Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 18 › Conversation 018-057
Nixon phone call with an unidentified caller on Henry Kissinger
Monday, January 10, 1972 · 5:47 PM–5:53 PM ET · White House Telephone · 6 min
AI Summary
H.R. Haldeman briefs President Nixon on a conversation with Henry Kissinger regarding ongoing diplomatic issues, including Vietnam troop withdrawals and Middle East negotiations involving Yitzhak Rabin. They discuss Kissinger's frustration with mounting press leaks and rumors of his resignation, which he believes stem from internal bureaucratic opposition. Nixon and Haldeman agree that Kissinger's habit of taking media calls is a counterproductive distraction, and they finalize plans for a upcoming meeting between Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and Secretary of State William Rogers.
- Henry Kissinger
- Press leaks
- Vietnam War
- Middle East diplomacy
- White House staff relations
Audio
Transcript (AI-generated)
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Mr. Haldeman calling, sir.
Hello.
Mr. Haldeman calling, sir.
Yeah.
Preston's on the line.
Hello.
Yes, sir.
Just got Henry and filled him in on the thing.
He said that Laird had called him back at noon and confirmed that he'd go with the 70, so he had...
Yeah.
Covered it with him and agreed to do it.
Yeah.
You told him about Rush and... Yep.
Filled him full of all the Rush stuff and he thought that was great and, you know... And what's it...
Right.
Covered the whole...and the thing of what Max Frankel had told him and they...that he had done exactly the right thing in India-Pakistan and... Good.
Now that even West Bengal may still break up and would have done the other thing.
that, well, you know, he'll work, Russia wants to work closely with us, understands the situation exactly, and, you know, has a close relationship with Mitchell that'll be helpful to us in the whole, good, covered that whole ground.
He's, he's still concerned.
Apparently there's a rumor in the press now that he's resigning, so he's, he thinks that
he's convinced that you know they're running they are running a major campaign against him briefings on all this stuff and that the leak has given him the excuse for doing all this and he got his report from Rabin and they're pressing Rabin to go back into negotiations they're giving ground on the airplanes and uh
Well, what do you think of that?
The grieving ground in the airplanes is all right, isn't it?
Yeah, that's what they're supposed to do.
I said, have they done anything that they weren't supposed to do?
And he said, yeah, they shouldn't call Rabin in without telling us, and then pushing him to go back into negotiations will hurt because it will louse up what we're doing with the Soviets.
Yeah, well, the point is, now, wait a minute, I talked to them about it, that we, I said, that we'll give you the planes, I said, and then you can...
you can you know drag around in negotiations you do that's your public track but privately we're going to make the deal in another way that's henry understands that that's their plan according to the the game uh they really are okay he doesn't say so huh no he didn't uh i think he must feel that because he didn't get very stirred up about it because i said well can we use this as an example and as mitchell had talked about and he said well we can't of course tell state we know about the meeting with ravine because ravine's the one that told us so we just got to refer to the fact that they
We know they're having these meetings without keeping us notified and all that.
We can do that.
Well, they've given on the planes, though, Bob.
That's what I had ordered them to do, and they did it.
Well, apparently they are, so they're doing what they're supposed to do.
Well, about rumors of resigning, that's inevitable that people are going to, I mean, but that might not be from state, you know what I mean?
It could be just some body in the press.
I'm not...
And the thing to do is to... Well, he's picking them all.
They're all calling.
He's got another one that three different people checked with him today or checked his office because a senior official has told them that Kissinger refused to provide new instructions for SALT because he's afraid the Chinese would be mad if they did anything before the Chinese visit.
Well, of course...
The problem is he really is stalling salt until after the Chinese visit, but that's so you can sign it in Moscow rather than... Oh, sure.
Because he's worried about the Chinese.
But anyway, there's something to that.
And then someone else called him that you had told Golda Meir that our biggest interest in the Middle East was NATO.
What he's saying, what his point is that there's...
He was there.
