Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 19 › Conversation 019-108

Nixon phone call with Colson on Vietnam War and POWs

Wednesday, January 26, 1972 · 3:29 PM–3:35 PM ET · White House Telephone · 6 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Colson, Charles W.Conversation019-108 on Tape 19StartWednesday, January 26, 1972 at 3:29 PMEndWednesday, January 26, 1972 at 3:35 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 019-108 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Charles Colson discuss strategies to sustain public support and national unity following the President’s recent televised speech on the Vietnam peace plan. Nixon directs Colson to coordinate with Alexander Haig to have Patrick Buchanan or William Safire draft a Q&A document highlighting the plan’s benefits regarding POWs to shape public messaging. They also discuss leveraging Vice President Agnew and other administration officials for further public outreach and mobilizing media support to neutralize critics.

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Names and numbers are often wrong; speakers are not identified. Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Yes, sir.
You have a call for me?
Yes, I have Mr. Carlson waiting for you.
Here you are.
Yes, sir.
Chuck, I had an idea that I talked to Al Haig about, and he's supposed to implement it.
Ron said that Henry gave a brilliant thing to the press.
Now, the thing about it is that, probably you hadn't heard this, but that
That, however, should not be put out to our troops in that form.
I have asked the Hague, and you follow up, and I want this done this afternoon and tonight if they have to work all night.
to have either Buchanan, Buchanan may be the best, or Sapphire, Sapphire might be, to take it on a Q&A basis and to say, what about POWs?
I mean, take the questions that we really want.
The gut questions, right.
And then the gut questions and say, here are some answers to questions that you may have with regard to our peace plan.
Whack, whack, whack, whack, whack.
Mm-hmm.
And I think that would be very helpful.
And also send one among us to Agnew, who seems to be the guy I don't understand at the least.
Well, that's right.
We had a bit of a problem yesterday, but I think we're all right on it.
By the way, I think he will agree to do a major speech on this Sunday, Saturday in Florida.
He was planning to go after Muskie, but I'd kind of like to use him to...
to build a good second wave of... Yeah, everybody should support the president.
This is the only chance to have peace.
Call for national unity, and that's a good line.
Yeah, and the national unity is the only chance for negotiation.
It'll help our POWs.
Help our POWs.
To get negotiation, we must be united.
If we are disunited, we won't get negotiation, and negotiation is the only way to get our POWs.
Well, that Q&A taken from the briefing, Mr. President, would be very helpful.
Our fellows can use that, and I will.
Well, you can follow up.
I told Hague, just call Hague and say, how's it coming?
And Sapphire could do it very fast, or Buchanan could, or the two could do it together, whatever they want.
Actually, Sapphire, because he's been working on this.
Fine.
Well, you can call Bill.
I'll get him into it.
Well, call Hague first.
Hague hasn't called him.
Then say, get Sapphire, and then you get going.
Okay.
Fine.
But the reactions today, have you continued to be able to heat the boys up now?
Oh, yes, sir.
And we're just going to, all of our people are just going to work on it right around the clock.
We will stay on this and keep it going.
How's their spirit?
Marvelous.
You know, the wires were, I mean, what we had were extremely emotional, which is an interesting thing there, saying God bless you and all that sort of stuff.
So maybe we caught an emotional wave here.
Well, everybody that I've talked to, Mr. President, I've talked to a lot of people today, two things come through very, very strong, credibility of the President and sympathy for him, that he suffered this alone and took all of the outrageous abuse of the critics and never once...
whence he stuck to his guns.
Now, that was a thing Harris told you last night.
Yes, and I bet I've been getting it from everybody else.
Why don't you give Sinlinger a call, see what his poll shows.
He should poll.
Well, he's polling now for us.
And Ed Brook, for example, a day said he'd heard from people who just were the most ardent anti-Nixon people, saying that, my God, we have to hand it to him.
And really, Ed said quite an extraordinary reaction from people who...
So good.
He's never heard good things about Nixon before, and... Well...
it's it's i think it's there mr president our job is to sustain it not just for a day but for three weeks or yeah that's right and to keep keep it on because the the second way will be the north vietnamese turning it down then we've got to just take our rage out on them rather than on ourselves that's exactly and stick to this line this line is sound it's right oh i think you're i think you're in a marvelous pasture i think our job is to
is to use our best spokesman.
I'm going to use Elliot, who was yesterday in that 4 o'clock meeting was just spectacular.
Elliot probably feels good about this.
Oh, he's very up, and he's extremely articulate.
And I want to use him for a major speech, the vice president.
uh george bush is gorgeous great he's a good guy rogers is going to have a press conference tomorrow as you probably will is great and uh he's very up he's sure no problem he should have a press conference that's very good well we've got that laid on for tomorrow send henry's q a over to uh don't send henry's whole text but the q a thing the high spots of our briefing here and ask him to follow up that it's it's and and also be sure he's televised
point out to Rogers that we did not have Henry televised because we wanted to keep it at the proper level.
Oh, that's a good point.
He'll appreciate that.
But that I talked to you and I said, be sure he goes on television, if possible, even live.
I think I could arrange that.
I think he'd be receptive.
I'll talk to Bill about that.
Whatever he wants.
But we will keep it going, Mr. President.
We've been working a lot today on some of the
The left, we had Clark Kerr.
I've got him, and he's agreed to make a statement.
And Stanton called me this morning and said, if there are any of these fellows you want us to put on, we'll put them on.
So I gave Stanton Kerr's name.
We may get him on the networks.
But he represents a whole group of doves, as you know.
We're finding some converts in the house.
We're doing some recruiting and finding some of the former doves who were...
Swing over which will have an impact right any swingers that come over that will knock out that Times post line that that that this was a that it was a mixed reaction crap, you know Oh, yeah, well any swingers you can get get a list out, you know Get get get get that disagree.
Have you got to Zeigler the great reaction?
Yes, sir Yes, sir, and I sent him over push that out.
Yes, sir I sent him this morning some telegrams that we got from POW families that were just beautiful you were there you saw they're just three of them that were great and
People said they've never lost their faith.
By the way, did you get the ratings on last night?
No, what were they?
Just spectacular.
The ratings?
Yes, sir.
I think we... Bob just walked in.
He may have... Yeah, well, one rating service gave us a 56.1.
The other gave us 66.4.
But if you average that... 58?
Well, you'd say 62% of the... Well, one of them gave 66.
Another gave 56.
So the combination is over 60.
And that's 60% of all television sets in America, so...
All right.
That's a hell of a rating.
Good.
Good.
Okay.
We'll keep at it.
Thank you, Mr. President.

