Conversation 697-015

TapeTape 697StartThursday, March 30, 1972 at 11:50 AMEndThursday, March 30, 1972 at 12:15 PMTape start time02:17:09Tape end time02:42:54ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob")Recording deviceOval Office

On March 30, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:50 am to 12:15 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 697-015 of the White House Tapes.

Conversation No. 697-15

Date: March 30, 1972
Time: 11:50 am - 12:15 pm
Location: Oval Office

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

[Transcript #1: A transcript of the following conversation may be found in RG 460, Box
58, pp. 1-22.]

[End of transcribed portion]

Haldeman left at 12:15 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 Do not cite this transcript as authoritative.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.

I don't see him in there.
Here you go, Master.
Okay.
I must say, it's quite good.
Anybody want to say something?
What is the thing that I think deserves?
When he went to this fight, his work on it has just been unbelievable.
He's built himself up as a little kid.
Dedication has become, he'll end up being the greatest slugger in the world history.
Really?
Yeah.
Go out and be a challenger and all that.
Yeah.
I think it would be good to get Colson and McGregor to move in.
I went through just exactly what we talked about with Plankton and he said, oh hell, I didn't mean to imply to McGregor in any way that he shouldn't come to Eastland.
Now, I think he did, but he backed off of it.
He said, all I, it's just that in making the deal, I can do a better job because he likes me better and owes me more, to put it in simplest terms.
And I felt that I ought to do that.
I said, well, that's understood.
You have no problem.
But we do have a problem.
If you want...
this to be a relationship where nobody's allowed to talk to each one but you because that's that's kind of a problem yeah right oh hell no and clark should be dealing with him on the boat panels and the right technicality i have no problem on that and uh he said i there was a story that marlo cook was going for a compromise
on this thing.
And he said, I've talked to Marlo Cook about that to see what he's talking about.
And Cook says he's solid for a complete termination vote.
But he thought it would be a good strategy for him to say publicly that maybe we ought to look into some compromise on the thing.
He'd certainly think that was a good idea.
So that it doesn't look like the Republicans are trying to cover up.
He said, in executive session, you will vote uncompromisingly for total termination.
And he said, there will be no problem.
the compromise that Teddy will seek will be so outlandish that we can, I'll just reject that out of hand.
I'll just say, well, you're unreasonable, whatever it is.
And so he at least, and McGregor advises too, does not concern about BVA.
Good.
I've covered the link of his dealing directly with Eastland, not Marty dealing with him.
And he said, I understand that and I will.
No question there.
And I said, now, the only other problem that we've got to clear up is there's apparently some thought on Eastland's part.
that uh it would be a good idea for you to continue through the rest of the year as acting attorney general and somehow he can't be allowed to go on i mean i thought he said i understand all right but anyway
Obviously, as the President made very clear yesterday, that's just a potential that we can't wheel politically.
And he said, oh, I understand that.
So, I wasn't talking to Clark.
Clint East had already talked to Clark on the phone this morning, before I got to him.
He had not talked to East Lincoln, so this track is up.
Clint East
you talked to clark i talked to clark and clark said there's uh i understand all that and that's fine he said there and we talked through the whole thing i said this is what clint claims and he said i agree my niece is a better guy to cut the deal with eastman he's not does is suspicious of me
On the other hand, if my answer to be telling them not to do anything except be honest with them, and I said they're not to be, and said the president, oh, I didn't claim he's an FBI.
I said that Clark's problem, Dick, is that it's his view that he is the president's congressional.
That he has an assignment from the president, which is to deliver the confirmation.
At whatever cost.
Now there's some prices we can pay for delivering that, but you don't know a goddamn thing about it.
And shouldn't and never will.
We've got a senator who wants a veterans' hospital, and we may give it to him.
And we've got another senator who wants something else, wants something taken out of the record, and we may take it out.
But there's nothing to do with justice.
You don't know what they have in mind.
But Clark does.
And do you really want to pull Clark out of that?
And I said, I also understand that you talked to Clark last week and made the point that you were counting on him to deliver the confirmation.
He says, that's right.
That's absolutely true.
So that's all fair.
I'll cover that all with Clark.
He said, fine.
He said, maybe I overreacted, but in all fairness, I think he said more to me than maybe he's now saying.
And Mikey had a great job.
And also, Mikey's pops all too much.
I only read a part of it, and I said, yeah, thank you.
Clunky said, he said, I'm sorry I saw Clark last night.
I think it probably would have been better if I hadn't seen him.
And I said, well, it probably would have been, but I'll get it cleared up.
I just want you, and he said, I'm not asking, I said, I'm not asking you anything.
