Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 439-021
Date: Monday, May 21, 1973 at 4:26 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Buzhardt, J. Fred, Jr.
Recording device: Old Executive Office Building
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/439-021

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Yeah, I'm fine.
[0:02] I'm sorry.
[0:03] You can come in.
[0:08] How are you doing?
[0:11] Working pretty hard.
[0:13] Let me show you about if you come to page 19.
[0:17] Let's go up here.
[0:21] And I'll show you how we've got this.
[0:27] It looks like the weather is a bit like it.
[0:29] the problem that we've got there is this basically i cannot say for certain that i was told the fact of the matter is that i was told in that period it was in that april period which you see here so let me
[0:56] Let me give you the feeling so that you'll know exactly where it is on the back side.
[1:05] And then, Ronald, I don't know how you can write it in a way that will say the same thing, but not say the same thing.
[1:14] Basically, what happened here was that the Justice Department was, if I put it this way, deemed, deemed, I don't know if you can understand, that this is where he's trying to blackmail us.
[1:26] Right, the production department has the role of the film.
[1:30] You know, there's the filming camera.
[1:33] They have the film and the sound.
[1:40] So yeah, right.
[1:42] Well, anyways, these aren't quite good, but these are actually, or whatever it is, it's not a fight.
[1:48] What's that?
[1:49] Nothing's in it, not a fight.
[1:49] It's just anything that's in the game.
[1:52] Well, I say maybe that's good, but I don't know.
[1:56] Nathan's claim, as I understand it, I just wanted to run it out for sure that we don't get him sucked in or I'll get him sucked in.
[2:04] Now, first of all, we don't know what we're going to do about the very deal.
[2:06] I had to do it earlier, but I never told you.
[2:08] And that's the best part.
[2:10] So I have nothing about the deal.
[2:12] The question is whether or not he, when Nathan spoke to me on March 21st, may have mentioned that to me.
[2:20] He may have.
[2:21] I don't think he did.
[2:23] But you know what I mean?
[2:25] Yes.
[2:25] He may have said, well, uh, Hans, uh, that, that break-in, you know, that occurred out there and so forth, which was, would have been a brand new relief, but there was something about it that came off.
[2:35] Because when I spoke to, when I spoke to, uh, uh, on April 18th, it says, I was told that in 1971, while working on the Alcott 100 men's ballroom and so forth,
[2:51] Why didn't you tell me?
[2:56] Henry.
[2:56] Yes.
[2:58] Henry says he told you.
[3:00] Yeah.
[3:01] Henry told me.
[3:04] See, I don't have to tell you.
[3:09] Henry says I told the President.
[3:12] The President said Silverton brought me a... a memorandum of favor on Buck's testimony.
[3:14] That's what he told me.
[3:15] That was on the 18th.
[3:16] That was on the 18th.
[3:17] Yeah.
[3:17] Henry, that's the truth.
[3:17] Yes, sir.
[3:18] I said for something.
[3:18] Henry said he told you.
[3:20] Now, that's what this information is based on, Mr. President.
[3:33] Is Henry's conversation with Lincoln.
[3:35] And he said he'd only talked to about three persons in his life about this information.
[3:40] I don't know.
[3:44] I'm not, with me, it's a matter of course.
[3:46] I don't know.
[3:46] I don't know.
[3:47] I don't know.
[3:47] I don't know.
[3:47] I don't know.
[3:48] I don't know.
[3:49] I don't know.
[3:50] I don't know.
[3:52] This was at the Hoover.
[3:54] It might be on the spot, but otherwise we could say on April 18th.
[3:58] Um, since the 30-kilometer was totally... No, I'd rather not have it.
[4:01] This is the way I have it.
[4:04] You can see what I have there on the paper.
[4:10] The way I would like to break into this whole thing.
[4:13] Go ahead.
[4:15] If I heard a preservation point, I would consider it.
[4:22] There is no such relationship with the matter under investigation.
[4:28] There is no such relationship with the matter under investigation.
[4:37] I have a responsibility to see.
[4:38] Report me.
[4:38] Report me to the investigation department.
[4:40] I'm ready to report to National Security.
[4:41] I'm ready to report to National Security.
[4:42] I'm ready to report to National Security.
[4:43] I'm ready to report to National Security.
[4:45] I'm ready to report to National Security.
[4:46] I'm ready to report to National Security.
[4:49] I'm ready to report to National Security.
[4:51] Now, subsequently, then the next day, on blank, subsequently on, he does paper, on fifth, paper, acts on it,
[5:21] Well, there, and that would be strife.
[5:34] You see, what I'm going to add is that I do not want to give the impression, I don't want to leave the impression, I don't want to get close to this, but the fact that he told me for the first time about that damn thing because I might have heard about it before.
[5:48] I don't think I have.
[5:49] And I just, you know what I mean, and a bunch of Americans and tricks with me, and I wouldn't have known more than a week.
[5:59] But at that point, I was investigating the thing, and I didn't know the explicit reason for the goddamn thing, and I didn't ask her, see?
[6:06] So here's what, subsequently, on next day, the Attorney General informed me, since the government had clear evidence, that Hunt was involved in the breaking of the Second Act of the Constitution.
[6:16] Yeah, yeah, yeah, see?
[6:16] That's what he did.
[6:17] Actually, you don't need a voice.
[6:18] You don't need a voice for everything.
[6:20] Now, what Peterson may not have been able to do was something else.
[6:29] You see, it was not, our conversation was not simply about the briefing.
[6:36] It was about the testimony of Hunt.
