Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 687 › Conversation 687-003

Nixon, Haldeman & Kissinger on Foreign policy and Soviet Union

Friday, March 17, 1972 · 12:19 PM–1:14 PM ET · Oval Office

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob"); Bull, Stephen B.; Kissinger, Henry A.; Ehrlichman, John D.Conversation687-003 on Tape 687 (tape position 00:37:25–01:07:47)StartFriday, March 17, 1972 at 12:19 PMEndFriday, March 17, 1972 at 1:14 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 687-003 ↗

President Nixon met with H. R. Haldeman, Henry Kissinger, and John Ehrlichman to coordinate upcoming foreign and domestic policy strategies. The group discussed Kissinger’s travel plans, the President’s impending trip to the Soviet Union, and ongoing legislative efforts to address school busing. Nixon urged his staff to adopt a more aggressive, authoritative tone when dealing with Congress and the press to ensure his policy positions—particularly on busing—were clearly and effectively communicated.

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· Timestamps are positions within the full tape recording.
37:20way to go this is
41:08$40 Santa Claus for the drink.
41:12He would give the drink.
41:15When he traveled with Rockefeller, one of the girls from the party told me he touched that.
41:24I mean... Just $40?
41:24No, no, he offered them $300.
41:26He put $300 in their shoes.
41:27For what purpose?
41:28He's a sleeper then.
41:38I was told that three years ago.
41:39On the airplane?
41:42I guess that they put the shoes in front of their doors there to get them signed, and he put little notes on them.
41:52We are not going to let a guy chase after girls.
41:56I mean, the goddamn State Department is full of fairies.
42:05And still is.
42:07And we say nothing about it.
42:08You know what I mean?
42:09Because that's the way the goddamn outfit is.
42:11Are we going to persecute a guy because he chases girls?
42:14And he has to be really very loyal and has got to talk about it.
42:18Good job.
42:18I didn't think much of him when he got the job because of those stories, but he's done a good job.
42:23He didn't totally look like a goddamned...
42:25I had to put a keeper on him, though.
42:28I wouldn't let him do this again.
42:31Well, I thought he...
42:32I knew he had gone to a psychiatrist after that.
42:37After the Rockefeller trip, he went to a psychiatrist.
42:40That's his trouble.
42:42He should never go to a psychiatrist.
42:44I thought he was pure.
42:47Apparently he had a drinking problem some years ago, and then he quit drinking.
42:55The story is that he only drinks a little Dubonnet now, and doesn't drink otherwise.
43:01I stayed at his house, and I've never seen him get poisoned.
43:05When we were there on our trip, he had himself killed.
43:08And I stayed there twice, just coming through Paris.
43:12He's always been in class.
43:14I mean, you know, you can privately meet and drink and get boys...
43:22I think they have to cover themselves.
43:26All the evidence we have is...
43:37They are in positions from which they can jump off, but... Well, listen, will you consider whether or not we ought to have Larry in?
43:45And I would take Larry Peterson and Buzz.
43:49We're sending Buzz tonight.
43:50I know, I know.
43:54I wouldn't take them all with us, but I'd have them fly over.
43:59You see the problem, John, we have here?
44:03You don't know, probably, about the rock.
44:08on the other hand it presents a problem i must say oh i can bring all the people in the area
44:33But the problem we have with Rogers, I guess, is market cannibalism.
44:38We just learn to have them, can't we?
44:42I think we can.
44:42That's it.
44:43While we're talking, when are you going to make your plan?
44:47No, I'm going tomorrow.
44:48I just felt that I don't.
44:49You may not know this.
44:52I just felt that I don't go.
44:54The point that I take is that go when you can, but go for 10 days.
44:59All right.
45:01Well, I'll go tomorrow noon, and I'll be back.
45:03But I've got to be back no later than Monday evening.
45:06Good.
45:07Where are you going to go?
45:08I'll go to Acapulco.
45:09Is that a place?
45:10Yeah.
45:11That's a good place.
45:12I hope so.
45:13What do you mean?
45:16Who's he got?
45:17It's Warren.
45:18I'll have to tell him.
45:21I'll have to tell him.
45:21I got it.
45:22Oh, man.
45:22It's a Mexican.
45:23I'll have to talk to it, and I'll leave myself.
45:26But the Mexicans sent me another plane.
