Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 181-002
Date: Sunday, October 15, 1972 at 9:30 AM
Participants: Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob"); Camp David Operator; [Unknown person(s)]; Kissinger, Henry A.
Recording device: Camp David Study Desk
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/181-002

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Southern Solomon, would you get me Dr. Kissinger please?
[0:06] Thank you, sir.
[0:37] Okay, thanks.
[0:48] Hello?
[0:49] Bob Henry.
[0:49] Yes.
[0:50] I'm over at the President's house, and he was wondering if you could come up and chat with him for a bit sometime today.
[1:00] It's almost.
[1:02] Well, you know, if he tells me to, I have no choice.
[1:06] Well...
[1:07] If it's a problem, why don't you just have a talk on the phone, and I'll suggest that.
[1:12] Because, you know, I'm in the office with a hundred things to go over.
[1:18] Yeah.
[1:19] Okay.
[1:19] And between you and me, I wanted to rest for a couple of hours, too.
[1:23] Yeah.
[1:25] Okay, well, let me see if you can't just do it on the phone.
[1:29] Try that anyway.
[1:31] He just thought, you know, you ought to talk over this whole thing, part of what we were talking about last night in the
[1:37] Yeah, how about first thing in the morning, you know, it doesn't matter when I go.
[1:43] Oh, okay.
[1:46] Well, I'll make that point and we'll see what works out.
[1:51] I'll get back to you.
[1:52] And I've had yet another idea, which would be an intermediate idea, to keep you from blowing.
[2:02] I'm pretty persuaded that we should install it beyond the way the momentum is going now.
[2:08] That's right.
[2:08] I'd have to put brakes on it in a way that would be transparent.
[2:15] But one thing that I have thought of doing is go to Saga, come back here,
[2:30] And then take the same route again next week and just add the final destination.
[2:36] That would push the whole thing back by six days.
[2:40] What good does that do?
[2:42] Well, what it does is save two days.
[2:46] You know, he wouldn't have been blackjacked into it.
[2:50] It gives him a few more days to clean up the security area around Saigon.
[2:56] And it prevents an absolute confrontation next week.
[3:02] Because you don't know if you're going to have one.
[3:03] That could be a fallback position, too.
[3:05] That's what I mean.
[3:07] No, if he goes along enthusiastically, we stick to the schedule.
[3:11] If he stonewalls, we have no choice except to break off anyway.
[3:15] But this would be an intermediate to that.
[3:17] This would be an intermediate to that, that I'd come back and Saturday night I'd be back and go on the road again Tuesday with the same itinerary.
[3:28] The only thing is, the president would then speak on the 31st rather than on the 25th.
[3:34] Now...
[3:36] It has the additional advantage, as I see it, politically.
[3:40] Not that it's closer to the election, but that if anything gets unstuck, there's less time for it.
[3:45] That's not valuable.
[3:47] What?
[3:48] I don't think that's...
[3:49] I think there are more negatives to that than positives.
[3:55] In weighing one side versus the other.
[3:57] But that...
[4:01] That's a better position than just dropping it at that point, probably.
[4:06] That's what you're saying, yeah.
[4:09] See, the problem is, Bob, I've reviewed all the exchanges.
[4:13] We have used these time schedules really ruthlessly to get changes in the text that otherwise would take weeks to get.
[4:23] Now I'm doing a letter to Brezhnev for the president today to get some indication of Soviet supplies.
[4:31] Yeah.
[4:32] You know, just to button up the agreement.
[4:35] Yeah.
[4:35] And, you know, the more time we can get, the better it is.
[4:40] Okay.
[4:41] Okay, but if you can spare me a trip up there, I'd really appreciate it, because I couldn't leave before two anyway.
[4:48] Okay.
[4:48] I've got Abrams and everyone else coming in.
[4:50] Okay.