On April 7, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger talked on the telephone from 10:21 pm to 10:27 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 001-021 of the White House Tapes.
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Yeah.
Dr. Kissinger, sir.
Mr. President, just wondered if you'd had a chance to get any further reactions or if you're, uh, or if you've just been busy.
Uh, well, I've been talking around here, of course.
Uh, the mood is one of exaltation.
I talked to Phil Buckley, uh, who thought it was absolutely outstanding.
Very moving, very effective, great courage.
And, uh,
Of course, he wants us to end the draft.
We're going to do that.
But we're going to do that, and I... Tell him.
Tell him what we're going to do.
I told him we're going to do it, and I think, Mr. President, I'm going to put the military to the torch.
Yeah, they're screwing around on this.
They're screwing around.
They're worried that it will make the volunteer army not work.
But to hell with that, if we can get ourselves breathing space for Vietnam.
Listen, ending the draft gives us breathing space in Vietnam.
We'll restore the draft later, but goddamn it, the military, they're a bunch of greedy bastards that want more officers' clubs and more men to shine their shoes.
The sons of bitches are not interested in this country.
I mean, ending, going to all-volunteer in Vietnam is what I mean, is what we ought to do.
Mm-hmm.
And we can put them to the torch, get a figure, and then perhaps announce that in June,
Be, uh, fine.
Fine.
I think...
Okay, actions.
All the reactions that I've gotten, uh, which are mostly, uh...
You haven't talked to the Alsops or the rest except... No, I'll give Alsop a call right now.
Give Joe a call.
Let me know what he thinks.
And I'll let you know...
But you should have heard from others.
They would call you if they thought it was well.
Maybe they were too... No, no, I never hear.
Give Joe a call.
It probably shook him a little to have it emotional, but God damn it, you need a little emotion for this.
This, Mr. President, was your greatest speech.
It has the same impact as some of the others.
No, it won't have, but that's all right.
But this was... We shook him.
It...
Everybody, it comes across from everybody that he held his course.
I don't know whether you have seen the news stickers.
I don't look at that.
Well, but he held his course at strong speech.
And I don't know whether anyone has told you about Dan Rather's commentary afterwards.
No.
Now, if we could have written it, it couldn't have been better.
He said he promised a withdrawal of $25,000.
He withdrew $30,000.
He promised a withdrawal of $40,000.
He withdrew $50,000.
shows that you've exceeded every promise you've made.
And now we're promising to draw over 100,000.
And he said, there's no question.
There was no doubt that when he got through that you would keep that too.
We're going to.
And he had a good shot there.
He showed it in terms of men.
A very large man representing what you had there when we came in.
Yeah.
Much smaller man.
And they all apparently were moved by the conclusion, huh?
Oh, the conclusion really gave everyone goose pimples.
It was damn good, actually, if I may say so.
I know what is good and what is not.
That was pretty good.
It was your method of delivery, the sincerity, the strength.
With no support.
With absolutely no support.
No, we won't get any now either.
And everyone... Well, I think this will appeal to the American people, but whatever... Well, you may get some from the people, but I mean from the cabinet and that shit.
If they don't support me for it, I don't give a goddamn what's happening.
Mitchell, of course, has supported me before Agnew's, before I talked to Agnew, and he was ecstatic.
And naturally, I had called up and said he thought it was terrific.
Did he?
Called you?
He called Haldeman.
Yeah, well, I'm not going to call him back.
I didn't like his attitude today.
I'm not going to call him back.
That was a cowardly...
He waited too late.
Yeah.
That was not as strong.
What do you think?
What did you think of him there today?
Oh, that was...
He was coppering his best and he was scared out of his mind.
But he liked it, huh?
Very much.
Mr. President, there was no way not to like it.
It was the best delivered speech, and it was one of those speeches which it read all right, but the way you delivered it was an absolute masterpiece.
That little conclusion, they'll all know who Kevin and Carl are, won't they?
And that's how they're carrying it.
Are they?
Oh, are they?
What do you say?
The UPI are leading with that.
Yeah?
I don't have the text in front of me.
Oh, but Kevin, they'll go back and get their pictures, you know, and I hope the mother goddammit stands up and says, gee, don't just get out.
I'd never check that, you know.
I don't know what she's going to say.
Oh, she'll be all right.
She's the wife of Maureen.
She won't say that.
She'll be very proud, I think, you know, that we're trying to do the right thing for her husband.
That poor bastard, you know what he did?
I checked.
He ran in and threw a grenade into a goddamn machine gun and saved about 30 Marines that were wounded.
Now goddamn, why don't we be proud of that instead of talking about this goddamn Cali?
You know, it really burns me up.
You know, we have no pride, do we, anymore, Henry?
Nobody's got any pride anymore.
They don't care about that.
There's no real patriotism.
I'm glad I put in that.
I think Haig was pleased, wasn't he, with what I defended, that the armed services was here or not.
He moved, and Haig called General Bennett, the director of army intelligence, who said he was choked up and he had to leave the room because he had tears in his eyes.
Good, good.
All right, Henry, thank you.
All right, Mr. President.