{"conversationCode":"311-041","tapeNumber":311,"conversationNumber":41,"identifier":"37-wht-conversation-311-041","startDateTime":"1972-01-02T17:39:00.000Z","endDateTime":"1972-01-02T17:48:00.000Z","startDate":"2-Jan-1972","startTime":"12:39 PM","endDate":"2-Jan-1972","endTime":"12:48 PM","dateCertainty":"certain","timeCertainty":"certain","participants":"Nixon, Richard M. (President); Kissinger, Henry A.;","description":"On January 2, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 12:39 pm to 12:48 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 311-041 of the White House Tapes.","locationCode":"EOB","recordingDevice":"Old Executive Office Building","latitudeEstimated":38.897567,"longitudeEstimated":-77.039147,"chronCode":2,"chronRelease":"Second Chronological Release","chronReleaseDate":"26-Oct-2000","aogpRelease":null,"aogpSegment":null,"lastModified":"2015-07-27T17:04:10.235Z","findingAid":"Conversation No. 311-41\n\nDate: January 2, 1972\nTime: 12:39 pm - 12:48 pm\nLocation: Executive Office Building\n\nThe President talked with Henry A. Kissinger.\n\n[See Conversation No. 17-142]","filename":["311a.mp3","311b.mp3"],"tapeStart":"02:16:24","tapeEnd":"02:21:13","participantsList":["Nixon, Richard M. (President)","Kissinger, Henry A."],"prevCode":"311-040","nextCode":"311-042","tapeTranscriptFile":"311a.mp3,311b.mp3","transcript":[{"start":8184.4,"end":8184.54,"text":"Hello."},{"start":8184.56,"end":8184.64,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":8184.66,"end":8184.76,"text":"Hello."},{"start":8186.6,"end":8191.38,"text":"But one thing about our wings tonight, I want to change the, you know, where the rod is."},{"start":8191.4,"end":8195.1,"text":"Therefore, we have all this part of the curtain and, you know, the friction."},{"start":8195.59,"end":8208.17,"text":"We're going to have that, the way we're going to do it is we're going to have all these two wires, you know, four of each other."},{"start":8241.33,"end":8243.02,"text":"Bye bye, ain't no spare today."},{"start":8298.77,"end":8300.78,"text":"Søren, takk for i dag."},{"start":8300.8,"end":8301.28,"text":"Ha det bra."},{"start":8338.6,"end":8340.38,"text":"Hello?"},{"start":8340.62,"end":8342.72,"text":"Hello?"},{"start":8342.74,"end":8360.7,"text":"When do you leave for California?"},{"start":8360.76,"end":8367.02,"text":"So you're going out with us?"},{"start":8371.2,"end":8375.06,"text":"Oh, I see."},{"start":8375.14,"end":8375.34,"text":"Oh, I see."},{"start":8375.4,"end":8379,"text":"I know you're going to go out there at 5.30."},{"start":8379.12,"end":8382.68,"text":"But I'm not going for 5.30."},{"start":8382.78,"end":8390.01,"text":"Go out with us if you want."},{"start":8390.03,"end":8393.83,"text":"All right."},{"start":8395.15,"end":8395.45,"text":"Fine, fine."},{"start":8395.47,"end":8395.59,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":8395.65,"end":8395.85,"text":"All right."},{"start":8396.03,"end":8396.43,"text":"Go ahead."},{"start":8396.45,"end":8396.95,"text":"Okay, on this..."},{"start":8417.79,"end":8423.03,"text":"I don't understand how to answer all the Laos questions if you don't have any comments, you know, there, etc."},{"start":8423.05,"end":8428.67,"text":"But I understand that it began long before, in the last, and they might add to our Laos national podium."},{"start":8428.69,"end":8430.29,"text":"So, how does the country stick on that?"},{"start":8430.31,"end":8432.63,"text":"What can I do?"},{"start":8432.65,"end":8436.71,"text":"The question is, what are we talking about?"},{"start":8436.73,"end":8437.23,"text":"It's gone."},{"start":8437.25,"end":8437.61,"text":"In the city."},{"start":8440.09,"end":8445.56,"text":"In the city, because you have a city in the city."},{"start":8446.36,"end":8458.13,"text":"The separation of South Vietnam and the rest of the Indian infiltration was justified on the basis of the repressions of the Americans."},{"start":8458.15,"end":8458.97,"text":"The problem, of course, is this."},{"start":8458.99,"end":8469.55,"text":"To what extent are we going to commit ourselves for the protests in Cambodia and the events in Laos as distinct from the Vietnam and Vietnamization?"},{"start":8469.89,"end":8472.85,"text":"That's the critical question that many smart guys will ask."}],"transcriptBoundary":{"start":8159.75,"end":8473,"startMethod":"silence","endMethod":"tape_time"},"transcriptConfidence":"low","transcriptSource":"bigtape","aiSummary":{"text":"President Nixon and Henry Kissinger discuss the strategic challenges of formulating a public response regarding U.S. military involvement in Laos and Cambodia. They focus on the difficulty of maintaining a clear policy stance while distinguishing these operations from the broader Vietnamization program. The conversation highlights the administration's concern over how to justify and defend these incursions against anticipated political criticism.","topics":["Vietnam War","Laos","Cambodia","Vietnamization","Foreign Policy","Public Relations"],"generatedAt":"2026-04-06T14:30:58.668Z"},"topicSlugs":["vietnam-war","laos","cambodia","vietnamization","foreign-policy","public-relations"],"audioDurationSec":289,"audioFiles":[{"file":"311a.mp3","bytes":117893328,"durationSec":7368.25,"bitrate":128001,"missing":false},{"file":"311b.mp3","bytes":64741040,"durationSec":4046.22,"bitrate":128002,"missing":false}],"audioIsShared":true,"audioProbedAt":"2026-09-18T02:19:41.278Z","audio":["https://nixon.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/audio/311a.mp3","https://nixon.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/audio/311b.mp3"],"url":"https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/311-041","nixonLibraryUrl":"https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/white-house-tapes/311/conversation-311-041","license":"Public domain (U.S. Government work). AI-generated fields (transcript, aiSummary) are provided as-is without warranty."}