Nixon, Haig & Richardson on Watergate scandal and White House staff management

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 8 minutes of this recording (about 16% 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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

Download transcript (.txt) · JSON data

Well, that's a good day.

Yes, sir.

When did he go?

I think he's going to Iran, too.

He says it's all true.

He just murdered a quarter of them.

Just tore the hell out of them, line by line.

I think we're just breaking the lockdown down.

If we look at it, they might get to work.

Do you really have anything to say?

Uh, yeah, I don't know.

I don't know.

Well, I want to be among the first to congratulate you.

This is very wild.

How wild?

It's pretty close.

How are they?

Uh...

Well, I couldn't, you couldn't have free, uh, yeah, yeah.

There's a hell of a lot of cuts, and I've used it, of course, since the, uh, I didn't do, uh, use the battery free on it.

Uh, I hope, I know that a truck deal, that could go through with it, and everything.

But, but you, but you, but you have increased, you know, that pipeline.

I know that.

I've talked, I always drop in.

I said, I'm going to send in more, you know, that kind of stuff.

You were running about meat crackers there, you know, for that darn crow crap and all that sort of shit.

That's not what I was doing.

What did that do to you?

Your best foot is a violin.

Well, I, I do appreciate it.

Whenever you, uh,

We wear our tails off.

I mean, now they don't like it that way, you know.

You know, you're trying to reconstruct it, and so forth.

That's the only thing we can do.

We went and we called every single person in the camp.

That's about it.

Then I threw a lot of crap around.

I said, I'll have to do this.

I'm going to have to do this.

I'm going to have to talk to these guys.

It's an L.A.

The one thing that I noted in the press, which I look into your judgment on, and ask you now, is that a concern expressed by Silver, the fact that the consulates are older than you, that much of an accurate act, I...

actually the U.S. Attorney.

But anyway, he wants to be waiting, comes up waiting.

You know, that's his job.

You saw a responsible contractor giving a patient for once, lenders.

something like this.

I'm proud of you.

But at first, yeah, I mean, we probably didn't really reach about an hour.

By that time, it was more than an hour.

I'll talk to you when I have anything back in touch with you about that.

Bye.

I was going to say that.

I'm going to skip to the night rest.

Okay.

He was saying that it was funny.

He's going to pray with three holy hearts of justice.

I'm not sure that he was going to do that.

I don't know.

I thought about that.

I ran into him and said, I owe a sparring.

I think I was going to do it right after the campaign.

And that's what I, I think we should talk about this.

We'll show the solid area we've got and where we can do it after.

And I'm doing it in a strong way.

Invite everybody over to the house there.

And hand me the right acting captain.

You've got to look like you're doing anything.

That's right.

Going over there now, and I have two of you around the situation there before.

That can't be high enough for everybody else.

I should not go to their ground.

I think you've done it right.

I think you can't leave the whole town here.

There's a construction going on.

Yeah.

What you were talking about afterwards, I wasn't sure.

I don't know if this was a good day.

I don't know.

We've got some sort of a paper that says, well, the fight is difficult.

They needed that.

Even though I said it in April 30th, then I said it again out there with the Republicans.

I said it again.

You've got to keep reassuring them.

You have to keep reassuring them because there was some development.

That's what we have picked up is development.

That's right.

We're impressed with him.

We're ahead of him.

We're ahead of him on the goddamn thing.

I don't know what to do.

I wasn't good about it.

I've been very quiet today with that guy.

And then you, Scott, Jeff, and us.

Ron told me that he just talked to Frank.

I didn't know he was a subscriber.

And he sparked me up.

Thank you.

We had everything along the way.

There was a suburb.

Lynn had drawn a couple of things, you know, like this little bridge that goes up to the hill there.

Yes, the ladies were very well done.

If we ever get ourselves off the side and catch the nobles, the left-wingers, the radicals and so forth, that's good.

Remember, that's what happened in the 70s.

You may recall right after Camp Lodi, the plan lined up that all the lefties were on one side and the right guys were on our side.

And we were slaughtered in collections of 70, and it knocked back towards the recession.

That's right.

And, uh, basically at this point, uh, the time line, uh, these guys, these guys got to watch out on the Democratic side.

They, they are, they're lined up with a lot of fairly bad people.

Let, let, one of the better things you have to do, of course, is get that iceberg, get the summer bridge went off.

I really should have let it not be on the side of the elsewhere.

I got that thing right here on that side of the deal.

