Nixon phone call with Rogers on Vietnam War and Alexander Haig

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Take care, Roger.

Bill.

Yeah, Mr. President.

I had a thought that might be of interest.

I had Hague got his briefing last night.

I understand he gave you a little of it, but if he has a 30-minute period, you know, he does it in a very low-key way, and he's been on all the fronts, and he can talk about Vietnamese morale and our own fellows and what they're doing and how they feel and so forth.

I just set it up.

I'm going to set it up to have him do a briefing of the White House people here so that they'll have something to talk about.

If you think well of the idea, you might want to have him over to brief your top people.

That's a good idea.

So that they will know, you know, that everybody's got to have a little confidence in his policy, and particularly on the Vietnamization thing.

And Al, of course, he says there's tough times ahead and there's battles and so forth, but he's fought over most of this territory himself and was enormously impressed with the thing.

Well, when I say enormously,

very impressed, assuming that we can continue to give them air support.

So I just want to tell you that.

I passed it to Higg.

I told him to be available in case you want him.

Don't use him unless you want him.

I think it's a good idea.

Maybe in the morning?

Yes.

Oh, no, no, no.

Tomorrow.

He's in the barber shop now.

Okay.

Yeah, but he'd do it in the morning.

Anytime you say for it.

Oh, my man who went to Military Region 1 was with Al.

Oh, yes, I know.

You had a State Department fellow.

He served over there.

Right.

Al told me.

I'll have him included.

Right, have him.

Al didn't go to Military Region 2.

He went to 1 and 3.

Yeah.

Well, that'd be fine.

Well, the thing is that it then has the element of cooperation and all that between the White House and the State Department.

And just say that you and I had heard his report and felt in it.

We felt that they ought to hear what's really going on out there.

You see, he talked to the commander in Military Region 1, the little Vietnamese, and he'll tell you the truth.

He'll say that Minh, the commander of the 21st, is a disaster.

But he says others are very good.

He says our own people were particularly...

picked up by the Haiphong thing and so forth.

But anyway, just a thought.

He'll be available if you want him.

Good.

I talked to Mrs. Johnson.

I called her this morning.

Oh, yes.

And she sent her very best to you.

Yeah.

She called you after your testimony.

Yeah.

Well, she called the office.

She didn't call me.

She called me over here.

She knew.

Isn't that great?

So I thought I'd better call back.

Of course.

And she was...

Sounded pretty good, and she was very supportive and thought you were doing the right thing.

Isn't that good?

She's a nice woman.

Incidentally, the vote in the House should not be surprising.

I mean, considering the election year, it's about... We still have the votes to...

because the Republicans also are becoming more partisan now.

And so if it comes up in the House, we'll win it.

It'll be closer.

It gets closer over time.

Well, I think we won the big vote last night, though, Mr. President.

See, they voted on the tough one last night.

Yeah.

I talked to the Speaker last night.

You mean that?

Yeah.

Well, they had one that said we had to get out in 30 days.

That's one that was rather dry and awful.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Now, this one says merely that the House Committee, Foreign Affairs Committee, has to report something out in 30 days.

Yeah.

And...

Well, you know, this one has a somewhat, I mean, it really has some kind of a mongoloid idiot way that came out, though, to say on the one hand we condemn the bombing, on the other hand we condemn aggression.

Now, how the hell are you going to stop the bombing with a resolution?

Well, they had to go back and get the amendment about condemning the aggression, because if they hadn't done that, they'd been dead politically.

I mean, here they are criticizing the United States, not criticizing the enemy.

Well, that's the point that saw Connolly this morning.

He said that he, apparently, he had already been reported on this, but he told me he picked it up in his meeting with the editors, and he just said it's a hell of a note for the Secretary of State to be questioned for two hours, and not one of these people.

He was rough on him.

I know.

Yesterday at the House meeting, they had half the members there, and I made that point.

Of course, they all applauded.

I was surprised.

Even the doves applauded.

Yeah.

Well, they're on a bad wicket.

If things should happen to work out, which they might, they're on a hell of a bad wicket, Bill, to have been on the side of the enemy.

Now, we don't know whether it's going to work out or not, but you realize if they don't work out,

A terrible responsibility falls on them for giving comfort to the enemy.

That's right.

Do you understand?

Sure, I do.

And we're going to have to say it.

I hope we don't have to, because I'd prefer to have them work out, and I think it may.

I hope so.

Okay.

All right, fine.

I will have Colson...

get a hold of Haig.

I can't get Haig because he's at the barbershop.

I'll have Colson get a hold of Haig.

Haig will call you and set the time that will suit you and the White House.

He'll do the White House staff early in the morning and be ready for your people whenever you want him.

Good.

I'll see you at the AS&E.

Anybody you want me to butter up?

Oh, God, there are going to be a thousand of them.

Oh, my God.

Well, I'll tell you, if I could suggest...

Just looking at the power.

The Chicago group, the Chicago Sun-Times and Tribune are important.

Anything in Ohio, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Preston Wolf, I don't know whether he'd be there in the Cincinnati thing.

Anything in Pennsylvania, and that's the Newhouse crowd.

that would be good.

Always the Los Angeles group, of course, and anything from California, and the Texas group, and that's about it.

Is Otis going to be there, Otis Chandler?

I don't know.

I don't know whether he's here or not.

He's not an editor, he's a publisher.

Sometimes they come down.

Yeah, but if you could stay with the... Well, understand there are others.

Now, there are some that... Martin Hayden is there, especially when you mix, he was terribly...

Hurt that we didn't come to the gridiron.

But he's been a great friend, and, you know, he's supported us all the way in foreign policy.

A little time with him would be useful.

I know.

And the wives are not coming.

Just the men?

Oh, no, no, the wives are coming tonight.

Are they?

Oh, yes.

Oh, yes, this is the wives.

Wives are invited to this.

I better have my wife come.

Oh, yes, my goodness, yes.

Oh, if she could come, you see, what we want is to have the cabinet sort of sprinkle around.

That's what I thought.

And incidentally, we're going to use, we're going to let them do the upstairs, too.

We're going to move out of the upstairs so they can see both.

Well, I'm glad because Adele had a tea for him all yesterday over here, and she knows a lot of the wives.

Okay.

Well, if she could come, be good.

I'll see him.

All right.

Thank you.

Nixon phone call with Rogers on Vietnam War and Alexander Haig

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on April 20, 1972

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