880–18

Conversation No. 880-18

Date: March 15, 1973
Time: 4:18 pm-5:30 pm
Location: Oval Office

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

George T. Bell
-Death
-Personality
-Wealth
-Cause of death
-Cancer
-Religion
-Christian Scientist
-Call to hospital
-Company
-Sale
-Retirement
-Work in 1968 campaign
-Citizens for Nixon
-Work in White House
-Personnel office
-Charles W. Colson

Ralph H. Cake
-President's call
-Cake's response
-State of health

Telephone calls
-Death
-Comments
-Preparation
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-10)


-Praise of staff
-News summaries
-Rose Mary Woods

President's press conference
-Announcement of People's Republic of China [PRC] liaison office
-historic significance
-Question and answer session
-Press responses
-Donald H. Segretti case
-Watergate
-John W. Dean, III's testimony
-Eugene V. Risher's question
-Dean's testimony
-President's handling
-Ziegler's responses to questions
-President's conversation
-Previous mistake
-Dwight L. Chapin
-Recommendation of Segretti
-Ziegler's denial of a story
-Veracity
-Chapin
-Relationship with Segretti
-Ziegler's answers to questions

Ziegler entered at 4:19 pm.

-China announcement
-Press questions
-Watergate
-Dean
-Executive privilege
-L[ouis] Patrick Gray, III
-Dr. David K. E. Bruce appointment
-Timing
-President's handling
-Press response to President's appearance
-Comparison with John F. Kennedy, Jr., Dwight D. Eisenhower and Lyndon
B. Johnson

Prisoners of war [POWs]
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-10)
Conversation No. 880-18 (cont’d)


-Press coverage
Gen. John P. Flynn
-Public reactions

Press relations
-North Vietnam
-National Broadcasting Company [NBC]
-Infiltration
-US response
-Lead stories
-PRC initiative
-Bruce
-Significance
-Lack of press interest
-Press conference
-Questions on Watergate, Dean
-Risher
-PRC
-Wire service
-Clark R. Mollenhoff
-Question on PRC liaison
-Significance
-PRC liaison
-Follow-up questions
-John T. Downey
-Bruce
-Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR]
-Taiwan
-Meeting with PRC
-Ambassadorship

Press conferences
-Tone
-Patrick J. Buchanan
-Colson
-Importance
-Nature of questions
-New York Times reporter
-[First name unknown] Kenwick [?]
-Question for President
-President's answer
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-10)
Conversation No. 880-18 (cont’d)


-Next press conference
-Scheduling
-State of the Union Address
-Television [TV] coverage
-State of the Union Address
-Timing
- Nguyen Van Thieu's visit
-Prime time TV coverage
-Watergate
-Aid to India and Pakistan
-Questions
-Responses
-Watergate
-Ervin Hearings
-Comments
-Maurice H. Stans' civil suit
-Comment
-President's statements
-Stans
-Ervin hearings
-Watergate
-Dean
-Segretti
-Ziegler's responses
-Democrats
-Food prices

United States Department of Agriculture [USDA] release
-Food prices
-Virginia H. Knauer
-Housewives
-Bargain list
-Influence on prices
-Price controls
-Boycott of meat
-Limits on purchasing
-Knauer
-Potential press coverage
-POWs
-Lack of meat
-Health
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-10)
Conversation No. 880-18 (cont’d)


-Meat
-Necessity
-Protein

Press conference
-George P. Shultz
-Soviet Jews
-Questions
-Shultz's trip
-Important issues
-Lack of interest
-Tariffs
-USDA
-Congress
-Stockpiling
-Question by Forrest Boyd
-Importance
-National security
-Influence on pricing
-Copper, tin stockpiles
-Necessity
-Frequency
-Variation of intervals
-Staggered times
-Handling of press
-Benefits for administration
-TV coverage

Memorandum on Thelma C. (“Pat”) Nixon to Ronald L. Ziegler
-Book
-Copies to Julie Nixon Eisenhower and Tricia Nixon Cox
-Mrs. Nixon's activities and offices
-Cancer Society
-Developmentally disabled children
-Chairmanships

Henry A. Kissinger entered at 4:45 pm.

