Transcript of the 18 minute gap in the Watergate tapes.
June 23, 1972
Haldeman: okay -that's fine. Now, on the investigation, you know, the Democratic break-in thing, we're back to the-in the, the problem area because the FBI is not under control, because Gray doesn't exactly know how to control them, and they have, .... their investigation is now leading into some productive areas, because they've been able to trace the money, ...
not through the money itself, but through the bank, you know, sources - the banker himself.
And, and it goes in some directions we don't want it to go, like Dallas..... Ah, also there have been some things, like an informant came in off the street to the FBI in Miami, who was a photographer or has a friend who is a photographer who developed some films through this guy, Barker, and the films had pictures of Democratic National Committee letter head documents and things.
So I guess, so it's things like that that are gonna, that are filtering in. Mitchell came up with yesterday, and John Dean analyzed very carefully last night and concludes, concurs now with Mitchell's recommendation that the only way to solve this, and we're set up beautifully to do it, ah, in that and that...the only network that paid any attention to it last night was NBC...they did a massive story on the Cuban...
Nixon: That's right. We have to keep the story out of the media. NBC is on our team.
Haldeman: thing.
Nixon: Right.
Haldeman: That the way to handle this now is for us to have Walters call Pat Gray and just say, "Stay the hell out of this...this is ah,... our business,... here we don't want you to go any further on it."
That's not an unusual development,...
Nixon: Um huh.
Haldeman: ...and, uh, that would take care of it.
Nixon: What about Pat Gray, ah, you mean he doesn't want to?
Haldeman: Pat does want to. He doesn't know how to, and he doesn't have,... he doesn't have any basis for doing it. Given this, he will then have the basis. He'll call Mark Felt in, and the two of them ...and Mark Felt wants to cooperate because...
Nixon: Yeah.
Haldeman: he's ambitious...
Nixon: Yeah.
Haldeman: Ah, he'll call him in and say, "We've got the signal from across the river to, to put the hold on this." And that will fit rather well because the FBI agents who are working the case, at this point, feel that's what it is. This is CIA.
Nixon: But they've traced the money to 'em.
Haldeman: Well they have, they've traced to a name, but they haven't gotten to the guy yet.
Nixon: Would it be somebody here?
Haldeman: Ken Dahlberg.
Nixon: Who the hell is Ken Dahlberg?
Haldeman: He's ah, he gave $25,000 in Minnesota and ah, the check went directly in to this, to this Cuban guy Barker, who was in the Bay of Pigs ... and was in Dallas with Bush and Hunt.
Nixon: Maybe he's a ...bum. One of the bums arrested behind the grassy knoll with Hunt and Sturgis,... when they were taken out of the box car?
Nixon: He didn't get this from the committee though, from Stans.
Haldeman: Yeah. It is. It is. It's directly traceable and there's some more through some Texas people, Bush, in--that went to the Mexican bank which they can also trace to the Mexican bank...they'll get their names today. And pause)
Nixon: Well, I mean, ah, there's no way... I'm just thinking if they don't cooperate, what do they say? They,... they, ,..they ...were approached by the Dallas Cubans. That's what Dahlberg has to say, the Texans too. Bush? Is that the idea?
Haldeman: Well, if they will. But then we're relying on more and more people all the time. That's the problem. And ah, they'll stop ... if we could, if we take this other step.
Nixon: All right. Fine.
Haldeman: And, and they seem to feel the thing to do,... is get them to stop! Stop looking at the Dallas thing.
Nixon: Right, fine.
Haldeman: They say the only way to do that is from White House instructions. And it's got to be to Helms and, ah, what's his name...? Walters.
Nixon: Walters.
Haldeman: And the proposal would be that Ehrlichman (coughs) and I call them in
Nixon: All right, fine.
Haldeman: and say, ah...
Nixon: How do you call him in, I mean you just, well, we protected Helms and Bush from one hell of a lot of things. This whole Dallas thing.
Haldeman: That's what Ehrlichman says.
Nixon: Of course, this is a,... this is a Hunt, you will-....that will uncover a lot of things. You open that Dallas scab.... there's a hell of a lot of things ....and that we just feel that it would be very detrimental to have this Dallas thing go any further. This involves these Cubans, Hunt, Bush,... and a lot of hanky-panky that,... Dallas,... that, that we have nothing to do with ourselves. Nobody can prove I was in Dallas. Well what the hell, did Mitchell know about this Dallas thing,... to any much of a degree?