45:30There's a guy named who's about 65 years of age, who has an absolutely beautiful .
46:59Well, that's great.
46:59So you're leaving tomorrow?
47:01Yeah.
47:02Great.
47:03Great.
47:04Well, I'll tell you, the many we can do to make it better.
47:07What do you think?
47:08I'll work on the medley for you next week.
47:10You know, the more I see of it, though, I think, Henry, that I've got to get to work at some point on the, uh, on the damn Moscow, uh... Oh, yeah.
47:19Thank you.
47:20You got a reading file for the president of Maryland?
47:22I'm supposed to put it in the middle of the house.
47:25But why have you got a reading file?
47:27I have a reading file.
47:29At this point, I do not have a reading file.
47:32Do you think it's better if you draw a map of the agreement here?
47:36I think it's probably better if you don't mind because that way people won't see it.
47:41All right, good.
47:42I'll be over in 10 or 15 minutes.
47:44Have a great first, okay?
47:46Good.
47:46And it shouldn't take more than five minutes.
47:50I'm glad he's going.
47:57He needs the rest.
47:59I told you he was fine.
48:00Yeah, yeah.
48:03Well, he's wearing out now.
48:04He said, well, if he didn't go now, he wouldn't go.
48:07And that's the best reason of all the way.
48:14Well, I want to say to you, John, and this is telling Bob, that I want you to be more aggressive.
48:24and these damn breathing things to step into it and do it now.
48:27I mean, I love George Shultz, and I love Richardson, and I used to curse his mind on other things.
48:36But when you're talking to a bunch of congressmen, I mean, you've got to lay it in and not sort of drone on and adapt that monotone.
48:45And in fact, as you remember, you saw the reason I sent you those two notes.
48:50I know these guys.
48:52I know exactly what they're up to.
48:54And I don't think it impresses them a bit to be responsible.
48:56Do you agree or not?
48:58I got your message.
49:00Well, I don't know whether I got your message.
49:03Here's the problem.
49:06Our problem is that we know we're not going to get the left with this.
49:10The main thing is not to lose the right.
49:13That's the problem.
49:14And so, for Christ's sake, say the right things.
49:18I mean, our people, our parents, our parents, if this child voluntarily decides he wants to do this and that, I don't think, God damn, he'll leave most fast.
49:30See my point?
49:31That's fine.
49:32That's it.
49:34we uh but all but how did we go over here there were no major or no major troubles that they got
49:47Well, I'd say it's hard work.
49:48How many can you?
49:49A room full.
49:52Well, I'm glad to go.
49:52Good.
49:53Well, you've got a book.
49:54Enjoy the trip.
49:55You'll be sure to tie it off.
49:56Hmm.
49:57Not till next week.
49:59I'm going, uh, I'll be away a week.
50:01A week after the next.
50:03Good.
50:04Where are you going?
50:05Well, I'll do some television.
50:08I have a job for a day.
50:10Good.
50:13Well, how do you think of the Spaniards now?
50:14How are we going?
50:17This looks pretty good.
50:18I read the first part of it, but then it says,
50:33Mansfield said the busing issue is the most difficult and most perplexing issue to come before the Senate in his 20 years as a member, and that Congress has no choice but to act on it.
50:42It appears to me that there is a great deal more that the courts can do, and perhaps in some instances they have gone entirely too far, he said.
50:51He's still Mansfield.
50:52Bobby Griffin backed the president's approach and predicted unless pro-busing senators initiated a filibuster, we ought to have a bill on his desk within a few weeks.
51:00Griffin has proposed any busting that was similar to Nixon's approach last month, and Maryland lost 10 of both, so he also has encouraged the next Justice Department to intervene in the appropriate case to argue against busting.
51:09The Constitutional Amendment may be the lead out of this arrest.
51:14That we're against it?
51:16Yeah.
51:16No, no, no.
51:16They told the leaders that if for any reason your legislation is unconstitutional, you go for a constitutional amendment.
51:21That's right.
51:22You got one problem.
51:24McCulloch is with you for some reason.
51:26He doesn't understand.
51:29He says the president may have gone a long way towards solving this most difficult problem.
51:34The interesting line in the leaders' group, the leaders, was that, well, even Jack said that last night we did, you know,
51:42What do you say?
51:43How?
51:43Now?
51:44The Javits?
51:44They're going up.
