Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 336 › Conversation 336-051

Nixon & Kissinger on Vietnam War and Presidential speeches

Monday, May 8, 1972 · 6:14 PM–6:22 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Kissinger, Henry A.Conversation336-051 on Tape 336 (tape position 02:31:58–02:32:22)StartMonday, May 8, 1972 at 6:14 PMEndMonday, May 8, 1972 at 6:22 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 336-051 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Henry Kissinger met to discuss revisions to the President's upcoming speech regarding the Vietnam War. They specifically reviewed page 12 of the draft to ensure the description of organized actions was accurately articulated. This brief consultation focused on finalizing the rhetorical presentation of the administration's policy decisions before the public address.

Audio

Download MP3 (part 1) · 112.6 MB ·Download MP3 (part 2) · 112.3 MB ·Download MP3 (part 3) · 49.5 MB

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 02:31:58 into the tape and ends around 02:32:22.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

Download transcript (.txt) · JSON data

2:32:20Also, on page 12, there's another line that I used as a book description, so that page 12, the bottom of the page, the actions I organized, were what I was describing.

NARA Description

On May 8, 1972, 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 6:14 pm and 6:22 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 336-051 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 336-51

Date: May 8, 1972
Time: Unknown between 6:14 and 6:22 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with Henry A. Kissinger.

     Vietnam
          -President’s speech
                -Deletion

Also recorded on May 8, 1972

336-041 5:55 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 5:55 pm and 6:09 pm.
336-049 6:09 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander P. Butterfield met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 6:09 pm to 6:14 pm.
336-050 6:14 PM · 45 sec — President Richard M. Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 6:14 pm and 6:22 pm.
336-052 6:14 PM · 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 6:14 pm and 6:22 pm.
336-053 6:14 PM · 1 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 6:14 pm and 6:22 pm.
336-054 6:14 PM · 13 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 6:14 pm and 6:22 pm.
336-055 6:14 PM · 44 sec — President Richard M. Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 6:14 pm and 6:22 pm.
336-056 6:22 PM · 10 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 6:22 pm to 6:34 pm.

All 94 conversations from May 8, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 336-051, May 8, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/336-051 (accessed October 22, 2026).