Conversation: 940-002
Prev: 940-001 Next: 940-003Start Date: Thursday, June 14, 1973 1:30 PM
End Date: Thursday, June 14, 1973 2:52 PM
Participants:
Nixon, Richard M. (President); Haig, Alexander M., Jr.; Ziegler, Ronald L.; [Unknown person(s)]; Kissinger, Henry A.; Agnew, Spiro T. (Vice President)Recording Device: Oval Office
NARA Description:
On June 14, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., Ronald L. Ziegler, unknown person(s), Henry A. Kissinger, and Vice President Spiro T. Agnew met in the Oval Office of the White House from 9:30 am to 10:52 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 940-002 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid:
Conversation No. 940-2
Date: June 14, 1973
Time: 9:30 am - 10:52 am
Location: Oval Office
The President met with Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
Vietnam
-Henry A. Kissinger’s schedule
Negotiations
-Kissinger’s view
-Military situation in South Vietnam
-South Vietnam’s performance
-North Vietnam
-Training
-Kissinger
-Briefings
-Cambodia
-Bombing
-Duration
-Possible cease-fire
-Kissinger’s view
-2-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. March-2011)
Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)
-Congressional action
-House of Representatives, Senate
-September 1973
-Kissinger
Ronald L. Ziegler and an unknown man entered at 9:31 am.
President’s schedule
-Clothing [?]
The unknown man left at an unknown time before 9:34 am.
President’s address to nation announcing price control measures, June 13, 1973
-Response
-News summary
-Democrats, business, Republicans, networks
-Public opinion
-Delivery
-Importance of beginning and end
-George P. Shultz
-Price freeze
-Calls to President
-Speechwriters
-President’s writing
-Washington Post
-Draft, war
-Labor response
-Charles W. Colson
-Frank E. Fitzsimmons’s call to President
-News summary
Kissinger entered at 9:34 am.
Vietnam negotiations
-President’s telegrams to Kissinger, Charles Whitehouse
-Communique
-Kissinger’s efforts
-Difficulty
-President’s recent conversation with Haig
-3-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. March-2011)
Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)
-President’s messages to Nguyen Van Thieu
-Tone
-Brent G. Scowcroft’s call to Thieu
-President’s conversation with Gen. Tran Kim Phuong
-Congressional leaders
-South Vietnamese mood
Kissinger’s forthcoming briefings
-Tone
-President’s activities
-Year of Europe
-Middle East
-Vietnam negotiations
-Year of Europe
-Forthcoming summit
-Duration
-Year of Europe
-Vietnam negotiations
-Communique
-Recent staff meeting
-Year of Europe
-Vietnam
-US leadership in world, peace
-President’s meetings with Georges J. R. Pompidou, Edward R. G. Heath, Willy
Brandt
-Pompidou
-Gen. Charles A. J. M. De Gaulle
-President’s possible trip to Europe
-Year of Europe
-Leonid I. Brezhnev’s Forthcoming Visit
-Compared to 1972 meeting
-Cancellation
-Dialog
-President’s meeting with Andrei A. Gromyko in October 1972
-Tone
-President’s address to nation announcing price control measures
-Watergate
-Wiretapping
-4-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. March-2011)
Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)
-Conduct of foreign policy
-Peace
-1971, 1972
-Compared to the Battle of the Bulge
-Follow-through
-Brezhnev
-Kissinger’s meeting with People’s Republic of China [PRC] Foreign Minister [Ji
Pengfei] in Paris, June 13, 1973
-Possible lunch with J. William Fulbright, Hugh Scott
-Kissinger
Kissinger’s meeting with PRC Foreign Minister in Paris
[Tape recording system malfunction: 36 seconds]
US-PRC relations
-Possible visit to San Clemente [by Huang Zhen]
-Nationalist ambassador
-Washington, DC
-Century Plaza Hotel
Mao Tse-tung and Chiang Ching
-Invitation to President
*****************************************************************
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4
[National security]
[Duration: 13 s ]
PRC
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
*****************************************************************
-5-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. March-2011)
Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)
