← 336-035336-037 →

Conversation 336-036

TapeTape 336StartMonday, May 8, 1972 at 4:57 PMEndMonday, May 8, 1972 at 5:23 PMTape start time02:04:51Tape end time02:08:11ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President)Recording deviceOld Executive Office Building
AudioNARA Description

On May 8, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 4:57 pm and 5:23 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 336-036 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 336-36

Date: May 8, 1972
Time: Unknown between 4:57 and 5:23 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President rehearsed his “Address to the Nation on the Situation in Southeast Asia”.

[This is a continuation of Conversation No. 336-34]

[See Public Papers of the Presidents, Richard M. Nixon, 1972, pp. 583-587]
Transcript (AI-Generated)

This transcript was generated automatically by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite this transcript as authoritative. Consult the Finding Aid above for verified information.

Five weeks ago, Mr. Lee and the Congress departments of North Vietnam launched a massive invasion of South Vietnam and invaded the most big possible.
My tanks are delivering an under-advantaged defensive weapon supplied by the Anaheim Soviet Union and other communist nations.
The South Vietnamese have fought bravely to repel this brutal assault, attacking from both sides of the Anaheim.
It was tragic.
There have been over 20,000 civilian casualties, including women and children.
The citizens of North Vietnam and these countries
As I announced in my report to the nation 12 days ago, the role of the United States in consistent miscegenation has been limited to air and naval strikes on military targets in the province of Vietnam.
As I also pointed out in that report, we have responded to part of Vietnam's massing of other targets by undertaking wide-ranging new peace efforts aimed at ending the war and the negotiation.
I sent our minister to Moscow for four days to meet with the General Secretary of Russia and other Soviet leaders.
I instructed them to decide our desire for a rapid solution to the war, and I wrote to them to look at all possible approaches.
At that time, the Soviet leaders showed interest in bringing the war to an end on a basis of justice for both sides.
They urged resumption of negotiations in Paris, and indicated they would use their constructive efforts.
Based on these insurances, I authorized our minister
to meet privately with the top North Korean peace negotiators in October, on Tuesday, the second of March.
Ambassador Porter, she co-leads all the peace negotiators in Paris on Thursday, April 27th, and on Thursday, May 4th.
At those meetings, the public can identify all we heard and what the Ambassador's record generally reflects on their demands across America.
For example, from May 26th,
I authorize our business to report about fairly conceivable battle through tortures.
The North Vietnamese faculty refused to consider any of these approaches.
They refused to offer any new approach to their home.
Instead, they simply read verbatim their previous public demands.
Herefore, over three years of public and private negotiations have now come down.
The United States, with full concurrence of our sovereignty and its allies, has offered the maximum of what any president could offer.
We have offered de-escalation of crime.
We have offered de-escalation of crime.
We have offered a ceasefire with a deadline to withdraw all American workers.
We have offered two elections between the nation's superlatives.
The Congress participated both in the superlatives' body and the elections themselves.
The other two have offered to resign one month before the election.
We have offered an exchange of prisoners of war and racial, and a ten-part fee of the age limit for every one of our American prisoners of age groups.
North Vietnam has met each of these offers with insults and insults.
They have flatly, flatly, arrogantly refused to negotiate another war agreement.
It is not the United States, North Vietnam, which sought military victory or escalated the war.
It is not the United States, North Vietnam, which submitted another pact.
It is not the United States, North Vietnam, which demanded surrender.
North Vietnam, North Vietnam alone, did all these things.
Their answer to every peace offer we have made has been to escort the war.
Two weeks alone, as I offered to do a negotiation, the man on his watch prayed for us.
Doctor, can you hear me?
Hello?
Dr. Kendrick.
Now he wants three.
Now he wants three for anesthesia.
In those two weeks, the rest of the accomplished government may be in full perception that your people saw the good odds for this.
And I want you to message the challenge to the ones that agree with you, rather than to the ones that you love.
And I encourage you to show them your love.
There are only two issues left for us in this war.
First, in the face of a massive invasion, we stand by.
← 336-035336-037 →