Conversation 472-022

TapeTape 472StartTuesday, March 23, 1971 at 5:38 PMEndTuesday, March 23, 1971 at 6:07 PMTape start time04:34:50Tape end time05:00:28ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob");  Acker, Marjorie P.;  Butterfield, Alexander P.;  Nixon, Richard M. (President);  Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob");  Acker, Marjorie P.;  Butterfield, Alexander P.Recording deviceOval Office

On March 23, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Marjorie P. Acker, and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 5:38 pm and 6:07 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 472-022 of the White House Tapes.

Conversation No. 472-22

Date: March 23, 1971
Time: Unknown between 5:38 pm and 6:07 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman

     President’s schedule [?]

[Pause]

     President’s preparation

     Patrick J. Buchanan

     President’s previous interview with Howard K. Smith
          -Public opinion
          -President’s demeanor
          -Format

     President’s schedule

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 1m 55s ]

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    Dairy industry
         -President’s decision
               -John B. Connally
               -Campaign contributions to President
               -Parity level
         -Connally
               -Relations with dairymen
               -Possible additional contributions by dairymen
         -Campaign contributions to President
               -Amount

    Supersonic Transport [SST]
         -Upcoming vote
              -Meeting at 6:00
         -Possible meeting of President and Marlow W. Cook, John Sherman Cooper, Winston
              L. (“Win”) Prouty, Jack R. Miller, and Clifford P. Hansen
         -Upcoming vote
              -Tally
              -Hubert H. Humphrey
              -Cooper
              -W[illiam] Stuart Symington
              -Peter H. Dominick
              -Humphrey
                    -Labor
              -Cooper
              -Symington
                    -Connally
              -Dominick
                    -Clark MacGregor
                         -Pairing

          -Cook
          -Quentin N. Burdick
          -Karl E. Mundt
                -Possible pairing with Burdick
                     -Milton R. Young
          -J. William Fulbright
                -Location
          -Joseph M. Montoya
                -Henry M. (“Scoop”) Jackson and Warren G. (“Maggie”) Magnuson
                -Possible pairing
          -Lloyd M. Bentsen, Jr.
                -Connally
                -Campaign promise
          -Cook
                -Possible compromises
          -James L. Buckley
          -Margaret Chase Smith
          -Prouty
                -Hugh Scott
                -Environmental concerns
          -Lawton M. Chiles, Jr.
                -George A. Smathers
          -David H. Gambrell
                -Herman E. Talmadge
                -Aerospace industry
          -Chiles
                -Smathers
                -Possible meeting with President
          -Prouty
                -Possible meeting with President
     -Environmental concerns
          -Buckley

President’s schedule
     -Connally
     -John N. Mitchell
     -Thomas A. Pappas and Mitchell
     -John A. Scali
           -Health

    Whitney M. Young, Jr. funeral
         -President’s eulogy
               -Distribution
                     -Leonard Garment
                     -Ministers, black leadership, white civil rights supporters

    President’s schedule
               -John D. Ehrlichman
               -Comparison with President’s meeting with mayors
               -Cabinet role
                     -James D. Hodgson, George W. Romney
               -Size of group
               -Agenda
                     -Housing
                           -Romney

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 3m 3s ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3

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    President’s interview with H. K. Smith
         -President’s credibility
               -William F. (“Billy”) Graham
         -Telephone poll by White House
         -Unknown persons’ response
         -Questions
         -Raymond K. Price, Jr. and Buchanan’s response
         -Garment’s response
               -Background

    Hatfield

     Dairy industry
          -Campaign contribution
          -President’s decision
          -Congressional action

     President’s schedule, March 24, 1971
          -Afternoon

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 2m 20s ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4

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     News summaries

Marjorie P. Acker entered at an unknown time after 5:38 pm

     Rose Mary Woods
          -Location
          -A letter

Acker left at an unknown time before 6:02 pm

     News summary
         -Use

     Crisis atmosphere
           -White House staff

     President’s schedule
          -California trip
                -Weather
                      -Florida comparison

Alexander P. Butterfield entered at 6:02 pm

           -A briefing
                -[Name unintelligible] [Burdick?]
                -A call
           -Henry A. Kissinger

     An unknown man [Burdick?]

     President’s schedule
          -National Security Council [NSC] meeting
                -Time
                      -Compared with Congressional leaders’ meetings

Haldeman left at an unknown time before 6:07 pm

This transcript was generated automatically by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite this transcript as authoritative. Consult the Finding Aid above for verified information.

