Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 346 › Conversation 346-014
Nixon, Kissinger & Haig on Vietnam War and Press Conference
Wednesday, June 28, 1972 · 3:15 PM–3:30 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building
AI Summary
President Nixon and Henry Kissinger met to refine strategy and talking points for an upcoming presidential press conference, focusing heavily on the Vietnam War and the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT). They discussed how to address sensitive inquiries regarding the bombing of dikes, potential cloud seeding operations, the use of mercenaries, and the current status of North Vietnamese troop deployments. Kissinger provided counsel on managing public perception of these issues while emphasizing the administration's defensive stance on military parity and peace negotiations. The discussion served to prepare the President for likely media scrutiny while coordinating ongoing diplomatic efforts.
Audio
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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 03:17:25 into the tape and ends around 03:31:07.
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 Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.
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· Timestamps are positions within the full tape recording.
3:17:25Right on.
3:17:25Yes, sir.
3:17:26Off their ass.
3:17:28Okay.
3:17:29Okay, John.
3:17:32That's all right.
3:17:33Don't worry.
3:17:33Hi, Henry.
3:17:37I need to go over a few little items of your convenience.
3:17:40How are you accepting them?
3:17:52I have to go out.
3:18:10I'll call you back.
3:18:15When are you leaving?
3:18:24345.
3:18:24Yeah, I'll just, I just need to go over about four or five of these questions.
3:18:33It's time.
3:18:34It's time over now, so just leave it like it is.
3:18:59Thank you for watching!
3:19:53I've had a few of these times, I think, for a little bit of a circle.
3:19:55With regard to their budget, the answer can only be, despite what you've got to request, I don't think it has to be on demand, but I understand why you've asked for it.
3:20:12It's lost really well, and I think it's a good thing.
3:20:22It hasn't actually been fully requested yet, so I don't think we've got a question.
3:20:25The question about the game collection there has said that we need $5,000,000 to get out.
3:20:36Right, right, right.
3:20:41That was some reason.
3:20:42If they do, I think we should...
3:20:43I can't say.
3:20:43Well, that's a projection.
3:20:44Spending at the present level is $1,000,000 a year.
3:20:47That's $1,000,000 a year.
3:20:47Right.
3:20:50I was going to ask you too with regard to the
3:21:22I don't think it's in the book.
3:21:31I have put it into a separate...
3:21:32Wait, not a second.
3:21:33I don't even know.
3:21:34It should have come to you.
3:21:36I took it out of the book because I didn't want it to go through the kitchen.
3:21:43But it has been ready for you since yesterday, and it's undoubtedly come somewhere...
3:21:53Thank you.
3:21:53All right.
3:22:25Let me talk to Hank, please.
3:22:29I've been to the classified questions that we were supposed to send over here.
3:22:35They were ready yesterday, you know.
3:22:43What did he mean, is it?
3:22:44He said he thought we went to planet Earth.
3:22:50I have some quick ones.
3:22:51First, on the dikes, water.
3:22:53And of course we'd say we have not bombed.
3:22:56Second, we want to say we will not.
3:23:01I would say, all right, fine.
3:23:09Yeah.
3:23:09Yeah.
3:23:10Yeah.
3:23:10Fine.
3:23:14Okay, thank you.
3:23:14Seating in the clouds of no coming.
3:23:19I'd rather say
3:23:21I don't like the no comments.
3:23:22I think that's like saying yes.
3:23:23I would say it's a damn harm.
3:23:24Why don't I just say yes?
3:23:25No, no, no.
3:23:25That would be a disaster.
3:23:26Because then they blame us for everything.
3:23:28I would just say yes.
3:23:29Because I have no information.
3:23:30I have no information.
3:23:31I have no information.
3:23:31I have no information.
3:23:32I say, but I want to make it clear.
3:23:51We do not have a policy to produce natural catastrophes, they say.
3:23:58Goddamn hell, you're racist.
3:23:59Hell, this is going to help to end the war, isn't it?
3:24:01Well, but the reason that we use it, Mr. President, is to get produced quack miners on the roads.
3:24:06In clouds.
3:24:06That's what we need to do this for.
3:24:14I understand no comment, Mr. President.
3:24:17I wouldn't say no comment.
3:24:19That's what I'm trying to say.
