Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 33 › Conversation 033-024
Nixon phone call with Smith on 1972 election and Vietnam War
Saturday, November 4, 1972 · 10:30 AM–10:33 AM ET · White House Telephone · 4 min
AI Summary
President Nixon called Senator Margaret Chase Smith three days before the 1972 election to express his support for her campaign and discuss their mutual electoral outlook. The conversation focused on the political climate in Maine, the impact of local media opposition, and Nixon's strategy for achieving "peace with honor" in the Vietnam War. Nixon provided Smith with specific talking points to defend his administration's peace negotiations and firm stance against a coalition government, encouraging her to remain confident as she campaigned for re-election.
- 1972 election
- Vietnam War
- Margaret Chase Smith
- Peace with honor
- Maine politics
- POWs
Audio
Transcript (AI-generated)
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All right.
Good morning, Mr. President.
Margaret, the purpose of my call just three days before election is to wish you the very best and to tell you that after these last four years, I don't want to break up the team of Smith and Nixon.
Thank you very much.
And I just, I know you
You've had a lot of campaigns, but all the reports I have are excellent.
I know you're going to win, and I look forward to it.
How does it look up there, Margaret?
Well, you're running very, very high.
Your people are doing a good job.
We were on a telecast the other night, and I had your letter read to the people, which was impressive and very helpful.
The Bangor News is out to get me.
The Bangor News?
Yes.
And they're really being pretty fair, because they're doing polls.
this morning they come out with seven points uh halfway seven points ahead of me in the state yes i don't believe that but their polls are very slightly down yeah yeah you did a wonderful job on that speech night before us let me tell you on that subject if it comes up margaret well first you should say we're for peace with honor not surrender second we have made a breakthrough and have reached agreement on
three major points.
One, a return of our POWs, a ceasefire, and the right of the South Vietnamese people to choose their own government without having a communist or coalition government imposed upon them.
However, the details of supervision and that sort of thing are what our left can negotiate.
And we will, we believe, succeed in negotiating them.
But we're not going to be hurried into a bad settlement because what we want is a settlement that will last.
That's our position in a nutshell.
And when the opposition suggests that this is a hoax, let me tell you, many people thought we'd never go to China.
And many people thought that the Soviet summit wouldn't come off.
Don't underestimate what we're going to be able to do here.
And many people thought you wouldn't bring the boys home.
Well, you've done a wonderful job.
I have talked about it in every meeting, and I've done six or eight meetings a day.
The people up here are with you.
They feel strongly that you're right, and the most that I hear is your firmness.
Some people have been afraid that you might not carry through.
You tell the Margaret that you've talked to me and that I am insisting.
You're going to make the right kind of peace, that we have made the breakthrough, but now on the details report, and we're not going to do what we did in 68, where the bombing halt was agreed to with the best of intentions, but didn't lead to peace.
This time we want real peace, and that's why I'm being firm.
Well, we're very pleased, and I think the people in Maine feel it.
They feel very strongly.
I've been in a good number of schools.
Have you?
Yeah, good.
Yes, I've done a lot of schools.
And the young people, surprisingly, are for you and for you strongly.
And give me a great applause on the Vietnam Party.
Great, great.
This is amnesty.
And stay on that.
And also, because if you're going to be—we trust Chairman of the Armed Services.
Let's stick to that idea that we never want America to be second.
Well, you tell the people of Maine that I'm doing states where they're very close, and we think you're going to win.
But the main point is that...
that I'm making this call to indicate my interest, and I'll get to Maine in those next four years sometime.
I know you will.
Please, and remember me to the family.
Thank you.
And keep well.
Bye.
Thank you, and you too.
Yes, I am.
They don't want me to, but I will.
I know.
And we'll get together.
Let them pick away.
We'll see you in January.
Did you see the Jimmy the Greek prediction?
No, no, I didn't see that.
They came out and gave me a big margin today.
Oh, great.
I think it was 15 to 1.
Let me say that Jimmy the Greek knows a lot more than the banger knows.
Well, thank you very much.
Okay.
Good luck.
Bye.
Bye.
NARA Description
On November 4, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Margaret Chase Smith talked on the telephone from 10:30 am to 10:33 am. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 033-024 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 33-24
Date: November 4, 1972
Time: 10:30 am - 10:33 am
Location: White House Telephone
- 26 -
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY
Conversation No. 33-114 (cont’d)
The President talked with Margaret Chase Smith.
[See Conversation No. 389-11O]
Greetings
*****************************************************************
[Previous PRMPA Personal Returnable (G) withdrawal reviewed under deed of gift during
chronological review 2007-2013]
1972 election
-Smith's campaign
-The President's support
-Outlook
-The President's campaign
-Outlook
-Television [TV]
-The President's letter
-Smith's campaign
-Bangor Newspaper
-Opposition to Smith
-Polls
-William B. Hathaway's lead
-Quality
*****************************************************************
Vietnam War
-Guidelines for Smith’s public position
-Peace with honor
-Negotiations
-Prisoners of war [POWs]
-Cease fire
-Communist coalition government in South Vietnam
-Details
-Settlement
-Pace
- 27 -
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY
Conversation No. 33-114 (cont’d)
-McGovern's charges
-The President's Peoples Republic
of China [PRC] trip and Soviet Union summit
-US troop withdrawals
-Smith's support
-Meetings
-The President's stance on settlement agreement
-1968 bombing halt
-Maine
-Support for President
-Youth
-Amnesty
-Smith
-Senate Armed Services Committee
*****************************************************************
[Previous PRMPA Personal Returnable (G) withdrawal reviewed under deed of gift during
chronological review 2007-2013]
1972 election
-The President’s schedule
-Visit to Maine
-First Family
-Predictions
-Jimmy (“The Greek”) Snyder
-Smith's margin
-Bangor News
*****************************************************************Also recorded on November 4, 1972
- 033-020 10:17 AM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John K. MacIver talked on the telephone from 10:17 am to 10:19 am.
- 033-021 10:20 AM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 10:20 am and 10:28 am.
- 033-022 10:20 AM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Robert Hirsch talked on the telephone from 10:20 am to 10:28 am.
- 033-023 10:28 AM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and James A. McClure talked on the telephone from 10:28 am to 10:29 am.
- 033-025 10:34 AM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Howard H. Baker, Jr. talked on the telephone from 10:34 am to 10:36 am.
- 033-026 10:36 AM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 10:36 am and 10:41 am.
- 389-012 10:36 AM · 14 min — President Richard M. Nixon, John D. Ehrlichman, Robert J. Dole, William Mills, Gordon L. Allott, and James D. ("Mike") McKevitt met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 10:36 am and 11:00 am.
- 033-027 10:41 AM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Robert J. Dole talked on the telephone from 10:41 am to 10:44 am.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 033-024, November 4, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/033-024 (accessed October 10, 2026).