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May 19, 1972

Introduction

This almanac page for Friday, May 19, 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: Thursday, May 18, 1972

Next Date: Saturday, May 20, 1972

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 Camp David, Maryland

  • 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.

  • Each Public Papers of the Presidents volume contains the papers and speeches of the President of the United States that were issued by the White House Office of the Press Secretary during the time period specified by the volume. The material is presented in chronological order, and the dates shown in the headings are the dates of the documents or events. In instances when the release date differs from the date of the document itself, that fact is shown in the text note.

    To ensure accuracy, remarks have been checked against audio recordings (when available) and signed documents have been checked against the original, unless otherwise noted. Editors have provided text notes and cross references for purposes of identification or clarity.

  • 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)
      Friday, May 19th. The President is still at Camp David this morning. He left about 8:15, made the visit to Wallace, and then came on in to the office.

      At the staff meeting we had a pretty good run down on the status of things: we're moving to take a hard anti-busing position in the Congressional conference today. The House is going to pass revenue sharing next week. It's going to be very light attendance at the Leadership Meeting today because they've all gone home for Friday. Our guys think they can beat Mansfield amendments when they come up in the Senate next week. We're going to have a good consumer price index today, only about .2 percent and food is down .2 percent, and turned out to be a pretty good meeting.

      When the President got in he was in a terrible mood, at least by the time he got to me, which was after his meeting with the Vice President. The Vice President apparently really hit him on the problem of our limiting targets in Vietnam, and so on. The President jumped all over me, then Ziegler, then Kissinger in various successions. He was furious when Ziegler raised the point that Rogers was going to have a press conference today but it was too late to stop it.

      -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      DECLASSIFIED - E.O. 13526, Sect. 3.4: by MS, NARA, June 12, 2013
      Audio Cassette 22, Side A, Withdrawn Item Number 2 [AC-22(A) Sel 2]
      Duration: 1 minute 3 seconds

      So he said to get out the story that Rogers, at the NSC meeting, had said the mining would sink the summit. And because Rogers now is apparently getting out a line, or, at least, someone in the press carried it that the White House was saying the summit was lost, but the State Department said it was going to go on. He’s also furious because Laird and Abrams cut out the leafleting drop. He told Kissinger to call SINCPAC, tell them that he was very upset, and to do something about it. He's concerned about the SALT agreement, because it's going to look too weak to the Hawks. Kissinger argues that we can sell them on the basis that it would be more inferior otherwise. The President doesn't believe that's going to sell. He's very distressed because the whole propaganda operation is a total wash out in Vietnam—has been sabotaged by Defense. He wants to get rid of Helms. All of this covered in a devastating memo he dictated today, which is in the file.
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      He spent some time on Connally's trip plans. Talked to Connally on the phone, told me he wanted to go, to leave the day after the President returns to go to Columbia, Brazil, Argentina, and Peru, plus New Zealand and Australia, then some place in Europe. I suggested Rome because of Nellie's interest in Florence, so that's probably what he's going to do. He's supposed to take a Presidential plane and do it really first class. He called me again, tonight as a matter of fact to follow-up on the details on that.

      He had the press reception late this afternoon after the leadership meeting. He did a superb job of briefing the press, although Henry was upset because he felt the President had oversold the possibilities. But Ziegler felt it had gone extremely well, and I think he really put the press in a good mood, because he gave them a good feel of what the trip was about and what to expect.

      End of May 19th.
    • 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.

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Context (External Sources)