Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 337-003
Date: Wednesday, May 10, 1972 at 9:20 AM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Kissinger, Henry A.
Recording device: Old Executive Office Building
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/337-003

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite it as authoritative.

[4:26] Well, they turned out to be a little pretty today.
[4:29] A nice spring day.
[4:30] How did the strike go?
[4:31] The chessbook was completed.
[4:32] They didn't have the final report on it yet.
[4:34] They said they got a good wife.
[4:36] They had a good business together.
[4:57] We may be driven to have to put more restrictions on these pilots.
[5:37] Well, we'll know tonight.
[6:23] It's a, it's a...
[7:02] The enemy is bringing up supplies, but must be paying horrendous losses from the airstrikes.
[7:06] They're now probing more.
[7:07] The RN is going out more in patrol.
[7:09] And yesterday alone, they've ended up re-airing for the SP-52 strike with around 400 pilots.
[7:11] That's one of the few times they've ended up in these airings.
[7:14] They're going around in losses, but it's not going to be horrendous.
[7:30] telling me how their situation had come through three weeks ago.
[7:34] They could literally have walked into the country.
[7:36] Now they are there.
[7:37] Now I've been to this really lousy division, one foot at a time, and now they're open.
[7:40] But they've never managed to put it all together because they can't.
[7:43] I think that's the thing, because they haven't done it.
[7:45] Even if they don't take it, it's really, to my judgment, only a question of three or four days.
[7:49] I haven't even seen him for days.
[8:06] We now are on the 10th of May, the rainy season starts just about now.
[8:09] After they take home food, they're going to go to play school.
[8:12] It'll take them three weeks if they're ready to get down, or they're coming to play school without having to take in an accident.
[8:20] So there's a potential harvest from this close down on 5th of October in about three weeks.
[8:45] And what happens when they get back?
[8:47] It's not like talking to a tree.
[9:06] I mean, did they give him what he wanted?
[9:08] I don't think so.
[9:08] I'm not satisfied.
[9:09] But I mean, of course, there's a campaign out.
[9:48] We can do it.
[9:49] We can do it.
[9:49] We can do it.
[10:39] Also, I don't know whether all of this has been getting to you or not.
[11:37] We need to hold with the argument saying that you think that we've made the most sense of this piece of it.
[11:47] Well, of course we have.
[11:48] That's the thing that I think is everybody ought to get.
[11:52] You think what you ought to do.
[12:05] Oh, who didn't support him?
[12:29] That's right.
[12:29] But if not, the Times supported it, the Post supported it, the Free Network supported it, every Republican supported it.
[12:37] The L.E.L.
[12:37] all supported it.
[12:38] That's the difference.
[12:39] But I think we understand the difference.
[12:42] But the point is that even then, the intellectuals were saying he was running it like this.
[12:51] frightening everybody.
[12:52] And I don't see as much of the World War III crap that's in the Cambodian view at this point.
[12:57] Or do you?
[12:58] I do not.
[13:32] Oh yeah, it doesn't affect the wind.
[13:33] We've taken that into account in the whole Soviet-Chinese reaction.
[13:36] It can be strong, you know what I mean?
[13:38] You can't get all of us disturbed when it is strong.
[13:39] Even if they say it is not, but it's more major than something else.
[13:42] You get all the message from the Chinese regarding the ship and how it's going to play out.
[14:34] I don't think you'll get a much response until after the children are treated.
[14:38] By the way, that was until their attention hour.
[15:30] and I'm going to get a hold of them.
[15:31] What is the situation with regard to what we want to do besides the PR group to just empty out everything and cross it.
[15:34] But I think the PR group is going to cause a massive
[15:57] But I think...
[15:57] The generosity of the people.
[15:59] Yeah, but we shouldn't babble too much about that.
[16:03] Well, I don't mind that you're reiterating my race as a Jew, Rick.
[16:06] I call it, we always have, I call the Israeli a bad thing, and he's intended to help shape up the Jewish group.
[16:12] Also congratulated for the way they handled a hijacker.
[16:17] He's talking, he's a evangelist, he's talking to Jews.
[16:27] Yes, it's withdrawal or ceasefire.
[16:30] We've changed the deadline a little bit.
[16:57] It's a pretty hard one.
[16:58] Well, what do you want to emphasize in that?
[17:01] Is support by the president positive?
[17:03] Is there support for the president?
[17:04] Is there an action on the president?
[18:02] And he sounded like a mad, you know, Bill.
[18:04] When you see Bill, he kind of looks a little shifty.
[18:06] Well, he looks so scared.
[18:07] Yeah, he looks so terrified.
[18:08] I think it's, of course, it's all high up and everything.
[18:12] You know, really, Henry, everybody is, I suppose, we're all a little bit scared of you.
[18:16] I think we all know you do that the same, very curiously, don't we?
[18:32] The greatest essence that I have, and very easy to bring to mind, is that I never give away any attention by my words.
[18:39] You know, I go on, I told myself this, and I have to do it.
[18:44] I think that's important.
[18:45] Monday night, even people who highly critical of you, come to this video.
[18:55] but I went last night.
[18:57] Well, I went.
[18:57] I think you should, but I know it's hard for you.
[19:00] No, I just want to show that you're not afraid.
[19:04] I know.
[19:04] I called yesterday and said he was having a few people in, but I'll drop by.
[19:14] But it's going to get to them.
[19:17] So I dropped by and drank a shirt.
[19:38] What do you want me to do in the Middle East?
[19:41] This is not the third time, the second time since we announced this Sunday that Soviet arms are attacking American allies.
[20:08] Yeah, they are.
[20:09] So many have forgotten.
[20:40] But listen to that.
