On April 7, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone from 11:21 pm to 11:32 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 001-045 of the White House Tapes.
Transcript (AI-Generated)This transcript was generated automatically by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite this transcript as authoritative. Consult the Finding Aid above for verified information.
Yeah.
Mr. Haldeman is asking for you, sir.
Yeah.
You are.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, I got to town.
The reason he hadn't called was he was at a dinner at the F Street Club with all the former secretaries of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve.
But he was all right, huh?
A bunch of congressmen and everybody else.
He said that he was in a large room, about 30 people there at three tables, and they watched on a black-and-white TV, so, you know, he couldn't get any view of the picture and all.
He said that he thought it was absolutely superb.
very good the content of the speech was absolutely excellent he really liked the use of the chart he said that he felt uh just on the chart thing as a side thing that that uh it would have been even more effective if you had gotten if you had gone to the chart and traced with a finger you know i know i know you pointed it yourself i couldn't do that because i lost the audio yeah right you like the prepared text uh held in your hand much better than the use of the teleprompter and he said you just stay with that all right he said it was a very very excellent
and moving speech and he had uh he named some of the people john schneider and joe fowler and dave kennedy and nowhere and johnny burns and frank bow and john tower and and uh mayhan and and mccracken governor robinson controller camp volker democrats and republicans and their wives and he said the reaction in the whole room was just very very excellent everybody applauded like the inclusion he said it was very forceful night and that he said
the closing at the end was just moving as hell.
And he said, I'm an expert on closings.
I'm not much good at anything else, but I know how to close a speech.
And he said that closing was moving as hell.
Well, good.
He felt good then, did he?
Yes, sir.
And he was very, of course, you know, he's so good at looking at all this.
But he said it was very, very good reaction with the group.
And he thought, you know, I asked if he felt you had really made the,
made the point we were trying to make, and he said, absolutely.
There's no doubt about it.
And so, I think he was very enthusiastic.
You will have in mind my thoughts about McGregor and Rumsfeld and the rest, will you?
Yes, sir.
I understand.
We've got to find out.
There's a lot of time.
Right.
I'll do a little smoking first thing in the morning before they... And I want to know, I mean, if they're...
They're going to bug out now, Bob.
They're going to bug out fast right now.
We're not going to screw around.
Don't you agree?
Sure.
They don't want to fight when it's tough.
Screw them.
Because we're in a hell of a fight.
Believe me.
You're darn right.
Hell of a fight.
And if they can't go with this, this was, if I may say so, this is the best you can do with what we've got.
I really think it was.
I mean, I put a lot of into that.
As I told you earlier, a lot of myself into that.
And if they can't get it, I think the folks got it, but I don't know.
Carlson was saying that in talking with the union guys, he gave us some of the quotes and all, but he said that the feeling that came through was really very impressive, a very enthusiastic kind of response.
It wasn't just they were saying, yeah, it was a fine speech.
They were cranked up, and he was very excited.
How about the calls that make the editors and all the rest?
Yeah, I've got a whole bunch of those.
Do you want to give me a little rundown?
Sure.
O'Neill at the New York Daily News said, it's the most effective job you've done yet.
He didn't like the part about the big mess when you came into office because that was a political job, but the rest of it was faultless.
It was a terrific presentation, very effective speaking without notes at the end.
Martin Hayden thought it was an excellent statistical story and
And the other point he made was that CBS did a good analytical job after the speech, which they did.
CBS did a superb job of making your withdrawal points.
Frank Meyer at National Reviews was impressed with the statement, courageous and absolutely necessary, adequately answered the critics, but retained the flexibility you'll need in the months ahead.
Believes strongly the president deserves strong support.
Clayton Kirkpatrick at the Chicago Tribune says he gave the president high marks for courage and perseverance.
He's taking a gamble and not...
uh bowing to pressure but he laid it on the line as he always does it was a very effective presentation particularly in the last three or four minutes particularly noted his concern for pows thought it was tremendous how he wound up the speech illustrating the fact that this was a step toward peace jimmy starman it was good he didn't give in to a definite date like even some republicans want very positive a little more emotional on the medal of honor but better without notes than he is with notes a lot more natural chart was good visual evidence
Carlisle Reed at the Sacramento Union said the best and most effective presentation he's made.
It will really get through to the American people.
It was honest and sincere.
I was very impressed with his reference to the schools and other facilities we've built in South Vietnam.
And Kulak at the San Diego Union said the significant part was the almost overwhelming emotion in which the president said he wanted this country to end a difficult period on a note of hope.
It was a very good thing.
I think he will be criticized by his opponents for emotionalizing.
I know that.
I know that.
