Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 332 › Conversation 332-039

Nixon, Lord & Andrews on Vietnam War and Presidential speechwriting

Tuesday, April 25, 1972 · 1:15 PM–1:33 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Lord, Winston; Andrews, John K., Jr.; Kissinger, Henry A.; Nixon, Richard M. (President); Lord, Winston; Andrews, John K., Jr.; Kissinger, Henry A.Conversation332-039 on Tape 332 (tape position 04:57:31–05:11:49)StartTuesday, April 25, 1972 at 1:15 PMEndTuesday, April 25, 1972 at 1:33 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 332-039 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with aides Winston Lord and John K. Andrews, Jr. to rehearse and refine a forthcoming speech regarding the Vietnam War. During the session, the President read a draft that emphasized his refusal to compromise U.S. national interests for election-year political gains, while framing the conflict as a test of American resolve against communist aggression. The discussion focused on adjusting the speech’s length and wording to underscore the necessity of achieving "peace with honor" and maintaining the integrity of the presidency.

Audio

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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 04:57:31 into the tape and ends around 05:11:49.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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· Timestamps are positions within the full tape recording.
4:57:31We've got to find out what it is that we can't pay their price for the sun.
4:57:34Not that price.
4:57:44I included also a copy of your outline so you can see how it looks in the paper.
4:57:58And it got a little longer because of the time that you sent me and also because .
4:58:13There's the flesh hanging out on the outside.
4:58:14He's gonna have to be cut.
4:58:17He said he was gonna be cut.
4:58:22Thank you.
4:58:23Thank you.
4:58:45And then I'll go over it once again with him now.
4:58:46I don't know, Lord, should you be with me?
4:58:50Yes, sir.
4:58:51You should not just spread it around to anybody, not to the dictator or all around history or anybody else.
4:58:59Henry, of course, puts this on the scene as the history.
4:59:06But right now, he seems to be getting a draft of I have approved.
4:59:10I'm not going to say what he wants.
4:59:12Now, when do you think that...
4:59:14Are you ready for the workouts?
4:59:25Quite interesting that he went to Moscow.
4:59:36I've gotten so suspicious when I heard he was with you and Cam David over the weekend.
4:59:40I thought that sounds too easy.
4:59:41I don't know why some newsman doesn't think it sounds too easy.
5:00:19Uh, Mr. Ambrose, please, uh, uh, in the, uh, research office.
5:00:29Yeah.
5:00:48I bubbled it on a little faster than I thought, but if it was getting lower, it could come on over there.
5:00:54We'll talk about it now.
5:01:39I have, as these fellows have done, done an excellent job of pulling this stuff together.
5:01:44And I don't want to crush you too hard, but whatever your schedule at the time, let's do it.
5:01:50But I'd like you to come over and let me sort of read it to you, the appeal of the statement.
5:01:57And then I'll give it to you.
5:01:59And then you can horse around.
5:02:01Come on.
5:02:04Oh, come on.
5:02:05Fifteen.
5:02:05I think that's better.
5:02:07You'd rather wait for three o'clock, so that'd be better.
5:02:13Yeah.
5:02:13I was going to say two o'clock.
5:02:20Okay.
5:02:26Come in.
5:02:26Can I just go in quick?
5:02:29Well, I want to tell you.
5:02:31I told him to get out.
5:02:35I'm going to have him come in right now.
5:02:39I'm just trying to do it.
5:02:54Why don't you take this copy and help them change this?
5:03:01They're rather minor, as a matter of fact.
5:03:07We may have to cut some, but we may have to go along with it in this bid.
5:03:22A lawyer.
5:03:23I went to the Fletcher School of Law and Autonomy, as it was called.
5:03:27I went to international law school.
5:03:29So, I totally agree with that.
5:03:31I went to the Fletcher School of Law and Autonomy.
5:03:36What's your reading?
5:03:40feel as you go through these .
5:03:50.
5:03:51.
5:03:51.
5:03:51.
5:03:51. .
5:04:06I wasn't a lawyer.
5:04:07I would like to have gone to law school.
5:04:12It's hanging in the wind.
5:04:14It's not worth three years.
5:04:16They give a law course a year and a half.
5:04:21You get all these people regarding the logic.
5:04:22You know, just do law your way of thinking without knowing true law.
5:04:29That's why you have to learn about how to work out an issue of...
5:04:34bond issue or a stock issue or something like that.
5:04:38You see what I mean?
5:04:39Right.
5:04:39It's just a bunch of crap.
5:04:40You think John Johnson would be more disciplined?
5:04:42He doesn't want Henry to be here.
5:04:47Do you have a...
5:05:07I don't think I'll pay that much attention to that at the end because I think it's a hell of a good point, but I think that we're going to have to talk to a lot of the other people on that other side.
5:05:25By responding to it?
5:05:27Well, it may be, but I don't know.
5:05:31I have no idea.
5:05:32You know what I mean?
5:05:32It's something that... Members of Congress themselves take it on and have to deal with it.
5:05:39Well, one reason, too, is that I have that father and that I'm having what is now an opposed conclusion.
5:05:44It's driving Henry out of the wall.
5:05:46I'm going to have to say, it may not drive him out of the wall as far as we can think, but that's the way I'd add this.
5:05:58At the present time, but on the American defense, we're telling you that we're bombing military targets in the most extreme and stressful terms.
5:06:07And we go on to this.
