Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 019-067
Date: Tuesday, January 25, 1972 at 8:55 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Kissinger, Henry A.; Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob")
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/019-067

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:08] Hello Bob, how are you?
[0:28] I'm with the president here and we wanted to check how the reactions were.
[0:34] Extremely good.
[0:35] Extremely good.
[0:36] Oh, yeah.
[0:37] On television, too?
[0:38] Very much so.
[0:39] Who?
[0:40] Threw them completely off on television.
[0:44] Really?
[0:45] I didn't watch ABC, and I don't have the full rundown on it, but they apparently played it very well on ABC.
[0:53] NBC just did a couple-minute summary and then went back to their program.
[0:57] How about CBS?
[0:58] CBS went into quite a little detail.
[1:00] Calvin Severide were both extremely good.
[1:02] Really?
[1:03] Well, those are the ones we briefed.
[1:05] Rather was terrible.
[1:06] Well, Rather wasn't there.
[1:08] Well, and as you'd expect, he tried to turn the negatives.
[1:10] But Rather, they're going to do a, CBS is doing a special on 1130.
[1:15] Oh, really?
[1:16] Yeah, they're going to do a special, and NBC is going to do a special, I think, at 930 or 10 for an hour.
[1:23] Huh.
[1:24] Well, but that... Well, no, they say in about an hour, so at 930, I guess, they're going to do a special.
[1:29] Well, that shows how that briefing pays off.
[1:34] I thought the delivery was extremely good.
[1:37] Oh, excellent.
[1:39] And everybody did.
[1:39] And I'm getting a lot of the phone calls in from around the country, reports now, press reports, and they're all just excellent.
[1:46] Really terrific.
[1:47] The president is eating, so he'd be talking to himself.
[1:51] What'd you say?
[1:52] I'm with the president.
[1:52] He's eating.
[1:54] Otherwise, he'd be talking to himself.
[1:56] Good.
[1:56] Awesome.
[1:57] But you're getting very good reports.
[1:59] Absolutely.
[2:00] And Calb, especially, has been very positive.
[2:04] Well, we are dangling that interview in front of him.
[2:08] Okay.
[2:08] We'll have to keep it dangling.
[2:10] Yes.
[2:10] The president wonders whether you could get Colson stirred up to get some wires and so forth.
[2:17] Yeah.
[2:19] Sure.
[2:19] Good.
[2:20] But good.
[2:21] Well, that's terrific news.
[2:22] They weren't pissing on it, in other words.
[2:24] No, no.
[2:25] Rather did, you know, like he rather said, now, don't you agree that the headline out of this will be that the president still has failed to set a specific date for withdrawal?
[2:34] Trevor said, no, it won't be at all.
[2:36] This is the first step he's taking on it.
[2:39] This is a first step, and that's what it'll be.
[2:43] And then Cal said, this is just exactly what the president said.
[2:44] It's a very fair approach, but it's very difficult because he's asking the communists to have faith in an electoral process where they want a deal, not an election.
[2:52] That's exactly what happened.
[2:53] what I breathe.
[2:54] That isn't bad.
[2:56] And then Rather said, what will happen if North Vietnam and the Viet Cong don't accept?
[3:01] Where will that leave Nixon as the election gets close?
[3:04] Severide said, well, there's going to be a long period of dickering now over the eight points.
[3:07] And then, though, if they reach an agreement, they'll start the six-month withdrawal process.
[3:11] And Rather said, well, that means that we're not likely to have the troops out by election time.
[3:15] And Chow said, I don't think that's right at all.
[3:17] Terrific.
[3:18] He said, in the first place, the president's proceeding was Vietnamization, and he takes the troops out.
[3:22] But he's also said he's not going to abandon an ally.
[3:25] That couldn't be better.
[3:26] And he said the White House has emphasized the sense of a moral obligation here.
[3:34] Beautiful.
[3:35] Well, that couldn't be better.
[3:36] And they ran until ABC and CBS ran until 9 o'clock for commentary.
[3:42] The speech went exactly 19 minutes.
[3:45] I thought it was, I've said it to the President, one of the best delivered speeches that he's given.
[3:50] Excellent.
[3:51] The dive speed, yes.
[3:53] It is.
[3:54] Calm, strong.
[3:57] Very much so, and that's the kind of reaction we're getting.
[4:01] It obviously had a very, you know, it had a very strong reaction with the people.
[4:12] Actually, you know, the meeting with the staff at 4.30 this afternoon, irritating as it was, was one of the best things that we did.
[4:19] Oh, sometimes we've got to be irritated to sort things out.
[4:22] No, no, that enables me to get the briefing straight for the others.
[4:26] Otherwise, I would have gone the route that would have stressed, you know, the disappointing stuff.
[4:32] Yeah.
[4:32] Well, good, Bob.
[4:34] We'll be checking with you from time to time.
[4:36] Okay.
[4:36] Thank you.