51:46Javits ranking Republican flesh immediately.
51:48To do my utmost to see that that is done, that is to get the plan into the conference panel.
51:51Here's what they understand.
51:52They understand that people got to be used with ambition.
51:57Well, I mean, you just toss them the hottest basketball they've ever caught, and they're all standing there going like this, and they don't know what to do.
52:06Except for that.
52:07The usual, the curse was the only one clever enough to set it down.
52:12And what he even knew about this, of course, he didn't know he was on the Fox.
52:18But we had a response to that.
52:20In terms of constitutionality, I think he threw the ball in the back and said, go get a constitutional manager.
52:27That's right.
52:28Well, it's true.
52:29And I think it was good.
52:30You see, the reason, John, I was talking so hard like these guys is that I knew, you know, the picture I said at the last, now look here.
52:37It sounds good.
52:39You've got to stop this fussing.
52:42I said, the court can't do it.
52:44In fact, the courts are going to go too far.
52:48A constitutional amendment won't do it.
52:50The president can't do it.
52:52You know what I believe?
52:53I've gone as far as I can.
52:54And I said, it's only up to the Congress.
52:56So the question is, are you going to do it?
52:57Now, that puts it in language that they damn well understand.
53:01You see, they pick up these returns.
53:03And that's the thing that people have got to do in leaders meetings is write the script for them, write the story for them.
53:10You know what I mean?
53:12I knew the intricacies of the goddamn legislation, but I'm not going to go into the question of the 402 versus 406 and all that stuff.
53:24Well, it's off in Salem at this point, and I talked with Javis and Cui a little while afterwards, and they're going to try and get this more important than the conference.
53:34Not because they want them on target as much as because they're hung up higher.
53:39They can't get a degree in the conference otherwise because they've got to be house-instructed conferees on a tough puzzle.
53:46As you notice, I played dumb as hell.
53:48I knew exactly what they were stuck on.
53:49Well, I came along a little bit in the press conference.
53:52Good.
53:52And I said that I'd been very involved in the conference.
53:54Did you notice that I also, however,
53:58I was hoping you saw what I was doing, my rather naive questions about what would a constitutional amendment have in a House of Representatives.
54:06But I got Bobby Griffin to say, well, we just don't have the votes for him.
54:12But that is the point with me, that we've now laid that foundation.
54:17Because if Wallace and his crowd are going to yell out for constitutional amendment, they'll say, that's a demagogue.
54:23He's got to be attacked.
54:26That's fine.
54:26But incidentally, I know that some of our lawyers don't like the idea of my saying, I'll do a constitutional amendment.
54:32The legislation isn't passed.
54:32But that's what I believe.
54:34I'm for that.
54:36And if the courts decide this is unconstitutional, or if the Congress fails to act, then John, I have a responsibility to say, all right, I'm for a constitutional deal.
54:45You're not on record.
54:45We put you on record.
54:48That's right.
54:49Well, I put myself on record on that one.
54:53But we don't do it now.
54:54I said the preferred approach is a legislative approach.
55:00And we're very responsible.
55:05See, the first, again, Billy Ray George at one point, he finally looked up and said, well, we don't have to desegregate everything now.
55:14And that's why we'll be in court in a week.
55:18Let me tell you, this stuff about this job didn't want to help the job.
55:22It is a splendid job.
55:24And Ray Price's message is a damn classic business.
55:27It's a beautiful message.
55:29It really is.
55:30They have really done a job.
55:32And we've taken the hottest particular here and everything.
55:35And it's really just getting the moratorium.
55:37I don't forget the legislation, not this year, but getting the moratorium.
55:42It's an enormous thing.
55:44We will stop the new blessing orders.
55:46At least it means we won't make the cancer any worse.
55:48Isn't that right?
55:49Absolutely.
55:51It's actually marked way up on the wall.
55:56I'm not sure how many people really care about this issue in the country.
56:05I agree that people know about it.
56:08Well, everything indicates that they don't care, except where there is a bus stop problem.
