Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 332 › Conversation 332-039

Nixon, Lord & Andrews on Vietnam War and Presidential speechwriting

Tuesday, April 25, 1972 · 1:15 PM–1:33 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 13 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Lord, Winston; Andrews, John K., Jr.; Kissinger, Henry A.Conversation332-039 on Tape 332 (tape position 04:57:31–05:11:49)StartTuesday, April 25, 1972 at 1:15 PMEndTuesday, April 25, 1972 at 1:33 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 332-039 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with aides Winston Lord and John K. Andrews, Jr. to rehearse and refine a forthcoming speech regarding the Vietnam War. During the session, the President read a draft that emphasized his refusal to compromise U.S. national interests for election-year political gains, while framing the conflict as a test of American resolve against communist aggression. The discussion focused on adjusting the speech’s length and wording to underscore the necessity of achieving "peace with honor" and maintaining the integrity of the presidency.

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Position in tape: 04:57:31 – 05:11:49

part C, 56:49

332a.mp3
332b.mp3
332c.mp3

NARA Description

On April 25, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, Winston Lord, John K. Andrews, Jr., and Henry A. Kissinger met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 1:15 pm to 1:33 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 332-039 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 332-39

Date: April 25, 1972
Time: 1:15 pm - 1:33 pm
Location: Old Executive Office Building

The President met with Winston Lord and John K. Andrews, Jr.

     The President's speech
          -Revisions by Lord and Andrews
               -Evaluation of work
               -Henry A. Kissinger's review
          -Copy
               -Further revisions

     Lord [?]
          -Education
          -Career choices
               -Teaching career
          -Work in White House

                -Mother
                -Law school
           -Law school
                -Value
                -Training
                     -Discipline
                     -Value
                     -Stock and bond issues
                     -Kissinger

     The President's speech
          -Review
          -Conclusion
          -Madame Nguyen Thi Bihn
          -Bombing
               -Intensity
          -Tehran

The President read his speech draft.

     [A transcript of the speech in its final form appears in Public Papers of the Presidents,
     1972, pp. 553-554.]

[End of speech rehearsal]
Show the rest of the log (44 more lines)
     The President's speech
          -Revisions
               -Changes in wording
                      -Discussion of People's Republic of China [PRC] and Soviet trips
               -South Vietnamese performance
                      -Insertion of passage
          -Conclusion
               -US goals in Vietnam
                      -Peace with honor
                      -Cambodia speech
          -Election year risks
               -Office of the President

The President talked with an unknown person [Kissinger?] at an unknown time between 1:15
and 1:33 pm.

     [Conversation No. 332-39A]

     The President's speech
          -Meeting with the President
               -Time
          -Draft
               -Typing

[End of telephone conversation]

     The President's speech
          -Conclusion
               -Wording
               -End of war
                      -Imminence
               -Revisions
               -Length
               -Cambodia speech
                      -Kent State University
          -Election year
               -Risks
                      -Soviets
                      -The President's determination
               -North Vietnamese miscalculations
          -Work of Lord and Andrews

Lord and Andrews left at 1:33 pm.

