904-008b

Conversation No. 904-8

Date: April 25, 1973
Time: 9:21 am - 10:46 am
Location: Oval Office
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. October-2011)

Conversation No. 904-8 (cont’d)

The President met with John J. Wilson and Frank E. Strickler.

Watergate
-Wilson and Strickler

-Experience

-Knowledge

-Funds for defendants

-H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman

-Conversation with John W. Dean, III
-Use for money
-$322,000
-Delivery to Frederick C. LaRue by Gordon C. Strachan
-John D. Ehrlichman
-Herbert W. Kalmbach

An unknown person entered at an unknown time after 9:21 am.

Refreshment

The unknown person left at an unknown time before 10:46 am.

Watergate
-Funds for defendants

-Dean

-Kalmbach

-Press opinion

-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Haldeman compared with Ehrlichman
-Kalmbach
-Dean and Ehrlichman
-Haldeman’s knowledge
-Purpose
-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Possible charges

-Obstruction of justice

-Federal statutes

-Intent

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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2011)

Conversation No. 904-8 (cont’d)

-Ehrlichman and Haldeman

-Conspiracy

-Wilson’s interpretation

-President’s possible position with Henry E. Petersen

-Grand jury
-Wilson’s and Strickler’s interest
-President
-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Wilson’s and Strickler’s visit with US Attorney’s office
-Earl J. Silbert and Seymour Glanzer
-Leaks
-Jack N. Anderson
-Glanzer
-Conversation with Wilson and Strickler
-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Possible resignations
-Effects
-Press
-Dean
-Timing
-Effect on press
-Possible letter to President from Wilson and Strickler
-Possible alternatives to resignation

-Informal meeting with prosecutors

-Grand jury

-Statements from Wilson and Strickler

-Standards of conduct for Presidential advisors

-John B. Connally’s opinion

-Dorothy Hunt

-Dean’s possible testimony

-E. Howard Hunt, Jr.

-Possible conversations with Dean and LaRue
-Promise of clemency
-John N. Mitchell, LaRue
-Charles W. Colson’s possible conversation with William O.
Bittman

-Bittman

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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2011)

Conversation No. 904-8 (cont’d)

-Blackmail of Colson
-Dean’s conversations with President, Haldeman, and Ehrlichman
-Possible statement
-[First name unknown] Rivers
-Delivery of money
-LaRue
-Henry E. Petersen
-Fees
-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Dean
-Dean
-Possible indictment
-Possible defense
-Possible testimony
-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-President’s conversation with Petersen
-Lie detector tests
-Prosecutors
-Jeb Stuart Magruder and Gordon C. Strachan
-Magruder and Strachan
-Leaks from grand jury
-Effects of case
-Dean
-Immunity
-Vulnerability as witness
-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Conversation with President, March 21, 1973, concerning Bittman
-Blackmail
-Immunity

-Possible effect

-President’s conversation with Petersen

-Possible effect

-Credibility
-Possible perjury
-Immunity
-Petersen
-Possible memo to President
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2011)

Conversation No. 904-8 (cont’d)

-Duration of grand jury

-Possible indictment of Dean

-Conversations with President

-US Attorney’s negotiations with Dean
-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Possible resignations

-Effect

-Connally’s view

-Public’s reaction

-Timing

-Impairment of usefulness
-Connally’s and Rogers’s opinion
-Impairment of usefulness
-Possible questions for Ronald L. Ziegler
-$322,000
-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Possible resignations
-Effect on White House
-Involvement in cover-up

-Haldeman and Ehrlichman

-Dean

-Value to President under present circumstances

-President’s needs

-President’s schedule

-Willy Brandt
-European Economic Community
-North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO]
-Defense
-Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR]
-Quadriad
-Georges J. R. Pompidou
-Iceland
-Leonid I. Brezhnev
-Comparison with Sherman Adams and Dwight D. Eisenhower
-President’s needs
-George H. Bush, Clark MacGregor, George P. Shultz
-Opinion
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2011)