Vietnam negotiations
-Kissinger’s schedule
-May, July 1973
Brezhnev’s forthcoming visit
-San Clemente visit
-President’s airplane visit
-President’s conversation with Anatoliy F. Dobrynin
-Thelma C. (“Pat”) Nixon
-Guest rooms
-Gromyko
Vietnam negotiations
-Forthcoming briefings
-Tone
-Response
-Europe
Brezhnev’s forthcoming visit
-President’s conversation with Michael J. (“Mike”) Mansfield
-Briefings on agreements
-President’s trip to Soviet Union, 1972
-News summaries
-William P. Rogers, Kissinger, President
-Agreements during President’s 1972 trip to Soviet Union
-Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty [SALT], communique
-Agreements
-Number
-SALT, principles [on prevention of nuclear war], communique
-Briefings
-Rogers, William H. Sullivan, Martin J. Hillenbrand
-Camp David
-Rogers and Gromyko’s schedule
-Dobrynin’s view
-Sequoia trip
-Security
-Dobrynin’s views
-Dinner
-6-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. March-2011)
Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)
-Fulbright
-Sequoia trip
-Agenda
-Briefings on agreements
-California
-Number
-US-Soviet Agreement on Prevention of Nuclear War
-California
-Camp David
-Casa Pacifica
-Peaceful uses of nuclear energy, SALT communique
-Cancellation
-Security
-Brezhnev
-Scowcroft’s message
-Politics
-San Clemente
-Doctor
-Schedule
-Possible demonstrators
-Quakers
Kissinger’s schedule
-Vacation
-Sophia Loren
-Paris
Kissinger left at 9:51 am.
President’s address to nation announcing price control measures
-Response
-Press relations
-News summary
-Controversy
-Phase I, Vietnam, SALT
-Beginning and end
-President’s leadership
-Status quo
-Consumers
-7-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. March-2011)
Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)
-Gasoline and food prices
-“Rollback”
-Public relations
-Confusion
-Raw agricultural products
President’s schedule
-Bryce N. Harlow
-Announcement
-Spiro T. Agnew
-Harlow
-Lawyers
-William W. Scranton
-George Putnam
-Photograph opportunity
-Scranton
White House staff
-Council to President
-Leonard Garment
-J. Fred Buzhardt
-Compared to Garment
-Garment
-Possible ambassadorship
-Personality
-John W. Dean, III
-Buzhardt
-Harlow
-Garment
-Role
-Legal work
Watergate
-Ervin Committee hearings
-President’s conversation with William F. (“Billy”) Graham
-Maurice Stans’s testimony
-Edward J. Gurney
-Polls
-Television [TV] coverage
-8-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. March-2011)
Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)
-Senators
-Samuel J. Ervin
-Possible opponents in election
-President’s conversation with Graham
-Dean’s interview, June 15, 1973
-Dean’s forthcoming testimony
-White House response
-Buzhardt, Charles A. Wright
-Possible allegations against President
-Dean
-White House response
-News summary coverage
-Background
-Elliot L. Richardson
-News summary coverage
President’s schedule
-TV speeches
-Frequency
President’s speeches
-Beginning and end
-Public relations
-Raymond K. Price, Jr.
-Speechwriters
-Substance
-President’s role
-Politics
-President’s address to nation announcing price control measures
-Brezhnev
-Draft
-“Best-fed,” “best-clothed”
-First draft
-Price
-Demagoguery
-Gas prices, inflation, food prices, labor
-President’s address to nation announcing price control measures
-Press relations
-9-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. March-2011)
Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)
White House staff
-Harlow
-Timing of announcement
National economy
-TV appearance of Earl L. Butz and James W. McLane
-National Broadcasting Company [NBC]’s Today Show
-Congressional relations
-William E. Timmons’s forthcoming efforts
-Ticklers
-Future speeches
Ziegler left at 10:03 am.
Congressional relations
Cabinet
President’s schedule
-Forthcoming conversation with Agnew
-Agnew’s speech to National Association of Attorneys General, St. Louis,
MO, June 11, 1973
-Role in administration
-Melvin R. Laird
-Harlow
-Presidency
-Speeches
-Congressional relations
-Farm legislation
-Economy
-Quadriad
President’s address to nation announcing price control measures
-Timing
-Tone
Agnew entered at 10:05 am.
