Thursday, May 4, 2006

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Some of what was on the nixon tapes...

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From Nixon's Last Tapes

In 1971 United States President Richard M. Nixon secretly began to make tapes of his conversations in the White House. The recordings later served as evidence that helped Congress in its impeachment proceedings against Nixon, prior to his resignation in 1974. In the following transcripts from tapes recorded in 1971 and 1972, Nixon and his closest advisers discuss how to “get” the people Nixon felt were his enemies and how to cover up their own criminal acts. The methods they discuss include spying on the perceived adversaries, leaking compromising information to the press, and illegally using the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to scrutinize tax returns. The following tapes were released to the public in 1996 following the settlement of a lawsuit filed by historian Stanley I. Kutler. Kutler wrote the introductions to these excerpts, which together appeared in his book Abuse of Power: The New Nixon Tapes (1997).



Nixon's Last Tapes
July 1, 1971: The President, Haldeman, and Kissinger, 8:45-9:52 a.m. Oval Office
Segment 6
Within a week after the publication of the Pentagon Papers, the President had authorized the creation of a secret, special White House investigations unit to “stop security leaks and to investigate other sensitive security matters.” Thus, Nixon called into being the “Plumbers,” headed by Egil Krogh and David Young, and including E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy. For Nixon, the Plumbers was his means of matching the tactics of his enemies and the deviousness of their conspiracy against him. On July 1, Colson asked Hunt in a telephone conversation, “Should we go down the line to nail the guy [Daniel Ellsberg] cold?” Hunt replied affirmatively. Earlier that day, Nixon elaborated on his other counterattacks against leakers, drawing on his own experience in the Alger Hiss case.

President Nixon: …Let me show you what happened [in the Hiss case]. I know who was against it. [Tom] Clark, who literally became a judge in the Supreme Court, Tom Clark was the attorney general. He's a good man actually. He even told me that he was against it. If I were called before a grand jury in New York and told to give up the [profanity omitted] papers to the grand jury, I [would have] refused.… I said I will not give up papers to the Department of Justice because they're out to clear Hiss. I played it in the press like a mask. I leaked out the papers. I leaked everything, I mean, everything that I could. I leaked out the testimony. I had Hiss convicted before he ever got to the grand jury. And then when the grand jury got there, the Justice Department trying desperately to clear him and couldn't do it. The grand jury indicted him and then a good Irish U.S. attorney, [Thomas] Murphy, prosecuted him.

Now, why would I do that? I did that because I knew I was fighting people who had power and who'd go—the FBI didn't even play with it. Edgar Hoover, he didn't play with him until after they got the indictment and you just read that story of the Hiss case and mine [in Six Crises] … you'll see what I mean. It's true.…

Now, how do you fight this [Ellsberg case]? You can't fight this with gentlemanly gloves. You appear to be. Now Ehrlichman is going to go forward on this thing [declassification project] on this same basis.… The second point is that beyond that, though, I am taking charge of all the rest. And I am going to have it done by somebody other than Ehrlichman.

Kissinger: You mean, like, the Cuban missile crisis?

President Nixon: I mean everything. I mean, we will leak—we're going to leak out bits and pieces of—first of all, there are two different things. The conspiracy. All at once we find with regard to the conspiracy there's going to be leaked to columnists [profanity omitted]. This [NSC official, first name unknown] Cooke, I want to get him killed. Let him get in the papers and deny it.

Kissinger: Well, I, frankly, think he ought to be fired, Mr. President. Cooke admits now he gave it to Ellsberg, but he says Ellsberg was working for the Rand Corporation and, therefore—

President Nixon: And, therefore, it was not as legal.

[Withdrawn item. National Security.]

Kissinger: Cooke admits that he gave the papers to Ellsberg and then they'll be in the Washington press.…

President Nixon: …[W]hy does Elliot [Richardson] sit there and defend [him].

Kissinger: I must say, Mr. President, it's inexcusable. He ought to be out by the end of the day today and Ellsberg—anyone who gives a paper to Ellsberg.

President Nixon: No. I'm not satisfied with this Cooke thing. I personally think he should be out. I will not talk to Elliot about it. Now you try to work it out any way you can. If he does not want him out, then I want you to find a way to get the story out on him. Now, do you understand what I'm talking about, Bob?

All right. Get Colson in. Get a story out and get one to a reporter who will use it. Give them the facts and we will kill him in the press. Is that clear? And I play it gloves off. Now, [profanity omitted] get going on it.

