In the aftermath of the publication of the Pentagon Papers, the president was incensed that the press was blaming him for the Vietnam conflict. He was angry that many Democrats who were previously deeply involved in Vietnam policy were now critical of his policies. He was further angered that many of these former officials still had documents. In this conversation, he orders his chief aide H.R. Haldeman to break into the Brookings Institution and take the files out of their safe. He believed that there were many more documents in this safe that would be incriminating to the Democrats and he wanted to get access to them so they could be leaked to the public.