What do you think?

That's the thing that you might do.

I have to, I would think it's pretty hard to better our organization.

Oh, yeah.

I have to move it down a bunch.

You know what I mean?

Sure, Charlie.

Or think about it.

If you don't.

All right.

Let's call it.

I tell you, I think you're

I know a lot of things have been done in the transition, which are based on push-downs.

Sure.

And they've distorted normal lines.

Right.

I know that.

And I want to get them back to normal lines.

For example, Shelton's overworked, he's over-stressed.

I know.

I know that.

Just pushing down a little and then take care of this movement.

I'd like to get the energy to run the band and the like.

I shouldn't be playing.

I should be playing.

I don't want any of these guys really to stand out anymore.

We're even.

In fact, the Nash is not going to do it.

It's just not going to work.

We're going to have to die.

Now, we need a man and we have the other guy back.

Alright, alright, come on.

Alright.

Well, I perfectly will.

I mean, I wrote with Peterson recently.

What's his name?

I don't know.

Do you think there's a possibility?

Yes, I do.

I think he would.

It worked very well with him on international training.

He had a very dominant sense of training.

Oh, I wish he was an avid man of channel.

He'd want to come back and do his job.

If we give him enough importance, in other words, give him the importance that he should have, that's what we really need, because he could handle it beautifully.

Peterson knows his medical plan.

He's got his stretch and everything.

He's a good international.

He's got a great image and a lot of people can reward him.

Totally for it.

He's brilliant.

I didn't want anything to say to him.

No, no, no.

I love that.

And if he wanted to come back, you know, I've just got to do that.

He's a little crow.

He doesn't like the way we, you know, live.

But nevertheless, I love him.

You come here, there's some things here that are very important.

I don't even know the reason.

That's great.

Well, it seems to me that this comes to be such an argument for them and for me.

We shake hands with 600 guys.

That's a two-hour drill.

There's no way, because it goes slowly.

But I should go over it.

I was working on it three days, and I went up.

I went up Camp David.

And tonight, I'm reading it for the NFL, because I'm trying to develop a pattern where in the middle of the week, I go up just to see what happens.

And I'll take the scope off.

I think this makes it appear like I'm going up there to work.

When I go up, what I actually will do, I go up.

I'll take a swim, and I'll do my thing, right?

And I clear my head, and maybe sleep in in the morning.

You can't sleep in in the wild.

I don't know if I love it or not.

Yeah.

So, but my point was that I thought I should speak to them no more than 20 minutes.

That's the thing.

Yeah, yes, sir.

And 20 minutes, maybe 30 at the most, but not trying to give them a whole smart as work because the price is going to be there.

I first thought it was going to be an awesome, you know, classified group.

But since they're going to have the press in there, the press is going to be there.

Of course they're going to have the press.

I've got to make this a speech.

It'll be like my own speech.

I mean, if I can make a little bit of a push in the head at the end of the day, I think that's great.

I mean, about the secrets.

Oh, what do you think?

I'm talking about what you're talking about.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

I'll stick that in there.

Just a little.

So it doesn't go too far.

All right.

Yeah.

What has happened to the country since so many of them have left, and where we are, and where we are going?

And why we must not change the main plan now.

Why it's necessary to have security, but they did that so that I could probably make security free.

I mean, we know what we have to do, and we have to do it.

We don't have anything that should always get in our way.

It's probably just, if you were to do it, you'd scramble it, and it's probably worth it.

But it's like, no, no.

And that's what I thought I would do at all.

That's how I feel.

I've got to... You know, we've all been through it really hard, people.

We haven't been through it.

We're not through it yet.

But we are going through one.

And we're going through one.

If there's any opportunity, I can.

I'll just take a little time off.

You know, excellent.

I do think so.

And let's not let the ground down by clarity and rigor.

We're going to hold our judgment until Monday or at least what happens.

We'll see.

You have to realize that there may be people who may not want it in this atmosphere, who may not want it in this atmosphere.

I'm not sold on that.

I'm not going to solve that.

I'm going to climb into them after I see them.

That's a better compromise, whatever we can get out of that.

Yeah.

And we can make change from there.

Paris business.

Right.

Right, right.

We've never had a statement by any of the rest of us.

We've come up with a deadline.

We've known what we're going to have to do.

We're going to make it.

We'll be out for a while.

See you another day, too, isn't it?

You can get out there and catch me.

I'm just totally defensive.

That's a problem.

