Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 439-011
Date: Monday, May 21, 1973 at 12:40 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Haig, Alexander M., Jr.
Recording device: Old Executive Office Building
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/439-011

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] I seem always to be trying to rush, I didn't mean to.
[0:04] Uh, this, uh, no sir, where are you coming from?
[0:06] Just, uh, I thought that I might help you.
[0:09] It seems like Dan's coming, sir, sir.
[0:12] Right, I've heard technical, uh, tell me the what to do.
[0:13] Why don't they want to do this?
[0:14] In fact, if they're...
[0:15] The fellow who came in to see me, I asked him, I thought, I directed the FBI.
[0:26] I said I didn't have any questions about that because I was worried about it.
[0:30] There's some conversation I don't know that you know.
[0:31] No, no, we're very, we're using the best three criteria here.
[0:34] One is not to give any of the press a bridge that they can go in.
[0:36] 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.
[0:55] And as you see, we're checking everything we've got here.
[0:57] We've got all the press play, all the...
[0:58] I see, sure.
[0:58] Well, if you're going to...
[0:59] I just know that you said that to me.
[1:00] I went over that with Greg, like I said about that, because I had raised out a lot of...
[1:05] I heard everybody was insisting on it.
[1:07] That's right.
[1:11] And that was all out of the park.
[1:17] Doesn't matter.
[1:18] Okay, what parts can you add?
[1:22] Well, we've got much better language.
[1:25] Because Bryce and I have both already been conserved already this morning.
[1:32] The welders, that helps me.
[1:33] So we've got much better language in there now, explaining it and fleshing it out.
[1:35] Good.
[1:36] 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.
[1:59] So I think that's going to be a hell of a lot better.
[2:01] 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.
[2:18] 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.
[2:24] I was... And I've got a... We had a...
[2:25] The last...
[2:25] There's a long, certainly long paragraph with regard to...
[2:26] I was talking about...
[2:26] There was a client...
[2:27] I was talking about the administration, and I was talking to the client, right?
[2:29] And I don't think we can click on any of my minutes.
[2:35] We're adding something like this, too, with respect to the very trick.
[2:44] In other words, we're going to cover everything.
[2:48] So if it's not covered, then everyone will zero in.
[2:50] Why won't it be covered?
[2:53] I have a whole new set of missions.
[2:54] So we're going to cover all of them.
[2:56] Yes, sir.
[2:57] We're going to cover all of them.
[3:00] And the other is total.
[3:02] Well, I object thoroughly.
[3:02] The way I would put it, I have...
[3:05] No knowledge.
[3:09] I had no knowledge until March of this year of funds being arranged for the dependents.
[3:19] No knowledge.
[3:20] Not of the 350, nor of Compact.
[3:22] That I did not authorize funds.
[3:26] Just lay it out there now.
[3:28] On dirty tricks, it would be better to put a paragraph in on that.
[3:35] What does Bazaar think about my suggestion on the Peterson part?
[3:40] Do you want to leave that out there?
[3:45] No, he's working with that right now.
[3:46] That's a tough one.
[3:47] Very tough.
[3:47] And I don't know how to handle it.
[3:48] He knows that we've got to do it.
[3:49] It's just a question of how much do we ever want for him.
[3:55] He ought to have cleared it with Peterson on the phone.
[4:03] I think he should.
[4:05] Because basically, I want to be sure Bazar knows Dean is holding out over Peterson.
[4:12] Because Dean says Peterson has the damn information.
[4:19] And the son of a bitch never told him.
[4:20] Well, of course, there are other men.
[4:23] He never told us anything.
[4:26] Me?
[4:28] That's the way we're going to handle this.
[4:33] You were surprised, Miller, about some involvement in the break-in?
[4:38] Yeah, about the break-in.
[4:40] 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.
[4:47] I swear to the judge, I'm going to say it.
[4:49] At first, I had considered this in the context
[4:53] security operations going on in the White House, and a careful consideration of the prosecution, I mean, probably, that hasn't been told.
[5:03] We decided to judge first.
[5:04] We decided not necessarily.
[5:05] So I thereby directed it to be done.
[5:06] That's very good.
[5:07] That way you keep it a little more general, as Peterson had realized.
[5:12] 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.
[5:29] We have really needed the help, but not to investigate matters that involve national security.
[5:37] Now everybody agrees that that doesn't mean anything.
[5:41] I said that to him, and I just say it.
[5:47] 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,
[6:04] 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.
[6:10] Forward July, yes, sir.
[6:11] Oh, that's what I meant.
[6:14] That's him.
