Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 237 › Conversation 237-044

Nixon phone call with Colson on Vietnam War and Operation Linebacker II

Saturday, December 30, 1972 · 9:53 AM–10:02 AM ET · Camp David Hard Wire · 9 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Colson, Charles W.Conversation237-044 on Tape 237StartSaturday, December 30, 1972 at 9:53 AMEndSaturday, December 30, 1972 at 10:02 AMRecording deviceCamp David Hard WireSourceNixon Library record for 237-044 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Charles Colson discuss communication strategies regarding the administration's recent decision to resume bombing campaigns in North Vietnam. The President emphasizes that the bombing pause was conditional upon serious negotiations and instructs Colson to coordinate with congressional leaders, particularly Hugh Scott, to ensure they are properly informed. They also briefly touch upon political opposition and media narratives, with Nixon expressing a desire to project strength and avoid any perception that the administration was coerced by domestic critics.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 1 minute of this recording (about 9% of it) is represented by only a few words. Listen to the audio rather than relying on the text below; a corrected transcript is queued.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Hello.
Hi.
You got everything all set for today?
How about the cameras?
Yeah.
Well, Henry is, of course.
I mentioned him as Tory money, so he doesn't know how to handle it and so forth.
But Henry is just better.
I'll raise all of Henry's dollars.
He's got a call.
So, you know what I mean?
He's got to let Timmons call him.
He's got to give him the back, but...
How did Dennis handle you?
Yeah.
He's pretty.
Sure.
Oh, they might.
The whole, what about, what about the scalpel that he said to do?
Is he going to go over there and be there when the briefing takes place?
What about you?
Have you gone over?
Yeah, you ought to go over it.
I'd like to get your reaction in here.
All right.
Rather than talk to you right after the briefing, that means nothing, I would say.
I'll give you a ring at about 1130 or so to see how you value the name of the promoter sitting around.
Good.
Right, right, and also the main thing,
I mean, if they're accurate, you can be right on the mark.
Good.
Good.
Good.
How about the, I think this is an interesting thing about this congressional stuff.
It's just been sort of stirred up by the media, hasn't it?
Yeah, they've gone out.
I mean, but this all sucks, so.
Pretty rough.
I mean, it caused a national outrage and all that sort of thing.
Yeah.
Don't you really think somebody ought to go and look after the security of the state that much?
But I really think he ought to just kick right in the ass.
But very, very hard.
You won't do any good with him.
But it won't do any good in the sense that it's a very common type.
But it's what we'll do good with him.
But it was in the White House column.
We're just going forward with that.
So what do you want to crack?
You can chuck like a Wilkins or a Devine or something like that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Devine.
Devine.
Devine.
But I don't know.
Of course, with all this rumbling around and so forth, I still don't think, I know I may be wrong, but it may be that as the concrete pops off too, but he kind of like pops off and he makes his decision.
But I can't see the great sort of, what do they call it, outrage in the country myself.
I don't know.
What are you getting from Settlinger?
Let me hold you to measure hearing them.
But the vibe was that he doesn't see this great interest, and the interest is less than that of every one.
Why then are these guys getting into this column?
Well, they lost the election, and well, when I say they had, the Democrats.
And even though they weren't musky, they figured, well, we've got to chop the president down.
But a saxophone, why does he get into it?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Then we sent him on a trip, and he came back and said his son changed his mind or something.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But I tell Scott,
I think Scott's the one that ought to call the section.
This ought to make Scott happier than a clam.
Who the hell is going to call him?
Is Henry here or what?
I just hope that if somebody has told Henry, I told him to call people, that he sits up there and says, well, I shouldn't call anybody.
Everybody will understand this.
Nobody understands a goddamn thing.
They'd like to be informed.
Well, I think that's good.
And Mansfield, of course.
Right, so you've got the top leader, then you've got all the leaders.
The part that's an elegance is Skelly should make the offense.
It's not a decision at all.
You see, let me explain.
The decision I made was to bomb Obama.
Then, when we had serious negotiations early in October, I temporarily suspended below and above the North for money in parallel.
But with a clear understanding that as long as negotiations were serious,
spent a little bit money.
It was only when they then became unserious and after an impasse that we just resumed what we were going for.
You get the pipe.
That's the pipe that I trust Skelly and I don't know.
As a matter of fact, all of that is going to be washed out by the United States.
Provided they don't display it as being we were forced into it.
That's the one damn thing I don't want to see coming.
Are you worried about that?
You don't think so?
The fact that it was forced into it by the left wing?
I thought it was good for it.
All right, good luck.
Bye.

NARA Description

On December 30, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David from 9:53 am to 10:02 am. The Camp David Hard Wire taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 237-044 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 237-44

Date: December 30, 1972
Time: 9:53 am - 10:02 am
Location: Camp David Hard Wire

The President talked with Charles W. Colson.

[See Conversation No. 158-35]
                                                -19-

                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                        (rev. July-08)

Also recorded on December 30, 1972

  • 158-034 9:41 AM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator talked on the telephone at Camp David at an unknown time between 9:41 am and 9:53 am.
  • 237-042 9:41 AM · 28 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at an unknown time between 9:41 am and 9:53 am.
  • 158-035 9:53 AM · 9 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson talked on the telephone at Camp David from 9:53 am to 10:02 am.
  • 158-036 10:02 AM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator talked on the telephone at Camp David at an unknown time between 10:02 am and 10:04 am.
  • 237-045 10:02 AM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David at an unknown time between 10:02 am and 10:04 am.
  • 158-037 10:04 AM · 8 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger talked on the telephone at Camp David from 10:04 am to 10:12 am.
  • 237-046 10:04 AM · 7 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David from 10:04 am to 10:12 am.
  • 158-038 10:12 AM · 14 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator talked on the telephone at Camp David at an unknown time between 10:12 am and 10:54 am.

All 64 conversations from December 30, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 237-044, December 30, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/237-044 (accessed October 10, 2026).