Conversation 776-017

TapeTape 776StartThursday, September 14, 1972 at 12:52 PMEndThursday, September 14, 1972 at 1:43 PMParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob")Recording deviceOval Office

On September 14, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:52 pm to 1:43 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 776-017 of the White House Tapes.

Conversation No. 776-17

Date: September 14, 1972
Time: 12:52 pm - 1:43 pm
Location: Oval Office

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

                                     (rev. Oct-06)

          Haldeman’s meeting with White House staff members
              -Watergate
              -The President's view
                  -Bryce N. Harlow
                  -Herbert Brownell
                  -John D. Ehrlichman

          Watergate
             -John B. Connally
                  -Opinion on Watergate
                      -Commission
             -Policy on dealing with charges
                  -Cover-up charges
             -1968 Presidential election
                  -Parallels to Watergate
             -Lyndon B. Johnson
             -Democrats

          The President's schedule
              -Trip to Camp David
              -Meetings for Camp David

          Frank L. Rizzo
              -Kenneth R. Cole, Jr.
                   -Requests for aid
                       -Funds

          Rizzo and the 1972 elections
              -Joseph Alioto
                  -Revenue sharing bill signing cermony
              -George S. McGovern
              -Edward M. Kennedy

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 1m 13s     ]

                                    (rev. Oct-06)

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

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          Rizzo
              -Philadelphia
                  -McGovern’s previous visit
                       -Traffic jams

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 11m 1s     ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2

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          Carl B. Albert
              -Incident
                   -Newspaper story
              -Democratic Party

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 11m 9s     ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4

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          White House staff

                                     (rev. Oct-06)

              -Cole's aid to the President
                  -Nelson A. Rockefeller
                  -Ronald W. Reagan
                  -Rizzo
                  -The President’s view
                  -Federal aid

          Press coverage
              -McGovern
                   -Philadelphia trip
                       -Philadelphia media coverage
                   -Henry A. Kissinger
                       -Trade agreement with Soviet Union
                            -Philadelphia Inquirer
                            -Credit for Administration

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 4m 28s     ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5

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          James R. (“Jimmy”) Hoffa trip to Hanoi
             -William P. Rogers
                  -Conversation with Haldeman
                       -Request to meet the President
                  -Kissinger
                  -Cancellation of Hoffa passport
                  -Haldeman’s handling

          Foreign policy
              -Briefing for Rogers
              -Kissinger
                  -Handling of Hoffa trip
                  -Trip to Leningrad

                            (rev. Oct-06)

              -Rogers’s possible reaction
    -Rogers
        -Possible conversation with the President
    -Kissinger
        -Negotiation schedule
            -Press briefing
                 -Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
            -Public speculation
                 -Communique
        -Relations with State Department
            -Rogers
        -Personal style
            -Rogers's reaction
            -Media publicity
            -Relations with the President
        -Rogers's meeting with the President
            -The President's schedule
                 -Kissinger
                      -Review of foreign policy

The President's schedule
    -Italian Festival
         -Logistics for arrival

Foreign policy
    -Kissinger
    -Rogers
    -United Nations [UN] Security Council
        -George H.W. Bush
        -Jewish athlete
    -Rogers's role after election
        -Planning of European Security Conference
        -State Department
        -Kissinger
    -Press

Rogers's schedule
   -Briefing
         -Haig
   -Saturday golf date
   -Briefing with Kissinger
         -Telephone

                            (rev. Oct-06)

The President's schedule
    -Meeting with Kissinger
        -Camp David
             -Rogers
    -Kissinger's return to Washington, DC
        -Meetings with the President and Rogers
        -The President's schedule
        -Rogers's concerns over meeting
             -State Department staffing
    -Haldeman's possible call to Rogers
        -Haldeman's schedule

Foreign policy
    -Kissinger's press briefing
    -Kissinger's negotiating ability
         -Effect on the President's re-election
         -Haig
         -Lend-Lease agreement
             -Peter G. Peterson
             -Peter M. Flanigan
    -Credit for Rogers
         -White House
-Rogers's reaction to newspaper story
    -Unknown person

1972 presidential election
    -Cabinet
        -Rogers
    -Media campaign
        -Vice President Spiro T. Agnew
             -Charles W. Colson
        -Connally
             -Charts
             -Maps
        -Studio taping
             -William H. Carruthers
             -Television advertising

White House personnel action
   -Ralph D. Albertazzi
       -Possible retirement

                                       (rev. Oct-06)

                     -Career advancement
                     -The President's view

The President and Haldeman left at 1:43 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.

