Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 034-112
Date: Sunday, December 17, 1972 at 10:03 AM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob"); Eisenhower, Julie Nixon
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/034-112

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Yeah.
[0:01] Mr. Hartman.
[0:03] I was going to ask again what the situation was tomorrow in case I wanted to be gone this evening.
[0:10] I'm not sure.
[0:12] Just the Stans meeting at 10, which we can shift.
[0:15] Oh, Stans.
[0:16] Stans is tomorrow.
[0:17] And when is the Diplomatic Children's Reception?
[0:19] Diplomatic Children is at 4 tomorrow afternoon.
[0:22] It's at 4 tomorrow afternoon.
[0:25] Yeah.
[0:26] And then they're at Stans.
[0:27] Yeah, that's right.
[0:30] Yeah, yeah.
[0:31] Well, that's fine.
[0:33] That gives me the guidance I need.
[0:34] I don't know that I will.
[0:35] I'm going to talk to Julie.
[0:37] Okay.
[0:37] There's no problem.
[0:38] We can shift.
[0:38] So we could easily shift stands to the following day.
[0:41] Right.
[0:42] And you have... And I'm all free.
[0:45] You have nothing particularly the following day either.
[0:50] Yeah.
[0:50] Don't I do the...
[0:51] Except the surrogate's reception at 5 or 6.
[0:55] Yeah.
[0:55] Something like that.
[0:57] Now, about the situation with regard to these appointments and things...
[1:01] When should we start winging away at those?
[1:04] Are we fully ready now to start going through?
[1:10] Well, not fully ready, but I mean, ready to go through some or what?
[1:12] Yeah.
[1:13] Go through some, I guess, and get them ready.
[1:16] We're at a point where we can clean up everything of where we are and review on an overall basis where the next round.
[1:26] Yeah.
[1:29] You and who?
[1:30] You and Ehrlichman?
[1:31] I think so.
[1:33] You want Millick or not?
[1:35] Not necessary.
[1:36] He wouldn't do any harm.
[1:42] It's maybe he's grinding away on him.
[1:44] Well, whatever, either way, there's no need for him to be there.
[1:49] Yeah, yeah.
[1:49] Well, probably easier not to.
[1:52] It is, basically.
[1:54] talk a little more frankly about the politics of some of the things and the personalities, which you shouldn't really hear me say.
[2:01] But you and Ehrlichman could be free then at any time to go over these things.
[2:06] Yep.
[2:07] Come in.
[2:08] Come in, Joe.
[2:09] All right.
[2:10] We'll figure to do that.
[2:13] I'll check with Julie to see what her plans are.
[2:18] All right.
[2:19] How did you...
[2:21] I thought the—how did you think that Henry's thing played?
[2:25] Did you see it in the paper?
[2:26] Fine.
[2:27] I think it's— Did it come all right?
[2:28] Yeah.
[2:29] I think it's set the stage for what has to happen tomorrow.
[2:32] Yep.
[2:33] Yeah.
[2:34] And it's, you know, the— I haven't read it terribly carefully, but I just read it— I haven't read all the detail on it either, but the basic position is— We've gone the extra mile.
[2:45] We've done everything we can.
[2:46] Hanoi's backed off and— Yeah.
[2:49] Backed off.
[2:50] Right.
[2:51] I don't think there's any feeling of despair.
[2:54] Good.
[2:57] We're at a bog down point.
[3:02] I see one of them says stalled, one of them says at an impasse, and one of them says they haven't reached a just and fair agreement.
[3:08] Right.
[3:08] Right.
[3:09] Good.
[3:10] The, uh, the, uh, I think the, the, uh, okay.
[3:17] what worked out with regard to Armstrong was a good way to end that thing last night.
[3:22] Sure was.
[3:23] I mean, it was a little hard on Bill.
[3:26] He'd expect you to do the other one.
[3:29] I talked to him afterwards, though, wasn't I?
[3:30] Because I called him over.
[3:32] I said, well, there's just a sudden shift.
[3:34] But it was nicer for him to do the ladies anyway.
[3:37] It was great.
[3:38] Because, you see, he had done the one in Miami.
[3:40] Right.
[3:40] Tied right in.
[3:41] And he was delighted.
[3:42] And your tie-in to the 12 years ago, the 1960 dinner and all this.
[3:47] Yeah.
[3:47] And by golly, I thought that Waring outfit was great, didn't you?
[3:53] I think so, too.
[3:53] You know, what everybody—I remember when Waring did—I didn't want to mention this to anybody before we had him—but in 1955—57, he did it for the Queen.
[4:03] Yeah.
[4:05] And the Washington social writers just tore him apart, you know, as being—because, I mean, he had him at least three times and said, Why can't we have something other than this?
[4:14] That was just when the crappy kind of music was beginning to come out.
[4:19] And I said, well, by golly, you know, Fred, when I heard him last night, first of all, it isn't square at all.
[4:25] That one number they did with those kids out there dancing, that was pure mod, wasn't it?
[4:31] But he did that religious stuff with great verve.
[4:36] And I thought it was just great.
[4:39] It's a 70-year-old man to get up there and wang away like that.
[4:42] It worked out, I think, extremely well.
[4:46] And the thing with Ann was... Yeah.
[4:49] The kids, how did the people generally feel about it?
[4:51] The kids stayed and danced well, didn't they?
[4:54] Yep.
[4:55] They must have had a...
[4:55] They just thought it was marvelous.
[4:57] It was great because they could walk around with the direct decorations.
[5:00] Right, right, right.
[5:02] How about the cat and the people?
[5:04] Well, the house never looked better.
[5:06] Well, the cabinet people, I think they felt that they got their due.
[5:10] Oh, yeah, very much so.
[5:12] And it was— Having them all there was good, wasn't it?
[5:15] It really was.
[5:16] Seriously.
[5:17] And the undersecretaries, it was, you know, obviously pretty awe-inspiring for the new folks.
[5:22] Oh, it was, yeah.
[5:24] And very nice having Mrs. Brennan with you and all that.
[5:28] And Ann was awfully good on that.
[5:30] Who?
[5:30] Ann Armstrong bringing Mrs. Brennan in her remarks.
[5:33] Oh, did she?
[5:34] Right.
[5:35] Okay, fine, fine.
[5:36] Julie, how are you?