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November 24, 1972

Introduction

This almanac page for Friday, November 24, 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, November 23, 1972

Next Date: Saturday, November 25, 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 The White House - Washington, D. C.

  • 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.

  • 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, November 24.

      Kissinger woke me up at 7:00 this morning, on the day I had hoped to be able to sleep a little late and go into the office late to say that they’d had a meeting in Paris this morning. Very private, just the four of them: Kissinger, Haig, Le Duc Tho and Xuan Thuy. Henry laid out our position in a private way, that we can't make the decision until the meeting tomorrow as to follow the President’s instructions to break things off, that the President should go ahead and go to New York, there's nothing for him to do at this point. He’s sending-- Henry's sending a message regarding today's meeting. Essentially we'll know tomorrow what the situation is. He'll either be back Sunday or stay a couple days on technical matters. Probably not be back Saturday. He says even if it goes the other way tomorrow, he wouldn't come back until Sunday. If it goes okay, Tuesday would be his return. No decisions are to be taken now, he has the instructions but can't apply them until late tomorrow afternoon, and then no decision to be made immediately. Today they just had a clear explanation of where we stand.

      The President had meetings this morning, then called me in at noon. His meetings with Romney and Volpe, apparently he felt, went pretty well. He expected those to be the two hardest, and thanks to Ehrlichman’s preparation work, they apparently both went okay. Romney definitely wants to leave anyway, Volpe did not want to leave, and told Ehrlichman he was going to stay another year. John told him that wasn't in the cards, made him the pitch on Rome, and Volpe doesn't know if he can take that…

      -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      PRIVACY- Reviewed and released under Deed of Gift, DR, NARA, September 11, 2014
      Audio Cassette 27, Side B.
      Duration: 2 seconds

      …because of his retarded son…
      -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

      …but will in any event get out of Transportation, which is the key point.

      President then got into the whole Watergate-Segretti question, making the point that while all of our discussions relate to the legalities, the main thing involved here is to protect the Presidency. We need a clear, simple statement early, in the form of a Dean report to the President, saying that I have checked and found that there is no present member of the White House staff involved; I have also found that neither Stans nor Mitchell is involved, if that's possible.

      He thinks we ought to try to clear Stans and Mitchell, at least Stans, as far as the Campaign Committee goes. Regarding Segretti, he says there has to be a flat categorical statement that I've investigated pursuant to your instructions, and then name names and answer the implications regarding Haldeman, he didn't do anything; regarding Colson, he didn't do anything; Chapin did receive information but didn't direct the activities; and so on. He makes the point that we should not harm any of the other individuals if we can possibly help it. Then Ziegler should say, there's the statement, we stand on it.

      He feels we can't just let it "hang out", as Ehrlichman puts it, in the hope it's clear to people. Dean has to draw the conclusion specifically, that the White House was not involved. Have to say that Mr. Chapin recruited Segretti for the job to conduct campaign activities, but there's no evidence that he directed his activities. Before this is done, Chapin and Strachan should both be out of the White House. That gets to the problem of what we do with Chapin and Strachan, which concerns the President greatly. He's very determined that we not do anything that's harmful in any way to Dwight especially, but feels that we can't keep him in the White House. He says Ehrlichman shouldn't think in legal terms. That what we need is a clear-cut categorical statement from Dean, saying this man was not involved, that one was, and so on.

      We then talked about the Cabinet presentations. The President’s idea was to do the whole thing on Wednesday in a big deal, which he thought Ehrlichman was arguing. I made the pitch for doing it step by step with the President may be doing an appearance on Tuesday to lay the groundwork, that doing it all out of Camp David which he basically agreed to. He got into some personnel things on the basis that Volpe had made some suggestions for Transportation. Checking over some of the other items that we had.

      I had a call from Pat Moynihan who was all disturbed about Samuel Popkin, the Harvard professor who was in jail, because he won't tell who he talked to regarding the Pentagon Papers. Moynihan says if the President or Attorney General acts well on this, we can make some good points. If nothing happens, it will be a calamity, and just what the President doesn't need. Everyone at Harvard is holding on now, but it will blow up if it goes on. He then gave me the background: he is 29 years old, was doing his doctoral dissertation under Ithiel de Sola Pool on Vietnam village politics, and two years ago he was nosing around Washington to get information. Gelb and others were studying it, actually they were doing the Pentagon Papers. He became somewhat of a blabbermouth when Ellsberg released the papers, although he had no relationship with Ellsberg. The grand jury asked him who he talked to in DC, and he decided not to answer. The case went to the Supreme Court, they said he had to answer. He refused to do it, they put him in jail. It's the first time in United States history that a University professor has been put in prison in a case of this kind. He's sentenced for the duration of the grand jury, which is scheduled to end January 12, but might be extended for as much as a year. This would be a disaster in Moynihan's view. He says the Harvard view is it's questionable whether the President’s best interests are being served, that we have the wrong guy in jail, it should be Ellsberg. There isn't any information they can get from him, it's just a point of principle now.

