Nixon phone call with Kennedy on Vietnam War and Operation Linebacker II

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Hello.

Good morning, Mr. President.

Hi.

You ever been here to report today?

Um, no, sir.

Um, they did, uh, did well again, uh, Wednesday, as you know.

Uh, of course.

And, uh, I talked to, uh, Jeff Lester, uh, he's the president.

Uh, well, they did, uh, about 77.

77.

Yes, sir.

And you want to be... Sir?

How many do we lose?

Oh, I see.

That's always a day late.

Day late, yeah.

They haven't actually got 60 of them up in our preferred area.

Good.

And no losses yet.

No losses yet.

Okay.

I've got that one more.

It's just a very low number of manned fires.

We're analyzing that for, uh, um,

This may be the kind of rhetorical sentence it has to try.

I must say, it was a little bit stronger than we heard, more than a little stronger.

There was also some demonstration.

Now, this may have been the result that Madame Finn was rare in PT.

And they had some sort of a march.

Now, it's the first time that they have made this much noise.

I think we'll leave it.

But again, I would think that's probably about the least they can do for their friends.

Without losing them.

I wouldn't go ahead and say he's not aware.

He wouldn't be aware yet.

No, sir, he would not.

But they will be aware of everything.

We've got to be aware today, we've got to be aware, we've got to be aware today, we've got to be aware today, we've got to be aware today, we've got to be aware today, we've got to be aware today, we've got to be aware today, we've got to be aware today, we've got to be aware today, we've got to be aware today, we've got to be aware today, we've got to be aware today, we've got to be aware today, we've got to be aware today, we've got to be aware today, we've got to be aware today, we've got to be aware today, we've got to be aware today, we've got to be aware today, we've got to be aware today, we've got to be aware today, we've got to be aware today, we've got to be aware today, we've got to be aware today, we've got to be aware today, we've got to be aware today, we've got to be aware today, we

Yeah, we're running out of time because tomorrow is kind of close.

We're running out of time.

I hope all of us, I talked to Henry yesterday, I hope everybody is doing all the stuff you do.

Yeah, we'll let you know.

We'll let you know.

So we'll be honest.

We'll let them know.

What about the ties and people like that?

Are we going to let them know?

The probability is it's weak.

Well, so we're going to let them know just before.

But I'm too damn not sure.

Hopefully that's not a tie.

People like that, they'll look that up.

And I think they'll look at it and tell us that.

Right.

We haven't attacked them.

I don't know if it's any one of them, but I don't know.

But everything else is a hand.

So we're going to take...

has gotten very good at defending.

It didn't make it to the press very much, but it's gotten very good at defending on the two leanings.

And he's going to be over here this morning, when Jerry Bruce, who is going to make a few statements on what he's going to do on the U.S., and he's going to be going down tomorrow, or on Sunday, to Nicaragua.

And that's, uh, that's moving along very well.

And he says there's a potential to do that.

You know, if, uh, if it's there to do, he's expected to get a gun in the bay.

He doesn't remember how it gets before.

I know that we shouldn't react to the gun, but there's a thing to do is to do it before we just get our chips, right?

And he'll be, uh, that'll be good.

I want to be sure that everybody in the department will know that we have that route command, you know, the Pace Street Pace Command.

When we get there, we'll pass that route.

And John Kelly is, uh, uh, you got him with his gun.

And he's, uh, and he was working on our mission to, uh, to end the time together.

And, uh, uh, what kind of a line he was putting out, you know, the poundies.

And, uh, making sure that, uh, you know, what we're doing is, uh, to make it clear, uh, that, uh, you're continuing some, uh, piloting, you know, and, uh, and, uh, playing very heavily on, on the Williams-David-Nation report as directed to you.

Good.

So I understand why it worked very well.

Wow.

Probably, uh, the, uh, the, uh, situation, um, on that high ground there that, uh, Terry was from, uh, seemed to clear it up.

Yeah.

Um, the plane was, uh, one-sided, and they were there.

And now they need to be seeing what kind of disaster the, uh, two-time ministry could run along.

Yeah.

But it did not turn out as people were doing last night to see another unit started.

Yep.

Uh.

The scientists and scientists are also making a loud noise in there.

Oh, yeah.

We'll just say no, and then we can continue our communication.

Yeah.

I used to be.

The only time I might see this is for you.

I just came up with kind of an announcement tomorrow that through the U.S. Oh, no.

Nope.

I wonder if it doesn't do it that way.

I don't think so.

I don't think so either.

I don't think so.

I'm going to have to get a bit of a tickle at you now.

but it would occur at the same time.

It would be perfectly clear what the announcement was made, but this is a result of a couple of times.

It just couldn't have happened in a matter of a minute.

No one could take back the decision.

And I just want to be sure that he's actually going to be bucking down.

Oh, absolutely.

I don't know.

Yes, sir.

I just wanted to get it up in a little bit.

You saw it off him.

But he's going to hold absolutely firm.

No comment.

