Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 333 › Conversation 333-030
Nixon & Haldeman on Vietnam War and Presidential speechwriting
Wednesday, April 26, 1972 · 5:50 PM–6:06 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 10 min
AI Summary
President Nixon met with H. R. Haldeman and Billy Graham to discuss the upcoming televised address regarding the Vietnam War. Graham offered personal encouragement and political support for the President’s handling of the conflict and his planned trip to Moscow. The President used the time to rehearse the speech, soliciting feedback from Haldeman on its tone and messaging to ensure it projected strength and resolve while avoiding the appearance of defeatism.
Audio
Transcript (AI-generated)
This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 4 minutes of this recording (about 46% 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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.
Download transcript (.txt) · JSON data
· Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).
Each line starts with a timestamp button; press it to play the audio from that point.
All right.
You should wait for Henry.
Yeah, I can see zero.
Oh, I'm worried.
Well, I'll tell you that it's very important.
Your thoughts were with you all this week, and that was having a special prayer thing for you just before you go on in here tonight.
The city's been having press conferences everywhere it goes.
No Minneapolis.
Minneapolis paper is
I had a lead on Headline of the Story, and this president was saying, Graham Back-Smithson denies political ties or something.
He said, I, of course, always put it non-politically, and he said the only way they could come out of it was if I was pumping for the president.
I said, they asked me if I was voicing
Close friend with President S.A. Jackson.
I was a close friend with President Johnson.
Also, I tried to be close with him.
But he didn't.
Then he benefited from my help.
But then he goes into fun for us.
And he's going to do it.
And, of course, he's over there.
No, no, I'm not going to deliver the task.
I can't.
There won't be more to tell you.
No time problems.
I think we've got it well worked out now with the scouting guys.
I hope not.
It's a nice little thing to put on.
So we've got that through.
Incidentally, Abram's not gone through.
Was it?
I don't know.
It was a mistake.
That builds speech a little too, doesn't it?
All right.
Well, just try it.
That's the story.
today on the Russian.
Are they getting those stories out?
Are they getting them in play?
I know Henry's seen the wire.
Well, he heard it.
But we're getting in there quietly.
Then there's the story that there's a Russian delegation in Panama.
Well, that's good.
You know, that's going to give people a little hope.
You know, the problem I have is...
It's tough and shitty, but it doesn't have a lot of hope at the end, you know what I mean?
It doesn't have the unusual gobbledygook, but it gets better.
Obviously, we can do it again, but maybe I have to go back.
That's what the price is.
I'm pleading for...
and all those, you know what I mean?
I just haven't got that in there.
On July 1st, I put the records down.
By July 1st, we would have drawn over 90% of our horses to be adopted.
Before they had a miscarriage and began, we had cut our hairs off and we have offered exceedingly generous terms for people
The only thing that we refuse to do is to accede to the enemy's demand to overthrow the lawfully constituted government of South Vietnam and to oppose a communist dictatorship in its place.
As you will recall, I have warned on a number of occasions over the past three years that if the enemy responded to our efforts to bring peace by stepping up the war, I would act to meet that attack for three reasons.
To protect our remaining American forces, to prevent the continuation of our withdrawal program,
and prevent the imposition of a communist regime on the people of South Vietnam against their will, with the inevitable bloodbath of the far over hundreds of thousands who have dared to oppose communist aggression.
The air and naval strikes of recent weeks have been carried out to achieve those objectives.
They have been directed only against military targets supporting the invasion of South Vietnam.
They will not stop until that invasion stops.
The communists have failed in their efforts to win over the people of South Vietnam
General Akers believes they will fail on their efforts to conquer South Vietnam military.
Their one remaining hope is to win in the Congress of the United States and among the people of the United States.
Victor, they cannot win among the people of South Vietnam or on the battlefield of Vietnam.
The great question then is how we, the American people, will respond to this final challenge.
Let us look for the stakes on it, not just for South Vietnam, but the United States and the cause of peace in the world.
Give one country, armed with the most moderate weapons by other countries,
can invade another nation and succeed in country.
Other countries will be encouraged to do exactly the same thing in the Middle East, Europe, and other international nations.
If the communists win military in Vietnam, the risk of war in other parts of the world will be enormously increased.
We are not trying to conquer North Vietnam or any other country.
We want no territory.
We seek no basis.
We have offered the most generous peace terms, peace with honor for both sides, South Vietnam and North Vietnam, even respecting the other two continents.
but we will not be the people, and we will never surrender our brains to communist aggression.
