Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 920 › Conversation 920-006

Nixon & Ziegler on Huston Plan and Watergate

Wednesday, May 16, 1973 · 5:25 PM–5:31 PM ET · Oval Office · 7 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Ziegler, Ronald L.Conversation920-006 on Tape 920StartWednesday, May 16, 1973 at 5:25 PMEndWednesday, May 16, 1973 at 5:31 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 920-006 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Press Secretary Ronald Ziegler met to discuss the potential political damage associated with the disclosure of documents related to the 1970 "Huston Plan" for internal security. Nixon emphasized that the Huston Plan was a distinct interagency effort regarding riot control and should be separated from unrelated controversies like the Watergate break-in, the Plumbers' activities, and FBI wiretapping. They examined the necessity of keeping these operations legally and publically compartmentalized to mitigate potential criticism from civil libertarians and Senator Sam Ervin.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Well, I am good.
Are you afraid you could go out and destroy those children?
Yes, sir.
Thank you.
Senator, this is a two-point.
Come on, vote.
You can't vote yet.
Manseal, you know, Manseal stepped up to that until he was given a chance to.
Or St. Louis, I don't know if she got him.
which
We set up in 1971 an interagency group of EIA, NSA, IRS, FBI, and CIA.
We announced it.
We met here in this room.
We announced it.
I think we did it first.
I don't think so.
So I set it up for the purpose of internal security.
uh, under Hoover's direction.
The memorandum said about how Hoover is highly sensitive because it directs the use of any means, you know, internally, including, uh, them expanding their activities against domestic people in the United States, uh, where internal security was threatened.
What was it, 1970?
1970.
I think that
a couple of months later because he couldn't get to do anything.
All that day is the son of a bitch that took over there at that time, the justice.
Our checks so far indicates that the defense department did hardly anything in this area.
And we can't find any, we're checking now with Hoover to see whether
whether they did anything more.
But what I'm getting at is this.
What we took this forward is, he said, told them to get to work on a core issue plan.
The question is whether they did more.
Now, if this document gets out, it will make some world of reading with regard to, you've got to expand your activities to deal with this, this, this, this, this, this.
A part of the fact of the matter is that, and I'm protecting this too, is that it died at Oregon.
in probably the fall of that year.
And you may remember, and I've asked Al to check this, that the Army, remember, was doing intelligence work.
Remember, the Army was doing intelligence work.
And we announced sometime in the fall the Army was getting out of that.
Remember?
We made that incident, too, here in the White House.
We pulled that completely out of that.
We're going to riot control.
He did that, I think, at the same time that this thing was also shut.
But that, basically, is what leads to having this goddamn fire.
Now, basically, the czar is very concerned because he's very sensitive on this issue since he was over at the Pentagon.
He said, Irvin always makes me feel out of a civil letter, trying to go right up the wall and say, aha, here we are.
This is why, you know, you have the, he thought we ought to really just, you know, grow, grow, break, and everything else.
And I said, hell no.
I mean, you see, Rob, every one of these incidents must be kept secret.
The probe that was a separation and not included in this, you know, that was our own, we didn't do anything operational.
But what I mean by that was a total, total separate incident.
And the FBI, what I mean by that, basically, is a total separate incident, you know, having to do with leaks and intelligence information.
This is an interagency group that's dealing with the goddamn rioting.
And they have their own spot.
I don't know.
I think so.
I'm going to go check right now.
Would you check with me?
What time?
Oh, maybe 10.
Maybe 10.
Still running right over there.
I think I recall reading this.
Yeah.
Yeah, reading probably did that.
I thought we were ready to go.
No, I mean, if we proved on that.
Yeah.
I got it again.
You'll see.
This thing was also, also shut down.
That, basically, is what decent having has got to do, fine.
Now, basically, the czar was very concerned, because he's very sensitive on this issue since he was over at the Pentagon.
He said Irvin always makes the deal out of it with the civil libertarians who go right up to the wall and say, aha, here we are.
This is why, you know, you have the, uh, he thought we ought to really just, uh, grow, grow great and everything else.
And I said, hell no.
Every one of these incidents must be kept separate.
The probe that was a separate incident had nothing to do with this, you know.
That was our own operation.
The watergate thing was a total separate incident.
And the FBI thing, basically, is a total separate incident, you know, having to do with leaks and intelligence information.
and get our agency group to deal with the goddamn riot.
I think so.
I'm going to go check right now.
Would you check with us if we were done?
No.
Oh, and maybe at the front.
I'm still running right over there.
I think they're going to call a briefing on this.
Yeah.
Yeah, really probably didn't land on what we were ready out to.
That was our mission.
If we really don't land, yeah, my job is to get to the safe.

NARA Description

On May 16, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the Oval Office of the White House from 5:25 pm to 5:31 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 920-006 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 920-6

Date: May 16, 1973
Time: 5:25 pm - 5:31 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Ronald L. Ziegler.

       Ziegler’s schedule
              -Sequoia

       Cambodia
            -Senate vote
                   -Delay
                   -Michael J. (“Mike”) Mansfield
                   -Henry A. Kissinger’s current negotiations with North Vietnam

       Watergate
             -John W. Dean III’s documents
                    -Contents
                           -Tom C. Huston
             -Huston Plan
                    -Meeting in the President’s office
                                               -9-

                    NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                                              Conversation No. 920-13 (cont’d)

                               -J. Edgar Hoover
                       -Implementation
                       -Dean, Robert C. Mardian
                       -Effect of possible release
                       -President’s announcement regarding Army activities
                       -Samuel J. Ervin’s possible reaction
                               -J. Fred Buzhardt’s opinion
                       -Relation to other activities
                               -Egil (“Bud”) Krogh, Jr. and plumbers
                               -Break-in
                               -Wiretaps
                       -Purpose
                       -Public announcement

Ziegler left at 5:31 pm.

Also recorded on May 16, 1973

  • 046-086 4:57 PM · 12 min — J. Fred Buzhardt, Jr., White House operator, and Robert C. Mardian talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 4:57 pm and 9:33 pm.
  • 920-004 5:22 PM · 55 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 5:22 pm and 5:25 pm.
  • 920-005 5:22 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 5:22 pm and 5:25 pm.
  • 920-007 5:31 PM · 45 sec — President Richard M. Nixon, Stephen B. Bull, and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 5:31 pm and 5:39 pm.
  • 920-008 5:31 PM · 18 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 5:31 pm and 5:39 pm.
  • 920-009 5:39 PM · 12 min — President Richard M. Nixon and J. Fred Buzhardt, Jr. met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 5:39 pm and 5:53 pm.
  • 920-010 5:39 PM · 37 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 5:39 pm and 5:53 pm.
  • 920-011 5:53 PM · 17 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. met in the Oval Office of the White House from 5:53 pm to 6:11 pm.

All 73 conversations from May 16, 1973 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 920-006, May 16, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/920-006 (accessed October 12, 2026).