Date: May 17, 1973

Time: 10:31 am – 11:30 am

Location: Oval Office

The President met with Ronald L. Ziegler, Alexander M. Haig, Jr. and J. Fred Buzhardt, Jr.

Watergate

-Ziegler’s forthcoming press briefing

-Content

-Central Intelligence Agency [CIA]

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-Other news leads

-CIA

-Vernon A. Walters and Richard M. Helms

-H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman

-Walters’s and Helms’s possible statements

-President’s knowledge of meeting

-Involvement in Watergate

-John W. Dean III

-Helms’s conversation with President

-Walters’s conversation with L[ouis] Patrick Gray,

III

-Robert Woodward’s story, May 17

-Daniel Ellsberg break-in

-Buzhardt’s efforts

-Affidavits

-White House strategy

-Ziegler’s forthcoming press briefing

-Woodward’s story

-Dean’s documents

-Ziegler’s forthcoming press briefing

-David R. Young

-Thomas F. Eagleton’s medical file

-Allegations concerning Ehrlichman

-Allegations concerning Patrick J. Buchanan

-Burglary of doctor’s office

-Doctor’s letter

-Press report, May 17

-Doctor’s letter to Haig

-Possible White House response

-Forwarding of letter to Henry E. Petersen

-Ehrlichman

-Press reports

-Buchanan

-Ehrlichman’s possible activities

-Dean

-Lawyer

-Request for access to Dean’s chronological files

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-Haldeman and Ehrlichman

-Access to files

-Prosecutors’ allegations

-Buzhardt’s response

-Access to White House files

-Staff perquisites

-Departure from White House payroll

-Transition activities

-Lawrence M. Higby

-Move to Old Executive Office Building [EOB]

-John J. Wilson’s statement

-President’s conversation with George P. Shultz, May 16

-John J. (“Jack”) Caulfield

-Allegations against

-Possible removal

-Higby

-Haldeman and Ehrlichman

-Removal from White House payroll

-Dean

-Haig’s conversation with Barry M. Goldwater

-Carpenters [?]

-National support for President

-Public relations [PR]

-Armed Forces Day

-President’s speech

-Prisoners of War [POW] Day

-Television [TV] coverage

-Visits

-Tuscon, Arizona

-Everett M. Dirksen [Center dedication]

-Goldwater’s view

-POW Day

-Exploitation

-Support for President

-Press coverage

Watergate

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-Dean

-Press actions

-Dan Rather

-Treatment by White House

-Appearance on TV

-Huston Plan

-President’s call to Ziegler, May 16

-Sequence of events

-Haldeman

-J. Edgar Hoover

-Clyde A. Tolson

-Possible meetings

-John N. Mitchell and President

-Termination

-William C. Sullivan

-Implementation

-Buzhardt’s activities

-Louis W. Tordella

-Sullivan

-Tom C. Huston

-Date of departure

-Files

Ziegler and Buzhardt left at 10:56 am.

-White House response

-Meetings

-Public relations

-Buzhardt compared with Leonard Garment

-Ziegler’s view

-President’s meeting with Buzhardt

-President’s motive concerning CIA

-National security

-Possible White Paper

-President’s role

-Defendant

-Goldwater’s viewpoint

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-Shultz, Connally, Republican leadership

-Dean’s documents

-Buzhardt’s possible conversations

-James R. Schlesinger

-William D. Ruckelshaus

-White House response

National economy

-Meeting with Shultz

-Wage and price controls

-Political effects

-Economic effects

-Indicators

-Balanced budget

-Boom

-Inflation

-Poll numberes

-Connally’s view

-Watergate

-President’s leadership role

-Wage and price controls

-Shultz’s view

-Oil and gas

President’s leadership role

-Political effects

-Record

-Soviet Union

-Initiatives

-Watergate

-Domestic front

-Professionalism

-Sound management

-Confidence

President’s schedule

-Congressional leaders’ meeting

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-Hugh Scott

-Goldwater

-Robert J. Dole

Watergate

-Dean’s documents

-Schlesinger

-Conversation with Buzhardt, 5/13

-Shultz’s reaction

-Haig’s forthcoming calls

-Elliot L. Richardson

-Schlesinger

-William P. Clements, Jr.

-Buzhardt

-Opinion regarding President

Ronald L. Ziegler entered at 11:08 am.

Watergate

-Ervin Committee hearings

-Samuel J. Ervin, Jr.

-Goldwater’s opinion

-Robert C. Odle, Jr.’s testimony

-Haldeman’s and Ehrlichman’s forthcoming testimony

-Ziegler’s forthcoming press briefing

-Helen Thomas

Ziegler left at 11:09 am.

Watergate

-Walters’s memoranda of conversation [memcons]

-Possible effect of release

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4

[National security]

[Duration: 15 s ]

SURVELLIANCE

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4

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Watergate

-Walters’s memcons

-National security

-Haldeman and Ehrlichman

-Removal from White House staff

-Access to papers

-Dean

-Request for access to papers

-President’s conversation with Petersen, April 17

-National security

-Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] investigation

-Ellsberg case

-Wiretap

-Evidence of misconduct

-Burglary

-National security

-Results

-Dean’s documents

-Huston Plan

-Possible White House response

-President’s role

-Intelligence community

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-Adm. Noel Gayler, Gen. Bennett Helms, Ruckelshaus and

Sullivan

-White Paper

-Statement by President

-Possessors

-Possible reaction by liberals

-Possible White House response

-Possible popular reaction

-Possible White House response

-President’s role

-Compared to previous administrations

-President’s schedule

-Ziegler’s forthcoming press briefing

-News story

-Huston Plan

-President’s opponents’ knowledge

-Petersen, Ruckelshaus, Schlesinger and Helms

-Helms

-Possible conversation with Haig

-Resignation as ambassador

-Conversation with Buzhardt

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5

[National security]

[Duration: 27 s ]

SURVELLIANCE

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5

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Watergate

-Philadelphia doctor’s letter to Haig

-Allegations regarding burglary

-Haig’s possible conversation with John D. Ehrlichman

-Burglary of President’s doctor’s office

-Haig’s possible conversation with Haldeman

Haig left at 11:30 am.