September 8, 1971: The President and Ehrlichman, 3:36-5:10 p.m., Oval Office
On the night of September 3-4, the White House 'Special Investigative Unit,' led by E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, illegally entered the offices of Dr. Lewis Fielding, a Beverly Hills psychiatrist who numbered Daniel Ellsberg among his patients. Here, Ehrlichman tells Nixon about 'one little operation,' quickly adding that it 'is better that you don't know about this.' The two also discuss using the IRS to harass Senators Muskie and Humphrey, and Ehrlichman reports on his agents' and his own surveillance of Senator Edward Kennedy.

Segment 1
President Nixon: Where does [Egil] Krogh stand now? He's still in charge of the—

Ehrlichman: He’s doing the (unintelligible) the narcotics thing. But he’s also spending most of his time on the Ellsberg, declassifications, and the dirty tricks business on getting stuff out.…

Segment 2
Ehrlichman: We had one little operation. It's been aborted out in Los Angeles which, I think, is better that you don't know about. But we've got some dirty tricks underway. It may pay off. We've planted a bunch of stuff with columnists, some of which will be given to service shortly, I think, about some of this group, about Ellsberg's lawyer, about the Bay of Pigs. Some of this stuff is going to start—is going to start surfacing.

President Nixon: With columnists that are somewhat respectable?

Ehrlichman: Yes. [Jerald] TerHorst and people like that.

President Nixon: Good.

Ehrlichman: We're running into a little problem. I've got to talk to Helms about getting some documents which the CIA have on the Bay of Pigs and things like that which they would rather not leak out. [Chuckles] It's a challenge.

President Nixon: It's going to be hard. They are very sensitive about that. Helms is definitely the one (unintelligible) now for CIA and the Bay of Pigs.

Ehrlichman: They're all new ones.

President Nixon: Yeah … Henry [Kissinger] can sort it out because so many of the people involved are, frankly, closely associated with him.

Ehrlichman: Well, that's one of the things that we keep bumping into.…

President Nixon: Now, Ellsberg has been to his house and so on before.…

Segment 3
President Nixon: John, but we have the power but are we using it to investigate contributors to Hubert Humphrey, contributors to Muskie, the Jews, you know, that are stealing every—. You know, they have really tried to crucify Ho[bart] Lewis, Rob[ert] Abplanalp, I mean, while we've been in office even.

Ehrlichman: I know.

President Nixon: And John Wayne, of course, and Paul Keyes. After 1964 he does one stinking commercial.… Made him a Goddamn martyr. What the hell are we doing?

Ehrlichman: I don't know.

President Nixon: You see, we have a new man over there. I know the other guy didn't do anything, but—

Ehrlichman: Oh, you mean at IRS?

President Nixon: Yeah. Why are—are we going after their tax returns. Do you know what I mean?… Do you remember in 1962? Do you remember what they [IRS] did to me in California? After those [profanity omitted] came out, … I find—finally, now they owe me more money…. And on the IRS, you could—are we looking into Muskie's return?

Ehrlichman: No, we haven't.

President Nixon: Hubert? Hubert's been in a lot of funny deals.

Ehrlichman: Yes, he has.

President Nixon: Teddy [Kennedy]? Who knows about the Kennedys? Shouldn't they be investigated?…

Ehrlichman: IRS-wise I don't know the answer. Teddy, we are covering—

President Nixon: Are you?

Ehrlichman: —personally, when he goes on holidays. When he stopped in Hawaii on his way back from Pakistan last Thanksgiving.

President Nixon: Do anything?

Ehrlichman: No. No. He's very clean. Very clean. Being careful now. He was in Hawaii on his own. He was staying at some guy's villa and we had a guy on him, and he was just as nice as he could be the whole time.

President Nixon: The thing to do is to just watch him because what happens to fellows like that who have that kind of problem is that they go for awhile and then they open out.

Ehrlichman: That's what I'm hoping for.… This time between now and the convention time may be the time (unintelligible).

President Nixon: You mean, that he will be under great pressure?

Ehrlichman: He will be under pressure, but he will also be out of the limelight somewhat. Now he was in Hawaii pretty much the entire time, with very little staff.… So you would expect that at a time like that you might catch him. And then he went up to Hyannis and we got an arrangement—

President Nixon: What's Muskie doing? What kind of a life is he living?

Ehrlichman: Very close group, very monkish.… Yeah. Big family. He's got six kids. And very ordinary type of life. So, Teddy—we were over on Martha's Vineyard last week. I had never seen that bridge before on Chappaquiddick, the Edgartown Ferry.… Having seen it now, I would bet he stopped that night. I don't see why they—you know, they could build a bridge across there. It's a very short distance.… So it was quite interesting. I took some pictures of it. What amazed me is how short a distance it really was. But we do cover him.

