Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 342 › Conversation 342-023

Nixon & Scott on Defense spending and Vietnam War

Tuesday, June 20, 1972 · 1:30 PM–1:35 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 5 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Scott, HughConversation342-023 on Tape 342 (tape position 04:39:23–04:44:46)StartTuesday, June 20, 1972 at 1:30 PMEndTuesday, June 20, 1972 at 1:35 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 342-023 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott to discuss concerns regarding proposed defense spending cuts and their impact on American foreign policy credibility, particularly in Vietnam. The two men addressed the political challenges of managing legislative opposition, with Nixon emphasizing the dangers of a 'death wish' mentality among critics who favored reduced military capabilities. Nixon encouraged Scott to use his judgment in navigating these legislative pressures to ensure national interests were protected during ongoing negotiations.

Audio

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 2 minutes of this recording (about 45% 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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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You, I didn't call you while you were in the hospital because my wife told me you didn't want any letter that you were at any point just getting checked.
But I was delighted to hear that it was just on the agenda.
Well, all kids are used to this sort of thing, of course.
What it does is probably creates a dizziness.
Yeah.
And it basically is gas that comes up there and cuts off the...
cuts off the flow of the blood to the brain for about a minute and all of a sudden you're not counting.
Now that you've discovered that.
Well, I just hope it doesn't munch your rapier tongue.
That's great, that's great, that's great.
Well, I hope that's left.
Oh!
That's a great town.
Yeah, that's good.
You know, one thing, too, is that there's a connection.
Henry, I caught him in Hawaii before he left.
I talked to him Sunday, and he told me to go to the hospital.
And he was talking about the Sunnyskate, which is a company that is again reiterating and regretting the dollar cut, and they're justifying it for now.
Well, it's a very big dollar cut.
The United States would still have enough to build clear windows to ensure it's still good.
And as Henry pointed out, what kind of a war policy is that?
Remember, when they used to criticize dollars for massive retaliation, this is basically minimum retaliation.
And, of course, the nature of suicide is when the only thing the United States can do in foreign policy is to direct an act, which would mean that also the destruction of the United States.
You have no credible foreign policy, whatever, when the Soviet starts to move in the Middle East or something like that.
So that's a real illusion for these guys.
Through the system, without naturally implying that they, certainly they have got the vision that with the regarding this having been annoyed with the
Mr. McCain and so forth, that they do not want to jeopardize whatever might be going on in the negotiating room.
What the hell do you think they're doing?
Well, it's almost a death wish.
They want us to lose.
I mean, the country is losing.
In Vietnam.
No, I know this.
be such a decent guy.
Well, his goes back to the fact that he's been against this for 20 years.
You know what I mean?
Mine, basically, has been all the time on this issue.
But anyway, you can handle it.
In other words, you would not hold the bill up for collateral detention.
Or otherwise, or otherwise, what will be, what will happen if you don't do that?
You know what I mean?
He has a, he has a strong conviction on this, which I expect him to, I just don't think he's talking about anything now.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I tried.
I tried.
Uh...
At this point, they should have picked on me.
But now, that's why I'm here.
That's the thing.
I think anything that's a man, that's a person at this particular time,
have already, kind of like, have the effect of encouraging, basically, the real shit that's true.
That's what it gets down to.
And, uh, well, that's, uh, you'll leave it to your good judgment.
You can talk to the boys on any kind of judgment, and we'll do one together.
I'm sure we should accomplish something.
That's it coming up.
Right, right.
Well, go ahead and take care of yourself.
Take care.

NARA Description

On June 20, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Hugh Scott met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 1:30 pm to 1:35 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 342-023 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 342-23

Date: June 20, 1972
Time: 1:30-1:35 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with Hugh Scott.

[See Conversation No. 25-79]

Also recorded on June 20, 1972

  • 025-077 12:55 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 12:55 pm and 1:30 pm.
  • 025-078 12:55 PM · 21 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 12:55 pm and 1:30 pm.
  • 025-079 1:30 PM · 7 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Hugh Scott talked on the telephone from 1:30 pm to 1:35 pm.
  • 342-024 1:35 PM · 28 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., Joseph Trerotola, White House operator, unknown person(s), and Clark MacGregor met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 1:35 pm and 2:10 pm.
  • 025-080 1:38 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Joseph Trerotola talked on the telephone from 1:38 pm to 1:39 pm.
  • 025-081 1:39 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 1:39 pm and 1:45 pm.
  • 025-082 1:39 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 1:39 pm and 1:45 pm.
  • 025-083 1:45 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Clark MacGregor talked on the telephone from 1:45 pm to 1:49 pm.

All 49 conversations from June 20, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 342-023, June 20, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/342-023 (accessed September 30, 2026).