Conversation 375-021

TapeTape 375StartThursday, October 26, 1972 at 3:15 PMEndThursday, October 26, 1972 at 4:00 PMParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Haldeman, H. R. ("Bob");  White House operator;  Haig, Alexander M., Jr.Recording deviceOld Executive Office Building

On October 26, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, White House operator, and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 3:15 pm to 4:00 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 375-021 of the White House Tapes.

Conversation No. 375-21

Date: October 26, 1972
Time: 3:15 pm - 4:00 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President met with H.R. (“Bob”) Haldeman.

                               (rev. Oct-06)

Vietnam peace settlement negotiations
    -The President’s forthcoming conversation with Henry A. Kissinger
    -The President’s previous conversation with Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
    -Kissinger’s briefing for White House surrogates
        -Haldeman’s role
        -Haig’s role
        -Charles W. Colson
        -Ronald L. Ziegler
    -White House response to press reports
        -The President’s view
        -John A. Scali
        -John B. Connally
        -William P. Rogers
        -Melvin R. Laird
        -Colson’s role
        -Kissinger’s role
    -Importance of cease-fire talks to 1972 election
        -Administration stance
             -Timing of cease-fire
             -North Vietnam
                  -Kissinger’s statement
    -McGeorge Bundy’s appearance on Columbia Broadcasting
     System [CBS]
        -Settlement timing
        -Kissinger's conversation with Bundy
             -The President’s view
    -Bundy’s statements
        -William F. Buckley
        -North Vietnam
             -October 8, 1972 concessions
                  -POWs
    -Kissinger
        -Backgrounder
        -The President’s recent conversation with Haig
        -Recent press briefing
             -Points
                  -“Peace with surrender”
    -Kissinger’s relationship with “peaceniks”, politicians
        -The President’s view
        -Colson and Scali’s role

                                      (rev. Oct-06)

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

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 2m 38s ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

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

        Vietnam peace settlement negotiations
            -Public relations
            -Importance as a political issue
            -Kissinger’s public relations role
                -Relationship with the press
                     -Joseph C. Kraft
                     -Walter L. Cronkite, Jr., David Brinkley, John
                       Chancellor (New York), Richard G. Valeriani, Dan
                       Rather, [Arnold] Eric Sevareid
                -Kissinger’s persuasiveness
                     -Truth
                -Handwritten note from the President

The President talked with the White House operator at an unknown time between 3:15 pm and
3:28 pm.

[Conversation No. 375-21A]

[See Conversation No. 32-59]

[End of telephone conversation]

        Vietnam peace settlement negotiations
            -US position
                -1972 election
                    -The President’s recent conversation with Haig
                         -Kissinger

                                       (rev. Oct-06)

The White House operator talked with the President at an unknown time between 3:15 pm and
3:28 pm.

[Conversation No. 375-21B]

[See Conversation No. 32-60]

The President talked with Haig between 3:28 pm and 3:29 pm.

[Conversation No. 375-21C]

[See Conversation No. 32-61]

[End of telephone conversation]

        Vietnam peace negotiations
            -Possible press conference by the President
                -Clark MacGregor’s and Colson‘s view
                -Possible press conference on Air Force One
                     -The President’s forthcoming trip to California
            -Kissinger, Haldeman, John D. Ehrlichman
                          -Expanded press pool
                               -Associated Press [AP]
                          -Press coverage
                          -Questions about the 1972 election and Vietnam
                     -Radio talk
                     -Press relations
                          -Newspaper coverage
                          -Informal nature of question and answer [Q&A] session
                               -Photographers
                          -Ziegler
                          -Arrangement of staff and press pool
                               -Strategy on answering
                          -Philip Potter
                          -Peter Lisagor, Washington Post
                          -Garnett D. (“Jack”) Horner
                          -Networks
                          -News magazines
                               -Time, U.S. News and World Report
                          -Informal meeting compared with office press conference
                               -Sarah McClendon

                                       (rev. Oct-06)

                                  -Donald H. Segretti
                     -The President’s possible response to questions
                          -Staff
                          -1972 campaign
                     -Potter
                     -CBS
                          -Dan Rather
                     -Theodore H. (“Teddy”) White
                     -Showmanship
                     -1972 election
                     -Timing
                          -San Clemente
                 -Purpose
                     -Record

        The President’s schedule

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

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4
[Personal returnable]
[Duration: 10m 17s ]

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4

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

Haldeman left at 4:00 pm.

