Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 036-037
Date: Monday, January 22, 1973 at 9:10 AM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Haig, Alexander M., Jr.
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/036-037

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:01] hello general haig sir good morning sir hi al i told henry before he left that uh uh in working out my uh remarks for tomorrow and assuming that he finishes tomorrow or the next day that i would be uh calling on you i will of course have kennedy over as well so that we can keep it in the chain here he totally agrees the main thing i want to be sure is that we have
[0:30] what we have in what is necessary with regard to the South Vietnamese.
[0:34] Yes, there is some problem there.
[0:37] Yeah, and he's got a lot in there already.
[0:39] I mean, I think we have everything in, but have you seen the draft that they prepared?
[0:44] Yes, I saw it yesterday afternoon.
[0:46] Right.
[0:46] Maybe it could be tightened up somewhat.
[0:48] Yeah, well, it's too long now, I think.
[0:51] Yeah.
[0:52] But I mean, I don't know what they prepared.
[0:53] I plan to cut it in half, actually.
[0:55] I really think, Al, that Dole is...
[0:57] I mean, I don't mean that we can put in the stuff reassuring us and that, but I don't think this is the time to go gassing on about it.
[1:05] I think we just announced, here it is.
[1:06] This is what we said we wanted.
[1:08] Now the South Vietnamese have participated in it and so forth.
[1:14] We call on everybody to thank the American people for supporting it and get the hell out of there.
[1:21] Don't you agree?
[1:21] I think it tends to, I think the present draft, although...
[1:27] You just don't have to talk that long about it, or do you agree?
[1:30] Well, I thought there was some redundancy in it.
[1:32] The last paragraph sort of repeated the third or second paragraph.
[1:37] Right.
[1:38] But I think we do have to have this reassurance in there.
[1:41] South Vietnamese stuff I'll leave in, and when I get the thing done, I'll have you take a look at that and see what it does.
[1:47] Good.
[1:48] In regard to that, I suppose that, I guess it's...
[1:52] It's a good public position that Henry's going over earlier, and we'll meet tonight with the foreign minister.
[2:02] This is very helpful in that their guy is over there.
[2:04] The foreign minister.
[2:05] Yeah, that shows.
[2:06] He'll meet with the foreign minister, and they'll meet tomorrow, and we'll just go forward on it.
[2:11] As far as Tu's response is concerned, it's still...
[2:15] Still one that indicates he's going to wait to see what I say and so forth.
[2:18] But after I step out, he's going to have one hell of a time not coming along, isn't he?
[2:23] Oh, he'll be with us before then.
[2:25] Before you step out.
[2:29] He can't afford not to be.
[2:31] Yeah, yeah.
[2:34] Well, you know, it's an interesting thing.
[2:41] I just think he's sitting here after talking to Henry this morning and
[2:45] thinking of how our whole opposition and so forth in this country, how they must be gnashing their goddamn teeth.
[2:57] Now it's killing them.
[2:59] They, of course, will come back.
[3:00] They'll say, well, we didn't get anything out of waiting since October.
[3:03] We could have gotten it then, and it wasn't worth fighting for four years, and why didn't we do this, and it isn't going to last, and it's a bad piece, and so forth.
[3:11] But
[3:11] I don't think that's going to wash with most people.
[3:13] What do you think?
[3:14] I don't know.
[3:14] I don't think it washes at all, and I think McGovern's performance yesterday just turned everybody absolutely.
[3:20] Is that right?
[3:21] Did you see that?
[3:21] No, I didn't see it.
[3:22] In Oxford?
[3:23] God, yes.
[3:24] He attacked the Democratic Party.
[3:28] The presidency.
[3:29] The country, the presidency.
[3:32] Yeah.
[3:32] This guy, he's just an out-and-out revolutionary.
[3:36] Sure.
[3:36] Good.
[3:36] Well, I'm glad to have him where he is.
[3:38] That's right.
[3:39] He was beaten badly, and that's that.
[3:41] Well, that's exactly the interpretation of the average American.
[3:45] I think there's another revulsion building to this crap.
[3:50] Sure.
[3:50] Well, peace will help it.
[3:52] I'm not going to, as far as revulsion is concerned, they were really a pitiful bunch during the inauguration.
[3:59] I mean, they're squealing around, but they all know it's coming, and yet they still have some to squeal.
[4:04] They're going to commit suicide, some of these bastards, you know, really physically.
[4:07] Sure.
[4:07] When they don't have something to hate about, isn't that it?
[4:10] That's exactly it.
[4:11] They're really so frustrated.
[4:13] They hate the country.
[4:14] They hate themselves.
[4:15] And that's what it's really about.
[4:17] It isn't just war.
[4:18] It's everything.
[4:18] Well, that's one thing to keep in mind, because that's exactly right.
[4:22] It's not the war.
[4:24] It's now a bigger issue, and they're fighting this as their last leg.
[4:28] Yeah, that's right.
[4:30] It's going to leave them on a limb.
[4:32] Well, I'll work a little more on this thing, and then I'll probably have you come over this afternoon to take a look at one draft.
[4:38] Yes, sir.
[4:38] Fine.
[4:39] You'll be at the Pentagon, will you?
[4:40] Right, sir, and I'm going to keep following this thing right on through because we'll have some schedule changes if there's a 24-hour slip, and we'll have to back-channel these leaders so that they're appraised of the schedule.
[4:54] We'll know about that by probably the middle of the night, won't we?
[4:58] Right, right.
[4:59] No, no, no.
[5:00] We'll know before then, probably, because I think Henry may do something tonight, Paris time.
[5:06] Meet with Lee Doctor even tonight?
[5:07] Well, it may be a communication.
[5:09] He's going to see the South Vietnamese, of course.
[5:12] Yeah.
[5:13] And I'm just not sure how to do it.
[5:15] We'll either know early tomorrow or late tonight.
[5:20] Well, I told him that slipping it a day made not one damn bit of difference.
[5:25] If it helps with the south and if it doesn't hurt with the north, that's the line he has to take.
[5:33] But don't slip the, I'm not going to slip the signing of the treaty.
[5:36] No, no, no.
[5:37] We can't do that.
[5:37] That can go.
[5:38] But the point is that if he wants to slip the initialing, it doesn't make a damn bit of a difference.
[5:43] That's right.
[5:43] It might give us a chance to iron out some.
[5:47] If it can be ironed out.
[5:49] Yeah.