      And Pat says it'd be a good thing in Thanksgiving week for the President to call the Attorney General and say this kid's been in jail for four days, the purposes have been served, let's let him out. This would be a good moment for clemency. I told Moynihan I'd pass it on to the proper authorities.

      Talked to Mitchell on the Dole situation. He has Nunn doing some further checking and will get a report by noon today, he says. Mitchell feels he should take the first shot, on the basis that we're all receiving signals regarding the need for a full time Chairman. He doesn't feel there will be any problem, but the basic sentiment throughout the country is for a move, that we should then set a meeting for Dole with the President on Tuesday and let that work out. Colson's going ahead on Brennan and is supposed to know by later on Friday what the situation is on that.

      Had a talk with Connally. He thinks there's no problem in our Camp David operation. There are several things he wanted; such as not letting Stans block John Rollins if he's being considered for Transportation, he has some names for Ambassador, Lady Bird wants to keep Hartzog in the Park Service. Connally wants to see the President next week on the Russian gas deal, the government needs to get into it and so should the President before it gets too far. Also he wants to talk to somebody about the CAB and the appointments there because there's some alarm in the air transport industry that we're going in the wrong direction on some of that.

      President left for New York at midday, and Ehrlichman and I had a long meeting with Dean on the whole Watergate thing. Decided we'd have to follow the full disclosure route on Segretti, and that we can't do anything much on Watergate because of the Court case.

      End of November 24.
    • 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 Intelligence Community and the White House

    Vol. IX, Vietnam, October 1972-January 1973

    Paris Negotiations Collapse, October 24-December 13, 1972

    • 121. Message From President Nixon to the President’s Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs (Haig) in Paris, Washington, November 24, 1972, 0507Z

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 857, For the President’s Files (Winston Lord)—China Trip/Vietnam, Sensitive Camp David, Vol. XXI (2). Top Secret; Sensitive; Exclusively Eyes Only. Sent via Kennedy and Haig. Kennedy sent a subsequent message to Haig, Tohak 72/WHP 142, 0510Z, elaborating on this one. According to Kennedy, Haldeman “said that you and Dr. Kissinger would understand that this is meant in context of a reasonable position on Hanoi’s part not in a situation of intransigence on their part. But we could not forgo a good agreement if they were willing to settle for one. He indicated that if in light of the circumstances there Dr. Kissinger and you were not comfortable with this position you would come back.” (Ibid.)

    • 122. Memorandum of Conversation, Paris, November 24, 1972, 11 a.m.-12:20 p.m.

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 858, For the President’s Files (Winston Lord)—China Trip/Vietnam, Sensitive Camp David, Vol. XXI, Minutes of Meetings. Top Secret; Sensitive; Exclusively Eyes Only. The meeting was held at 11 rue Darthé, Choisy-le-roi.

    • 123. Message From President Nixon to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) in Paris, Washington, November 24, 1972, 1150Z

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 857, For the President’s Files (Winston Lord)—China Trip/Vietnam, Sensitive Camp David, Vol. XXI (2). Top Secret; Flash; Sensitive; Exclusively Eyes Only. Sent via Kennedy and Haig.

    • 124. Message From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon, Paris, November 24, 1972, 1800Z

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Kissinger Office Files, Box 26, HAK Trip Files, HAK Paris Trip Hakto, November 18–25, 1972. Top Secret; Flash; Sensitive; Exclusively Eyes Only. Sent via Kennedy.

    • 125. Memorandum of Conversation, Paris, November 24, 1972, 7:30-8:45 p.m.

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 858, For the President’s Files (Winston Lord)—China Trip/Vietnam, Sensitive Camp David, Vol. XXI, Briefings of South Vietnamese. Top Secret; Sensitive; Exclusive Eyes Only. All brackets are in the original. The meeting was held in the library at the Ambassador’s residence, 41 rue du Faubourg St. Honoré.

    Vol. XVII, China, 1969-1972

    China, March-December 1972

    Vol. XIX, Part 1, Korea, 1969-1972

    Republic of Korea Troops in Vietnam and Force Modernization, April 1971-December 1972

    Vol. XLII, Vietnam: The Kissinger-Le Duc Tho Negotiations

    Breakdown of Negotiations, November 1972-December 1972

    • 30. Memorandum of Conversation, Paris, November 24, 1972, 11 a.m.-12:20 p.m.

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 858, For the President’s Files (Winston Lord)—China Trip/Vietnam Negotiations, Sensitive, Camp David, Vol. XXI, Minutes of Meetings. Top Secret; Sensitive; Exclusively Eyes Only. The meeting took place at 11 Rue Darthé, Choisy-le-Roi. Tab A is attached but not printed.

  • 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)