Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 039-009
Date: Thursday, May 24, 1973 at 5:05 PM
Participants: White House operator; Nixon, Richard M. (President); Eisenhower, Julie Nixon
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/039-009

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] I have Julie now, sir.
[0:05] Hello.
[0:05] All right.
[0:06] Thank you.
[0:07] Daddy, I hear it was beautiful.
[0:09] Yeah, how was your party?
[0:11] Four standing ovations.
[0:13] How was your party?
[0:14] Oh, it was so thrilling.
[0:16] Everyone coming through said, tell your father he brought them home.
[0:19] We love him.
[0:20] We believe in him.
[0:21] Oh, it was beautiful.
[0:23] The real thrill.
[0:24] Did they all come through the line?
[0:25] No.
[0:26] Mother met every single one.
[0:27] And Tricia and I stood in another room and met them as they came through.
[0:30] Great.
[0:31] And it was really quite an experience.
[0:33] I loved it.
[0:34] Did they seem to enjoy it?
[0:35] Oh, my God.
[0:36] They were so thrilled.
[0:38] And many mothers said many of them cried.
[0:41] through her lines.
[0:43] Isn't that nice?
[0:43] It was beautiful.
[0:45] But three reporters told me about your remarks.
[0:48] Betty Beal and Fay Wells and another one.
[0:50] I don't know her name.
[0:51] We got two or three friends.
[0:52] That's not all.
[0:53] But, oh, no, they really tore the place down.
[0:55] Oh, God, I hear it was fantastic.
[0:57] Four standing ovations.
[0:58] Right.
[0:59] I'll tell you one thing that really got them.
[1:00] In the middle of the speech, I made a crack.
[1:02] I told them that we got them home and what we had to do in the future.
[1:06] And I said we had to be strong.
[1:07] And I said that was one of the things that had gotten them home.
[1:11] and then got the initiative to China and the initiative to Russia being strong.
[1:15] Right.
[1:15] And I said, the second thing was that we had to have secret negotiations.
[1:18] I said, without secret negotiations, we wouldn't have had the China initiative, we wouldn't have had the Russian agreement, and we wouldn't have gotten you home.
[1:26] Oh, great.
[1:27] And then I went on to say, and I just paused a minute, and I said, it's time to quit making national heroes, individuals,
[1:37] who steal secret documents and put them in the newspapers.
[1:41] They stood up and shared for about three minutes.
[1:44] Did they really?
[1:45] Yeah.
[1:45] Did they really?
[1:46] Yeah, yeah.
[1:47] Oh, good.
[1:47] I'm going to tell David that.
[1:48] So that stuck it right to him.
[1:49] Oh, that really does stick it to him.
[1:51] Right.
[1:52] Anyway, that's fine.