I just want you to know what my problem is here.
So if you're, as we go down the turnpike, and I'll take care of this.
When we finished, when I finished with Clark, I said,
He said, I don't want to rush you out, but I do have the president's 12 o'clock appointment waiting.
Maybe I can go catch him.
And I said, fine, but maybe we ought to go down and see the president just to make sure this is all clear up.
He said, if the president wants to, that's fine.
If there's any concern in his mind.
But he said, you cleared everything up from my viewpoint.
I have no need to see the president.
So that's where that is now.
In the meantime, you should know,
McGregor is telling me this.
And Colson, after McGregor and Colson and I met this morning, Colson got McGregor's out and said, I want you to join with me in a private memo I'm sending to the president.
urgent the findings, withdraw now.
And McGregor said, well done.
I don't want to be on record on that.
It isn't any of my business.
Colson said, yeah, I noticed you waffled in the president's office on that point the other day.
And McGregor said, well, waffling may be what you call it.
I haven't thought about it.
My first assignment is to get the nomination confirmed, and that's what I'm looking at.
My first assignment was getting the hearings terminated, and that's what I'm working on.
I haven't thought beyond that as to what ought to be done.
And when the President asked me, I said I haven't thought about schools and I haven't
I don't know.
I'll see his memo.
Well, we don't need to have memos written to each other.
This is the point.
Yeah.
And McGregor said, I don't, he said, McGregor, he said, look.
Does McGregor believe that there are memos?
I don't think he's right now to withdraw.
Well, I think so.
No.
Does Colson think so?
I think so.
I asked about it.
Colson's back on his scare tactic again of the memos that from, there's a memo from, uh, uh,
all those things, we've heard about it, and he said, he told Clark about it, and he said, I haven't told you about it before, because I didn't think you should know they were there, and I haven't told the Attorney General or claimants, because if they're calling a witness, then they should know these exist.
But they're there, and we've got to terminate the hearings in order to avoid these things coming out.
And then, I think he's now arguing that maybe with the hearings terminated,
that Kennedy, in his frustration, will find some way to get these out of here, find out about them if he doesn't know about them, which I can't imagine he does, and get them out some other way, if we keep claiming stuff for confirmation now.
My answer to that would be, they don't give a shit whether Kleindienst is confirmed or not, so if they're going to get those out, they're going to get them out anyway.
Well, the fact that we couldn't remove them... Colson forgets Kleindienst is not the issue.
They want to get this stuff out, and they're going to get it out over and over anyway.
If they know about it, they'll get it out.
And our terminating the hearings isn't going to stop them.
Our terminating the hearings isn't going to stop them.
Well, can I ask, can I urge you to do this one, Colson?
You get in a meeting while I'm going through the riffraff today.
Because, you know, he's been a hell of a loyal soldier here in San Antonio.
It'll take all three days.
And there's another thing, too, we've got to get understood here.
I've been, you know, copywriting a little, and I've been writing a lot on my brand and so forth, and a lot of things these days, committees and so forth, that I've been trying to grow.
well i've spent an important amount of my time talking to colson talking to gregory talking to you about these goddamn hearings it's wrong there isn't a thing that i can do that's unaffected and also i should know this much about it i just feel that i should you know what i mean is that i uh i think i think what ought to happen here
is that everybody ought to do their goddamn best to work out a strategy.
And then if I have to be brought in on it, I will do it.
But I think what is happening is that it's probably my fault.
I get a trucker call every three months or a year.
I mean, well, I don't think they got that thing not drawn to, but I think we're too close to him.
I think Chuck's too close to him.
Of course there's stuff out there.
So it comes out that he wrote him a letter.
So, for example, Planky's just an instant.
People are going to be worried about whether he, what his letter to Larry O'Brien, should they have money or should.
That's the point.
You see the point?
And if all that comes out, Chuck's right.
But Chuck's right.
He said, well, Planky's now resigned, or withdraws his name, on what ground?
I'm going around.
Before the committee terminates, he can't withdraw.
If the committee terminates, he sure as hell can't withdraw.
Sure.
The only place that he can and may have to is if the committee logs out.
Or if the committee manages.
Then he can say it's clear that I cannot be confirmed.
I withdraw my name.
But I don't want Chuck leading that to the press.
You understand?
Yep.
That's what we've got to avoid here.
That will get him to a place where Climby says, it's a matter of faiths.
has to stay in.
Chuck has got to, he can't talk to so many people.
Now, can I ask you to, and I'll talk to you at 1230, I want you to talk to Chuck and say, you're doing a great job here, we're on exactly the same track, but we've got to work it out.
Doesn't Chuck know that we've got candy cases?
That's what the hell I was talking to the client yesterday about.
