Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 036-091
Date: Tuesday, January 23, 1973 at 10:44 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Price, Raymond K., Jr.
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/036-091

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] I thought you'd be interested to know that my daughter Julie gave me an indication that we must have been successful.
[0:15] She said she had never seen
[0:18] The CBS crew said, Dan Rather, Eric Severide, Marvin Kalb were just dying.
[0:26] They thought, I mean, they said they know that it was a horrible thing, that peace had come, and they were so sick about it.
[0:34] And so, you know what I mean?
[0:36] And she was, but it pleased her because she realized that with the line they had taken that we'd really stuck them in the groin.
[0:44] but the press uh ron says he's never seen the press room so depressed never the worst he's ever seen him remember just what i told you they'd be not the photographers no it's but the writing press because they can't stand as i tell you really their intellectual cannot stand to be proved wrong i i i want uh i think all of it i caught part of the uh cbs commentary after
[1:09] And they were sort of just floundering, really.
[1:15] I know, but as Julie said, they looked green, and that's a good reaction.
[1:20] But on the other side, she thought the speech was beautifully written and concise and so forth, and she got all the points, so that's good.
[1:30] I thought it came off superb there, really did.
[1:32] Well, anyway, the point that I want to say is that you... Oh, listen, listen, let me tell you.
[1:38] We did exactly the right thing.
[1:39] I could sense when I briefed the leaders.
[1:41] They were so bamboozled.
[1:43] You know, Mansfield sat there with his mouth open, and Tip O'Neill, of course, was the top.
[1:48] And they would have been, they would have been a hell of a time.
[1:50] And it's the wrong thing with Johnson.
[1:52] But here we could talk, you could talk about the POW.
[1:55] You see, talking to them, talking to the North Vietnamese.
[1:58] You couldn't have done that from the Congress.
[2:00] You see?
[2:01] And we made exactly the right decision, but let me say that the language and everything, getting this in these simple terms, and as a matter of fact, it's the same, I feel, I felt it had sort of the same simplicity and leanness that the inaugural had, you know?
[2:19] Didn't you think so?
[2:20] Yes.
[2:21] In many ways, I like this in many ways even better.
[2:24] I think just because I thought the inaugural was very good when it came off.
[2:28] This, I thought, was just superbly fitted to the occasion.
[2:31] All right.
[2:35] Well, take a little rest.
[2:37] Okay.
[2:37] Thank you.