Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 19 › Conversation 019-084

Kissinger & Mitchell on Vietnam War and Public opinion

Tuesday, January 25, 1972 · 10:10 PM–10:17 PM ET · White House Telephone · 3 min

ParticipantsKissinger, Henry A.; Mitchell, John N.Conversation019-084 on Tape 19StartTuesday, January 25, 1972 at 10:10 PMEndTuesday, January 25, 1972 at 10:17 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 019-084 ↗

AI Summary

Henry Kissinger and John Mitchell discuss the positive public and political reception of President Nixon’s recent speech on Vietnam. Mitchell reports that anti-war critics like J. William Fulbright have failed to offer substantive rebuttals, while internal polling indicates overwhelming public approval. Kissinger credits a recent strategic meeting with White House staff and department heads for successfully aligning the administration’s messaging and suppressing dissent.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 1 minute of this recording (about 26% of it) is represented by only a few words. Listen to the audio rather than relying on the text below; a corrected transcript is queued.

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Hello?

Henry?

John.

How are you, sir?

I'm here with the president and we wanted to get your judgment on how it went.

I think it went very, very well.

I don't think there's any question about it.

And I've been listening to these people fumble, fumble, fumble, like Fulbright is doing on the television now.

They can't talk to it.

They're just taking so far back that they're going back to the same old rhetoric of themselves.

Really?

Is Fulbright trying to piss on it?

Good.

Well, I think that's really good news.

We get the same reports from all over the place.

I would believe it.

and Alderman say the reaction is 92% positive.

You can't do much better than that.

Not yet, but I think if it keeps going like this, we'll just swamp it.

Well, they can't piss on something that's building that much momentum.

Well, that was a very good piece of advice of yours.

We got them all into the room.

We got all the men in it.

And I just said, we've all got to work together on this.

This is the line I'm going to follow.

Do you have any regrets?

And what line are you going to follow?

And let's all work together on this.

So, no, no, it was a brilliant idea because, you know, without it, they would have done anything.

If they do it now, they have no excuse that there wasn't a meeting, that they couldn't express their views, and that they weren't told.

Yeah.

We hope so.

Good, John.

Thank you.

NARA Description

On January 25, 1972, Henry A. Kissinger and John N. Mitchell talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 10:10 pm and 10:17 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 019-084 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 19-84

Date: January 25, 1972
Time: Unknown between 10:10 pm and 10:l7 pm
Location: White House Telephone

Henry A. Kissinger talked with John N. Mitchell.

     The President's recent speech on Vietnam
          -Reaction
               -Television commentators
                      -J. William Fulbright
               -Peter H. Dominick
               -”Doves”
                      -Negotiations
                      -Prisoners of war [POWs]
                      -Withdrawal date
               -Public
               -Views of John A. Scali and H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman
               -State and Defense Departments
                      -Haldeman
          -Kissinger's meeting with Haldeman and White House staff
          -Possible effect

Also recorded on January 26, 1972

019-080 10:03 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Tricia Nixon Cox talked on the telephone from 10:03 pm to 10:10 pm.
019-081 10:10 PM · 18 sec — Henry A. Kissinger and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 10:10 pm and 10:17 pm.
019-082 10:10 PM · 16 sec — Henry A. Kissinger and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 10:10 pm and 10:17 pm.
019-083 10:10 PM · 12 sec — Henry A. Kissinger and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 10:10 pm and 10:17 pm.
019-085 10:10 PM · 10 sec — Henry A. Kissinger and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 10:10 pm and 10:17 pm.
019-086 10:10 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 10:10 pm and 10:17 pm.
019-087 10:17 PM · 7 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson talked on the telephone from 10:17 pm to 10:24 pm.
019-088 10:24 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 10:24 pm.

All 102 conversations from January 26, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 019-084, January 26, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/019-084 (accessed October 6, 2026).