[6:15] That's him.
[6:15] No, no, no, no, no.
[6:17] Oh, I didn't mean to tell him.
[6:18] No, I, all I wanted to say was that when I sent it, like, his name was for confirmation.
[6:21] He told me that he had conducted a very thorough investigation.
[6:25] I didn't want the president to know that.
[6:28] Well, then, all right, here we go.
[6:29] I'll tell you why that's gross.
[6:30] Because that's gross.
[6:31] There was always a great person in all of the best with the best that you could not make.
[6:42] Alright, fine.
[6:44] That's true, that's why I asked you the question.
[6:46] I should have said it later.
[6:47] But you know, once you get back to those numbers, I'll read one paragraph to you.
[6:51] Is that okay?
[6:52] Yes, sir.
[6:53] Oh, did I like the perspective?
[7:14] I just want to be very sure
[7:27] We're going to use the word testimony.
[7:36] And that means we've got to do that.
[7:39] So it looks like you're ordering what should be ordered anyhow.
[7:46] It shouldn't have been done in the first place.
[7:48] You're changing the way that's ordered.
[7:52] But we're using testimony.
[7:55] If you save documents, it'll just
[7:57] Sarah went on, but now if they do ask for documents, they always get them.
[8:08] What do we say then?
[8:09] We just said that's not how they had testified.
[8:11] The documents, the presidential papers, they're not going to get them.
[8:15] That's right.
[8:16] Just that simple.
[8:18] It's their papers that they're going to get them.
[8:19] I mean, having told the Sarge, he sure as most of us got all the head speakers in that line.
[8:21] I don't know.
[8:21] Hey, Sarah, we had to get that last week, but I don't know if it should happen.
[8:37] I was going to say, for example, it's very important to protect the national security operation.
[8:47] It now appears that there were members of my staff who have been under my direction.
[8:54] So it is to cover up any involvement they or others might have had to undergo.
[9:00] That condensed thought of John was like that.
[9:04] Anyway.
[9:05] I'll clean that up later, but I'll see what I can do.
[9:27] Here it is.
[9:28] With hindsight, other things are clear.
[9:29] There was an atmosphere, a climate, that was the White House.
[9:37] This is definitely just a straight fact, a straight fact.
[10:08] That's the way to change the whole thing.
[10:15] I intentionally agree with her.
[10:17] We'll make our notes on that for the CIA.
[10:21] This paper will have a great deal of evidence of that.
[10:27] I mean, really, it lights up and puts a little band-aid on some of that.
[10:30] And on the other one,
[10:31] Well, it is troublesome because of the fact that the goddamn stuff was happening.
[10:50] That's right.
[10:52] And I, I, uh, I, I feel that, uh, that there's a dispute.
[10:55] I mean, I don't want to say what I was supposed to do, but I should think.
[10:56] You see, this for the first time explains, yes, yes, there were some delays, but it explains everything.
[10:59] Before, the only thing that could be true was that, uh, it, it, it, it, it was, it was,
[11:02] This has gone to the back, and Senators of the National Security have asked us.
[11:07] And that's what caused the delay.
[11:11] But, in any event, the delays, thank God, by the time I got into it, we did get the stuff to him.
[11:20] And he was dead.
[11:21] The judge had an old big plan for me sitting right here in this office.
[11:26] And I said, send it to the judge.
[11:28] I ordered it.
[11:28] So I earlier said, don't get in the National Security.
[11:30] I admit it.
[11:31] See, there's my promise.
[11:38] The enemy is going to take us on this, but it's going to provide the base that we need.
[11:56] If we watch out, it's going to give your witnesses a chance to do the work.
[11:58] They have to be able to protect themselves and the enemy.
[11:59] It's going to do away with all the debate about protective privilege, and hopefully divert entirely the enemy.
[12:13] 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.
[12:36] This wouldn't have worked out.
[12:37] 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.
[12:41] And they're not criminal.
[12:41] I don't know.
[12:42] I can't figure that out.
[12:42] But at the same time,
[12:47] 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.
[13:05] They'll write all over.
[13:06] They'll say, well, the President's papers have illegal activities in them.
[13:10] I suppose I'm in the next argument.
[13:12] 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.
[13:22] I don't say that we're going to dispose of that forever, but...
[13:25] I think on that one, though, let's just take the... We'll take the... We'll take the... We'll get it.
[13:31] But let's just take it and say, you know, how about you understand that they... Look, we're not holding back a thing.
[13:37] The man can testify about anything.
[13:38] They can question him about anything.
[13:41] However, the notes...
