Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 311 › Conversation 311-023

Nixon & Kissinger on State of the Union and Vietnam War

Saturday, January 1, 1972 · 2:43 PM–3:56 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Kissinger, Henry A.Conversation311-023 on Tape 311 (tape position 00:41:38–00:49:08)StartSaturday, January 1, 1972 at 2:43 PMEndSaturday, January 1, 1972 at 3:56 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 311-023 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Henry Kissinger met to coordinate the scheduling of upcoming presidential announcements and public policy initiatives. The discussion focused on strategically timing a trip announcement and addressing Vietnam policy, with both men weighing the optics of television appearances and their impact on the State of the Union. They ultimately sought to manage the public release of these events to maximize policy benefits and buy time for their broader diplomatic objectives.

Audio

Download MP3 (part 1) · 112.4 MB ·Download MP3 (part 2) · 61.7 MB

This conversation has not yet been cut into its own clip, so the player above contains the full tape segment shared with neighbouring conversations. It begins about 00:41:38 into the tape and ends around 00:49:08.

Transcript (AI-generated)

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

Download transcript (.txt) · JSON data

· Timestamps are positions within the full tape recording.
41:41On that date, I've gotten all the information.
41:57Let's see.
41:59How free is going?
42:02The following week, to catch it, you could say, perhaps,
42:29As late as the 14th.
42:30We don't want to go as late as the 14th.
42:31I just think it's Sunday night.
42:33That's the day of the Super Bowl, and I don't think we want to try to keep it that way.
42:43You know, that's...
42:44I played the proof announcement.
42:45I wouldn't... Then with that, I wouldn't go on TV.
42:54Something to be said for that.
43:34The 13th gets a variety of papers carried pretty well, and that carries them through each family.
43:4512 to the 13th, yeah.
43:49Just make a routine.
43:52In this instance today, I'm just not quite sure that I would do a night on 12th.
44:05What we might do is to do the announcement, and then, if we are going to do each thing, you know, one way to do it is to give a double bounce on it, and to say, when they answer a question, say, well, I'm going to speak to that issue on two weeks.
44:29But still...
44:31...how to handle it in the State of the Union industry... ...and the importance of... ...really what that might be of concern... ...to think about the ways that... ...the State of the Union and the Congress... ...gets in as part of the State of the Union... ...and what to say about it... ...about Vietnam... ...Vietnam is not going to do much... ...if we just... ...if we just... ...if we just... ...if we just... ...delay the...
45:01She delayed a trip announcement Tuesday, and I said, you just throw it in there, so you get it.
45:05Maybe let that be, let that be a move to the, it's better to have a, an adoptive suite, you know what I mean, don't, don't get major moves out of it.
45:22Yeah.
45:22It would be probably the 12th or 13th.
45:25Maybe if you would put the trip announcement plus the draft piece in, that would be a,
45:31By the way, if we could do the group announcement and the draft case, then it should be done separately.
45:41I'd like to have a state of the movement.
45:44We're going to get so much more policy benefit from other things that I think we better...
46:48I think that is going to be a good thing.
46:50Basically, there's 70,000 more out of Vietnam.
46:58You sure as hell don't have to say you're going to have to have more draft fees.
47:10You can't do that.
47:15You can't leave it out.
47:23We have a gun, this time we want a gun in terms of how it can be done, and why it cannot be done, but this is going to buy us some time, and we desperately need that.
47:32So I think before the time comes, we're going to do away on other things.
47:40We're going to try to build a peace plan in around 2066.
47:44Thank you.

NARA Description

On January 1, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 2:43 pm and 3:56 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 311-023 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 311-23

Date: January 1, 1972
Time: Unknown between 2:43 pm and 3:56 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with Henry A. Kissinger.

[See Conversation No. 17-132]

Also recorded on January 1, 1972

  • 017-130 2:42 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Robert H. Abplanalp talked on the telephone from 2:42 pm to 2:43 pm.
  • 311-021 2:42 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Robert H. Abplanalp met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:42 pm to 2:43 pm.
  • 017-131 2:43 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 2:43 pm and 3:56 pm.
  • 017-132 2:43 PM · 13 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 2:43 pm and 3:56 pm.
  • 017-133 2:43 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 2:43 pm and 3:56 pm.
  • 311-022 2:43 PM · 14 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:43 pm to 3:56 pm.
  • 311-024 2:43 PM · 3 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 2:43 pm and 3:56 pm.
  • 311-025 2:43 PM · 26 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 2:43 pm and 3:56 pm.

All 58 conversations from January 1, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 311-023, January 1, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/311-023 (accessed October 11, 2026).