But he knows it.
They just don't want to know what it was about.
Obviously they do, but they don't want to, so they forget about it.
They don't.
In fact, that meeting never took place.
That's what they didn't know.
This meeting never took place.
No, you can't say that.
It doesn't matter.
I do feel that Chuck has got to get him off the kick.
He figured he's a lot better.
You know, he's a fighter.
God bless him.
But he's fighting hard in this too.
He's also fighting missionally.
you see what i mean and he thinks that other people are taking different views i think though that my people smell knows very damn well what we have to do yes you put into the sword which i kind of explained this to my partner i said the other point here is we're better off with findings knowing
that these hearings happen.
It's his ass too now, because he is committed that they will be terminated.
That he's to cut the deal with Eastman to get it done.
Now that's up to him to do.
Now obviously that doesn't preclude you working in every possible way you can to get it cut.
I want you to go to the Charter and say, no, that's what we're going to do.
Yes, you're concerned.
It's another game, but nobody's to breathe a thing.
But we haven't got a provocation whereby Clancy's can say the day that he can do it.
As well as Charlie and Pat, and he's got them.
But what Chuck's got to know is that his idea is full of shit.
That he says, if I'm not confirmed in two weeks or three weeks, I will resign.
That will not work.
Pat, I know it all.
I mean, it's a game which will not play.
You agree with that?
Yep, I do.
But he doesn't, right?
I don't think he does.
All right.
I hit him on that game this morning.
I said, that one is out of the ballpark, but that's not under consideration at all.
He didn't argue with me.
It just can't work.
On the other hand, in other words, when it's going to be done, it's got to be done surgically.
He can't say, I'll do it in three weeks.
He's got to say, I am out.
He's a lame duck when he says three weeks.
He's got to say, I'm out.
Well, plus he gives them three weeks of high-level attention to throw all his shit into the back.
Now, that's it.
So I said, on the second thing that we're going to do, we can't cut this thing off.
If it isn't cut, then one of these may happen to us.
I'm perfectly prepared to do this.
In other words, I really think that we're going to have to really rub Don Mitchell's nose in this.
And we've really got to get my niece, if they screw around with us in this hearing thing, and we don't get it cut off, then...
Claims has to go.
Now the point of the judge is, if they do cut off the hearings, he says, well, they're going to get it out anyway as long as Claims' name isn't up there.
The point is, they're going to get it out anyway, whether his name is up there or not, if they're going to get it out.
If they have it and they want it out, they'll get it out.
Claims is not a factor.
That's right.
That's right.
No question.
The other thing is I think that I should be one step removed now, I think you would agree, from this whole government controversy.
I've got my incline piece.
I've got the word here.
I want to see a dam around on this thing.
I don't want one floating around in here that has been recommended.
It would be in the Washington Post two days, probably in my book, without talking about this thing.
Yeah, too late.
Yeah.
Tell him exactly what we're doing here.
We know exactly what we're doing here.
We know what we're doing.
But we must.
There's too much trouble.
And, uh, I mean, I should get charging.
Tell him that.
All right.
You get him in now, and you have a good talk to him and say, look, we're all on the same track here.
The question is, what are you going to do?
Don't put him in the memory.
We don't want one fight.
He's got to get up to the secretary and show him all the jobs.
And you know how it is.
He fights with a lot of people.
Yeah.
You agree?
Yeah.
I don't need to see that.
I don't know the situation.
I don't think I'm used to it either.
I don't think it's going to work.
You don't know what it is?
Get out of here, sir.
Let me tell you the other thing.
This is on the church, if you don't mind.
If I am not minded over his objections and over Mitch's objections, the difficulty is that over Eastwood's objections and his friends.
He's got friends too.
I know a lot more friends than the White House that he's got.
That's it.
You've got to realize.
You understand?
Now, if I do that, then...
I'm going to have all the baddest problems.
If on the other hand...
He won't get an attorney general.
Got it?
They're not going to approve any money.
That's right.
They'd say, screw you, why should we get a migrator?
If we're going to send a migrator.
Or whoever it is.
Right.
Second one.
If on the other hand, I set it up so that Whitebeast himself concludes, as a result of some problem for me, that his stay in the rigs
It's going to cause more problems.
That gets solved.
The whole thing changes.
You see the point?
Sure.
This is what Charlie's going to do.
But there's no rationale that you could set that up for for him to take any action now.
Plus, it isn't desirable.
It would be ridiculous if he pulled out now.
This week?
How can he do it this week?
And also, it's going to terminate in Syria next week.
That's right.
Well, the point is, if he did it this week, you think, man, they're going to say he's doing it, he's trying, and so forth.
And also, it would be an enormous public reaction to the confessions, and so forth and so on.
He's got to do it at a time that there is some action.
First, the committee may not terminate.