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.

The thing I wanted to ask you to do is this.
I think that you ought to get all the survey and find another agreement.
I know you can send it out and all that stuff, but it's quite insane.
The other point that I want to make is that working with Al, I don't get any of him, you know, on the side and so forth, but I agree that he's pretty much on the subject of the cause.
and it's got to be the best one, though.
He obviously presents Colson and others, you know, saying, you know, we've got to make sure, we've got to make sure, we've got to find out, because all that matters now is what the hell comes through in this press, and the political battle in the first night will be, and they're going to fight, and, uh, and they're going to, uh, drown.
I think it's very important that you come and live a life together.
Anybody else who knows about that can get on the move.
That was a very important comment.
That was a lot of work to do today.
And, of course, you've got to get the Rogers layered on the saddle next week.
All this, I know, darn it, you can just turn over the Colson.
This is not something that you should ever think.
I think it's really at a different level, Bob, now, than just Colson, you know, bang.
I don't think that she's in great form, but this has got to come from the highest level.
And that was the important part of it.
You've got to watch every development.
If there are bad developments, make the best ones.
If there are good developments, make the best ones.
And also, you've got to watch where there's an argument.
Hey.
Hey.
The little company didn't make it.
It didn't make it very hard.
It made it hard, but it wasn't an audience.
It was on the ice.
The point he made was that we used the election as a leverage on them, not they using it as a leverage on us.
They were the ones that were concerned about the election.
They were really concerned about it.
Or we get the election, how long is it going to take?
I don't like anything I'm going to say, but the settlement could not have been obtained four years ago, two years ago, or even earlier this year.
I'm going to call it a day.
Amen.
But all the people that he coached, he said something about it.
He's making a point that, uh, but we need him on that, that, that way in case he can't do that very well.
Maybe this cell couldn't have been made any time before October 8th, when Northeat and I decided we were going to make him.
That was the first time that he came to agree on the field of fusion, otherwise, yeah.
But I didn't deliberately bother him because I didn't want to.
All right?
I just went, another second.
But he called out.
I called out.
I said, I'll slip it in.
I'm not going to bother him.
Otherwise, I didn't see him.
Otherwise, I had to rush right over here to see him.
He came in, so I...
He didn't explain to me the problem.
I think that this is a very important issue.
In a way, people think that we should ignore the politicians.
Of course, there are two politicians.
As I said, he's going to take them closer.
He's going to take them.
He will take them.
He will take them.
Thank you for watching.
Well, we don't want to whistle in the dark if we don't know yet how to think about it.
Now, I do kind of feel the same.
But I might say that I don't know yet how to think about it in the dark.
But I agree with you in having an argument about it, screwed around about it, is good.
Provided you avoid the clipper of the feeling that we're white politicians in some way.
Yeah.
I would try to do the same.
Not that they loved it out of anything.
If we end up running out of this, we're down.
That's the kind of technical point that we're not going to stop and listen.
That is real.
And people see that.
But Henry now has just got a picture to bite like hell.
And I'm seeing every first man you know who's in this enormous influence.
You've got to have a flash.
Christ, if not the grass and the others, you know what I mean?
Seeing the people that can reach out to the socials.
I don't think you have a secret on that.
No.
Let's be frank with you.
It's obvious people have a chance for it.
It's always a chance for something new.
It's been a long time.
And then, while I was out, while I was out there with my guys, and I was told to grab him.
And when I said grab him, he came out and he hit me in the head.
You know, Emily's going to be very persuasive when she ever gets home.
She talks about dispersion.
You've got to come in and decide, which is quite important, because you ought to know what the impact was to be true.
Where did you get this truth?
I'm shaking it.
Now what are you going to do?
I'm going to control that hand right now.
I'm going to go...
I'm going to go back.
I'm going to go back.
I'm going to go back.
All right.
And on that, too, on the basis that our plan, as of now, because we're the ones that are delaying it now, which in our case is the main player, to get these other things ironed out.
We didn't expect to get them the last day.
We had, as they charted, we had five minutes in our game to get it done.
We had pushed off the schedule again, which
Best evidence of all that we won't play in the next election.
I'd call a case for a number of reasons.
The president is not the peace for the next election.
He's the peace for the next election.
No lying.
Very good.
Yeah.
Yeah, I know he has to come in just to step out on the phone briefly.
I want to just ask him to do what he's talking about.
