Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 345 › Conversation 345-012

Nixon, Colson & Kissinger on Vietnam War and Peace negotiations

Thursday, June 29, 1972 · 3:50 PM–4:35 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 35 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); White House operator; Colson, Charles W.; Kissinger, Henry A.; Sanchez, ManoloConversation345-012 on Tape 345 (tape position 01:22:08–01:57:07)StartThursday, June 29, 1972 at 3:50 PMEndThursday, June 29, 1972 at 4:35 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 345-012 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon met with Charles Colson and Henry Kissinger to coordinate administration messaging and policy strategy. The discussion focused on preparing for an upcoming press conference, specifically regarding Vietnam negotiations, potential troop withdrawal announcements, and the current posture of North Vietnamese negotiators. The participants also consulted polling data and analysis from George Shultz concerning the political impact of economic price controls, particularly among the farming community.

Audio

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This clip was extracted from the full tape recording by Easy Nixon.

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Position in tape: 01:22:08 – 01:57:07

part A, 1:22:06

345a.mp3

345b.mp3

NARA Description

On June 29, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, White House operator, Charles W. Colson, Henry A. Kissinger, and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:50 pm to 4:35 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 345-012 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 345-12

Date: June 29, 1972
Time: 3:50-4:35 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with the White House operator.

[Conversation No. 345-12A]

     [Request for telephone call]

[End of telephone conversation]

Charles W. Colson entered at 3:55 pm.

     President's press conference
          -Colson's location

*****************************************************************

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 3m 57s ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

*****************************************************************

Henry A. Kissinger entered at 4:00 pm.

     Preparation for the President's forthcoming press conference
          -Vietnam
                -Negotiations with North Vietnam
                      -Wording
                -Troop withdrawal announcement
                      -Kissinger’s view
                      -Progress of talks
                -Draftees
                      -Navy
                -Announcements
          -Negotiations
                -North Vietnamese posture
                -North Vietnamese negotiator

Show the rest of the log (44 more lines)

*****************************************************************

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 4m 21s ]

KISSINGER LEFT AT 4:10 PM.

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3

*****************************************************************

Manolo Sanchez entered at an unknown time after 4:10 pm.

     Refreshment

Sanchez left at an unknown time before 4:30 pm.

*****************************************************************

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 7m 34s ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4

*****************************************************************

     Price controls
           -Albert E. Sindlinger poll
           -George P. Shultz's analysis
           -Farmers

*****************************************************************

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 7m 19s ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5

*****************************************************************

Colson left at 4:35 pm.

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

Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).

Just have him call me on the phone, apparently.

Yes, sir.

Do you want me to do it, or just... Yeah, yeah.

I just want to get over to him.

— 4 min 14 s with no transcribed speech —

If you were the fact that you already know

You have to say also that it just looks like an old author, and we understand that there's nothing in the exam that you can say as well.

Well, what I meant is, you see, it leaves the world...

But when I wrote it, it was before we had your official answer.

Yeah, I don't know.

We should simply say that it hasn't been announced.

No, no, no.

Yeah.

But you're not going to announce it either, that's why I'm still looking at it.

This is exactly right.

We are prepared.

That's what you want to say, we are prepared.

Are we a law group or is it a negotiation?

We are prepared.

I want to make this as brief as possible, which is what you want.

We prepared for the negotiations with Paris in July.

We had reason to believe that they were just prepared to move on that day also.

But we had been informed.

We had been informed.

I don't think we'll say much more than that, sorry.

Seriously, that's it.

Seriously, that's the constructive one.

You'll find a good question.

Good point.

Now, with regard to the draw,

I think we've got to say that we're going to make a new announcement before September 1st.

I say, Mr. President, I would be good not to put so much on the other end.

I hope we don't get anything further.

All right.

And secondly, just now as we're heading into the tour.

Yeah, well, I'll say that that will depend upon the outcome.

I see what you mean.

I say, in other words, don't make a commitment to make another announcement.

In other words, I would say, what do we do?

What do we do with the government progress?

In other words, in essence, in every previous instance, we've said before that we're going to have another announcement, which is missing.

that way you want to leave you want to put a goal into that that should be the maximum of that

You can say if you don't say by September 1st what we intend to do, but what we intend to do, that's what we plan to do.

Yeah.

Do you think we should say that we would get committed to making another announcement before September 1st?

I prefer not to do that.

I don't know.

I don't think we have to do that.

Do we know whether or not there are Navy strategies?

I don't think so.

I feel good.

Because if I get hooked, it won't.

Right now, the main thing is to keep the army in the air.

What counts now is not making other announcements .

What counts now is doing nothing, which would jeopardize and, well, jeopardize .

We can't do that.

Oh, we can't do that.

No, because then I suspect they may talk about the photographic shot.

Then let's be sure to encourage them to do it.

He wants to go there, though.

Oh, sure.

I don't want to take him until it is dismissed.

— 12 min 2 s with no transcribed speech —

Senator says they've done very well as far as what they announced today.

What we need is to apply the price control requirements to all of our industrial products after the first transaction.

It doesn't apply to mine.

It applies to the whole sale of the building.

We have to agree to it.

And it's not going to be like this.

It's going to have a problem.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

They couldn't be happy.

Their organization is big.

Also recorded on June 29, 1972

345-007 2:35 PM · 31 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 2:35 pm and 2:40 pm.
345-008 2:35 PM · 18 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 2:35 pm and 2:40 pm.
345-009 2:35 PM · 10 sec — 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 2:35 pm and 2:40 pm.
345-010 2:40 PM · 1 hr 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Alexander P. Butterfield, Henry A. Kissinger, and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 2:40 pm to 3:50 pm.
345-011 3:50 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 3:50 pm and 3:55 pm.
345-013 4:35 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 4:35 pm and 5:55 pm.
345-014 4:35 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Manolo Sanchez, and Patrick J. Buchanan met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 4:35 pm and 5:55 pm.
345-015 5:55 PM · 5 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Patrick J. Buchanan, and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 5:55 pm to 6:00 pm.

All 60 conversations from June 29, 1972 →

Nixon, Colson & Ziegler on 1972 Presidential Campaign and Vietnam War November 1, 1972 · 49 min
Nixon, Kissinger & Haldeman on Mansfield Amendment and Vietnam War July 21, 1972 · 34 min
Nixon phone call with Rogers on Middle East diplomacy May 31, 1971 · 7 min
Nixon phone call with Ziegler on Vietnam settlement March 1, 1973 · 2 min
Nixon phone call with Brennan on Press Conference Preparation and Watergate March 2, 1973 · 4 min
Nixon & Haldeman on gun control and press conference preparation June 1, 1971 · 1 min

Cite this conversation

Conversation 345-012, June 29, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/345-012 (accessed November 14, 2026).