President’s address to nation announcing price control measures
-10-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. March-2011)
Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)
-Response
-Agnew’s schedule
Agnew’s speech in St. Louis
Watergate
-Ervin Committee hearings
-Possible attacks by witnesses
-Howard Hughes
-Buzhardt
-Howard H. Baker, Jr. Gurney
-Audience response
-TV
-Stans and Ervin, June 13, 1973
-White House response
-Victor Lasky
-1972 voting
-George McGovern
-Nixon
Investigation of Agnew
-Republican Party
-George Beall
-Staff
-Democrats
-[Barney Skolnik]
-Edmund S. Muskie supporter
-Muskie
-Elliot L. Richardson
-Agnew’s administrative officer [William E. Fornoff]
-[N. Dale Anderson]
-Kick-backs
-Indictment
-Relations with Agnew
-Transactions
-Baltimore County
-Engineers, architects
-[Fornoff]
-Agnew’s role
-11-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. March-2011)
Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)
-Compared to New York State
-Nelson A. Rockefeller
-Compared to California
-President’s conversation with Ronald W. Reagan
-Political contributions by highway and other contractors
-Grand Jury
-Income Tax investigation
-Watergate
-Scale
-1972 election
-Celebrity night for Agnew
-Leslie T. (“Bob”) Hope, Francis A. (“Frank”) Sinatra
-Congressional candidates committee
-Maryland
-District of Columbia
-Julie Nixon Eisenhower
-Loan from Committee to Re-elect the President [CRP]
-Indictment of fund-raiser [Blagdon H. Wharton]
-Records falsification
-Anne Arundel County, Maryland
-1972 election
-Press coverage
-Agnew
-Agnew’s contacts
-Background
-Haig
-Harlow
-Laird
-White House response
-Beall
-Baltimore County
-Agnew’s possible role
-Inability to interfere
Watergate
-Possible accusations against Agnew
-Compared to allegations concerning President and Watergate
-Cover-up
-Fund for the burglars
-12-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. March-2011)
Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)
-San Clemente home
-Denials
-Strategy
-Democrats
-Beall
-Investigation of Agnew’s successor [Anderson]
-[Fornoff]
-Plea bargaining and guilty plea
-Implication of engineers
-Immunity
-President’s knowledge of criminal law
Watergate
-Dean
-Immunity
-New York Times article
-Meetings with President
-Removal of classified documents from the White House
Investigation in Baltimore County, Maryland
-White House response
-Special prosecutor
-Lack of necessity
-Possible accusations
-Agnew
-[Mandel]
-Anne Arundel County executive
-Mayor of Baltimore
-Agnew
-Kick-back
-Federal judge
-Engineer [Matz]
-Plea bargaining
-Background
-Political contributions
-Plea bargaining
-Fornoff
-Guilty plea
-Timing
-13-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. March-2011)
Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)
-Engineers [Matz et al.]
-Effects on Maryland politics
-Governor [Marvin Mendel]
-J. Glenn Beall, Jr.
Watergate
-Ervin Committee hearings
-Lowell Weicker’s possible questioning of H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman
-Origin of $350,000
-Herbert Kalmbach
-Weicker’s campaign contributions
Investigation of Agnew
-George Beall
-Internal Revenue Service [IRS] investigators
-Glenn Beall
-Campaign contributions
-1970 campaign
-Colson
-Handling of investigation
-Glenn Beall, George Beall
-Possible indictment
-Skolnik
-Muskie supporter
-Administration enemies
-Bureaucracy
Watergate
-Popular opinion
-Ervin compared to President
-Agnew’s speech in St. Louis
-Response
-John N. Mitchell
-Possible prison term
-Martha (Beall) Mitchell’s health
-New Jersey, Maryland
-Possible investigation of Democrats
-Files
-Murray M. Chotiner
-14-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. March-2011)
Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)
-Steve Sachs
Investigation of Agnew
-President’s and Haig’s role
-Buzhardt
-Agnew’s conversations
-Haldeman
-Colson
-Possible letter
-Advisability
-Jud Best
-David Shapiro
-Possible legal relationship with Agnew
-Jeb Stuart Magruder’s possible testimony concerning Colson
-Press coverage
Watergate
-Magruder’s possible testimony
-Colson
-Lawrence O’Brien
-International Telephone and Telegraph [ITT]
-Haldeman
-Mitchell
-Dean
-Dean’s possible testimony
-John D. Ehrlichman
-Haldeman
-President
-Meetings with President
Investigation of Agnew
-Agnew’s legal relationship with Colson and Best
Watergate
-Egil (“Bud”) Krogh, Jr.
