of the former's operation, which was a source of concern that had to be.

So I think that's going to be a hell of a lot better.

We all agree completely that you're coming along and that, for God's sake, let's not make this the catch-all for everything.

There are going to be further investigations and, you know, everyone's got to understand that you're... You know, I was just thinking of this.

I was... And I've got a... We had a...

The last...

There's a long, certainly long paragraph with regard to...

I was talking about...

There was a client...

I was talking about the administration, and I was talking to the client, right?

And I don't think we can click on any of my minutes.

We're adding something like this, too, with respect to the very trick.

In other words, we're going to cover everything.

So if it's not covered, then everyone will zero in.

Why won't it be covered?

I have a whole new set of missions.

So we're going to cover all of them.

Yes, sir.

We're going to cover all of them.

And the other is total.

Well, I object thoroughly.

The way I would put it, I have...

No knowledge.

I had no knowledge until March of this year of funds being arranged for the dependents.

No knowledge.

Not of the 350, nor of Compact.

That I did not authorize funds.

Just lay it out there now.

On dirty tricks, it would be better to put a paragraph in on that.

What does Bazaar think about my suggestion on the Peterson part?

Do you want to leave that out there?

No, he's working with that right now.

That's a tough one.

Very tough.

And I don't know how to handle it.

He knows that we've got to do it.

It's just a question of how much do we ever want for him.

He ought to have cleared it with Peterson on the phone.

I think he should.

Because basically, I want to be sure Bazar knows Dean is holding out over Peterson.

Because Dean says Peterson has the damn information.

And the son of a bitch never told him.

Well, of course, there are other men.

He never told us anything.

Me?

That's the way we're going to handle this.

You were surprised, Miller, about some involvement in the break-in?

Yeah, about the break-in.

And that when the Attorney General gave the incontrovertible proof, that there was no part of the proof or something like that, I would have suddenly ordered to do that.

I swear to the judge, I'm going to say it.

At first, I had considered this in the context

security operations going on in the White House, and a careful consideration of the prosecution, I mean, probably, that hasn't been told.

We decided to judge first.

We decided not necessarily.

So I thereby directed it to be done.

That's very good.

That way you keep it a little more general, as Peterson had realized.

But I would put it in turn with the effect that I did instruct Peterson, and without saying specifically in his negotiations, to negotiate with Watergate for the filth.

We have really needed the help, but not to investigate matters that involve national security.

Now everybody agrees that that doesn't mean anything.

I said that to him, and I just say it.

So back to all of your suggestions this morning, within one exception, I, uh, you know, I said, you know, we've already put out so many miles, covered so many, and you know what we're saying now,

We, we don't want to, we don't want to put in that part of the lawyer's number where he didn't tell the president.

Forward July, yes, sir.

Oh, that's what I meant.

That's him.

No, no, no, no, no.

Oh, I didn't mean to tell him.

No, I, all I wanted to say was that when I sent it, like, his name was for confirmation.

He told me that he had conducted a very thorough investigation.

I didn't want the president to know that.

Well, then, all right, here we go.

I'll tell you why that's gross.

Because that's gross.

There was always a great person in all of the best with the best that you could not make.

Alright, fine.

That's true, that's why I asked you the question.

I should have said it later.

But you know, once you get back to those numbers, I'll read one paragraph to you.

Is that okay?

Yes, sir.

Oh, did I like the perspective?

I just want to be very sure

We're going to use the word testimony.

And that means we've got to do that.

So it looks like you're ordering what should be ordered anyhow.

It shouldn't have been done in the first place.

You're changing the way that's ordered.

But we're using testimony.

If you save documents, it'll just

Sarah went on, but now if they do ask for documents, they always get them.

What do we say then?

We just said that's not how they had testified.

The documents, the presidential papers, they're not going to get them.

That's right.

Just that simple.

It's their papers that they're going to get them.

I mean, having told the Sarge, he sure as most of us got all the head speakers in that line.

I don't know.

Hey, Sarah, we had to get that last week, but I don't know if it should happen.

I was going to say, for example, it's very important to protect the national security operation.

It now appears that there were members of my staff who have been under my direction.

So it is to cover up any involvement they or others might have had to undergo.

That condensed thought of John was like that.

Anyway.

I'll clean that up later, but I'll see what I can do.

Here it is.

With hindsight, other things are clear.

There was an atmosphere, a climate, that was the White House.

This is definitely just a straight fact, a straight fact.

That's the way to change the whole thing.

I intentionally agree with her.

We'll make our notes on that for the CIA.

This paper will have a great deal of evidence of that.

I mean, really, it lights up and puts a little band-aid on some of that.

And on the other one,

Well, it is troublesome because of the fact that the goddamn stuff was happening.

That's right.

And I, I, uh, I, I feel that, uh, that there's a dispute.

I mean, I don't want to say what I was supposed to do, but I should think.

You see, this for the first time explains, yes, yes, there were some delays, but it explains everything.

Before, the only thing that could be true was that, uh, it, it, it, it, it was, it was,

This has gone to the back, and Senators of the National Security have asked us.

