Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 827 › Conversation 827-020

Nixon, Haldeman & Ziegler on Watergate and Inaugural Address

Wednesday, December 20, 1972 · 2:56 PM–3:05 PM ET · Oval Office · 8 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob"); Ziegler, Ronald L.Conversation827-020 on Tape 827StartWednesday, December 20, 1972 at 2:56 PMEndWednesday, December 20, 1972 at 3:05 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 827-020 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with H.R. Haldeman and Ronald Ziegler to manage White House operations and staff relations heading into the new year. The discussion centered on limiting unnecessary scheduling demands, specifically the burden of ceremonial photo opportunities, and addressing personnel issues involving Rose Mary Woods and staff dynamics. They also reviewed cabinet appointments, the status of the Watergate investigation, and preparations for the 1973 inaugural address.

Audio

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NARA Description

On December 20, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the Oval Office of the White House from 2:56 pm to 3:05 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 827-020 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 827-20

Date: December 20, 1972
Time: 2:56 pm - 3:05 pm
Location: Oval Office

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

       Press relations
             -Saul Pett
                    -Conversation with Haldeman
                          -Watergate
                               -Arrest of Cubans
                    -Meeting with the President
                          -Photograph session
                    -Conversation with Haldeman
                          -Watergate
                               -Cubans
                    -Possible meeting with Rose Mary Woods
                          -The President’s conversation with Ronald L. Ziegler
                               -Gerald L. Warren
                               -Ziegler

       White House staff
            -Woods
                 -The President’s role
                 -Relationship with staff
                 -Conversation with Ziegler
                        -Meeting with Pett
                             -Timing

       The President’s schedule
            -Meeting with George P. Shultz
                  -Wage and price policy
                                             -44-

                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                                            Conversation No. 827-20 (cont’d)

                        -“End run”
                   -Haldeman’s meeting with Shultz
                        -Unknown matter
                             -Announcement
                                   -Pre-January 1, 1973
Show the rest of the log (55 more lines)
Ziegler entered at an unknown time after 2:56 pm.

       The President’s schedule
            -Meeting with Pett

Ziegler left at an unknown time before 3:05 pm.

       The President’s schedule
            -Shultz’s view
                  -Meeting in Key Biscayne
                         -Photograph session
            -White House staff’s schedule
                  -The President’s conversation with Charles W. Colson
                         -Colson’s schedule
            -Dwight D. Eisenhower
                  -Wilton B. (“Jerry”) Persons, Sherman Adams, the President as Vice
                    President
                         -Work habits
                  -Heart attack
            -Pre-January 1, 1973
            -John B. Connally
                  -Return from trip
                  -Conversation with Haldeman
            -Meetings with Shultz
                  -Duration
                  -Photograph sessions
            -Second term reorganization
                  -William D. Ruckelshaus
                  -James T. Lynn
                  -Frank C. Carlucci
                         -Loyalty
                         -Caspar W. (“Cap”) Weinberger
                  -L[ouis] Patrick Gray, III
                         -Assignment
                                              -45-

                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                                           Conversation No. 827-20 (cont’d)

       1973 Inaugural address
            -Length
                  -Speechwriting staff
                        -Book about Inaugural addresses
            -Speechwriting staff
                  -Franklin D. Roosevelt’s second Inaugural address
                        -Theodore Roosevelt’s second Inaugural address
                        -Quality
                  -Raymond K. Price, Jr.’s draft

       The President’s schedule
            -Meeting with Pett

Haldeman left at 3:05 pm.