That's true.

I was, uh...

They talk about our engagement and so forth, but I'm sure they'll take it into consideration.

Sure.

Look, I made a telegram speech on April 30th.

I went out to the Republic.

That was the public appearance.

I know there's a lot of public appearances out there.

There's a question here.

There's a question.

I could be out there, frankly speaking, on my head, every hour on the hour, and they'd say I was isolated, because that's what they're trying to create, right?

When they say, sir, immediately, the question is, the press wants to bring a good response to the trouble.

The boys on the Hill want it because they just think it's a fair problem.

You know, if they had two out in front, then they just pulled in behind.

You can hear the mistake, but that's good enough.

starting in the short term for that to fight, it would have happened.

Get this thing down, get people thinking about it, and it's a summit.

Closer to Brezhnev, after, yeah, probably do go ahead and do this thing.

You see, it'll also give me a chance to go back to the rural rest as we can, which I will do.

That's right, it will be interesting to see if they can have that thing, and if they have this, oh, they'll be able to go for this thing.

Yeah, they're up on the ground today, you know.

I'll build you up a job, but the point is, I just don't think that this is the time.

But we'll hold it open.

Yes, sir.

My feeling is that out here, I'll take them on.

We'll do the job.

I'm not worried about it.

I'm actually worried about getting to the President of the United States.

That's probably a shitty question.

It's probably a shitty little thing.

All right.

We've got to start with the camera.

We've got to get the press right.

The back side.

Yeah, in Russia, screaming, and they could get one look at themselves one time, and they've never done it again.

A vicious bunch, like a bunch of animals.

Yeah.

I should not get the jackals on.

On the other hand, if there was something else I could do, I would do it.

But anyway, I'm a leader.

All right, so I wrote, uh, just, the way I suggest this, it was Garnet Elliott who wrote that, that, uh, the, uh, uh, could I get, uh, Steve Bowles, are you?

Richard Floyd, if you don't mind.

Yeah, I can.

Sure.

I want to stand right there and check everything out.

I've got to do it all.

These are my charges.

Well, here, listen.

I said they'd be in that schnickin' hellhole in Hanoi today if it hadn't been for what we did in the security field.

You know what I mean.

because we've got it all on our table.

And I've got to brag about it a little bit.

I don't have to brag.

They will.

No, that was good this morning.

And hopefully, hopefully, you're not going to go out in the truck and get away a little bit.

I don't want to be very spastic.

I don't want to be a spirit.

Yeah, the fact that, you know, they're coming at 6.30 to talk to me after the afternoon session.

We're also going to go out to the house.

We're going to go to the house at 7.30.

Steve, I got tied up with that area.

I'll have to postpone the barters tomorrow.

I think it will be around 11 o'clock.

I think going up into the red, go across to the other car, so I can see.

Oh, the red coming along.

And then you have the checklist and the chorus and the chorus coming along.

And then it goes along with the music during the day.

And then it scrolls for like 9, 20 minutes to go.

Looks like very good.

Right.

How would you do it?

I don't know.

No, I don't think you want to do it.

I said I shouldn't do it.

I said, in fact, I probably shouldn't do it.

I wanted to thank you guys.

Yeah, I think it's a good idea.

I should basically initiate the cost of those firing aliens.

You know, ask the others to stay.

And, uh, I can talk a little about it.

And I have, uh,

You and Lance, but I think that's the thing, and then they didn't have a little white coat.

Thanks for the little white coat you get.

Listen, they don't need much.

Now they've got this paper to do it, but this one.

See, we've had it on the racks all this time.

We've had it on the racks, but we've had it on the racks all the time.

I don't think they're just having it with you.

I don't think he's having it with me, because he should not, too.

Why do you think that at all?

What do you think?

What I was wondering if we could get Henry to do it and have him step up

We're going to have to do a briefing.

We're going to have a plan going out.

We're going to have it all revved up.

We are making it ready to do this.

I talked to him today.

He said this is our issue.

We don't think we can do it privately.

I don't let it ride too soon.

But I think about it, he could go out and get his report from Booth and brief with regard to Iceland.

All right, that one in Iceland.

Snapping stages.

And they're out on the line of fire for a check.

This is pretty good.

I just think it's a better way to do it.

I just think that's not a fire animal in the long run.

I mean, he wants to get that wiretap from the perspective of the knockback over the fence.

I don't get it.

You know, the covers thing.

I know the rock feels so strong, actually.