56:12And there they care like hell.
56:14And if you ask anybody, he always is against busing, right?
56:17But if you say, what are you concerned about?
56:19Nobody says busing, except where there's a problem.
56:22I think that what we had to do was to do this on television for other reasons.
56:26Where they do care about it.
56:28They have to hear me say it, or otherwise it would be introduced.
56:32I know, for example, I met with these three women, there were 25 of them in the advisory room.
56:38All they were talking about was China.
56:42I met with the White House fellows this morning, and all they wanted to know was China.
56:49One guy asked one question on busing, and then I started to do an answer, and they obviously didn't want to hear it.
56:55I've just been with the EA for political reasons, and all they wanted to talk about was busing.
57:02Yeah.
57:02See, I referred the busing people to you.
57:03She asked, it was the girl, Molly, and I didn't know what the hell she was talking about.
57:09Well, that's probably
57:23No, no.
57:25I called him.
57:28I never got it.
57:51Uh, he wouldn't take the call.
57:52He finally called me back after the speech.
57:55So he knew I had tried, but he, uh, I didn't really get to him.
57:59But I have an appointment with him today, and so I'll go over this and tell him what I would have told him if I got there.
58:08Oh, I just wanted to be sure, you know, he said that, since he was out.
58:14Yeah, yeah.
58:15He certainly is able to know that we've taken the line.
58:19Oh, yeah.
58:19He certainly doesn't stand out.
58:21I'll get him up.
58:22I'll get him to run now.
58:24Yeah, he said it was the purpose of the call was to run.
58:27Yeah, some of that, you know, we did not win a hard fight with the vice president, I would say.
58:32But he's a great thinker, of course.
58:37What the hell?
58:37He thought he was for a much harder line.
58:42Well, God damn it.
58:43He came up against the constitutional man.
58:45He doesn't buy any of his money.
58:48He's with you on the bus.
58:49He's against the school.
58:51Smart of our starting.
58:53He's for cutting down the bus.
58:54He said he should have left all the other crap out.
58:56Well, then you would have had
59:03Well, potentially.
59:04Well, wouldn't you have the Blacks really up the wall?
59:10Or would you?
59:11They weren't going to be for us.
59:13But you would have no contention in the goddamn speech at all.
59:16We had 10 of them in there last night.
59:19All Blacks.
59:20I mean, they planned something.
59:23Oh, did you?
59:24Oh, they did.
59:25All right.
59:25I saw her after a few.
59:27Who said I could settle this?
59:29Or any of them could?
59:31No.
59:34Well, sure they did.
59:38He is just a...
59:39I wasn't there.
59:40That was Buchanan, Morgan, and Schultz.
59:44Well, let's do that.
59:48Well, you had to deal with it.
59:56Well, his whole attitude is one of just wanting...
1:00:00complain about everything.
1:00:03And that's the only thing he knows.
1:00:05We've got to make him feel better.
1:00:06And so his talk to me was, John, never.
1:00:08Because he was in good spirits when I talked to him yesterday morning.
1:00:12You know, because he had done so well in college.
1:00:15Sure.
1:00:16I know.
1:00:17And I told him about your concern about his voting.
1:00:22Well, he's got a thing about just the domestic side of things here.
1:00:29What the hell is he domestically then?
1:00:32I don't know.
1:00:34He's where we ain't.
1:00:35You know, let me say this.
1:00:37I think the Pennsylvania education probably will work very well.
1:00:40I like my hands.
1:00:42Money and greed, we have to do it.
1:00:45I do as you guys help.
1:00:47Pat, incidentally said, he'd be around here Monday.
1:00:50If there's anything he can say or do, he'll do it.
1:00:53He thinks this is a great way to move.
1:00:56So he's really bored.
1:01:03Brock's going to talk to, he's all for it.
1:01:07Yeah, about Reagan.
1:01:08Well, I don't see any talk of Reagan.
1:01:13I wonder, I don't know what the report was on Reagan, which opens in Israel.
1:01:23You know, I'm glad that I took John to be part of that speech.
1:01:28I'm glad we did, but it's a more related talk.
1:01:32I think of the...
1:01:40Well, the first sapphire drab was a disaster.
1:01:43And the banana drab was a disaster.
1:01:46But I think the final sapphire drab was just too thin, tinny.
1:01:51The rest.
1:01:52And I had a feeling that the Green Plain came up with what was somewhat credible.
