Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 1 › Conversation 001-108
Nixon phone call with Kissinger on Vietnam War and People's Republic of China
Friday, April 16, 1971 · 10:45 PM–10:56 PM ET · White House Telephone · 9 min
AI Summary
President Nixon and Henry Kissinger discussed the positive reception to the President’s recent interview with a group of newspaper editors and influential figures. They reviewed how Nixon maintained firm, non-committal positions on sensitive foreign policy issues, specifically Vietnam and China, while successfully defending the administration's stance on figures like J. Edgar Hoover and Spiro Agnew. The pair also addressed a minor technical discrepancy regarding the President’s announced Vietnam withdrawal date and exchanged pleasantries regarding guests at a dinner event.
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Position in tape: 03:39:54 – 03:48:25
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Hello, Mr. President.
Hello, Henry.
I thought it was outstanding.
And I was at dinner at, in fact, I still am there at K. Grains, but I'm glad I can talk.
And the Indian ambassador was there, and a very well-known British publisher, in fact, my publisher, Sir George Nicholson.
What paper is that?
I beg your pardon?
What paper is he with?
It's not a paper, it's a very large publishing... Oh, you had a book, a book, I understand.
...book publisher, but who runs a big salon in London, very influential.
So George Weidenfeld is publishing out his...
Right, right, right, that's all right, sorry, sorry.
And Adlai Stevenson is...
And the reaction is absolutely enthusiastic, outstanding, very good.
And I thought you handled it with very, very great delicacy.
The question of residual force, the question of withdrawals.
Well, we didn't give a goddamn thing away, you know.
You did not give it away.
I was pretty tough.
But you handled it with really extraordinary delicacy.
And to stand up to that for an hour, I thought you handled China beautifully.
Well, China, we've got...
I know I'd handle that well, but, you know, kidding Deadman a little and say, look, this is not the time to discuss the other things, but we're ready step by step, you know.
I thought you handled Vietnam with really enormous delicacy.
I was just now...
assisted by the Indian ambassador, strangely enough, beating up Adlai Stevenson on the terminal deck.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
That poor bastard, he doesn't know what to do, does he?
Oh, no.
The Indian ambassador is hitting him from one side and I'm hitting him from the other.
And the consensus here is that we have one minor technical problem, Mr. President.
You kept mentioning November 1st.
Actually, you had announced it for December 1st.
And if you don't mind, we would like to make clear that what you announced is the date that stands.
This is the one you announced last week.
November 15th rather than October 15th, that's right.
Otherwise we'll have an uproar in Saigon.
That's right, that's right, that's right.
And this is just a minor technical...
I know, I know, but I said November 1st.
I meant December 1st and November 15th, right.
And it isn't going to create any problem.
No problem, no problem.
But I thought...
Well, I thought that China was beautifully handled.
I thought you were very wise and it was tremendously effective that you turned that first question into a little speech on teeth.
What was the first question about?
Oh, yeah, yeah, about what do you wake up about?
Oh, it's a silly question.
Well, it was a silly question and therefore hard to answer, but it was important.
that you had a chance to state the, uh... That I sleep, I dream about peace all night.
I know.
You put everything else into a good framework, and you got a good hand.
I don't know whether you got any comments afterwards, but here, really, uh...
Well, we got across several points.
You know, I wouldn't let them drive me off of Agnew or Hoover, now that both of them are, frankly, people that are not my kind of people.
But I had to defend them, and I think people expect me to.
Don't you think so?
In a fine way.
What do you think?
Do you think it was worked all right with Hoover?
I said, look, you're not going to help.
He's never going to get out where you attack him.
I think that was good to say.
Don't you agree?
Absolutely.
And I thought that was calling attention to his great public service.
For 50 years.
No, I went around the table and everybody, there's another Democrat here, David, uh, Ginsburg, I don't know if you know.
Oh, Dave Ginsburg?
Yeah.
You mean the former head of the OPA?
I guess.
Yeah, a lawyer?
Lawyer, yeah.
Oh, yeah, you tell him that he was my boss?
He'll love this.
You go to the back of the table?
Yeah, yeah.
Tell him that he was my boss, he, David Ginsburg, and, uh,
Harris was my immediate busper.
David Ginsberg was the man that recruited me to go in the OPA
30 years ago, 30 years ago, David Ginsburg recruited me through David Cavers.
Mention Cavers.
Cavers is now at Harvard.
Yeah, I remember Cavers.
But because I was at the top of my class at Duke.
It wasn't because of me, because I was, you know, Fred, a good student.
It was outstanding.
Huh?
How did Ginsburg feel?
That's the one that he said it was absolutely outstanding.
he said well it wasn't really that good the point is the questions weren't all that good and they were a little stupid some of the residents you had a tough tough road to hold there i had to avoid a few things but yes but ginsburg fell all right you tell him that i remember that he recruited me he was the man that recruited me to be to go into the opa
In 1942, and he'll love that.
He'll love hearing it.
Will you tell him that?
Absolutely.
Yeah, and that one day you bring him in, and you have him for lunch, and you bring him in and say hello to him, okay?
Absolutely.