It was impressive.

I have a feeling, almost, that I don't want to do it when I'm under such enormous assault.

I just don't think it's good for the country.

The country will feel this worse than it really is when they get their managers back.

Yeah.

I don't know.

that it's not good for the country.

But the point is, I don't think it's good for the country to see the president.

You know, most folks down in Northland, they don't think that the president is good for the battle.

They're proud of the president.

That means that a bunch of goddamn barbaric press people will not shit on the president.

They're questioning his honesty, his integrity, his lie, and less than that.

I don't think it's good.

The idea that, well, the president ought to sit up there and answer.

That's what these congressmen want.

They want me to stand up there and answer their questions.

And I don't think you can do it.

I mean, you can do it all, but I just don't think it's good.

Well, that is your answer to this question.

Tuesday morning, you don't have no leadership plan.

The leadership plan is by far super early on.

Pre-crawl leadership, I mean, that's what we're going to do this morning.

Pre-crawl, right.

And that's going to get structured properly, too.

That's going to require a whole lot of structure.

We're going to take that into consideration.

Yeah.

And whether you want to have this on a divisional work thing or not, it's a

Look, our issue is the peace security issue.

I should always talk about it.

Our issue, the economic thing, all incidentally, will leave you ready for an economic piece of practice.

It's not that.

I don't trust you.

I'm asking you guys.

See, I think, I don't want to make a mistake.

No.

I have to tell you something.

Before I check, I want you to understand that you're doing the right thing.

Yeah.

Well, if you want to have a meeting, I'll do it after this.

Sorry, Elliot.

That's the only way I'd answer it.

I think it's important that you just do it.

I think I need to call Elliot and tell him that we should have a meeting.

We can call it a project meeting.

And just tell him where we want it.

We all like fighting for the captain.

And it should be in time.

It should be done in style in the East Group.

And he can make up the, you know, traditional committees.

You know, he can make up a group.

And the Chief Justice should swear it.

And that way they can have a whole council there and their wives too.

I'm going over to the Department of Justice, looks like the administration.

The president's a creep over there as he tried.

Screw him.

At this point, I don't like that at all.

Very bad.

Now he insists.

No, he can't insist.

You've got to tell him that this is where it ought to be done.

Now the president feels that the proper statute is to be screwed with the chief justice.

Just like we all have around the city.

And the whole kind of pressure.

Yeah, well, one thing I don't tell you is that I want them to find another event for me.

I want an event in the country every week now, at least one.

We've got, you see, the weekend is the return to life, and we've got the holiday.

Let's get an event out in the country, and they can find a good part of it.

That's very effective.

It's something that's good.

I don't want some number of people, when people see the right thing, not exactly the right thing.

They're bad at it.

Let's get the hell out of this goddamn town.

Very clear.

With regard to our plans, it's definitely, you know, we've spent a whole bunch of time there.

I assume you can't appreciate that.

We'll go out for the fresh stuff.

This is just San Clemente.

Let's spend about two and a half weeks there before we come back.

And then, in terms of when we come back into the street, I think also that's a whole month of August and September and part of September.

Do you have a question?

I think that's something that we'll take the White House right out there again.

How's that sound to you?

I think that's a good idea.

We'll stand.

We've got to ride this thing out and we've got to get out from there.

We hopefully think so.

Yeah.

I was trying to get something to do there.

I'll do it.

Is there any other recommendations for phone calls?

I don't think so.

I'll take care of them.

What's this?

Phone calls for dials working?

I don't know anything.

Dials, I think.

still tends to overdo this.

And I go, if I get into the business of just calling every time, I mean, I tend to tell people how much we're trying to do it.

I just can't call these companies every day.

I can't stand the employees.

They're doing their job.

That's why.

That I was mentioning, we were talking to them.

We were just chatting about this.

I had to go over this.

of trying to get the Republicans, you ought to remember, they're like a sponge.

They sort of see us as what it is to accomplish something that we should never have let them get it in the first place.

But I mean, they like to shine every day, but they can't do it every other day.

They like to have a drink with the president more.

And I saw it.

I'm not going to do it.

I know a little of it, but I'm not going to do it as much as Jim does.

Beware, let me point out something that we've done this week, which, because we were so busy, it doesn't make sense to affect the big four last night, the Republican leaders this morning, and the Republican leaders tonight.

We're over here.

Good damn, I see the same bad people.

Not all the same, but just three in a row, it looks almost brand new.