1:02:00Well, I've heard a lot of good things about it.
1:02:07And Chuck came up afterwards and said he thought it was a damn good speech.
1:02:13And it didn't happen.
1:02:15Well, Chuck is just basically critical.
1:02:18He pitches 90% of the time.
1:02:20When he says it's good, it's because he thought it was.
1:02:22Well, it was.
1:02:22It was actually a damn well-written speech.
1:02:24It really was, in terms of the issue.
1:02:28Well-written and well-delivered.
1:02:30It was good.
1:02:31I thought you were rather relaxed.
1:02:32And sort of.
1:02:37What was the speech that required a portrayal of inner conviction?
1:02:42No, it wasn't.
1:02:42I think it certainly portrayed what I was really thinking of all the time was about the crisis.
1:02:49And I said, there you go.
1:02:50That speech felt something like Wallace on one side, but the crisis felt something like Muskie and Jackson and Lansing.
1:02:58I think it certainly felt like they saw a damn different picture.
1:03:01That's why it was very good.
1:03:06I hadn't thought about it until you came on.
1:03:09But just putting you on, the argument for putting you on television on the issue was good.
1:03:14But an argument that I hadn't thought about was just, you've been watching on television all these guys in those goddamn grubby election headquarters crying and saying, I really won, and all this sort of crap.
1:03:26And then to see the sealed
1:03:29The camera came in on the Oval Office, the President sitting here telling people what he really believes, exercising some leadership, talking about the problem, making the point, the best point in the whole thing, the one that's really going to matter in the long haul, is that you don't have to be anti-black to be an adolescent.
1:03:44Well, that was the question I had.
1:03:48And I put in one action key there which I think is good to say that it's a vicious libel on people to say if you're anti-muslim you're anti-black because parents are concerned.
1:04:05Isn't that the little section about parents want to send their kids to their own schools in the neighborhood?
1:04:11many buy schools, buy, buy, buy their homes in certain neighborhoods because they have good schools.
1:04:19But their life savings are in actual contact with, you know, a lot of people.
1:04:23But he did, he did a beautiful, he had a social plan, and that was pretty interesting.
1:04:30I figured it was.
1:04:31It's good that all we saved up in this draft, we provided.
1:04:34But we go step down a little bit.
1:04:37You can't imagine.
1:04:39You have to deflect over time.
1:04:42I'm serious.
1:04:43Now he says, he says to her, children, you've got to be used as guinea pigs.
1:04:49Oh my, if I'd ever been a guinea pig, he'd be dead.
1:04:53That's a pretty good line.
1:04:59Oh, boy.
1:05:01Give me one example.
1:05:07of where a judge is forced bussing to a key person.
1:05:11Now, just one example.
1:05:12A lot of these are CBS guys.
1:05:13That was so Morgan said.
1:05:15Well, how about this one, or this one, or this one, or this one?
1:05:19I've had him researched this last night.
1:05:21All right.
1:05:21He did it very hot and angry.
1:05:23And then there was this so-and-so, and then there was this so-and-so, and so-and-so, to name a few.
1:05:27They had him reeled up, but he was not.
1:05:30He was just really loaded to go.
1:05:32Yeah.
1:05:32Yeah.
1:05:33Yeah.
1:05:34Yeah.
1:05:35Yeah.
1:05:44But, John, don't read the page.
1:05:46Well, you know what these guys do.
1:05:48You know what these guys do.
1:05:49I'm respectful of the Senate and all of them.
1:05:51I mean, I think if I never died, I'd love those guys.
1:05:54But I'm not going to work with these guys every day.
1:05:57So I have to kind of measure how far I can take over.
1:06:00Let me pause here.
1:06:05And if I can do it and still make a point.
1:06:08Yeah.
1:06:08Without breaking it off.
1:06:11No, I've got to try and keep going.
1:06:13Oh, no.
1:06:14But I don't believe you're speaking my word.
1:06:17But I, the reason I wrote you the note was that I wanted to be sure that you did the discussion there.
1:06:21That's the reason.
1:06:22Because you could see when they started to talk, they were losing them.
1:06:25Oh, sure.
1:06:26Did you listen?
1:06:27No question.
1:06:28I've got a chairman of a cabinet committee there.
1:06:31I've got a kind of...
1:06:32We're going to get them all.
1:06:33I think everybody's got about one.
1:07:31I don't think you guys did very well.
1:07:37I think I'm probably .

