March 25, 1973

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• Original typewritten diary (PDF)

The President's day began at Key Biscayne, Florida

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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, March 25.
  
  Talked to Dean on the phone this morning. He sees signs of the domino theory coming in. For instance, Hunt had dealings with the Cubans, Dean didn't. LaRue may have, so some of them may spill. He thinks McCord will name Caulfield, because he leaned on him for some help. He wrote Caulfield a letter and Caulfield met with him on some technical points on his defense. He'll probably hit Jeb regarding perjury. Dean thinks we should take action before Thursday when McCord will meet with Judge Sirica. Such as the action of Dean going to the grand jury. He thinks that if we try to fight it, we'll eventually lose. He's back to his cancer theory that we've got to cut the thing out. Cut out the cancer now and deal with it. He says Colson thinks we should fight it, but he doesn't know the whole picture. He denies still any knowledge of Watergate.
  
  The question of who McCord names will not be made public on Thursday, so we don't have a problem with that. Dean has no knowledge of what Mitchell knows or did, nor does he really on Jeb. Also he doesn't know the full extent of Gordon Strachan's knowledge. He thinks that we ought to check out the legality of Gray continuing as acting director of the FBI if we withdraw his name from nomination.
  
  The President called me over at 10:00 this morning. Had me there for a couple of hours. Has decided that he is going to hold up the TV thing until Wednesday night because we won't know for sure on Vietnam until then.
  
  Thought that I should have Dean get a clear picture of what Colson's views are. What approach does he think we should take? Is he opposed to waiving privilege at the grand jury. Wanted to explore what if McCord names Magruder on Thursday, or Colson, or Haldeman? We have to respond that those people will be appearing before the grand jury. But do we take executive privilege? The thing is we want to see that our names are clear. The alternative would be to put out a sworn statement, but that isn't really very satisfactory.
  
  He wanted me to check with Dean to see if he had ever talked to the Cubans or if he knew who met with them at the Arlington Towers regarding clemency. Also felt that we need an answer ready for Thursday on McCord. Raised the question on Kleindienst, whether anybody can talk to Weicker, who's making a lot of talk about how he's going to name higher names and all. Feels that Kleindienst should check as to who the names are. And if he's got anything, we should go after that. That we’ve seen what you said. He later called Kleindienst himself and told him that he ought to check this out with Weicker. He thinks Ehrlichman and Shultz should hold tight on the energy deal with Time magazine, it’s too sensitive regarding Congress and the other leaders for us to send any of our people in to meet with the Time group.
  
  Wanted me to check with Bill Rogers on the Bill Webster suggestion for the FBI that John Dean raised. He thinks that sounds like a good idea. Regarding the television networks he said Ehrlichman came in with a problem so the network heads on cable and all that and he wonders what our position ought to be. He thinks I ought to talk to Ehrlichman, Dean and Rogers about the FBI and the question of leaving Gray as acting director until his successor has qualified, and then the idea of naming a Federal judge-type to take as director and moving Sullivan in as deputy. Cleaning out all the top brass. He wants Ehrlichman to handle the Gray withdrawal with Gray, Kleindienst, and Mitchell. He thinks Ehrlichman and Dean should consider what our answer is, if McCord names people on Thursday, especially if it's people in the White House. Wants to know from Dean who was the person in the White House to whom Barker gave the reports from the Watergate. I checked with Dean and he says there was nobody. It was somebody at the committee that Barker claimed he gave them to.
  
  On declassification, he wants Ehrlichman to get going because the President wants to issue an order. He feels that everything should be declassified in ten years so we can open up the Kennedy stuff on Vietnam. He thinks we should get Tom Houston or someone in on this to be sure there's no cover-up and get out the story on Diem and all that sort of thing. Went back to my talking to Dean on who McCord will name, what's our action, if there's anybody on the White House regarding going to the grand jury, does he still think he should go to the grand jury, what about the Colson problem and so on, what of Caulfield's name, what does he know?
  
  Then he went back to the question of his television speech, or his use of television, and says he thinks he should do more 7:30 or 7:00 press conferences and announcements and that on press conferences, he should always do them at 7:30 unless he has a major issue and then he'll go on in prime time. Wants me to analyze the audience sizes at these various times. His point is that he won't have any more Vietnam announcements to make so he's got to figure other ways of getting on television and getting television domination. Wants Colson to spin out the whole grand jury idea and have me find out why he's opposed to that. Comes back to wanting to look at ways to use television.
  
  Then later-- late tonight I talked to Dean and there's a new problem developing, because it now turns out that McCord spent considerable time yesterday and today meeting with the counsel, Dash, from the Ervin Committee and filling them in on things. Supposedly on a secret basis, but Dash had a press conference saying he had gotten a lot of information from McCord, and then the L.A. Times and Washington Post picked up a whole lot of supposedly what McCord told Dash and are running it in the paper tomorrow. Among other things, he says that Dean was involved in the Watergate and that Magruder perjured himself and that he will be providing them with a lot more information, based on what he's heard from other people, as well as what he knows himself. This, of course, gives Dean a whole new set of things to worry about.
  
  End of March 25.
• Original audio recording (MP3)

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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.

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-6200
  "Face The Nation".
  Post-Newsweek Stations, Inc.
  Runtime: 00:29:45
• WHCA-6201
  "Meet the Press" AND "Issues and Answers".
  NBC
  Runtime: 00:59:17
• WHCA-6202
  "60 Minutes". Secretary of State William P. Rogers.
  CBS
  Runtime: 00:59:14
• WHCA-6207
  Weekly News Summary, Tape I.
  ALL NETWORKS
  Runtime: 01:32:45
  
  20. Utley/Valeriani: President Nixon says troop withdrawls will not proceed until POWs released. Time Code Start: 64:11. Keywords: Vietnam War, Vietnam Prisoner of War, releases, withdrawals. Network: NBC.
  
  21. Utley/Rich: Future of American role in Laos; Vietnamese POWs exchanged. Time Code Start: 68:52. Keywords: Laos, Vietnam War, POWs, Vietnam Prisoner of War, exchanges, departures, releases. Network: NBC.
  
  22. Utley: More on Watergate; McCord wants to tell all. Time Code Start: 73:00. Keywords: Watergate, Senate committee hearings, investigations, testimony, testify, cover-ups, break-in, burglary, theft, plumbers, scandals. Network: NBC.

• New York Times of March 25, 1973

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The Vanderbilt Television News Archive is the world's most extensive and complete archive of television news. They have been recording, preserving and providing access to television news broadcasts of the national networks since August 5, 1968.

• March 1973 Broadcast Index

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• March 25, 1973