On January 1, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger talked on the telephone from 3:56 pm to 4:03 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 017-134 of the White House Tapes.
Transcript (AI-Generated)This transcript was generated automatically by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite this transcript as authoritative. Consult the Finding Aid above for verified information.
Hello.
Dr. Kissinger, sir.
Henry, I wondered if you could give some thought as to some way we could get a brief answer on the POW thing, which would take it a little bit out of the, you know, sort of the routine thing we said before.
I think that's the one that we're going to see considerable activity on.
I realize we're going to handle it in our peace offer, of course.
Well, one thing you might...
The only thing we're saying here is the same thing, that as long as they've got that they are being cruel and barbaric, that they are using... One thing you might consider saying is that... Go ahead.
...is to mention the two people released by the Chinese and say that it's in the nature of these things one just can't talk about it while discussions are going forward.
That you'd like to call attention to the fact that our initiative... That we are working on it all the time.
That we are working on it all the time, and that the Chinese government released two people that we knew about beforehand, and that we...
But, you know, just to give the impression that something is going on.
Yeah.
Well, all we can say, I guess, is that we are...
Exploring it.
The thing, of course, the way it's going to be put is the old question about the prisoners for withdrawal and so forth.
Of course, we're coming to the point where we're going to be able to do that, but we don't want to say it now.
Is there any way you can handle that?
Well, I would say, I think, Mr. President, the average viewer tomorrow night will not understand all the ins and outs of all of these proposals.
Yeah.
And I have always found, when I talk around the country, if I simply said flatly, I want you to know that there is no initiative that the president has not taken.
No offer we haven't made.
That I can assure the American people that nothing has been left undone, and there are many things being done that we can talk about.
And then you can, if you've mentioned those two other things,
I really think that the audience tomorrow is going to be more apt to judge you by how you say it than by the content of what you say on the prisoners.
Because they don't know the difference of deadlines and so forth.
That's all esoteric stuff to them.
And if they say, well, some people say if you set a deadline, and if you say, Mr. Rather, I want to tell you that no initiative,
has been left unexplored, but I won't go any further than that.
And we'll stand before the public on our record.
I want also to point out that two people have just been released in China, where we said nothing until it was done, or something like that.
You can see that our record will stand.
We'll...
That's right.
That's been my experience in talking to other than, this wouldn't help you at a press conference.
There you'd have to have a more substantive answer.
Well, I think their line is going to be
I'm inclined to think he'll press rather very hard on that question from what I've heard, but nevertheless, I mean, due to the fact that he knows what our Democratic friends are going to be pressing for, the POW for deadline and all that sort of thing.
Of course, the difficulty is we've offered a deadline, as we all know.
That's right.
What I would say on the deadline, Mr. President, without saying yes or no, I would just say, Mr. Rother, the deadline is not the issue and the other side knows it.
How do you say that's a moot question as far as they're concerned?
They've said so, haven't they?
They have never indicated, as a matter of fact, that they would return the prisoners for a deadline, have they?
Oh, absolutely not.
Absolutely not, Mr. President.
Maybe that's the way to get at it.
On the contrary, they have specifically said that it is not their policy.
Okay, maybe we'll just leave it there.
All right, fine, Henry, thank you.
Right, Mr. President.
I've started looking into the no-draft D prisoners.
What's that?
I've looked.
I've started looking into no drafting and I think we may be able to swing it this time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I will try.
Okay.
Right.
Don't let it leak out, though, for crying out loud.
Let's let us do this one.
That's right.
Right.
Okay.