Richard Nixon Lawrence Higby Conversation May 14 1973

From Stanley Kutler's Abuse of Power, a transcript of a conversation between Lawrence Higby and Richard Nixon as the Watergate scandal spirals out of control.

URL for audio file is:
http://www.nixonlibrary.gov/forresearchers/find/tapes/tape046/046-050.mp3

Accompanying youtube clip, featuring audio and transcript is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kQmP3-HJfc

MAY 14, 1973: THE PRESIDENT AND LAWRENCE M. HIGBY,
9:47-9:53, P.M., WHITE HOUSE TELEPHONE

The President's darkest secret is in jeopardy: CIA Deputy Director Vernon Walters's June 1972 memoranda are about to be made public. In a conversation with former Haldeman aide Larry Higby, Nixon worries about the "implication" that the White House tried to have a CIA cover for the Watergate break-in. The President is apprehensive and tentative throughout the conversation.

NIXON
I got your report and the thing I think that I particularly think you should get ahold, get uh, get Bob and John alerted to is that they must now allow, on the basis of the fact that it was national security, this implication to be out that they, you know, were trying to have a CIA cover-up for this Goddamned thing, you know what I mean?

HIGBY
Mm-hmm.

NIXON
And so I think on that, they just, should just hit hard publicly, say this is, you know, you understand what I mean?...

HIGBY
Yeah, I - the only good thing is, I think Bob's position has been all the way through on this thing and has held him in good stead so far, that the truth's gonna come out and what I, what he says publicly, really isn't gonna make that much difference. They hit him on it, from what he told me, today in the latter part of the [McClellan Sub-Committee on CIA Oversight?] hearing, and he very precisely said that he only had one meeting and explained as much as he could without getting into national security what it was about. Uh-

NIXON
Did he?

HIGBY
-stressing that he had to draw the line on a good portion of it because it was, because it was national security.

NIXON
But you see, he must not leave the implication, Larry, neither he nor John, that they, on the basis of national security, are, are uh, you know, uh, have participated in any effort to have the CIA cover up this Goddamned thing, which they weren't trying to do.

HIGBY
Right. In other words, what you're suggesting is a blanket, sort of a statement that just flatly puts it down.

NIXON
Well, they gotta consider that because I don't want them to take a look at the news in the morning and so forth and I don't want them to do anything that'll jeopardize their legal thing, but I-

HIGBY
Right.

NIXON
-think that, on the other hand, they must must not have, hanging out there, any implication that they, uh participated in or ordered or encouraged a, uh, you know, a CIA, uh, uh cover-up for this Goddamned thing. <i>Which is what they didn't do</i>!

HIGBY
Right.

NIXON
They were simply trying to get the Goddamned facts.

HIGBY
Right.

NIXON
Right?

HIGBY
Right. Precisely. And also, as I understand it, prevent, prevent uh, some, from what could've been some subsequent national security problems had the thing continued down the line, which was, which was the point I think Bob was trying to make. That eventually you're going to cross over the area of you're no longer in Watergate, you're in a national-security area and I think he was trying to make that point to Walters also.

NIXON
Yes, I know, right. Well, you know, what I mean, is that all this is in the public area as well as the private area and so forth, and I'd tell them don't do anything to hurt their case but uh, have in mind the fact that they must not let, that must not leave hanging out there any implication that they - Haldeman or Ehrlichman - either one, were involved in trying to use the CIA as a cover-up for this thing. They were not, they were trying to get the Goddamned facts....

HIGBY
I understand, understand precisely what you're saying....

NIXON
Yeah, you know, and basically, uh, Bob and John, uh, they don't attack Walters, but they just simply say, "Look, he may have misunderstood. We had no intention to do anything, Goddamned thing here."...Dean, on the other hand, did follow up in a way that was totally, you know, he tried - you know, what he tried to do, he tried to-

HIGBY
Hell, yes.

NIXON¨
He went over and tried to get Walters to agree to put these people on their payroll, to pay their legal expenses, and all that. But Goddamnit, Bob and John never acc-, suggested such a Goddamn thing...