On June 20, 1972, 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. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 342-024 of the White House Tapes.
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 Do not cite this transcript as authoritative.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.
Hello?
Hi, I just wanted to call you to tell you that I so much appreciated that statement you made for me a few days ago, and I'm awful glad to have you on our side here.
Well, you're a strong man, and I, and I, and it's definitely had a very good play, you know, not only in your area, but we, we looked at the national, you know, and actually, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You stuck, you were the first one to go, too.
Right.
Yeah.
Well, anyway, well, I, yeah.
Well, I appreciate it very much, and I, uh, when you're out there in California, maybe we, uh, I think I just, I heard your text committee come through.
Maybe I have a chance to see you again.
Right.
Right.
Okay.
Bye.
At this point, with the, uh,
diplomatic situation going on as it is.
I mean, look, you could argue, and it has always been harmful, always been harmful, but you could argue that in previous cases it may be negotiation without a question.
Now negotiation is the very life of possibility.
It's the life of possibility.
Well, much of it is just going to kill it.
The only thing that stops you is...
The only thing that stops me, and the worst part of it is, we're toughening ourselves in Peckin or Moscow.
Gregor, please.
For our critics here at home are demanding more of us than Peckin or Moscow.
And that kind of thing is just... Well, thank you.
And they are all for that.
All of them.
But the substitutions are just the best thing.
They want to make the most of it.
Now this is the one I think we should be taking this guy home.
We should be taking him home.
I agree with that.
I've got a report from the parish today from a fellow that's been very good, very reliable.
And he said that they have been working on inserting U.S. press in Saigon and here in the United States.
The enemy?
How did this?
Well, the enemy is... Did you have a chance to analyze any part of that story?
No, but I talked to Sullivan in the state.
He said he's just bad.
He's bad, too.
He's very anti-Vietnam, very pro-Vietnam.
And they can't talk to him.
They tried before on Cambodia.
He's one of the guys that I heard bad news on Cambodia.
And I told him, you know,
at least get some counter stories in with some good people that are over there.
Because we have all the right over our side.
So they're working on it.
But we have the right.
Of course, a lot of the good stuff is getting through.
A lot of it is.
It's not every time that we all should get through.
Because it is good.
Because it's true.
I mean, it happens to be true.
Yes, sir.
Are we here?
But I don't know.
Here we are.
We fight this day.
And we'll go through.
Yes, sir.
Good.
Good.
Good.
And they're very solid on what you've done.
On this, what Scott asked was whether or not he should...
In other words, I don't think they should rush too hard to get into the message center.
How about this?
You can just let them pull the next thing.
Oh, no, no, no, no.
I mean, I wouldn't push them.
How about this?
How could Scott say, hey, we just let the bill go to the left and have a credit collection?
That's not good.
Scott's got it.
I don't see any reason to have it.
It's going to avoid having it.
And on the other hand, I don't think we'll ever be in a stronger position than we are now.
I'm a little bit afraid they're going to get their hell right up to us, except for pure partisanship.
Sorry.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Hi, Mark.
Hi, you're getting the Krypton Organs.
Yeah.
Good.
All right.
Yeah, well, I can see that.
He's hungry.
Yeah.
Well, with regard to the meeting you're going to have, I just called you.
And then he went and done his drill.
And you said, I just want to be sure that we're all in a proper hearing.
He said that maybe they were thinking about putting the whole thing off.
But, you know, they don't think they can win.
There's one possibility, one thing, for a second.
even though there's people in the line of legislation that says, I don't see any objection to that.
But I wouldn't go, I certainly think I wouldn't go, I wouldn't cover it up if you can.
That's good strong.
You really can't go much.
We're all just saying here that you realize that Mansfield and all our demanding people, all the people in Moscow are demanding.
And the other thing I was going to say here is that I was rather surprised to know that, I was not surprised to learn that five, that there were 30 Republicans against Mansfield, and five, four, and nine, I'm certain, but I can't understand how many others.
It seems to me that on this particular issue, at this particular time, I just can't understand this sign.
Things are going on.
I don't know what's going on, but who can be sure that at least they're going to hurt people if they want to do that?
What?
And also having in mind the fact that there is this motion for the conservative negotiating front.
And if now what you want to do is offer terms that are better than the president has offered, that's what they're doing.
If they do that, all that does is to encourage the enemy not to negotiate.
I wish you well, but work out the strategy while you can.
And if you can't get it, I wouldn't want a bad vote now.
So if you can't get anything, and if you can get anything, there's got to be a task now that I can put the damn thing on hold.