President Nixon: He will never live that down.

Ehrlichman: No. I don't think he will, not that one.

President Nixon: I think that will be around his neck forever. Remember, his wife asked for a divorce.

Ehrlichman: Divorce?

President Nixon: Yeah.…

Ehrlichman: But this thing has a geographic identity which is interesting and they tell me that the business side apparently has tripled since this accident, people going over to look at the bridge. He's getting into the folklore.…

September 12, 1971: The President and Ehrlichman, 5:15-5:31 p.m., White House Telephone
This conversation concerns legal questions involving the President's Key Biscayne properties, a subject of later dispute. A brief fragment here demonstrates that John Dean was a familiar figure to him—not unknown, as Nixon contended in 1973.

President Nixon: The other thing that occurred to me was that it seems to me that when Dean gets the questions and this sort of business and forth on (unintelligible)—

Ehrlichman: Uh-huh.

President Nixon: Rather than just a straight stonewaller, or maybe he is doing this, what he ought to do is simply to hand them a photostat copy of the release we put out and say this was the President's position. It was fully disclosed and there has been no change.

Ehrlichman: Well, as a matter of fact, we have—we've reprinted that release.

President Nixon: Good.

Ehrlichman: And we keep handing it out.

President Nixon: Good.

Ehrlichman: Right along in response to the question—

President Nixon: And then Dean should say that is a total disclosure—

Ehrlichman: Uh-huh.

President Nixon: —and there is no change.

September 13, 1971: The President and Haldeman, 4:36-5:05 p.m., Oval Office
Furious that his friend, the Reverend Billy Graham, is being 'harassed' by the IRS, Nixon orders retaliation.

President Nixon: …I'm sure of [John] Connally. But Billy Graham tells an astonishing thing. The IRS is battering [profanity omitted] him. [Someone] came to him and gave him a three-hour grilling about how much he … is worth and he told it to Connally. Well, Connally took the name of the guy. I just got to get that nailed down to Connally when you get back. He didn't know it. Now here's the point. Bob, please get me the names of the Jews, you know, the big Jewish contributors of the Democrats.… All right. Could we please investigate some of the [profanity omitted]? That's all.

Now look at here. Here IRS is going after Billy Graham tooth and nail. Are they going after Eugene Carson Blake [President of the National Council of Churches, a liberal group]? …I just don't know whether we are being as rough about it. That's all.…

Haldeman: Yeah.

President Nixon: You call [John] Mitchell. Mitchell could get—stick his nose in the thing.… Say, now, [profanity omitted], are we going after some of these Democrats or not? They've gone after Abplanalp. They've gone after Rebozo. They've gone after John Wayne. They're going after, you know, every one of our people. [Profanity omitted]. [T]hey were after me.… Somebody told me that Muskie used Frank Sinatra's plane in California. Did you hear of that? Maybe we should investigate that?

Haldeman: Yeah. It, also, landed at the wrong airport. [Chuckles]

September 14, 1971: The President, Haldeman, and Colson, 12:37-1:32 p.m., Oval Office
Nixon continues to rage about the IRS and his friends. Colson then joins the conversation, offering his special contributions to White House political dirty tricks.

Segment 1
Haldeman: We do have a system. I did some checking yesterday.

President Nixon: Good.

Haldeman: We do have a list. We do have, for instance, they've opened—and it may be interesting, as a matter of fact. On the guy that's running that Rebozo investigation, the New York IRS office has opened a check on him and think they may have something.…

President Nixon: Good. What about the rich Jews?

Haldeman: Well, that's—

President Nixon: You see, IRS is full of Jews, Bob.

Haldeman: Right.

President Nixon: That's what I think. I think that's the reason they're after Graham, is the rich Jews.

Haldeman: Well, the point that they took is that they've got to get the kind of guy—we're not just interested—we don't want to see the files.

President Nixon: We're trying to get anything on them.

Haldeman: But what we want to do is get a zealot who dislikes those people just as much as the zealot who dislikes Billy Graham—

President Nixon: Sure.

Haldeman: —is working on his file.

President Nixon: Sure.

Haldeman: In other words, don't just get—

President Nixon: Go after him [profanity omitted].

Colson: That's right.

Haldeman: And we've got—we did—

President Nixon: All right.

