Conversation 845-004

TapeTape 845StartWednesday, January 31, 1973 at 2:50 PMEndWednesday, January 31, 1973 at 3:10 PMParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob");  Bull, Stephen B.Recording deviceOval Office

On January 31, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 2:50 pm to 3:10 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 845-004 of the White House Tapes.

Conversation No. 845-4

Date: January 31, 1973
Time: Between 2:50 pm and 3:10 pm
Location: Oval Office

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

       Tape machine
            -Location
            -Tape

       John B. Connally
            -Meeting with Haldeman
            -John D. Ehrlichman
                  -Algeria
                        -Export-Import Bank

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

[Begin segment reviewed under deed of gift.]
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                  NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                       (rev. Mar.-09)

                                                          Conversation No. 845-4 (cont’d)

      Politics
             -Prospect for Connally’s change of parties
                   -Charles W. Colson
             -William D. Ruckelshaus
                   -Press story
                   -Nicholas P. Thimmesch
                         -Peter Lisagor
                         -Jules Witcover
             -Spiro T. Agnew
             -Connally
             -Thimmesch
                   -John F. Osborne

            -Agnew
                 Kevin P. Phillips’s analysis
                 -Prospects for 1976 Presidential race

[End segment reviewed under deed of gift.]
*****************************************************************

      Press relations
            -Press conference
                   -Location
                   -Ronald L. Ziegler
                   -Dan Rather
                   -Television [TV] coverage

            -Amnesty
                -Vietnam settlement
                -Mail analysis
                -Opposition

            -The President’s response
                  -Double standard
            -Press conferences
                  -Frequency

            -Helen Thomas
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                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                       (rev. Mar.-09)

                                                            Conversation No. 845-4 (cont’d)

                  -Henry A. Kissinger’s trip
                       -Nguyen Van Thieu
                  -TV coverage
                  -Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Harry S Truman

Stephen B. Bull entered at an unknown time after 2:50 pm.

       The President's schedule

Bull left at an unknown time before 3:10 pm.

       Press conference
             -Clark R. Mollenoff
             -Questions
                   -Sarah McLendon
                   -Vietnam questions
                   -Tax reform
             -Europe
                   -Great Britain
                         -Edward R.G. Heath’s visit
             -TV coverage
             -New York Times

       Press relations
             -Kissinger
                    -Ziegler
                    -Barbara Walters
                    -Ziegler
                          -Columbia Broadcasting System [CBS]
                                -Marvin Kalb
                    -Dinner with Walters
                          -Commitment
                          -Kalb

Haldeman left at 3:10 pm.
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                    NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                      (rev. Mar.-09)

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.