People are doing a lot of leaking and briefings and...
bureaucracy type stuff to try and shaft him.
It's the same syndrome.
So at this point there's nothing that can be done or should be done at all.
I just talked to Al and he just left and I said for him just to get his mind on China, get Henry's mind as much as possible and
And he said, well, Henry just needed a lot of constant care, and that he'd try to give it to him now that he's back.
I told Al briefly what the situation had been, so he'd know.
Well, it's one of those things.
I think your call was probably worthwhile, though.
Or was it, do you think?
Yeah, no, I think it was.
And I think he's going through this.
It's a good thing, because he gets these calls regularly.
he just shouldn't sit there when he's supposed to be getting out the world report and take calls from these goddamn newspaper people that's really the problem isn't it yep i mean they uh but there's there's no way no way we've we've tried that every way we can he just won't he won't not take the calls he's scared to death you know there's something something will happen that he won't know about he gets he gets all this stuff but
It's the same kind of thing as sitting reading a ticker.
It's a terrible, terrible waste of his time.
That's right.
And gets him stirred up about the wrong things.
That's correct.
That's correct.
I just think of the things you'd be stirred up about if you took every call from him.
Sure, and you get stirred up enough as it is.
That's right.
Sure, but you can't do that.
The reason we've been relatively successful and through very difficult times is by, you know,
Not getting stirred up.
Yeah.
Don't plan to.
Yeah.
Okay.
Then you and John should have your meeting with Bill tomorrow.
Right.
We'll go ahead with that.
That'll be useful.
And that'll be that.
Okay.
Nothing else of interest at the moment.
I'll go over to the residents, I guess.
Okay.
Very good.
Thank you.
Right.
NARA Description
On January 10, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone from 5:47 pm to 5:53 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 018-057 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 18-57
Date: January 10, 1972
Time: 5:47 pm - 5:53 pm
Location: White House Telephone
The President talked with the White House operator.
H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman
[See Conversation No. 313-30D]
Haldeman’s talk with Henry A. Kissinger
-Melvin R. Laird
-Vietnam
-Troop withdrawal
-Number
-[David] Kenneth Rush
-Washington Special Actions Group [WSAG]
-Max Frankel
-India-Pakistan
-West Bengal
-Rush
-Relationship with John N. Mitchell
-Press rumors of Kissinger resignation
-Leak
Yitzhak Rabin
-Negotiations
-Airplanes
-Soviet Union
-Meeting
-Mitchell
-State Department
Rumors of Kissinger resignation
Strategic Arms Limitation Talks [SALT]
-Response from the People's Republic of China [PRC]
-The President’s forthcoming trip to PRC
-Signing
-Moscow
Rumors
-Golda Meir
-North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO]
-Leaks
-Kissinger as target
Meeting with Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
-Kissinger
-The PRC
-Haldeman’s conversation with Haig
Kissinger
-Call from Haldeman
-Press relations
-Compared to the President
-David Kraslow, Chalmers Roberts
Meeting with William P. Rogers
-Haldeman, John D. EhrlichmanAlso recorded on January 10, 1972
- 018-052 5:27 PM · 36 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. talked on the telephone from 5:27 pm to 5:28 pm.
- 018-053 5:28 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 5:28 pm and 5:29 pm.
- 313-029 5:28 PM · 7 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 5:28 pm and 5:29 pm.
- 018-054 5:29 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Ronald L. Ziegler, and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. talked on the telephone from 5:29 pm to 5:31 pm.
- 313-030 5:29 PM · 18 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Ronald L. Ziegler, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., White House operator, John A. Schneider, and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 5:29 pm to 5:53 pm.
- 018-055 5:31 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 5:31 pm and 5:35 pm.
- 018-056 5:35 PM · 41 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and John A. Scali talked on the telephone from 5:35 pm to 5:36 pm.
- 018-058 5:55 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 5:55 pm and 7:44 pm.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 018-057, January 10, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/018-057 (accessed October 12, 2026).