On March 17, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Stephen B. Bull, Henry A. Kissinger, and John D. Ehrlichman met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:19 pm to 1:14 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 687-003 of the White House Tapes.

Conversation No. 687-3

Date: March 17, 1972
Time: 12:19 - 1:14 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with H.R. (“Bob”) Haldeman and Stephen B. Bull.

[Discontinuities appear on the original tape. See Conversation No. 686-12.]

     The President's schedule

Bull left at an unknown time after 12:19 pm.

**********************************************************************

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 3m 38s ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

**********************************************************************

Henry A. Kissinger entered at 12:36 pm.

     Arthur K. Watson
          -Recent episode on airline flight
          -Nelson A. Rockefeller
                -Unknown Woman
                     -Money
                     -Shoes
          -State Department
                -The President’s view
                -Secret Service
          -Health
                -Rockefeller
          -Visits by Kissinger
          -The President's trips to France

     Foreign policy
          -People’s Republic of China [PRC]
               -Cambodia
          -Vietnam
               -Offensive
               -Timing
          -The President’s forthcoming trip to the Soviet Union
               -Melvin R. Laird
               -Peter G. Peterson
               -Earl L. Butz

John D. Ehrlichman entered at 12:42 pm.

          -State Department
                -Rogers's memorandum
                -Monetary affairs
                     -John B. Connally
                -Azores
                -Rogers

     Kissinger's schedule
          -Acapulco
                 -Timing
                -Lyndon B. Johnson
                -Carl W. Renstrom
                      -Property

**********************************************************************

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4
[Privacy]
[Duration: 1m 14s ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4

**********************************************************************

     Domestic issues

     Foreign policy
          -The President’s forthcoming Soviet trip

                 -Reading files

     Kissinger's schedule

           -Forthcoming meeting with Anatoliy F. Dobrynin
                -Map Room

Kissinger left at 12:55 pm.