See, he was the head of OPA then.
Right, another one who was there is Kermit Gordon, the former director of the budget.
Oh, how was he?
He liked it, too.
He was nagging a little bit on that figure of $28 billion.
Oh, for Christ's sakes.
28 million feet.
What the hell?
I didn't say that that's the end of all.
I said, look at the numbers with regard to retail sales, with regard to automobile, with regard to housing.
So we're... And Alice Longworth is here, and she is, of course, praising you to the sky.
But the reaction was really very, very interesting.
Very favorable.
And I must say, I was tremendously impressed.
by the delicacy with which you handled the foreign policy questions, because this was a tough moment.
But the main thing was not to give anything.
I don't think we gave a goddamn thing away.
I didn't give anything away on, frankly, Henry Juno.
I didn't give a thing away on Vietnam.
I didn't give a thing away on China.
You know, like China, I said, well, no, I'm not going to talk about that.
That was beautiful.
I said, no, this is not the time to talk about it.
That was beautifully done.
What's up?
Okay.
But you see, with the way the China thing now sits,
is that we haven't said a thing and also in the way they haven't raised any expectations all of the expectations have been raised by the way i said where it's in effect as far as we're concerned we're ready to trade we're ready to exchange but as far as recognition and all these technical problems the other problems we ain't going to talk about them right now i think that's good now we're going to have a blast from the washington post new york times why don't we say we're going to recognize red china screw them
Don't you agree?
They didn't get you to this point in your China policy.
You did more in two years than they... Oh, this drives him nuts, Henry.
This drives him nuts.
That's what...
I really think we've done on China policy.
And Dedman, who was a decent, honest, liberal Democrat, you know, you notice how I played him up so good.
You played him beautifully.
In fact, you played off, you mentioned that you were playing off one of his questions.
Mm-hmm.
No, it was an outstanding thing.
Well, you know, you never know.
The questions always determine it.
But we got a few points across.
Well, but the questions were not very good.
No, they were pretty stupid.
The oldest was fumbling around.
I know, but we did well by him.
But you did.
No, when I talked about the young people, I think that was not bad, you know, to talk about the fact that I dreamed of those kids and I wanted them to believe in this country.
You know, that was not bad, Henry.
But what do you think of that kid, that answer about the family?
Wasn't that good?
That was very good.
I didn't think it was too bad.
It wasn't the best.
But the idea that, well, look, we're ending the war.
We're doing this.
We're proving the system will work now.
Kids, come aboard.
Let's get going, huh?
And focus on things we can do rather than on things.
And let's make this thing work.
I thought it was very effective.
Okay.
Well, Henry, have a good time.
Thank you.
NARA Description
On April 16, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, and unknown person(s) talked on the telephone from 10:45 pm to 10:56 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 001-108 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 1-108
Date: April 16, 1971
Time: 10:45 pm - 10:56 pm
Location: White House Telephone
The President talked with Henry A. Kissinger.
President's interview with newspaper editors
-Katherine Graham
-Indian ambassador
-Sir Harold (George) Nicolson
-Sir (Arthur) George Weidenfeld
-Adlai E. Stevenson, III
-Reaction
-Vietnam
-Residual force
-Withdrawal
-People's Republic of China [PRC]
-Emmett Dedmon, Chicago Sun Times
-Vietnam
-Indian Ambassador
-Stevenson
-Withdrawal date
-PRC
-Vice President Spiro T. Agnew
-J. Edgar Hoover
-David Ginsberg
-Office of Price Administration [OPA]
-Dr. Herbert Harris
-David Kavers [sp?]
-Reaction
-Kermit Gordon
-Economic indicators
-Retail sales, automobile sales, housing
-Alice Roosevelt Longworth
-Vietnam, PRC
The President conferred with an unknown person at an unknown time between 10:45 pm and
10:56 pm.
-PRC
-President's policies
-Washington Post
-New York Times
-Dedmon
-Questions
-Otis Chandler
*****************************************************************
[Previous PRMPA Privacy (D) reviewed under deed of gift 12/20/2017. Segment cleared for
release.]
[Privacy]
[001-108-w002]
[Duration: 10s]
President's interview with newspaper editors
-Questions
-Otis Chandler
-Family
-Son
*****************************************************************
President's interview with newspaper editors
-Young person's questionAlso recorded on April 17, 1971
- 001-106 10:26 PM · 31 sec — the White House operator, Manolo Sanchez, and President Richard M. Nixon talked on the telephone at 10:26 pm.
- 001-107 10:45 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 10:45 pm.
- 001-109 10:56 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 10:56 pm and 11:01 pm.
- 001-110 10:56 PM · 14 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 10:56 pm and 11:01 pm.
- 001-111 10:56 PM · 4 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 10:56 pm and 11:01 pm.
- 001-112 11:01 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Julie Nixon Eisenhower talked on the telephone from 11:01 pm to 11:03 pm.
- 001-113 11:04 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 11:04 pm.
- 001-114 11:05 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger talked on the telephone from 11:05 pm to 11:09 pm.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 001-108, April 17, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/001-108 (accessed October 12, 2026).