Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 237 › Conversation 237-010
Nixon phone call with Kennedy on Vietnam War and Military Operations
Friday, December 29, 1972 · 10:48 AM–11:06 AM ET · Camp David Hard Wire · 13 min
AI Summary
President Nixon and Col. Richard T. Kennedy discussed the handling of upcoming official announcements and the management of press speculation regarding ongoing military operations and sensitive negotiations. Nixon emphasized the need for strict message discipline, directing his staff to provide a firm 'no comment' to the press to avoid linking forthcoming disclosures to recent military developments. The President further instructed that information regarding these sensitive matters be withheld from various foreign allies to ensure that the administration’s strategic objectives remain undisturbed by external political pressures.
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Transcript (AI-generated)
This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 2 minutes of this recording (about 17% of it) is represented by only a few words. Listen to the audio rather than relying on the text below; a corrected transcript is queued.
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Hello.
Hi, anything to report today?
The situation.
57.
We lost two.
How many did we lose?
Oh, I see the report in the paper this morning.
Good.
And no losses yesterday.
Good.
Maybe they're a little worn out.
All right.
Good.
Mark, you analyze this thing.
This is...
Really quite significant, isn't it?
You know, they think that they're coming just at a time that they're getting some bleach.
I know it's true and lie, but how significant was his statement?
Of course, he's not aware.
He wouldn't have been aware yet of the... Yeah.
He'll be aware today, won't he?
Because we had a definite argument.
He's already gotten our answer.
They haven't leaked anything on each other.
First of all, there would be a...
No.
That's, in other words, that's the kind of stuff they're asking us to comment upon here in Spokane.
Good.
Yeah, well, our announcement comes tomorrow at 10 o'clock, so that's plenty of time.
I talked to Henry yesterday, and I guess everybody's all fed up with him.
of the French and the British, no other reason.
Now, I don't want the Australians informed.
I don't want any of the...
He's a positive.
Yeah, and don't bother with Brandt.
No, I don't want to do anything with him or the Italians.
Yeah, we'll let them know.
What about the...
Now, what about the Thais and people like that?
I would let them know either, huh?
Well, well, not too damn much.
Thais and Koreans and people like that, they'll be quite held.
And under no circumstances let the Austrians know.
Absolutely no circumstances.
We have a past, you know.
We've informed them.
When you're ready, let's do it.
Good.
Good.
Good.
It's essential to do that because the pressures would have risen.
Remember how it did before?
We shouldn't react to the damn pressures.
The thing to do is to do it before they get at you.
And he'll do well.
I want to be sure that everybody in the department knows that he has absolute command so that they can report to him.
That's good.
Oh, you've got to hold his gully.
And he's working on it.
He understands that they've got kind of a game.
And what kind of lines does he play now?
What do you mean about this thing?
They know that.
Right.
My interest in it and so forth and so on.
Right.
Good.
All right.
Well, part of life, you see.
I notice the press today primarily is beginning to try to clue up how many planes are lost and so forth.
But it's really 24 to 48 hours late, isn't it?
And it isn't all that significant.
They're trying to build the story up.
They're building it just a little too late, aren't they?
We're about to hear something.
Where is he?
Is he going to have Mark with him?
I just don't want this kind of an announcement tomorrow to appear to be a reaction to this stuff.
I wonder if it does appear that way.
You know?
Well, it should be.
Regarding Jerry Warren, what time did he read today?
Are you sure that he's absolutely buttoned down for tomorrow?
I don't know.
Yeah.
I can get him up and talk to him about this just so that he understands.
See there.
I don't want him to say no comment on that.
He's got to say absolutely nothing.
You see what I mean?
It's got to be, oh, no, this is the result.
When do we find it?
I'm not going to go into the details.
Obviously, you see, it didn't happen.
These things don't happen instantly.
He's saying there's no comment.
Right.
Just say, why don't you say, rather than saying it's speculation, just say I'm not going to comment.
