Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 44 › Conversation 044-095

Nixon phone call with Ziegler on Vietnam War and Watergate

Thursday, March 29, 1973 · 10:49 PM–10:54 PM ET · White House Telephone · 5 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Ziegler, Ronald L.Conversation044-095 on Tape 44StartThursday, March 29, 1973 at 10:49 PMEndThursday, March 29, 1973 at 10:54 PMRecording deviceWhite House TelephoneSourceNixon Library record for 044-095 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Press Secretary Ronald Ziegler discuss the positive public and media reception of the President's March 29 address regarding the end of U.S. involvement in Vietnam and new economic measures, including a meat price ceiling. The two agree that it was a strategic success to delay a planned statement concerning John W. Dean, III, as it would have distracted from the historic significance of the POW homecoming and the speech. Ziegler advises the President to let the speech dominate the news cycle and avoid generating additional headlines for the time being.

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Transcript (AI-generated)

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I have Mr. Ziegler now.
Hello.
Hello.
Yes, sir.
Well, did your boy survive?
Yes, sir.
He gave him a lot of news tonight.
I thought it was an excellent speech.
It really was delivered well and I thought it flowed together very well.
Two leads, of course, the meat price ceiling and then, of course, the end of the United States involvement.
A lot of them are doing side pieces on that.
Sure.
But it was great.
The post-network commentary was good.
It was balanced, I thought.
Okay.
The TV news tonight, I thought, was also very good with the prisoners returning at the end of the involvement.
All of the news shows opened up with the fact that
This was a very historic day and a day to mark in the history book.
You know, it's good that we didn't go with that Dean thing today, wasn't it?
Yes, sir.
In looking at the... News tonight would have been out of context totally, yes.
That's right.
That's right.
And because the entire, I'd say, 20 minutes...
I didn't clock it, but I'd say the entire 20 minutes of...
The three networks was on the POWs.
Good.
Coming home and then of course the build up speculation on your address tonight and then there was of course a section on the Watergate but it was way down in it.
Not to particularly focus on that.
I think your advice was good though.
Yeah.
The delivery, I thought, was excellent tonight, and the speech was very well received, I'm sure.
Do you think it was wise to put it out in advance?
Oh, yes, sir.
I think we did do any harm.
I don't think it affected any of the stories at all because they had so much to absorb, you see.
We didn't put it out until...
until about five minutes after eight, and then Schultz took about 25 or 30 minutes to brief, so they had to go right into the story.
Right.
Good.
Sammy Davis called again tonight.
He calls every speech, and he said, just wanted the president to know, Ron, he said, it was absolutely fantastic.
He said, peace and love and right on.
He said, they just keep getting better.
Good.
That's good.
Okay.
He's a good guy.
Your advice was good about not to go on the Dean thing because that would have overridden too much.
Well, I think it was, as I said, I think that it was not the right time to do it.
That's right.
We can see how things unfold and break tomorrow.
And, of course, this is going to lead all the papers tomorrow.
Sure.
And tomorrow we'll determine what we do.
But I think it was—I have to admit, you know, at one point I think I mentioned to you, too, that I thought, well, maybe tonight the president would have been so, so far out of context.
Well, if I had said, look, let's listen to Watergate.
No, sir, absolutely not.
These are big events, and we're not going to let that kind of crap— You know, that Watergate just— That's right.
It's so insignificant compared to what you talked about and what you said tonight.
That's right.
That's right.
Okay, good.
Then we'll leave about 3 o'clock tomorrow.
I guess there's not much tomorrow to do except just these.
Well, you have a schedule.
Schedule, right.
Yeah.
I wouldn't try to make much news out of it.
I'd just let the speech ride.
No, add the speech to ride, the ceiling on meat and so forth.
Yeah, let them yank out that a while.
Well, that's going to be received very positively.
Yeah.
Poor little gal who, of course, you know, it's tied in.
It's what the house was, but the idea was that it wasn't the battle of the...
the federal budget, but your budget.
That's right.
That was a perfect bridge, and the ending, Mr. President, was very, very effective.
The ending was just fantastic.
Our friend Reisner.
It was Reisner, of course.
Yes, sir.
That's what we put out.
All right.
And they'll do a sidebar on Reisner, and then it fit so much in context of what was on the news tonight because the prisoners start talking about the...
you know, the tortures that they had.
That's right.
And ironically enough, on television tonight, following your speech is a story about the Pueblo.
Well, you know, that shows torturing of American prisoners and so forth, too.
And that, you know,
The part that you said about the agreement, we are going to adhere to it, we expect the Vietnamese to adhere to it, plays very well in the context of what was on the news tonight, I think.
Good.
Okay, Ron, thank you.
Okay, sir.

NARA Description

On March 29, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 10:49 pm and 10:54 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 044-095 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 044-095

Date: March 29, 1973
Time: 10:49-10:54 pm
Location: White House Telephone

       Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, NARA Online Public Access Catalog Identifier: 597542

The President talked with Ronald L. Ziegler.

       President’s March 29 speech
             -Delivery
             -New leads
                   -Meat price ceiling
                   -Vietnam
             -Network commentary

       Press relations
             -Evening television [TV] news
                    -Prisoners of war [POWs]
                    -Vietnam
             -President’s statement on John W. Dean, III
                    -Watergate
                    -Timing
             -TV news
                    -POWs
                    -President’s March 29 speech
                    -Watergate

       President’s March 29 speech
             -Delivery
             -Advance copies
                   -George P. Shultz’s briefing
             -Sammy Davis, Jr.’s reaction

       Statement on Dean
             -Ziegler’s advice
                   -Press relations
                   -Watergate

       President’s schedule

       New leads
            -Meat price ceiling
            -Household economy

       Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, NARA Online Public Access Catalog Identifier: 597542

       President’s March 29 speech
             -Ending
                   -Col. Robinson Risner
             -News coverage of POWs
                   -US Pueblo
                         -Torture
             -Cease-fire agreement

Also recorded on March 30, 1973

  • 424-021 9:55 PM · 18 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 9:55 pm and 10:43 pm.
  • 424-022 9:55 PM · 7 min — President Richard M. Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 9:55 pm and 10:43 pm.
  • 424-023 9:55 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 9:55 pm and 10:43 pm.
  • 424-024 9:55 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 9:55 pm and 10:43 pm.
  • 044-091 10:13 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 10:13 pm and 10:17 pm.
  • 044-092 10:19 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Adm. Thomas H. Moorer talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 10:19 pm and 10:23 pm.
  • 044-093 10:25 PM · 29 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 10:25 pm.
  • 044-094 10:38 PM · 10 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 10:38 pm and 10:47 pm.

All 60 conversations from March 30, 1973 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 044-095, March 30, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/044-095 (accessed October 1, 2026).