Congressional relations
-Administration's record
-Information
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-10)
Conversation No. 880-18 (cont’d)


-Openness
-Dean
-Appearance before Congress
-Lyndon B. Johnson
-Walter W. Jenkins
-Private materials
-Access
-Republicans
-Johnson’s staff
-Homosexuality
-Blackmail
-Robert D. (“Bobby”) Baker
-Publicity for administration's record
-Positive stand

President's foreign travel
-Latin America
-William P. Rogers
-Visit
-Africa visits
-“Police states”
-Brazil
-Safety
-Brasilia
-Intelligence analysis
-Caracas, Venezuela
-Guerrilla activity
-Risk of another incident
-Brazil
-Brazilia
-Jamaica
-Nicaragua
-Latin American summit
-Brasilia
-Mexican president
-Cozumel
-Yucatan Peninsula
-Island
-Press statements
-Trips under consideration
-Lee Kuan Yew’s visit
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-10)
Conversation No. 880-18 (cont’d)


-Guilio Andreotti’s visit
-Willy Brandt
-Visit
-Domestic situation
-US-Europe relations
-Personality
-Record as Berlin mayor
-John V. Lindsay
-New York mayor

Georges J. R. Pompidou
-Kissinger’s letter
-Election
-President's response to results
-Washington Post reports
-Gen. Charles A. J. M. deGaulle
-Harry S. Truman
-Leftist parties
-Splits
-Socialists
-Communists
-Separation of candidates
-Plurality
-Votes
-Majority in assembly

Press conference by Ziegler
-Watergate
-Mansfield amendment on European troop withdrawal
-President's opposition
-Statement for press
-Mutual reductions
-Compared with unilateral reductions
-Influence on negotiations
-Vietnam peace settlement
-Democratic partisanship
-Michael J. (“Mike”) Mansfield

Ziegler left at 4:47 pm.

Joseph Simpson Farland
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-10)
Conversation No. 880-18 (cont’d)


-Appointment as ambassador
-Health problems
-Heart
-Altitude
-Treatment
-Iran
-Greece

Ambassadors
-Pakistan
-Germany
-Thomas Vail
-Farland
-Netherlands
-Switzerland
-Canada
-[First name unknown] Safer [?]
-Kissinger's opinion
-Judiasm
-Farland
-Canada
-Argentina
-Safer [?]
-Mexico
-[First name unknown] Reynolds
-Columbia
-Farland
-Canada
-Vail
-Germany
-Kissinger’s telephone call
-Argentina
-Importance
-Peronists
-Danger

Plot against Richard M. Helms
-Anatoliy F. Dobrynin’s information
-Tehran
-Iraq
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-10)
Conversation No. 880-18 (cont’d)



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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5
[NATIONAL SECURITY]
[DURATION: 4S]

Iran

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Ambassadors

Arms control committee
-David Packard
-Appointment
-John J. McCloy

President's meeting with Max M. Fisher
-Garment
-Sisco
-Fisher's support for Middle East post
-Experience
-Rogers
-Work with Israel

Haldeman left at 5:05 pm.

Agreement on the Prevention of Nuclear War
-Mutual and Balanced Force Reduction [MBFR]
-Annual report on foreign policy
-Kissinger’s staff
-Foreign service
-Ambassadors
-Circulation
-Nixon Doctrine
-President’s role
-Rogers
-Kissinger's draft
-Great Britain
 46-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-10)
Conversation No. 880-18 (cont’d)


-Article 1
-Draft
-Tediousness
-Consultation
-Reaction of USSR
-Article 4
-Article 5
-Condominium
-PRC
-Reactions
-Article 1
-USSR
-Great Britain

Manolo Sanchez entered at an unknown time after 5:05 pm.

Refusal [?]

Sanchez left at an unknown time before 5:30 pm.

