Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 872 › Conversation 872-001

Nixon & Dean on Watergate scandal and Dwight Chapin

Thursday, March 8, 1973 · 9:51 PM–9:54 PM ET · Oval Office · 3 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Dean, John W., IIIConversation872-001 on Tape 872StartThursday, March 8, 1973 at 9:51 PMEndThursday, March 8, 1973 at 9:54 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 872-001 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and John Dean discussed strategies for managing negative press coverage and testimony related to the Watergate scandal, specifically focusing on the activities of Dwight Chapin and L. Patrick Gray. They sought to frame allegations of sabotage as mere innuendo and worked to influence the Senate confirmation hearings by planting specific questions regarding the FBI's investigation into the DNC bugging. Dean confirmed he was coordinating with Senator Edward Gurney to ensure these strategic questions were introduced during the proceedings to counter the prevailing media narrative.

Audio

Download MP3 · 1.4 MB

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

Download transcript (.txt) · JSON data

· Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Quick.
I was curious about the big play that, uh, uh, uh, Mr. Grady's thing got him most of the time.
It seemed to be incredible.
That wasn't a new story, is it?
No, it's not a new story.
The only thing new is that it's been confirmed by Gray in the material he submitted to the record.
I don't know where they said it.
information, they missed the point of what he was talking about, which is to bring home that... That's weird.
Going over that with Ron right now.
Ron did, in his... We just went over the briefings.
He did, in transference, say this is more innuendo character assassination, which it indeed, again, is.
And the point is that Dwight Chapin never hired anybody to operate a sabotage, espionage situation.
The fact is that he hired somebody to go out and look at the opponent's advancing operations.
If this guy saw a chance to be a dick-tuck type guy and throw something into their schedule, it would screw it up.
And that was the extent of it.
And Dwight didn't have any involvement in the day-to-day dealings of this man.
So we're working on how to get back and narrow a story that's way out of hand.
And I think we can handle that.
How about the client that you stood with?
Pat, Pat is going to not honor the innuendo stories in the post this morning.
I talked to— Pat, Pat has closed the store.
There's no doubt about that.
He did turn around the hearings yesterday.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir, I did.
I got questions in yesterday, and hopefully we'll get some more in today.
And if not, when he goes back on the second round, we'll have them in.
The questions we got in yesterday, or questions that, of course, are not reported, are the investigation by the Bureau of the bugging instrument that turned up at the Democratic National Committee in one of their telephones.
Well, that's what Gray made the point is.
Not a word.
Not a word.
That's the way it is.
That was in the hearings yesterday.
But they just won't pick that up.
Now, the set of questions I've developed are not the kind to press and ignore.
Well, they can ignore you if you've got the one on the buggy.
That's right.
And I will have a whole series of questions that...
But be sure you get the one on the plane.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And Peruska is programmed to handle that.
I was told that Gurney was not...
If it got too hot, Gurney might say, well, I got these snow items.
Whereas Oreske would never say that.
So that is in the works.
And he'll come up today or when they go back another turn.
All right.
All right.
I understand the problem.
He's fired.
He is fired.

NARA Description

On March 8, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon and John W. Dean, III met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:51 pm and 9:54 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 872-001 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 872-1

Date: March 8, 1973
Time: Unknown between 9:51 am and 9:54 am
Location: Oval Office

The President met with John W. Dean, III.

[A transcript of the following conversation appears in RG 460, Box 59, (1-2).]

Also recorded on March 9, 1973

  • 872-002 9:54 PM · 14 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at 9:54 pm.
  • 872-003 9:54 PM · 9 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Stephen B. Bull, and Henry A. Kissinger met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:54 pm and 10:05 pm.
  • 037-064 9:26 AM · 16 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 9:26 am.
  • 037-065 9:26 AM · 27 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 9:26 am and 9:52 am.
  • 874-001 9:26 AM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at 9:26 am.
  • 874-002 9:26 AM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:26 am and 9:52 am.
  • 874-003 9:26 AM · 24 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:26 am and 9:52 am.
  • 874-004 9:26 AM · 48 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:26 am and 9:52 am.

All 54 conversations from March 9, 1973 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 872-001, March 9, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/872-001 (accessed October 6, 2026).