I would never have, for example, I would never have two events in a week.

Or I would have only one Republican event in a week.

One Congressional.

That's enough.

Now we had it this morning.

That should have been it.

For me to go through something.

The night is still in.

Screw around with this thing.

This is just here.

Bill just got in.

I don't know how he stole this from him.

Oh, well, look, Al.

I know it's not your job, man.

You see, basically, you're doing what you said the job was all about.

Loading.

I don't think they'll take it that bad at all.

When you talked to him, he called me the day after it was known I was coming over here.

Oh.

Yeah.

No, we...

There was a lack of communication.

There was a lack of communication, and frankly, despite his agreement, and so on.

But he's learned a lot now, and so we, he's willing to come in and take some of the load off of George.

George basically is over his head.

He's over his head at work.

I don't know what he has to do.

My God, George is trying to handle taxes and trying to handle trade, and he can't do it.

And I think we have an entry that should be in charge of shopping malls.

I just think we've got to move that thing up some.

It's always at the end of a term, a push down, so it starts shifting in the organization.

That's what happens.

I'll get it back to the other end of the term and see if I can get a better price and quicker action.

Roger.

Just while I move it, I'll refresh it.

Ron hasn't decided for sure yet, but he's under enormous pressure to have one.

My view is to throw Henry off his list very quickly.

And build up Henry's list, and have him step out there and knock them all right into the line.

I'd also suggest it would be a good idea if Henry, and for him to flip to Florida.

No, I didn't.

I must have watched it a lot, but it's real.

Well, you've got the... You should have come in for a big banquet.

No, a birthday party.

Saturday night.

But I... No, no, no, no.

The only thing I do is an effort.

But... You know what I'm saying?

You know what I'm saying?

If I go out into the water, he goes out.

We won't be.

We're not in the national security for that water.

That's right.

Wait, he must not be afraid.

Must not be afraid.

I understand.

But, the first thing they said was, in fact, I couldn't breathe any better.

I told them, I told them not to breathe.

They were like, Jerry, what are you talking about?

Take a few breaths.

The virus came with us.

We didn't have to breathe.

I didn't record it.

Well, they want answers.

You know, they come in late at night.

They have two hours as long as I had yesterday.

I had a paper to write.

Late last night they called and wanted to get an answer that they were required to bring one of those lawyers back in.

And I just said, God damn it.

Wait till tomorrow morning.

I went for their attention and everything.

And didn't expect it though.

The teacher said, were you telling me that Sapphire was the place where they were?

So I said, that's it.

We got here.

White light.

I mean, we talked to the parents.

It probably had to be a fabric of a building or something like that.

Hunter, Scott handled that well today, too.

How did he handle it?

Well, they asked him.

He said, the president makes a bunch of calls along the way.

And he said, the president, the president of the state, he said, from the perspective he had at the time, he had to make various decisions and promises that were exactly right.

He said, now, I'm excited to

That's true very well.

I wanted to believe in the future.

You know that, yes sir.

You just gotta remember though that there are many more.

And this stuff flies along.

I don't know about you, but I, uh, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we,

There's another place that's good.

There's a good relaxing area up there.

And it's a good place to sit down and have a good conversation.

Yeah.

Great.

Remember, no bars.

We have bars when we build up to that level.

I'm just

Well, actually...

And I'm ready to do it.

It's a great accomplishment.

Thank you.

They just got to hear it again.

They get so, you know, they get so beaten down.

They read the papers and they wash the clothes.

I agree.

I just think that's bad.

They do.

They live on.

But they also survive on it.

And we'll go back there and stay around the presence of this thing, and they're all charged up.

Yeah.

Everything that goes back and forth, that one goes there.

Yeah, you have to charge up your team.

This CIA thing, I did get a whack on that.

Oh, I...

They've got a little problem out there in the United States.

But they put out the worst of them already.

I need to deliberately have put the other dog through that.

And that portion of the last grade dog day, it hurt.

Not too much.

No.

But what would it be good for you was not to leave.

To leave with that other dog.

Now they're going to play that game.

We're going to play it.

That's good.

Very good.

Can we come out of the harbor?

You have to let me know.

Get out there and start making statements.

You have to let me know.

But I'll tell you what,

You know, they're going to be hot.

Nixon, Haig & Richardson on Watergate scandal and White House staff management

AI Summary

Audio

Transcript (AI-generated)

NARA Description

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on May 23, 1973

Cite this conversation