Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 251 › Conversation 251-036

Nixon & Haig on Prisoners of War and Vietnam War

Thursday, April 29, 1971 · 2:56 PM–3:57 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 2 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haig, Alexander M., Jr.Conversation251-036 on Tape 251 (tape position 02:53:50–02:57:53)StartThursday, April 29, 1971 at 2:56 PMEndThursday, April 29, 1971 at 3:57 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 251-036 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and General Alexander Haig met to clarify the strategic implications and specific conditions of a recent unilateral offer regarding the repatriation of enemy prisoners of war. They assessed how this proposal differed from previous U.S. positions and discussed the numerical disparity between the 576 enemy prisoners offered for release and the approximately 430 Americans held in North Vietnam. The discussion focused on establishing a firm, consistent administrative stance to ensure the President could clearly articulate U.S. policy in future public or diplomatic inquiries.

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Transcript (AI-generated)

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On this POW release here, is this thing that they offered in Paris simply an agreement to release these if they do likewise?

Of course, it's new, so I just don't know what the hell it is.

What I'm getting at is, I know that the weapons, what I'm getting at is the third release, but why did we offer them before?

Why haven't we done it before?

Because the offer is made, positioned on there, doing something with the dry water, and you said it.

I don't know why.

The conditions on there are responding in kind.

Why then is it different from what we've offered previously to less exchange all the field up here?

It's balanced, so that I know what I'm talking about when they ask me.

We say, look, we will repatriate and centralize into a country, provided you return our owners.

Provided you like our home, or we say we'll do it regardless of what we do.

It's a creation.

It's that condition of their returning order.

Return these and any of them, is that correct?

This is a unilateral offer to return 576 more, right?

How do we do that?

How do we bring that up?

Yeah.

How many do they have involved in what is going on right now?

430 in Paris.

But the missing in action is 1,200, is that right?

I believe these people, however, who are missing in action most of the time, are 30, are those going to North Vietnam, 100 more, who have gone, hundreds that go all around for years.

Well, that includes the 430, I said.

That means, I mean, a small amount is around the world.

I'm not going to raise that number.

I mean, I see this, thank you.

NARA Description

On April 29, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 2:56 pm and 3:57 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 251-036 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 251-36

Date: April 29, 1971
Time: Unknown between 2:56 pm and 3:57 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with General Alexander M. Haig, Jr.

     Prisoners of War [POWs]
          -Release
                -Conditions
                -Offer
                -US position
                -Unilateral offer
                     -Number of enemy POWs
                -US response
          -Number of Americans held
          -US position

Also recorded on April 29, 1971

251-033 1:17 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 1:17 pm and 2:53 pm.
251-034 1:17 PM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 1:17 pm and 2:53 pm.
490-008 1:17 PM · 1 min — United States Secret Service agents met in the Oval Office of the White House on an unknown date, sometime between 1:17 pm on April 29, 1971 and 7:39 am on May 4, 1971.
251-035 2:53 PM · 15 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:53 pm to 2:56 pm.
042-080 2:56 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 2:56 pm and 3:57 pm.
251-037 2:56 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 2:56 pm and 3:57 pm.
042-081 3:57 PM · 40 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Marjorie P. Acker talked on the telephone from 3:57 pm to 3:58 pm.
251-038 3:57 PM · 34 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Marjorie P. Acker met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:57 pm to 3:58 pm.

All 64 conversations from April 29, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 251-036, April 29, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/251-036 (accessed October 3, 2026).