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March 14, 1972

Introduction

This almanac page for Tuesday, March 14, 1972, 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: Monday, March 13, 1972

Next Date: Wednesday, March 15, 1972

Schedule and Public 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.

  • 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)
      Tuesday, March 14th. The idea came up at the early staff meeting today, from Dick Cook that the President ought to do a TV thing on his busing statement, because it would give him great exposure on a non-ITT domestic issue. He's making a good proposal, he'll get great credit for it, he'll get very strong Congressional support, and there's some really terrific language in it. Plus it puts the Democrats in the position of asking for equal time, which we'd be delighted to have them get, since they can do nothing but hurt themselves on the issue. We, I raised this with the President. He thought it was a pretty good idea, and as we went on during the day, it became. After discussing it with Ziegler, the President decided to go ahead. And, he thinks he wants to do it at 10:00 so as to get a good West Coast audience. He's only going to go on for ten minutes, so that'll probably work out.

      We had some discussion today of the Watson flap. Apparently Jack Anderson's going to run a column saying Watson was drunk and mauling the stewardesses on his flight back to Paris. And everybody's in a great tizzy that this is going to be a huge scandal. Bill Rogers is especially shaky on it. I told the President about it this morning; and he, as I expected, took a very strong line, had no thought of backing off on them, and to shape everybody else up.

      On ITT, we didn't get much progress today. The committee went into executive session this morning, and then had Mitchell on this afternoon. I don't have much of a reading as to how he did. No progress on the Miami investigation or the typewriter, or Mrs. Beard. The Committee failed to come up with a subgroup to go out and interview Dita Beard even. So we're pretty much stalled on dead center even though they had a day of activity on it. The problem now is just to get our counter-effort on diversion on the busing thing. Thursday night will help greatly on that.

      On miscellaneous, we agreed to go ahead with the Kissinger interview with Marvin Kalb, and also he wants, the President wants Henry scheduled with some of the other power groups around the country, like the one we did in California. The President's going to go ahead with his radio talks, wants Price to do at least three of them to cover before Russia.

      We had some more discussion on how to handle the release of the names of contributors, and Safire feels we're going to have a real political problem on that.

      The President had me raise with Ehrlichman the question of whether now is the time to surface the Pentagon Papers on Kennedy and Vietnam in a more vicious way, and get some of that going as a counter-fire, so that we're doing something on our own initiative instead of just reacting to the Democrats.

      He's going back and forth on the question of when or whether to have a press conference, but probably we'll do one next week on TV. He's still toying with the idea of possibly of doing it in-office this week, but I don't think he will. He's looking now for some ideas for getting into the country, and agreed to do the drug trip to New York on Monday just on a in-and-out one day basis.

      He met with the CENTO Secretary General today. He was a little young fellow from Iran who was the assistant to the Shah, and...

      -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      DECLASSIFIED - E.O. 13526, Sect. 3.4: by MS, NARA, June 12, 2013
      Audio Cassette 19, Side B, Withdrawn Item Number 6 [AC-19(B) Sel 3]
      Duration: 25 seconds

      ...this guy said that he'd always admired the President being a close associate of the Shah's, but now he really believes that what he's done is the thing that might save the world, and so on, this being primarily in reference to the China trip.
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      I had a call at home this evening from Connally who said he was mad as hell. Said he wanted to see the President or talk to him right away, because Stein had given out a statement on international economic affairs, and also Marina Whitman had also given out a different one, and Matt Samuels had given out a long press conference, all in violation of the rule that all of this is supposed to be under Connally's control. I had them put his call through to the President, and shortly thereafter the President called me and said I was to call Stein and tell him there are to be no more statements from him or any of his people without clearing with Connally, and to call Samuels and tell him the President did not approve of his statement, that it was not Administration policy, and that the President wants his resignation tomorrow morning. And then I'm to call Ziegler and tell him he's to say Connally is making a speech in New York tomorrow night, and that it will represent the Administration view on international monetary policy, and that the releases by the other people are contrary, and he is to repudiate them.

      He called back, and said I'm to call Rogers instead of Samuels, and so I did. Rogers felt we should get Samuels's view first, and not act so hastily. I then called Connally, to report what I was doing, and he said he didn't think Ziegler should put out a statement, and he wishes he would not do it, because it would exaggerate Connally's speech and there's not that much in it. He just wants to allay fears, not build this up. Ziegler's thing would build it up. Now we already have too much talk within the Administration, and that would just start the pressure, which would be bad. He thinks we should low key this. We don't want another flap. We have so much going on with State, and so much bitterness. We have to do this on the basis of it won't stir things up, and should get Samuels later. Any flap now would make a bad situation worse. Connally, in other words wants to low-key the whole thing: he doesn't want coverage of his speech, he doesn't have any hard news in it, he doesn't want to highlight it with any more problems. So, I called Rogers back and said. Also Connally said don't fire Samuels, because that will do the same thing. So, I called Rogers back, and he said Samuels is leaving anyway to go to Keene and Loeb, and that we can get rid of him without making a flap, and he agreed with Connally that we shouldn't stir things up any further.

