Conversation 277-018

TapeTape 277StartWednesday, September 15, 1971 at 2:37 PMEndWednesday, September 15, 1971 at 3:15 PMTape start time01:16:27Tape end time01:50:12ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Haig, Alexander M., Jr.;  Kissinger, Henry A.Recording deviceOld Executive Office Building

On September 15, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., and Henry A. Kissinger met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:37 pm to 3:15 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 277-018 of the White House Tapes.

Conversation No. 277-18

Date: September 15, 1971
Time: 2:37 pm - 3:15 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with Alexander M. Haig, Jr.

[See Conversation No. 9-25]

Henry A. Kissinger entered at 2:38 pm.

[End of telephone conversation]

     Press conference, September 16, 1971
           -Report on US foreign aid
                -Democratic elections
                -Statistics
                      -Number of countries
                            -Elective processes
                                 -Democratic elections compared to contested elections
                -Contested elections
                      -William R. Tolbert, Jr.
                            -Liberia
                                 -Elections
                -Number of countries
           -United Nations [UN]
                -US position on membership
                      -Secretary of State
                      -People’s Republic of China [PRC]
                      -Taiwan, Republic of China
           -PRC trip
                -James B. (“Scotty”) Reston column
                -Forthcoming details
                -Vietnam
                -US relations with PRC
           -Vietnam
                -US military
                      -Withdrawal
                      -Protection of forces
                -Demilitarized Zone [DMZ]
                      -North Vietnamese actions
                            -Helicopters
                -National Security Council [NSC] meeting
                      -Time
                      -Arrangements
                -Troop withdrawals

                -Announcement
                     -Speculation
                     -Future announcements
                           -Timing
                -Proposed announcement of troop withdrawal
          -Forthcoming South Vietnamese Presidential election
                -Nguyen Van Thieu
          -Negotiations
          -Announcement
                -Time
          -Thieu
                -Ambassador Ellsworth F. Bunker
          -Forthcoming South Vietnamese Presidential election
                -Thieu’s opponents
     -US foreign aid
          -Contested elections
     -Great Britain
          -Parliamentary procedures
                -Question and answer sessions
                     -Position of Prime Minister
                           -Speaker of the House of Commons

Presidential press conferences
     -Format
           -On the record, no correction
     -Organization of conference

Press conference, September 16, 1971
      -Statements
            -Negotiations
                -Kissinger’s role

Vietnam
     -Response
          -Congress
          -US patriotism
          -Elections in South Vietnam
                -Questions
          -Vietnamization
          -Republicans
          -Attitudes during phased US withdrawal

                        -Opponents
                   -Support of war
                        -Current status
                              -Lack of support
                        -Chronology
                              -November 3, 1969 Speech
                              -Cambodia
                              -Laos (Lam Son 719)

     Amchitka Nuclear nest
         -Timing
         -Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR] trip announcement
         -PRC trip
         -USSR
              -Timing of nuclear test
              -Proximity to time of announcement
         -The PRC
         -USSR
              -Timing of announcement

[Unintelligible]

     Vietnam
          -Prisoner of war [POW] situation
                -Effect on election
          -Troop withdrawal
                -Timing of action
          -Possible questions on negotiations
          -Ceasefire
          -Military operations
          -Perceptions
                -Thieu
          -POW situation
                -US action
          -Troop withdrawal
                -Possible methods of negotiating
                -Deadline
                     -Time
     Foreign affairs
          -USSR
                -Relations with PRC

          -Position in Southeast Asia
          -Relations
                -Negotiations
                       -Moscow
     -Timing of Peking trip
     -US alternatives for proposal
          -Thieu
                -Position
     -USSR
          -The President’s forthcoming meeting with Andrei A. Gromyko
                -Anatoliy F. Dobrynin
                -Handling of negotiations
     -Reactions to recent developments
          -The President’s domestic opponents
     -Kissinger’s trip to the PRC
          -Peking
          -The President’s schedule

