Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 43 › Conversation 043-016

Nixon, Ziegler & Walters on Henry Kissinger and Peking

Saturday, February 3, 1973 · 9:55 AM–10:59 AM ET · White House Telephone · 6 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Ziegler, Ronald L.; Walters, BarbaraConversation043-016 on Tape 43StartSaturday, February 3, 1973 at 9:55 AMEndSaturday, February 3, 1973 at 10:59 AMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 043-016 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Ronald Ziegler call journalist Barbara Walters to provide exclusive advanced notice of Henry Kissinger's upcoming diplomatic trip to Hanoi and Peking. The President seeks to ensure Walters receives preference for her scheduled interview with Kissinger, aiming to coordinate the timing to maximize public impact and preempt potential leaks from congressional briefings. Nixon instructs Walters to coordinate with Ziegler to finalize a broadcast date that best serves both the administration's messaging and the production requirements of the Today show.

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Transcript (AI-generated)

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Would you reach Barbara Walters for me, please?
Yes, sir.
Yes.
I'm sitting here talking to the president about an announcement we're going to make at 11 o'clock, and he wanted to talk to you about it.
Okay?
Are you free to talk now?
Yes.
Okay, fine.
I'll put him on.
This is not something that is particularly hot news, but it will be of, I think, great interest to you in view of the fact that you are going to do the second interview with Kissinger.
But I'm announcing today that he will go from Hanoi to Peking.
and for a round of talks there and will return.
He'll be returning about the 19th.
So your program basically I think gets a very major lift because you see he will be going to Peking to follow up on all of our relations with Peking and also of course to follow up on recent developments.
So I think that you,
probably you're getting the better of the two deals well you're very kind to tell me this you can be preparing your own things with that in mind and uh get uh and you haven't been there too it might be of interest and you'll be and incidentally i will talk to henry and
And before he goes on with you and tell him to be, that you can open up on any of the things you want in that area.
So you can, and tell your producers that it's that too.
So Ron will announce it at 11 o'clock.
And so you can...
letting you know about it now.
I knew that there had been some sort of a flap about the fact that... Henry doesn't have any press secretary, unfortunately, because he won't talk to anybody except God, and he doesn't talk to Ziegler.
And what happened was he had promised you and he'd promised Cobb, and when I heard about it, I said, well, give it to Walters.
But apparently Henry had promised Cobb
sooner or later or something so now i just want to know we're going to give you a little break on this other one and uh i'll try to cooperate all i can with you okay thank you the one thing that we do hold is that we can do it as close to when he comes back as possible well let me just talk to ron let me talk to ron about it right now as close as when he comes back i think that's much to our advantages
Well, it ought to be sooner than that.
If he gets back the 19th.
Well, you want Sunday the 25th, is that right?
Yes, we do.
Well, why don't you try to get it sooner than that?
You see, he'll be back the 19th, and you'll have a six-day spit.
I know that gets into your week times, but...
You might talk to your people.
If you get it sooner, I'll produce him.
Thank you, Mr. President.
One of the reasons we picked that is that Dr. Kissinger had felt he wanted a little bit of time when he came back.
Yeah, well...
But we don't want to do it after that.
No, you won't.
Let me see.
We'll arrange you won't do it after that.
But I personally would think that you could do better, be better to get it a little...
We'll be in touch with him, but let me suggest this.
Talk to Ron about it and let him broker it with Kissinger, because Henry doesn't really have the feeling of what the dates are, and I'll control the thing, see?
And I'll see that Henry comes at the time that we want.
If you want an earlier date, if you get a good time, say on Thursday or something like that,
We'll work it out that he's there.
Because you see, he'll have to come back and report to the cabinet and the National Security Council, which will probably be Tuesday.
And then, of course, you'll probably have to do a report to the leaders.
My own view is that if you could have him not
almost in juxtaposition to his report, the cabinet will not leak, but the leaders do, that if you could hit it that very night, that would be an ideal time before those clowns go out, if you'll pardon the expression, and some of them will go out and talk it all over, not that they'll get everything out, because you can go into personal things that they will not even have to, wouldn't even think to ask.
We'll try, Mr. President.
It may...
But if you can't make it to the 25th, we'll...
It may have got better for all of us if it's then, because what we wanted to do was to air it on the 25th.
Yeah.
And then also...
to do another section, or perhaps repeat it, the next morning, Monday morning, on the Today program, and we need very good and strong audio.
You know what, is the Today program, it's one you're interested in?
No, I'm interested in doing it for prime time.
I'm just kidding you.
I'm just kidding you.
Okay.
We do both.
All right.
I see.
All right, fine.
Well, let me suggest, you talk to Ron about it, and let him work out the details, and we'll, but I do want, I mean, I figure that we owe you one on this, and I've told Ron
And I will then work Henry into whatever the date you need.
Okay?
Thank you, Mr. President.
Bye.
Bye.

NARA Description

On February 3, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, Ronald L. Ziegler, and Barbara Walters talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 9:55 am and 10:59 am. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 043-016 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 43-16

Date: February 3, 1973
Time: Unknown between 9:55 am and 10:59 am
Location: White House Telephone

Ronald L. Ziegler and the President talked with Barbara Walters.

[See Conversation No. 840-3A]

       Press announcement
             -Henry A. Kissinger’s schedule
                  -Hanoi
                  -Peking

       Walters’s interview with Kissinger
            -Background
            -Timing of interview
            -Arrangements
            -Ziegler’s announcement
            -Timing
            -Marvin L. Kalb
            -Walters
            -Timing
            -Kissinger’s reports
                   -Cabinet
                   -National Security Council [NSC]
                   -Congressional leaders
                                              -10-

                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                                          Conversation No. 43-16 (cont’d)

                  -Leaks
             -Taping
                  -“Today” show

Also recorded on February 3, 1973

  • 840-001 9:06 AM · 6 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House from 9:06 am to 9:10 am.
  • 840-002 9:10 AM · 16 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:10 am and 9:55 am.
  • 840-003 9:10 AM · 32 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Stephen B. Bull, Ronald L. Ziegler, and Barbara Walters met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:10 am and 10:29 am.
  • 840-004 9:55 AM · 52 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull, Ronald L. Ziegler, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 9:55 am and 10:29 am.
  • 840-005 10:29 AM · 30 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods met in the Oval Office of the White House from 10:29 am to 10:59 am.
  • 840-006 10:59 AM · 19 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 10:59 am and 11:05 am.
  • 840-007 10:59 AM · 16 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 10:59 am and 11:05 am.
  • 840-008 10:59 AM · 49 sec — President Richard M. Nixon, Manolo Sanchez, and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 10:59 am and 11:05 am.

All 41 conversations from February 3, 1973 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 043-016, February 3, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/043-016 (accessed October 1, 2026).