Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 19 › Conversation 019-153
Nixon phone call with Haldeman on Vietnam War and Public opinion polls
Friday, January 28, 1972 · 5:33 PM–5:44 PM ET · White House Telephone · 16 min
AI Summary
President Nixon and H.R. Haldeman reviewed public opinion polling data following the President's recent speech on Vietnam peace negotiations. The discussion focused on the favorable public reception toward the administration's decision to disclose secret negotiations and the President's efforts to reach a settlement. Additionally, the pair briefly touched upon public support for proposed defense spending, property tax reform, and anti-busing legislation, while concluding with a discussion regarding upcoming social events and administrative appointments.
Audio
Transcript (AI-generated)
This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 1 minute of this recording (about 7% 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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Okay.
Yeah.
Over...
When was this taken?
Yesterday?
This was taken the two nights.
That's Wednesday night and Thursday night.
You got a better flip that way.
But it's still taken closer to the event.
See, after the China announcement, for instance, in July, we waited five days.
And the awareness there was 85, which is a little higher.
But on most of the things, the...
The awareness runs around 65 to 70.
So this is higher than the normal awareness.
Not as high as the China awareness was a week later, but the China awareness had to be there.
For the economic announcement, we also waited a week on that one, the August 15.
And both were bigger stories.
And it came out 82.
This came out in 77.
I think if we waited a couple of days, this would go up to 85.
Oh, you mean you'd get higher?
Oh, sure.
It goes up as you wait.
Because, see, this is total awareness, not just whether they saw the TV.
60% saw the TV.
17% of those 17% didn't see the TV but were heard or read about it.
Okay, then we asked how do you rate your reaction in general to what the president said on Vietnam peace negotiations.
The very favorable, 29.
Somewhat favorable, 44.
Somewhat unfavorable, 16.
Very unfavorable, 8.
Now, comparing that, China was 33 very favorable, a little higher.
This is 29.
China was 33.
But the somewhat favorable, China was 35.
This is 44.
What's the total?
So the total favorable on this is 73.
The total favorable on China was 68.
total favorable on economics is 68. oh wait a minute wait a minute no i'm wrong that was that was gallup's part our favorable on economic was 73 exactly the same as what 29 and 46. uh
That part comes out good.
Then we ask, after the president's speech, what do you feel are the chances of settling by negotiation?
They don't measure much.
Excellent 5, good 20, fair 36, poor 34.
So in other words, they favorably reacted to the speech.
People are pretty sensible.
They're realistic.
They realize it.
And you said that.
You didn't build up hopes on it.
And I think that's good.
Then you said, do you feel the president's speech adequately answered his critics regarding the Vietnam negotiations or not?
Fifty-six, yes.
Thirty-four, no.
Interesting there.
Thirty-four, no.
Yeah.
But interesting there is Democrats, 45, yes.
Forty-three, no.
Republicans, 75, 16.
Independents, 57, 35.
Pretty good.
Pretty good.
Yeah, I think it is.
Then we ask the question to you.
You figure 34 that say no are just people that want to get out of the war.
That's right.
I think you're bound to get a chunk like that.
That's 43% of the Democrats, 35% of the Republicans.
One of the good things about it is it's the highest in Vietnam probably in almost two years.
Well, it's certainly the highest.
I've got all the 71 figures here, and it's higher than anything.
The highest before was 48, and this is 54.
It's 71.
You see here, I've got the others.
48 was the highest in 1971.
And in 1970, we only folded a couple of times.
But in May of 70, it was 53.
In April, it was 58.
That was the first time he posed that question.
So that was, you have to go way back.
You've got to go back two years.
And the war was far gone.
I mean, by that time, there was a lot more support for him.
Yep.
Then we, I think, I'm not Pollyannish, but I think it's pretty good.
I think it is, too.
We said, do you agree or disagree with President Nixon's decision to make public the details of the secret peace negotiations?
We wanted to see if there was any adverse thing about revealing the secrets.
76 agree, 17 disagree.
Good one.
Good looking thing.
Do you agree with President Nixon's statement on TV that he's gone the extra mile in trying to settle Vietnam at the negotiating table, or do you feel he should be making a stronger effort than he has?
50 agree, 46 think he should be making a stronger effort.
That, I think, is inevitable.
I can assure you.
It was a bad question, actually.
We could have loaded it and gotten it.
Well, we've got much stronger of the answer.
There are parts of this that should be put out.
What do you think?
I'm not so sure.
Maybe not.
I think maybe we should.
We asked a couple other questions, not on the speech.
We asked if we said the president's not seeing... Well, I don't mean the whole... Well, I don't.
Well, there are a couple here.