We don't have much time.
I'm sure they're cold, isn't it?
They're wearing, they're wearing.
I'm going in preparation.
We have to remember that.
We probably won't go through now.
We shouldn't have, we shouldn't.
.
.
.
.
I guess not.
You know, there's a lot of people that just ain't that interested in nothing else.
Now, if you went on, you know, because it was still, it was a conversation with the president.
I tried to be gone.
I really don't want to make an announcement on troops.
I didn't seem to try to make an important statement regarding anything.
Now, we just made a decision on the dairy thing afterwards.
John Connolly said, I'm out of here.
He had no objection.
I'm going to tell him.
And they kind of put in so much money directly into your disposal.
Well, he said, they're already doing it, right?
To the National Committee.
No.
They give us, well, he wants to get more of them.
You see, he might as well try.
And here's the point.
Well, I think if you would let them know what we're getting and see if we can get more.
We're giving them the 85% of everything.
See, we're doing more than they ever expected.
We're going all out, all out.
And so consequently,
He knows them well and he's used to taking them down.
And maybe he can take it for a little longer.
See what I mean?
Okay.
Would you mind?
They're committed to a million dollars this year.
And they're, to us, yeah.
In addition to what they're doing.
They're .
That's part of what we have to get set up.
They're committed to 90,000 a month.
I guess we'd better get to work on that.
The other thing on the SST is that they may, they're going to meet at 6 o'clock tonight for another challenge, and they may want you to meet with a small group of senators, if you can do them all at once, which would be Cook, Cooper, Crowley, Miller, and Hanson, or some combination thereof.
They had originally recommended a phone call to Prouty and Hanson that they want to hold up today and then they'll see what they have to offer.
Their count as of now is 47-4 and 46 against, final and decided.
But of the 47-4, it was Hubert.
Four weeks out of the 47, it was Hubert, Cooper, Sunnington, and Dominick.
Yeah, I would say Hubert and Simington.
Hubert is committed through labor.
Cooper, they're trying to lock up this afternoon.
Simington is supposed to support it, and Conley's supposed to be firming it up.
They're not positive.
Dominick has told McGregor that he will take a pair, or he will stay in both if it means victory.
But the 46th against, three of them are weak.
Really?
I'm not, I can tell from here, I guess.
The ones that they, the opposition senators have possibilities.
They say a verdict was recorded against, but they're trying to get them to take a lot of care with one.
And Neil Young's working that.
Fulbright may miss the boat.
He's on a trip.
Hatfield, they're trying to get him to take a walk.
He's taken a walk before.
They think they need to roll on this one.
Sawyer, Scoop and Magnuson are working on it.
He may get repaired, but we're carrying him as he heads.
Benson, Conley worked on him the weekend and failed.
What the price was the matter with him?
He made a campaign pledge to oppose the SOC.
And Cook, his son of a bitch, is trying to get an early prison release for one of his constituents as a trade.
And we probably can't do it, which he doesn't.
The other guy undecided that they're,
I don't know which one they got.
I'll do anything they want.
They run up to me and mark my name and say, you did Buckley.
Yeah.
Mark it.
We've got Buckley, so that's fine.
And, uh, Prouty, the marketing guy, called me last time.
And Prouty, he ought to be with us.
He's undecided and leaning against.
Scott's struck out with him.
He's concerned about the environment.
They think we can move it over.
Childs is still undecided.
The Smathers is working on him.
And Canberra, New Mexico, Georgia is undecided.
Talmadge and the industry people are working on him.
Tell George, the Smathers,
Am I talking to Giles at all?
Do I do it?
You know what I mean?
At George and Pretty Man.
Might be a nice touch.
We'll come and get you this night.
Uh, when you cry, I think we just ought to put it to him.
I think he ought to be seen individually.
Swallow it if they want to.
I'd do it.
But not exposed, it is my exposed.
I won't go to, you know what I mean, just by, I mean, my soul, nothing's in it.
I've had to be harassed usually, this is what I got to do.
I'm concerned about the environment.
What the hell's the matter with these damn people?
That was a bucket of scrub.
If you wanted to leave the game with Conley and Mitchell, you don't need, you've done Conley, what do you have to say?
Do you want to leave the schedule?
I don't have a secret now.
Since you'll be in tomorrow afternoon, you ought to bring Papas by so you can catch him after 11.
Then the other thing is Scalping.
I think we ought to bring him in and walk it out.
He's at the moment in the hospital because he's got some stomach problem.
He may not be able to come in.
All right.
I'll do that, too.
How about the situation on the, how did they come along with that, with the uncirculation?
