On November 23, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, White House operator, and Chalmers P. Wylie met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:47 am to 12:20 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 623-006 of the White House Tapes.
Transcript (AI-Generated)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 Do not cite this transcript as authoritative.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.
Congressman Wiley of Ohio, Congressman Lawrence Wiley.
The thing about the Peterson security campaign is that I promised Kyle that I would secure an old, goddamn address.
Well, it's absolutely incredible.
I was thinking it was Henry that had told me last night, but it was George who told me this morning, because George left our dinner meeting last night early to go somewhere, and ended up, we had to go to the streets, and then he ended up at a dinner at Peterson's or something.
And Mrs. Peterson said something to him about it.
He was going to be going on this trip.
Well, we came up with another interesting fact out of her during the evening, which is that Johnson was looking for a Republican to put in as Secretary of Congress.
Oh, I heard about that.
Did you know that?
Ask Peterson to take it.
He turned it down.
That's nice.
He just doesn't realize that, well, I guess it's everybody else running all over Europe, you know, Moby and Romney.
Well forget it.
It's done now.
I feel like we're around Henry.
He's the man.
He's going to get Shelts together and talk about the other meetings and then cancel the trip.
I tell Shelts it's fine.
You just have to tell Peter she couldn't go that, you know,
developing with where this, if you, you know, you have to check the football, right?
On offer, yes.
Yeah, he's going to have, he wasn't going to, but he is going to have a practice today.
It will only be about an hour from 1 to 2.
And it's like 1.30 to 2.30.
About a one-hour workout today.
They have a, in the office session until 1.30 from 11.00.
And, uh, they'll do a lot of the same tomorrow.
Maybe a little bit longer, we'll cut tomorrow.
But, uh, they normally have been canceled the Tuesday workouts, but he's gonna have one today.
He thought it'd be just great if he could stay in the investment.
Makes no difference to him.
Well, I think today they're just going to wait for the weather.
There is a prediction of snow tomorrow.
Yeah, that might happen.
And, uh, all right.
You're just as equally clear, maybe clearer than I am, just, uh, just closely.
And you know where they are.
Grab a belt.
Yeah, I know that.
That's why it's going to take some time.
So let's put a rocker to see if we can mark it.
And you can chop her out there if you want to.
Well, I don't know.
But that also got us out of trouble.
I'm going to do this for the first time.
Yeah.
I'm going to take that press car out there.
You've seen my reasoning.
I don't want to do this.
I'm sure you understand, but very few others as satirists and the rest wouldn't understand it at all.
This is what I just want to do, without seeking them to listen.
They don't even want to be any press-up.
They talk a lot thinner than we are.
I don't think this is one where I want to haul out television cameras and all the rest and take pictures of me meeting football players.
It just doesn't feel that right in the way of me.
But he, that's what he, he figured he wanted out.
I don't think so.
No, I don't think he did.
It looks like a hell of a stunt, you know, that you just went out.
And the whole goddamn bunch will come out there and arrest you.
That's how it is going.
It's hard to drive out there.
That's what I believe.
He lets the people out.
I don't know.
I don't know if it's a close practice or not.
You know, whether they want to be arrested or not.
Yeah.
Well, let me put it this way.
I mean, I think it's just fine to have it if I just stood up and came back and kept my purpose in the afternoon.
I may be wrong.
I'm sure I may be wrong.
I sure don't think you want to tell me.
There's just no reason to take any of these calls to this.
Let me just do it my way this time.
I just want to do it because, frankly, there's no way I can do it.
And, uh, I just got in the car for some 30 days and drove out to the practice.
Okay.
Fair enough.
Yeah.
And, uh...
So he comes up and says, come back, we'll just tell him.
And I said, yeah, if there's press out there, they'll know.
And he said, well, that's right.
That's right.
He was a hand in the box.
After that, I just went out for a wish to be in one of them.
And you won't want to sit here for very long anyway.
I'll stay 15 or 20 minutes.
I'll probably do what I have now.
I'll stay over at that time.
Get out there at 1.45, and then about the time you're out of the ride, you could take off a bit.
Let's just play it and let it play.
There's no press on there.
They miss it too.
