Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 911 › Conversation 911-031

Nixon, Kissinger & Haig on Watergate and Chief of Staff

Thursday, May 3, 1973 · 12:18 PM–12:24 PM ET · Oval Office · 6 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Kissinger, Henry A.; Haig, Alexander M., Jr.Conversation911-031 on Tape 911StartThursday, May 3, 1973 at 12:18 PMEndThursday, May 3, 1973 at 12:24 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 911-031 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with Henry Kissinger and Alexander Haig to discuss the fallout from the Watergate scandal, specifically comparing the current crisis to the Sherman Adams controversy during the Eisenhower administration. Following Kissinger's departure, Nixon and Haig deliberated on Haig taking over staff management duties to replace H.R. Haldeman. They ultimately decided that Haig would transition into an interim role as Chief of Staff, with Haig tasked to handle the logistics of the appointment while keeping his military rank.

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Transcript (AI-generated)

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That was very interesting.

I could read and go.

Very well.

Very friendly.

There's only one question.

One question.

One question of David Young, and I said he showed up.

I said, I'd like you to help on security investigation.

All right.

I heard of him.

He was a doctor.

You'll put the

I was never close to Adams in the way that I was to Bob and John, because, you know, to me, I was in arms in general, and Adams was sort of a... And Bob and John were such honorable men, you know, and I know they were a goddamn thing, or thought in the fog, except they're not helping the president.

That's right, but it had to be done.

Do you agree?

It had to be done.

Yeah, I know you didn't pass the word on.

That's right.

The only tragedy was that I had to deal with the...

I didn't have anything to do with the old days.

Also, I'm glad I made the speech, and I'm glad I layered it on.

That was absolutely, absolutely.

I just think people now just want to see us get on with it.

I bet we'll get the gym working world.

Let me ask you this.

I don't want to move.

First, I haven't been in the country.

Second, I want to think about, hey, I want to reach a career.

to undertake in this period of time to basically be the person to handle my staff work, you know, like Bob does, and, you know, just a number of things that everybody's kind of rushing me.

Schultz is coming in now with a lot of crap, but I know he should be looking for somebody else.

Actually, he was fighting with Cole about something, you know, thousands of other things.

If you would do it, I would appreciate it, but I don't know how it could be done.

I want you to keep your culture to rank and everything like that.

I know good professionals over here as a general.

He did it.

He did it, and I think I can do it.

How would we do it, though?

Would you have to resign as vice chief?

I think we should do that.

I think not resign, just take me over here on an interim basis.

Could we do an interim and then take a look to see what we're doing?

games and we may have to decide that these next four years that you may have to be here that's right well you may have to decide that obviously but as a soldier well it's more than that i'm i'm here to do what do you think is better and uh i'll give everything well let me say if you would uh how do i handle it how can i handle it immediately right now do i

Do I have to call somebody here?

No, sir.

I think I can take care of it, and that's good enough.

Who's holding this office?

I'll call Clements.

Right.

And tell him the president's asked me to come over temporarily to handle some assignments over here.

He'll be over here for several weeks.

That's fine.

And then I think in a public sense that we should

Hold on.

Just... Say nothing.

I think I'd like to work a little bit over the weekend.

Oh, there you go.

Say the same thing over the weekend.

Say it, not that.

Then when we come back, I'll have some ideas.

Right.

We'll think about how we want to operate.

Right.

What changes, further changes we ought to make.

Exactly.

The trouble is, it was a reaction by good people, not a bad people.

NARA Description

On May 3, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:18 pm to 12:24 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 911-031 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 911-31

Date: May 3, 1973
Time: 12:18 pm - 12:24 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Henry A. Kissinger and an unknown man.

      President’s schedule
             -George P. Shultz
                     -Alexander M. Haig, Jr.

The unknown man left at an unknown time before 12:18 pm.
                                                 -42-

                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                                             Conversation No. 911-33 (cont’d)

       Kissinger’s previous press briefing
              -Question on Vietnam
              -David R. Young
                      -Security investigations

Haig entered at 12:18 pm.

       Kissinger’s schedule
              -Telephone call
              -Kissinger’s staff
              -Conversation with David Packard
                      -Money
                      -John C. Stennis

Kissinger left at 12:19 pm.

       Haig
               -Role on White House staff

       Watergate
             -Sherman Adams and Dwight D. Eisenhower
                    -Compared with the President and John D. Ehrlichman and H. R. (“Bob”)
              Haldeman
             -President’s speech, April 30, 1973

       Haig
               -Possible Chief of Staff appointment
                      -Military career
                      -Staff management
                              -Shultz
                              -Spiro T. Agnew and Kenneth R. Cole, Jr.
                      -Military rank
                              -Gen. Andrew J. Goodpaster
                      -Handling
                              -Haig’s forthcoming meeting with William P. Clements
                      -Temporary assignment
                                           -43-

                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                                           Conversation No. 911-33 (cont’d)

       Kissinger [?]

       Watergate
             -Daniel Ellsberg break-in

Haig left at 12:24 pm.

Also recorded on May 3, 1973

911-025 11:28 AM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 11:28 am and 11:30 am.
911-027 11:59 AM · 6 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Jesse A. Helms, C. Morris Adams, Richard Maxwell, John Hawkins, William Bencini, Barbara Martin, Harold Herring, Coolidge C. Murrow, William E. Timmons, Max L. Friedersdorf, and Oliver F. ("Ollie") Atkins met in the Oval Office of the White House from 11:59 am to 12:05 pm.
911-028 12:05 PM · 54 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at 12:05 pm.
911-029 12:13 PM · 16 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:13 pm and 12:15 pm.
911-030 12:15 PM · 15 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:15 pm and 12:18 pm.
911-032 12:24 PM · 16 min — President Richard M. Nixon, George P. Shultz, and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:24 pm to 12:40 pm.
911-033 12:40 PM · 23 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Leonard Garment met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:40 pm to 12:52 pm.
911-034 12:52 PM · 10 sec — United States Secret Service agents met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:52 pm and 11:59 pm.

All 42 conversations from May 3, 1973 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 911-031, May 3, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/911-031 (accessed October 5, 2026).