     Kissinger
          -Schedule
               -The President’s view

     Briefings
           -Ehrlichman’s role
                 -George P. Shultz
                 -Elliot L. Richardson
                 -Richard G. Kleindienst
                 -Congressmen
           -Busing
                 -Left
                 -Right
                 -Length
                 -Attendance

     Ehrlichman's schedule
           -California
                 -San Francisco

     Busing
          -Michael J. Mansfield proposal
               -Press coverage
                     -Congress
                     -Courts
          -Robert P. Griffin statements
               -Possible bill
               -Justice Department
          -Constitutional amendment
               -Leaders
                     -William M. McCulloch
                     -Jacob K. Javits
          -The President's statement

           -James O. Eastland
           -Courts
           -Constitutional amendment
           -The President
           -Congress
     -Leaders meeting
     -Ehrlichman's conversation with Javits and Albert H. Quie
           -Moratorium
     -Press conference
     -The President's statement
           -Griffin
           -George C. Wallace
           -Lawyers
           -Constitutional amendment
           -Legislative approach
     -Shultz
           -Press
     -Raymond K. Price, Jr.
           -Work on the message to Congress
     -Moratorium
           -Busing orders
           -Significance
     -Public opinion
           -Television coverage
           -The President’s previous meeting with the Citizen’s Advisory Council on the
              Status of Women
                 -Discussion of the PRC trip
           -Haldeman’s previous meeting with White House Fellows
                 -Busing compared to the PRC trip
                 -Ehrlichman’s meeting with group

Social Security and welfare reform
     -Domestic issue
     -Connally
           -Talk with Ehrlichman
           -Cabinet meeting
           -Forthcoming meeting with Ehrlichman

Busing
     -Vice President Spiro T. Agnew’s statements
          -Constitutional amendment
          -Federal aid

      -Moratorium
-Blacks
-Speech
-Patrick J. Buchanan
-Edward L. Morgan
-Shultz
-Agnew
      -The President’s view
            -National Security Council [NSC] meeting
      -Talk with Haldeman
      -Domestic issues
-Compensatory education
      -Daniel P (“Pat”) Moynihan
-Rockefeller
-Caspar W. (“Cap”)Weinberger
      -Conversation with Ronald W. Reagan
-Linwood Holton
      -Israel
-Drafts of speech
      -William L. Safire
      -Buchanan
-Speech
      -Charles W. ("Chuck") Bailey
      -Delivery
      -Wallace
      -Edmund S. Muskie
      -Henry M. (“Scoop”) Jackson
      -John V. Lindsay
      -Hubert H. Humphrey
      -Television
            -Chance for American citizens to compare the President with the
                 Democratic candidates
      -Racism
      -Neighborhood schools
      -Social planners
            -Buchanan
-Press briefing
      -Judges
            -Rulings
            -Racial balance
                 -Examples
                       -Columbia Broadcasting System [CBS]

                                -Morgan

     The President’s schedule
          -Forthcoming meeting with Dobrynin

     Briefings
           -Ehrlichman
                 -Tone
                 -Senate
                 -Leaders meeting
                      -The President's note
                      -Chairman of the Cabinet Committee

     The President’s forthcoming meeting with Dobrynin
          -Haldeman

The President, Haldeman and Ehrlichman left at 1:14 pm.
  • 686-008 11:55 AM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:55 am to 12:00 pm.
  • 686-009 12:00 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:00 pm and 12:05 pm.
  • 686-010 12:05 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon, William Warnack, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., Marion H. Smoak, and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:05 pm and 12:11 pm.
  • 686-011 12:16 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Tina Diver, Neil Diver, and Margita E. White met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:16 pm and 12:19 pm.
  • 687-002 12:16 PM · 18 sec — Tina Diver, Neil Diver, and Margita E. White met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:16 pm to 12:19 pm.
  • 686-012 12:36 PM · 7 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:36 pm and 12:42 pm.
  • 687-004 1:14 PM · 40 sec — Stephen B. Bull and United States Secret Service agents met in the Oval Office of the White House at 1:14 pm.
  • 323-029 1:45 PM · 44 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 1:45 pm and 2:45 pm.

Conversation 687-003, March 17, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/687-003 (accessed October 3, 2026).