Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 926 › Conversation 926-005
Nixon & Woods on Watergate and Fundraising
Wednesday, May 23, 1973 · 10:55 AM–11:12 AM ET · Oval Office · 16 min
AI Summary
President Nixon met with his personal secretary, Rose Mary Woods, to discuss the ongoing fallout from the Watergate scandal and manage public perception of his administration. They reviewed sensitive matters regarding fundraising efforts by Tom A. Pappas, the potential involvement of John W. Dean III, and the President's desire to clarify that no illicit discussions took place. The conversation also touched upon the President’s political standing, the impact of congressional inquiries, and the strategic importance of highlighting public support to counter the negative narrative surrounding the White House.
Audio
NARA Description
On May 23, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods met in the Oval Office of the White House from 10:55 am to 11:12 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 926-005 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 926-5
Date: May 23, 1973
Time: 10:55 am - 11:12 am
Location: Oval Office
The President met with Rose Mary Woods.
Greeting
[Pause]
-11-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Conversation No. 926-5 (cont’d)
President’s schedule
-Weather
-Prisoners of war [POW] dinner
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[Begin segment reviewed under deed of gift]
Tricia Nixon Cox and Edward R. F. Cox
-Schedule
[End segment reviewed under deed of gift]
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Watergate
-Tom A. Pappas
-Funds for defendants
-John N. Mitchell
-Meeting with President, March 7
-Subjects discussed
-Henry J. Tasca
-Watergate
-Fund-raising
-Investigators’ possible questions
-Funds for defendants
-Herbert W. Kalmbach
-Participants’ motives
-Pappas
-Possible conversation with PresidentShow the rest of the log (104 more lines)
-Possible conversation with Woods
-Pappas’s meeting with the President, March 7
-John W. Dean III’s knowledge
-12-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Conversation No. 926-5 (cont’d)
*****************************************************************
[Begin segment reviewed under deed of gift]
United States Secret Service [USSS]
-Contact
-Kalmbach
-[Unintelligible name]
-[San Clemente]
-Kalmbach
-Personal attorney
-Charles G. (“Bebe”) Rebozo
-Robert H. Abplanalp
-Rebozo
-Knowledge
-Woods’s conversation with Bobbie [?] [no last name]
-Rebozo
-President’s personal affairs
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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 1 m 45 s ]
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2
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[End segment reviewed under deed of gift]
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Weather
-POW dinner
Watergate
-President’s family’s reaction
-13-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Conversation No. 926-5 (cont’d)
-White House staff reaction
-Alexander M. Haig, Jr., Ronald L. Ziegler, Patrick J. Buchanan and
Raymond K. Price, Jr.
-White House opponents
-Committees
-Inquisition
-[Unintelligible name]
-Heroism
-Public opinion
-White House response
-Testimony
-President’s possible resignation
-Spiro T. Agnew
-Effect
-US foreign policy
-Double agents
-James W. McCord, Jr.
-Public opinion
-Telephone calls to Woods
-Ervin Committee
-Questions to McCord
-Howard H. Baker, Jr.
-White House response
-Public support for President
-James (“Jimmy”) Stewart
-Prayers
-Masses
-Woods’s friend, Sue [surname unknown]
-New York
-Hairdresser
-Congress
-President’s visit to Norfolk, Virginia
-Crowds
-Attacks on President
-Vietnam settlement
-Peace
-Soviet Union
-14-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Conversation No. 926-5 (cont’d)
-Public opinion
-Daniel Ellsberg case
-W. Matthew Byrne
-Possible future allegations
-Haig
-White House response
-Washington, D.C.
-Support for President
Woods left at 11:12 am.Transcript (AI-generated)
This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 1 minute of this recording (about 7% of it) is represented by only a few words. Listen to the audio rather than relying on the text below; a corrected transcript is queued.
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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Ok. Ok.
I think I want to receive it.
I don't know.
He came to see me about...
I think he's smart enough to know that investigators might ask him
Did the president know of your fundraising activities?
I heard that he had fundraising activities in that period of time, but I didn't know.
They were not illegal, understanding.
They wouldn't be illegal.
It happens if I didn't tell them we're doing it.
Unless his purpose, if he were to come up, unless his purpose was to keep them, if they had a right to raise them, you know.
I think it's dangerous to talk on that kind of line.
I was thinking that you were down.
No discussion of water use.
That's his recollection.
Based on that, it was very important that we were asking.
That is your recollection.