And that's what caused the delay.

But, in any event, the delays, thank God, by the time I got into it, we did get the stuff to him.

And he was dead.

The judge had an old big plan for me sitting right here in this office.

And I said, send it to the judge.

I ordered it.

So I earlier said, don't get in the National Security.

I admit it.

See, there's my promise.

The enemy is going to take us on this, but it's going to provide the base that we need.

If we watch out, it's going to give your witnesses a chance to do the work.

They have to be able to protect themselves and the enemy.

It's going to do away with all the debate about protective privilege, and hopefully divert entirely the enemy.

and come down the line and report it to the jury, go to the judge and say, we're demanding for a boss to announce notice.

This wouldn't have worked out.

They now have more different prisons that I've gone in and it's a criminal act, but they're at the same time, if it's illegal, illegal, illegal.

And they're not criminal.

I don't know.

I can't figure that out.

But at the same time,

We're going to ease that pressure that doesn't fill in a little, but there does have to be some executive privilege, and that is with regard to President's papers.

They'll write all over.

They'll say, well, the President's papers have illegal activities in them.

I suppose I'm in the next argument.

But if the witness says, I am testifying, it then becomes a question of where the words at the end are after a long year of notice.

I don't say that we're going to dispose of that forever, but...

I think on that one, though, let's just take the... We'll take the... We'll take the... We'll get it.

But let's just take it and say, you know, how about you understand that they... Look, we're not holding back a thing.

The man can testify about anything.

They can question him about anything.

However, the notes...

The records have to be sacrosanct as far as we're concerned.

If another thing is done and taken...

John and Bob are quickly off the hook on me and on the guidelines of Peterson as far as John is concerned.

It's really done them a great service.

What kind of action?

Well, the fact that you'll be the host of the National Security Council.

And, um, what was his request?

John's request?

Well, I know, I guess, he said he was in the commission.

Even though he requested that he was in the commission and that he would go public.

by direction of and its president, Greenfield Peterson, that we avoid the national security risk, and especially not, generally, in this investigation.

We really don't challenge artists.

So, well, folks, it was the beginning of stuff here, though, with the H-6 statement, and evidence, and the fact that they are, that he was the

the mastermind of everything.

Now, in other words, I put a national security book over the whole thing.

Not that we should put it over the whole thing.

You see, those faces are bringing it down.

It's Bob and John.

We all do that.

I wonder if the goddamn dean out there was a fucking dean.

I don't even know that he was in charge of that whole thing.

That son of a bitch must know everything.

Now they make them.

You know?

I don't know of any of you.

All right.

That's why I want to change that sentence a little bit, too, by pointing out that I have no evidence that is lying out there.

No evidence has been presented today.

I heard the full investigation.

Because you see, what Dean did there with the other money, he now cannot hang around us.

that this fellow's got a paper doing.

It wasn't out there.

It was not part of the paper.

And he would think that he did not know that this policy paper was ever going to come out.

Because he had discovered that the March 72 was still going on.

In other words, it was still there.

And he hadn't seen that the March 72

I agree with all of this.

Yeah, I agree with all of this.

And quite frankly, it may have been a factor in his, you know, that he did that.

If it was, it's a shame for this to happen.

No, it's explainable.

Nobody uses that phrase.

There's no skin on our name.

We discredit it.

That's what we're talking about.

I can't ever, ever say that.

I don't mean to, but I agree.

I know.

That's why, thank God, I never knew about the break.

I was worried, but I was serious.

I think I would have remembered such a hot guy's name anyway.

I didn't know about the break.

I didn't know about the money.

That's why I ask that this paper is going to be a yellow and purple bit.

I just really want to get into the fighting that I want to have.

There's so many people that do want to help Sarah.

I think that's true.

It's just about every Saturday, Thursday, or every other traditional hour.

They can't do anything with it.

Now they've got it.

I don't know why.

I don't want them all to edit it, so I put my whole paper in it.

And I need to take my father's job to start editing my whole paper.

That's the problem.

I would try to do it.

I need the parts that really can help me out.

In the case of John, they help me here, so I'm ready to start working on it.

Yeah, we've got it.

three battles along the water but on the other hand you can't ever be at this place

Yes, sir.

Okay, let's say, let's give it one more time.

I want to put it in.

highly classified documents for the purpose of getting together to take care of it, and to pack it out of papers.

We've got to find out how to do those things.

And I think it's very important to trust them, and to respect them, and to respect them.

And that's what we were told to do.

But even there, even there, if you didn't follow that statement, you would be the last person I would agree with if you thought you got that right to your household.

But you know the interesting thing, I never knew that.

I would never have gotten close to it and not seen it.

We should have documented it back in case it didn't affect us.

It was a dry hole, you know.

It was just a crack in the caper.

What else?

Oh, God.

This holy paper.

I'm just going to put it in the locker.

I'm going to put it in the locker.

I'm not thinking personal.

I'd like to have him.

But I'm just thinking how it gets off when it doesn't work.

Alright, let's make it there.

Good luck.

Alright.

Nixon & Haig on Watergate and White Paper

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on May 21, 1973

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