{"conversationCode":"880-006","tapeNumber":880,"conversationNumber":6,"identifier":"37-wht-conversation-880-006","startDateTime":"1973-03-15T17:11:00.000Z","endDateTime":"1973-03-15T17:25:00.000Z","startDate":"15-Mar-1973","startTime":"12:11 PM","endDate":"15-Mar-1973","endTime":"12:25 PM","dateCertainty":"certain","timeCertainty":"certain","participants":"Nixon, Richard M. (President); Kissinger, Henry A.; Cake, Ralph H.; Ziegler, Ronald L.; [Unknown person(s)];","description":"On March 15, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, Ralph H. Cake, Ronald L. Ziegler, and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:11 pm to 12:25 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 880-006 of the White House Tapes.","locationCode":"OVAL","recordingDevice":"Oval Office","latitudeEstimated":38.8974,"longitudeEstimated":-77.0374,"chronCode":"5.4","chronRelease":"Fifth Chronological Release: Part IV","chronReleaseDate":"8-Dec-2010","aogpRelease":"Abuse of Governmental Power Release","aogpSegment":"Segment 1; Segment 2; Segment 3","lastModified":"2015-07-27T17:04:10.235Z","findingAid":"Conversation No. 880-6\n\nDate: March 15, 1973\nTime: 12:11 pm-12:25 pm\nLocation: Oval Office\n\nThe President met with Henry A. Kissinger.\n\n       President's press conference\n             -Vietnam\n                    -Questions\n                          -President's handling\n\nThe President talked with Ralph H. Cake between 12:11 pm and 12:12 pm.\n\n[Conversation No. 880-6A]\n\n[See Conversation No. 37-118]\n\f                                          5-\n                    NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM\n\n                                                  Conversation No. 880-6 (cont’d)\n\n[End of telephone conversation]\n\n       Ralph H. Cake\n            -Illness\n\n       President’s Press conference\n             -Watergate\n                   -Questions on Donald H. Segretti\n                   -President's handling of questions\n                   -Dwight L. Chapin\n                   -President's demeanor\n             -Watergate\n                   -Ed Kempler's question\n                   -Press double standard\n                         -Alger Hiss case\n                                -Harry S Truman\n                   -Hiss case\n                   -President's involvement\n                   -Reasons\n                         -John N. Mitchell\n                         -Committee to Re-elect the President\n                                -Involvement\n                   -Mitchell's involvement\n                   -Kissinger's view\n                         -H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman\n             -People's Republic of China [PRC] liaison office announcement\n\nRonald L. Ziegler entered at 12:15 pm.\n\n       Greetings\n\n       Press statements\n             -North Vietnam\n             -India\n             -Pakistan\n\n       India\n               -US aid\n                    -Suspension\n                    -Commitments\n                         -Lyndon B. Johnson\n\f                                          6-\n                    NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM\n\n                                                  Conversation No. 880-6 (cont’d)\n\n                         -Sales\n                         -Policy\n                   -State Department\n                   -Tanks\n                         -Johnson\n                   -Personnel carriers\n                         -Lethality\n                         -PRC\n             -Military expenditures\n                   -Indira Gandhi's comments to Daniel P. Moynihan [?]\n                         -Arms race\n                         -Poverty\n                   -Comparison with Pakistan\n                   -Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR]\n                         -Arms production\n\n       President's trips\n             -Plans\n                    -Africa\n                    -Latin America\n             -Latin America\n                    -Value\n             -William P. Rogers\n             -Requests\n                    -Commitments\n             -Japan\n\n       Vietnam\n\n       Dr. David K. E. Bruce\n            -US liaison office to PRC\n                  -Lead story\n                        -Alfred L. Jenkins\n                        -John H. Holdridge\n\nKissinger left at 12:18 pm.\n\n       Press relations\n             -Vietnam\n             -Watergate\n\f                                        7-\n                  NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM\n\n                                                Conversation No. 880-7 (cont’d)\n\n      Watergate\n           -L. Patrick Gray, III\n           -Testimony before committee\n           -News reports\n                 -John W. Dean, III's testimony\n                       -Restrictions\n                       -Executive privilege\n                             -Court challenge\n                             -Mitchell, Maurice H. Stans\n                             -News\n\nAn unknown person entered at an unknown time after 12:18 pm.