rmm413c's video: NIXON TAPES: Trunk Loads of Documents Pentagon Papers

Rep. Edward Hébert June 17, 1971 005-123 White House Telephone President Richard Nixon calls Democratic Louisiana Congressman Edward "Eddie" Hebert to thank him for his support of the administrations position on ABM's (Antiballistic Missiles) and the B-1 bomber. He also takes the opportunity to discuss the then recent release of the Pentagon Papers in the New York Times with Hebert. Nixon notes that although it was "no skin off of our back" from a political standpoint (because the papers dealt with the Kennedy and Johnson administrations), the release of "trunk loads" of classified documents will "destroy the presidency." He adds that his Attorney General John Mitchell had by this point zeroed in on the leaker, Daniel Ellsberg, whom Nixon argues will be going to jail over this (he did not in the end).