Conversation 919-024

TapeTape 919StartWednesday, May 16, 1973 at 11:49 AMEndWednesday, May 16, 1973 at 12:34 PMParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Woods, Rose MaryRecording deviceOval Office

On May 16, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 11:49 am and 12:34 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 919-024 of the White House Tapes.

Conversation No. 919-24 (cont’d)

                                                                    Conversation No. 919-24

Date: May 16, 1973
Time: Unknown between 11:49 am and 12:34 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Rose Mary Woods.

      Weather

      G. Bradford Cook
             -Robert L. Vesco
             -Resignation
             -$48,000 for Hubert H. Humphrey
                    -John Loeb
                    -Indictment

      David Marx
            -Telephone call to Rose Mary Woods
            -Uncle to Daniel Ellsberg’s wife [Patricia Marx]
                   -J. Edgar Hoover’s inaction
                          -Impact on White House investigation
                          -Affinity for Marx family
            -Telephone call to Woods
                   -Television [TV]
            -Meeting with Walter L. Cronkite, Jr.

      President’s possible resignation
             -Reason
             -Partisanship

      Watergate
            -Effect on nation

      Woods’s conversation with Marx
            -Santa Ana Register
                   -George H. W. Bush and Republican National Committee [RNC]
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                       NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                            (rev. September-2012)

                                                                           Conversation No. 919-24 (cont’d)

        Watergate
              -Calls for President’s resignation
              -Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony J. Russo, Jr.
                      -National opinion
                              -Theft of national security information
                              -Appointment
                                      -Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI]
                              -Service on Scranton Committee
                                      -Patrick J. Buchanan [?]
                      -Russo’s work in Chicago
                              -Angela Y. Davis
                                      -Chicago Seven
                                      -Impeachment
              -Congressional action
                      -Impeachment

        Henry A. Kissinger
              -Letter for President to sign
                      -Leonid I. Brezhnev and Nicolai Ceausescu

        Presidency
               -Difficulty
                       -State Dinner, May 15

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[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 8 s ]

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                       NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                            (rev. September-2012)

                                                                           Conversation No. 919-24 (cont’d)

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        Julie Nixon Eisenhower’s schedule
               -Indiana

[End segment reviewed under deed of gift]
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        Julie Nixon Eisenhower’s schedule
               -Popular reception

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[Begin segment reviewed under deed of gift]

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[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 26 s ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2

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        Watergate
              -Possible letters to editors
                     -President’s accomplishments
                     -McCarthyism
              -Santa Ana Register story regarding the President’s San Clemente property
                     -Trust
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                  NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                   (rev. September-2012)

                                                            Conversation No. 919-24 (cont’d)

                    -Nixon Foundation
                    -Samuel J. Ervin, Jr.’s comment

*****************************************************************
[Begin segment reviewed under deed of gift]

      President’s schedule
             -Tiredness
             -State Dinner
                     -Preoccupations

[End segment reviewed under deed of gift]
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      Watergate
            -President’s response
            -Peter J. Brennan’s telephone call to Woods
            -White House response
            -Helen A. Thomas
            -President’s activities
            -Woods’s schedule
                    -Social event at Iranian ambassador’s residence
                            -Amir-Alsan Afshar’s demeanor [?]
                            -Frank N. Ikard [?]
                            -Jean Ikard
                            -Edward W. Brooke
                            -Robert Gray
                            -Woods’s demeanor
                                    -Support for President
                                    -Haircut
                                    -Style
            -Egil (“Bud”) Krogh, Jr.

      Weather
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                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                    (rev. September-2012)

                                                             Conversation No. 919-24 (cont’d)

       Cook

       President’s supporters

Woods left at an unknown time before 12:34 pm.

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.