I'm not trying to give a quick example.
It happens to be the same thing he wanted.
I don't know why.
This isn't true.
But, on the other hand, when I thanked him for this, they haven't been thinking about this one.
They haven't been trying to do this.
So they worked over there on and on and on.
Right.
You stated that there was no discussion of the water treatment.
I think it's very important that we have that.
That's my recommendation.
Well, this is my recommendation.
I don't know if I can find out where he is or what he's doing.
No, no, he doesn't.
But I can call his boss.
He has an office in Boston.
I can find out where he is.
So Dean was aware of his fundraising activities, and of course Dean was aware of what he was doing.
The secret service man is in charge up there at the moment.
They didn't need contact, you know, the way they had used her for the day doing that.
Oh, sure, sure.
Well, to solve the buddy, is that the person on time?
No, it is not.
You've been at your paper, haven't you?
Yeah.
I'm glad I said that.
Yes, he is.
Well?
The Secret Service is asking if you need, you know, any contact, can Tom speak for you about that?
I think you should talk to Raposo.
Have you met Raposo yet?
I hope it will be a very good day, and this is such an exciting thing for those people.
I hope it will be very good.
Well, we have it.
— 1 min 41 s with no transcribed speech —
People, and I think about four double agents myself.
I'm sure McCoy is one, but I think there's probably all of them.
I have had people, complete strangers, who have only seen this McCoy on television call, but they think he's a double agent.
And people call and say, what were those police doing there so close, a minute and a half away, two hours over time.
You know, they don't do two hours over time.
When they're on shift at midnight, they don't...
We wish we had a stand-up gun that committed would ask some of those questions.
They could run on the word of damn.
They should be asking the top questions.
They should all be asking the top questions.
I don't know if you can hear me, but what did he do previously?
He's out.
He's out.
— 1 min 22 s with no transcribed speech —
Eventually we got a sympathy reaction.
And when we went to Norfolk, good God, we had 18,000 down there.
They said there were 20, whatever it was, maybe 50.
But it was an unbelievably enthusiastic crowd.
My God, you wouldn't find that 100 miles from Washington.
You know what I mean?
People are worried about him.
They're worried about him.
He's a pastor.
They make the president appear to be devious to
This is unbelievable.
Okay, you can sit here.
Okay.
Oh!
I want to ask you one thing before we get related to all this.
Did you know, and this is going to be our lot of money,
I didn't have a long run with that one.
I said, now look, it's not how old.
I mean, I don't mean by that to try to answer it, but we had gotten a person that we just got to stick our chests out and fight.
It seemed like fighting.
Nothing ever stops in this town.
Yeah, well this is a very bad town for us.
Yeah.
They're rambling on, and it's because they don't make the most of town for the last 25, 30 years.
Don't worry, everybody I know anyway, I know all my friends, all my friends and family and everybody.
You know, there's lots and very many nations who are with you.
Also recorded on May 23, 1973
- 926-004 10:20 AM · 31 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. met in the Oval Office of the White House from 10:20 am to 10:53 am.
- 926-006 11:12 AM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 11:12 am and 12:03 pm.
- 926-007 11:12 AM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 11:12 am and 12:03 pm.
- 926-008 11:12 AM · 21 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 11:12 am and 12:03 pm.
- 926-009 12:03 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Mary T. Brooks, Rose Mary Woods, White House photographer, members of the press, and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:03 pm and 12:06 pm.
- 926-010 12:04 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 12:04 pm and 12:06 pm.
- 926-011 12:04 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 12:04 pm and 12:06 pm.
- 926-012 12:06 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Thomas R. Moore, Thomas S. Kleppe, William J. Baroody, Jr., White House photographer, and members of the press met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:06 pm to 12:08 pm.
Related conversations
- Nixon & Woods on Watergate and Ervin Committee July 11, 1973 · 26 min
- Nixon, Ziegler & Eisenhower on Watergate and Ervin Committee May 17, 1973 · 10 min
- Nixon & Woods on Watergate scandal and Thomas A. Pappas June 6, 1973 · 24 min
- Nixon phone call with Haldeman on Watergate and Jeb Stuart Magruder April 13, 1973 · 10 min
- Nixon, Colson & Bull on Watergate and John W. Dean III June 6, 1973 · 28 min
- Nixon phone call with Colson on Watergate and John W. Dean III June 6, 1973 · 21 min
Cite this conversation
Conversation 926-005, May 23, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/926-005 (accessed October 28, 2026).