      -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Deed of Gift - Privacy withdrawal reviewed and released by MS, NARA, October 21, 2013
      Audio Cassette 19, Side B, Withdrawn Item Number 7
      Duration: 5 seconds

      The President left at 9:30 tonight to go to Camp David to hide out from Helene Drown.
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      He'll meet with the busing group up there tomorrow.

      The Florida returns in the early run show the President doing much better than expected, also Wallace doing better, and Muskie doing very badly, all of which is excellent news for us. In addition, to the fact, that the anti-busing thing carried 75 to 25.

      End of March 14th.
    • 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. II, Organization and Management of U.S. Foreign Policy, 1969-1972

    The NSC System

    Vol. IV, Foreign Assistance, International Development, Trade Policies, 1969-1972

    Foreign Assistance Policy, 1969-1972

    • 87. Memorandum From Secretary of State Rogers to President Nixon, Washington, March 14, 1972

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Subject Files, Box 324, Foreign Aid, Volume II 1972. Secret. Attached to Document 91. An advance copy of Rogers’ memorandum, which was not cleared by the Secretary, was provided to the NSC under cover of a March 14 memorandum from Deputy Executive Secretary Curran to Davis. (National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Agency Files, Box 286, State Volume 16)

    Vol. VIII, Vietnam, January-October 1972

    Before the Easter Offensive, January 20-March 29, 1972

    Vol. XIX, Part 2, Japan, 1969-1972

    November 1971-December 1972: Toward a New Equilibrium

    • 115. Letter From the Ambassador to Japan (Meyer) to President Nixon, Tokyo, March 14, 1972

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 537, Country Files, Far East, Japan, Vol. VII, Jan–Apr 1972. Confidential. Kissinger read and initialed the letter and instructed Holdridge to “Make summary for President.” Kissinger also wrote: “Meyer goes out like a pro.” A handwritten notation on an attached note reads: “Draft a nice note from the President to Armin.”

    Vol. XXIV, Middle East Region and Arabian Peninsula, 1969-1972; Jordan, September 1970

    Middle East Region

    Vol. E-5, Part 2, Documents on North Africa, 1969-1972

    Tunisia

    • 160. Letter From President Nixon to President Bourguiba, Washington, March 14, 1972

      Nixon authorized Ambassador John Calhoun to advise Bourguiba of the outcome of his talks in Peking and Moscow, and pledged as much Tunisian development assistance as resources allowed.

      Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Files 1970–73, POL TUN-US. Unclassified. In a February 24 memorandum to Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Kissinger, Eliot had recommended that the President respond to Bourguiba’s hand-delivered letter, in recognition of Bourguiba’s status as a long-standing ally and to soften the blow of the U.S. refusal to provide a requested $7.3 million in internal security assistance. (Ibid., POL 15–1 TUN)

    Vol. E-13, Documents on China, 1969-1972

    • 111. Letters From President Nixon to the Chairman of the Communist Party of China Mao Tse-tung and Chinese Premier Chou En-lai, Washington, March 14, 1972, Washington, March 14, 1972

      Kissinger transmitted two letters to Nixon with the recommendation that he sign the letters.

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 525, Country Files, Far East, PRC, Vol. III, Jan-Mar 1972. No classification marking. Kissinger’s covering memorandum, sent for action, is dated March 10 and indicates that Ray Price cleared the letters. A notation on memorandum indicates that Nixon saw it. A handwritten note from Nixon reads: “K-where an occasion justifies it-see that I write Chou from time to time.” The letters are published from copies that bear Nixon’s handwritten signature.

    • 114. Memorandum of Conversation, New York, March 14, 1972, 4:40-6 p.m., New York, March 14, 1972, 4:40-6 p.m.

      President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs Kissinger assured Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations Huang Hua that the White House had taken a “direct interest” in aiding in the investigation of the death of the Chinese delegate, explained that the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, George H.W. Bush, would not be privy to their conversations, and reported on his recent conversations with Soviet Ambassador to the United States Dobrynin concerning China. The attached message from the Government of the People’s Republic of China stressed that the United States must end its bombing campaign against North Vietnam.

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 849, President’s File-China Trip, China Exchanges, March 1, 1972-June 24, 1972. Top Secret; Sensitive; Exclusively Eyes Only. The precise location of the meeting is not indicated. Ellipses in the source text. Lord sent the memorandum to Kissinger under a March 18 covering memorandum, on which he had written “Thru Haig.” Kissinger wrote: “OK HK” on the covering memorandum. Tabs A-C are attached but not published. Tab D, the attached message, has no classification marking. A notation on the message indicates the President saw it. It is published as Document 112.

  • 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)