Haldeman: We have a go after the guy at the top who's cooperating but he's tied up with things. So they are going to be done in about anybody—just so we're reassured.…

Segment 2
Colson: Well, Bob Brown has some friends who are going to have signs around the Muskie rallies, [saying Carl] Stokes [the black mayor of Cleveland] for vice president. This raises the point—

Haldeman: I will hope the hell that Watts do go ahead with a black president candidate.

President Nixon: So do I.

Haldeman: In fact, Buchanan has come in with a suggestion that may make a lot of sense which is that—he says if we're going to spend $50 million in this campaign, then 10 percent of it, $5 million, ought to be devoted—

President Nixon: To the fourth party.

Haldeman: —to financing a black—

Colson: Shirley Chisholm and Julian Bond.

President Nixon: Do you think that the blacks will vote for a black party?

Haldeman: Some.

Colson: A lot of them will especially if—

Haldeman: Just to show that the Democratic party has no one…. But Pat's point is we've got to get a viable candidate—only if they get a viable candidate. If they got a Julian Bond—

President Nixon: Well, let me suggest this. Might—$5 million would finance Eugene McCarthy.

Haldeman: Well, that's—Howard Stein is working on that. There's a good story in the U.S. News, Newsweek, or something. Stein has outlined the McCarthy plan which is that he is not going to enter the primaries but he's going to do a major speaking tour next year will go to the convention as people—the Democratic convention as the people's candidate. If, as is expected, he's rejected by the convention, he will then go to the fourth party. The problem is that it's too late then to go to a fourth party. You have—it takes time to get a fourth party qualified.…

President Nixon: All right, Bob. Put that down for discussion—not for discussion but for action. They should finance and contribute both to McCarthy and to the black thing.

Colson: That's a helluva lot—

President Nixon: We're recognizing that McCarthy—the black won't take any votes from us. Just like the damn Democrats contributed to [George] Wallace in Alabama. They did, you know. They were praying for Wallace to win that primary.

Haldeman: Yeah.

Colson: That's a helluva lot better use of money than a lot of other things.

President Nixon: Oh, we spent—waste money on all sorts of things.

Haldeman: Okey-doke. What he's saying is, you know, instead of some television commercials—

President Nixon: Absolutely.

Haldeman: —we can do this.

Colson: Or billboards.

Haldeman: Because we're going to need the television commercials.

June 23, 1972: The President and Haldeman, 10:04-11:39 a.m., Oval Office
In three meetings on June 23, Nixon and Haldeman conduct what comes to be known as the 'smoking gun' conversation. They conspire to call in CIA Director Richard Helms and his deputy, General Vernon Walters (a longtime associate of the President's), and direct them to tell FBI Acting Director Pat Gray that the Bureau's investigation impinged on CIA operations. Haldeman has some concern: 'But we're relying on more and more people all the time.' Haldeman also speaks of pressure on CREEP [Committee to Re-Elect the President] aides to produce more 'information.' The tape was made public on August 5, 1974—too late for consideration by the House Impeachment Inquiry, but soon enough to allow most House Republicans to abandon the President and hasten his resignation.

Haldeman: OK, that's fine. Now, on the investigation, you know, the Democratic break-in thing, we're back to the … problem area because the FBI is not under control, because Gray doesn't exactly know how to control them, and … their investigation is now leading into some productive areas, because they've been able to trace the money, not through the money itself, but through the bank.… [A]nd it goes in some directions we don't want it to go.… [T]here have been some things, like an informant came in off the street to the FBI in Miami, who was a photographer, or has a friend who is a photographer who developed some films through this guy [Watergate burglar Bernard] Barker, and the films had pictures of Democratic National Committee letterhead[s] … Mitchell came up with yesterday, and John Dean analyzed very carefully last night and concludes—concurs—now with Mitchell's recommendation that the only way to solve this … is for us to have [Deputy CIA Director Vernon] Walters call Pat Gray and just say, 'Stay the hell out of this … this is ah, business here we don't want you to go any further on it.' That's not an unusual development.…

President Nixon: What about Pat Gray, you mean he doesn't want to?

Haldeman: Pat does want to. He doesn't know how to, and he doesn't have, he doesn't have any basis for doing it. Given this, he will then have the basis. He'll call Mark Felt in, and the two of them … and Mark Felt wants to cooperate because—

President Nixon: Yeah.

Haldeman: —he's ambitious.

President Nixon: Yeah.

Haldeman: He'll call him in and say, 'We've got the signal from across the river to, to put the hold on this.' And that will fit rather well because the FBI agents who are working the case, at this point, feel that's what it is. This is CIA.

