Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 337 › Conversation 337-016

Nixon & Kissinger on Vietnam War and Blockade of North Vietnam

Wednesday, May 10, 1972 · 12:36 PM–1:02 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Kissinger, Henry A.; [Unknown person(s)]; Nixon, Richard M. (President); Kissinger, Henry A.; [Unknown person(s)]Conversation337-016 on Tape 337 (tape position 03:01:07–03:26:49)StartWednesday, May 10, 1972 at 12:36 PMEndWednesday, May 10, 1972 at 1:02 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 337-016 ↗

President Nixon and Henry Kissinger met to discuss the strategic implications of the recently implemented blockade of North Vietnam and the ongoing North Vietnamese offensive. They analyzed the potential impact on the upcoming Moscow summit, the status of domestic political opposition, and the military situation in regions like Hue and An Loc. The President reaffirmed his decision to maintain the blockade, viewing it as a necessary display of strength to prevent a collapse in South Vietnam and to secure his position during an election year.

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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 03:01:07 into the tape and ends around 03:26:49.

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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.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.
3:01:09Yeah, they're good boys, huh?
3:01:14That's right.
3:01:15That is pretty.
3:01:15Well, you take care and you take good care of yourself, okay?
3:01:21All right, man.
3:01:23I'll be doing that.
3:01:52I heard things went very well up here.
3:01:54That went very well, yeah.
3:01:57And of course, the rocket car was a big deal for us.
3:02:02Absolutely.
3:02:03Introducing it.
3:02:05Yeah, yeah.
3:02:07A fine job was done.
3:02:37I think that there are
3:03:14The point right now is we're not going to fire the man if we can't confront him.
3:03:18If we can't confront him, that would be helpful to us.
3:03:22He's downstairs by there.
3:03:54I'm ready to go again.
3:04:39In Moscow, then there was an interesting talk today between the Russian Secretary-Chief of National Affairs and our Secretary-Chief of National Affairs.
3:05:07I gave them a rip-snorting, tough speech, which was so sad that I realized they weren't going to buy anything.
3:05:16And indeed, I made this proposal to put them on the line.
3:05:19They weren't going to take it then, because they thought it was a good thing.
3:05:25Now, when they're not there, Abrams is planning...
3:05:32Yes, you really come to this service and put every piece of tissue tomorrow around that, but next day you put every piece of tissue around the front door.
3:05:40Next day you put every piece of tissue around the way.
3:05:44Yes, it's interesting because it's three months to get to the point where I would say, you know, it's worth three months, you know, to get to the point.
3:06:02I don't know.
3:06:24The only thing that happened is that we complicated a little lot more than we could do in the past.
3:06:29What else did you want to change?
3:06:31What the hell?
3:06:31Nothing, nothing.
3:06:32Exactly, Mr. President.
3:06:33I mean, now that the North Korean people are moving out a little bit, they find literally hundreds of dead after they've been trying to handle this.
3:06:41I believe that North Korea, if they don't take the wedge next month, I do not see how they can take this.
3:07:00Oh, they've never, I mean, they had to take either bombing or the flight on the ground.
3:07:08They've never had to take both, I understand you, but on top of that mining.
3:07:47No, no, it doesn't give them, they had to get the picture to make sure the bomb, supposedly it's more accurate because it operates like a television thing, and apparently the television picture shows that they hit the bridge several times, but they have no confirmation other than that bomb, then what that guidance is that the bomb has to do.
3:08:38in front of me.
3:09:07I don't, I didn't realize that there should be a lot more space.
3:09:09And I didn't realize that there was so much space.
3:09:11Thank you for your comments.
3:09:13Thank you for your comments.
3:09:14And we didn't, I mean, except for the New York Times, of course, that sort of thing, which was inevitable.
3:09:17You had a pretty good call to progress to that.
3:09:19I mean, not a supported one, but one that is actually
3:09:41peace officer
3:10:22Yeah, it's a 25% chance that the dust would still come back and stay alive, and you would get beat up.
3:10:25And, of course, that should happen.
3:10:26I think that it would be important to do that.
3:10:27I think that it would be important to do that.
3:10:55But we can't, as a Russian, resort to a vague microcosm as one of our allies.
3:10:58We can't, as a Russian, resort to a vague microcosm as one of our allies.
3:11:01We can't, as a Russian, build enough, potentially, that one of our allies ends in nothing.
3:11:04Ends in nothing.
3:11:05Ends in nothing.
3:11:06And, Mr. President, our agreement, we are planning for December.
3:11:26are good agreements to be made by strong captains, but not by one who puts something down to start the invasion by them, and whenever the last person wants to do it.
3:11:33That wasn't the dilemma at the time.
3:11:34I'm certain the last person who followed the line was not the answer to my question.
3:11:39That, now that I've heard that comment, you know, when he saw something, he wanted to see it.
3:11:46It would have been the right thing to do if he didn't, not to be the answer to my question.
3:12:00The thing really comes down to what you say.
3:12:55I don't think this was the thing.