Yeah, I don't know.
I'm sorry.
It is not the table.
It's not there.
You know, I said, I told him to be, you know, they don't respect me doing it, but I said, you know, the hell?
You're not going to be doing it, that's all.
I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said,
He put it out at the end of 2015.
So, I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Both of them, because that's the only position I believe in.
This is not it.
The code is marked there.
Now, that's what it does.
Yep.
That's what it does.
That's what it does.
That's what it does.
That's what it does.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We know we're, we're petting this, this line.
We did not put, put that, that kind of screw away.
Robert Thompson said it all.
He sure did not do it.
Those three are the bad guys.
Yeah, so, now, I think that this is kind of kind of listed, uh, so, if you kind of play it very, very difficult, and it has to do with any of the things that you're going through, and you're trying to figure it out, and you're trying to stay out of it, anyhow, you have to work this stuff, get the public attention, and see what kind of reaction you get.
It means that he's got strong opposition in the party, and he's mentioned a lot of staff.
And if he gets any strong position with that there, he probably won't let me go to him.
I'm not so sure as well, Matt, that he doesn't get that strong position with me.
He's a better late one, but, you know, the school doesn't intend to quiet him.
Thank you.
Yeah, I'm glad you did that.
I'm glad you did it.
I'm glad you did it.
you know, political characters, or anti-characters, changing characters, whatever they be, you know, character ideas, you can't do that if you're on the internet.
I think it's a good way to do it.
I haven't had one here in a while, but I've been hearing one way or another.
I just don't think that's a good way to do it.
I don't think it's a good way to do it, but I think it's a good way to do it.
I'm sure you can do that on a hockey team.
You've got it.
Well, I didn't do that.
You know, you pick up your energy.
You've done that.
You've done that.
I played it out.
I played it out.
I played it out.
I played it out.
I played it out.
Thank you.
Well, one thing is that we're not going to throw the battery in and all that crap.
We will in the case, but I'm not going to do it.
If you want me to do it, then, you know, let's just, let's just get this tested, you know what I mean?
Let's just bring in the driver, you know, and we'll wire it through.
Yeah.
We've got to pay the price.
We've got to pay the price.
We've got to pay the price.
Thank you.
Well, I didn't say he didn't need to die.
But, uh, after all of that, you see that, uh, the next officer, the next 75 hundred is done.
And it's true that they have more favorable circumstances for anything to happen to them.
And I agree with most of the teachers.
If I lost the box, I don't think it would pay more off to match the sheet with it.
That's the best I can find to figure out.
But, it is grief.
I'm not sure if we get you all this stuff or not.
I'm not sure.
I'm not sure.
But the idea is that you can't even probably get up there and put off on your creator, your, uh, right?
I'm not sure.
I mean, I'm kind of worried because I've been trying to cover today and people are giving me confidence.
Well, he had quite a lot of possibilities.
What he had to do was a long-handedly ask questions.
He had to make a statement of, you know, that this is where we want to get to your service.
And he had to show what he could do.
And how he made that happen.
That's what we're getting to this year.
This year's the whole thing.
Well, the weight and that, that was a price I felt that would be another one that I hoped to hell for the pickup, and I thought, yeah, I'll give it to you as well.
And I think the other people don't understand, you know, that, you know, what your attitude is towards it.
But, uh, the weight, I just see it, but I heard it.
And, uh, I think that's, that's what makes it good.
And that's what, that's what makes it good.
Yeah.
Well, the only thing that they can do about it is get away with it.
The rest of the station has rules on follow-up coverage.
I'm sorry to get in the way.
I'm sorry to get in the way.
I'm sorry to get in the way.
I'm sorry to get in the way.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What do you think we can get here?
If you haven't, you can watch this.
Vietnam is dominated.
If you have supporting questions, Vietnam is only five years away.
And we're all going to fall back to you.
If you've got a Vietnam, you've got a political question.
Let this be a contact point.
There's a chance that they've had a problem with it.
That's good.
I didn't know that.
Yeah, it's good to be able to set up, you know, our supporters and talk to people about that.
Well, I don't know if we can add it all up, but you're just coming out.
Now, you can be asked for a call to his office, but he's not calling.
That's a call to his office.
A little question like that.
Sure, sure.
We can all hear you.
Now, that's interesting.
I don't know if they want you to take about a half hour shift, but everything's still alive.
Cameras are allowed.
You're going to get a nice little text message.
We have that.
We have that for all the other things we've done.
Well, it was.
He said he'd go ahead, and Ron did, and then Henry came walking in this morning, and at this point, he had made a firm commitment to guard the waters, and he did do it first.
And there was good news here at the CVS.
We could arrive at the back of the front of the CVS and make him smile and say, well, he ultimately determined that the environment got to be in an environment that he didn't want to cross there.
So Ron is in the middle of trying to chop the baby into his own dog at the moment.
And I'm sure it wasn't a real dog.
Yeah, he's so much stronger than Mark.
Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark.
And, and, uh, Ron talked to Barbara, called her off the air, as a matter of fact, who was doing one of the empty announcements on CBS.
And, uh, she told Blue, according to Ron, I had hit her with it.
He emphasized over and over, don't you worry about it.
If I do anything, you will get it the first time.
I was the first one to do it.
And he made a total commitment.
And we know that, you know, he did that with the cows, and he canceled the cow thing before, and...
All right.
I'm sure that he got that.
Why the hell did he come home?
Why did he come home?
Well, that's the problem.
He didn't mention that.
He didn't make me.
He didn't say that I had to go.
He said I had to go to Barbara Walters so that we don't have any problems there.
He didn't want to do what I did when I told her I would.
But all of a sudden tonight, I mean this morning, you discovered that it was a little more serious than that.
Why didn't you go to the wall in the morning and you heard about it?
Well, I was with Robin, and I was trying to look out for the way to the boat the next day.
And I, you heard in the morning, you heard it was a morning show.
First of all, she wanted to do it.
She got up at this time that day, because she didn't have time yesterday.
Now she's got a 10.30 Sunday night for a half hour, you know, which is nearly as good as 9 o'clock Thursday.
What really does it mean?
I don't know.
Rock's got a lot more than that, Pete.
That's our response to that operation.
Is that a bad idea?
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.