Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 043-179
Date: Thursday, February 22, 1973 at 7:24 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Kissinger, Henry A.
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/043-179

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Hello, Mr. President.
[0:02] Henry, I just wanted to be sure that with regard to that Laos and Cambodia strike that both the Rogers and Richardson are informed about it.
[0:15] Richardson is certainly informed, and I know Sullivan is informed.
[0:18] I don't know whether he's informed Rogers, but I'll make sure State knows.
[0:23] Just say that, well, maybe... Godley formally requested it, so there's almost no way they couldn't know.
[0:30] I see.
[0:32] Okay, just so that I don't want Rogers to feel that he wasn't informed.
[0:39] Right.
[0:40] Will it come tonight or tomorrow night?
[0:43] Tonight for Laos and tomorrow night or the day after for Cambodia.
[0:46] For Cambodia there's no problem, of course.
[0:49] But we almost have to do the Laotian one.
[1:02] Right.
[1:05] And we just do it, and then somebody screams.
[1:08] We simply say that it was... At the request of Sivana Puma.
[1:11] Sivana Puma, because the ceasefire had been broken by the other side.
[1:15] Exactly.
[1:17] Right.
[1:17] Then they'll see what happens.
[1:18] That was a great speech you made, Mr. President.
[1:21] You got there, did you?
[1:21] Oh, yeah.
[1:22] And that was a fine group.
[1:24] I was walking around.
[1:25] They're quite something, aren't they, you know?
[1:27] They were so proud of themselves.
[1:29] Well, that's what they had.
[1:30] They had to feel some pride, you know, these guys...
[1:32] taking a lot of heat and the rest, and so they made him stand a little taller.
[1:39] No, it was a very good speech.
[1:42] It was a pleasure.
[1:43] I talked to Buckley a bit on aid.
[1:46] He said he'd approach it in an open-minded way if we give him a hard-headed reason to be forward.
[1:53] That's the whole thing.
[1:54] One fellow came through.
[1:55] He said he'd have to leave me on aid.
[1:57] He thought, and I said, well, just mind holding off until you see what it is, and
[2:02] whether what's going to come from and so forth, and that others are going to participate.
[2:05] You know, I gave him all that chat.
[2:07] He says, well, he'd keep an open mind.
[2:08] Right.
[2:11] But that's what we're going to have to do is just sort of continue this now.
[2:15] I think we're going to get it.
[2:17] It's going to be a tough fight, but I think we're going to get it.
[2:21] Well, we haven't started to count the votes yet, but we'll see.
[2:25] Well, we haven't really elaborated a program.
[2:28] No, and we don't have to go for it for a while.
[2:30] The...
[2:33] Yeah, that's right, that's right.
[2:34] It'll be a couple of months before we even ask for it.
[2:36] It won't be until May until we are in a decision to do it.
[2:39] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[2:41] And by that time, we'll know how they're performing on the agreement.
[2:45] That's true, too.
[2:47] Good, okay.
[2:48] Right.