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September 12, 1972

Introduction

This almanac page for Tuesday, September 12, 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, September 11, 1972

Next Date: Wednesday, September 13, 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

  • The Congressional Record is the official daily record of the debates and proceedings of the U.S. Congress.

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, September 12th. Started the day with the joint breakfast meeting with the Cabinet and GOP leadership. The President turned the breakfast over to MacGregor, who gave a general outline and pitch on the status of the campaign plans for direct mail concentrated on the key states, voter registration activities, volunteer program, and all that sort of stuff. Bob Dole gave a quick pitch on the Watergate and the need to go on the offensive. Bill Brock talked about the youth program, the fact the plan now to shift to a major campus effort, for canvas, registration, and mock elections. The President said on rallies and candidate appearances to be sure to get kids in, and made the comment that those clowns who want to make the International Olympic Commission like the United Nations are terrible, that...

      -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      DECLASSIFIED - E.O. 13526, Sect. 3.4: by MS, NARA, June 12, 2013
      Audio Cassette 24, Side B, Withdrawn Item Number 4 [AC-24(B) Sel 3]
      Duration: 7 seconds

      …one UN is too much.
      -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

      Colson gave a darn good pitch on the polls and the need to attack rather than defend. Then Mel Laird followed up on that, making the point that the McGovern program is before us now, and that we should attack it. We should use his statements as his program. Don’t mix defense with attack, orchestrate the attack with backup material, not necessarily a speech or a press conference, but available as a background to support the attack. Get the story across on television, no one reads long newspaper stories. You need a few catchy phrases to get the minute on television. Give the impression of McGovern on the defensive, in trouble. Build the charges on what McGovern would do; make him answer our charges.

      -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      DECLASSIFIED - E.O. 13526, Sect. 3.4: by MS, NARA, June 12, 2013
      Audio Cassette 24, Side B, Withdrawn Item Number 5 [AC-24(B) Sel 4]
      Duration: 11 seconds

      Each department should be able to do a background look like Laird has on the military spying.
      -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

      We should provide McGovern an opportunity to answer us each week; plan the attack.

      Kleindienst then spoke on the Watergate, said the indictments would be coming down Friday; that the data on the investigation would be put out to obviate the whitewash; and only the people who were indicted were involved, no one in the White House or 1701. The President said regarding the attack, that some are in, some people are better on the positive line, but even they can avoid a defensive position; the purpose is to make points, not to help the press; don't respond to an attack; shift to our issue. Our issues are national defense, foreign policy and the economy on a negative basis. Hit him on the taxes, welfare, and spending. Rogers then said on Vietnam to quote McGovern, make the audience listen to what he has said regarding the veto at the UN. We've finally showed strength, which we needed to do. Hugh Scott hit the reshuffling of income plan to soak the rich, which will leave the poor dripping wet. Ford said the Democrats wanted to keep Congress in session because: one, they have no program and so they're vulnerable, and don't want to be caught on it; two, they want to avoid McGovern; three, they want the chance to investigate, so they'll stay until October 7, and maybe longer. The Vice President, after all this discussion of attacks, said he felt like the guy who'd sold his stock before the boom, that now that he's forsworn rhetoric. He made a warning regarding the attack of enthusiasm, that we should be sure to qualify, to avoid distortion. On the resurgence of patriotism and the Olympics, and on media get the opportunity to appear on an unedited basis, and avoid extrapolation in getting taken out of context.

      The President closed, saying we'll try to have one more meeting like this the first of October; that we should lay out what we can do, not just what we have done. And he referred to Mrs. Eisenhower's quote about the need for four more years. Build the idea of finishing the job: one, a respect for law –this is important deep down to the New Majority-the appointment of judges, and backing our law officers; second, on peace, we've only opened the door regarding China and so forth, these things could turn to disaster—look at the Olympics, the committee judges, and so on. Our success so far is from strength and firmness, that's the only way to continue. Hit McGovern on his testing the friendship line. They're out to win, we must be too. Be clear on arms control, new negotiations starts, SALT II, put it personally, which man do you want at the table. Don't overlook the small states, the Senate and Congress, and don't keep repeating appearances in the big states. Then he made the point that this is his tenth national campaign, and since this is his last campaign, he hopes to make it the best. That ended it on a large cheer note.