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Names and numbers are often wrong; speakers are not identified. Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Well, let's try to resolve that.
Okay, thanks.
Yeah, I was trying to give them the Cuban side story.
I thought, you know, we were talking about the need to get that out.
No, I asked Ron about it.
I said, you know, Ron, the only thing you've got to do is to remember that there was more about that side than anybody else.
So I said, you want to re-go back in there?
And he said, we have to report John.
I said, who?
He said, well, I guess Jerry.
I said, well, you've got to do it.
You've got to do it.
I mean, it's got to be done.
I know what you mean, but my point is that it's just goddamn ridiculous, isn't it?
I mean, what the hell?
And Ron doesn't ask me to say that.
But why do I think I've lost it?
What is the...
This other thing is just ridiculous.
I think it's the...
I think it goes wrong with the second one above.
The fact that she just expects that she's got nothing to do with anything unless I ask her to.
Yeah, and it's self-generating.
Because she gives people a bad time when they do raise something, and they don't raise something, that makes her mad that she's not clued in on something.
Good.
Well, I just...
Anyway, so Ron just walked right in.
He's got some...
He's got some...
George.
George, I think his principal concern is he's rocketing down the wage in person.
He wanted to be sure before he left that he had enough on the right basis.
And one thing he may do is .
One thing he will raise, or may raise, because he raised it with me just a few minutes ago, is that if you go with, there's something you wanted to do before January 1st,
But he's not an impression theorist.
I mean, she won't announce it by January 31st.
January 31st?
Yeah.
He's writing all week, too.
Yeah, it'll just be one second.
It'll just be a second, yeah.
And so Jim has to be good that he thinks probably that whoever it is should come down to Pete's game and say, you have a picture before you do it.
Now, I don't think you ought to get into doing it now, but I don't know what your thoughts are, you know.
At one point, everybody around here, I think, really ought to understand that.
I'm just thinking that.
I had a little talk with Colson.
I said, what the hell are you going to do?
He enjoys staying home.
That's all he's like, taking trips.
I said, all right, go ahead and stay home.
But, apart from that, I think, but we're, I can remember the, and I get back, I always go back to the icebreaker.
We would work our butts off around this stand, putting potions and hands and eyes on the rest, never to see that eyes and arms ever bothered.
And goddamn, if somebody bothered them, they'd go for us, get that damn heart attack, you know?
You know what I mean?
On the other hand, we sort of, I know we do a lot, but on the other hand,
I just don't think we have to look for things that I have to look busy with.
What about Christ?
Isn't that really what it is?
Especially between now and the first of the year, there's absolutely nothing.
And the idea that we're just going to come down, and somebody's going to come down, and we work it out, and Connolly gets back from his trip, I don't want to see him.
I'm not going to do it now.
I've seen the contract.
Just say that I'm not going to do it.
Don't you think so?
Yeah.
I think that...
I'll talk to them.
I just need you to talk to them, if you will.
Sure.
But you see, my point is, for George and I, I'm going to have to take an hour off.
And it's never more than...
It's never less.
I mean, it's...
All right.
I don't want to complain about it, but I've heard... No, but once...
I think we've got to get... No, that's what I'm saying.
We've got to think ourselves.
You've got to once in a while get a sort of a clear jump in time.
And you say it's only five minutes.
Say you're only going to walk in and get a picture.
But the point is, it isn't just five minutes.
That throws you into a whole different... You've got to get dressed.
You've got to be prepared for this ride.
You've got to...
It always goes more than five minutes.
There isn't any such thing as five minutes.
And then that raises other things.
It breaks into your... And somewhere, you've got to get, for a little while, a thing where you don't... aren't under the compulsion to have a lot to be done.
Who's going to be a part of this?
Who's going to be a part of that?
They just said all this stuff.
He's going to function as your man, there's no question about that.
You don't have to mix and ice him.
But there are other things now, and the Secretary's your man there, so you can have your own view of what we do with Gray.
I was just not going to decide it back then.
My view is now, we've wallowed around in that stuff so much, you're better off to get away from it and not try to decide it, and just let it coast for a while, then get back and really grind to work and get them decided in short order.
After the first one you can do something about it anyway.
I tried to get a thousand word inaugural written and I confess I can't.
I probably... Did anybody submit one?
I'm not sure.
No.
Well, they didn't all do inaugural addresses.
Some of them did.
You know, just to ask all the voters about it.
Well, you may not want to even look at something.
It may be just great.
Well, and it's hard as hell, but what do you think?
Now, some of those are the regimes I'm on last night, and they're good, and I just know that the need for a young, it's interesting, reactionary guy, but those people, a number of them said that FDRs suck.
You know, they read FDRs, and Teddy Roosevelt sucked them out of them.
And, uh,
several times and it's a shame that FDR's has already been given because it was so good at making a point, you know, we could do that.
That's true a lot.
But, yeah.
I don't know what's too bad that you did about that thing at all.
Well, Ray has attempted to write an inaugural address.
Some of the others have simply attempted to put in some section that they would like to make a very good speech.
And, uh, the only thing I guess I've got a little concern about is, well, I'll see what's going on.

Also recorded on December 20, 1972

  • 827-013 2:20 PM · 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Stephen B. Bull, Thelma C. ("Pat") (Ryan) Nixon, Edward V. Jones, Mrs. Edward V. Jones, James Balling, Jr., Mrs. James Balling, Jr., Nella Balling, Maria Balling, and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 2:20 pm to 2:25 pm.
  • 827-014 2:25 PM · 11 min — President Richard M. Nixon met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 2:25 pm and 2:35 pm.
  • 827-015 2:36 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods met in the Oval Office of the White House from 2:36 pm to 2:40 pm.
  • 827-016 2:40 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 2:40 pm and 2:45 pm.
  • 827-017 2:40 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 2:40 pm and 2:45 pm.
  • 827-018 2:45 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods met in the Oval Office of the White House from 2:45 pm to 2:46 pm.
  • 827-019 2:47 PM · 8 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the Oval Office of the White House from 2:47 pm to 2:55 pm.
  • 827-021 3:05 PM · 45 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Ronald L. Ziegler, Saul Pett, Henry Burroughs, White House photographer, and Zosimo T. Monzon met in the Oval Office of the White House from 3:05 pm to 3:49 pm.

All 41 conversations from December 20, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 827-020, December 20, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/827-020 (accessed November 2, 2026).