They'll be fine.
They always have the workouts.
Let's put it this way, Bob.
That we don't have the wire services and the radio and the two networks and this and that.
There's another way we can do it, which is wait until you're almost there.
Then just tell our wires and wire photogs so that we only bring out one car with, you know, the four people in it, because we would get our pictures.
And they wouldn't get there until after you've been there a while.
So you'd cover your head with the team, and then they'd come in to get a picture.
Just to get the picture.
Let's say you want to stay there about 15 minutes.
You wait until you're 15 minutes gone from here.
And Ron, just having control, have Ron then, without announcing it or anything, just put the wire tow tows in a car and turn them on.
They get there at the end of 15 minutes after you do it.
If you're able to talk with the team, do their own stuff, and then they catch up with you at the end so you don't arrive at the end of 15 minutes after you do it.
I was told about that.
So I don't know what happened.
If you do that, at least if I yell at them, so they'll say, well, I'm gone.
But you can go out and follow me.
And I'm just recording.
I'm just recording without an escort.
Just there, not doing any of that shit.
Here, if I were to do that, I'd just go away.
That's what I'm doing.
I don't care anymore.
So we're ready to go.
We're ready to go.
I would think you'd want to get started getting there about 1.45, 1.45.
Okay.
And stay out there 15 minutes, start back here at 2.15.
I'm going to sit here and find that tree.
You get there at 145, start running between two.
It might take you much of a half hour.
145, now don't call the military aid box.
Don't call the military aid box.
You'll be able to pull it out.
Just right now, I don't want any military aid with me.
Hello?
Hello?
I know you're gonna get a lot of us, but, uh, my friend Dan was talking to you, and I saw it was your 51st birthday, and I didn't want a guy that voted with us so often not to have you here for the president.
So, I need to give my best to those, uh, those good folks out there.
That's right.
Oh, really?
Well, when you see them, uh, John is giving them money very fast.
Tell them that, uh, tell them I hope they only got too hard on me.
Well, now, what are you going to tell them?
That's right.
That's right.
That's right.
Is that right?
That's right.
Good.
Yeah.
Well, let's see what John is going to say.
He was very attractive, right?
I just, I just wanted to see what it goes on.
So, well, I don't know if you're, right?
Well, he's the one that I said I should have, of course, but the tolerance of my story isn't what it is.
But anyway, we wish you well, Thomas, and I hope you have a very good rest of the weekend.
And, uh,
Okay?
Yeah.
Great.
Isn't that great?
Well, as we call it tonight, you see, I'm the president, the small president, so I'm the honorary chairman of the Boise House.
So I sent my congratulations to each one of the persons who will be there.
I'm happy that we will have it with you.
We wish you the best.
Okay.
Bye-bye.
It's about a 35-minute drive.
You know, I know where she is in 35 minutes.
So it's obviously going to be 45 minutes.
You should, I would say, leave at 1.15.
All right.
So you're sure you're out there.
Good.
I think what is happening on this curb thing is that we've got a solution.
You know, when he runs off, he runs off to the road.
Or when he goes off.
Yeah.
Shells goes off.
Rockets goes off.
Well, it goes on.
You know what I mean?
It sort of looks like what was running around.
Check them out, kids.
They've all checked the pictures that I know they have.
But it kind of looks like we sort of like forgot that there.
But good.
McCracken, of course, went off.
He asked me where he went.
Because he was going to a Senate conference.
The OECD, whoever it is, and he don't know who it was.
Pretty American shot me around the throat.
He says, call the police.
Sounds like he's having a trip.
We'll find him.
We see one.
There he is.
Oh, I see him.
Sure.
We'll kill him.
This is a trap.
I do not want to hear about it.
He should have checked first.
We've had something going on here with the Europeans.
We cannot understand what's going on.
You know I don't want to do any of that.
I want to be serious.
I want to be serious.
I want to be serious.
I want to be serious.
I want to be serious.
I want to be serious.
I want to be serious.
I want to be serious.
He had raised us before very nicely.
You know, I said, no, we're in on this.
We're taking our trips.
And he said, Peter, what's going on here?
I said, he's going my way.
Peter, he told me.