[20:43] He's encouraging us in the day.
[20:49] The Democrats aren't the best possible way to thank Stevenson for his readiness, I had to say last night.
[21:10] I don't think we both saw running through this cooler thing.
[21:31] I think what we ought to do is, before this went on, we've got to pull it off.
[21:36] We'll understand it.
[21:37] When we talk about it, I understand all the bad things that are going to happen.
[21:43] So we can cancel the training, the ring cell, so the campuses can blow up, and so forth and so on.
[21:51] But, in fact, it's still all going to happen.
[21:53] We've got a major reaction to that.
[21:56] That's a silver arrow, not major.
[21:59] There's one thing we, and those are things that are probably not certain, but there's one thing that's certain.
[22:07] We have to win, and we can win.
[22:10] That means, basically, that we bring that, and only we bring that.
[22:15] It's the whole thing.
[22:20] I mean, now that we have dropped out and gone, some will hope they may remove San Juan.
[22:24] But I think so, too.
[22:25] And I just cannot see.
[22:26] Just look at the governmental process in the north now and leave aside how effective it is.
[22:31] Assume they can reroute all the supplies .
[22:33] They're assuming they're twisted, technical problems, running 50 million operations, rerouting two and a half million tons of supplies.
[22:50] Uh, they're having the time to do all of this simultaneously in a compressed period of time.
[22:57] No government can do that.
[22:58] What about the Dalts and the Chinese?
[23:00] I understand they work for one of the most important reports of this and 90,000 techniques of the church.
[23:06] Well, that would take them about a month or two to get organized.
[23:09] We're talking now about taking them back.
[23:11] And in a short period of time?
[23:13] Well, the...
[23:18] It may take them a month or two to get these troops organized, to get them in place.
[23:22] Then they had to pretend what they did was repair the roads and the railroads.
[23:24] And that's still in place in Texas, where it's the deepest event in all of Russia.
[23:27] I don't know whether it was straggled out of time.
[24:10] I think even at the rate of 200 sorties, we're going to do a lot of them.
[24:11] And I suggest probably we have it once a week.
[24:12] That's it.
[24:13] We're going to do a lot of them.
[24:41] It's never what happens to 30 divisions.
[24:42] It's what happens to a part of a division.
[24:43] It's sort of an old mystic, I know it.
[25:11] Oh, I didn't want to already take this on yesterday.
[25:13] I thought that would have been a domestic event.
[25:24] Could Bush, oh, since that was not, did not push the quarter, the quarter picked on this idea, you know, and all he says is that we have given them an ultimatum, and it's a nice place, I don't know.
[25:32] Who the hell gave the ultimatum to them?
[25:33] I didn't give it to us.
[25:34] I wouldn't.
[25:34] The New York Times is going to know.
[26:09] That's one thing.
[26:10] You can't say that record was tough.
[26:10] Well, I'm just kidding.
[26:11] It was tough, but it was not for a hunt.
[26:12] We have no intention, however, of having our logs take on all the essential supplies.
[26:14] That's what I know.
[26:15] And also the amount of support...
[26:40] You know, I, you know, four weeks ago, I did a few, but that was when we were trying to keep things quiet.
[26:44] You know, we're working on an enormous wire now.
[26:48] It's really right now.
[26:49] Well, I know some people try to send me lines.
[26:50] They send me lines at 3.30 a.m.
[27:17] So we've got some, we've got men here who do talk to people around the country.
[27:21] So I think in public, where you see these television shows where you can be sure they're not picking people to support them.
[27:27] Do they have some that aren't?
[27:29] Yeah.
[27:30] And the men in the streets are always human.
[27:33] Either they say they support you or they say they don't know enough about it.
[27:37] Which is to help the American people.
[27:39] The thing that I think is that you and I, like you before,
[27:45] I mean, whatever happens, whatever criticism we get, I don't care if that administration
[28:09] I heard that there were some.
[28:09] Did you see them?
[28:10] What did they say?
[28:11] They said they're proud of the Americans, they're proud of the president.
[28:12] And that they had good interviews with prisoners' wives on CBS this morning.
[28:14] What did they say?
[28:15] They said they are so proud of the president.
[28:16] I knew who it was.
[28:16] Yeah.
[28:16] Well, this is giving them hope.
[28:17] This is the
[28:49] You still think it's alright for me to go to court?
[28:53] Yeah, I'm not mistaken.
[28:55] No, I think you're going to court.
[28:57] I feel fine now.
[28:59] That is important.
[29:00] I had enough to go through my law school class last night for 11 o'clock.
[29:04] You may have a lot of months ahead of you.
[29:52] Look what I've laid out.
[30:28] you
[32:27] Let me know what happens.
[32:28] We'll let you know.
[32:29] I'll call the breeder and tell him that if any token should be paid, we want them to pay.
[32:37] We want him to inform us on that sort of thing, because we have no intention whatever.
[32:46] We're trying to be very restrained in this action.
[32:52] Basically, Henry, there is a restrained action.
[32:58] As far as the Soviets, we are not stopping ships in the high seas.
[33:00] It isn't like the Cuban Missile Crisis in that respect.
[33:02] But what we're doing is choking these bastards to death.
[33:04] That's a different matter.
[33:05] The point is, what were they doing to us?
[33:06] They were choking us to death.
[33:07] I'll tell you what we do.
[33:08] Sit down and get choked.
[33:09] I'll tell you what we've got to get across.
[33:10] That concludes it.
[33:11] You know, I'll tell you what we've got to do.
[33:30] Thank you.
[35:49] This is a letter to John S. Bradley.
[35:50] Dear, uh...
[35:51] I don't know how very much I personally appreciate your letter of April 1, 1939.
[35:54] John's comments...