We have come a long way in this conflict.
The South Vietnamese have made great progress and are now bearing the brunt of the battle.
We can now see the day when no more Americans will be involved in our own.
But as we come to the end of this long, difficult struggle, we must be steadfast and we must run forward.
For all that we have risen and all that we have gained over the years now stands and hangs about us.
If we now let down our friends, we shall surely be letting down ourselves and our future as well.
If we now persist, history will bend America with her courage and her vision at this moment in time.
That is why I say let us bring our men home from Vietnam.
Let us end the war in Vietnam.
And let us end it in such a way that the younger brothers and sons of the brave men who have fought in Vietnam will not have to fight again because Vietnam will not have to.
Any man who sits here in this office feels a solemn and heavy weight of obligation to the future generation.
No man who sits here has the right to take any action which would abdicate America's great tradition of world leadership.
Earlier this year, I traveled to Peking on a historic journey of peace.
Next month, I shall travel to Moscow on what I hope will also be a journey of peace.
In the 18 countries I have visited as President, I have found great respect for the office of President
I reason to expect, based on Dr. Christie's report, that I shall find that same respect for the presidency when I visit Moscow.
I do not know who will be in this office in years to come, but I do know that future presidents will travel the nations abroad and turn us for peace as I have.
If the United States betrays the millions of people who have relied on us in Vietnam, the President of the United States, whoever he is, will not deserve nor receive the respect which is essential
United States has played a great role.
We are destined to play in helping to build a new structure of peace in the world.
It would amount to a renunciation of our morality, an abdication of our leadership among nations, and an invitation for the mighty to prey upon the weak all around the world.
It would be to deny peace the chance peace deserves to have.
This we shall never do.
Let us then unite as a nation, a firm and wise policy of peace.
Not the peace of surrender, but peace with honor.
Not only peace in our time, but peace for generations to come.
Well, that's... You think that's too...
I hope so.
Too negative?
No.
I don't think it's negative at all.
I don't think it's negative at all.
You've got to just give peace a chance, son.
Well, I think that was...
I don't know what I should do with it.
NARA Description
On April 26, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 5:50 pm to 6:06 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 333-030 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 333-30
Date: April 26, 1972
Time: 5:50 pm - 6:06 pm
Location: Executive Office Building
The President met with H. R.(“Bob”) Haldeman.
Henry A. Kissinger
-Meeting with the President and Haldeman
-Location
William F. (“Billy”) Graham
-Greetings
-Support for the President's Moscow trip and bombing in
North Vietnam
-Press conferences
-Minneapolis newspaper's headlines
-Support for the President
-Work with presidents
-Lyndon B. Johnson
-The President
Vietnam
-The President's speech
-Delivery
-Associated Press [AP]
-Time
-Final draft
-Completion
-John A. Scali
-Gen. Creighton W. Abrams, Jr.
-Ellsworth F. Bunker
-Richard G. Valeriani
-News stories
-Release
-Kissinger
-Soviet delegation in Hanoi
-The President's speech
-Rhetoric
-Raymond K. Price, Jr.
-John K. Andrews, Jr.
-Deletions
-Troop withdrawals
The President rehearsed a speech at an unknown time between 5:50 and 6:06 pm.
[A transcript of the final broadcast of this speech appears
in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States,1972, pp. 550-554.]
An unknown person entered at an unknown time after 5:50 pm.
The President’s schedule
The unknown person left at an unknown time before 6:06 pm
The President resumed rehearsing his speech at an unknown time.
[End of speech]
Vietnam
-The President's speech
-Tone
-Haldeman's opinion
Walk in Rose Garden
The President and Haldeman left at 6:06 pm.Also recorded on April 26, 1972
- 333-027 5:14 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 5:14 pm to 5:16 pm.
- 333-045 5:15 PM · 21 sec — 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 5:15 pm and 5:50 pm.
- 333-028 5:16 PM · 15 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 5:16 pm and 5:50 pm.
- 333-029 5:16 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 5:16 pm and 5:50 pm.
- 333-031 6:20 PM · 14 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 6:20 pm to 6:32 pm.
- 023-088 6:32 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 6:32 pm and 6:35 pm.
- 333-032 6:32 PM · 6 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 6:32 pm and 6:35 pm.
- 023-089 6:35 PM · 33 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Thelma C. ("Pat") (Ryan) Nixon talked on the telephone from 6:35 pm to 6:36 pm.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 333-030, April 26, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/333-030 (accessed October 9, 2026).