I said, Peter, he did it to you, didn't he?
Afterwards, as far as he told me, we didn't tell him this morning.
When did he decide to go?
I don't know.
I don't know.
Henry Rose told him today.
Henry Rose didn't ask him.
Henry Rose was a terrible idea.
I think that's about it.
That order is our specific plan to negotiate on a treaty with you as a man and a woman again.
And I accomplished totally the order of that.
We are brought home and we think he's here to destroy the country.
We're going to get him nailed down to some jaw.
We're going to get those New Yorkers who are giving him dinner tonight for the harvest.
No.
Which, uh, Bill said he had not raised with you because he didn't want you to feel that you had to come.
Well, then he got to thinking that it was not right for him not to go.
He's trying to help me.
Well, I think that you could probably suggest that he probably will.
I'm suggesting one.
No.
The pipe that I have.
You're going to do something later?
Yes, that's it.
But I should do something later.
I did.
I told him.
And he said, I don't think the president should come.
It just occurred to me that he might think it was out.
We were having just a gathering.
So the first night that I had barbecues.
And he said, if I had to do that, I had to.
Well, he purposely didn't raise it with you because he didn't want you to come and didn't want you to do it again.
And I said, good, good, good.
Then he got to thinking maybe he should bug the end of it so you were aware of it.
I think you can go.
No problem.
Hasn't been any problem at all.
Now he gets back Thursday night.
I don't think you want to do anything about hauling him off to California to report or anything, you know?
Okay, I don't think he's going to come to California anyway, of course.
I'll be there if he and Henry and I can sit and gather around a little.
Alright.
That's fine.
You know what I mean?
But it'll be his choice.
I don't know.
Is that a true account now?
I don't see why it does.
It's a nice touch for Bob.
That's a proper way to get in touch with him.
It's not meant to be there.
Then you go out and talk to him personally about what his character's like.
I don't know what his plan is.
He may not be able to do anything.
Bob, are you talking?
Maybe he's not going to California.
That's impossible.
Now he's due to Washington late, late Thursday night.
Okay.
You know, uh, I got back from Washington, so I'm wondering if you're headed to the job.
Uh, in the name of God, we did not.
We had a day to carry back this over this past year.
Uh,
He would have this man up until the time.
This man.
He was like a common man except, you know, we were firing him throughout the battle.
He was just, you know, his, uh, requirements was in all the requirements.
Andrew would complain about it.
The congressman mentioned it apparently.
I mentioned it to him.
Now, he's, he's such a, he is touchy and you gotta learn, once you learn how to deal with him, he's such a pleasant guy to be with.
If you look at the stretch when you got to the other area, you didn't run.
And that's why I'm crossing.
He is why I did not want to meet with Schultz first for this.
Well, he is lost.
And I didn't bring Schultz for that reason.
And I'll meet with Schultz.
I'll see him tomorrow.
Saturday.
All work out.
I got Schultz tonight.
You see, Schultz runs around here all the time.
So he knows that you're there.
He's smart.
He's just very sensitive on that point.
And he's had the right to be.
There's a little glimmer of a possibility to show that it's unconstitutional because of the partisan.
He had dedicated the party.
I told him that I've been like every, you know, I've been researching every angle to see if there's any way
I'm trying every way to say it.
All right.
If you were to do this, there isn't a reason why it seems to me you can't have a tax deduction for broke in schools.
Correct.
You can't be able to check a little box that sends your money to the broke middle school.
That's the thing I can't understand.
Say it again.
Well, I've got a party, you know, 20.5 million to the major parties and 6.5 million to the third and fourth parties.
I was in the Constitution.
There's no provision for the parties in the Constitution.
And I've seen how the House Party returned to the House.
And they decided to make it a party.
He's just tickled with his position.
He can't conceal the belief in that.
He just gets a bit, you've got to, somebody in your cabinet has a dependency.
And he's a great one-up, so he can be business-minded and showing the other guy what he's up to.
And he does it damn effectively on the employee.
And his parents really have to realize that the other guy on the people can't get the play.
Second, they don't know how to say it that well.
If any of them came off the way he did, they'd get the play.
That's true.