President Nixon: But they've traced the money to 'em.

Haldeman: Well they have, they've traced to a name, but they haven't gotten to the guy yet.

President Nixon: Would it be somebody here?

Haldeman: Ken Dahlberg [who worked for prominent contributor Dwayne Andreas].

President Nixon: Who the hell is Ken Dahlberg?

Haldeman: He’s, he gave $25,000 in Minnesota and the check went directly in to this, to this guy, Barker.

President Nixon: Maybe he's a … bum. He didn't get this from the committee though, from Stans?

Haldeman: Yeah. It is. It is. It's directly traceable and there's some more through some Texas people in—that went to the Mexican bank which they can also trace to the Mexican bank.… They'll get their names today.…

President Nixon: I'm just thinking if they don't cooperate, what do they say? They, they, they were approached by the Cubans? That's what Dahlberg has to say, the Texans too. Is that the idea?

Haldeman: Well, if they will. But then we're relying on more and more people all the time. That's the problem. And they'll stop if we could, if we take this other step.

President Nixon: All right. Fine.

Haldeman: And, and they seem to feel the thing to do is get them to stop.

President Nixon: Right, fine.

Haldeman: They say the only way to do that is from White House instructions. And it's got to be to Helms and what's his name? [Deputy CIA Director General Vernon] Walters?

President Nixon: Walters.

Haldeman: And the proposal would be that Ehrlichman and I call him.

President Nixon: All right, fine.… How do you call him in, I mean you just—well, we protected Helms from one hell of a lot of things.

Haldeman: That's what Ehrlichman says.

President Nixon: Of course, this … Hunt, … that will uncover a lot of, a lot of—-you open that scab there’s a hell of a lot of things in that we just feel that this would be a very detrimental to have this thing go any further. This involves these Cubans, Hunt, and a lot of hanky-panky that we have nothing to do with ourselves. What the hell did Mitchell know about this thing to any much of a degree?

Haldeman: I think so. I don't think he knew the details, but I think he knew.

President Nixon: He didn't know how it was going to be handled though, with Dahlberg and the Texans and so forth? Well, [profanity omitted] did? Is it Liddy? Is that the fellow? He must be a little nuts.

Haldeman: He is.

President Nixon: I mean he just isn't well-screwed-on is he? Isn't that the problem?

Haldeman: No, but he was under pressure, apparently, to get more information, and as he got more pressure, he pushed the people harder to move harder on.

President Nixon: Pressure from Mitchell?

Haldeman: Apparently.…

President Nixon: All right, fine, I understand it all. We won't second-guess Mitchell and the rest. Thank God it wasn't Colson.

Haldeman: The FBI interviewed Colson yesterday. They determined that would be a good thing to do.… An interrogation, which he did, and that, the FBI guys working the case had concluded that there are one or two possibilities: one, that this was a White House [operation], they don't think that there is anything at the Election Committee—they think it was either a White House operation and they had some obscure reasons for it.… Or it was a—

President Nixon: Cuban thing—

Haldeman: —Cubans and the CIA. And after their interrogation of—

President Nixon: Colson.

Haldeman: —Colson, yesterday, they concluded it was not the White House, but are now convinced it's the CIA thing, so the CIA turnoff would—

President Nixon: Well, not sure of their analysis, I'm not going to get that involved.…

Haldeman: No, sir. We don't want you to.

President Nixon: You call them in. Good. Good deal. Play it tough. That's the way they play it and that's the way we are going to play it.

Haldeman: O.K. We'll do it.

President Nixon: Yeah, when I saw that news summary item, I of course knew it was a bunch of crap, but I thought, that, well it's good to have them off on this wild hare thing because when they start bugging us, which they have, we'll know our little boys will not know how to handle it. I hope they will though.

Haldeman: Good, you never know. Maybe, you think about it.…

President Nixon: When you get in these people … say: 'Look, the problem is that this will open the whole, the whole Bay of Pigs thing, and the President just feels that'—without going into the details—don't, don't lie to them to the extent to say there is no involvement, but just say this is sort of a comedy of errors, bizarre, without getting into it. 'The President's belief is that this is going to open the whole Bay of Pigs thing up again. And because these people are plugging for, for keeps, and that they should call the FBI in and say that we wish for the country, don't go any further into this case,' period.…

September 15, 1972: The President, Dean, and Haldeman, 5:27-6:17 p.m., Oval Office
This fateful meeting gives the lie to Nixon's later claims that he never met John Dean until late February 1973. Dean, the cover-up's chief field officer, reports to the man on top. Seven indictments had been handed down earlier in the day. Dean promises the President a clear path, at least through the November election. He talks about his effort to quash the proceedings of Wright Patman's House Bank and Currency Committee investigation, which looked very promising. From then on, the talk is a general, familiar one of the President's advocacy of war upon his enemies. This tape was used in the 1974 criminal trial of Nixon's top aides.

