Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 321 › Conversation 321-011

Nixon & Haig on Military strategy and Vietnam War

Wednesday, February 9, 1972 · 2:52 PM–2:57 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 3 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haig, Alexander M., Jr.Conversation321-011 on Tape 321 (tape position 01:01:17–01:04:45)StartWednesday, February 9, 1972 at 2:52 PMEndWednesday, February 9, 1972 at 2:57 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 321-011 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Alexander Haig discuss the tactical execution and psychological impact of upcoming military operations. The conversation focuses on the strategic targeting of infantry training areas and the efficacy of secondary target selection. They conclude by confirming the operational timeline and assessing the potential impact of these maneuvers.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 2 minutes of this recording (about 74% 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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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· Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).
Yep.
Yeah.
Yeah, I wanted to ask you, how about that, uh, B-3 that's driving you, does it get off early here yet, or what?
Right.
That'll be starting tonight, or, uh, early next week.
Good, good, good.
And, uh, you're convinced now they're going to carry that off to you, at least.
Thank you.
Do their best to concentrate a little bit.
Al, they've been, do you think they have really now looked around to see if they've done any targets in that area?
I mean, there must be of, there must be of all the infantry training that they're expecting.
I think that there must be troops that are being, I realize, over-secondary targets.
I'm not saying they're not looking or not.
And if you're doing, uh, 48, you know, if you hit something mean that they will then try to, uh, I wouldn't say move out.
I'm just trying to figure out how this works.
9, 6, 5, 6, 7.
The president's good.
He's good.
That's good.
That's more of a psychological distinction.
The one thing that I left here that I don't know is... ...other things.
We haven't done this yet, and that's great.
We haven't done that, so I'm at my peace.
And I hope that more of us get to interview you.
Okay, I'll thank you.
Thank you.

NARA Description

On February 9, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:52 pm to 2:57 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 321-011 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 321-11

Date: February 9, 1972
Time: 2:52 pm –2:57 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

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

******************************************************************************

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[National Security (B) withdrawal reviewed under MDR guidelines case number LPRN-T-MDR-
2014-018. Segment exempt per Executive Order 13526, 3.3(b)(1) on 04/29/2019. Archivist: DR]
[National Security]
[321-011-w001]
[Duration: 10s]

[See Conversation No. 20-84; one item has been withdrawn from the conversation]
     INTELLIGENCE

END WITHRAWN ITEM NO. 1

******************************************************************************

Also recorded on February 9, 1972

  • 020-085 2:51 PM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 2:51 pm and 3:36 pm.
  • 020-084 2:52 PM · 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. talked on the telephone from 2:52 pm to 2:57 pm.
  • 321-012 2:57 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 2:57 pm and 3:15 pm.
  • 321-013 2:57 PM · 23 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 2:57 pm and 3:15 pm.
  • 321-014 3:15 PM · 16 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Manolo Sanchez, and John D. Ehrlichman met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:15 pm to 3:40 pm.
  • 020-086 3:36 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger talked on the telephone from 3:36 pm to 3:38 pm.
  • 020-087 3:38 PM · 2 min — H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, White House operator, President Richard M. Nixon, and Patrick J. Buchanan talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 3:38 pm and 11:59 pm.
  • 321-015 3:40 PM · 32 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building on an unknown date, sometime between 3:40 pm on February 9, 1972 and 12:29 pm on March 8, 1972.

All 53 conversations from February 9, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 321-011, February 9, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/321-011 (accessed October 2, 2026).