If, on the other hand, you can get the lead, if that's the best of all, what else can you do?
But then if you can't do that, you're compromised.
Provided it does go a bit further than we've gone.
You can't go any further than that.
That's right.
That's right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right?
Well, I wish you well.
Bye.
Bye.
So there he is then.
What did he say?
What did he say?
I don't know.
You know, it's hard to figure out what the hell I understand Democrats for partisan reasons, but... Hey, tell me what the hell is the matter with the goddamn Republicans?
Of course, there's no leadership up there.
Scott, you're a strong believer in being like their heads around and saying, oh, we're going to find out until we're free.
I just don't know what the rest of who they are is working.
Well, your point is that we need to not push it too hard.
Well, I agree with exactly what you said, sir.
My own instincts are that we ought to be able to win a vote, and it would be worth it.
I couldn't agree more.
I'd like to have a winner.
On the other hand, if it's a sure loser, it's best to just hold off on it, and some of the arguments for that are, of course, conclusive.
So, yeah.
Oh, but the more time you buy, the better off you get.
Because you've got to pay your time.
Maybe we'll have something else going on.
I don't know.
Maybe.
Maybe something will happen.
Who will?
I think we're going to have to.
I've spent a million dollars on a bid for a secret coffee.
You know, they don't want to meet.
They don't want to clutter it.
By then, we can do it.
Right, we don't have more than one session or four of them.
That would be just enough to diffuse them and not enough to give them a charge of emotion.
Really?
I have a feeling.
and wasting us back in the cell phone.
Well, that's where we're getting now, but we're good.
I mean, I'm a step up in the heat, that's pretty good.
I'll tell us when we hit it, but we haven't hit it.
Because I went over some 2018 tarps yesterday, which are made with shells.
Every, almost every last year of the pound.
Right.
Good, good.
We get that and a lot of other trucks we make with this LV.
Right.
and additional supply depots that are in close areas of NOI and which we use smart bombs on.
Right.
So this would be a hell of a blow for each of our factories.
Or we're going to find a 10-mile circle and set one.
So we can't do it now.
We can't really do it.
I think it would be kind of productive to close it.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, that makes sense.
At least it would take us the first hour of the meeting to get it to 100 feet up.
Well, I think the first real session he had, we're going to be cutting scale.
We're going to give him the come on, we're going to get it hard, and then we won't know really until he has the second or third session.
But the fact that they won't talk about it is a very, very strange phenomenon.
I thought they were going to stow on it, and it would be disgusting.
The taste of the Soviets and the hell with all of that.
You think so?
I don't think so.
I don't think so.
I don't think so.
I don't think so.
We're going to crack some of our cells.
We're going to have to tell the community we're working very hard.
We're going to have to try to give them some assessment of what their potential is across the board.
I don't think it's much.
It's going to be a high, high-profile type thing.
We're going to have to push them forward.
We're going to have to try to support them yesterday night.
They are going to seek to negotiate after one more offensive service.
And at this time, apart from the demand that you can drop, and that they seek a ceasefire in place, which they feel will give them a chance to work, if they can hold the territory they can, and then move to
I know there are Saigon warhorns in there.
We've got that kind of a sea star.
Well, that's not bad.
We've got that in the game.
We've got all the water.
We've got all the water.
We've got all the water.
We've got all the water.
We've got all the water.
We've got all the water.
We've got all the water.
We've got all the water.
I'd say that with the enemy, we can make them make the best use of their positions as strong as possible in this war.
You really ought to emphasize to the neighbors and the community that that's what you expect to be, the positions that are going to be in front of them for about 30 days.
I'm just excited on how clear it's possible to improve those positions in the war when you just said it.
But it's not my evacuation on a diplomatic journey.
It may be a well-meaning part of it.
... ... ... ... ...
But, from that point on, your leverage over mine will be just insurmountable.
They're not going to be able to try and claim them to violate whatever they agreed to.
I think they're two big brothers, though.
We'll put you on if they violate you.
You see, even if they're a police situation, if the cops are starting shooting stuff, we would have gotten all the impact here.
track the first 20.
Now I need to work around where they think of their psychology.
If we could just get them to move from this condition of military activity to political activity, scale down their aspects,
I think one of the things that's kind of killing me is when people get that message, it can be awful hard, but it's disturbing.
It's just a rule that they have 40,000 more over there than the South Asian community who run out of food and all that.
It just can't be true.
Today, the South Asian and the Eastern Asian are stronger in mankind than they've ever been.