3:24:20I will say that we don't have that policy.
3:24:25I don't have any information on that.
3:24:27Fine.
3:24:28U.S. losing mercenaries for commando raids.
3:24:29There's no comment on that.
3:24:31If I say that, that means yes or no.
3:24:35But what mercenaries are we talking about?
3:24:37Well, we have occasions to use neo-trust.
3:24:39I cannot imagine that that's true.
3:24:41If it does, I'll just say no.
3:24:42Why the hell are there not mercenaries?
3:24:45They're fighting for women and people.
3:24:47Huh?
3:24:54It says that regarding negotiation, it says that we'll remove our forces, but as far as other forces in China are concerned,
3:25:19That is not for negotiation with Hanoi.
3:25:21Some will be withdrawn.
3:25:22Well, now that's a... We want to invent that we have horses in Laos and in Cambodia.
3:25:28No, no, no.
3:25:29How are they referring to?
3:25:30No, Thailand.
3:25:32Well, Thailand is not in China.
3:25:34No, that's a bad answer.
3:25:37It's Southeast Asia.
3:25:38Yeah, that's why it's not the horses in Southeast Asia.
3:25:40No, I'll throw up.
3:25:41Okay, I understand, but I wonder... Because if China said it, I thought, what the hell, I'm not going to invent that we've got horses.
3:25:46Absolutely.
3:25:49Because our ceasefire proposal is for all Americans in Indochina.
3:25:52Okay.
3:25:52Incidentally, we're getting a lot of information about it.
3:25:56It may be true that they are moving towards keeping you in the government.
3:26:03That they are going to ask for a coalition government which includes you.
3:26:08If that were the case, we'd be over the hump.
3:26:14We can't quite accept that either, but...
3:26:17But at least that would be the biggest hurdle after that, if they ever get to that point.
3:26:21Because then they would say, settle it with you, we've got nothing against it.
3:26:25We'll get it out.
3:26:26The thing I was going to ask you in that respect, I know there's a news summary this morning.
3:26:33So, sort of a battle is going on.
3:26:37We'll have to expect a search and call, and see where this stuff goes.
3:26:45I'll just take a second, just to be sure.
3:26:51You know damn well where it's coming from.
3:26:55All the cow stuff that... Well, he says... Oh, that they're going to fight till November?
3:26:58I believe 120,000 North Vietnamese bullies with cable-made sustained attacks are in and near South Vietnam.
3:27:03Yeah, I read it.
3:27:04Now, where in the hell is he putting that up?
3:27:07That comes from the state of CIA.
3:27:09I don't know.
3:27:16Do they believe it?
3:27:17They have 120,000 people, Mr. President, and I don't think they're going to do it.
3:27:19Ready to attack Kuwait?
3:27:21Oh, not to attack Kuwait.
3:27:23It all serves me.
3:27:24But what is the name of Christ's state CIA?
3:27:26I think they're going to launch one big attack on Kuwait.
3:27:30Or at least it's possible.
3:27:32It's supposed to have been launched by now.
3:27:35But if they do that, well, today we launched a big attack.
3:27:37Or the party can go out again.
3:27:48Yes, we cracked a little bit.
3:27:49Well, he did that at a welcoming banquet for Castro.
3:27:51Yeah.
3:27:51And you figure that it's not particularly significant.
3:27:54I'm asking about it.
3:27:55We expect it to support our allies.
3:27:58We expect it to support our allies.
3:28:02We don't consider it significant.
3:28:05We expect it to support our allies.
3:28:11No, and if you read it carefully, he said the United States must withdraw, which he knows we won't do, and there must be a just political settlement.
3:28:19He didn't say... Just be a settlement.
3:28:21He didn't say we support the seven points and the two points.
3:28:24Another last point.
3:28:25On the whole SALT thing, you know, who's ahead and all that sort of thing, that's sort of a quite minor issue we can get into.
3:29:00What I would say, Mr. President, is look, you have to look at...
3:29:02But you see, the way they're putting it is, now suppose they purge, let's not put them in there.
3:29:07Well, the argument against that is, there's nothing you could have done to prevent that.
3:29:13We wouldn't be better off this...
3:29:15I agree.
