{"conversationCode":"023-017","tapeNumber":23,"conversationNumber":17,"identifier":"37-wht-conversation-023-017","startDateTime":"1972-04-18T14:55:00.000Z","endDateTime":"1972-04-18T14:56:00.000Z","startDate":"18-Apr-1972","startTime":"9:55 AM","endDate":"18-Apr-1972","endTime":"9:56 AM","dateCertainty":"certain","timeCertainty":"certain","participants":"Nixon, Richard M. (President); Laird, Melvin R.;","description":"On April 18, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Melvin R. Laird talked on the telephone from 9:55 am to 9:56 am. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 023-017 of the White House Tapes.","locationCode":"WHT","recordingDevice":"White House Telephone","latitudeEstimated":38.89767,"longitudeEstimated":-77.03655,"chronCode":3,"chronRelease":"Third Chronological Release","chronReleaseDate":"28-Feb-2002","aogpRelease":null,"aogpSegment":null,"lastModified":"2015-07-27T17:04:10.235Z","findingAid":"Conversation No. 23-17\n\nDate: April 18, 1972\nTime: 9:55 am - 9:56 am\nLocation: White House Telephone\n\nThe President talked with Melvin R. Laird.\n\f[See also Conversation No. 711-3D]\n\n     Vietnam\n          -Laird's testimony\n                -News story in New York Times\n                      -Bombing cutbacks\n                      -Laird's response\n                            -Diplomacy\n                -Senate Armed Services Committee\n                      -Statement","filename":["023-017.mp3"],"tapeStart":"","tapeEnd":"","participantsList":["Nixon, Richard M. (President)","Laird, Melvin R."],"prevCode":"023-016","nextCode":"023-018","transcript":[{"start":0.03,"end":3.33,"text":"Mr. President, I have Secretary Laird for you."},{"start":3.35,"end":3.46,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":3.48,"end":5.22,"text":"Right."},{"start":5.24,"end":5.82,"text":"Oh, hello."},{"start":5.88,"end":6.56,"text":"Mr. President."},{"start":6.58,"end":6.9,"text":"Hi, Mel."},{"start":6.92,"end":24.3,"text":"I didn't want to bother you before testimony, but there was a story which you will probably be asked about that I just read in the Times this morning out of Saigon to the effect that we were cutting down on the bombing and so forth and waiting for a political reaction."},{"start":24.57,"end":32.1,"text":"As we were talking yesterday, I want you to take a line that, you know, knocking that down and saying, look, this is a, we are..."},{"start":32.63,"end":34.56,"text":"we're going to do what is necessary and so forth."},{"start":34.6,"end":35.16,"text":"You know what I mean?"},{"start":35.42,"end":44.01,"text":"I think the main thing I want you to keep everybody guessing because it's very important in terms of our diplomatic game right now."},{"start":44.27,"end":45.95,"text":"Mr. President, I'll hit him very hard."},{"start":45.97,"end":54.08,"text":"I've already been before the Senate Armed Services Committee and they made a film clip which will be used very soon in which I said that there was absolutely no truth to the story."},{"start":54.22,"end":54.46,"text":"Great."},{"start":54.72,"end":55.06,"text":"All right."},{"start":55.08,"end":55.28,"text":"All right."},{"start":55.4,"end":55.66,"text":"Fine."},{"start":55.68,"end":55.88,"text":"All right."},{"start":55.9,"end":56.66,"text":"I won't bother you anymore."},{"start":56.73,"end":58.29,"text":"Bye."}],"aiSummary":{"text":"President Nixon and Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird coordinated their public response to a New York Times report falsely claiming that U.S. bombing in Vietnam had been reduced for diplomatic purposes. Nixon directed Laird to aggressively deny these reports to maintain strategic ambiguity, stressing the importance of this stance for ongoing diplomatic efforts. Laird confirmed that he had already refuted the story during recent testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee and had prepared a media clip to ensure the denial reached a wider audience.","topics":["Vietnam War","Military policy","Strategic bombing","Defense policy","Public relations","Nixon administration"],"generatedAt":"2026-04-06T02:33:12.342Z"},"topicSlugs":["vietnam-war","military-policy","strategic-bombing","defense-policy","public-relations","nixon-administration"],"audioDurationSec":59,"audioFiles":[{"file":"023-017.mp3","bytes":1412492,"durationSec":58.78,"bitrate":192237,"missing":false}],"audioIsShared":false,"audioProbedAt":"2026-09-18T02:19:27.521Z","audio":["https://nixon.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/audio/023-017.mp3"],"url":"https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/023-017","nixonLibraryUrl":"https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/white-house-tapes/23/conversation-023-017","license":"Public domain (U.S. Government work). AI-generated fields (transcript, aiSummary) are provided as-is without warranty."}