I'd rather have it just say no comment today so that it doesn't, they won't be able to bridge off of that and say what exchange is due.
Just say I'm not going to comment.
No comment.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's right.
I'm not going to discuss this gentleman.
I've covered this one.
We couldn't, I mean, obviously this matters of this subtype are under discussion over a period of time.
But we never comment until it's nailed down once you're home.
And if it wasn't nailed down, we inform you.
I just think you should just put it that way.
Obviously, but we do not comment.
Commenting during the time of
before something is totally completed would might destroy it.
Might destroy it, you see.
He could sort of put that in, but that's part of the policy.
There's never been a comment on such things until things are completely nailed down.
You see, the press will be very obviously chagrined at this announcement tomorrow.
Don't you agree?
They'll be out there off the list.
They'll be grinding their teeth and saying, God damn, this is a
Because they've been predicting the opposite, you see.
Oh, well, hell, isn't the pressure, isn't that great?
I don't see that much.
I mean, compared to... Well, compared to what we've had previously, what the hell is it?
I mean, there's the economic economists, the Albertans, the goddamn scientists, and so forth.
But they hope that the same people are all for McGovern.
All right.
How do you feel?
What I meant is that it is in its question earlier there.
We were prepared to go ahead with the bombing, but they've been saying they're not there, and indicated that they would resolve the talks for the bombing, so it's only to lay down the conditions.
I think it's all crap, isn't it?
I mean, it's the market and all that.
As a matter of fact, we're so careful.
Oh, sure, sure.
Correct.
The last round.
I hope you did well.
Still plenty of targets there.
I know.
Right, right.
Right, I know.
So they're a bit more than normal, huh?
Everybody got a few of those.
Knocked it.
Knocked the hell out of them.
If you think it would be useful after his briefing, you and he could...
You know, just quietly go over and take the courier and come up and talk about this thing.
Because I know kinds of questions that will be asked, and I know how they'll want to answer you.
Is it that would be useful or not?
Is it after you breathe at 12 o'clock, you could just come up and just say, I mean, obviously, they're just coming up to greet me.
And so we don't want to...
But obviously we're not, we want to hype up our company tomorrow.
That's why I don't want to move.
I'm not going to move down there.
But I can be here.
But it's just sort of routine.
Nobody's going to know it's you and me that came up here.
You know what I mean?
You just drop over.
If you think it would be useful, you might come up.
And we'll just go over the questions one by one.
Get a good feel of it, huh?
If you like.
Otherwise, we'll do it by phone.
Fine, fine.
You call me that.
NARA Description
On December 29, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Col. Richard T. Kennedy met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David from 10:48 am to 11:06 am. The Camp David Hard Wire taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 237-010 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 237-10 Date: December 29, 1972 Time: 10:48 am – 11:06 am Location: Camp David Hard Wire The President talked with Col. Richard T. Kennedy. [See Conversation No. 158-6]
Also recorded on December 29, 1972
- 158-005 10:30 AM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator talked on the telephone at Camp David at an unknown time between 10:30 am and 10:48 am.
- 237-009 10:30 AM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at an unknown time between 10:30 am and 10:48 am.
- 158-006 10:48 AM · 18 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Col. Richard T. Kennedy talked on the telephone at Camp David from 10:48 am to 11:06 am.
- 158-007 11:06 AM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator talked on the telephone at Camp David at an unknown time between 11:06 am and 11:23 am.
- 158-008 11:06 AM · 17 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator talked on the telephone at Camp David at an unknown time between 11:06 am and 11:23 am.
- 237-011 11:06 AM · 16 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at an unknown time between 11:06 am and 11:23 am.
- 237-012 11:06 AM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at an unknown time between 11:06 am and 11:23 am.
- 237-013 11:06 AM · 16 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at an unknown time between 11:06 am and 11:23 am.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 237-010, December 29, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/237-010 (accessed September 23, 2026).