922–6

Conversation No. 922-6

Date: May 18, 1973
Time: 10:15 am - 10:40 am
Location: Oval Office

President met with Robert H. Finch.


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[Begin segment reviewed under deed of gift]

Politics

-Finch

-Political plans

-Governorship

-Alan Cranston

-Incumbency
-Power
-Senate

-Ronald W. Reagan

-John B. Connally

-Nelson A. Rockefeller

-Spiro T. Agnew

-Connally

-Possible political activities
-Primaries
-Stumping
-New Hampshire
-Rockefeller and Reagan
-Southern states
-New Hampshire
-Wisconsin
-Indiana
 -5-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 922-6 (cont’d)

-Reagan

-California

-Political activities

-Effect of presidential candidacy focus on party at large
-Edward M. (“Ted”) Kennedy
-Possible political activities
-Watergate
-Chappaquiddick
-Democrats
-Possible candidates for president
-Kennedy
-California
-Finch

-Political plans

-President’s views


[End segment reviewed under deed of gift]
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Energy

-President’s perspective

-Popular confusion

-Vacations

-Gas

-Automobiles


National economy

-Booming prosperity

-Inflation

-Employment

-Compared with 1971

-Possible recession

-Combined with inflation
-Finch’s conversation with George P. Shultz, May 17
-Finch’s candidacy
 -6-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 922-6 (cont’d)

Watergate
-John W. Dean III’s allegations
-Goal of President’s opponents
-John D. Ehrlichman, H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman and John N. Mitchell
-Possible White House response
-President’s resignation
-Dean

-Contacts with President

-Role

-Subornation of perjury
-Jeb S[tuart] Magruder
-Funds for defendants
-Central Intelligence Agency [CIA]
-CIA
-President’s beliefs

-Possible White House response

-Ervin Committee hearings

-Possible White House response

-President’s resignation
-Effects
-Foreign policy
-Agnew
-Don Budge

-Strategy

-President’s schedule

-Norfolk speech and Prisoner of War [POW] dinner
-Handling of domestic issues
-Henry A. Kissinger’s cables
-Soviet summit
-Leonid I. Brezhnev

-Ronald L. Ziegler’s press briefings

-Dean

-Contacts with Finch

-Relationship with Mitchell

-Arthur Krock’s statement

-Popular beliefs regarding President
 -7-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 922-6 (cont’d)

Finch’s commencement speech at Rockford College

-1960s

-Difficulty

-President’s accomplishments

-Optimism

-Stronger system

-Crime

-Safety

-Arms control

-Middle East

-Foreign policy


Finch

-Political plans

-Timing


Watergate

-Effect on President

-Haldeman and Ehrlichman

-Possible legal action
-Mitchell
-Possible legal action
-Ervin Committee hearings
-Effects on possible defendants
-Bobby G. Seale case
-Hearsay
-Maurice H. Stans’s mind


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[Begin segment reviewed under deed of gift]

Finch

-Political future

-Relations with Reagan

 -8-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. August-2011)

Conversation No. 922-6 (cont’d)

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


Finch left at 10:40 am.