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September 18, 1972

Introduction

This almanac page for Monday, September 18, 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: Sunday, September 17, 1972

Next Date: Tuesday, September 19, 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.

  • 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.

    No Federal Register published on this date

  • 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.

    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)
      Monday, September 18th. Staff meeting this morning covered a number of current details. The Soviet grain deal continues to be a problem as Agriculture screws up the line that they're putting out each day a little bit worse. Kissinger came in for the first time in a long time, and that stirred up a lot of questions to him on Vietnam and other items. A long discussion of the Soviet-Jew problem, with the agreement or plea by Flanigan that Kissinger meet with Javits and Ribicoff, but Kissinger feeling he can't do Ribicoff…

      -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      DECLASSIFIED - E.O. 13526, Sect. 3.4: by MS, NARA, June 12, 2013
      Audio Cassette 24, Side B, Withdrawn Item Number 7 [AC-24(B) Sel 6]
      Duration: 11 seconds

      …that they should meet with Rabin instead, and try to get him to work the US Jews on it.
      -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

      Some concern about the long range problem of the appearance of a Soviet advantage in the trade deal. The problem of Peterson trying to peddle a trade deal with Percy, Javits and Ribicoff, which Kissinger's going to try to get canceled or at least delayed. Some discussion of veto strategy. The three bills up that are candidates for vetoes including OEO extension, and considerable debate as to what should be done on that with no decision. And discussion of a counteroffensive on the POWs, since we're going to have to face the three guys that have been released and that will be holding press meetings in the next few days.

      Mitchell called about the Jewish thing, recommending that we have a meeting in New York with 20-25 Jewish leaders from around the country, and that that would take care of the need in that area. The President got into considerable detail on family schedule. He thinks the girls and Mrs. Nixon should not do any more press conferences or talk shows, because the questioners are becoming too strident and rough, and the press is much rougher this year than they were in '68, because they realize the family is so effective. So he thinks, and I agree, that they should just go into nice areas and be nice, and not do any more Q and A’s. Even though they handle it well, it doesn't develop a story that we want. They also feel strongly they've done the big states now and they should start doing small states, or, at least, small cities in the big states.

      On political strategy, the President thought Ed Nixon was doing an awfully good job in his low key way of hitting the opposition. He wants to be sure we keep the Catholic issues front and center—abortion and parochial schools; that we work the scheduling out to get the family into all the states. That MacGregor and Finch and so on should study the President's thesis on election results; that you never win by a 2-to-1 margin, and that the optimum for a Republican is '57, the Eisenhower landslide figure in '56. He wants Colson and Ehrlichman to sit in the political meeting Tuesday, and also to have Connally to bring George Christian. He wants to be sure Ziegler has the line that he is never to answer any McGovern statement; he's always to no comment them. He's concerned on strategy as to whether we're answering too much of McGovern's stuff, and whether we shouldn't, instead of answering, attack on a counterpoint which is exactly right. For example, Butz who went at this the wrong way.

      We had our regular political meeting today, and there was nothing new; covered most of the above points from the President.

      This afternoon, the President met with Ken Rietz and Bill Brock, discussed the Youth Program and progress to date, but then the President got into quite a discussion with them of some post-election ideas in the area of wanting to mobilize a new majority and a new establishment and was counting on them for a plan to lead to development of that kind of a thing.

      Afterward, he talked with me again about his, whether he should get into post-election planning now, which I strongly feel he should. And he's agreed to spend some time at Camp David Wednesday on that.

      End of September 18th.
    • 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. XXI, Chile, 1969-1973

    Cool and Correct: The U.S. Response to the Allende Administration, November 5, 1970-December 31, 1972

    Vol. XXXIX, European Security

    Prelude to Negotiations, June 1972-November 1972

    • 113. Paper Prepared in the Department of State, Washington, September 18, 1972

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 247, Agency Files, MBFR and CSCE, 1972. Secret; Limdis. Eliot forwarded the paper to Kissinger on September 19 under a covering memorandum.

    Vol. E-1, Documents on Global Issues, 1969-1972

    U.S. Policy Towards Terrorism, Hijacking of Aircraft, and Attacks on Civil Aviation: The Olympic Attack and the Anti-Terrorism Initiatives, September−December 1972

    • 102. Memorandum From Secretary of State Rogers to President Nixon, Washington, September 18, 1972

      Rogers provided the President with an initial report on current measures to combat terrorism and proposals for the future.

      Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Files 1970-73, POL 23-8. Confidential. Drafted by Atherton on September 14 and cleared by Donelan, Sisco, Armitage, Boyd, Wright, Fessenden, and Ross.

  • 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)