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June 20, 1971

Introduction

This almanac page for Sunday, June 20, 1971, 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: Saturday, June 19, 1971

Next Date: Monday, June 21, 1971

Schedule and Public Documents

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

    The President's day began at Key Biscayne, Florida

  • The Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents made available transcripts of the President's news conferences; messages to Congress; public speeches, remarks, and statements; and other Presidential materials released by the White House.

    Digitized versions can be found at HathiTrust.

  • 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.

    No Federal Register published on this date

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)
      Sunday, June 20th. At Key Biscayne. The President was on the phone for a long time this morning, caught me over at the hotel at breakfast, then frequently on various ideas during the day as they came up, all regarding the New York Times case. He firmly rejected Scali's line of calling the press in and making, or the editors and so on in, and the heads of editors associations to make his case, feeling that that was putting himself before a hanging jury, and that his only chance is to go direct to the people. He wants to be sure, though, that we consider carefully the possibility of not doing anything, rather leaving it scrambled around the way it is, so that we wait and see what effect it has. His point is that we have two basic issues that are being made by the opposition: one, that the people were deceived; and two, the attack, that we're attacking the freedom of the press. Our lines are just the opposite of each of those: one, that this isn't our war, we didn't deceive them; and two, that the press is bad, that it's not a question of freedom of the press, it's a question of license of the press.

      He wanted me to have Colson get a series of calls going around the country, which we did. He wanted to go ahead with the poll, which we spent, I spent most of the late afternoon trying to put together, so we could get it done and in the field tomorrow. He's afraid that this does make the war look bad, but there's nothing that we can do about that. We can't fight the thing on all fronts. We, the main thing is that we can't allow public, publicizing of confidential documents. He wanted me to get Buchanan on it, to take it over. The President then got fussing about it, saying, I guess maybe I'm going to have to step in and take this over and give focus to it. Ehrlichman is being buffeted by the lawyers, and that he's worried about the legal case; whereas, the PR is a totally different problem than the legal one. The real problem that he felt, was that Haig's on vacation and Henry's down here, so there's no one there in charge and to shape up the bureaucracy and ride herd. He wants Henry to get onto this and get off of China and his other problems for a while. He makes the point that we've got to get across the case on the highly sophisticated stuff: the codes, foreign government assurances, and all of that. He thinks it's significant that Henry reported to him that this is all getting an enormous play in Izvestia. He also makes the point that we should not presume that the only road is for the President to go on television. We should not do it unless we can win public opinion by doing it. We have to know that it's in the ball park. The problem is people may not care that much. He says he knows Scali's plan is no good, of calling in the press people. If he goes on TV, he doesn't need any pre-buildup, he can just go on.

      Ehrlichman made the point in a later discussion, that his theory is that we've got to either make a very strong showing or fold our case as of now. The President called on later on the point of getting the exact number of stolen documents that were involved and change the story to an interest story on how it all got out, and try to get this going on the television networks. He also thinks that this may really be a chance for Agnew to be heard on this issue, and he wants Buchanan to write a 3,000 word speech for Agnew of the best things that he can say. He feels that maybe it would be better not to get the President going against the Times and Post, instead have Agnew do it, because he's stuck with the issue in any event. This would be a speech with moderation but great conviction. Making the point that this is what he's been talking about for the last two years, not a whining or carping thing, but high level. It could rehabilitate him, making the point that this is the press irresponsibility at its worst, as he's been discussing.

      He also called to have me call Bill Rogers and ask him to really work with Ehrlichman in pulling all this together, giving him his best advice, etcetera. He wanted some, then oh, then he explained to me that the way we've got to understand this, that in order to understand this whole thing, we have to understand the Hiss case. That they're very similar, although none of us really realizes it. In that case too, the papers themselves didn't make any difference. They were old and outdated and unimportant; the key thing was that we got across the point that Hiss was a spy, a liar, and a Communist. That was the issue. The question on this one is basically the same thing. These papers are not what are important in themselves; what is important is that someone stole them and that the Times printed them; and that's the point that we've got to get across. He feels strongly that we've got to get Ellsberg nailed hard on the basis of being guilty of stealing the papers; that that's the only way we're going to make the case of the press having done something bad and violated the law in publishing stolen documents. He feels Ehrlichman's problem is that the people advising him are all overboard: Scali's overboard regarding the press; Moore's overboard as a lawyer; none of them are oriented to the PR politics side. He makes the point that the Times aren't playing the legalism; they're playing the PR point. The law's against them and they know it, but they don't worry about it.