President Nixon: Well, you had quite a day today, didn't you? You got Watergate on the way, huh?

Dean: Quite a three months.

Haldeman: How did it all end up?

Dean: Uh, I think we can say 'well,' at this point. The, the press is playing it just as we expect.

Haldeman: Whitewash?

Dean: No, not yet; the, the story right now—

President Nixon: It's a big story.…

Haldeman: Five indicted—

Dean: Plus … two White House aides.

Haldeman: Plus, the White House former guy [Hunt] and all that. That's good. That, that takes the edge off whitewash really—which—that was the thing Mitchell kept saying that … to those in the country, Liddy and, and Hunt are big men.

Dean: That's right.

President Nixon: Yeah, they're White House aides.

Dean: That's right.…

President Nixon: We couldn't do that (unintelligible) just remember all the trouble they gave us on this. We'll have a chance to get back at them one day. How are you doing on your other investigations?…

Haldeman: What's happened on the bug?

President Nixon: …[O]n the what?

Haldeman: The bug.

Dean: The second bug. There was another bug found in the phone of, uh, the first—

President Nixon: You don't think it was one left over from the previous job?

Dean: …The Bureau [FBI] has checked and rechecked … and it was not there in the instrument.

President Nixon: What the hell do you think is involved? What's your guess?

Dean: I think the DNC [Democratic National Committee] did it, quite clearly.

President Nixon: You think they did it?

Dean: Uh, huh.

President Nixon: Deliberately?… Well, [profanity omitted] did they think that anybody was—they really want to believe that we planted that?

Haldeman: Did they get anything on the fingerprints?

Dean: No latents at all.… So, so, [Acting FBI Director L. Patrick] Gray is [profanity omitted] now and his people are [profanity omitted]. So they're moving in because their reputation's on the line. That's, uh, I think that's a good development.

President Nixon: I think that's a good development because it makes it look so [profanity omitted] phony, doesn't it? The whole—

Dean: Absolutely.

President Nixon: Or am I wrong?

Dean: No, no sir. It, it—

President Nixon: —looks silly.…

Dean: The resources that have been put against this whole investigation to date are really incredible. It's truly a … larger investigation than was conducted against—the after inquiry of the JFK assassination.

President Nixon: Oh.

Dean: And good statistics supporting that. Kleindienst is going to have a—

Haldeman: Isn't that ridiculous though?

Dean: What is?

Haldeman: This [profanity omitted] damn thing.

President Nixon: Yeah.

Haldeman: That kind of resources against—

President Nixon: Yeah, [profanity omitted].

Haldeman: Who the hell cares?

President Nixon: Goldwater put it in context, he said 'Well, [profanity omitted] everybody bugs everybody else.' We know that.

Dean: That was, that was priceless.

Haldeman: Yeah. I bugged—

President Nixon: Well, it's true. It happens to be totally true.… We were bugged in '68 on the plane and bugged in '62, even running for Governor. Damnedest thing you ever saw.

Dean: It was a shame that evidence of the fact that happened in '68 was never preserved around. I understand that only the former Director had that information.

Haldeman: No, that's not true.

Dean: There was direct evidence of it?

President Nixon: Yeah.

Haldeman: There's others who have that information.

President Nixon: Others know it.

Dean: [Former FBI Executive Cartha] DeLoach?

President Nixon: DeLoach, right.

Haldeman: I've got some stuff on it, too, in the bombing halt study. 'Cause it's all—that's why, the, the stuff I've got we don't—

President Nixon: The difficulty with using it, of course, is that, it reflects on Johnson.

Dean: Right.

President Nixon: He ordered it. If it weren't for that, I'd use it. Is there any way we could use it without reflecting on Johnson? How—now, could we say, could we say that the Democratic National Committee did it? No, the FBI did the bugging though.

Haldeman: That's the problem.

Dean: Is it going to reflect on Johnson or Humphrey?

Haldeman: Johnson. Humphrey didn't do it.

Dean: Humphrey didn't do it?

President Nixon: Oh, hell no.

Haldeman: He was bugging Humphrey, too [laughs].

