Easy NixonAbout

Conversation: 424-026

Prev:  424-025 Next: 424-027

Start Date: 29-Mar-1973 10:50 AM

End Date: 29-Mar-1973 10:50 AM

Participants:

Nixon, Richard M. (President)Ziegler, Ronald L.Kissinger, Henry A.

Recording Device: Old Executive Office Building

424-026.mp3

NARA Description:

On March 29, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, Ronald L. Ziegler, and Henry A. Kissinger met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 10:50 am. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 424-026 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid:

Conversation No. 424-26

Date: March 29, 1973
Time: 10:50 am
Location: Executive Office Building

The President met with Ronald L. Ziegler and Henry A. Kissinger.

       President’s address
             -Announcement
                   -Release of prisoners of war [POWs]
                   -Foreign policy and domestic issues
                   -Briefing of press by George P. Shultz
                   -Press reaction
             -Ziegler's comments

Ronald Ziegler left at 10:55 am.

       House Foreign Affairs Committee
            -Meeting with Kissinger


*****************************************************************

             -Cambodia bombing
                 -Questions for Kissinger
                       -Donald M. Fraser [?]
                             -War powers
                                     -23-

            NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                               Tape Subject Log
                                (rev. Aug.-2010)
                                                   Conversation No. 424-26 (cont’d)


                  -Kissinger’s answers
            -Authority
                  -Peace agreement
                        -Article 20
       -North Vietnam
            -Aid
                  -H. Ross Perot’s position
       -Cambodia
            -Questions
                  -President’s opponents
                        -Charles C. Diggs
                        -Fraser
                        -Jonathan B. Bingham

President’s address
      -Text of speech
            -US troop withdrawal
            -Peace agreement
                  -Missing in action [MIA]
                  -Laos, Cambodia
                       -Infiltration
                  -Compliance
                       -North Vietnam

Laos
       -Bombing

President’s address
      -Support for President

Watergate
     -Impact on administration
     -John N. Mitchell
           -Loyalty
           -Martha (Bealle) Mitchell [?]
           -Involvement with break-in [?]
                 -Culpability
                       -Incarceration
     -President’s speech
           -Public acceptance
                                    -24-

          NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                             Tape Subject Log
                              (rev. Aug.-2010)
                                                     Conversation No. 424-26 (cont’d)


    -President’s response
          -Morality [?]
                -Comparison with divorces
                      -Divorce lawyers
          -Kissinger’s recommendation
                -Removal of John W. Dean, III [?]
    -Dean
          -Involvement with break-in
          -Role in defense of burglars
          -Role as lawyer
          -White House Counsel
                -Access to Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] reports
                      -Inappropriateness [?]
    -Bugging
    -Daniel Ellsburg break-in [?]
          -National security justification
    -Public reactions
          -President’s speech
          -President’s stature
    -Lyndon B. Johnson scandals
          -Robert D. (“Bobby”) Baker
          -Walter Jenkins
          -1964 election
                -Margin of victory
    -Press exaggeration
          -Comparison with Truman and Johnson cases
    - Committee to Re-elect the President [CRP]
          -Lack of control
                -President’s responsibilities
                      -May 8, 1972 decision
                      -1972 Moscow summit
                      -Lack of contact with Mitchell
    -Break-in
          -Intentions
          -Results
          -Dean’s involvement
                -Handling of investigation [?]

Vietnam settlement
     -Cambodia bombing
                                     -25-

           NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                              Tape Subject Log
                               (rev. Aug.-2010)
                                                      Conversation No. 424-26 (cont’d)


           -Congressional reaction
                 -President’s powers
                 -Cut off of funding
           -Survival of Cambodia
                 -Blaming Congress
                 -Unlikelihood
                 -Negotiations
                 -Trip by Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
     -President’s opponents
           -Bureaucracy
                 -India-Pakistan War of 1971
           -US withdrawal
           -Peace with honor
           -Bugging out
           -George S. McGovern
     -Duration
           -1974 election

Soviet Union
     -Supplies to North Vietnam
            -Leonid I. Brezhnev’s veracity
     -Future summit
            -Timms
            -Agreement on the Prevention of Nuclear War
                   -New version
     -Kissinger’s talk with President
     -Infiltration from North Vietnam
            -Cessation

People’s Republic of China [PRC]
     -Visit by Kissinger
     -Visit by Chou En-Lai
           -Arrangements
     -Visit by President

France
     -Meeting with President
          -Montenegro
                -President’s knowledge of geography
          -Martinique
                                               -26-

                    NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                       Tape Subject Log
                                        (rev. Aug.-2010)
                                                                Conversation No. 424-26 (cont’d)


                          -Caribbean Sea

       Joint statement with Great Britain
              -State visit by [Elizabeth, Queen of England] Elizabeth II
                    -Discussion with Edward M. Heath
                    -1976 Bicentennial
                    -Protocol
                           -Ceremony

       President’s schedule
             -Meetings with Great Britain, France
                   -International economic policy
                         -Charter
                         -Atlantic countries
                         -Japan
                         -Possible progress

       Cambodia
           -Support for President
                -House Foreign Affairs Committee
           -Compared with Vietnam negotiations

Kissinger left at 11:10 am.