3:13:01Don't you have a better feeling about that?
3:13:04Oh, yeah, because up to now, these Vietnamese commanders were wondering, maybe the thing is going to go, maybe the Americans are going to leave.
3:13:25Secretary Chu has just declared a state of master development today.
3:13:29He's mobilizing.
3:13:30We've got to enable that all army units are going to be brought up to full strength.
3:13:37When you've now got a finance spirit, there is a good chance that they will track the D.C. infrastructure in this outbound.
3:13:46I think that this map will cycle out to Johor anyway.
3:13:50And we have to remember, to us, the immunization was a good policy for us,
3:13:59Assuredly, no one, if you get re-elected, nobody should admire who was given the second term.
3:14:06You have proved that.
3:14:08If you're willing to do this in May of an election year, you just can't be trifled with.
3:14:14This is why we needed it again today, and this is why on Monday it got filed.
3:14:38And he did.
3:14:38And nevertheless, I came out on the side of doing it, even though, you know, all personal attendants would ride out this year at the Gloria and the Moscow Sunday.
3:14:42I kept this all in agreement, all of which all my Georgetown friends would have put a babble around the cocktail service for three years on that stuff, you know.
3:14:45But we had to do the other one.
3:14:46And though it's the last day,
3:15:21every month is fine
3:16:31They all agreed to come down and I said, you mustn't be concerned about the real rights of some of them if they can't do it.
3:16:36Because, because basically we have to remember that, well, I don't think there's a point in pressing the jump on a gentleman's brain.
3:16:40Fix it.
3:16:40Fix it.
3:16:40And then he went here.
3:16:41He'll be back.
3:16:41He'll be back.
3:16:41The president from a historical point of view,
3:17:00It won't help me so much next year.
3:17:04Yeah.
3:17:05But if you told us all about this, we wouldn't do that.
3:17:26I don't know.
3:17:28They're not going to get involved.
3:18:18They can't break the blockade front, because they don't have the nation's trust.
3:18:24If they want to break it by sending in large supplies, they need the Chinese.
3:18:28Therefore, they are reducing their resources in order to put the Chinese back into charge.
3:18:36That isn't a solution.
3:18:39That can't be a direction.
3:18:42So they have a hell of a network.
3:18:44All of that, they have to give up.
3:18:45They've done it with you, Robert,
3:18:51As far as we're participating in it, I think it's going to go.
3:18:54Probably the commercial credit.
3:18:56Therefore, I still think what I think they'll do is put the phone aside.
3:19:23You couldn't be abusive, and we scheduled it to help you.
3:19:25It was the most modern way.
3:19:26And you stood, and I was in that box.
3:19:27And I worked perfectly compared to people in the ranch way.
3:20:32You've made all your points in your press conference.
3:20:36I think actually the other side is a bit known because the combination of your speech, my press conference, Laird, whatever Laird is going to say, we're in good shape and even that Kate Church amendment isn't so bad for us because it says we'll withdraw four months after the prisoners are released.
3:20:58Or we have to do that.
3:21:00We should go that route.
3:21:32I saw a memo that was handed out to each department, that they should send their assistant secretaries across the country to push this.
3:21:41I don't think we need that now, because we'll be able to share it.
3:21:45Nice.
3:22:18I mean, they want you to be, but the only way you can keep the post the New York Times have is to carry out Galbraith or Kennedy policies.
3:22:30And then they'll oppose you anyway in October.
3:22:33Oh, they won't.
3:22:54Mr. President, if you read Newsweek this week, then you will see where we would have been had we done nothing.
3:23:03Newsweek has half of its book
3:23:11If they now say that mining is a disaster for the newsreaders, that's no news.
3:23:35If it, thank you, would have had a whole summer of one big leader after another featured in every magazine of this country.
3:23:44This way, one way or the other, there's basically only one way they're going to know.
3:23:48This way, this way, I mean, you see, the worst of all times is having something go and then, and then it means collapse, but at least then, we get the V-O-W, the last word, something.
3:24:05But if you would have looked...
3:24:12and being in Moscow when all of this was going on.
3:24:15And now you can go to Moscow to put your sister back in.
3:24:20But it's interesting that they already have been quiet for two days, even though the German treaty was.
3:24:30The German treaty is done now.
3:24:35Today was the day that the last vote.
3:24:39You don't know what the vote is on.
3:25:07But having said that, we may get into a situation of collapse.
3:25:08I'm not sure now.
3:25:33We don't.
3:25:34And every week makes .
3:25:34It is just not possible.
3:25:35Now, tomorrow at 375, all around that line.
3:25:36There's got to be 1,000 .
3:25:37There just can't be anybody.
3:25:37They've got two divisions around that line.
3:25:39They just cannot see that 4,000 have been found.
3:25:40I'm going to kill that many people.
3:26:12They may just track, then the next day it comes to, it's going to be another 500 to 1,000.
3:26:16They'll hit something there, or they're a mantle out of there.
3:26:20The way, the way, well, the way, there, you see that on the ground, it's going to hurt a lot.
3:26:27It's a pretty good outfit to fight there.
3:26:30But, you see, the other one is too, it's going to hurt.
3:26:43Okay.
3:26:43Okay.
3:26:44Okay.