Maybe not quite as much as he does.
Well, that's it.
They don't.
Being a Democrat gives them a certain step up.
We have R, there's an A, R, J, and this guy, as I call him, the fact that you've got it.
He comes on strong and effectively.
I have two synonyms.
I have Jason.
I have Jason.
Good idea, don't you think, to have him touch my book?
That's the problem with the idea.
We had to have somebody do it.
Keep it alive.
He's the only one that does it effectively.
Anybody else in here wouldn't have made much of a blip.
First of all, it wouldn't have ended his life.
We're out there.
We're in the back.
I'm here to see how it works.
To see the pain.
I agree with you, I'll leave here at 45, I'll come to you at 1.15, 1.15, 1.15, 1.15, 1.15, 1.15, 1.15
He would tell the very old thing about us to get a car and notice and all that.
I thought he'd be there and he'd actually come through your car.
I'm just excited to listen to you.
You had a problem with David or something?
Do you speak with him?
Do you understand something?
He understood it all the time, Bob.
He never goes to all these press guys.
What's the problem?
Because he normally doesn't.
We always say that there's a... Obviously, they're going to assume when you go to Key Biscayne that you're going for the weekend.
But what he says is your return is not...
The plans for return are not set.
That's what we'll do on California.
Obviously, they'll figure out you're going to stay...
to the Saturday event, then he just said, we don't know what the plans are after that.
Well, he wouldn't come back then.
He'd go back up to Chicago and he'd say, it depends on whether he can succeed in Washington.
I don't know the situation in Washington.
And that's what I did.
I don't want to just say, well, I don't know the situation in Washington.
I won't be able to let you know.
Maybe we'll decide right or sorry.
He said, we'll let you know when you decide.
That's right.
That's very good.
You don't see if you say decide prior to decided, then they ask, have you decided?
You say no, then they say the price has changed.
The key is not to tell them any, give them any definite point to fix the answer.
They probably should do.
However, it's confirmed today that you're not going to a football game.
You know, because the question has arisen as to whether you're going back far out, which is asking if you're going at all.
I've sort of been, you know, I've had people call and say, well, but I think you ought to let the press know you're not, too, and ask you a question just so it doesn't look like you canceled out on plans to go there.
And I count, we're not sure when you're going west, when your plans are.
You will not be going to the football game for their guidance.
I haven't made my advice.
It'll depend on the Senate and the situation here.
Get that out of the way so it doesn't happen again.
We've got to get him off the dock and sit very good.
We're going last week.
We don't know yet when he's going.
He's going definitely for Saturday.
Definitely day left for Saturday.
And at the Senate, as we think, we're sending it out by 2, 3 o'clock.
And we'll decide right then and say, well, if the Senate's out, we'll leave in two hours in California.
So you're going around the Senate because you see what else is going to happen.
How late they'll be in.
There's a lot of things up and down there.
I believe that that's really very, that is, I'm not going to leave you without sending it out at the Senate.
Yeah, but it turns like the way to go out and sit at 30 feet long shirt.
I mean, exactly.
At the time, you know, our association, I'm sure there's a lot of them in this kind of game at all.
I go out, I'm going to get out there and see that game on television.
Or I'm going to stay there and see it go out in the evening.
It isn't going to stay that long.
I mean, those baskets are all laid by the clock.
That's good.
Oh, uh... Oh, yeah.
Yeah, I've been sure to go.
Yeah, I've done it with you.
You can ride with me.
I'd like for him to ride.
Can he ride in the shotgun car?
Or can I move the left slide and talk to him and see what happens?
Well, I'll tell you where I am, that's all.
On the way back, of course.
Have a good night's sleep.
Have a good night.
Have a good night.
Have a good night.
Have a good night.
Have a good night.
Call him.
We'll have to order the car over at 1 o'clock.
Yeah, right.
So we'll call Allen at 1 o'clock.
Call Allen at 1.
Tell him to be out there about 1 o'clock.
Don't put it out on the wire.
We are going to be in front of the press at 1.30.
Right.
Because the president wants a chance to get there without a... Yeah, press through at 1.30.
Yeah, okay.
He'd like to just come out.
the line