Richard Pierce at the San Francisco Examiner, effective and responsible.
He wished the president hadn't hooked it up at the end.
He thought tugging at the heartstrings wasn't needed.
On the whole, he considered the speech was excellent.
He didn't like hooking it up, though.
He'll get a little bit.
He'll get a little bit.
He's the only one.
Yeah.
Any intellectual would.
Okay, but here's John Colburn at the Wichita Eagle.
The last part of the speech was very moving.
He showed an intimate relation to the people.
His speech was too generalized at the beginning.
He was, however, on solid ground most of the way.
He's made himself believable on Vietnam.
He liked the tone of the last part.
He liked the comparison of the situation between now and 1969.
So, you know, it goes either way.
John Chancellor in the NBC commentary made the point of how the speech was surely moving at the end as the president spoke without notes.
And...
It's a good suggestion Bill Rogers made.
Yeah, it really was.
But preparing it was more difficult than he realized.
Oh, sure.
That's... You had to say something that was sort of related to people, and it did relate a little to people, I think.
If it didn't, to hell with them.
The country can't be saved.
Yeah.
Now, let's...
You got the point.
Bill Brock was really enthusiastic.
He's magnificent.
He did a beautiful job.
Shows guts and character.
And Gordon Allen said the 100,000 troops by December is heartening.
More than that, he was extremely impressed by the frankness of the president.
His flat statement that we would have the withdrawal completed is great.
His complete sensitivity and confidence in himself is good.
Integrity, excellent.
Doesn't matter what the demonstrators and critics say, it is a perfectly planned withdrawal.
We are making progress, and that is what is so important.
Good, good.
Governor Davis of Vermont has been ill, but feels much better after seeing the president's broadcast.
He cannot see how the American people and even most of the president's critics can help but be convinced by his message tonight.
He was especially impressed by the president's phone delivery and the last part of his talk that was without a text and so obviously heartfelt.
Governor watched the whole speech with his wife with building enthusiasm, felt it was very logical and an excellent summary of the progress and hope for Vietnam.
And, uh, I see Bob Bird's on the wire here saying that, uh,
He has the very distinct impression that he means what he says when he talks about total withdrawal and that the residual force ideas seem to be fading.
I got that impression from the briefing.
Norris Cotton told UPI immediately after the speech that for the first time he felt he could endorse a presidential declaration on Vietnam 100%.
Good.
The president's unequivocal declaration for the first time stirred my confidence that we are finally disengaging from Vietnam, Cotton said.
And George McGovern didn't like it.
He said it hadn't changed anything.
That's great.
I didn't want him to say anything.
Well, I think...
Predictable.
You're polling tonight?
Yeah, I don't have that, though.
I'll have it first thing in the morning.
Will you?
Well, I have, you know, our own poll, where we use our own guys.
The ORC poll, we're not doing until tomorrow night.
Oh, tomorrow night.
We'll do it tomorrow night.
We won't have that until...
I understand.
Sure.
The next day.
That's okay.
But remember, look at the people on our staff now.
Right.
Particularly Rumsfeld.
Pinch.
Well, not Pinch.
Pinch the hell.
He's got to do it, you know.
He's just got to go whatever.
Whatever we do, you know that.
But Rumsfeld's a different cup of tea, you know.
We're not going to send him abroad and give him a goddamn trip unless he's going to be with us.
Yeah.
Would you agree?
Sure.
Okay.
Well, fine.
In the meantime, I think you really ought to, if you can, zing up in the morning with Ziegler and his crowd.
In fact, a great reaction from the country.
The wires.
They're still there after we talked.
I got them back.
But don't you think it's a good idea?
Cranking on that tonight, too.
Oh, sure.
Yeah, yeah.
It doesn't care what the reaction is.
It'll probably be pretty good.
I think we'll get a few wires.
I'm sure we will.
On that one, we've got to be careful because they check Western Union on them.
Or don't do anything that they can check.
If we've got them, we'll push with what we've got.
But we've got all this phone call reaction, and we've got the word.
The White House board has had a very heavy load, much heavier than we've had.
Yeah, we'll play that.
How is it?
How does it go?
Favorable?
Oh, yeah.
Mm-hmm.
White House board is favorable.
Oh, sure.
It was favorable.
And our poll on the first batch, where we make the random calls that our own guys do, was overwhelmingly favorable, much higher than we've been on the others that we've done.
Well, what the hell.
It doesn't make any difference.
As I say, I'm out.
We just live through the day.
But there's not going to be any of these people that have been Johnny-come-latelys.
They ain't gonna be welcome, you know?
Well, watch them closely.
All right, bye.
Okay.