Vietnam
     -Timing of action
          -November
     -Withdrawal of troops
          -Haig
          -Announcement of withdrawal
          -Military service draft
          -Number of troops
                -Time
                -Christmas period
                -Announcement
          -Additional announcements
                -Time
                -Type of announcement
                      -Effect of announcement
                -Number of troops withdrawn
                -The President’s PRC trip
                -Troop withdrawal
                -The President’s trip to the USSR
     -Thieu
          -Importance of strength
     -Troop withdrawal
          -Effect

           -Election
                 -Withdrawal
                      -Timing
           -William F. Buckley
                 -Thieu
           -Kissinger’s forthcoming meetings
                 -US position
                      -Timing
                            -Fall 1971
                 -Thieu
                 -Deadlines

Kissinger left at 3:15 pm.

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.

Hey, please.
I'd like to get a good casual comparison.
I don't want to just take this week, which of course is over, but I wonder if you could say take the last, maybe four weeks, or the last eight weeks, or the last three months, compared to the last five years, to see what I'm trying to get at.
So figure out if it's the last 30 days, the last 60 days, or in the last four weeks, or three months, anything that makes you sort of a witness statement.
Sure, sure, and a number of other questions.
Well, they cut it down.
59 out of 91.
As they said, they used the term...
They say this year the United States is providing aid to one form or another to ninety-one countries, and the United States is determining aid to the countries among this group whose current leaders have not assumed power through a lease of a very democratic election process.
That was not my question.
My question is more, is Tucker, whose leaders did not assume power through a contested election.
A contested.
That's what we're talking about.
What the hell?
Take power.
He's there as a successor to a guy who never had a contest in the election.
They were never contested in the election, but they were never contested in the library.
That's why I think that's a big deal.
It fits behind his load.
I bet he could blast one of the birds.
One of the birds would be able to cut off people in two-thirds of all the countries in the world.
It's not bad.
It's a good thing to do.
I don't see why I stay here.
I'm glad to sit here.
Well, let me go over just a few things with regard to the China and the UN.
I doubt that they are comfortable.
I must say very little.
I must say that the Secretary of State has voiced his concerns with the United States.
The United States favors the invention of the People's Republic.
We oppose the expulsion of Taiwan.
We will work for that goal.
It's very better than what I thought.
I'm not going to any more of this equipment review.
The China trip, I have nothing to add.
I said the details will be announced.
I said the details will be announced.
That's what they like to do.
What do we say about the whole result of the role of U.S. forces?
Very interesting.
As we are withdrawing, I have a responsibility to protect our employees.
And I'm a little bit vulnerable.
And I would like to change the way I've always been.
Lying against and investing.
And we're trying to do that.
And you can actually, if you want to be honest, you can say that North Vietnamese have been killed or not.
Troop Patrol
We have a proposed scenario for, you know, property in the middle.
But coming to this, coming to this at the moment, what do we say about the proofs at this point?
We say, you know, that we don't want to go on this thing for a long, long, long, long time.
And then, you know, we want to show her that, you know,
And even if we don't sell him, if they think that making a deal might reach him anymore, he's not going to make it.
And a lot of things which we say on a daily basis, I think now I'd rather respect it than be said.
The others I consider to be the opposite of the negotiations that a lot of the most, I didn't think that at the time, a lot of the south people figured out they were going to be the majority here.
A lot of the bigots, he's going to make the peace, we'd better get ourselves in a position where we can be part of the discussion.
That's what you're missing from us.
Thank you.
I think this is the first.
I think we should say that we can't get the wrong answer.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Great!
The British system is all built up by the British and the British and the British and the British and the British and the British and the British and the British and the British and the British and the British
You can't lay over a question.
You can't get a minister to answer it.
You can't get a minister to answer it.
You can't get a minister to answer it.
You can't get a minister to answer it.
You can't get a minister to answer it.
You can't get a minister to answer it.
I wonder if we can't leave and stay a little bit more.
After all, we're not now running the danger of going to recover and so forth and so on.
