Nixon phone call with Kissinger on Vietnam War and Bombing cessation

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The weather is good.

I haven't been out much.

I haven't been out, but I've been making some of the calls.

Some people are not easy to move.

But I talked to Albert, and he's all right.

He said he's been holding it forward.

He's got a lot of appeal from his own, you know, conscience, you know.

But I mean, I can tell you, you know, the difference.

I can tell you, you know, the difference between the two of us.

You know, we're together, we're together.

He says he's taking me now.

He says he's going to help me keep it under control.

He says he can almost guarantee that nothing's going to happen to me.

Mm-hmm.

Good.

I talked to Scott.

He told me that I'm going to do the wrong thing.

No, that was very poorly done, very poorly done.

Because basically, you give a report online, and then you explain the only concept that people are going to be interested in is one of the prospects.

And anything you say they're going to...

Now, after the... After what?

After the negotiation.

Oh, oh, after you negotiate.

Oh, yes.

Oh, hold on.

His idea is that we put out the word that when you feel you can do it appropriately, you will make a report to the people.

That's fine.

Well, I agree, but the point is that, uh, I'm trying to ask you, you know, something before the inauguration, but the point is that, uh, we can't do that without, uh, the government.

What it is gonna work, in which case, uh, uh,

We want to make this a loss on anyone.

Yeah.

But we don't have to fight.

If we get into that, we've got to be able to build up an enormous implementation of a resource, and then you've got to delay a week or something, and I don't want to have any undertaking necessary.

Now Howard, I think we can get through this.

I think we can.

I've got to make a report, but I've got to make it.

We've got a time that we've got to go.

I'm going to say that's on our own lives.

I don't think that I don't think you could give us this idea of giving us a way to do this.

We've done everything before, didn't we?

And now we're going to say, even though we were, of course, under great pressure, but we're going to do that.

We're going to do it.

We're going to do it tonight.

I didn't get all the gas in the way I was about to get out, but I might be able to get it.

I called, he is, of course, thrilled.

And then as I called, he was delighted to hear that in the sound of his close support, he received a message that said that once again,

the reporters have been calling in here.

I'm not making the calls, I'm letting you take the service.

Well, thank you for all the support and congratulations to the president again.

That's giving you a feel.

Then I had a talk with Howard J. Smith.

I've got the call in the middle of town.

But Smith, of course, he had heard of it.

And he said, well...

of all the people he knows that this was what we aimed for because he was there the night you started it.

Yeah.

And... Yeah, the number 18 in the front.

And, but he said something else, Mr. President, that you might find interesting.

On Thursday night, he gave a very positive commentary.

I don't know whether you... Oh, I heard about it.

I heard about it, yeah.

Well, I bet you thought up to it as hell.

You said, I expect it to.

That's up to it as hell, but he said to you, 1,500 telegrams.

1,500?

He said that to a baby.

Thank God somebody is speaking up.

Thank God somebody is doing this.

For the most unbelievable response he's ever had.

And when he did it, he was heading for the doorstep.

That's good, that's good.

Not at all, not at all.

I mean, you have no reason to take it personally.

They've always been opposed to you, but those bastards never, when things were going well, never put in a letter to congratulate.

Never, never.

Never any expression of support.

But when the brightest thing comes, these people who got us into this mess, are they the camps?

No, I won't deal with it.

I will take it from all of them.

I think it's going very well.

It's everybody that I talked to.

I mean, John, I don't want to give you the wrong impression.

John said this is a tremendous thing, and it's great, and it's a good thing.

He was, of course, taking a little credit for himself.

So good.

Good.

We wanted to.

All right.

It was fine.

I told Mansfield, look, the president would like to keep this as quiet as possible next week.

It's a separate association.

We'd appreciate your help.

And I said, if we can...

The line of the...

Next week, Mr. President, it would be a disaster if we didn't go on.

There'd be nothing to gain.

I think the people are really just excited about it.

And it would be a disaster to come home.

Yes, it would be a disaster.

What we have to aim at now is to have everything in place.

And everything that would be played for that.

So you're meeting me the next week for that.

So what did we do with regards to letting our crew know it's not too much?

You know, four hours people worked in a very grim manner.

We had to go live in a mountain here.

I asked Bucket to send us his assessment.

Oh, what did he say?

That Bucket still thinks that you will not participate, but if he presents it in a paradoxical way, you'll accept it.

Okay.

And then after these events, he can now accept it for you.

Jeff, what we're going to have to do rather than just jumping out and letting them get their NFS, getting their details and getting down, we're going to have to do it.

And we're going to turn you over to the company.

I think that's what we're going to have to do.

If we get it done in Paris, I think you're going to have to think of sending Nate out in a sort of low-key way, which is a nice thing to do.

Well, provided he doesn't get an idea where we're at in terms of his reports,

But I think if we send Hayes, it won't be such a high profile thing.

Mack, who was again all over the place when Kennedy reached him.

Then he said, well, Congress was going to knock us out of it anyway.

Then he said it was a mistake to have started it, and then he said it was a mistake to have ended it.

It was a usual act of support.

Well, it was his usual stuff, Mr. President.

He was flailing all over the place.

He wasn't really criticizing anything, and he wasn't supporting anything.

That's what's so right.

He probably doesn't have the strength to stand up for it.

You know, he's really looking to whine.

He can't stand up for it.

No way.

He's got to be just informed.

And I wouldn't tell him.

He doesn't have that much either.

But if he would, he would.

You know, he's going to have to figure it out.

He's going to have to figure it out.

I don't know how he can justify that.

He was giving all the problems of every side when he started this thing.

I thought that Hollis K Smith story was really bad.

He said he got more wires and he said he received 98% positive.

Good.

And almost no negatives.

Good.

He had to search in that pile for one of the negatives.

And he expected exactly the opposite.

I will do what?

You just have to be on the left side of the strip if you got it, you have to be on the line if you got it later.

Send it now, it'll be out in a second.

I don't think it's cold, let's hope it's not cold.

That's good.

Thank you.

Are you able to get to the roof?

I'm happy to.

Are you able to get to the roof?

In there, I couldn't reach it.

Yeah, okay.

Don't worry about it, we'll have to come and check it.

That's alright.

Let's see if something happens.

You know that.

That's alright.

I don't think there's anybody out here that they can know they've had on some fuel.

So, uh, you didn't like...

Correct, correct, correct.

I would not call a fellow like...

Nixon phone call with Kissinger on Vietnam War and Bombing cessation

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on December 30, 1972

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