to get along with the political generation.
So, I would rather, I love, I can tell you that I am very pleased with that gathering we had, and I think it was a very good idea.
I think it was constructed really well.
I don't know whether he would want to have what money I have, whether he would like to have any money.
I don't know.
But I do know that that was the charge.
You could have her open on occasion, maybe, or anything where she doesn't have an issue.
It was good for her not to be there on the water table.
I agree with that.
I think constantly judging on the water table is correct.
He knows that all he can do is borrow trouble and just keep the store running.
He got my fucking god damn money.
And I need to make sure he takes it.
He's got a lot of money to cover up.
He's got a pretty good counter fire on us.
Don't we cover up?
I'm trying to be frank with you.
No, we haven't.
Let me say this.
My fight is...
It's an old thing.
It's a political crap.
It's all a bastard.
Right, right, right.
It says that it passed me in the campaign in 1968.
So, like, if that one gets to run, it gets out.
Yeah.
If it gets to run, it gets to the other job.
And we just leave it there.
We don't put it out.
It doesn't come out.
Well, I don't know.
I don't want to be in an event.
That's, uh, don't let it scatter.
And also, if you think about your clock, if I were going to, I can't think of a good, I think I'm going to have it now, close to nine.
And, uh,
And in our opinion, we won't have much to do after the dinner up there.
We're going to spend all day in Wednesday, and have dinner Wednesday night, and come back after the dinner.
See?
And have a good time Wednesday night.
Not have too much to do.
Let's just get through the rest of the day.
That's what it is.
If our brain is doing it's job.
it's just a better pattern because it's better to get anything back and ready for him and then they come back with you.
It's much better than having them go up with you.
It's a big thrill for them to come back.
It's a little longer if they go up with you and they stay and they don't.
I think that coming up Wednesday for the meeting is good.
It gives me a day of total relaxation, which I really need.
I don't really know what you want me to talk to you about.
Just go to him.
Hey, maybe he'll let me do this.
I'll do this for him.
Can't go.
Just, he gets me kicked out of the city.
You know, he rips up the city with one guy, and he just grinds.
He can't talk to us every day.
All right.
And he grinds us every day.
He's got more of us.
I don't know.
We're doing better.
We're doing better.
We're doing a lot better.
These are our friends.
We don't want our friends.
He's working on all the logos and all, because he's a guy.
Well, he has contact on the ground, so he's got to come through.
But I'm sure he's fighting to do it.
He's got to make good faith in him.
He's got to have everything.
Got it.
They're here.
They're there today.
I want to say it's not happy to put up their clients, because they put up guys.
So the guys are going to be okay.
Guys, this is really funny.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I got a picture of that.
You're working on radio.
I mean, this is cool.
You guys, they have radio.
I have a rock and roll radio.
Oh, my, they're bad.
Oh, it's a hell of a job.
I know how official it must be.
I'm asking for money.
We don't have any money.
We cannot make any money.
Oh, we're going to make money.
We're going to make money.
We're going to make money.
We're going to make money.
We're going to make money.
We're going to make money.
We're going to make money.
We're going to make money.
That's a really tough one.
Boy, did they get a hold of that?
Special test training for all of us.
We're in a situation of power destruction.
It's an interesting thing.
They said yesterday, the governor of Philadelphia and all that stuff, whatever it was, yesterday, the weekend of Philadelphia, April 9th, and yesterday, Dr. Tracy was there.
Yeah, but I mean, it's the best story about what a staff member is doing.
We got, apparently, Rodney from Bill, as well as the new upcoming one.
And he said, he hit me, he said, he said, I have to do, I have to do this, and I have to do this.
And I played, I played with him, and I played with him, and I played with him, and I played with him, and I played with him.
And I just, you know, I've got to be told what's going on here.
They played this month with me, won me without my knowing it.
And I think we played on a holiday.
Well, Henry did.
Not for my purpose.
I mean, he did play on Rodgers.
And don't go without those moves, you know.
And so that passport did the right thing.
It did a good job.
And it deserves credit, which it's got.
Surely, because I've got to be the president, man.
But getting it just worked out.
So I started that, you know, with what they're going to accomplish with me.
And I'm fully aware of it.
situation.
You know, you're going to see it in the middle of all this.
You know, and we kind of left it at that.
I just believe in it, if you will.
And I'm not sure where I am now, whether I've made it worse or better.
And, uh, what it would, I think, my belief is that a lot of folks are going to have to panic and have to talk to the set up manager to talk to them on Saturday morning, you know.
So, you know,
But he's looking for that.
He's looking for knockouts.
And I know Henry's looking for that the other two days, day three.
I'm sure now, you know, he said, Henry said, I was going to the last draft the third day, whatever it is.
Now he gets to go to the last draft.
He'll probably say, you know, obviously that was planned all along.
He's got to think about that.
And there is nothing he can accomplish by knocking them, except that we have a team.
And you may end up working.
Okay, do you see someplace?
I'll tell you what to do when I get there.
I already know what to do.
If the NCAA is going to create speculation, I'm not interested.
I don't think the NCAA is going to create speculation.
We're going to have to wait and see.
We're going to have to wait and see.
We're going to have to wait and see.
We're going to have to wait and see.
way that energy stuff kind of works, where you kind of change the truth and stuff, and that's what drives those as well.