President Nixon: Perhaps the Bureau ought to go over—[Noise]

Haldeman: The Bureau ought to go into Edward Bennett Williams and let's start questioning [him]. Keep him tied up for a couple of weeks.…

Dean: Another interesting thing that's developed is, regarding the private litigation we've got is the [Maurice] Stans libel action was assigned to Judge [Charles] Richey.

President Nixon: Oh, [profanity omitted].

Dean: Well, now, that's good and bad. Uh, Judge Richey is not known to be one of the intellects on the bench. That's conceded by many that he is.…

President Nixon: (Unintelligible) in his own stupid way he's sort of, uh.…

Dean: Three months ago I would have had trouble predicting where we'd be today. I think that I can say that fifty-four days [Election Day] from now that not a thing will come crashing down to our, our surprise.

President Nixon: Say what?

Dean: Nothing is going to come crashing down to our surprise, either—

President Nixon: Well, the whole thing is a can of worms, as you know. A lot of this stuff went on.… [B]ut the way you, you've handled it, it seems to me, has been very skillful, because you—putting your fingers in the dikes every time that leaks have sprung there.… The Grand Jury is dismissed now?

Dean: That is correct. They'll, they will have completed and they will let them go, so there will be no continued investigation prompted by the Grand Jury's inquiry. The, uh, GAO [General Accounting Office] report that was referred over to Justice is on a shelf right now because they have hundreds of violations. They've got violations of McGovern's; they've got violations of Humphrey's; they've got Jackson violations, and several hundred congressional violations. They don't want to start prosecuting one any more than they want the other. So that's, uh—

President Nixon: They damn well not prosecute us unless they prosecute all the others.…

What about, uh, uh, watching the McGovern contributors and all that sort of thing?

Dean: We've got a, we've got a hawk's eye on that.

President Nixon: Yeah.

Dean: And, uh, he is, he is not in full compliance.

President Nixon: He isn't?

Dean: No.…

President Nixon: They should just, just behave and, and, recognize this—this is, again, this is war. We're getting a few short and it'll be over, and we'll give them a few shots and it'll be over. Don't worry. I wouldn't want to be on the other side right now. Would you? I wouldn't want to be in Edward Bennett Williams's position after this election.

Dean: No. No.

President Nixon: None of these bastards—

Dean: He, uh, he's done some rather unethical things that have come to light already, which in—again, [Judge] Richey has brought to our attention.

President Nixon: Yeah.

Dean: He went down—

Haldeman: Keep a log on all that.

Dean: Oh, we are, indeed. Yeah.…

Haldeman: Because afterwards that's the guy,

President Nixon: We're going after him.

Haldeman: That's the guy we've got to ruin.…

President Nixon: You want to remember, too, he's an attorney for the Washington Post.

Dean: I'm well aware of that.

President Nixon: I think we are going to fix [him]. Believe me. We are going to. We've got to, because he's a bad man.

Dean: Absolutely.

President Nixon: He misbehaved very badly in the Hoffa matter. Our—some pretty bad conduct, there, too, but go ahead.

Dean: Well, that's, uh, along that line, uh, one of the things I've tried to do, is just keep notes on a lot of the people who are emerging as—

President Nixon: That's right.

Dean: —as less than our friends.

President Nixon: Great.

Dean: Because this is going to be over some day and they're—we shouldn't forget the way that some of them (unintelligible)—

President Nixon: I want the most, I want the most comprehensive notes on all of those that have tried to do us in. Because they didn't have to do it.

Dean: That's right.

President Nixon: They didn't have to do it. I mean, if … they had a very close election everybody on the other side would understand this game. But now [they] are doing this quite deliberately and they are asking for it and they are going to get it. And this, this—we, we have not used the power in this first four years, as you know.

Dean: That's true.

President Nixon: We have never used it. We haven't used the Bureau and we haven't used the Justice Department, but things are going to change now. And they're going to change, and, and they're going to get it right—

Dean: That's an exciting prospect.

President Nixon: It's got to be done. It's the only thing to do.

Haldeman: We've got to.