How do you think I should get it up in touch with him?

I just wonder if he knows the kind of touch that's going on.

What about the mic he's going to have in there?

Absolutely not, right.

Right.

He's trying to act because he's doing so hard yesterday and today on these rumors that have been running.

Yesterday he said this is pure speculation.

There's no treatment.

Today he's simply going to say this is, you know, I have no comment at all.

We're not going to comment on this case.

We're going to say we haven't been doing any speculations.

We're not going to comment.

Right.

Nope.

I'd rather have you just say no comment today so that it doesn't, you know, they won't, they won't, they won't do it today.

So good job for that.

We're going to say we're not going to comment.

We're not going to discuss military operations or military plans.

Yeah.

Okay.

So then if they, if they question tomorrow, well, you know, did you lie to us yesterday?

He said, no, Simon, we, uh, we made these things, uh, um, these decisions to do the, uh, the arrangements that the police tweeted.

Yeah.

Okay.

He's a, uh, he's 67.

Obviously, this, uh, uh, matters a bit to that type, uh,

I have a discussion over a period of time, but we never comment until it's nailed down once and for all.

Whether it's nailed down or not, that's a pretty bad day to write it.

Obviously, we do not comment during the time before something is completed with the might destroy.

Might destroy, excuse me.

Yeah, I think it's important to put that in.

We've got to try to probably never comment on such things.

Well, I think that

We didn't weather up enough 24 hours, but it'll be good.

I don't see that.

I mean, there's the economy, the government, there's the government, and all this stuff.

But they've always done it.

But they must say the wrong people are all from the government.

That's how it is.

That is the whole bunch of people.

They were the worst.

They were put by God.

You know what I mean?

They got you, you got them, you know what I mean?

Yeah, but I know that's not true at all.

I just think it's just another challenge.

So I saw Mr.

Rush this morning on TV on some of the stuff that he said.

I explained it to him.

I think both he and Moore had a little question whether we were doing this to bring him to the table.

And I just questioned him.

I just questioned him.

And they were very clear that they wanted to do this.

But we weren't supposed to do this.

So I just told him to do it.

No, no, we didn't talk to them about the bomb.

In fact, what I know is that they were very, very interested in the question.

They were there.

They, uh, they were prepared to go ahead with the bomb.

But they, uh, they didn't say, uh, they, uh, I know, I didn't think they were going to say that they were going to talk to them about the bomb.

So, they were laid out in the kitchen.

In fact, you know, it's just as precise as the way I put it to them, and I just said, make them come.

Those orders have gone out now.

If we get any others, they'll say.

They'll be going.

As a matter of fact, I'm going to get back to you.

I think it's all clear.

Yes, sir.

They're going just about now.

Yeah, they're going right now.

This is the last one.

And then we will be putting increased weight of the license down there.

Just wanted to make it clear.

Yes, sir.

You know, there's been, I talked with Admiral Boyer about that this morning and last night also.

There's been a lot of the normal coolant buildup of the guy actually.

Yeah.

This is the time, this is the time that they normally are putting their supply activity down for their ice.

Their ice is right in there.

So they're working more than normal.

So, some or more, yes.

Of course, they've got all those losses to make up.

to get the truck made out of a position to go through the dry season and they went through a lot of work.

So they're at it and they're good.

They wouldn't have took points down in that area.

Capacity to go on and make it be worked over regularly.

They're looking for the opportunity.

That's good.

The horror seems to be pretty well convinced that they've

You know, taking a lot of those fans out in the storage area up north, and that may account for what you're doing, for the drop off.

Yeah, the drop off is fine.

Anyway, what does Warner think about this country taking over the trade?

Oh, he thinks they've been, uh, been, uh, just, tremendously destructive to our country from what they used to be.

Yes, sir, principally because they've, they've compressed this damage, if you put it.

Uh, by putting this much weight, uh, day after day, you go back over the same target.

until we finish the target off.

And that compounds their rebuilding and reconstruction stuff.

Yeah, it just takes them far longer to be able to put anything back in working condition.

You go after it for three or four days to five days in a row.

By the time you get finished, it gets so badly damaged, the amount of repair work they have to do just takes them a very long time.

So they're out of business in a lot of areas for a long time to come.

It might be.

May I speak with Jerry about it?

What I meant is that after you do

I mean, obviously, they're coming up to the bridge.

And we don't want to, obviously, we don't want to hope for what happens tomorrow.

That's why I don't want to move.

I'm not going to move down there.

Right.

But I can be here.

That's where we're going to let it.

We're a team.

Nobody's going to know that you and he came up here.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

We want to make sure you get dropped over.

If you make it, we'll see.

We don't know what you're going to do next.

All right, sir.

Let me just get down there.

We'll just go over the stretch.

I want to get a feel of it.

Yes.

If you like, all right.

Otherwise, you're good to go.

All right, fine, fine.

You call me back.

I will.

Nixon phone call with Kennedy on Vietnam War and Operation Linebacker II

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on December 29, 1972

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