Haldeman: I think so. I don 't think he knew the details, but I think he knew. He knew. He knew. I could see it in his eyes.
Nixon: He didn't know how it was going to be handled though, with Dahlberg and the Texans, Bush and so forth? Well who was the asshole that did reveal the details about the Dallas mur... (Unintelligible)? Is it Liddy? Is that the fellow? He must be a little nuts to even say that stuff out loud. We could all go to prison.....
Haldeman: He is.
Nixon: I mean he just isn't well screwed on is he? Isn't that the problem?
Haldeman: No, but he was under pressure, apparently, to get more information, and as he got more pressure, he pushed the people harder to move harder on...
Nixon: Pressure from Mitchell?
Haldeman: Apparently.
Nixon: Oh, Mitchell, Mitchell was at the point that you made on this, that exactly what I need from you is on the--
Haldeman: Gemstone, yeah. The Gemstone file was suppose to confuse people on our connections to Dallas. We have to keep NBC pushing the Gemstone cover.
Nixon: All right, fine, I understand it all. We won't second-guess Mitchell and the rest. Thank God it wasn't Colson.
Haldeman: The FBI interviewed Colson yesterday. They determined that would be a good thing to do.
Nixon: Um hum.
Haldeman: Ah, to have him take a...
Nixon: Um hum.
Haldeman: An interrogation, which he did, and that, the FBI guys working the case had concluded that there were one or two possibilities, one, that this was a White House, they don't think that there is anything at the Election Committee, they think it was either a White House operation... and they had some obscure reasons for it,... non political,... Some memo they had from Hoover.
Nixon: Uh huh.
Haldeman: or it was a...
Nixon: Cuban thing-
Haldeman: Cubans and the CIA. And after their interrogation of, of...
Nixon: Colson.
Haldeman: Colson, yesterday, they concluded it was not the White House, but are now convinced it is a CIA thing, so the CIA turn off would...
Nixon: Well, not sure of their analysis, I'm not going to get that involved. I'm (unintelligible).
Haldeman: No, sir. We don't want you to.
Nixon: You call them in.
Nixon: Good. Good deal! Play it tough. That's the way they play it and that's the way we are going to play it.
Haldeman: O.K. We'll do it.
Nixon: Yeah, when I saw that news summary item, I of course knew it was a bunch of crap, but I thought ah, well it's good to have them off on this wild hair thing because when they start bugging us, which they have, we'll know our little boys will not know how to handle it. I hope they will though. You never know. Maybe, you think about it. Good!
********** 18 minute gap
Recovered content of the 18 Minute Gap:
Haldeman: O.K. We'll pay Hunt one million to keep quiet about George Bush’s role in Dallas. I mean,.... if this gets into the press, that Bush, Hunt and Sturgis were arrested in Dallas for the assassination,... we could all go to prison for life....
Or worse. .
Nixon: When you get in these people when you...get these people in NBC, tell them to shut down this whole story. Remind them that we silenced that famous journalist Dorothy Killgallen, by ... ah... silencing her forever. Come down hard on NBC, because they are a key part of the Pentagon and the CIA. They know what we are talking about. They weren’t in Dallas, but the trail leads directly back to them. They have the power to silence all the media. Just do it.
Haldeman: O.K. We'll do it.
Nixon: What are we going to do about all the people in Dallas with cameras? Bush said he saw 3 different people take his picture while he was being questioned, in front of the TSBD by police. What do we have to do to get all those cameras seized and destroyed?
Haldeman: Yes.
Nixon: Some of Bush’s top people ... I believe there were 9 people ... were arrested at the head quarters of,... of his Zapata Oil Company ... over there on ... on .. a ... Cayo Sal ... I think, just 30 miles north of Cuba. How can be get the British police to seal those files and all the photos they took?
Haldeman: This whole thing is getting out of hand. It is getting too big. We have to be careful. There is liable to be some leakage from some of these sources.
Nixon: We must take total control of this story .....
Haldeman: O.K. We'll do it.