5:06:10The enemy has failed in its efforts to win over the people of South Vietnam.
5:06:15Colonel Abrams believes that the enemy will fail in its efforts to conquer South Vietnam over there.
5:06:18The enemy's last hope is to win over Congress in the United States and among the people of the United States.
5:06:24We'll get a three-day camp among the people of South Vietnam on the battlefield of South Vietnam.
5:06:30The great question is how we, the American people, respond to the challenge.
5:06:35I understand the bitter frustration and the impact of the law position on this long and difficult war that has caused the United States of America.
5:06:42Their case for doing nothing to stop this food competition in South Vietnam is compelling.
5:06:46To know something like this hasn't been done enough.
5:06:50The South Vietnamese can't defend their country without our help.
5:06:52Let's get out.
5:06:53What the President should do is to order the evacuation of all American forces and let them not escape COVID.
5:07:00What the critics fail to realize is that quite like the state, it's not just the future of the 70 million people in South Vietnam, but the future of peace in the world and the future of the United States as a great nation will always use its power to keep the peace in every grave.
5:07:16Some of the facts.
5:07:17We did not start this war.
5:07:18We went to South Vietnam and helped the people of South Vietnam to lend themselves and support the aggression.
5:07:23The Vietnamese do not abhor their spring invasion.
5:07:25Without massive aid from outside powers, their tanks, guns, and most modern weapons.
5:07:28If one country, with the assistance of other powers, invades another nation and succeeds in conquering it, other countries will be encouraged to do exactly the same thing.
5:07:38In the Middle East, in Europe, and in other international areas as well.
5:07:46The Vietnamese believe that Vietnam, at risk of war in other parts of the world, is not a safe place.
5:07:52We aren't trying to conquer Vietnam or any other country.
5:07:56We want no territory.
5:07:59We seek no basis.
5:08:00That's why I say that we will offer the most generous peace.
5:08:03Peace with honor for both sides, itself Vietnam and North Vietnam, keep respect for each other.
5:08:05But we will not be humiliated.
5:08:09We will not be defeated.
5:08:10And we will never surrender.
5:08:16This is a matter of generalistic national pride.
5:08:19What we must face up to is an informed, supportive, communist aggression failed in Vietnam.
5:08:24It will be discouraged elsewhere.
5:08:26If it succeeds there, it will be encouraged elsewhere.
5:08:28And the risk of war outparks the world in us.
5:08:33So I say let us bring our men home to Vietnam.
5:08:34Let us end the war in Vietnam.
5:08:36But let us end it in a way that the younger brothers and sons of the brave men who have fought in Vietnam will not be fighting in some other Vietnam in some time in the future.
5:08:44I am reminded by friends and prayers alive in this election year that I risked winning the election by ordering our air and naval partnerships to resist this progression.
5:08:56And what I regret, decreased my chance to win the election if I brought peace to Vietnam, whatever the price.
5:09:01I completely reject this type of advice.
5:09:03The cost of winning an election is too high, and the price is an American business.
5:09:07No man who sits in this office can act in a way that weakens the presidency of the United States.
5:09:17The United States is the most powerful nation in the free world.
5:09:20We have made our mistakes in foreign policy, but through our general credit in this century, we have never started a war.
5:09:25We have always used our power to defend peace and freedom, never to destroy it.
5:09:31This year, I covered Vietnam's historic general peace.
5:09:33Next month, I shall travel to Moscow on what I hope will also be a general peace.
5:09:38In the 18 countries I have visited as President, I have earned great respect from the office of President of the United States.
5:09:44I have reason to expect, based on Dr. Fitch's report, that I shall find that same respect I have in Moscow.
5:09:52I do not know who will be in this office in the first place.
5:09:56That is a decision we as American people will make.
5:09:59But I do know that future presidents will travel the nation to broaden our terms of peace as I have.
5:10:05If the United States pleads with me about humiliating a leader, the President of the United States, whoever he is, would not deserve or receive respect which is such
5:10:14that the United States is to continue to play the great role we are destined to play of helping to build a new structure of peace in the world for generations to come.
5:10:20Let's look back at the policies we've taken about the peace of the record.
5:10:32That's the basic picture of contact with Zona.
5:10:43It's obviously very personal.
5:10:46You can see it's not real.
5:10:54You see, we cannot, you cannot, you see, at this time, this will be in our hearts.
5:11:02We're not going to let go, we're going to give it a little second.
5:11:16In the beginning, we got superfluous.
5:11:19Rather, it covered the pull-out days, but not all of them.
5:11:21The part a little about the hearts and minds of the American people.
5:11:23I suppose you can take out that thing.
5:11:25Because I covered the same thing there, and I can say once again, bring in the China group, and bring in the Russian group, and the United States.
5:11:44But in the end, you've come so far that the South didn't even get to anymore.
5:11:47And if running, if we don't want to have stuck in the line, we've got an endless road ahead of us.

