Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 023-075
Date: Tuesday, April 25, 1972 at 4:43 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Ziegler, Ronald L.
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/023-075

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Mr. President, Mr. Ziegler, return.
[0:03] Yeah.
[0:04] Yes, sir.
[0:05] How'd you get along?
[0:07] Well, fine.
[0:09] I made the announcement and so forth.
[0:11] Then we had the little in-house thing on credibility that I thought we had.
[0:14] I hope you hit that hard, though.
[0:16] Yes, I did.
[0:16] I did.
[0:16] I said, look, gentlemen, it boils down to this.
[0:19] I said, we either announced he was in Moscow or the president made the decision to go ahead with what he considered to be an important secret meeting.
[0:26] That's as simple as it is.
[0:27] And you then went through all the points.
[0:30] I said the president believes seeking peace is about most important.
[0:34] Yeah, but it's only in-house.
[0:36] These assholes were just pissed off they didn't work there.
[0:39] Sure.
[0:39] Well, why don't they watch him more closely?
[0:41] Okay.
[0:45] They're pretty shaken up by this announcement.
[0:46] Oh, yes, sure they are.
[0:47] Yes, they are.
[0:48] Good.
[0:49] Now, I left a lot of doubt in their mind, too, on the...
[0:53] troop level thing oh yeah they said well is that uh did you choose those words carefully and i said yes i did yeah i said you'll have to wait until tomorrow night to find out what the president's decision is and then i made the point about consultation and concurrence with the senior advisors and
[1:08] So for what they said, they asked whether or not you waited until Henry got back to make your decision on what the troop levels would be.
[1:17] Was that connected with Henry's trip there?
[1:21] And I had discussed that with Henry, and I made the point that your decision on troop levels
[1:25] It was not related to his trip to the Soviet Union.
[1:28] That's right.
[1:30] But then they said, would you go beyond tomorrow night, the discussion of troop levels and the general military situation assessments of Vietnam?
[1:38] I said, well, this is what the president told me he was going to say, and he's still working on his remarks, and I can't help you beyond that.
[1:44] Right.
[1:45] Good.
[1:45] So we just held in their firm.
[1:47] How are you going to handle the thing tonight?
[1:51] No press.
[1:52] Or you're just going to put out an announcement?
[1:54] On the dinner?
[1:56] No, not the dinner.
[1:57] I don't care about that.
[1:57] Oh, yeah.
[1:58] No, I'm going to brief.
[1:59] We'll call them back in, see?
[2:00] Good.
[2:00] All right.
[2:01] Fine.
[2:02] I'll talk to you about that when I get my material from NSC.
[2:05] Fine.
[2:05] Okay, sir.