NARA Description

On January 26, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson talked on the telephone from 3:29 pm to 3:35 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 019-108 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 19-108

Date: January 26, 1972
Time: 3:29 pm - 3:35 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with Charles W. Colson.

[See Conversation No. 318-3A]

     The President's previous speech on Vietnam
          -The President’s talk with Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
          -Henry A. Kissinger's press briefing
               -Ronald L. Ziegler
          -Forthcoming question and answer [Q & A] session
               -Haig
               -Patrick J. Buchanan, William L. Safire
               -Peace plan
                      -Prisoners of war [POWs]
               -Vice President Spiro T. Agnew
          -Agnew's forthcoming speech
               -Edmund S. Muskie
                      -Florida
          -Forthcoming Q & A
               -National unity

                     -Negotiations
                           -POWs
               -Briefing
               -Haig
               -Safire, Buchanan
          -Reaction
               -Efforts of Colson's staff
               -Wire services
               -Credibility of and sympathy for the President
                     -Louis P. Harris
               -Harris's views
               -Albert E. Sindlinger's poll
               -Colson's conversation with Edward W. Brooke
               -North Vietnam
               -Elliot L. Richardson
               -Agnew
               -George H.W. Bush
               -William P. Rogers
                     -Forthcoming press conference
                           -Henry A. Kissinger’s briefing
                           -Television
               -Clark Kerr
                     -George P. Shultz
               -Frank Stanton's call to Colson
               -House of Representatives
                     -“Doves”
               -New York Times, Washington Post
               -Telegrams from POW families
                     -Ziegler
          -TV ratings
               -H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman

Also recorded on January 26, 1972

  • 656-028 3:20 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 3:20 pm and 3:23 pm.
  • 318-001 3:23 PM · 3 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 3:23 pm and 3:29 pm.
  • 318-002 3:23 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 3:23 pm and 3:29 pm.
  • 656-030 3:23 PM · 1 min — United States Secret Service agents and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 3:23 pm and 5:01 pm.
  • 318-003 3:29 PM · 46 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Charles W. Colson, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, White House operator, Bryce N. Harlow, Frank Stanton, and William H. Carruthers met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:29 pm to 4:20 pm.
  • 019-109 3:35 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 3:35 pm and 3:58 pm.
  • 019-110 3:35 PM · 7 min — H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman and Bryce N. Harlow talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 3:35 pm and 3:58 pm.
  • 019-111 3:35 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 3:35 pm and 3:58 pm.

All 102 conversations from January 26, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 019-108, 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/019-108 (accessed October 6, 2026).