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May 28, 1971

Introduction

This almanac page for Friday, May 28, 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: Thursday, May 27, 1971

Next Date: Saturday, May 29, 1971

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    President's Office Files

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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)
      Friday, May 28.

      The President got into a discussion of the general political situation the first thing this morning. He wanted to track down whoever had done the attack on Julie's new teaching job, to see whether there was a partisan source to it. That led him to thinking that we should put permanent tails and coverage on Teddy and Muskie and Hubert on all the personal stuff, to cover the kinds of things that they hit us on in '62: personal, finances, family, and so forth. He wants Ziegler I mean-- Nofziger, Mollenhoff and those people to be riding on that kind of a thing.

      We had some talk about the conservative problem again, and he reiterated his hope that Ehrlichman could announce Marty Anderson's affiliation and perhaps some other big name conservative to appease the people on that. He called J. Edgar Hoover and talked with him about his plans to get into the police killings, and particularly emphasized that he wanted a position that clearly answered Senator Williams' attack on this subject. Then Kissinger came in, and we had some discussion of the Harris and Gallup Polls on admission of Communist China, which has now shifted to popular opinion favoring admission, where it's always been disapproval up to now. That led into a considerable discussion of the whole China situation, and Henry's foreign policy planning in general and the question really of what position we should take regarding China. It's now apparent, that from a domestic political viewpoint we can go ahead with admission without any problems; somehow we've got to determine what approach we take to Chiang Kai-Shek.

      Henry's all set for his trip this weekend and is urging the President to give him three weeks for a reply, which will still get one in before we go to Midway to meet with Thieu on the 28th. The President emphasized that all foreign policy initiatives are going to have to be completed by July, 1972, because after that there will be a Democratic nominee and they'll insist that he be taken along on any trips and brought in on any discussions. The ideal scenario still would be to get the Vietnam thing settled this summer; have a Summit this fall and wrap up the first SALT agreement; announce China-- a China visit and have it in March or so of next year. Whether we can pull this off or not is-- remains to be seen.

      This afternoon he got into some discussion of speeches he wants to give, as we were working on a general future schedule. He's still trying to work out a way to go up to New England to stay at Jack Dreyfus' place in Maine and then stop in New Hampshire on the way back. Maybe we can work in Rochester on the same swing, since we have to go up there sometime in the near future. He wants to do a major speech on the old goals idea that Pete Peterson's been developing, either on TV or through a forum, and he wants to do an economic speech on the wage price spiral, and then a speech-- a major speech on drugs, which he wants Art Linkletter to work on the input for. He's pushing for getting going on all of these as soon as he can.

      Late this afternoon, we had a long session with John Mitchell on politics. Discussed the general overall situation and then got into some specifics on California, Ohio, Illinois, and Florida. He made it very clear that, if at all possible, he doesn't want to enter into the primaries in any way, shape, or form; and he questioned the technique of having Taft as a substitute and whether we want to have stand-ins in other states. The problem, of course, is that some states require the candidate to go on whether you agree or not, and those we can't avoid. He agreed with Len Firestone as the Chairman in California. We talked some about a change in the Secretary of Agriculture, perhaps bringing Louis Nunn into that post. Most of it was the usual sort of general discussion, and no major decisions were reached.

      End of May 28.
    • Original audio recording (MP3)

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