If we just end something, then all we've got to do is end something.
The idea that the grave is the grave.
The enemy is well aware of the fact that we're here.
It's well aware of all the things that we've done.
It's just that they're well aware.
They know that the next week is what's good.
The fact of the matter is, could you get that?
I just, just, it's unbelievable.
They all come in and say, oh gee, can't you do something about the election?
And I come back and I rave about the organization.
You know, a lot of crap I didn't think, I didn't believe in a lot of that.
I knew it better than anybody else, and I know the political reasons.
But I did.
What about the Republicans?
No, I know.
But even the others, what's most disgusting is that they know you're getting out, and that that's what's spurring them on to get ahead of you.
They would rather inflict the indignity on their country as forcing it out of the war unsatisfactorily than letting it end for some people.
They got the people with them on this one.
It's a damned unfortunate situation that the public is supporting the war in our hometown.
You know, we just, we kept, I don't know how we kept it up for the next 40 years, three years now.
We really won't just get America.
We came in
He wrapped it up on November the 8th.
He wrapped it up again with Cambodian.
That's Laos we just didn't hang on to there.
You found Laos again, right?
Oh, no, I didn't leave Laos at all.
I just met him, speaking.
Since Laos, we are... Laos was right, but we didn't get out of it.
We didn't tell his propaganda about it.
We didn't tell his propaganda about it.
We didn't get out of it.
I think we can't express confidence in the future.
I think we're going ahead with this.
Yes, but we are moving ahead, Mr. President, to the end of our progress, getting too early to do it early, and I suppose it's too close to the last century.
It's too close to the Russians.
It's too close to the Russians, and that's why we need to announce it, and that's why we need to do it, and we need to have these people, and we need to have all these announcements, and they have an objective, and they want to take it, but...
If there doesn't screw up, it will be a test two days before.
At some point it will just look like a threatening act.
And you did it once, all four times?
The announcement, everyone here would say, look, it is threatening some situations.
They would announce it somewhere.
If we do it a week before or a week after, it would still come.
Teksting av Nicolai Winther
If they ask about Christmas or withdrawal, they don't.
I don't want to handle that.
I'm totally opposed to it.
It's what I'm getting from the government's suggestion.
...prisons will be thrown in, and give us an impasse for sure, then we can have laws that can be seconded, and ask for a ceasefire, because we can't keep the world going for an extra two months, and that will give us an impasse for sure, then a second can ask for a ceasefire.
That means an end of bailout, that means the only way we can provide for the dollars we have left over,
I agree.
The other part of the discussion is that we provide it out.
On the unilateral, as to this effect, the election has left the parliament with two
People will say you're fighting off this old feud, and then things will crack up more and more, as you die.
I don't know what that means.
And if you don't combine with it, then we'll get all this trouble across the border.
Therefore, what we need is an upper government convincing story that we know that everything is conceivable.
Then we will recuse and solidify our opponents, the right to say that you're in the country or in the country.
Now, that means, are we done?
No, we have not discussed my life to this point.
Since you asked me to be a blogger, I've taken care of it.
I was in a flat where he knows because it's only about this summer.
Six different places.
He doesn't show me that I go there.
There's a few houses to withdraw.
One month before the election in August, and then we have to do it in six months, five months, seven months, and that's negotiated.
We don't have to order content.
Over these seven months, then we're putting some pressure on the negotiators.
And we're getting ourselves a record.
And we have a negotiated process going on while these guys are having to do all the work we need.
We say that this step doesn't matter.
while all of this was going on.
We'd be ahead of them, and soon we were ahead of them, because with all their resolutions, we had all but to tell them how they felt about this.
Now that leaves the question, how do we help them?
In the end, if we ask for another meeting too quickly, it would be such a professional weakness.
for them to get out to the camp.
Secondly, I don't think we can get any for the Chinese.
We can't get them back to Europe.
We can't get them back to Europe for this reason.
The Russians have three of them.
One is the SDF of the Chinese.
They have almost any advantage over the Chinese.
Secondly, the Russians have an interest in staking out a decision on Southeast Asia.
They're sticking to it as it goes.
And the Russians...
It can help us put a certain time when we want to go again, if we put it in all the time where it has to be settled, simply by the best of our time.
