Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 39 › Conversation 039-001

Nixon phone call with Kissinger on Vietnam negotiations and Laos

Thursday, May 24, 1973 · 1:27 PM–1:29 PM ET · White House Telephone · 2 min

ParticipantsWhite House operator; Nixon, Richard M. (President); Kissinger, Henry A.Conversation039-001 on Tape 39StartThursday, May 24, 1973 at 1:27 PMEndThursday, May 24, 1973 at 1:29 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 039-001 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Henry Kissinger discuss the positive progress in Vietnam and Laos negotiations, noting that the status of talks is better than the original agreement. They coordinate a forthcoming press briefing for Kissinger to publicly discuss the President’s upcoming meeting with Georges Pompidou, the US-USSR summit, and the status of Vietnam negotiations. Additionally, Nixon emphasizes the importance of the administration's recent Watergate "White Paper" as a necessary measure to assert the national security implications of the scandal.

Audio

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NARA Description

On May 24, 1973, White House operator, President Richard M. Nixon, and Henry A. Kissinger talked on the telephone from 1:27 pm to 1:29 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 039-001 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 39-1

Date: May 24, 1973
Time: 1:27 pm - 1:29 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The White House operator talked with the President.

       Incoming telephone call

Henry A. Kissinger talked with the President.

[See also Conversation No. 440-35]

       Kissinger’s location
              -Sans Souci
              -George P. Shultz
                      -Lunch
                      -Treasury Department

       Vietnam
             -Negotiations
                    -Laos
                    -Compared to original agreement

       Kissinger’s forthcoming press briefing
              -President’s forthcoming meeting with Georges J. R. Pompidou
                      -Reykjavik, Iceland
              -US-Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR] summit
              -Vietnam negotiations

       Vietnam
             -Negotiations
                    -Kissinger’s conversation with Le Duc Tho
                           -Congressional relations
                                   -December 1972 bombing
                                              -2-

                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                                            Conversation No. 39-1 (cont’d)

       Watergate
             -White House response
                    -White Paper [Statements about Watergate, May 22, 1973
                           -National Security

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Names and numbers are often wrong; speakers are not identified. Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

Download transcript (.txt) · JSON data

Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).

I just want to say welcome back.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Where are you?

I'm having lunch with Truett Schultz.

Oh, good.

Over at Treasury.

Oh, fine, fine.

And I think we've settled the Vietnam part of this thing and the Laos part.

And both of those feel better off than we were with the original agreement.

Henry, that's good.

And in June, when we publish this.

You can do some briefing, I would hope, on Tuesday.

I think it would be very helpful if you could.

I could do some briefing, Mr. President, on your Reykjavik visit.

On your visit with Pompidou.

Well, and also the upcoming summit, maybe a little.

And the summit.

And I can create a little impression of the Vietnam negotiations.

And say that we've made progress, but that we can't announce yet, huh?

I think it'd be very helpful, you know.

We can talk about that later.

Right, right.

But it's really going...

Right, right.

It went... Now, don't get back to Washington and let your morale get down now, Henry.

No, Mr. President, my morale is fine.

And I totally talked to him.

I said, you know, you read a lot of stuff.

We'll take the Congress four weeks to organize if we do something.

And you know what we did in two weeks last December.

Yeah, that should be...

So we... Well, we've...

As you know, we got on, I thought, a very good paper this week on this.

I thought it was important.

I think it puts the whole thing in perspective.

It drives the lips up the wall, but we had to do it.

We've got to put this national security issue out there where it belongs.

And we have to staunch the hemorrhage.

Okay.

Good luck.

Right, Mr. President.

Also recorded on May 24, 1973

440-034 1:27 PM · 18 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 1:27 pm.
440-035 1:27 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 1:27 pm to 1:29 pm.
039-002 1:34 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and White House operator talked on the telephone at 1:34 pm.
039-003 1:34 PM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 1:34 pm and 1:36 pm.
440-036 1:34 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 1:34 pm.
440-037 1:34 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 1:34 pm and 1:36 pm.
039-004 1:36 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Hugh Scott talked on the telephone from 1:36 pm to 1:38 pm.
440-038 1:36 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Hugh Scott met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 1:36 pm to 1:38 pm.

All 40 conversations from May 24, 1973 →

Nixon, Mitchell & Kissinger on Pentagon Papers and Vietnam negotiations June 14, 1971 · 12 min
Nixon phone call with Haig on Economic Policy and Public Opinion June 13, 1973 · 4 min
Nixon, Haldeman & Kissinger on Watergate and Donald Segretti October 15, 1972 · 1 hr 24 min
Nixon, Colson & Ziegler on 1972 Presidential Election and George McGovern November 4, 1972 · 45 min
Nixon, Colson & Timmons on Congressional Relations and Watergate January 5, 1973 · 26 min
Nixon & Ziegler on Watergate and Ervin Committee June 13, 1973 · 17 min

Cite this conversation

Conversation 039-001, May 24, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/039-001 (accessed November 2, 2026).