PRESIDENT NIXON: We have to develop now a program, a program for leaking out information, for destroying these people in the papers. That’s one side of it, get after the conspiracy [against him]. The other side of it is the declassification. Declassification. And then leaking to, or giving up, to our friends the stories that they would like to have, such as the Cuban conflagration [Bay of Pigs?]. Do you get what I mean? Let’s have a little fun. Let me tell you what the declassification of the previous years’ [events] that helps us [unclear], you know. It takes the eyes off of Vietnam. It gets them thinking about the past rather than our present problems. You get the point? H.R. HALDEMAN: Yeah. PRESIDENT NIXON: You’ve got to win some things in the press. These guys don’t understand. They have no understanding of politics. They have no understanding of public relations.

[Attorney General] John Mitchell’s that way. John Mitchell is always worried about: is it technically correct? Do you think, for Christ’s sakes, the New York Times is worrying about all the legal niceties? Those sons of bitches are killing me. Every minute [unclear] by leaking to the press. This is what we’ve got to get—I want you to shake these sons of bitches up around here. Now, you do it! Shake them up! Get them off their goddamned dead asses and say, “Now, this is what we’re talking about. We’re up against an enemy, a conspiracy, that are using any means. [Pounding the desk for emphasis.] We are going to use any means.” Is that clear? Did they get the Brookings Institute [a liberal think-tank with which Daniel Ellsberg was affiliated] raided last night? No? HALDEMAN: [Unclear.] PRESIDENT NIXON: Get it done. I want it done. I want the Brookings Institute’s safe cleaned out.

PRESIDENT NIXON: But, anyway, here we go. What in the name of God are we doing on this score? What are we doing about the financial contributors? Now, those lists are made there. Are we looking over McGovern’s financial contributors? Are we looking over the financial contributors to the Democratic National Committee? Are we running their income tax returns? Is the Justice Department checking to see whether or not there is any anti-trust suits? Do we have anything going on any of these things?

H.R. HALDEMAN: Not as far as I know.PRESIDENT NIXON: We better get the goddamn campaign right this

time—not tomorrow, but now. That’s what concerns me. We have all this power and we aren’t using it. Now, what the Christ is the matter?In other words, what I’m really saying is this: I think we’ve got to get it out. Now, I’m just thinking about, for example, if there’s information on Larry O’Brien [regarding possible tax problems]. If there is, I wouldn’t wait. I’d worry the sons of bitches now, because after they select somebody else [as a running mate for McGovern], it is irrelevant, even though he’s still in the campaign. It’s much more relevant now, that then they drop him because . . . See what I mean?

JOHN EHRLICHMAN: Yeah, well—

PRESIDENT NIXON: You’ve got the facts. Did they check the other side of the facts? What is being done, and who is doing this full-time? That’s what I’d like to know. Who is running the IRS? Who is running over at the Justice Department? So, what I meant is, with all the agencies of government, what in the name of God are we doing about, my God, the McGovern contributors?

EHRLICHMAN: I think the short answer to your question is nothing, and . . .

PRESIDENT NIXON: There we are. Boy, they’re doing it to us.

EHRLICHMAN: No question; no question.PRESIDENT NIXON: And it’s never happened that way

before.EHRLICHMAN: I can give you—PRESIDENT NIXON: Johnson screwed everybody!

Kennedy did. And when we were out, in ’52, the Truman people were kicking the hell out of me.

EHRLICHMAN: Sure.

PRESIDENT NIXON: In ’62 [when he ran for California governor], they kicked the hell out of me. In 1960, the bureaucracy bleached up on my visit to Khrushchev. Our bureaucracy—the guys in our bureaucracy.

A part of the problem is the bureaucracy. Part of the problem is our own goddamned fault. There must be something that we can do.

EHRLICHMAN: I don’t disagree with you at all—PRESIDENT NIXON: Now, where’s [presidential aide

Tom Charles] Huston? Is he around? Can we enlist him? Or anybody, to do this kind of work? I think the trouble is we’ve got too many nice guys around, who just want to do the right thing.

BOB HALDEMAN: They’re trying to keep it all bottled up. They’ve done— PRESIDENT NIXON: I was going to say— HALDEMAN: Considering the explosive nature of what’s there, we’ve done a pretty good job. Now, the scenario on that, they all seem pretty well agreed on now, is that the only danger is [Nixon political aide Jeb] Magruder. He does have to go before the grand jury. But [White House counsel John] Dean has gone over and over it with him, and Jeb is going to stay with his story [that there was no involvement of the Nixon campaign with the break-in] and stay with it solid. And they think there’s no problem, because—and that he will. He will not be indicted (Magruder). They will come down with seven indictments—the five [Cubans] plus [CREEP aides E. Howard] Hunt and [G. Gordon] Liddy. [Break.] So John [Dean] sees no possibility of the case being brought before the election.[Break.] PRESIDENT NIXON: Are the Cubans going to plead not guilty? Or are they going to . . .? BOB HALDEMAN: I don’t know. But everybody’s satisfied. They’re all out of jail. They’ve all been taken care of. They’re now—

PRESIDENT NIXON: Yeah. HALDEMAN: They’ve done a lot of discreet checking to be sure there’s no discontent in the ranks, and there isn’t any. PRESIDENT NIXON: Yeah. HALDEMAN: They’re all . . . PRESIDENT NIXON: Out on bail. HALDEMAN: [E. Howard] Hunt’s happy. PRESIDENT NIXON: At considerable cost, I guess. HALDEMAN: Yes. PRESIDENT NIXON: It’s worth it. HALDEMAN: It’s very expensive. It’s a costly— PRESIDENT NIXON: That’s what the money’s for. HALDEMAN: —exercise, but that’s better spent than . . . PRESIDENT NIXON: Well, they took all the risk, and they have to be paid. That’s all there is to that.

PRESIDENT NIXON: And also, I told [John] Ehrlichman, I don’t see why our little boys can’t make something out of the fact that, God darn it, this is the only responsible decision you could possibly make. The FBI cannot turn over raw files. Has anybody made that point? I’ve tried.[Break.] PRESIDENT NIXON: Let’s make the point that the raw files cannot be turned over. Well, I think that point should be made. JOHN DEAN: That, that— PRESIDENT NIXON: We are standing for the rights of innocent individuals. The American Civil Liberties Union is against it. We’re against it.[Break.] DEAN: I think that there’s no doubt about the seriousness of the problem we’ve got. We have a cancer within, close to the presidency, that’s growing. It’s growing daily. It’s compounding, it grows geometrically now because it compounds itself. That’ll be clear as I explain, you know, some of the details of why it is, and it basically it’s because (1) we’re being blackmailed; (2) people are going to start perjuring themselves very quickly that have not had to perjure themselves to protect other people and the like. And that is just—and there is no assurance— PRESIDENT NIXON: That it won’t bust. DEAN: That that won’t bust. PRESIDENT NIXON: True.