On May 10, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 12:36 pm to 1:02 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 337-016 of the White House Tapes.

Conversation No. 337-16

Date: May 10, 1972
Time: 12:36-1:02 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President met with Henry A. Kissinger.

     Vietnam
          -Blockade
               -Melvin R. Laird
               -A press story
                     -Source
                           -John B. Connally
          -Connally
               -Confrontation with Democrats
               -Laird statement
          -North Vietnam
               -Xuan Thuy
                     -Moscow
               -Le Duc Tho
          -Soviets
               -Meeting in Paris with US official
               -Statement on US-Soviet meeting
                     -New proposals
               -Kissinger's message
                     -Tenor
          -North Vietnam offensive
               -Gen. Creighton W. Abrams, Jr.
               -B-52 strikes
                     -Kontum
                     -Targets

                  -Hue area
      -Central Intelligence Agency [CIA] analysis
            -Long Binh
      -Number of divisions
            -Quality
            -B-52 strikes
                  -Number
      -Hue
            -North Vietnamese failure to take
      -US retaliation
            -Methods
            -Damage to North Vietnam
                  -Mining
                  -Railroads
-Air strikes
      -Petroleum, Oil, and Lubricants [POL]
            -Haiphong area
      -Accuracy
      -Damage
            -Bridge
-Soviet Summit
      -Cancellation
            -Ronald L. Ziegler statement
-Blockade
      -Press reaction
      -New York Times
      -Washington Post
            -James B. (“Scotty”) Reston
                  -Motives
      -Stewart J.O. Alsop
      -Soviet Summit
            -Conally (?)
            -Cancellation
                  -Possibility
            -Soviet actions
                  -US response
                        -Vietnam
                        -Middle East
            -Agreements
                  -Conditions
      -Connally statement
            -Press reports

               -US stakes in Vietnam
          -North Vietnam offensive
               -Consequence of US defeat
                    -Southeast Asia
          -Blockade
               -Success

An unknown person entered at an unknown time after 12:36 pm.

