Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 20 › Conversation 020-009

Nixon phone call with McKinney on Vietnam War and Peace Negotiations

Monday, January 31, 1972 · 4:04 PM–4:06 PM ET · White House Telephone · 2 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); McKinney, Stewart B.Conversation020-009 on Tape 20 (tape position 00:12:04–00:13:50)StartMonday, January 31, 1972 at 4:04 PMEndMonday, January 31, 1972 at 4:06 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 020-009 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon telephoned Representative Stewart B. McKinney to offer birthday greetings and discuss the political reception of his recent Vietnam policy speech. Nixon emphasized the strength of his administration’s peace proposal, urging McKinney to maintain support despite expected North Vietnamese resistance or renewed military posturing. In response, McKinney confirmed his backing of the President's position and noted that a group of House members had signed a letter expressing their support for the administration's negotiation efforts.

Audio

Download MP3 · 2.5 MB

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

Download transcript (.txt) · JSON data

· Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).

Congressman McKinney, sir.

Hello.

Mr. President, how are you?

When Clark McGregor was in here, he was telling me that you had a birthday yesterday, and I just wanted you to know that when I saw how young you were, I thought, gee whiz, he's got 30 years left to be in the Congress.

Well, thank you very much.

I stopped counting, I think.

You stopped counting at 39.

While I have you, sir, I wanted to tell you your speech was fantastic.

Oh, well, I hope it went over well up in your part of the country.

You did, and I think you answered a great many questions.

One thing that you want to remember is this.

Tell all your friends.

I mentioned this to three fellows when I was talking to them the other day.

Don't be concerned about the enemies turning it down in the first instance.

Well, they haven't actually rejected it yet.

They're just knocking it around.

Because basically, that's the way these things go.

There will be a period of a few months where they're going to have to try their military prowess probably one more time.

But now we have a basis for negotiation that is very, very hard for anybody to resist.

I mean, you can't go much further than what we have done.

And so I would say that we've made a good offer, and we think this is one that the American people ought to back, and it is one that we think eventually can lead to a successful resolution of the conflict, and particularly the return of our POWs.

A great many of us signed a letter today in the House, which I think you'll be receiving shortly, supporting you, and I think it's great.

I think we're all with you.

Well, anyway, keep young G. When I was 41, I was a real tiger.

We're trying to be one.

Okay.

Right.

Thank you very much, sir.

NARA Description

On January 31, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Stewart B. McKinney talked on the telephone from 4:04 pm to 4:06 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 020-009 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 20-9

Date: January 31, 1972
Time: 4:04 pm - 4:06 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with Stewart B. McKinney.

[See Conversation No. 661-9A]

     Greetings

     Birthday greetings
          -Clark MacGregor
          -Congressional prospects
          -President's Vietnam speech of January 25, 1972
                -McKinney’s view

     Vietnam negotiations
          -North Vietnamese reaction to US proposals
               -Need for concern
               -Possible military action
          -Benefits of US proposal
               -Quality of offer
                     -Negotiations
               -Public support
               -Prospects for success

                    -Prisoners of war [POWs] return
          -Congressional letter of support

Also recorded on January 31, 1972

020-006 4:00 PM · 15 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 4:00 pm and 4:01 pm.
661-004 4:00 PM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 4:00 pm and 4:01 pm.
020-007 4:01 PM · 59 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Leslye A. Arsht talked on the telephone from 4:01 pm to 4:03 pm.
661-006 4:01 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Leslye A. Arsht met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:01 pm to 4:03 pm.
020-008 4:03 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 4:03 pm and 4:04 pm.
661-007 4:03 PM · 3 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 4:03 pm and 4:04 pm.
661-008 4:03 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 4:03 pm and 4:04 pm.
661-009 4:04 PM · 1 hr 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Stewart B. McKinney, John D. Ehrlichman, and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:04 pm to 5:05 pm.

All 32 conversations from January 31, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 020-009, January 31, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/020-009 (accessed October 12, 2026).