Nixon, Haldeman & Ehrlichman on David Eisenhower and John Warner

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I usually don't get... You know, I've asked several times about... Yeah.

The only reason I was asking is just for information.

I'm not asking for... Based on what you had told me...

It now turns out that it's just this training officer called in and said the secretary may be some odd sick man.

Here is the paper.

on David Eisenhower's early release from active duty from the captain of the surface division of the control branch of the US Bureau of Naval Personnel, which says,

In consonance with the Department of the Navy's early release program to affect officer strength reductions, references A and B establish your eligibility for release from active duty.

If you desire such release, orders will be issued setting the release date of 31 March 1973, the next date on which a group of officers are being released in accordance with this program.

Chief and Naval personnel, I appreciate you, Congressional Naval Service.

This has been going on

proceeding apace.

Now, somebody has sabotaged it somewhere.

In fact, somebody did do this.

In the midst of all this, David took it upon himself to go in and talk to Campbell.

And I don't know what he discussed with Campbell, but apparently out of that came a decision that he would not go out to Longview Bayard to talk to Campbell.

Yeah, because I just want to say, well, apparently, what happened, at least you have to find out, is that they agreed on it, but I...

It's apparently, it's as high as a warner.

A warner, of course, doesn't always ask first base about politics.

And it's an alley.

You know, when we, you said we should re-appoint him.

Did you know he's on the standards of Zestless?

You know, not in a tribute.

His wife's not in a tribute this year.

Well, he's not going to get the damn job.

I mean, he's got that, I mean, he's had some time and that's that.

You know what I mean?

He's just on an income.

If he didn't contribute, why the hell would we keep him in there?

But why is it that he, I don't like to get into it, but he should get into it and make politics out of something, which isn't politics.

Well, I don't think he did anything either.

I mean, they're just trying to find out whether he's going to go out or not.

Well, that, you had to set a, was this the, that was sent in to me, and I then sent it down to Bob.

I'm going, that is a state, this was a week ago, yeah.

This is a routine, mimeographed form that goes to all officers of a certain rank and longevity.

This particular day, he's a group of 38 reservists, regular service officers, to be released on 31 March under this program.

Well, apparently, the Secretary of the Navy, according to him, or somebody else.

On the face of this,

in the world.

It was being done.

I'm not complaining about what he does.

Good God, my brother, when he was an apprentice, he was probably the only one in that rank.

They never found him.

He only became lieutenant commander because he took an IQ test.

He got the highest IQ ever.

My brother went to San Diego.

When I first seen him, I didn't know that he came to J.G.

That was funny because vice president, when I was vice president, I played it straight all the way.

I'm not going to get screwed on this one.

This is just wrong.

And if Warner's done this, the hell will it be?

Well, a captain never should have lectured him that way.

Well, the captain did.

They treated him pretty rough.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

You know, you should get people treated, but not people.

That's right.

Right.

And this, they want to get rid of him.

You know.

Well, that's right.

We did this on a, I mean, not we.

It was done completely out of here.

It was, you know, followed, it's nothing but a routine process.

Okay.

I don't know where it came from.

Campbell told me.

I didn't talk to him, but he left a message saying that he had talked with David David and elected not to take the early release and was going to take the state vote in July.

I can see why that's involved.

I guess.

Well, let's find out.

It seems very strange to me that they wrote that kind of thing to him.

That's the only reason I was keeping him alive.

I mean, you say, I know he did a good job in the loss of the seat, but John Walker is the greatest brain in the world.

And he's got that hell of a good secretary in the name of him.

He's not going to be kept.

He didn't contribute because we're going to need those jobs for our people.

Because he can afford it.

His wife is worth umpteen amount of money.

So let's at least look at it.

Okay.

You asked for some numbers.

I'll leave this with you.

There's one other thing, and that's this urban special committee to acquire Watergate.

We have told Scott not to raise it this morning.

It isn't something that you ought to be commenting on at this stage of the event.

And so Scott will not mention it.

And I wanted you to know that.

And if somebody else brings it up for any reason, if I were you, I would just, Vanessa, very quickly say I know there's something in the news summary I don't have this morning, but it's not anything that's crossed my desk, and I wouldn't have anything to say at this time about it.

Now, we're going to have a meeting with Mitchell and the shakers and movers on this this morning.

So it's under control, but...

No, after the leadership, I'll let you know.

Sure.

I would like to see you like to cooperate.

Well, our feeling is we ought to use every effort to throw sand in their eyes, to frustrate the damn thing, to get it amended, to apply to other political campaigns, to get into John Kennedy's political campaign, and so on and so forth.

