437-019b

Conversation No. 437-19

Date: May 18, 1973
Time: 3:35pm - 4:34 pm
Location: Old Executive Office Building

The President met with H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman.

Watergate

-Haldeman’s previous meeting with Alexander M. Haig, Jr.

 -26-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 437-19 (cont’d)

-John D. Ehrlichman
-Suspicions
-Attitude toward facts
-Opinions regarding the President
-Desire for full disclosure
-Full disclosure
-President’s speech
-White Paper
-Effect on Ehrlichman and Haldeman
-John J. Wilson’s opinion
-President’s conversation with Henry E. Petersen and Richard G. Kleindienst,
April 15
-Resignations
-Haldeman, Ehrlichman and John W. Dean III
-Importance of the President’s continuance in office
-Pardons

-Haldeman and Ehrlichman

-John N. Mitchell

-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Innocence
-Possible indictments
-President’s knowledge
-$350,000 used for cover-up
-Haldeman’s knowledge
-Herbert W. Kalmbach’s activities
-Ehrlichman
-Staff members’ memoranda of conversation [memcons] and notes
-President’s ownership
-Executive privilege
-President’s conversations with Haldeman
-Purpose
-Executive privilege
-Purpose
-Coverage
-Ehrlichman’s possible release of information
-Ervin Committee
-Dean
 -27-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 437-19 (cont’d)

-Attempts to involve President

-Bruce A. Kehrli

-President’s schedule logs

-Possible future allegations
-Dean
-President’s forthcoming speech
-$350,000
-President’s knowledge

-Haldeman’s knowledge

-Need for full disclosure and avoidance of lying

-Clemency
-Ehrlichman’s conversation with the President at San Clemente
-Ehrlichman’s defense
-Presidency
-Full disclosure
-Issuance of White Paper
-President’s forthcoming speech
-Content
-Wiretaps
-Henry A. Kissinger’s involvement
-Plumbers
-J. Edgar Hoover
-John J. (“Jack”) Caulfield and Charles W. Colson
-Caulfield
-Activities
-Ehrlichman and Dean
-Conversation with James W. McCord regarding clemency
-Mitchell
-Bugging
-Approval
-Ehrlichman’s possible statement
-Conversation with the President at San Clemente regarding clemency
-President’s approval
-Money
-Ehrlichman’s knowledge
-President’s knowledge
-Purpose for raising
 -28-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 437-19 (cont’d)

-Kalmbach

-President’s knowledge

-Timing

-Dean

-Feelings concerning Ehrlichman

-Meeting with the President and Haldeman, March 21

-Subornation of perjury
-Guilt of Mitchell and Jeb S[tuart] Magruder
-Planning and approval
-McCord
-Mitchell, Dean, Liddy
-Dean

-Veracity

-Role

-Central Intelligence Agency [CIA]

-Attempt to put Watergate defendants on payroll

-Meeting with Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] and CIA
-President’s subsequent order to Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Meeting with Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Haldeman’s and Ehrlichman’s meeting with Lt. Gen. Vernon A.
Walters and Richard M. Helms
-National security
-Walters’s conversation with L. Patrick Gray
-Mitchell
-Mitchell
-Role
-Robert L. Vesco
-William J. Casey
-Vesco

-Ehrlichman

-F. Donald A. Nixon


Spiro T. Agnew
-Grand jury in Maryland

$65,000 for Lowell P. Weicker
 -29-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 437-19 (cont’d)


Watergate
-Ervin Committee
-Kehrli’s testimony
-Edward J. Gurney
-Haldeman’s possible testimony
-Effect on possible prosecutions
-Comparison to Bobby G. Seale case


*****************************************************************


BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5

[National security]

[Duration: 26 s ]


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5

*****************************************************************


Watergate

-Haldeman and Ehrlichman

-Possible trials

-Administration’s other agenda items
-Soviet Union
-People’s Republic of China [PRC]
-Problem of documentation

-President’s possible resignation

-Impeachment

-House of Representatives procedures
-Popular support for the President
-Haig
-Raymond K. Price, Jr. and Leonard Garment
-President’s possible response

