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February 14, 1973

Introduction

This almanac page for Wednesday, February 14, 1973, pulls together various records created by the federal government and links to additional resources which can provide context about the events of the day.

Previous Date: Tuesday, February 13, 1973

Next Date: Thursday, February 15, 1973

Schedule and Public Documents

  • The Daily Diary files represent a consolidated record of the President's activities. Visit the finding aid to learn more.

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  • The Federal Register is the official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other Presidential documents.

Archival Holdings

Any selection of archival documents will necessarily be partial. You should use the documents and folders identified below as a starting place, but consult the linked collection finding aids and folder title lists and the collections themselves for context. Many documents to be found this way do not lend themselves to association with specific dates, but are essential to a complete understanding of the material.

  • Selective document listing

    President's Office Files

    The President's Office Files consists of materials drawn together by the Special Files Unit from several administrative subdivisions within the White House Office. It is the handwriting and sensitive papers sent to the Staff Secretary that now comprise much of the President's Office Files. Visit the finding aid to learn more.

    President's Personal File

    The President's Personal File is essentially a President's secretary's file, kept by Rose Mary Woods, personal secretary to the President, for two purposes: (1) preserving for posterity a collection of documents particularly close to the President, whether because he dictated or annotated them, or because of the importance of the correspondent or the event concerned and (2) giving appropriate attention–letters of gratitude, invitations to White House social events, and the like–to members and important friends and supporters of the Nixon administration. This generalization does not describe all the varied materials of a file group which is essentially a miscellany, but it does identify the reason for the existence of the file group's core. Visit the finding aid to learn more.

  • The H. R. Haldeman Diaries consists of seven handwritten diaries, 36 dictated diaries recorded as sound recordings, and two handwritten audio cassette tape subject logs. The diaries and logs reflect H. R. Haldeman’s candid personal record and reflections on events, issues, and people encountered during his service in the Nixon White House. As administrative assistant to the President and Chief of Staff, Haldeman attended and participated in public events and private meetings covering the entire scope of issues in which the Nixon White House engaged in during the years 1969-1973. Visit the finding aid to learn more.

    • Transcript of diary entry (PDF)
      Wednesday, February 14.

      The President got into the POW follow-up first thing this morning, making the point that some of our idea staff should have thought of the two key things that he came up with that have been most effective: the idea of the corsage to each of the POW wives, which has worked extremely well in pictures in the paper, on TV, etcetera; and the idea of raising the flag to full staff on their return, which also has had a very positive effect. He wanted to be sure that we were in touch with Ross Perot; and had him involved in some way since he's been so interested in the whole POW project.

      He then got into a long critique on speech writing in connection with his speech today on the State of the Union message on environment. He made the point that he'd done some editing and wanted the writers to review it for consideration for the future. They should look at the clarifications that he's made and the style changes. For example, you don't need transitions in speeches, you have to put it the way people talk, so we need an editor that goes through and does this. You should never say "I want to conclude by saying," you just spell out the points. You never start a good sentence with "but", because that rules it out as a quote. The quotes they select still don't make it; they're not quotable lines, they're colorful language. For example, his line that "you need a fair shake for American products in the world" is the kind of thing he's looking for. Ziegler in this regard is not a phrase-maker he just picks out their leads. Instead, you need a creative type who's a speech doctor to goose it up, put in the colorful quote. Unless you have a quotable line it won't be remembered, the things that people can see; otherwise, you can have all the beautiful words and still make no points. Can't we get a speech doctor as such? There are such people. Which guys that we have now have the colorful phrases? That's really the editor's job to break up the distended sentences, put it in speech form, drop out the transitions, leave out the things of "that reminds me of a story," just tell the story. Always work in something timely, such as his idea of China a year ago with "America the Beautiful", which also reminds people of our good points, like China, and the POW's and so forth. We should always go back and bring in the big issues; think in terms of audience interest, anecdotal timeliness, so that it's not just a gray exercise in good management. His usual, complaint.

      He talked a little about the problem with the blacks and how we work on that, reacting to the Newsweek cover story this week. He feels that there is a need for us to show that we love them in some way, and maybe that we need a Presidential speech on this to do the kind of thing the Kennedys did, which is to give it lip service. On PR, he’s concerned that we still don't get enough out of the Ziegler operation, in terms of getting a lot out of a little, the way the Kennedys did. We especially need the McCrary-type approach––which we don't really have––that is based on an understanding about how people feel, emotional reactions. He asked who our best person is who senses how people feel, and I said Warren Herschensohn. He said that concludes that we're weak in this area. That Ehrlichman and I should contribute to this, and we need to get others to work on it.

      He then got into the question of the schedule for the Stans dinners; he's worried about having the same people at those as we have at the State Dinners, and the problem of just hauling in contributors. It's better to get them to "Evenings at the White House" with small dinners ahead of time that Cabinet people give, plus as many as possible for State Dinners and all. He did agree stag dinners with Stans' people would be okay with a briefing in the afternoon first, and then have the wives for "Evenings at the White House", and a few of them at the big dinners. Tell him that the stag dinners will have their wives later. Go to maximum capacity around tables, have a full four-course dinner that takes plenty of time, so the President doesn't have to talk to them too much.

      He met this afternoon with Bush and Armstrong for a general political discussion, mainly involved in Bush giving them a sort of a progress report on what he's doing, how he's setting up the committee, how he's approaching things with the effort to build Congressional candidates to work with Bud Brown instead of Bob Wilson, and so on. George went through a lot of his problems and I think, gave the President a more negative impression than he really intended to, but basically he's in pretty good shape anyway.

      End of February 14.
    • Original audio recording (MP3)

  • The National Archives Catalog is the online portal to the records held at the National Archives, and information about those records. It is the main way of describing our holdings and also provides access to electronic records and digitized versions of our holdings. 

    The Catalog searches across multiple National Archives resources at once, including archival descriptions, digitized and electronic records, authority records, and web pages from Archives.gov and the Presidential Libraries. The Catalog also allows users to contribute to digitized historical records through tagging and transcription.

    Nixon Library Holdings

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National Security Documents

  • The President's Daily Brief is the primary vehicle for summarizing the day-to-day sensitive intelligence and analysis, as well as late-breaking reports, for the White House on current and future national security issues. Read "The President's Daily Brief: Delivering Intelligence to Nixon and Ford" to learn more.

  • The Foreign Relations of the United States series presents the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity. Visit the State Department website for more information.

    Vol. X, Vietnam, January 1973-July 1975

    Neither War nor Peace, January 27-June 15, 1973

    Vol. E-11, Part 2, Documents on South America, 1973-1976

    Uruguay

    • 332. Telegram 28424 From the Department of State to the Embassy in Uruguay, Washington, February 14, 1973, 2243Z

      Summary: The Department of State concurred with the Embassy’s recommendation that contact with the Uruguayan Government should be normal but that any new initiatives should wait until developments in Uruguay were clearer.

      Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Files, 1970–73, POL 15 UR. Confidential; Limdis. Drafted by Stedman and K.N. Rogers; cleared by Crimmins; and approved by Meyer. Repeated for information to Southcom. Telegram 453 from the Embassy in Uruguay is Document 331.

  • The Kissinger telephone conversation transcripts consist of approximately 20,000 pages of transcripts of Kissinger’s telephone conversations during his tenure as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (1969-1974) and Secretary of State (1973-1974) during the administration of President Richard Nixon. Visit the finding aid for more information.

    Digitized versions can be found in the National Archives Catalog.

Audiovisual Holdings

Context (External Sources)