Then, client issues.
If the committee does not terminate, client issues set up in mouth.
I think that's what has to happen.
If the committee does terminate.
And then, there is an inordinate delay in the consent and claims.
We've got to set the date in our own mind.
It's got to say after two, three weeks, it's clear that I cannot be cleared.
and will not be in the party because they will not allow a vote and not use their consent as I am asking the president to withdraw my name.
Fair enough.
It's about the way it is.
Then I need to get it, get it urgent.
Why there is Uber, I wasn't, it wasn't somebody else.
It was I who raised my thought that we should pick, maybe, maybe, maybe try to get the hell out.
I remember the meeting.
Yeah.
And you were convinced of that.
Well, but nobody thought that.
Nobody else.
Nobody thought so.
Well, the more I think about it, that will not work unless it's set up so that he,
So his friends will be willing to go this way.
He's going to have a fair shot at the chance of confirmation.
Do you agree or not?
Right.
And then he's got to be a true martyr.
And then he's got to be a true martyr.
And his friends have got to rally behind us who rallied behind him.
But we've got to get our eye up to this point.
And as far as Chuck's part, I think it's fabulous to the effect that getting my niece out is going to make any difference.
in terms of whether this information comes out.
The information, getting it out, it won't be as much publicity if he's out on the pitch.
You know what I mean?
They'll say, well, what the hell, they're beating a dead horse.
I agree with that.
But on the other hand, right now, there will be a lot of work going on.
Thank you, sir.
All the way.
Well, you talk to Trump now, and talk about it, but the main thing is that they all sort of get shaky, and they want to be reassured, and they work their ass off.
I mean, they're so like him, everybody is.
And they do, they work, and they would slay, and they would.
So you tell them, God damn it, the president's counting on you for a whole lot of things other than this thing.
And he doesn't feel there's a hell of a lot we can do.
He'll say, well, this is the biggest thing.
This is going to be, you know, not his argument.
It is, if you will, that if we stop him on this, we may stop him on other things.
Forget it.
Listen, and even since it's going to be investigating the war powers, you know, that's politics.
Now, that's sort of stuff.
Not a goddamn thing.
Now, in fairness, too, we've got to say this on Chuck's table.
We really hit it in his head three weeks on this.
You know, this is going to break it.
That's going to break it.
We've got all this.
And he says, we've got this thing.
He's a very special man.
We'll break it.
The typewriter thing, which I suggested, maybe that'll break it.
And that fell.
And, oh, we've got this binocular out in Canada, and that's going to change it.
It's exactly like him.
He's always right on the brink that they've got to be in town war for three years.
And basically, none of those, it's not, not that he shouldn't try, but it seems to me that this is a case where we haven't gotten the grades and we ain't going to get one.
And you know it and I know it.
Isn't this true?
But on the other hand, I'm not convinced that we won't get the final grade.
I still think
It could very well be that this gets to the Senate floor that may end up confirming him.
But let me say this.
The other thing is that looking at, basically, the job that Colson and I have, and you have, and the narrator has,
When we were fighting on their battleground, we didn't lose.
We don't lose.
We don't make any ground.
We've got to get to where we're at now.
I know Colson probably read this on his phone.
He says, oh, Christ.
Two networks had stopped on ITT.
So did it.
It wasn't bad.
It was about Janine, right?
It was pretty good.
But the point that I made is this.
What was more important was that three networks had caught on in the lead.
How the hell did we set that up?
I set that up with Conley.
By sitting down and spending a little time with him.
Suggesting that he meet with these people.
And he went out and had a press conference.
And he put all those meat packers out there at 6 o'clock at night and every night were granted.
What do you think of that?
That's a matter of much more concern to much more people.
Exactly.
And Charlie Colson knows that.
You see what I mean?
He's got to work on these things.
That's why I quit worrying about this thing and that thing and how this is affecting us.
You know what I mean?
And also it affects, basically it deters all of our offensive actions.
Remember I said we ought to get the cost of living and food pricing.
We ought to get busing pay.
And we owe it to the president, the man who sees it.
But we owe it to you and me, too.
And I take the meaning in the ass, and that has really fallen out of the way, son.
President.
No.
No, but that's part of it.
We heard it.
That's part of it.
No.
That's part of it.
These are very editorial.
No, no, no, I haven't.
I will get to it.
What about our people?
I mean, my God, we are the people that are working on my team.
Some of those guys should be right.
We just gave them meaning in the ass.
I mean, that was my command, so...
We've done nothing.
I mean, they're pulling all the NFL, CIO people off the productivity council.
So that's fine.
They not only don't want to help stop the price rise, they also don't even help increase the Lakers' productivity.
Well, they did a set.
I noticed, for example, that Chuck had four people coming to the, uh, the same dinner, and none of them came to the Lakers.