[6:38] And I said, I told him that Hunt had been in that meeting, was one who would have responsibilities in the elsewhere investigation.
[6:45] And he said, and I told you this before, he said, how did the president did it?
[6:50] any of that information would get over to the prosecution.
[6:57] And I said, no, it did not.
[7:01] As I understand, the investigation was a dry hole.
[7:07] It was not.
[7:08] He says, that's good.
[7:09] Now, you see, what that does is to get him off the boat that we're not moving it.
[7:12] You see my wife?
[7:12] But that is the balance of it.
[7:14] But I don't think we need to put that in here.
[7:16] But how about just putting this much in here?
[7:18] That's good.
[7:19] Sure.
[7:19] That's good.
[7:20] You see, always, we don't think that this is going to lead to death anyway, and the main point here is the bottom line.
[7:31] Actually, on the dress, for example, we did have a little dice, because the government did have an equity part in there, though.
[7:37] Now when Ron gets the question, when did I learn about this break-in?
[7:48] I learned about it when I had my investigation in Hamburg.
[7:51] Then he says, and I'm absolutely clear, I cannot get the president's position in Pentagon.
[7:56] So I'm fixated.
[7:56] Well, I mean, I told her earlier.
[7:57] We said, oh, God, I don't think we could have done it.
[8:00] Then I discussed all of it.
[8:01] The whole thing.
[8:02] That was what we were doing.
[8:03] We weren't just entering into the break-in.
[8:09] And I said, and I directed these, and I said, Henry, I said, that's a national security matter.
[8:18] You should stay out of it.
[8:21] I said, you should stay out of it.
[8:22] You should stay out of national security.
[8:23] Now, that has been my line of duty.
[8:27] Well, that's exactly what he said.
[8:31] That's exactly what he said.
[8:34] Yeah.
[8:35] He told me more than he was in business to stay out of national security.
[8:41] What's that?
[8:42] He told me more than he was in business to stay out of national security.
[8:47] That's right.
[8:47] Well, the other point was, we were not covering up anything as far as health care was concerned because he specifically asked me whether or not I had the information that there was a health issue.
[8:55] He didn't ask you.
[8:57] And then I said no.
[9:00] He didn't send health advice to me.
[9:01] All right.
[9:01] Well, then that's something that will come out later when I get the question.
[9:03] All right.
[9:04] You see, the whole thing is a tragedy.
[9:12] The case should never come.
[9:14] Because without that, then we could get a drive, and we could have a break.
[9:18] And I understand that, and yet, we have to talk.
[9:22] If that's not a place in the case, then I don't think we can get the prosecution.
[9:25] And that's the point.
[9:26] And to that end, the United States of America took that decision.
[9:30] But we already did that, totally.
[9:31] That's right.
[9:31] I discussed it with him all tonight.
[9:32] Incidentally, would it be that, would you mind, would you mind re-grab a bracket that also would say that, that he could be dead?
[9:43] On that occasion, why don't we say that on that occasion, uh, that he actually had been framed by George?
[9:49] None of the information had been given to the prosecution.
[9:50] That the, that the, that the, that the, that the investigation had produced no evidence.
[9:53] And that no evidence had been thereby given, had not been given to the prosecution.
[9:57] I didn't actually go in there.
[10:00] Nevertheless, however, that Attorney General and so forth, there was not, there was clear evidence of an illegal break-in, even though the weapon was having to be given for prosecution.
[10:20] So, we run our own business on the court, either way.
[10:23] That's the statement of the fact.
[10:24] How's that?
[10:25] How do you do that?
[10:29] Write this paragraph down.
[10:33] Huh?
[10:37] Yeah.
[10:38] Yeah.
[10:38] The point is that I don't know.
[10:41] The point is that I think that he told me for the first time.
[10:47] But I can't be sure because of the point.
[10:55] What did he say?
[11:05] What about the picture?
[11:09] The picture doesn't give out anything.
[11:19] He chose himself.
[11:21] The outside of the building.
[11:27] The outside of the building.
[11:29] The outside of the building.
[11:33] The outside of the building.
[11:37] The outside of the building.
[11:40] The outside of the building.
[11:49] There was no evidence of justice that was on the cross that would prosecute the cops, which included the ignorance that they had provided by the cops.
[12:02] And the others, none of us could have given any indication to the police.
[12:04] They were not able to understand that.
[12:07] They were just paying for it with their lives.
[12:17] They didn't find out that they didn't relate to the photograph.
[12:46] They said on the testimony that it was a copy of Hunter's testimony.
[12:50] It was just prior to that when he told the prosecution staff.
[12:57] This, I believe, was on the 14th of April.
[13:02] He told the whole prosecution staff about this.
[13:06] And as soon as the prosecution staff had it, they came in too.
[13:15] When did I what?
[13:16] That was later.
[13:21] No, I talked to him about that and said that's a national security matter.
[13:34] That was all there was to it.
[13:38] And none of the other incidents were after the other one.
[13:47] That's what we, that's the position we've got to take.
[13:51] Okay, try that way.
[13:52] I think, I think the precise wording here, um, stay out of distance, it involves that.
[14:00] Security is a little better, but they tell me to stay out.
[14:04] The breaking and entering, I'll say.
[14:06] Oh, absolutely.
[14:07] The breaking and entering.
[14:07] I didn't give a shit about that.
[14:09] That's why one of the more general terms that I informed him on such and such a day that, I mean, the idea that, the idea that I was trying to keep the goddamn breaking and entering an idea.
[14:21] Let's see if we can work on one of them.
[14:27] Or else.
[14:28] Yeah, fine.