Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 237 › Conversation 237-046

Nixon phone call with Kissinger on Vietnam War and Congressional relations

Saturday, December 30, 1972 · 10:04 AM–10:12 AM ET · Camp David Hard Wire · 7 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Kissinger, Henry A.Conversation237-046 on Tape 237StartSaturday, December 30, 1972 at 10:04 AMEndSaturday, December 30, 1972 at 10:12 AMRecording deviceCamp David Hard WireSourceNixon Library record for 237-046 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Henry Kissinger coordinate a strategy to brief congressional leaders regarding a pending major announcement related to the Vietnam War and the recent bombing campaigns. The President stresses the importance of personal outreach to key allies like Mansfield and Scott to manage legislative fallout and control the narrative surrounding the resumption of military operations. Kissinger outlines a justification for the bombing, emphasizing that the action was a necessary response to an impasse in peace negotiations, and confirms that legislative aides will be tasked with reaching out to remaining members of Congress.

Audio

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NARA Description

On December 30, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David from 10:04 am to 10:12 am. The Camp David Hard Wire taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 237-046 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 237-46

Date: December 30, 1972
Time: 10:04 am - 10:12 am
Location: Camp David Hard Wire

The President talked with Henry A. Kissinger.

[See Conversation No. 158-37]

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 1 minute of this recording (about 16% 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.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Hello.
I wondered if you'd been able to get some of your calls made this morning?
Yeah.
Is he thinking of, is he gonna try to get the, uh, maybe some of the, let's see if they, uh, the problem you have is that, you know,
Yeah, well, he's got some, he's got some, he doesn't want to, but he's got a bunch of radicals on his committee, and so he's
How do you explain to Mansfield?
You tell him that you wanted to brief him first and then I'd brief him.
He's fully responsible in that.
He wasn't up at all like that.
You see some of these guys are getting a little silly, like Humphrey and Zaxby.
You see Harper Street?
Huh?
Yeah, he said it was a national outrage.
And Zaxby said the president's left his senses or something like that.
Unbelievable.
Yeah.
But what they're doing is simply reflecting, you know, the smell of blood.
That was all they thought they had, is taxing just an ass.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I wonder if you'd give Humphrey a call, or if you're just ignoring.
That would be my view.
The other is, though, it's very important that Albert and Ford
Scott, Scott, because, you know, as I told you yesterday, Mansfield and Scott, Dave Baird, and Stennis, and Goldwater, and then Robert Baller and Reagan.
Right.
You know, I hate all these cities.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Well, OK. Well, we'll get Timmons to make the call for the others.
I mean, the announcement is maybe three to two minutes.
So it'll be good that they all have a few of our people yapped.
And I think that you can have some time.
What point did you make?
very interesting to make with all the talk about this bombing decision.
When I was briefing Warren yesterday, I got into this with him.
I said, you know, I called him in this morning because he said that he didn't know how to answer the question as to why did we make the decision to invite him to the president or go on and explain why we made this decision to bomb.
I said, well, aren't you worried here?
I said, it's not a decision.
It's a decision at all.
I said, this is the main decision.
What happened was that when there were serious negotiations early in October, the president temporarily suspended the vote for 20th as long as the negotiations were serious.
And then there became an impasse in Brazil like the deal before.
You see my point?
That's a very powerful point there.
You see, I mean, these are the kinds of things that have to be made and made very strongly to, you know, people of that sort.
But has it occurred to you that, in other words, that's the basis of the Los Angeles crime, the Detroit and a lot of the rest?
It's all funny.
In fact, let me tell you, I don't think it's actually funny.
I don't know what you run to out there, because you're at Palm Springs, but I don't know.
There it is.
Go on.
Oh, yes, yes.
That's right.
That's right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I didn't go on in the beginning.
We just turned all this up right then.
You see, it's the debate that is bad.
But now the debate is just beginning in the last two or three days.
And now we'll kill it with this one announcement.
Nobody's going to gloat it.
You can't control the congressmen and senators.
Let's understand that.
Well, on the other hand, Henry, you've got to make these calls because these people are our friends.
And they've got to feel that we're at least letting them know in on the game.
There's nobody around here that will gloat.
I mean, Rogers is out of town.
Laird is out of town.
Russia's not going to say anything.
Nobody in the light of war isn't saying anything except what we tell them.
We've got it really heavily controlled.
But I can't guarantee the Congress or the senators, that's for sure.
All they can do is to be told what the announcement is.
They have to know that.
Yeah.
Well, you make your calls, and I'll call you later to see how you went, will you?
Fine.

Also recorded on December 30, 1972

  • 158-035 9:53 AM · 9 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson talked on the telephone at Camp David from 9:53 am to 10:02 am.
  • 237-044 9:53 AM · 9 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David from 9:53 am to 10:02 am.
  • 158-036 10:02 AM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator talked on the telephone at Camp David at an unknown time between 10:02 am and 10:04 am.
  • 237-045 10:02 AM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at an unknown time between 10:02 am and 10:04 am.
  • 158-037 10:04 AM · 8 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger talked on the telephone at Camp David from 10:04 am to 10:12 am.
  • 158-038 10:12 AM · 14 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator talked on the telephone at Camp David at an unknown time between 10:12 am and 10:54 am.
  • 237-047 10:12 AM · 14 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and William Hirsch met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at an unknown time between 10:12 am and 10:54 am.
  • 237-048 10:12 AM · 11 min — President Richard M. Nixon met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at an unknown time between 10:12 am and 10:54 am.

All 62 conversations from December 30, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 237-046, December 30, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/237-046 (accessed November 5, 2026).