************ End of the 18 minute gap in the tapes. Nixon is still talking about the Dallas assassination of President Kennedy.
Nixon: When you get in these people when you...get these people in, say: "Look, the problem is that this will open the whole, the whole, the whole Dallas assassination of President Kennedy (Bay of Pigs) thing, and the President just feels that" ah, without going into the details... don't, don't lie to them to the extent to say there is no involvement, but just say this is sort of a comedy of errors, bizarre, without getting into it, "the President believes that it is going to open the whole Dallas assassination of JFK (Bay of Pigs) thing up again. And, ah because these people are plugging for, for keeps and that they should call the FBI in and say that we wish for the country, don't go any further into this case", period!
Haldeman: OK
Nixon: That's the way to put it, do it straight (Unintelligible)
Haldeman: We are getting more done for our cause.... by the opposition than by us at this point.
Nixon: You think so?
Haldeman: I think so, yeah. We have to hire a few hundred more CIA journalists to control this story in the media.
To listen to the actual tapes, go to:
Youtube: paul8kangas
After the Bay of Pigs. Script for an interview with President Fidel Castro and Jean Daniel. The atmosphere in the US became very hostile against JFK after the 1,500 veterans from the Bay of Pigs returned to Miami. JFK was trying to patch over this tension with the CIA. First, JFK broke the CIA into a 1,000 pieces and put the Pentagon in charge of the CIA. JFK fired the top 100 people in the CIA. Next, JFK abolished the Federal Reserve and began printing US Notes, backed by silver to take control of the economy away from the British banks who controlled the Fed. Then JFK issued Executive Order #263, on 10-16-63, and totally ended the Vietnam war. JFK decided he wanted peace with Cuba, Russia and China. So he ended all wars aimed at all 3 nations. The wars were all over. JFK wanted a decade of peace with the Russians & China. About 11-1-1963, President John Kennedy had a secret meeting with French journalists Jean Daniel. JFK gave Daniel a letter of introduction, and asked Daniel to negotiate a peace treaty with Cuba. Eventually Daniel ended up with a face to face meeting with President Fidel Castro. They then spent 4 days negotiating a fully formed peace treaty. On Nov 18th, they covered the topics generally. It was 4 intense days. By 11-21-63 they had developed an actual peace treaty. On 11-22-63 Fidel and Jean were having a friendly final discussion and saying good bye. Daniel was due to fly out at 6pm, back to Paris. Then, about 2pm, the news came from Dallas, that the 200 veterans from the Bay of Pigs: Geo Bush, Frank Sturgis, Howard Hunt, and the other veterans, had successfully assassinated JFK at high noon. Military style. It was a public execution. How did the CIA know that JFK had sent Daniel to negotiate this peace treaty? The CIA had tried to assassinated Fidel over 100 times and failed. They practiced, executed the plan, failed, devised another plan, executed it, failed, practiced new methods and practiced. The CIA spent every week from 1958 to 1963 devising new plans on how to assassinate President Castro. While every plan failed, the 1,500 assassins now had plenty of training. They had devised over 100 methods, plans, weapons and seniriores. Bush and the CIA spent over $10 million in those 5 years, developing, training and practicing every angle of an assassination. The 5 years of intense practice paid off in Dallas. Time line: 1958 July 26th Movement takes power in Cuba. 1960, Paul Kangas joins the USN, trained in Intelligence, is assigned to Washington, DC, as a guard for President Kennedy. 4-15-61 Bay of Pigs Blockade, May ’61 to Jan 63 12/62 BoP veterans return from Cuban prisons to Miami & Dallas. 11-63 Jean Daniel goes to Havana. 11-22-63: Bush CIA filmed by Zapruder & audio taped by DPO McCain executing JFK in Dallas 3-1-67 DA Garrison arrests CIA agent Clay Shaw 6-23-72 Nixon & Haldeman agree to pay Hunt $1M to keep Hunt quiet about the role of Bush & the CIA in the JFK assassination. 1973: Watergate tapes released. Sources: “Coup de etat in America”, Canfield, The Watergate Tapes”, “Give us this day”, Hunt; Haldermann Paul Kangas is a fmr Guard for President Kennedy & a veteran of the US invasion of Cuba.