Is that all of that?
I'm going to be able to find that.
I'm sure it's the same.
I edited it, I remember it was a giant young man thing.
They should follow it on.
See what, uh, who was the guard that you got to be in there.
And then follow up on some of the members of the ministers.
Right?
And get the whole, all the black leadership, plus, yeah, the black establishment, plus some white lives, civil rights type whites.
Do you have a feeling on the meeting with the black congressman as to, uh, he in early on feels very strongly that you should have the, the, uh, key cabinet people concerned with the kinds of stuff they're racing in so that you can do what you did today with the mayors, which is to flip, flip the issues to the cabinet guys so you don't deal with it.
Sure.
And that you should have Hodgson and Romney and Aubergineer and Veneman.
and handle the balls for you.
That's going to make a fairly big group out of me, but this thing, instead, that's bad.
You don't want to really be bringing them to the meeting when they don't stand alone.
I'll just go ahead and say, I've got the people here to talk to you.
They have an agenda, so they have things they want to raise, so, you know, let them raise their things.
You can let your guys step up to the ball.
I have an idea.
We avoided it effectively last night with Billy Graham's concern.
I had it in mind anyway of not, you know, plaguing it into credibility.
And it's a very important thing just to have that in mind.
You can never say something which goes, which flies in the face, not of the facts as they are, but of the facts as the moment at the moment.
If the sale can't be made, and you try to make the sale, forget it, even though the fact you're writing the facts.
Now what you've got to do is you've got to get adjusted to this.
It's a real tough one.
and the barbershop who calls you.
They would, you might expect, were favorably impressed with us.
A lot of solid stuff in there.
Well, it was quite an exercise.
I knew those were tough questions.
You know, they realize the toughest.
The question, every network,
Ordinary to you or am I not?
Right, you've got some two-bit string thingos in your micro-intellectuals, so-called, which you buy both of them.
Ice and Buchanan together, they're so subtle together, I'd have you do that too.
And Garmin on the other side.
Yeah, Garmin on the other side.
Garmin might be the warden, though.
You know, he's really out of the way, first of all.
A little interest Bob is in.
You know the problem with the minorities and the Jews?
Oh, it's your thing.
It's that he grew up in a different village.
Yeah, we need people around me that way because there are a hell of a lot of people that don't know anything else.
And it feels... Yeah, and so does anything motivate Sam Field.
And how does that help him think that... Sam Field says, all right.
He said a million other times.
Well, it's the right thing to do.
Because we're going to get low on that highway in Congress.
Well, that's it.
We might as well go away.
We'll get there, right?
We're going to see it in Congress.
We don't know.
We don't know.
All right.
Tomorrow we look at the afternoon basically clear.
And let's see.
And it might not be a bad idea.
That's good to do that.
And pick it up again.
You don't miss anything.
It's amazing.
I mean, you can miss it.
But what you really miss is the opening of the circle.
Yes.
I had Rose gone.
Yes, she had to go out to me.
She's at home.
That's all right.
That's very good.
Thank you very much.
I just had something.
I had a letter for you.
No, but the point is that you do miss some things.
You're out of touch.
You're trying to keep things going down the other end there.
You have to sit back a little longer.
That's why I have you up a day at some time.
You're on time.
Almost everybody we know, they have to take the day off.
Getting excited.
Crisis.
Crisis happens.
Everything's about that crisis.
And that's a crisis.
In Paris.
It's all relevant.
Everything is a crisis here.
But they don't get here if they aren't having a crisis in their lives.
You don't have any answer.
You can't come.
Oh, I don't care about the letter.
I'm resigned to that.
I think it's going to be very good.
They sent us last week.
I don't know what to do.
They really don't know what it is they have.
Because I don't want to go home alone.
I didn't do it because I'm afraid to go home.
I didn't do this because I didn't appreciate it.
You know what I mean?
Because he kind of feels like he is.
He is.
And I don't want him to call.
Just as you just heard him come in now, I said, please.
It gives him a chance.
Because he probably feels more embarrassed sometimes than I do.
they're all too valuable to us.
Oh, he's got a good sense.
Oh, some people get worried.
That's why people don't get through to him.
So that, it's worth watching.
Yeah.
But, you know, starting tomorrow, thank God.
Yeah.
But they have to see me and say, you know, make the letter.
It doesn't happen every day.
Unless they have here.
Or if they have hearings, make it to 8, 3, or 9.
It's fine.
It's over in the morning.