And I'm sure that if it all pays, we will have done everything we could, and more than anyone could conceive.
We can propose it to the others in one of the ways.
Or we can do that for all the dimensions.
I suggest that I, and it can be anybody, must see this as a world, and see this as a country.
And that's got to be done so that we can make it so that it's all that hard.
Because seven of the eight points I already preached,
Israel gives a tremendous record to have.
It explains why you have no other choice except to go the slow route, and why anyone...
It's one thing to say that you should resign, it's another to say at the resolution that you cannot participate in the political election.
Of that we cannot give.
that he can't be a candidate, but he should run the election, that's what I think.
I think that that is a strategy that is being assured about early in the election.
And then the rest of the time, there's really a chance that it would help the negotiations, and there's a very good chance that many other people would
Your host will be located at the end of the runway, and please do set up your wings to be there.
I want you to make a proposal.
No, you should say I will make, you should make a proposal.
Then I'll set up a meeting.
I think it's better for you not to get into that.
Thank you.
It has these advantages, Mr. President.
You'd be a head of your opposition, and you would then all of a sudden, if they really drive you against the wall, say, by these sons of bitches we're considering.
All of this is contention.
It would have been a psychological wall that you can't hang against, Mr. President.
That's our problem.
It would have the advantage that I think there is a...
Finite chance that it hasn't split the play because my trip to China will be announced, and they don't know what the hell I'm doing here.
If they kick us out of the team, we have China with us.
We'll be announced before the end of the year.
You'll be here at the end of the year.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I do not believe, Mr. President.
I think it's a bad idea for you to make your own package in November, because there will be an aid that will get organized before the country leaves.
It's best to have an interim.
But you can do two months, 40,000, that gets you to the Federal Reserve, and then...
Of course, you make your next pronouncement with a 10.
It will come to work.
You make it a 40,000.
At the end of the draft, the draft needs to be a 40,000, but it's not a 40,000.
You put a Christmas card on it.
You're right.
The numbers at that point, frankly, are not interesting.
The main thing is to keep the bombs and keep the...
The main thing is to make sure it will throw everybody... Find a way to get the... Find a way to serve a Christmas torch and do it that way.
You see, Hanoi will want to put their...
In other words, I would do, say, 25,000 in December and 15,000 in January.
I hope that's easy.
I hope that's easy.
I hope that's easy.
I hope that's easy.
But the point, the thing is, your opponents either don't know what to do, you must be up for something even if you have done nothing.
I don't have another announcement in January.
Because if you say to them, but they don't even know, you don't have to say it's obvious.
Then in January, the big news would be the announcement, plus the whole record, which will keep them busy.
Now what would the announcement be again?
So you're going down to 8,000, 10,000, 12,000?
I don't know.
Thank you.
It's really difficult for us.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Hans doesn't think that's all of that we can do.
The major thing is to take advantage of making this beach, supposing to make a tent.
First of all, it would be so surprising again, with all this negotiation.
And then it would be so close to your China trip, that they can't crack up a nice demonstration before your China trip.
Then when you come back from China, it will be too close to the fact that they go to the straw, and you'll be going to Russia.
That's right, sir.
We will, but for that we've got to have you strong.
That's the funny thing.
We're going to throw him.
He's the heart of it.
He's the heart of it.
He's going to be strong, but if they can get rid of him, without getting rid of him,
I made the offering to die in a month.
Why does the offering have to be lunch?
They said six months of peace.
I had to withdraw for months before they mentioned that I had missed the 45 days.
I didn't think that was enough time to promise them.
I tried that out of filth.
I think it's a wild idea.
I guess they're not saying how people do it.
I tried that out for what's the right time to say it.
I don't give this high confidence, but I've tortured myself.
I've literally done nothing else since I came back to try to work on this.
But I think for us to sit through them all four while they attack you and we have nothing to come back with is too risky for us.
This four.
The next four.
This four.
All three.
In June we were not in advance to sit as it looked, because you knew you had offered me a deadline.
Pretty good.
But I wouldn't drop any of it.
Oh!
You're right.
Come on, please.