But that's an excuse.
What really drives those as well is getting attention.
And he doesn't know very much.
He doesn't.
He doesn't.
He doesn't.
He doesn't.
He's got to be smarter.
He's got to be smarter.
He's got to be smarter.
Well, Bill, they hit me again.
I haven't thought back on it.
I tried to leave it for him, but my head is up.
He may come very fast.
I told you I was going to be the president.
You might not allow me to.
No, no, no.
He's not going to be the president.
He thinks he's going to be the president before anything is done.
And I don't want to go through his hands and bring him home and see how much he's going to do.
He always does.
Yeah, he raised it with me, and I'll tell you what he wants.
I was with Kendrick, and I talked with you on Saturday.
I discovered all the lies, and I started to tell you to get the other on Monday.
All right.
If there's anything you'd like to add, come on.
I still want you to tell me what you want.
All right.
All right.
All right.
All right.
All right.
All right.
All right.
We've got to do it at a key point.
How that all fits together.
We've got to know how to do it.
We've got to hold for the child to respond.
We've got to remember that the response will decide.
And we should be more or less coming together.
That would be it.
I've had a show about what we can do to try to get the oil accredited in Atlanta.
And I've been seeing a little push from the security council on those one times, and that was great.
You know, it's been a lot of fun.
The whole accreditation time.
I've had a lot of fun.
And I'm happy to be able to do that.
I mean, it's been a great experience.
I don't know why they're going to be shy.
But, I get it.
The only thing that he has to do, by the way, you see, let's say, after the election, you know, like, you know, like Bill Gates, or
I'm going to be a party leader.
It's very important.
I very much like it.
I just want to try to do it.
I just want to do it.
I just want to do it.
I just want to do it.
I just want to do it.
I just want to do it.
Well, there's a conspiracy.
Let's get out of here tomorrow.
No, I will...
He's going to have a phone call.
He doesn't want to get together.
He's going to have to call early Saturday morning.
A lot of the bullets are probably in these areas as well.
Yeah.
I think it's nice to know that the entity was a part of the community, and I think it's nice to know that it's a little more.
If you're at the White House, Henry comes in and reports to you and then calls Bill and reports to him.
Better.
There's no problem.
I appreciate it.
It's probably worth it to do that.
I think I'm
Let's do that.
I think I'll stay here Friday night.
I think that's probably better than Henry gets in there.
There is something to that.
We're still going to start on that.
They may be killed up there.
They just can't go away, I guess.
They're getting out of town here.
They may get into it.
You know, it's really a lot of flexibility to raise questions as to whether or not the presidential decision was recorded.
If the president recorded it, he recorded it again.
If I had it again, we should get it recorded again.
Yeah.
I should record it again.
First year.
Any time you want.
And, uh, we're going to move on and on with this thing.
I'm not sure if he's going to use his dog to call him back.
Or not to call him back.
Let's call him back.
We'll have a final tomorrow.
Yeah.
If you want to hold it off, I think it's better to just hold it off because it's, it's fuzzed in the sense that you may not be expecting it to be called to tomorrow or today.
It would save money.
It would save a lot of money.
And what did you say?
I think it would save us, tomorrow would be a pretty cool day.
Yeah, that's good.
Yeah.
So, it looks like it would be better to get together after you get to the forest and know what we've got.
I think we'll have to run back.
I think we'll have to run back.
I think we'll have to run back.
I think we'll have to run back.
I think we'll have to run back.
I think we'll have to run back.
I think we'll have to run back.
I think we'll have to run back.
I'd like to talk to you about it.
Okay, they're going to have to do it all over again after that.
They're going to have to do it all over again.
They're going to have to do it all over again.
They're going to have to do it all over again.
They're going to have to do it all over again.
You're amazing because they want to put up the website stuff because they don't want to work on it.
I don't know what the hell.
We talked about it.
I talked about this in the press.
My favorite thing to work on is financing.
Financing is a kind of thing.
Financing is a credit app.
Bill is quite a bit of that way.
It's a credit line.
It's always a lot of shares.
I'll see you at the ball.
It was a funny accident, but it's a movie story.
You understand that, right?
I don't know why.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Next time you call us, you want to make a date.
you know what
Chuck says he didn't have it on.
He just talked out about a series of stuff he's been through since 2001.
He's going to have it.
Because his coffee is much better.
I had a guy who was a coffee picker that I used to charge.
He said, well, they haven't got that anymore.
And he said, well, he's going to be chased by an old man.
Well, that's kind of crazy.
He wasn't having a job, but he's going to have it on today.
All right.
I think it's crazy.
So on this section, they're all going to do a video.
Matt, he does a video on it.
Matt, Charlie, and so forth and so on.
I think that our producer, who's done so much, you know, including her other team, the Chargers, her other team, we did a video.
We got Anthony, we got Eddie.
I think we can make that a hell of a show right now.
Yeah.
Well, do you want to do a stopper tag game for the next four years?
Oh, yeah.
Really?
Sure.
Well, we have three choices.
We'd like to either stay in the first absolutely time, which is at the end of session four, or be assigned as commander of an airport flight, which we will be.
Yeah.
And that would be the best option.
Yeah.
That's what I came up with.
What do you want?
I want you to tell me everything.
You have to say everything.
Thank you.