Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 43 › Conversation 043-120

Nixon phone call with Brennan on Presidential Press Conference and Vietnam War

Tuesday, February 20, 1973 · 3:18 PM–3:22 PM ET · White House Telephone · 4 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Brennan, Peter J.Conversation043-120 on Tape 43StartTuesday, February 20, 1973 at 3:18 PMEndTuesday, February 20, 1973 at 3:22 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 043-120 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Patrick J. Buchanan coordinate the scheduling of an upcoming presidential press conference to avoid conflict with major announcements regarding Henry Kissinger’s briefings on China and North Vietnam. Nixon determines that delaying the press conference until the following Tuesday will allow time for developments with Egypt and ensure he can effectively address domestic and foreign policy concerns, particularly Vietnam. During the call, Nixon emphasizes the importance of framing the Vietnam War as a matter of national credibility rather than solely focusing on the return of prisoners of war.

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Transcript (AI-generated)

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Hello.
Yes, sir.
Matt, we've got a little change of signals and a little respite for you.
Basically, the situation is this.
We've had this fairly full week this week already.
We had a meeting yesterday in the South Carolina legislature today.
And the economic speech, of course, doesn't mean much, but at least at the radio speech tomorrow.
So Henry is, we're going to have a joint communique with the Chinese, so he's going to have to brief on Thursday.
Okay.
Right after that, not on TV, but he's going to brief for the press.
With that in mind, the thought was that I go Friday, but I feel, and Ziegler agrees, that that's just loading it up too much.
Right.
think so yeah in other words i'll be out monday tuesday and wednesday and then so what i thought would be a good thing would be to hit it tuesday of next week tuesday fine sir uh doesn't that sound right to you there's been so much uh movement here in the rest and uh that i just don't want to tramp on our own stories right i agree with you
Plenty of it.
Okay, sir.
You booked in when?
Sunday night?
I would say yes.
This gives Henry a chance to get his thoughts collected.
We can see also what kind of problems we have in terms of the various things that are developing on the China thing, and mainly, of course, on the North Vietnamese thing, which is the tough one.
I think it's just well for me to come on Tuesday and sort of counterattack and try to get the thing in the proper focus if I can.
Okay, fine, sir.
It's good enough.
We'll call the dogs.
Yeah.
Well, I know that it's hard to get all this together, and the main point is that I know they're going to have their usual questions on impoundment and...
and all that sort of thing, as you know, the major interest is still going to be Vietnam, China, and all that crap.
Right.
Don't you agree?
Yes, sir.
Right.
There's only a couple of domestic things.
Then what will happen here, then, is that Henry needs a little time, and I need a little time also.
By that time, we will have met with the Egyptian.
Okay.
Plenty of news.
Okay, sir.
Yeah.
We've really had quite a week.
I'd say quite a ten days.
They're really being picked up.
You're right.
Yeah.
I took the occasion and we had a, we of course had a, if you might imagine, a reception in North Carolina, I mean in South Carolina, but the, I used the occasion just to reiterate that what I was really trying to do there was to tell them, this is for the writing press primarily and the columnist and the rest, I tackled head on the
problem of why we went to Vietnam.
Why we went, I said, and what we accomplished.
In other words, getting at the idea of the immoral war.
I didn't use the terms immoral, but you see, too many people now are simply trying to say, well, isn't it great?
Thank God he got the prisoners back.
Well, if America fought this war for their prisoners, this is a hell of a thing.
The other point, which I think is very fundamental to mention, that these guys wouldn't come walking down that ramp, their heads high and saluting.
realize that they've been fought for something other than their release.
Right.
Don't you agree?
I do.
They're certainly doing a hell of a performance, aren't they, those prisoners?
Unbelievable.
And, you know, you'd think we'd done it.
We hadn't talked to them.
Nobody has.
Nobody said a word.
They're just doing it all on their own.
These guys are being the heroes that some of these young kids really need, I think.
Well, I think they are, even more than astronauts, because they've suffered a lot, and yet they come out their heads high and so forth and so on.
I took the point to say that as far as our world stuff was concerned, that we had to be respected in the world and that if the United States didn't settle down and supporting a friend, a small friend, an ally, we wouldn't be respected, trusted by our friends or respected by our potential adversaries.
So it's not a bad thing.
We'll see what they pick up out of it.
Okay, fine, sir.

NARA Description

On February 20, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon and Peter J. Brennan talked on the telephone from 3:18 pm to 3:22 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 043-120 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 43-120

Date: February 20, 1973
Time: 3:18 pm - 3:22 pm
Location: White House Telephone

The President talked with Patrick J. Buchanan.

[See Conversation No. 411-6]

       The President’s schedule
            -George Meany
            -South Carolina legislature
            -Radio speech
                  -Economy
            -Joint communiqué with People’s Republic of China [PRC]
                  -Henry A. Kissinger
                         -Schedule
            -The President’s press conference
            -Ronald L. Ziegler
            -Kissinger
                  -PRC
                  -North Vietnam

       The President’s press conference
            -Possible questions
            -Vietnam
                  -PRC

       The President’s and Kissinger’s schedules
            -Egyptian official
            -South Carolina
                  -Vietnam War
                         -The President’s policies
                               -Foreign policy
                         -Prisoners of War [POWs]
                                              -70-

                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                                          Conversation No. 43-120 (cont’d)

       POWs statements
          -Heroes

       US world role
           -Views of allies and adversaries

Also recorded on February 20, 1973

  • 043-118 3:14 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler talked on the telephone from 3:14 pm to 3:17 pm.
  • 411-004 3:14 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:14 pm to 3:17 pm.
  • 411-005 3:17 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at 3:17 pm.
  • 043-119 3:18 PM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 3:18 pm.
  • 411-006 3:18 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Peter J. Brennan met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:18 pm to 3:22 pm.
  • 043-121 3:22 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 3:22 pm and 4:17 pm.
  • 411-007 3:22 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 3:22 pm and 4:15 pm.
  • 411-008 3:22 PM · 19 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 3:22 pm and 4:15 pm.

All 21 conversations from February 20, 1973 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 043-120, February 20, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/043-120 (accessed October 1, 2026).