Agreement on the Prevention of Nuclear War
-Draft language
-Use of nuclear weapons
-Press coverage
-Article 4
-Condominium
-PRC
-Reactions
-Great Britain
-North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO]
-Meaning of treaty
-Great Britain
-Definitions
-Counterproposal by USSR
-Motives of USSR
-Détente
-Ban on nuclear weapons
-Impact on American pacifists
-Trident construction
-Administration responses
-Provisions of treaty
 47-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-10)
Conversation No. 880-18 (cont’d)


-Effectiveness
-Administration's statements
-Elimination of threat
-Article 2
-Conditions

Haldeman's job
-Lack of complaint
-Importance
-Quality of work

Agreement on the Prevention of Nuclear War
-Détente
-Cost
-US efforts
-Crisis
-Effects
-Restraint
-Middle East crisis
-Vietnam settlement
-Europe

Effects of détente
-Diplomatic setbacks for USSR
-Leonid I. Brezhnev
-Survival
-Middle East
-Troop withdrawal
-Vietnam War
-Bombing of North Vietnam
-Europe
-Settlement of Berlin
-Strategic Arms Limitation Talks [SALT]
-Effects on weapon programs
-Intangible feeling of détente
-Relationship to US interests
-SALT
-Domestic support
-President’s opponents
-PRC-US relations
-Military support
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-10)
Conversation No. 880-18 (cont’d)


-Détente with USSR
-USSR as aggressors
-Europe and Japan
-Weakness
-Japan
-Dangers
-PRC
-Aggression

PRC
-Ambassador to US
-Ally to President

President's press conference
-Press relations
-Haldeman
-Ziegler
-PRC liaison office
-Press indifference
-News reports
-President’s PRC policy
-Compared to Watergate
-Dean
-Historical significance
-News reports
-Watergate
-Food prices
-President's comments
-Personnel replacement in Vietnam
-Need for correction
-Issue of legality
-Effect on strategic balance
-Equipment
-Journalists’ calls to Kissinger
-George Sherman, Robert C. Toth
-North Vietnamese infiltration reports


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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 7
[NATIONAL SECURITY]
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-10)
Conversation No. 880-18 (cont’d)


[DURATION: 9S]

Communication

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 7
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Vietnam
-Infiltration
-US calculation of rates
-Laos
Press conference responses

US relations with USSR
-Middle East
-Pressure
-Peace
-USSR-Egyptian relations
-US-Egyptian discussions
-Hafez Ismail
-Brezhnev
-Dobrynin
-Brezhnev’s message


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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 8
[NATIONAL SECURITY]
[DURATION: 15S]

Israeli intelligence

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 8
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President's press conference
-Warning to North Vietnam
-Ziegler
-Journalists’ calls to Kissinger
-Sherman, Toth
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. June-10)


-President’s credibility

Vietnam
-Adm. Thomas H. Moorer's plans
-Air strikes, sorties
-Number
-B-52s
-Ho Chi Minh Trail
-Note to North Vietnam
-Reply
-Dobrynin
-PRC
-Prisoners of war [POWs] release
-Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
-Thieu's visit to US
-Timing of bombing
-Bombing resumption
-Risk to peace
-POWs
-Warnings
-US concerns
-Replacement personnel
-Effect on strategic balance
-Cease-fire violations
-Infiltration
-President's responses at press conference

Kissinger's meeting with Dobrynin
-Subject of meeting
-Message from President
-US public opinion

Detente
-Congressional action on military budget
-US military strength
-Possible provocations from USSR
-Relaxation
-President’s image
-“Old Cold Warrior”
-President's critics
-Chemical weapons
-SALT
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
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-PRC
-Lack of substance
-Negotiations
-Future problems
-Fragility of peace
-Nature of Russian people
-Overthrow of communism in USSR
-History of Russian expansion
-German people
-Compared to Russians
-Geographic position in Europe
-Expansionism 1890-1940
-Unification in 1871
-Past disunity
-Prussia
-Saxony
-Wars on German soil

Kissinger's meeting with Dobrynin
-Dobrynin's knowledge of US actions
-Brezhnev
-Harry S. Truman and Franklin D. Roosevelt's relations with Josef V. Stalin
-Desire for peace
-Diplomacy
-Reputation in history
-Possible motives
-Relaxation of tensions
-Splitting Europe from US
-Peace
-Story of Brezhnev’s father
-World War I
-World peace
-Monument

Kissinger left at 5:30 pm.