Nixon Haldeman June 28 1972 Campaign Bugging

A conversation between President Nixon and aide H.R. Haldeman about who knew what about Watergate, and that tapping had been done before: specifically, Lyndon Johnson ordered the wiretaps on Anna Chennault, after the Nixon campaign attempted to sabotage the '68 Paris Peace Talks, an attempt that was eventually successful. The resignation of John Mitchell in the face of the mounting Watergate scandal is discussed as well.

This video supplements a long piece on Nixon and the sabotage of the 1968 campaign: http://italkyoubored.wordpress.com/2014/04/08/the-treason-of-richard-nixon-from-possibility-to-certainty/

Introduction and transcript are from Stanley Kutler's Abuse of Power.

Audio can be found at this URL	, with this fragment to be found at 8:43-11:30:
http://nixontapeaudio.org/chron3/rmn_e346b.mp3

Clip with transcript and audio is on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhd5QAouEYc

JUNE 28, 1972: THE PRESIDENT AND HALDEMAN, 11:16 A.M.-1:55 P.M.,
EXECUTIVE OFFICE BUILDING

Nixon raises a familiar refrain: Lyndon Johnson had bugged him during the 1968 campaign, and Nixon believes this justified the Watergate break-in. The President and Haldeman prepare for Mitchell's resignation.

NIXON
Go back to Mitchell.

HALDEMAN
...I think also lurking down way behind there is the question of his involvement in the Watergate caper and the fact that that-

NIXON
And that he does know about it?

HALDEMAN
We've got a lid on it, but it may not stay on, and his getting out might just be a good move on that, because ultimately it goes to him.

NIXON
But I don't - I think, as I understand it - and I don't want to know because I've got to answer at a press conference. But as I understand it, John did not know specifically about this caper.

HALDEMAN
As I understand it, that's right.

NIXON
I mean, if people down the line, Cubans and others before us, working for some asshole, and they do something stupid, we can't be responsible for that. Because...I was glad to see that somebody brought out, Kevin Phillips or somebody, the fact that we were tapped. You know, [Lyndon] Johnson tapped us, because he told us later.

HALDEMAN
He tapped Mrs. what's her name.

NIXON
Sure, Aliyevski [?]. He knew we'd meet with her. Not we, but who was it - Rose Mary - remembers he said that he had the telephone call that was made from New Mexico, the plane?

HALDEMAN
Yes.

NIXON
Of course he had her tapped, you're Goddamn right.

HALDEMAN
Well, my view would be - and John's [Mitchell] going to be back this afternoon and we'll want to talk about this. My view would be to encourage him to do it, on the basis of he's got - it's a beautiful opportunity. He'll gain great sympathy. The Martha fans will think: Isn't that a wonderful thing, that the man has given up - you know, it's kind of like the Duke of Windsor giving up the throne for the woman he loves, this sort of stuff. I mean, it has a little of that flavor to this. The poor woman hasn't been well and all and he's going to be by her side, and all of that.

NIXON
And we would leak out the fact that she's not well very strongly.

HALDEMAN
Right.

NIXON
We'd have to.

HALDEMAN
We're already doing that a little bit. It might not even be "leak out." He might even want to tie that right into it, just say: My wife isn't well, I've got to be with her, and that obviously is - I'm totally behind the President, but I can't, with this problem-

NIXON
Have a full-time job.

HALDEMAN
That's the point, that he can say: I fully expect to help in every possible way that I can.

NIXON
Incidentally, he can still do some inside jobs.

HALDEMAN
Then you use him for the kinds of things he is indispensable for, the Rockefeller-

NIXON
Rockefeller.

HALDEMAN
-Reagan, Buckley, the Middlebury, putting the deal together in Missouri, and that kind of stuff he can still do without any question, but get him out of the day to day running of the campaign.


NIXON
Funny thing, last night I woke up at 3:30, because of insomnia, until six o'clock this morning, that's exactly what I wrote down.