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Conversation 042-082

TapeTape 42StartThursday, April 29, 1971 at 6:32 PMEndThursday, April 29, 1971 at 6:37 PMTape start time02:16:31Tape end time02:18:31ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Haig, Alexander M., Jr.Recording deviceWhite House Telephone
AI Summary

President Nixon and Alexander Haig reviewed the administration's strategic messaging regarding North Vietnamese Prisoners of War (POWs) to ensure that the term "reciprocity" was avoided in official negotiations. Haig clarified that while the proposed prisoner releases were conditional upon agreement regarding neutral host countries, the U.S. remained flexible regarding specific numbers and inspection arrangements. The discussion focused on differentiating new proposals, such as expanded inspection rights for neutral organizations, from prior public statements to maintain tactical clarity with North Vietnamese counterparts.

Prisoners of WarVietnam WarReciprocityHenry KissingerPOW InspectionsDiplomacy
AudioNARA Description

On April 29, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. talked on the telephone from 6:32 pm to 6:37 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 042-082 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 42-82

Date: April 29, 1971
Time: 6:32 pm - 6:37 pm
Location: White House Telephone

Alexander M. Haig, Jr. talked with the President.

[See Conversation No. 251-40]

     Prisoners of War [POWs] negotiations
          -Reciprocity
                -Administration's response
                     -Previous statement
                -Numbers
                -Conditions
                     -Neutral countries
                -Henry A. Kissinger
          -Inspections of camps
Transcript (AI-Generated)

This transcript was generated automatically by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite this transcript as authoritative. Consult the Finding Aid above for verified information.

There you are.
Mr. President?
Yeah.
Sir, I just thought I'd better recap this POW thing because the reciprocity term is a little dangerous.
First, the 570 to go north.
That is not new.
We've done it before, but we've never done it in this number.
Okay.
Secondly, the 1,200 long-held prisoners
We made this proposal three weeks ago on April 8th, the GVN did, only in conceptual form, and you endorsed it by a statement the following week.
Now this is a new articulation of it in that it quantifies it in terms of numbers and years.
Now in terms of conditionality, it's really not good to say that it's reciprocal, but we do expect
that it's conditional upon the North Vietnamese agreeing to a neutral country.
They don't like to use the term reciprocal with respect to it.
Agreeing to a neutral country for sending these prisoners, but... And we would anticipate they would do the same.
Yeah, I see.
But not in terms of numbers or anything else.
We would take, if they'd send five, we'd be delighted.
What we really want is for them to agree on a country.
That's right.
Now, the third issue is the proposal for an inspection.
Yeah.
And that is brand new.
It's never been articulated before.
Well, we've never posed this proposition.
We have always had our South Vietnamese camps open to the Red Cross, but the North has never accepted the Red Cross there.
But this is new in the sense that we've suggested that another nation or other organizations could do it.
Right, sir, and we would agree if they wanted one nation for their camps, different from the one in the South, that would be all right, too.
Yeah, okay, fine.
All right, sir.
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