President Nixon: Oh, oh, well, we've just been, we've been just [profanity omitted] fools. For us to come into this election campaign and not do anything with regard to the Democratic Senators who are running, and so forth. They're, they're crooks, they've been stealing, they've been taking (unintelligible). That's ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. It's not going, going to be that way any more.…

Dean: I, I suppose the other area we are going to see some publicity on in the coming weeks because, uh, I think after the, now that the indictments are down, there's going to be a cresting on that. The whitewash charge of course, but I think we can handle that while the civil case is in abeyance. But [Congressman Wright] Patman's hearings, his Banking and Currency Committee, and we've got to—whether we will be successful or not in turning that off, I don't know. We've got a plan whereby [Henry] Rothblatt and [William] Bittman, who are counsel for the five men who were, or actually a total of seven, that were indicted today, are going to go up and visit every member and say, 'If you commence hearings you are going to jeopardize the civil rights of these individuals in the worst way, and they'll never get a fair trial,' and the like, and try to talk to members on, on that level. Uh—

President Nixon: Why not ask that they request to be heard by, by the Committee and explain it publicly?

Dean: Publicly, they've planned that. What they're going to say is, 'If you do commence with these hearings, we plan to publicly come up and say what you're doing to the rights of individuals.' Something to that effect.…

President Nixon: How about trying to get the criminal cases, criminal charges dismissed on the grounds that there, well, you know—

Haldeman: The civil rights type stuff.

Dean: Civil rights—well, that, we're working again, we've got somebody approaching the ACLU for these guys, and have them go up and exert some pressure because we just don't want Stans up there in front of the cameras with Patman and Patman asking all these questions. It's just going to be the whole thing, the press going over and over and over again. One suggestion was that [John] Connally is, is close to Patman and probably if anybody could talk turkey with Patman, Connally might be able to. Now I don't know if that's a good idea or not. I don't think he—don't know if he can. Jerry Ford is not really taking an active interest in this matter that, that is developing, so Stans can go see Jerry Ford and try to brief him and explain to him the problems he's got. And then the other thing we are going to do is we're looking at all the campaign reports of every member of that Committee because we are convinced that none of them have probably totally complied with the law either. And if they want to get into it, if they want to play rough, some day we better say, 'Well, gentlemen, we think we ought to call to your attention that you haven't complied with A, B, C, D, E, and F, and we're not going to hold that a secret if you start talking campaign violations here.'

President Nixon: Uh, what about Ford? Do you think so? Do you think he can do anything with Patman? Connally can't be sent up there.

Haldeman: No.…

Dean: That would be very helpful, to get our minority side at least together on the thing.

President Nixon: Jerry's really got to lead on this. He's got to really lead.

Haldeman: Jerry should, damn it. This is exactly the thing he was talking about, that the reason they are staying in is so that they can—

President Nixon: That's right.

Haldeman: —run investigations.

President Nixon: Well, the point is that they ought to raise hell about this, uh, this—these hearings are jeopardizing the—I don't know that … the counsel calling on the members of the Committee will do much good. I was, I—it may be all right but—I was thinking that they really ought to blunderbuss it in the public arena. You know what I mean, publicize.

Dean: Right.

Haldeman: Good.

Dean: Right.

President Nixon: That's what this is, public relations.…

Haldeman: …It has been kept away from the White House almost completely and from the President totally. The only tie to the White House has been the Colson effort they keep trying to haul in.…

Dean: The two former White House people, low level, indicted, one consultant and one member of the Domestic Council staff. That's not very much of a tie.

Haldeman: No.

President Nixon: Well, their names have been already mentioned.… You know, they've already been convicted in the press.… [Profanity omitted], if they'd been Communists you'd have the Washington Post and the New York Times raising hell about their civil rights.

Dean: That's right.

President Nixon: Or [Charles] Manson.…

Dean: …[I]t'd be just, you know, just a tragedy to let Patman have a field day up there.

President Nixon: What's the first move? When does he call his wit—witnesses?

Dean: Well, he, he has not even gotten the vote of his Committee; he hasn't convened his Committee yet on whether he can call hearings. That's why, come Monday morning, these attorneys are going to arrive on the doorstep of the Chairman and try to tell him what he's doing if he proceeds. One of the members, Garry Brown [R-MI] wrote Kleindienst a letter saying, 'If the Chairman holds Committee hearings on this, isn't this going to jeopardize your criminal case?'

President Nixon: Brown's a smart fellow. He's from, he's from Michigan—

Dean: That's right.

President Nixon: —and some tie into Ford. He's very, he's a very smart fellow. Good.

Dean: Good lawyer and he's being helpful. He is anxious to help.

President Nixon: Right, just tell him that, tell, tell, tell Ehrlichman to get Brown in and Ford in and then they can all work out something, but they ought to [profanity omitted] push it. No use to let Patman have a free ride here.…

Source: Copyright 1997 by Stanley I. Kutler. Reprinted by permission from Abuse of Power: The New Nixon Tapes. Kutler, Stanley I., ed. New York: The Free Press, 1997.



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