      -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      DECLASSIFIED - E.O. 13526, Sect. 3.4: by MS, NARA, June 12, 2013
      Audio Cassette 9, Side B, Withdrawn Item Number 4 [AC-9(B) Sel 2]
      Duration: 9 seconds

      We also need to build the Canadian and Australian objections to this; apparently there's a possibility of a Romanian complaint also.
      ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

      We can make some headway out of that. He raised the question of where the Cabinet is on this; why aren't any of them speaking out and doing something about it?

      End of June 20th.
    • 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

    All National Archives Units

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 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

  • The White House Photo Office collection consists of photographic coverage of President Richard Nixon meeting with prominent social, political, and cultural personalities; speaking engagements and news conferences of the President and various high-ranking members of the White House staff and Cabinet; Presidential domestic and foreign travel, including Presidential vacations; social events and entertainment involving the First Family, including entertainers present; official portraits of the President, First Family, and high-ranking members of the Nixon administration; the 1969 and 1973 Inaugurals; the President’s 1972 Presidential election campaign appearances (including speeches) and other official activities of the White House staff and the President’s Cabinet from January 20, 1969 until August 9, 1974 at the White House and the Old Executive Office Building; other locations in Washington, DC, such as The Mall; and the Presidential retreats in Camp David, Maryland, Key Biscayne, Florida, and San Clemente, California. Visit the finding aid to learn more.

    Roll WHPO-6670 Photographer: Schumaker, Byron | Color or B&W: B&W

    • Frame(s): WHPO-6670-, President Nixon and Pat Nixon after a religious worship service led by Rev. J. Geschwind, at the Key Biscayne Community Church. 6/20/1971, Key Biscayne, Florida Key Biscayne Community Church grounds. President Nixon, Pat Nixon, Rev. J. Geschwind, Charles Bebe Rebozo, crowd.

    Roll WHPO-6671 Photographer: Schumaker, Byron | Color or B&W: B&W

    • Frame(s): WHPO-6671-24-31, President Nixonand Pat Nixon walking with Rev. Geschwind and Charles Bebe Rebozo. 6/20/1971, Key Biscayne, Florida Key Biscayne Community Church grounds. President Nixon, Pat Nixon, Rev. J. Geschwind, Charles Bebe Rebozo, unidentified persons.

    Roll WHPO-6672 Photographer: Schumaker, Byron | Color or B&W: Color

    • Frame(s): WHPO-6672-2A-11A, President Nixon and Pat Nixon pose for a photo with Rev. J. A. Geschwind outside the Key Biscayne Community Church. 6/20/1971, Key Biscayne, Florida Key Biscayne Community Church grounds. President Nixon, Pat Nixon, Rev. J. A. Geschwind.

  • The White House Communications Agency Sound Recordings Collection contains public statements that took place between 1969 and 1974. Visit the finding aid to learn more.

    G - Cabinet Officer Briefings

    • WHCA-SR-G-053
      Remarks by Attorney-General John Mitchell on drug abuse. (6/20/1970, East Garden, The White House)

      Runtime: 14:34

      Keywords: drugs, drug abuse, narcotics, heroin, marijuana, addicts, addiction, prevention, programs

      Production credits: Audio feed supplied by WHCA; Recorded by TWM (initials of WHCA engineer)

      Original Format: 1/4-inch reel-to-reel audiotape. Original source type: Original.

  • The White House Communications Agency Videotape Collection contains “off-the-air” recordings of televised programs produced between 1968 and 1974. Visit the finding aid to learn more.

    • WHCA-4463
      "Face The Nation"; "Meet The Press" AND "Issues And Answers".
      ABC
      Runtime: 01:30:38

Context (External Sources)