Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 78 › Conversation 078-003

Nixon, Bevill & Burleson on Vietnam War and Southern Democrats

Thursday, September 30, 1971 · 2:54 PM–3:35 PM ET · Cabinet Room · 5 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Bevill, Tom; Burleson, Omar; Colmer, William M.; Henderson, David N.; Lennon, Alton A.; Mahon, George H.; Teague, Olin E.; Waggonner, Joe D., Jr.; Ehrlichman, John D.; Shultz, George P.; MacGregor, Clark; Cook, Richard K.Conversation078-003 on Tape 78StartThursday, September 30, 1971 at 2:54 PMEndThursday, September 30, 1971 at 3:35 PMRecording deviceCabinet RoomSourceNixon Library record for 078-003 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with a group of influential Southern Democratic congressmen and key administration officials to discuss domestic and foreign policy priorities. The dialogue focused primarily on the administration's ongoing efforts regarding the Vietnam War, seeking to gauge and solidify support among conservative Democrats for the President's legislative and military agendas. The meeting served as a strategic outreach effort to maintain congressional backing for the administration's broader policy goals.

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NARA Description

On September 30, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Democratic Congressmen from the South, including Tom Bevill, Omar Burleson, William M. Colmer, David N. Henderson, Alton A. Lennon, George H. Mahon, Olin E. ("Tiger") Teague, Joe D. Waggonner, Jr., John D. Ehrlichman, George P. Shultz, Clark MacGregor, and Richard K. Cook, met in the Cabinet Room of the White House from 2:54 pm to 3:35 pm. The Cabinet Room taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 078-003 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 78-3

Date: September 30, 1971
Time: 2:54 pm - 3:35 pm
Location: Cabinet Room

The President met with Tom Bevill, Omar Burleson, William M. Colmer, David N. Henderson,
Alton A. Lennon, George H. Mahon, Olin E. (“Tiger”) Teague, Joe D. Waggonner, Jr., John D.
Ehrlichman, George P. Shultz, Clark MacGregor, and Richard K. Cook
[Recording begins while the conversation is in progress]

******************************************************************************

     Vietnam war

[To listen to the segment (3m39s) declassified on 02/28/2002, please refer to RC# E-560.]

******************************************************************************

The President left at 3:35 pm

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Names and numbers are often wrong; speakers are not identified. Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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But I wouldn't want to leave the impression that there's something on fire right now that is likely to break.
But I do want you to say that the negotiating track is still open.
how long remains over, of course.
Now it becomes sharply reduced every month that goes by, because you see as we reduce the number of forces we got there, there isn't a hell of a lot to negotiate about.
Then you finally come down to these people and what you do about it.
Now there's something else that you can do something else and crawl to.
They would well know that.
Now, you know that the other day, for example, when they were building up in the DMZ, and somebody slew about it, and I ordered an airstrike on the southern part of the town.
That's all Chinese.
They've got to know there's just a sin in the table.
If they don't, then they will make us wrong.
That's why I've got to play with them a lot.
And all of us can just continue to support them.
Well, they ought to remember that the question is not between an imperfect election and a perfect one, but between an imperfect one and none.
And that's what's involved.
And also that they do have a House of Representatives apartment we just selected where over a third are opponents of the government.
And 28 out of 31 of the half of the Senate have met with the government.
I mean, that they have a free press.
They raise hell down there all the time, you know.
And then the other point that I'd like to make is this, and I really feel pretty strongly about this.
You know, there are a lot of calls that are, I hope I'm not, I've watched all of you have said this, but a lot of people have been urging to cut off 80 degrees because they don't like their government.
You know what I mean?
I mean, it's because we prefer that they have a democratic government.
And then they, and then somebody's put in something, we should cut off aid to South Vietnam because they do not have a president who was elected in the contested election.
So as I parted on the president for the day and say again, we start down that road of cutting off aid to governments that do not have leaders elected in the contested election.
You know what that means?
We would have to cut off aid to 61 of the 91 countries we get aid to today.
There are only 30 countries, by any stretch of the imagination, that at the present time have leaders elected in a contested election.
Let me tell you my part, folks.
You realize what I mean?
You have to cut off aid, and this will get you home, in every country in Africa.
Not only that, you know, if there's not one leader in black Africa that is there as a result of a contested election, not one, and there won't be, my opinion, for 50 years.
It takes time to develop this.
It's going to take time to be enough.
Now, we wish it were different.
But look how long it took for us.
Washington.
You didn't have opposition the first few times around, did you ever?
Matter of fact, Monroe didn't want that.
You know, in these early times, it's a...
So I don't buy this business about the double standard.
If you want to carry a little bit further, you're going to have to cut off a four-decker Caloosie Allen.
But I've had opposition for once in six years.
Don't spend these dollars.
These are...
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Uh, sometimes I'll explain it to you.
All right.

Also recorded on September 30, 1971

  • 010-038 2:12 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles G. ("Bebe") Rebozo talked on the telephone from 2:12 pm to 2:15 pm.
  • 010-039 2:15 PM · 24 sec — Alexander P. Butterfield, White House operator, and Toni Sidley talked on the telephone on an unknown date, sometime between 2:15 pm on September 30, 1971 and 8:56 am on October 5, 1971.
  • 582-001 2:15 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 2:15 pm and 2:22 pm.
  • 582-002 2:22 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 2:22 pm and 2:50 pm.
  • 582-003 2:25 PM · 20 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger met in the Oval Office of the White House from 2:25 pm to 2:50 pm.
  • 582-004 2:50 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 2:50 pm and 2:54 pm.
  • 582-005 2:50 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 2:50 pm and 2:54 pm.
  • 582-006 3:38 PM · 16 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Souvanna Phouma, Prince Khammao, Alex Toumayan, and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. met in the Oval Office of the White House from 3:38 pm to 4:10 pm.

All 28 conversations from September 30, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 078-003, September 30, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/078-003 (accessed November 2, 2026).