They have higher strengths.
This is what you have done since Mr. Hudson kicked off.
He's really rebuilt each unit.
And we've reduced the training time from 12 to 9 weeks in the basic training.
So the first and then all of them are full strength.
And that's a hell of a lot better than it has been the last three years.
So I think we've impacted some of them pretty well.
I think they're out there full forward.
Very precise, effectively.
When you're in the back of the car, you're screaming about the kids that are being drowned and all that kind of thing.
You know, a lot of uproar from the ship.
That's confirmation that they're in here.
They're pumping air.
They're pumping air.
How do you knock down five tanks in a week?
Yesterday was the first time you've seen any tanks in an hour or one.
In several weeks, they knocked down five of these.
They were big weapons.
Got right up to me.
Knocked them out.
That's a sign that they need to be getting ready to attack right now.
Back over there.
I don't think so.
I don't think so.
Right.
I don't think so.
I don't think so.
I don't think so.
I don't think so.
They're supporting the Soviet Party.
They're just isolated.
And there they are.
Their support is mainly the French.
The lips of the air.
That's great.
I just do a good job listening to them.
You know, good, I, I, I thought I would do something that would be more than enough to say so.
I didn't call, so it's going to be time to change about it.
But I have a mark to be on it.
Because I have to hear it out.
Flo-Rite doesn't care about any of these things.
I have weapons.
You know, Flo-Rite only wants to disarm.
He doesn't want to harm.
I don't care about it.
We've made our case.
You know, I haven't heard from Robles in a good shape or so.
The idea is, well, what we're going to have is an armament program that's more not disarmament, but a limitation of armaments, which is ridiculous.
The choice is really not exact.
The choice is a limitations agreement, plus changing arms, or an all-out race in all areas.
Now, what the hell do you want, boys?
And also, the other point is that we have a...
I don't know if the proposal does provide for a, or the only hope for further limitation.
But again, I think the Soviets are going to read us on the next round.
It's going to be tough, but they don't have any.
They made this theory.
They made this theory.
They were trying to get everything back.
It's useless to suggest that they didn't realize this was a bad approach.
Oh, I think so.
And I think they want to get the benefits out of it.
And assuming we, and this is another important thing, we can keep the momentum going.
So, yeah.
Let's get some of this trade stuff out in the late summer.
The trade's got to go.
It's got to go back over there.
And you get some of your other proposals on the European side.
All that stuff.
Just keep holding on to this.
That's standing for it.
They've got to develop investments
Senate vote right now
I don't know, they should probably have used it before.
They said in their day, you said in their day, that aren't in the Soviet, the Chinese regions, because they're asking for themselves, you know, all the way.
Oh, sure.
I think we can take this on, and I'm going to go off and let people get a sense of, you know, where exactly, where the votes are, and everything.
Because it seems to me, well, that's also, that's also, let's talk about it in conversation.
But I was really, sort of, kind of shocked by that.
And I, if I recall it, I was definitely on it.
I was really down hard, really on it.
And I'm certain that he and Larry, he and Larry, you know, Roger's production was very, very, very good.
And I appreciate, I think, how he did it.
I'm a very, I'm a very, very good person.
I'm not going to do it.
I do not believe that I should commit part of the national prestige to talking to some asshole senator in Manhattan.
No, I don't want to listen to you.
I don't want to listen to you.
I don't want to listen to you.
I don't want to listen to you.
I don't want to listen to you.
I don't want to listen to you.
I've had my breakfast and rest and it never includes him.
I owe him.
I don't have to tell him my name and all.
You agree?
I agree.
And he's really been good at two things after this.
He's given me a taste of his new self.
He's been far less effective.
I think his prestige and his self-confidence is driving Christmas.
Sure.
I've seen a lot of other issues with him.
He's not having a good time with me.
Yes, well they arrived and then they had dinner.
They came home afterwards and I think what he meant by the shirt was to show them why it's not palatable.
So he asked them to drop him off.
But Henry could have been fired.
I thought he was done on the point that he said he was too scared to say it.
I thought it was true.
I called him to lie.
It's not useful.
It's really not a good icon.
I think they have mixed emotions.
It's the same thing with our own stupid people here.
They think we're going around an incredible posture in China by screwing ROI and crazy people.
They see themselves in the same position.
It's part of China.
unless the United States lets down a whole bunch of people.
They don't want to talk to us.
The people want to come to us because they think we're worth talking to.
We're reliable and responsible.
Anyway, okay, thanks to you.
I don't think you're going to know anything about it.
Okay, good.