\n\n      President’s schedule\n            -President's meeting with James M. Collins\n            -John G. Tower\n\nThe unknown person left at an unknown time before 12:25 pm.\n\n      Watergate\n           -Press conference\n                 -Richard A. Moore's, Patrick J. Buchanan's and Dean's opinion\n                 -Moore's opinion\n           -Ziegler's comments\n                 -Ervin hearings\n                 -Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] raw files\n                        -White House viewing\n                        -Disclosure to Ervin Committee\n                 -Dealings with press\n                 -J. Edgar Hoover's practices\n           -Press\n                 -Frustrations\n\n      President’s press conference\n            -Length\n            -Sarah McClendon\n            -Frances L. Lewine\n                  -Cut-off of press conference\n            -Clark R. Mollenhoff\n            -President's handling of questions\n                  -Martin K (“Ken”) Worthy\n\f                                          8-\n                    NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM\n\n                                                  Conversation No. 880-7 (cont’d)\n\n                   -[Unintelligible name]\n             -Timing\n                   -Advantages\n                   -Moore's view\n             -Press hostility\n             -Watergate\n                   -Comments\n                   -Future press conference responses\n                   -Tone\n                          -Kissinger\n\n       Watergate\n            -Executive privilege\n                 -President's experiences as congressman\n                 -Cooperation with committee of Congress\n                       -Administration's record\n\n       President's schedule\n             -Meeting with Debbie Ploch\n                    -\"1973 Maid of Cotton\"\n             -Photographer\n                    -Oliver F. (“Ollie”) Atkins\n             -Distribution of photograph\n                    -Texas\n\nZiegler left at 12:25 pm.","filename":["880-006.mp3"],"tapeStart":"","tapeEnd":"","participantsList":["Nixon, Richard M. (President)","Kissinger, Henry A.","Cake, Ralph H.","Ziegler, Ronald L.","[Unknown person(s)]"],"prevCode":"880-005","nextCode":"880-007","transcript":[{"start":25.26,"end":30.04,"text":"to see if you're holding on."},{"start":30.1,"end":31.04,"text":"This is Dick Nixon."},{"start":34.07,"end":35.15,"text":"Yeah, yeah."},{"start":35.85,"end":41.76,"text":"Well, I'll tell you here, we're just thinking about you, and we miss you, but you keep an old stairlift around."},{"start":89.05,"end":92.79,"text":"No, I thought it was very effective."},{"start":92.99,"end":97.39,"text":"I thought the tone was very good, too."},{"start":97.51,"end":103.06,"text":"Maybe you were relaxed and confident and strong and everything."},{"start":149.24,"end":151.54,"text":"I mean, they ought to protect you."},{"start":151.56,"end":154.6,"text":"I mean, quite seriously, they ought to protect you."},{"start":177.84,"end":179.18,"text":"That's exactly right."},{"start":179.32,"end":186.58,"text":"I mean, this was not a mature operation that Mitchell had done."},{"start":187.02,"end":198.97,"text":"You or Haldeman, it would have been a professional... Well, we're out there."},{"start":198.99,"end":201.73,"text":"You don't want to build it, but that's a story by itself."},{"start":234.72,"end":239.74,"text":"Well, we committed to sell this stuff, but he committed to sell something."},{"start":239.78,"end":240.38,"text":"The policy."},{"start":240.8,"end":241.72,"text":"The policy he made."},{"start":241.94,"end":242.38,"text":"That's right."},{"start":242.58,"end":243.74,"text":"The policy was made."},{"start":244.42,"end":245.86,"text":"No, it was deformed."},{"start":245.92,"end":246.7,"text":"It was perfect."},{"start":248.88,"end":254.97,"text":"And it was, again, one of these things where if we had written it all out ahead of time, you had read it, you wouldn't have said it."},{"start":255.59,"end":256.93,"text":"Well, I was thinking to the state."},{"start":304.51,"end":306.4,"text":"And besides, we have a problem with the Chinese."},{"start":306.44,"end":310.42,"text":"The Indians have an enormous barrier to serve."},{"start":310.48,"end":315.64,"text":"We're talking about the fact that this is not a happy environment."},{"start":315.68,"end":316.32,"text":"That's what you have to say."