Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 17 › Conversation 017-102

Nixon phone call with Moorer on Vietnam War and Aerial Bombardment

Sunday, December 26, 1971 · 12:12 PM–12:16 PM ET · White House Telephone · 4 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Moorer, Thomas H. (Adm.)Conversation017-102 on Tape 17 (tape position 03:36:35–03:40:31)StartSunday, December 26, 1971 at 12:12 PMEndSunday, December 26, 1971 at 12:16 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 017-102 ↗ · National Archives Catalog, NAID 417191967 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Admiral Thomas H. Moorer reviewed the progress of ongoing U.S. bombing operations in Vietnam, which had been hampered by poor weather conditions. Moorer provided updates on strikes against transshipment points and petroleum storage, while noting that South Vietnamese forces were preparing to use captured enemy weapons to harass North Vietnamese units. Nixon emphasized the urgency of these strikes to maximize damage before diplomatic constraints related to his upcoming visit to the People's Republic of China narrowed military options.

Audio

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NARA Description

On December 26, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Adm. Thomas H. Moorer talked on the telephone from 12:12 pm to 12:16 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 017-102 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 17-102

Date: December 26, 1971
Time: 12:12 pm - 12:16 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with Adm. Thomas H. Moorer.

[See Conversation No. 310-29]

     Christmas greetings

     Redskins game
         -Playoffs

     Vietnam
          -Bombing
                -Weather
                -Targets
                      -Shipping and petroleum, oil and lubricants [POL]
          -South Vietnamese
          -Captured weapons
          -Time
                -People’s Republic of China [PRC]
          -Weather
          -Situation room
          -Airplane
                -Losses

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Names and numbers are often wrong; speakers are not identified. Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Mr. President, Admiral Moore is on the line.
Ready.
Hello.
Good morning, Mr. President.
Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas to you.
Did you have a good one?
Yes, sir.
Thank you.
I had my family here.
I hope you saw that game.
I did.
Wasn't that fantastic?
Terrific, yes, sir.
That's probably the best one.
I mean, well, they're always the best, but the only thing I'd do if I were having that playoff role, I think it's a mistake for them to have it on the sudden death thing because it makes it basically so...
unlike football and so conventional everybody plays it's a safer fair of an error they really ought to play a third quarter a fifth quarter and then they'd you know you'd have all the excitement of both teams going for broke again you know right I think it might be well we might have that again today yeah oh my no god I hope the Washington well they got a chance the strike got off all right did it last night yes the strike got off Mr. President but uh the weather's bad it is yes sir we had a uh a shift in the uh uh
front there and the weather is bad.
You mean they had to make the strike in bad weather?
Yes, they did about half of it.
Oh, I see.
Well, actually, they didn't do half of it.
They did just about the first wave.
Now, we're standing by to go again.
Did it look pretty good?
Did the first wave get something or we did some damage, I hope?
Yes, sir.
We got two good targets.
What were they?
What kind of targets?
Well, they were a
transshipment point, I think.
The other was apparently P.O.L.
It was a big explosion.
But the weather really turned bad on us.
And we really had a break on that.
You know, we've been ready to go to this damn thing for two weeks now, and they just can't get it off.
That's right, sir.
Now, that other thing, you know, the boat thing is going.
It will go
Probably right now.
No, by the South Vietnamese?
Yes, sir.
You think that'll harass them a little, huh?
Yes, sir, because we're going to use their weapons against them.
You know, the captured weapons.
Oh, is that right?
Yes, sir.
And that was the idea, to fire back something that we captured from them.
Is that right?
Good.
But we're just standing on standby here now, and I'll find out again, and we're going to press ahead as hard as we can.
I know what your objectives are here.
Well, of course, the problem is that there's times running out on us, you know, and we get beyond a certain point as we get right into the China thing where we can't... Well, tomorrow we're going to... Or it could be tonight, actually.
Yeah.
The weather continues like it is now.
We're going to go instruments on a lot of those targets.
Can you do that?
We can on some of them, yes, with a lot of, you know, like POL storages and...
things of that kind.
But this being a last opportunity, everybody's all primed and cocked.
We're going to do our very best.
Okay.
Okay, fine.
Well, I hope that... We're keeping a situation in the room.
Oh, I know.
I know that's fine.
I just want to show you that I'm watching it.
Sure, sure.
I know.
I know what you want.
Well, the main thing is, as I say, we...
I just know it's a last opportunity, and I just, we want to weaken them as much as we can before we have to, you know, we'll be in a position that we're just going to be there getting out, and that's not going to be very good.
Yes, sir.
We did, well, we think we've lost one airplane.
That's not bad.
We don't have 10 occasions yet.
Well, one would be, I would be, you'd expect that, wouldn't you?
Oh, yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Because they, as you know, they've increased the double air...
missile firings, missile batteries from about 22 down in the area we're in, plus about, I imagine, 30 anti-aircraft regiments, too.
Right, right.
We're going to go after them just as hard as we can, I assure you.
Good, I know that.
Okay, bye.
Thank you for calling.
Bye.

Also recorded on December 26, 1971

  • 310-029 12:12 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Adm.Thomas H. Moorer met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 12:12 pm to 12:16 pm.
  • 017-103 12:16 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 12:16 pm and 1:43 pm.
  • 310-030 12:16 PM · 26 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., and Tricia Nixon Cox met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 12:16 pm and 1:43 pm.
  • 310-031 12:16 PM · 29 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Julie Nixon Eisenhower, Tricia Nixon Cox, and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 12:16 pm and 1:43 pm.
  • 310-032 12:16 PM · 12 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 12:16 pm and 1:43 pm.
  • 310-033 12:16 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., and Zosimo T. Monzon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 12:16 pm and 1:43 pm.
  • 310-034 12:16 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 12:16 pm and 1:43 pm.
  • 310-035 12:16 PM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 12:16 pm and 1:43 pm.

All 31 conversations from December 26, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 017-102, December 26, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives (NAID 417191967). Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/017-102 (accessed October 28, 2026).