NARA Description

On April 25, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, Winston Lord, John K. Andrews, Jr., and Henry A. Kissinger met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 1:15 pm to 1:33 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 332-039 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 332-39

Date: April 25, 1972
Time: 1:15 pm - 1:33 pm
Location: Old Executive Office Building

The President met with Winston Lord and John K. Andrews, Jr.

     The President's speech
          -Revisions by Lord and Andrews
               -Evaluation of work
               -Henry A. Kissinger's review
          -Copy
               -Further revisions

     Lord [?]
          -Education
          -Career choices
               -Teaching career
          -Work in White House

                -Mother
                -Law school
           -Law school
                -Value
                -Training
                     -Discipline
                     -Value
                     -Stock and bond issues
                     -Kissinger

     The President's speech
          -Review
          -Conclusion
          -Madame Nguyen Thi Bihn
          -Bombing
               -Intensity
          -Tehran

The President read his speech draft.

     [A transcript of the speech in its final form appears in Public Papers of the Presidents,
     1972, pp. 553-554.]

[End of speech rehearsal]

     The President's speech
          -Revisions
               -Changes in wording
                      -Discussion of People's Republic of China [PRC] and Soviet trips
               -South Vietnamese performance
                      -Insertion of passage
          -Conclusion
               -US goals in Vietnam
                      -Peace with honor
                      -Cambodia speech
          -Election year risks
               -Office of the President

The President talked with an unknown person [Kissinger?] at an unknown time between 1:15
and 1:33 pm.

     [Conversation No. 332-39A]

     The President's speech
          -Meeting with the President
               -Time
          -Draft
               -Typing

[End of telephone conversation]

     The President's speech
          -Conclusion
               -Wording
               -End of war
                      -Imminence
               -Revisions
               -Length
               -Cambodia speech
                      -Kent State University
          -Election year
               -Risks
                      -Soviets
                      -The President's determination
               -North Vietnamese miscalculations
          -Work of Lord and Andrews

Lord and Andrews left at 1:33 pm.

Also recorded on April 25, 1972

  • 023-061 1:09 PM · 16 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and John K. Andrews, Jr. talked on the telephone from 1:09 pm to 1:10 pm.
  • 332-037 1:09 PM · 53 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and John K. Andrews, Jr. met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 1:09 pm to 1:10 pm.
  • 332-038 1:10 PM · 40 sec — 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 1:10 pm and 1:15 pm.
  • 023-062 1:33 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 1:33 pm and 1:38 pm.
  • 332-040 1:33 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 1:33 pm and 1:38 pm.
  • 332-041 1:33 PM · 36 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 1:33 pm and 1:38 pm.
  • 023-063 1:38 PM · 33 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler talked on the telephone from 1:38 pm to 1:39 pm.
  • 332-042 1:38 PM · 39 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 1:38 pm to 1:39 pm.

All 54 conversations from April 25, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 332-039, April 25, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/332-039 (accessed October 22, 2026).