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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Finally, I have, these fellows have done an excellent job of pulling this stuff together, and I don't want to crush you too hard, but what I should have scheduled at the time was to, but I got you to come over and let me sort of read it to you, and then I'll give it to you, and then you can horse it out.
Come on.
Oh, come on, 15 o'clock.
Any time.
But I'd rather wait for 3 o'clock, so we're going to be better.
Yeah, I was going to say 4 o'clock.
Okay.
Come in.
Can I just go in quick?
Well, I want to tell you...
I told him to get out.
I'm going to
Why don't you take this copy and help them change this?
They're rather minor, as a matter of fact.
We may have to cut some, but we may have to go along with it in this bid.
A lawyer.
I went to the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, but it was called.
I went to international law school.
So I toyed with the idea of going to Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
What's your reading?
feel as you go through these carers, where you're going to be in Moscow and the rest of the country.
I don't know.
There are times, you know, I can go as long as I can.
Where's your mother?
Where's your mother?
Yes, sir.
I wasn't a lawyer.
I would like to have gone to law school.
It's hanging in the mind, especially with you coming in here.
Well, I'm doing it now.
Well, it's not worth three years.
If they give a law course, it's a year and a half.
You get all of your people to regard them a logic.
You know, just a lawyer's way of thinking without knowing true law.
I'd like you to learn about how to work out an issue with...
bond issue or a stock issue or something like that.
You see what I mean?
Right.
It's just a bunch of crap.
Do you think John Johnson would be more disciplined?
Henry could be here.
Do you have a...
I don't think I'll pay that much attention to that again, because I think it's a hell of a good point, but I think that we're going to have to focus on that a lot of the time.
By responding to it?
Well, it may be, but I don't know.
I have no idea.
You know what I mean?
It's something that... Members of Congress themselves take it on to be a good thing.
Well, one reason, too, is that I have that father and that I'm having what is now an opposed conclusion.
It's driving Henry out of the wall.
I'm going to have to say, it may not drive Henry out of the wall as far as he may, but that's the way it is.
At the present time, but when the attack on America begins, we tell you it's a very bombing of military targets.
They're mostly extreme and stressful turns, and we go on to this.
The enemy has failed in its efforts to win over the people of South Vietnam.
Colonel Abrams believes that the enemy will fail in its efforts to conquer South Vietnam over there.
The enemy's last hope is to win over Congress in the United States, and among the people of the United States, they'll get a three-day camp, and among the people of South Vietnam will run a battle for South Vietnam.
The great question is how we, the American people, respond to the challenge.
I understand the bitter frustration of the intractable opposition with this long and difficult war that's caused on the Central Island Islands.
Their case for doing nothing to stop this food competition in South Vietnam is compelling.
To know something like this hasn't been done enough.
The South Vietnamese can't defend their country without our help.
Let's get out.
What the President should do is to order the evacuation of all American forces and let the Congress take over.
What the critics failed to realize is that what it has stated is not just the future of the 70 million people of South Vietnam, but the future of peace in the world and the future of the United States as a great nation until all we use as power to keep the peace in our country.
Some of the facts.
We did not start this war.
We went to South Vietnam and helped the people of South Vietnam prevent, resolve, and support the aggression.
The Vietnamese do not abhor their spring invasion without massive aid from outside powers such as the tanks, guns, and most modern weapons.
If one country, with the assistance of other powers, invades another nation and succeeds in conquering it, other countries will be encouraged to exactly the same thing in the Middle East and in Europe and in other international areas as well.
The Vietnamese can live in Vietnam and risk war in other parts of the world if they are not of the same race.
We aren't trying to conquer North Vietnam or any other country.
We want no territory.
We seek no basis.
That's why I say that we will offer the most generous peace process.
Peace with honor for both sides, itself Vietnam and North Vietnam.
Keep respect for each other.
But we will not be humiliated.
We will not be defeated.
And we will never surrender.
This is a matter of generalistic national pride.
What we must face up to is an informed, supportive, communist aggression failed in Vietnam.
It will be discouraged elsewhere.
If it succeeds there, it will be encouraged elsewhere.
And the risk of war out of parts of the world will be enough.
So I say let us bring our men home to Vietnam.
Let us end the war in Vietnam.
But let us end it in a way that the younger brothers and sons of the brave men who fought in Vietnam will not be fighting in some other Vietnam in some time in the future.
I am reminded by friends and critics a lot in this election year that I risked winning the election by ordering another heir and they will punish us to resist this progression.
But I would greatly increase my chance to win the election if I brought peace to Vietnam, whatever the price.
I completely reject this kind of advice.
The cost of winning an election is too high, yet the price is an American business.
No man who sits in this office can act in a way that weakens the presidency of the United States.
The United States is the most powerful nation in the free world.
We have made our mistakes in foreign policy, but through our eternal credit in this century, we have never started a war.
We have always used our power to defend peace and freedom, never to destroy it.
This year, I covered Vietnam's historic agenda for peace.
Next month, I shall travel to Moscow on what I hope will also be a general for peace.
In the 18 countries I have lived with President Biden on great respect in the office of President of the United States, I have raised the words back to him that I shall find that same respect in Moscow.
I do not know who will be in this office in 30 days.
That is a decision that you and the American people will make.
But I do know that future presidents will travel the nation to broad my terms from these designers.
If the United States leaves Vietnam, a million people will leave.
The President of the United States, whoever he is, will not deserve or receive respect which is such that the United States is to continue to play the great role we are destined to play in helping to build a new structure of peace in the world for generations to come.
Let's unite in the policy of seeking peace, and not for peace as a record.
The basic picture comes out the same as the word personal.
You see, we cannot, you cannot, you see, at this time, this will be in our hearts.
We're not going to let go, we're going to go to the center.
The beginning becomes superfluous then.
Pull out the, well not all of them, but the parts all about the hearts and minds of the American people.
Because I cover the same thing there, and I'm just going to cover it again.
Bring in the China people.
Bring in the Russian people.
Bring in the Chinese people.
But in the end, we've come so far that the South Haven region is doing more and more.
And if running, if we don't want to have stuck in the line, we've got an endless road ahead of us.
The point is, we are on a home stretch.
You know, we're high over the navigation.
We've got a push of time.
The only way to get to the South Haven region is if we work out a paragraph along that line, not too long.
And that's entirely possible.
I don't know, I think it's an analyst trial.
I don't think it is.
Yeah, I know it is.
Yeah, and then we can say just before, just before they put it in.
Where am I?
Hey, here.
My last sentence, let us unite in a policy of seeking peace, not the peace of surrender, but peace for all.
And hopefully not just peace in our country, but peace for generations to come.
Good morning.
How about the Cambodian speech?
Almost two years ago, exactly.
And so we wanted to avoid doing, like, perhaps a mistake to do with medicine.
And I know it was regarded by a lot of people as quite inappropriate for you to talk about being a one-term president in that speech.
Because probably this being an election year, you being a declared candidate for re-election, it's a different program.
It's been so universally raised now by everybody.
In other words, it's not a question that anybody, I mean, I don't say it in person, but in terms of the presidency and stuff like that.
So we'll see how it goes.
You might, uh, make it 3 o'clock.
That's better for you.
Is that all right?
I just think it would be easier.
I'd get the street tight.
You have a brief paragraph, and your doctor says it's backwards.

Also recorded on April 25, 1972

  • 023-061 1:09 PM · 16 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and John K. Andrews, Jr. talked on the telephone from 1:09 pm to 1:10 pm.
  • 332-037 1:09 PM · 56 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and John K. Andrews, Jr. met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 1:09 pm to 1:10 pm.
  • 332-038 1:10 PM · 43 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 1:10 pm and 1:15 pm.
  • 023-062 1:33 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 1:33 pm and 1:38 pm.
  • 332-040 1:33 PM · 20 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 1:33 pm and 1:38 pm.
  • 332-041 1:33 PM · 36 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 1:33 pm and 1:38 pm.
  • 023-063 1:38 PM · 33 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler talked on the telephone from 1:38 pm to 1:39 pm.
  • 332-042 1:38 PM · 42 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 1:38 pm to 1:39 pm.

All 56 conversations from April 25, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 332-039, April 25, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/332-039 (accessed November 5, 2026).