},{"start":316.34,"end":321.91,"text":"Mrs. Gandhi was trying to point a hand about fueling the arms race when there's so much poverty."},{"start":321.95,"end":325.19,"text":"How is he spending 15 times as much on arms as..."},{"start":325.21,"end":326.77,"text":"I didn't want to get into that."},{"start":326.83,"end":330.31,"text":"I said that they have a big arms production there."},{"start":331.96,"end":333.18,"text":"No, no, you handled that one."},{"start":333.26,"end":333.82,"text":"That was perfect."},{"start":335.04,"end":344.52,"text":"I'm not so sure the trip to Latin America this spring is going to be easy."},{"start":445.72,"end":457.65,"text":"So, a piece, as President Nixon said today, he would not allow his legal counsel, John Dean, to testify on Capitol Hill in the Watergate investigation and challenge the Senate to test him in the Supreme Court."},{"start":458.51,"end":461.24,"text":"But if the Senate feels they want a court test, we would welcome it."},{"start":461.28,"end":469.34,"text":"The President told Desmond at the White House at the same time, he said, the former Attorney General Mitchell and Republican fundraisers' stands are not shielded by executive power."},{"start":469.38,"end":470.44,"text":"Mayor Cotton is here."},{"start":470.5,"end":471.67,"text":"Senator Towers, I have a question."},{"start":483.21,"end":488.54,"text":"And they thought it was excellent."},{"start":488.74,"end":495.48,"text":"Moore was very enthusiastic about it."},{"start":496.14,"end":503.45,"text":"Well, it is a perfect, perfect, as Moore said, it was brilliantly handled because it totally sets up"},{"start":547.05,"end":547.61,"text":"They are."},{"start":575.92,"end":577.37,"text":"working hard, which is what I do."},{"start":639.14,"end":641.66,"text":"And it was a good time to do it."},{"start":675.68,"end":681.97,"text":"If you don't, it seems to me that you don't take it on."},{"start":682.07,"end":687.41,"text":"You just don't get talked about."},{"start":687.49,"end":692.03,"text":"Because now, in the press conference that you have, you've dealt with that."},{"start":692.05,"end":693.71,"text":"The position's been made clear."},{"start":695.17,"end":696.8,"text":"I'm not going to comment on that."},{"start":696.84,"end":699.36,"text":"I'm not going to comment on that."},{"start":699.38,"end":700.38,"text":"I'm not going to comment on that."},{"start":701.08,"end":701.74,"text":"We've got a line."},{"start":702.06,"end":702.7,"text":"You will comment on that."},{"start":710.16,"end":715.49,"text":"main, what is it, in terms of the throne, but no matter that we take a show of it."},{"start":715.77,"end":717.01,"text":"It's different."},{"start":717.03,"end":717.6,"text":"It's different."},{"start":718.46,"end":719.44,"text":"And then we'll have to listen."},{"start":748.03,"end":754.88,"text":"You know, I don't want to say anything very exciting in the context that we are more important than the other thing."},{"start":754.94,"end":758.83,"text":"I did this because I didn't like what happened to me when I was a congressman."},{"start":759.67,"end":760.88,"text":"God damn it, that's a good thing."}],"aiSummary":{"text":"President Nixon met with Henry Kissinger and Ronald Ziegler to review the President’s recent press conference performance regarding the Watergate scandal and ongoing geopolitical issues. They discussed the administration's defensive posture toward press inquiries, including the involvement of John Mitchell and the Committee to Re-elect the President, as well as the status of military aid to India and Pakistan. The group also touched upon future international travel plans and the announcement of a U.S. liaison office in the People's Republic of China.","topics":["Watergate scandal","Press relations","John N. Mitchell","U.S.-India relations","People's Republic of China","Foreign policy"],"generatedAt":"2026-04-08T23:00:55.885Z"},"topicSlugs":["watergate-scandal","press-relations","john-n-mitchell","u-s-india-relations","peoples-republic-of-china","foreign-policy"],"audioDurationSec":832,"audioFiles":[{"file":"880-006.mp3","bytes":6082560,"durationSec":831.81,"bitrate":58499,"missing":false}],"audioIsShared":false,"audioProbedAt":"2026-09-18T02:20:00.697Z","findingAidSource":"nixonlibrary.gov subject log (2024-05), reslice-v2","findingAidUpdatedAt":"2026-09-18T08:44:54.159Z","audio":["https://nixon.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/audio/880-006.mp3"],"url":"https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/880-006","nixonLibraryUrl":"https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/white-house-tapes/880/conversation-880-006","license":"Public domain (U.S. Government work). AI-generated fields (transcript, aiSummary) are provided as-is without warranty."}