[13:43] The records have to be sacrosanct as far as we're concerned.
[13:48] If another thing is done and taken...
[13:50] John and Bob are quickly off the hook on me and on the guidelines of Peterson as far as John is concerned.
[14:08] It's really done them a great service.
[14:10] What kind of action?
[14:11] Well, the fact that you'll be the host of the National Security Council.
[14:15] And, um, what was his request?
[14:15] John's request?
[14:16] Well, I know, I guess, he said he was in the commission.
[14:18] Even though he requested that he was in the commission and that he would go public.
[14:35] by direction of and its president, Greenfield Peterson, that we avoid the national security risk, and especially not, generally, in this investigation.
[14:55] We really don't challenge artists.
[14:56] 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
[15:05] the mastermind of everything.
[15:11] Now, in other words, I put a national security book over the whole thing.
[15:23] Not that we should put it over the whole thing.
[15:24] You see, those faces are bringing it down.
[15:24] It's Bob and John.
[15:25] We all do that.
[15:36] I wonder if the goddamn dean out there was a fucking dean.
[15:57] I don't even know that he was in charge of that whole thing.
[16:01] That son of a bitch must know everything.
[16:06] Now they make them.
[16:13] You know?
[16:14] I don't know of any of you.
[16:19] All right.
[16:19] 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.
[16:30] No evidence has been presented today.
[16:32] I heard the full investigation.
[16:33] Because you see, what Dean did there with the other money, he now cannot hang around us.
[16:36] that this fellow's got a paper doing.
[16:43] It wasn't out there.
[16:46] It was not part of the paper.
[16:49] And he would think that he did not know that this policy paper was ever going to come out.
[16:56] Because he had discovered that the March 72 was still going on.
[17:00] In other words, it was still there.
[17:02] And he hadn't seen that the March 72
[17:06] I agree with all of this.
[17:20] Yeah, I agree with all of this.
[17:26] And quite frankly, it may have been a factor in his, you know, that he did that.
[17:31] If it was, it's a shame for this to happen.
[17:33] No, it's explainable.
[17:33] Nobody uses that phrase.
[17:34] There's no skin on our name.
[17:35] We discredit it.
[17:45] That's what we're talking about.
[17:57] That's what we're talking about.
[18:01] I can't ever, ever say that.
[18:03] I don't mean to, but I agree.
[18:04] I know.
[18:04] That's why, thank God, I never knew about the break.
[18:05] I was worried, but I was serious.
[18:07] I think I would have remembered such a hot guy's name anyway.
[18:08] I didn't know about the break.
[18:09] I didn't know about the money.
[18:14] That's why I ask that this paper is going to be a yellow and purple bit.
[18:38] I just really want to get into the fighting that I want to have.
[18:39] There's so many people that do want to help Sarah.
[18:40] I think that's true.
[18:41] It's just about every Saturday, Thursday, or every other traditional hour.
[18:42] They can't do anything with it.
[18:43] They can't do anything with it.
[18:43] Now they've got it.
[18:48] I don't know why.
[19:26] I don't want them all to edit it, so I put my whole paper in it.
[19:50] And I need to take my father's job to start editing my whole paper.
[19:51] That's the problem.
[19:52] I would try to do it.
[19:52] I need the parts that really can help me out.
[19:53] In the case of John, they help me here, so I'm ready to start working on it.
[19:55] Yeah, we've got it.
[19:55] Yeah, we've got it.
[20:09] three battles along the water but on the other hand you can't ever be at this place
[20:48] Yes, sir.
[21:19] Okay, let's say, let's give it one more time.
[21:54] I want to put it in.
[22:34] highly classified documents for the purpose of getting together to take care of it, and to pack it out of papers.
[22:57] We've got to find out how to do those things.
[22:58] And I think it's very important to trust them, and to respect them, and to respect them.
[23:00] And that's what we were told to do.
[23:01] 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.
[23:05] But you know the interesting thing, I never knew that.
[23:37] I would never have gotten close to it and not seen it.
[23:49] We should have documented it back in case it didn't affect us.
[23:57] It was a dry hole, you know.
[23:59] It was just a crack in the caper.
[24:00] What else?
[24:01] Oh, God.
[24:01] This holy paper.
[24:01] I'm just going to put it in the locker.
[24:02] I'm going to put it in the locker.
[24:07] I'm not thinking personal.
[24:23] I'd like to have him.
[24:23] But I'm just thinking how it gets off when it doesn't work.
[24:40] Alright, let's make it there.
[25:00] Good luck.
[25:00] Alright.