Conversation No. 904-8 (cont’d)

-Connally, Rogers, Bryce N. Harlow
-Opinion
-Effect on President’s effectiveness
-Presidency
-Public confidence
-Appearance of impropriety
-Possible resignations
-Timing
-President’s conversation with Petersen
-Grand jury leaks
-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Possible indictments
-Departures from White House staff
-Possible indictments
-Press
-Dean

-Presidency

-Possible statement on resignation

-Departures from White House staff

-Comparison with Dean
-Petersen
-Replacements
-Henry A. Kissinger
-Functions in White House
-Comparison with Adams and Eisenhower
-Adams
-Rowland R. Hughes

-Carey Estes Kefauver

-Dixon-Yates affair

-Gerald D. Morgan’s conversation with Wilson
-Jerry Persons
-Ehrlichman and Haldeman
-Congress
-Republicans
-Compared with Adams
-Henry Styles Bridges
-Relations with the White House staff
 -14-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2011)

Conversation No. 904-8 (cont’d)

-Demands for resignation
-Departures from staff

-Actions by President

-Mitchell trial

-Possible indictments

-Unindicted co-conspirators

-Action by President

-Leaves of absence

-Resignations

-Value to President

-Relations with Congress

-Patrick J. Buchanan, [Horace] Chapman (“Chappie”) Rose

-President’s fund problem in 1952

-President’s “Checkers” speech
-Robert A. Taft, Herbert C. Hoover, Jr., Arthur Summerfield
-Public support
-President’s Cambodia decision
-Confidence
-Bush, MacGregor
-Departures from staff
-Effect on Presidency
-Ehrlichman
-Hunt’s papers for L[ouis] Patrick Gray, III

-Dean’s role

-Ehrlichman’s knowledge of Dean’s activities

-Meeting with Dean and Gray
-Putative remark concerning Hunt leaving country
-Donald H. Segretti
-Strachan
-Haldeman
-Petersen

-Grand jury

-Conversations with President

-Dean
-Mitchell
-William G. Hundley
-Attorney
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2011)

Conversation No. 904-8 (cont’d)

-Relationship with Petersen
-Possible defense
-Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Colson
-Colson
-Recommendation to Ehrlichman
-Lawrence M. Higby
-Conversation with Dean
-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Representation by Wilson and Strickler
-Dean
-Possible testimony
-Conversation with President concerning Hunt
-President’s response
-Timing

-Conversations with Haldeman and Ehrlichman

-Conversation with President

-Bittman’s conversation with O’Brien concerning $120,000
-Haldeman’s presence
-President’s response
-$1,000,000
-Executive privilege
-Petersen
-Higby
-Conversation with Dean, April 24, 1973
-Dean as scapegoat
-Petersen
-Possible obstruction of justice by President
-Dean’s conversation with Higby
-President’s forthcoming conversation
-Petersen’s role
-Obstruction of justice
-Dean’s conversations with President
-Timing
-LaCosta meetings
-President’s knowledge
-Dean’s March 21, 1973, conversation with President
-President’s response
 -16-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. October-2011)

Conversation No. 904-8 (cont’d)

-Presidency compared with President
-Prosecutors
-Glanzer, Silbert, and staff
-Dean
-Negotiations with witnesses
-Immunity
-Dean
-Immunity
-Petersen’s responsibility
-President’s role
-President’s April 17, 1973, statement
-Dean’s possible testimony
-Quid pro quo agreement
-Lack of corroboration
-Local juries
-Racial and political makeup of jury
-Change of venue
-John J. Sirica
-Legal relationship with Wilson
-Attitude toward Republicans
-Sentence to G[eorge] Gordon Liddy
-Higby
-Conversation with Dean
-Petersen’s relationship with President

Presentation of gifts by President

-Inauguration

-Wife, girlfriend, daughter


Wilson and Strickler left at 10:46 am.
 -17-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. October-2011)