I don't know that the approval of the public, not the approval of the war, the approval of the...
reaction to the speech yeah that's the general reaction question that's a good one and then the uh that's the problem you do that and then the making a secret then you don't want to put out the extra mile i'm not sure there's enough to put out i maybe don't bother unless we use some of these other questions and mix them with it uh for instance we had we asked if uh
You said the President announced increased defense spending to prevent U.S. response on a Russian defense capability.
Do you support the President's stand in this area, or do you think we should not increase defense spending?
Fifty-one support President.
Thirty-eight should not increase defense spending.
And that's a pretty straight question, because we said not increase, and we didn't.
On the property tax thing, you said, do you agree or disagree with the President that property taxes are now a major threat and must be reduced by federal action 75-75?
There's been some criticism of the new budget because it proposes another deficit.
Which do you feel is more important, a balanced budget for the government or a program to stimulate the economy, even if it meets a large deficit in the federal budget?
We tried to load that negatively by the large deficit.
36 prefer a balanced budget.
47 want to stimulate with a large budget.
You used the word job, not hire.
I didn't put jobs in purposely.
I was trying to push it the other way.
Then we said there is currently a constitutional amendment pending in Congress that would prohibit any child from being assigned to a school on the basis of race.
If this amendment were passed, it would overturn recent court decisions that have resulted in compulsory busing of students.
Do you favor or oppose such a constitution?
66 favor.
I'm not going to speak that long.
I'm not going to make a long speech.
You don't need to make much effort.
I'm going to read those damned citations.
That's the story.
The story and the impression out of that is going to be the drama of giving him the medal.
That's right.
And the glow afterwards of singing those good old songs.
And everybody will just love that.
And they'll go away just feeling great.
Conniff will do his announcing.
I don't have enough songs.
No, no.
You just turn the stage over to him and say,
That's a good idea, too.
I don't mean swearing in.
Can we... Did you think of any fighting women with the same thing?
Not a good idea.
The thought was it was better to keep the focus on her and then bring the women in afterwards.
Not with you, but I mean use them in the next week or so.
Just follow up to the announcement rather than... How would you use them?
Making the point of the...
step of a woman into this kind of position i would i would do this i would pass the word i'd get on the horn get our women's people on the horn
I think it's a great, great movie, don't you think?
Yep.
And she's really incredible.
Well, she is very.
Miss Stein is a refreshing character.
Yeah.
What a great guy.
What a funny face.
Okay, not good.
It does show, though, that we pulled the damn thing off with pretty good style.
No question about that.
Because we had taken the bombs from Vietnam.
We could have pulled them.
We could have been very close.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Gained the initiative.
Okay.
Good.
NARA Description
On January 28, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone from 5:33 pm to 5:44 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 019-153 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 19-153
Date: January 28, 1972
Time: 5:33 pm - 5:44 pm
Location: White House Telephone
The President talked with H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman.
Polls
-Timing
-The President's January 28, 1972 speech on Vietnam
-Comparisons
-The President's announcements about the People's Republic of China
[PRC] and about economic action [August 15, 1971]
-Peace
-George H. Gallup
-Negotiations
-Political affiliation of respondents
-Comparison with previous ratings on Vietnam
-Negotiations
-Secrecy
-Strength of the President’s effort
-Possible release
-Defense spending
-Soviet Union
-Property taxes
-Balanced budget
-Jobs
-Compulsory busing
**********************************************************************
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 4m 35s ]
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
**********************************************************************
The President's schedule
-DeWitt and Lila Wallace
-Ray Conniff
**********************************************************************
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 26s ]
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2
**********************************************************************
-Marina Von N. Whitman
-Possible activities by Patricia R. Hitt and Barbara Franklin
-Significance of appointment
Whitman
Herbert Stein
-Personality
-Sense of humor
-Compared to Leslie T. (“Bob”) Hope
Polls
-The President's January 25, 1972 speech on VietnamAlso recorded on January 28, 1972
- 659-023 5:03 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 5:03 pm and 11:59 pm.
- 019-148 5:05 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 5:05 pm and 5:23 pm.
- 019-149 5:23 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods talked on the telephone from 5:23 pm to 5:25 pm.
- 019-150 5:25 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 5:25 pm and 5:26 pm.
- 019-151 5:26 PM · 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone from 5:26 pm to 5:30 pm.
- 019-152 5:30 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 5:30 pm and 5:33 pm.
- 019-154 5:49 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 5:49 pm.
- 019-155 5:49 PM · 18 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson talked on the telephone from 5:49 pm to 6:08 pm.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 019-153, January 28, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/019-153 (accessed October 12, 2026).