3:29:16Secondly, over the period of decrees on any foreseeable movement, you could still stay ahead in warheads, because they have need to test with their movement.
3:29:22And, uh, decrees, fine, that's fine.
3:29:29Uh...
3:29:30But I would do it and say, I would say that if you can't look at this thing properly, you have to look at the overall situation, and in the overall situation, the overall situation is advantageous to us.
3:29:39You think, well, this is a hell of a house you have to live on, full of issues.
3:29:47And the goddamn Washington Post managed to put it on the second page, and it pissed them.
3:29:57I believe on this, I will get the...
3:30:01I think Mr. President, the North Vietnamese have asked us to come in tomorrow morning.
3:30:25Almost certainly it means that you're settling in the 90s.
3:30:29So you'll be in great shape announcing it tomorrow evening.
3:30:32You should do it in reply to a question so they can't say you screwed them.
3:30:38But I think this will sort of set the tone of the news conference, because almost certainly, just judging from the questions I get, the early questions will either have to do with the solved defense budget thing, but very early you'll be asked, have you anything to say?
3:30:55Prospects for negotiations.
3:30:57Sure, that's what you're getting at.
3:30:59That's a good indication.
3:31:00And if you do, if it is any, if you try to set up the right framework, do you think we've now reached a certain point, and then stay essentially pretty close to what I just said?
NARA Description
On June 28, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, Marjorie P. Acker, White House operator, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., and unknown person(s) met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:15 pm to 3:30 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 346-014 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 346-14
Date: June 28, 1972
Time: 3:15-3:30 pm
Location: Executive Office Building
The President met with Henry A. Kissinger.
President's forthcoming press conference
-Anticipated questions and proposed answers
-Defense Department budget
-Melvin R. Laird
-Vietnam negotiations
-Briefing book
-Location of memorandum
Marjorie P. Acker entered at 3:15 pm.
Alexander P. Butterfield
-Meeting
Kissinger talked with the White House operator.
[Conversation No 346-14A]
Requested for a call to Gen. Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
Kissinger talked with Haig at an unknown time between 3:15 and 3:30 pm.
The President’s forthcoming press conferene
-Vietnam briefing book
-Questions and responses
[End of telephone conversation]
-Butterfield
President's forthcoming press conference
-Anticipated questions and proposed answers
-Vietnam
-Bombing of dikes
The President talked with an unknown person.
[Conversation No. 346-14B]
Unknown item
[End of telephone conversation]
President's forthcoming press conference
-Anticipated questions and proposed answers
-Vietnam
-Cloud seeding
-The President’s possible responses
-Laos
-Laos
-Mercenary commando raids
-Meo tribesmen
-Peace negotiations
-Withdrawal of US forces
-Laos, Cambodia
-Thailand
-Coalition Government
-Nguyen Van Thieu
-North Vietnamese forces in South Vietnam
-Number of troops
-Central Intelligence Agency [CIA] and Department of State
-Possible attack on Hue
-Leonid I. Brezhnev's statement
-Fidel Castro
-Strategic Arms and Limitation Treaty [SALT]
-Relative military strength of US and Soviet Union
-Multiple Independently-targeted Reentry Vehicle [MIRV]
-The President’s possible comments
Washington Post story
-Time's coverage
Vietnam peace negotiations
-Questions at forthcoming press conference
-SALT
-Defense budget
Kissinger's schedule
-President's schedule
-Meeting with People’s Republic of China [PRC] officials in New York
Kissinger left at 3:30 pm.Also recorded on June 28, 1972
- 346-011 3:09 PM · 16 sec — 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 3:09 pm and 3:15 pm.
- 346-012 3:09 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon, unknown person(s), and Henry A. Kissinger met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 3:09 pm and 3:15 pm.
- 346-013 3:09 PM · 54 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 3:09 pm and 3:15 pm.
- 026-048 3:15 PM · 8 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 3:15 pm.
- 346-015 3:30 PM · 57 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 3:30 pm and 3:34 pm.
- 346-016 3:30 PM · 35 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 3:30 pm and 3:34 pm.
- 346-017 3:30 PM · 2 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 3:30 pm and 3:34 pm.
- 346-018 3:30 PM · 2 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 3:30 pm and 3:34 pm.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 346-014, June 28, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/346-014 (accessed September 30, 2026).