-Ehrlichman

-Possible speech

 -30-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 437-19 (cont’d)

-Tone and content
-Caulfield
-Colson
-Dean
-Ehrlichman
-Conversation with McCord regarding immunity
-Position in government
-Treasury Department
-Mitchell
-Role
-Possible testimony
-Presidency
-Dean
-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Dean
-Statements regarding meetings with the President
-Kleindienst
-Possible conversations with Mitchell
-Role
-Motives
-Attempted CIA cover-up
-Walters’s memcons
-Dean
-Role
-Motives
-Appearance with Walter L. Cronkite, Jr., May 17
-Desire for immunity
-Possible deal with Justice Department
-Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Possible evidence against Haldeman and Ehrlichman
-Mitchell
-Guilt
-Vesco
-F. Donald A. Nixon
 -31-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 437-19 (cont’d)

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

Watergate

-Vesco

-F. Donald A. Nixon

-Activities


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


Watergate
-Vesco

-Mitchell

-Maurice H. Stans

-Mitchell

-Mitchell
-Perjury
-Robert C. Odle, Jr.’s testimony
-Role in campaign
-Magruder’s possible testimony
-Magruder
-Possible testimony
-Meeting with Mitchell and Frederick La Rue
-President’s forthcoming speech on full disclosure
-Need for truth
-Fundraising
-Ehrlichman


*****************************************************************


BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 6

[Statute]

[Duration: 50 s ]

 -32-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 437-19 (cont’d)

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 6

*****************************************************************


Watergate
-Fundraising

-President’s knowledge

-Motive

-Payment of legal expenses

-Odle

-Gordon C. Strachan

-Strachan
-Magruder’s possible testimony
-Bugging reports
-Wiretaps
-President’s access to reports
-Kissinger


*****************************************************************


BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 8

[Statute]

[Duration: 2 m ]


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 8

*****************************************************************


Watergate
-President’s forthcoming speech

-Walters

-Timing

-Committee hearings

-Caulfield
 -33-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 437-19 (cont’d)

-Need for truth

-Content

-Ervin Committee

-Witness list

-Haldeman, Ehrlichman and Mitchell

-Schedule

-Motive

-Hearings

-Members
-Samuel J. Ervin, Jr.
-Joseph M. Montoya
-Daniel K. Inouye
-Howard H. Baker, Jr.
-Quotes from Washington Post
-Gurney
-Weicker
-Haldeman’s forthcoming conversation with Haig

-President’s forthcoming speech

-Possible effects

-White Paper

-Haldeman’s possible review

-Statements by Ehrlichman and Haldeman

-President’s forthcoming speech

-Timing


President’s schedule
-Camp David
-Norfolk, Virginia

Watergate
-President’s forthcoming speech

-Viewers’ possible reaction

-Tone

-President’s possible response
-President’s role in world

-Effect on the President

-Aims of the President’s opponents

 -34-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 437-19 (cont’d)

-Colson
-Role
-Caulfield
-President’s possible response
-President’s enemies
-Resignation
-Effects

-President

-Nation

-World

-President’s role
-Ehrlichman
-Conversations with President regarding payoff
-Hunt
-Colson
-Conversation with President regarding Hunt
-Dorothy Hunt’s death
-Possible actions
-Dean
-Possible White House response
-Ziegler
-Role
-Subornation of perjury
-Magruder
-Conversation with Liddy regarding Mitchell, June 19
-Subsequent conversation with Ehrlichman and Haldeman
-Timing
-Content
-President’s statement to Henry E. Petersen

-Conversations with Haldeman

-O’Brien

-Magruder

-Payoff to William Bittman
-Mitchell’s meeting in Haldeman’s office, March 22
-Dean
-Possible telephone conversations from Camp David to President
-White House response
 -35-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 437-19 (cont’d)

-Protection of Ehrlichman and Haldeman
-Veracity
-Ziegler [?]
-Ehrlichman
-Meeting arrangement
-President’s role
-President’s assurance

Haldeman left at 4:34 pm.