Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 043-058
Date: Tuesday, February 13, 1973 at 8:35 AM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Denton, Jeremiah A., Jr.
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/043-058

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:04] Right, right.
[0:05] Mr. President.
[0:07] Hello.
[0:08] Mr. President.
[0:09] Ms. Denton, I wanted you to know how very proud we all were when we saw your husband come off and what he said from that plane.
[0:19] And we're just...
[0:21] I'm very proud of him too.
[0:23] Very happy and very grateful to you as all of us are.
[0:26] Well, I said that the main thing is that all of you, I mean you, the wives and children, the fact that you sort of kept the faith, that made it possible for us to get an honorable end to this war.
[0:41] And that's what all matters.
[0:42] They didn't suffer in vain.
[0:45] Well, I don't think so, and I don't know how to express how happy we are and how relieved the men are.
[0:53] Well, you just, when they get back there now, you feed him up a little.
[0:58] He looks a little bit thin.
[0:59] I will.
[0:59] He called me yesterday and said he had the first hot bath in seven and a half years.
[1:03] So they have a lot to catch up on, a lot of things that we take for granted.
[1:09] A hot bath, sure, and I suppose it, oh, you'll be looking for, you know, the...
[1:14] Things that we all take for granted.
[1:15] I remember that one of the things I recall was that it was nice to feel a cloth napkin again, you know?
[1:24] Yeah.
[1:24] I was in the Pacifica, but that wasn't much, but I remember there was that.
[1:28] And get some real potatoes again, that was something, instead of the other kind.
[1:32] So, well, you're at Virginia Beach, are you?
[1:36] Yes, sir.
[1:37] Well, that's fine.
[1:37] And all your children are all right and everything?
[1:40] getting along pretty well.
[1:42] Right.
[1:42] We wish you just the very best.
[1:44] Well, thank you, Mr. President.
[1:46] I appreciate it.
[1:47] When will you see him?
[1:48] About two or three days he'd be back?
[1:52] Maybe a week.
[1:53] I think what they want to do, I think, is to give them a chance to, you know, get a hot bath and get all their physicals and all that sort of thing.
[2:02] And then they'll get them home.
[2:03] But I issued instructions there to keep them only as long as it's necessary.
[2:08] But, you know, when we send our men to the moon, we have to put them in, you know, try to wash off all that moon dust, and I guess they want to get all that North Vietnam dust off of them before they come home.
[2:21] After seven and a half years, my goodness.
[2:24] It's a lifetime.
[2:25] Well, now you make up for it, okay?
[2:28] Well, we will intend to do that, and thank you.
[2:30] That's your life.
[2:31] Take a nice trip.
[2:33] Okay.