Good morning.
What a great day.
I was going to tell you a few of the... You remember our little friend by the brand, Cook, that we all worked with that for?
Yeah.
And now she's been hiding for the goddamn best of years.
It's her resignation day.
Oh, yeah.
And I just heard over the radio that Don Lowe was here last night because he did, he was on my hit list for Jim Anderson.
Jim Anderson involved in that story?
No, but he got indicted in New York for giving him $48,000, so I don't think that's here illegally.
Illegally?
Indicted?
On the verge of getting fined as well?
I don't know.
I just turned on the radio.
Indicted?
That's what they said.
But I've got a lot of smalls.
I got a call from, you know, good old David Marks, who is just, he's a marvelous man.
He's an uncle to that awful little bride, if that's possible.
That's why I had to go to him, because that's actually me.
That's why we had to have our own investigator.
Oh, really?
He was with the Marxists.
Well, with the Marxists, he's just done it.
Anyway, Dave called and he said that they'd gotten, they had a television set, but, you know, he's on the internet, I guess, with people, so he used that to shake it or something, or kick it, to have it work.
So he'd just gotten a new one, and the other night, somebody was on the television, he got so mad, and he kicked it and broke the glass.
He also met Walter Cronkite, who's been a longtime friend of ours, prior to his death.
And he said, I told him I'll be knowing certain terms so that I'm sure we're not friends anymore.
He said, I tell you, there's just lots and lots of people.
And I talk all day long until I get done.
Well, Rose, you know, it's an interesting thing, but what I did was the most
What in the name of God for?
Well, I think that... That is becoming responsible, that kind of left-wing sense of vision.
There are other reasons.
David must have brought that up.
He said, David asked after you.
You know, he's a very, very bright man.
He said it's the same.
It's the same irresponsible one, he said.
But he's a little sure.
I know this person, and I will, because people have doubts.
People have doubts.
But let me say, we've got a hell of a lot of data.
Our friends have been made stronger by it.
Strangely enough.
Don't you agree?
And all we've got to do is fight.
Fight back.
And that's what they want to do.
Just fight back.
Right.
And, in fact, David Martin was going to call George Bush, and I told him, well, he couldn't have.
He was going to call George Bush, and he got the Republican National Committee out to do this.
And I said, well, the problem is it can't be George Bush.
The committee can't fill it.
But he really, see these prints are really nice.
He said he hasn't written because he doesn't want to play with your mind.
But just to tell you.
Just let me tell you this though.
If you just, just read it.
It says that this little, this crab, you know, right at the tip of his eye, this little patch, it's going to be rough as a cob.
What's going to be there?
The next couple, three weeks particularly.
God damn it.
I think it'll be rough.
Probably true, true.
But I tell you, I think, I think the fact is that Tony Russo and the country, the people now, believe that Ellsberg and Russo are, were thieves then, if they were, if it was the national security of the country and if they were guilty.
I would like to shoot that burn personally.
He was the executive director or something.
Somebody else told me, I don't know if you can, but somebody else told me that he was the bad guy on that committee.
everybody to it, they just, they do want to, you know, they, they're, the conference is great, they really are, so, all, and, and the thing, I think, the thing that I'm going to start to say, that Tony used to go flying to Chicago to join with Angela Davis and that Chicago fellow in that group to work for impeachment, can only help us, but that's a big bunch of, uh,
The country doesn't want that kind of... Oh, well, it's worth meeting this Congresswoman, you know.
They're not going to do that just yet.
Not about yet.
I don't know if Kissinger's out there, but the letters were handed to me when I came.
Oh, she's coming.
Yes, the letters she signed to...
You want me to sign it down?
Yes.
Sign.
Sign.
But you know, these are not easy days for me to go through.
You know, I used to think last night was a hard day.
I had to go through it all the same, you know.
She had to do two events today somewhere in Indiana, and then she went.
But she said that all the people are, you know, the receptions have been very good, and she had really helped that girl.
That's the thing.
That's the thing around.
Everybody's got to... Everybody's got to have a chin up and fight like...
They are.
That's what people are saying.
Go ahead.
And I told a couple people who...
There are a lot of people who have offered to come work with people, work free and the such.
But when I told a lot of them, they would write short letters, or get their friends to write short letters to the editors, reminding them of the Magnus records, and just bringing up the
the hysteria of the press and the media.
And they're the very ones who talk about McCarthyism.
I don't know, I'm just trying to remember.
I know.
For the foundation, actually.
Yeah.
But goddamn them, they knew that was untrue.
You know, they ran.
They knew that was untrue.
They knew that we would take out if they come out.
Boy, that shows you what they think they can get away with these days.
Yeah, but at least that hurt him to come out and set him back with that, so he thought the community had no such information.
No.
No, but he did come out.
He came out, which is always...
I believe you.
I'm sure you were very tired last night.
Oh, you know that, yeah.
I was so young, it was because of the debt and everything, and I had so many things on my mind, and I was just, you know, I had to sit and talk to those people, but I feel, I feel better today.
We've learned to fight some now, we're going to fight some more, and it's going to be right as hell.
And I've been, I've gotten calls from my friends.
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Two or three times a week saying, anything, I'm available to do anything, anything I can do.
I just thought I'd be loving it.
You know this little thing over here, you can call everything your heart desires.
But basically, Rose, the main thing we've done, we've always had a show that shows up in the news.
Everybody, you know, said, you've got to fight, fight hard.
Right.
And there's crap about each other.
I was impressed with you.
I felt fun.
You see that?
And then the bitches, like, they all pounce on Chris.
Tell him, tell him.
He's great.
You say, you know, he's always best when it's tough.
I mean, you are.
Something like that.
I have been telling them that you're just absolutely great.
You're doing your job.
You're going ahead.
You're just as strong as ever.
Well, when I went out the other night, I was so mad.
You know, we have some people who are, um, who don't know what caught my eye.
I had promised to go to this ball that was held at the Iranian ambassador's residence.
And, um,
He couldn't have been, he was so nice, you know, that's great.
And I was at the table with Eichert, with the Eicherts, Jane Brown Eicherts.
Senator Brooks.
And a lot of, you know, a lot of people, Bob Ferney and so on.
And all of us were, we'd be telling each other every time, I would, I would not go out and have a long face.
So I went out and, so they wrote us that I was happy and gay, you know.
But I didn't think that's what people have to do.
And a couple of our friends came up and was like, oh, you poor dear.
And I said, what are you poor dearing me for?
We're trying.
We've got a great president.
We just have to prove that this great president is going to continue this record that we've had for four and a half years.
Nobody's going to tell me they're sorry for what I've done.
No, sir.
That's right.
And I'm determined.
I've gone and gotten my hair done.
I'm determined.
and determined to go out and, you know, look well, and I'm not happy.
I'm sorry for all of our guys, but you have to go out and look.
If you go out with a long face, it's bad.
One guy really feels right for his microbe.
He's a good man.
Yeah.
I feel sorry for everyone.
I do.
We can't change it, and we have to do the best we can to fight it.
It's supposed to get warmer in Texas, and then you have to get a couple of guys to go out with them.
Okay, see you later.
I better get you to get out of here.
No, you should know about the cook.
Yeah, I'm sorry about that.
Not at all.
I mean, anything I can get out of it.
I get it.
Believe me, all your old friends are riding around.
Ah, stop.