     Food order

The unknown person left at an unknown time before 1:02 pm.

     Vietnam
          -Blockade
                -Mobilization of Army of the Republic of Vietnam [ARVN] support
                      -Nguyen Van Thieu’s statement
          -Vietnamization policy
          -President's decision
                -Timing
                      -Election year
                            -H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman
          -Soviet Summit
                -Strategic Arms Limitation Talks [SALT]
                      -Kissinger's Georgetown friends
          -Consequences of US defeat
                -Domino Theory
                      -Thailand
          -Blockade support
                -Marshall Green
                -Malaysia
                -Cambodia
                -Australia
                -New Zealand
                -Philippines
                -Japanese

An unknown person entered at an unknown time after 12:36 pm.

     A delivery

The unknown person left at an unknown time before 1:02 pm.

Vietnam
     -Blockade support
           -British
                 -Letter to George R.S. Baring [Earl of Cromer]
     -Summit
           -Cancellation
                 -Compared with US victory in Vietnam
                 -Future Summits
     -North Vietnam offensive
           -Consequences for US
     -President's opponents
     -North Vietnam offensive
           -People's Republic of China [PRC]
                 -Soviet Union
     -Blockade
           -Soviet Union
           -PRC
                 -Soviet Summit
                 -European Security Council
     -Soviet Summit
           -Possible postponement
                 -Kissinger’s view
     -North Vietnam offensive
           -Hue
     -Soviet Summit
           -Possible postponement
     -Press
           -Columnists
           -Kissinger's press conference
           -Laird's press conference
     -Clifford P. Case-Frank F. Church amendment
           -Provisions
                 -Effects for administration
           -Compared with Michael J. Mansfield proposal
           -Chances of passage in House
                 -Effect of polls
           -A memorandum
           -Charles W. Colson
     -Public opinion
           -Edward M. Kennedy
           -Washington Post

                -New York Times
                -John Kenneth Galbraith
                -Kennedy
                -Newsweek
                     -Henry Hubbard
                           -Meeting with Kissinger
                           -Meeting with Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
                     -Criticism of the President
           -North Vietnam offensive
                -South Vietnam defeat possibility
                     -Prisoners of war [POWs]
                -Soviet Summit
                     -President's attendance
                           -Possible public impression

     A vote on the German treaties
          -Time

     Vietnam
          -Possible South Vietnam collapse
          -Air strikes
                -An Loc
                      -Destruction
                -Kontum
                      -Casualties expected
          -Hue
                -Ground action
          -North Vietnam reserve strength
          -Peace offers
                -Negotiations
          -Kissinger’s meeting with columnists

Kissinger left at 1:02 pm.
  • 024-065 12:32 PM · 34 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez talked on the telephone from 12:32 pm to 12:33 pm.
  • 337-015 12:35 PM · 32 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 12:35 pm and 12:36 pm.
  • 337-017 1:05 PM · 5 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 1:05 pm and 3:35 pm.
  • 337-018 1:05 PM · 7 min — 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 1:05 pm and 3:35 pm.
  • 337-019 1:05 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 1:05 pm and 3:35 pm.
  • 337-020 1:05 PM · 4 min — 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 1:05 pm and 3:35 pm.
  • 337-021 1:05 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 1:05 pm and 3:35 pm.
  • 337-022 1:05 PM · 14 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Rose Mary Woods met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 1:05 pm and 3:35 pm.

Conversation 337-016, May 10, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/337-016 (accessed October 12, 2026).