      He had Colson and me in for a long session later this morning on general politics, following up the breakfast meeting. He says he's changed his view on Shriver, that instead of ignoring him, we should be making him a liability, and start cracking him via lower level people. He wonders about getting F. Lee Bailey in as associate counsel in our Watergate lawsuits to try and stir up some publicity. Hit the, he wants me to hit the writers on Laird's point that every item has to have one grabber, the quotable phrase. He wants to get American flags on all of our people, and on the bumpers strips, give the flag out to wear on the lapel. We got into the discussion of the idea of a Kleindienst special review board, he wants me to talk to him about that; that is to whitewash the, or to overcome the whitewash charges on the Watergate investigation. He wants Buchanan to write a major foreign policy speech for the Vice President, have Haig provide input, looking to the next four years, which man do you want to have on the other side of the table, liberally quoting both Nixon and McGovern. He is concerned about the girls scheduling, he wants to get them into soroptimist and women's clubs, and that type of thing, as well as the Kiwanis type stuff. He had some ideas on redoing the White House after the election, as far as the family dining room, redoing his bedroom, and so forth. We talked a little about the need for money in some of the Senatorial campaigns.

      Later in the day, got into some more of the same kind of thing on the need for more creative approach to direct mail. And on the helicopter to Camp David, we got into a schedule discussion, toying with follow-up things from the RNC reception; for instance, they want him to do the sports arena, new sports arena in Atlanta on October 14, which he doesn't want to do because he competes with the hockey game; maybe do the new airport in Kansas City. He wants to do a couple of small towns; he wants a study listing all the cities that he's visited, or never visited of over 100,000. He thinks maybe he ought to go to Oklahoma, because of the Senate seat, on the way back from California, or maybe Indiana with a big crowd at Monument Circle. He wants to be sure we're hitting McGovern and Shriver with ads whenever they appear. He wants to use visuals for the Vice President's foreign policy speech. He thinks we now need a basic plan for the last two weeks, then build around it. His thought is to do Monday night in California, a national fireside chat, church Sunday in California, a big final event Saturday night maybe. Late in the campaign, motorcade New York, earlier do Chicago and Atlanta, Westchester, and Nassau. He likes the idea of trying a new approach to motorcades, putting the VIP cars and so on in front of the President; and we had a lot of sort of general talk about that kind of thing.

      After we got to Camp David, he had Pat McKee and me come over for dinner, and we continued the schedule discussion primarily. Left early.

      End of September 12th.
    • Original audio recording (MP3)

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    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. III, Foreign Economic Policy; International Monetary Policy, 1969-1972

    Foreign Economic Policy

    Vol. V, United Nations, 1969-1972

    UN Finances and Reduction of the U.S. Assessment

    Vol. XV, Soviet Union, June 1972-August 1974

    Kissingers's Trip to Moscow, September 1972

    • 39. Message From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to the President’s Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs (Haig), Moscow, September 12, 1972, 0155Z

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Kissinger Office Files, Box 24, Trip Files, HAK’s Germany, Moscow, London, Paris Trip, Sep. 9–15, 1972, HAKTO 1–35. Secret; Sensitive; Eyes Only; Flash. A stamped notation indicates it was received at 9:29 p.m. on September 11.

    • 40. Message From the President’s Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs (Haig) to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) in Moscow, Washington, September 12, 1972, 0712Z

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Kissinger Office Files, Box 24, HAK Trip to Germany, Moscow, London, Paris, Sep 9–15, 1972, TOHAK 1–116. Top Secret; Sensitive; Exclusively Eyes Only.

    • 41. Memorandum of Conversation, Moscow, September 12, 1972, 12:10-1:20 p.m.

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Kissinger Office Files, Box 74, Country Files—Europe—USSR, HAK Trip to Moscow, Sept. 1972, Memcons (Originals). Secret; Sensitive. The meeting took place in the Council of Ministers Building inside the Kremlin. Brackets are in the original.

    • 42. Memorandum of Conversation, Moscow, September 12, 1972, 1:20-6 p.m.

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Kissinger Office Files, Box 74, Country Files—Europe—USSR, HAK Trip to Moscow, Sept. 1972, Memcons (Originals). Top Secret; Sensitive; Exclusively Eyes Only. The meeting took place in the Council of Ministers Building inside the Kremlin. Brackets are in the original.

    • 43. Memorandum of Conversation, Moscow, September 12, 1972, 9-10 p.m.

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Kissinger Office Files, Box 74, Country Files—Europe—USSR, HAK Trip to Moscow, Sept. 1972, Memcons (Originals). Top Secret; Sensitive; Eyes Only. The meeting took place in the Council of Ministers Building inside the Kremlin. Brackets are in the original.

    Vol. XXXIX, European Security

    Prelude to Negotiations, June 1972-November 1972

    • 112. Memorandum of Conversation, Moscow, September 12, 1972, 9-10 p.m.

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Kissinger Office Files, Box 74, Country Files, Europe, USSR, HAK Trip to Moscow, Sept. 1972, Memcons. Secret; Sensitive; Eyes Only. The meeting took place in the Council of Ministers Building in the Kremlin.

  • 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)