There are a whole bunch of options that we've got a working group working on.

The way they drafted the resolution is very narrow.

It applies only to this campaign and only to certain specified charges.

If we had the votes, it would be three to two on the committee.

and uh yep as we were up as hell so we'll uh get our heads together i don't see how we're going to destroy this oh it says it's got a vote on the scope of the inquiry and so on and the hope is that we can get some some amendments in there to broaden the scope

and that you get some of the Southerners to come along and argue that, as a matter of fairness, you don't want this to appear to be a slashing partisan attack on the president.

If this is really a bona fide inquiry, why then it ought to apply to all these abuses, regardless of what campaign it came in, and so on and so forth.

I don't know whether, with the move to the Senate being what it is, whether we're going to get any place or not on this issue.

I don't know.

But anyway, it's a good thing to stay away from this morning.

Oh, of course.

Thanks.

Here are the veto candidates right here.

And these are the budget impacts, 73, 74, and 75.

Adjust those bills.

I wouldn't put it that way.

I would say, if I had all this stuff, one, four,

Six and seven, that's where they go.

That's where they go.

Okay.

Now, on the business of reserves, I can cover it if you want me to.

Oh, I can.

I want to cover it.

All right.

Then on reserves, current reserves, 3.5%.

And the average over the 10 years has been around 6%.

And it's been higher.

Why didn't you see we're getting better growth?

You did.

It's out of the briefing yesterday.

We're going to end the briefing on it.

I read, I didn't read the whole story, but I read both the Times and the Post, so it's on the inside.

Well, it's very, it's very bad news.

It's very bad news.

Dr. Paul, when he said the administration admitted that, we would know.

Yeah, yeah.

What did, maybe it's the, maybe it's the way Sigurd presented it.

Well, it was presented by Sigurd, plus Paul Nail for OMA.

It was very well presented.

It's a very good reading.

And I think the best thing we can do, and I've asked them to hand out copies of the briefing to everybody at the leadership, so that when they go to make their landing days, they have the benefit of the damn thing.

It starts with their, what I'm getting at is just a question, and I'm not saying they're not part of our people.

Now, I'm going to go out thirsty and bang this again.

I'm sorry.

I'm going to put it into my eyes.

The way I would do it, though, I would catch the press.

What I mean, and I would attack, not in an isolated way, but I'll say it.

We know that it wasn't intentional, but the important point to bear in mind is that whether it's withholding like it goes back to Jefferson, or whether the amount where we get our, let's get this in perspective, this minister is withholding less.

I think it's the same, for example, John, regarding executive privilege.

Did you say they're free for the last four years?

Maybe you can check that with John.

Oh, no, I haven't checked.

As a matter of fact, I checked and discovered that it's going to be a long job in the Library of Congress to find that.

But if you could find even one administration, Democrat, Johnson or Kennedy, maybe it's an exercise in executive privilege, more or even more than that.

Well, first I've got my little anecdote.

Now, I thought I would use that one first.

That I was one of these distinguished Washington reporters and editors, and they said to me, well, this is terrible the way the press is doing this.

And I said to them, well, it's a sign, especially with that sign.

How many times do you think the press is involved in this?

And he said, well, many times.

I don't know exactly how many, but many times.

You see, I want us to, I mean, the thing to do is to make a great ask.

It's in a way better than keeping

problems with Congress, it gives us an opportunity, possibly a much better opportunity to win on the issue, due to the fact that the conflict and so forth, they've been talking about, we should not invest, absolutely, because otherwise, we'll end up fighting little ladies and young men and all that.

They're not getting enough, and they also have to raise taxes, and the Congress just looks at it like that.

What do you think?

My mind is running very strong.

I've been doing a fair amount of television.

I've been getting a fair amount of mail.

I've got a few years of pregnancy.

God, it lasts.

My presence has encouraged me to see the minus two sometimes.

All set.

All ready.

Got it.

All right.

I'll get these copies and have it set in front of you in the light.

Oh, okay.

I just wanted to have it in mind.

All right.

Mr. President, these are very important.

We have to get that to the U.S. sometimes.

Okay.

Mr. President, the N.S.D.

papers do not include the N.S.D.

It has to be revised.

It doesn't have to be revised.

Mr. President, Andrew Johnson's policy has a little bit of a lot of money in it.

It's viable.

No, sir.

Nixon, Haldeman & Ehrlichman on David Eisenhower and John Warner

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on February 6, 1973

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