-Transportation Department
-Firing by Claude S. Brinegar
-Ken Rietz
-Firing by George H. W. Bush
-15-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. March-2011)
Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)
-Activities
-San Diego
-Demonstrations
Investigation of Agnew
-Agnew’s legal relationship with Colson and Best
-Colson as witness
-[Metz]
-Plea-bargaining
-Effect on other accused’s reputation
Watergate
-President’s opponents’ goal
-Carl B. Albert
-President’s resignation or impeachment
-1972 election
Agnew
-Role in administration
-Energy
-Inadvisability
-Workload
-Salesmanship
-Economic, energy, and foreign policies
President’s address to nation addressing price control measures
-Importance of beginning and end
-Telephone calls
-Vietnam, draft, Brezhnev visit
-President’s role
Agnew
-Role in administration
-Republican Party leaders
-Influence-makers
-Chicago clubs, New York City clubs
-Press
-Editors, publishers
-Labor
-16-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. March-2011)
Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)
National economy
-Wages
-Lack of freeze
Agnew
-Role in administration
-Compared to President’s role with Dwight D. Eisenhower
-Eisenhower’s health
-Meetings
-Compared to President’s
-Cabinet, National Security Council [NSC]
-Meeting with President, May 2, 1973
-Quadriad meetings
-Specialization
-Federal Reserve Board [FRB]
-Shultz
-Domestic Council
-Cabinet
-Rogers, Laird, Dr. James R. Schlesinger
-Soybeans
-France
President’s address to nation addressing price control measures
-Consumers
-State Department, NSC staff
-Possible resignations
Agnew
-Role in administration
-Quadriad
-Foreign policy
-Avoiding appearance of “Froth”
-Press reports of Africa trip
Press relations
-President’s experience
-Watergate compared to Hiss case
-Herbert L. Block
-17-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. March-2011)
Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)
-Caracas
Agnew
-Role in administration
-Asia
-Kissinger
-Possible trips
-Confidentiality
-PRC
-Mansfield, Congress
-August 1973
-Kissinger
-Timing
-September, October 1973
-Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR]
-Negotiations
-President’s trips under Eisenhower
-Reporting
-East Europe
-Poland, Hungary, Romania, Italy, Greece
-North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO]
-Past trips
-Italy, Iran, Greece, Spain
-Latin America
-Africa
-Chad
-Confidentiality
-PRC, USSR, Eastern Europe
-Congressional relations
-Alaska pipeline
-Export controls
-Trade bill
-Meat surcharge
-Farm legislation
-Inflation
-Republicans
-Government spending
-Attacks on Ervin Committee
-18-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. March-2011)
Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)
Watergate
-Attacks on Ervin Committee
-Possible jail terms
-Mitchell, Stans
-Agnew’s speech
-Hugh Scott’s statements
-Wiretapping, plumbers
-Agnew’s possible response
-President’s comments to POWs
-Agnew’s possible statements
-Scott’s statement
-Robert F. (“Bobby”) Kennedy
-Newsmen, civil rights leaders, politicians
-Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI]
*****************************************************************
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 9
[National security]
[Duration: 23 s ]
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
*****************************************************************
Agnew’s role in administration
-Forthcoming conversation with Harlow
-Trips
-Congressional relations
-Liberals
Charles McC. Mathias, Jr.
-Record of support for President
-Comments concerning Maryland State Republican Chairman [Alexander
Lankler]
-Alleged disloyalty
-Congressional relations
-19-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. March-2011)
Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)
Agnew
-Possible guilt
Watergate
-Mitchell
-Possible conversation with President
Agnew
-Investigation
Harlow
-Role on White House staff
-Politics
-Bush
Agnew
-Speeches
-Patrick J. Buchanan
-Harlow
Agnew left at 10:49 am.
President’s schedule
-Scranton
Agnew
-Possible investigation
-Fear
-Administration support
-Possible trip to PRC
-Harlow
-Dignity
Watergate
-Dean
-President’s activities
-Richardson
-20-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. March-2011)
Conversation No. 940-2 (cont’d)
Cabinet
-Brinegar
-Performance
-Future
President’s schedule
-Scranton
Haig left at 10:52 am.