Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 20 › Conversation 020-084

Nixon phone call with Haig on Vietnam War and Air strikes

Wednesday, February 9, 1972 · 2:52 PM–2:57 PM ET · White House Telephone · 5 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haig, Alexander M., Jr.Conversation020-084 on Tape 20 (tape position 02:28:30–02:33:45)StartWednesday, February 9, 1972 at 2:52 PMEndWednesday, February 9, 1972 at 2:57 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 020-084 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and General Alexander Haig discussed the logistics and strategic objectives of an upcoming 48-hour, maximum-effort bombing campaign in Vietnam. They emphasized the operation's psychological impact, aiming to correct enemy perceptions of weakened U.S. strength and to demonstrate the high cost of continued aggression. The conversation further confirmed that military leadership, including Admiral Thomas Moorer and General Creighton Abrams, supported the strike as a means to gain tactical intelligence and utilize superior naval and air assets.

Audio

Download MP3 · 7.2 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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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).
General Haig, sir.
Yes, sir.
Al, I wanted to ask you, how about that B-3 strike?
Is it going to get off, or do we hear yet?
Yes, sir.
As of now, it's on schedule, and the weather's favorable, and that would be the only thing that would be postponed.
That would be starting tonight, then, or today.
Good, good, good.
And you're convinced now they're going to carry that out and at least...
They're delighted with it.
Do their best to concentrate, will they?
They want to do it because they want to first exercise the system completely to a max surge and to enhance their responsiveness.
They're in total agreement with it.
Al, do you think they have...
really now looked around to see if they've got any targets in the damn area yes sir they do i mean uh being there must be if uh there must be with all the infiltration and if they're expecting a thing aren't there there must be troops that's what i mean i realize those are secondary targets but god damn it if you had enough of them they're not no sir i think they've got some good targets uh i talked to admiral moore last evening he said they're very pleased they have uh
communications fixes on regimental and division headquarters, and they're just going to just pour it in there for 48 hours.
Yeah.
What is the advantage of doing 48, you know, if you hit them, you mean that they will then try to, wouldn't they move out?
I'm just trying to figure out how does it work.
Well, what they hope to do, sir, is to put this concentrated load in at max effort.
They are going to have to
to recycle a little bit, and if they wanted to get a read from the communications, it'll give them a sharp new communications.
Yeah, the intelligence.
I see.
And then they can do it again.
And, you know, I think General Abrams wants to do this.
Yeah.
Well.
I think it's going to be a very effective psychological, if not even if they miss.
It's going to be psychologically damn impressive.
Because why?
Well, the enemy has not seen.
They've been deceived because as we've drawn down, we have held down our sortie levels.
Laird's done that for economic reasons, but Abrams has actually gone along with it.
So I think they have the impression that perhaps we're a lot weaker than we are.
And when they get hit with this kind of a massive firepower demonstration, they're going to know at the outset what price they're going to have to pay.
When they start.
I get it.
And they have picked up already that there's a third carrier in the Tonkin Gulf and a fourth on the way.
Now, this is a hell of a...
The North Vietnamese know this.
Yes, sir.
I'm sure they do.
That's good.
The press says it's good.
Yes, sir.
That's good.
That's good.
That's more of that psychological.
That's right.
The only thing that I left here that I don't know is
Let's see.
That might have them watching that part.
Keeps them off balance, doesn't it?
Yes, it does, and they're very reluctant to move too much of that stuff down into Laos.
They've got their coasts bare now.
Oh, they are.
I was wondering for one other thing whether the...
No, I guess they don't want to do anything in the north.
I just think of the South Vietnamese Navy.
Did they have any success in those Navy runs up the coast?
No, they didn't, sir.
They had a weather problem and a navigation problem.
I've talked to Admiral Moore about it.
He is working on something that's realistic within their capabilities.
They just didn't make it last time.
The last time it didn't turn out well.
But I think they can do something.
Well, just hope for the best.
Just hope that weather holds up because, you know, just one time if the weather holds up and everything goes right, that Air Force and the Navy is likely to knock the bejesus out of something, aren't they?
I think they are, sir.
I think this is a damn good thing to do.
It's something they should have come in with themselves.
Yeah, it's a concentrated smack.
Well, I don't know whether they should or not, but we haven't done this yet, and let's try something that we haven't done, that's all.
And I must be, you know, other...
other things.
I hope more begins to think of a few.
Well, if this pays off, sir, I think it's the kind of thing that we can do as soon as a threat develops.
Yeah.
In other areas.
That's right.
And just mass it and hit it for a couple days.
That's right.
Okay, Al.
Thank you.
Fine, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you.

NARA Description

On February 9, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. talked on the telephone from 2:52 pm to 2:57 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 020-084 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 20-84

Date: February 9, 1972
Time: 2:52 pm - 2:57 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with Gen. Alexander M. Haig, Jr.

[See Conversation No. 321-11]

     Vietnam
          -Bombing strikes
               -B-3’s
               -Schedule
                      -Weather
                      -Timing
          -Nature of strike
               -Maximum effort
               -Agreement of military
          -Targets
               -Infiltration intensity
               -Troops as targets
               -Adm. Thomas H. Moorer view
                      -Talk with Haig
                      -Communication fixes
                            -Regimental and division headquarters
                      -Duration of strike
          -Advantages of 48 hour strike
               -Tactics
                      -Communications intelligence
                      -Gen. Creighton W. Abrams, Jr. view
          -Haig view
               -Psychological impression
                      -Enemy psychology
                            -US withdrawal
                                  -Sortie levels
                                        -Melvin R. Laird
                                        -Abrams
                            -Perception of US strength
                            -Price of enemy activity
                            -Carrier arrival
                                  -Number
                                        -Gulf of Tonkin
                                  -Press coverage

**************************************************************************

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

[National Security (B) withdrawal reviewed under MDR guidelines case number LPRN-T-MDR-
2014-012. Segment exempt per Executive Order 13526, 3.3(b)(1) on 10/17/2017. Archivist:
MAS]
[National Security]
[020-084-w001]
[Duration: 20s]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

**************************************************************************

     Vietnam
          -Haig view
                -Psychological impression
                     -Enemy movement in Laos
                     -Enemy coasts
          -South Vietnamese Navy
                -Success of coastal strikes
                     -Problems
                           -Weather and navigation
                     -Moorer
                     -Prospects
          -Weather
          -Navy and Air Force ability
          -Forthcoming bombing strike
                -Moorer
                -Use on other occasions

Also recorded on February 9, 1972

  • 020-085 2:51 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 2:51 pm and 3:36 pm.
  • 321-011 2:52 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:52 pm to 2:57 pm.
  • 321-012 2:57 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 2:57 pm and 3:15 pm.
  • 321-013 2:57 PM · 23 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 2:57 pm and 3:15 pm.
  • 321-014 3:15 PM · 16 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Manolo Sanchez, and John D. Ehrlichman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:15 pm to 3:40 pm.
  • 020-086 3:36 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger talked on the telephone from 3:36 pm to 3:38 pm.
  • 020-087 3:38 PM · 2 min — H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, White House operator, President Richard M. Nixon, and Patrick J. Buchanan talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 3:38 pm and 11:59 pm.
  • 321-015 3:40 PM · 32 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building on an unknown date, sometime between 3:40 pm on February 9, 1972 and 12:29 pm on March 8, 1972.

All 53 conversations from February 9, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 020-084, February 9, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/020-084 (accessed October 2, 2026).