Now, I wrote a handwritten note to Henry before he left, you know.
In that, I was supposed to refer to the election day, the day that we'd already pressed the button, the day that we'd actually get it.
All right.
I know the records.
I know the records in the same way.
I should have an office press record.
I understand why.
Of course I know the records in the same way.
If you know the records, I haven't listened to them anymore.
I don't like dealing with people who do it.
Right.
I don't like to deal with the things that take away from the present.
They're too much.
Good.
Okay.
Have a good one.
Saturday morning.
Now there's another way to handle it.
Another way to handle it.
Another way to handle it would be between the two.
I don't want much of a statute with California on this trip.
There should be a very, very low statute, except for Henry, Hugh, and John, a couple of times.
I put an expanded code on that album, and I'm going to have you...
I could invite them up to the cabin and then sit around for an hour with them, sit down.
But we didn't have a chance and my wife was just on the record.
And, you know, she really had a good time with us.
And she had made some changes in the background about us, you know, the vagueness and the vagueness of the file.
Well, I don't know what she had written, but I'm pretty sure she had written it before and had it.
And I haven't had it in the papers.
... ... ... ... ... ... ...
This could fill the rest of the question for them.
But it'd be all right if the rest of the questioner didn't ask the question, that's right.
That's what I actually did on the other day.
I thought that was a good story.
If not, I'm just going to go.
This could be it.
She hoped I had to do something before the election.
so
That's what it's really all about.
They don't want to know what you think about the election.
Their questions will be more directed to them.
Plus what their potential runs in common with them.
And a little on the ability to do all this crap.
And a little on the ability to do all this crap.
to get a possibility to expose that in the market for a mass-brought-in experiment.
And they actually did that, but it didn't come true.
All right.
All right.
All right.
The press, the COVID, the plumbing thing, it's to me, it's much the, it's much the safest.
And I just don't think that you ought to think about the, what the hell, they have a radio talk or something, you know, and then they have something that's sort of an overnight thing, and they get it to the guys, and they get them to the right people, you know, some of the money makers, you know, some of the money makers.
I didn't even tell them that this was going to happen.
They're going to watch and wrap up, and we should try to write something for them.
They'd like that.
The other people would buy it.
You know what I mean?
They'd buy it with the money.
Everybody's got it right.
Sure, the ones that aren't.
You have expanded food, you know what I mean?
With our staff and the...
up in the office, the next section, where they can mix in with it.
Don't take any special guests out this time.
Just put them up in there, see?
You can have them, I guess, about eight.
See?
That's all you get if you've got the targets.
But I just like to be honest, you know, I don't want to get, I don't want to get into this.
And the secret, the secret will never be safe.
I'm sure you've got to do it for the whole cause.
I'm not sure.
But in this instance, the whole purpose of this is just to have something.
And I have been exposed to them, and I have answered questions.
It's been a long drill on the whole thing.
I put water on it.
I put water on it.
I'd pick up my time and then I'd, I'd screw up with that person.
I wouldn't buy one of these kids' magazines.
I'd take time.
Buy what happens.
You know what?
I have to have a magazine.
All right, fine, I have one.
I'm just losing it.
There's a boat.
Take a little bit of time.
Just cover the magazine.
Two wires.
What they put in the office is worth the risk for the fact that you might get somebody like that on the line or somebody or just get hammered the shit out of the office.
and all that crap, and then I just couldn't turn it off, and I had to play it on my hand, and I had to go to the car, and I had to get all the instructions, and the management, and so forth, and I didn't cover it thoroughly, and I had confidence in my staff, and so forth, I just didn't think I was going to be one of the various campaigns, and I expected it to be the same.
The fact is, when this comes over, you're going to look back and agree with them.
And we'll see you next week.
You know what I mean?
I'm going to say that there, but I'm going to say it now.
You have to mark predictions.
There's going to be a lot to talk about.
It's important to know.
All right.
I would put him on, yeah.
That's what I would put on.
Sure would.
I would put Potter on, who's not necessarily a friend, but he's there.
All right, I didn't hear it.
I'm glad you asked the question.
It's a way of selecting the people you're asking questions.
... ... ... ... ...
... ... ... ... ... ...
What?
I just wanted to remind you of the way that you can connect to the phone and connect with your family and friends.
But if you think I should do it, then you can do it.
If you want to make an exchange, you can go to the office and just come home and hang right now.
Another question, though, if you have time this morning.
Now see why I couldn't do it.
But I want to do it.
Just make it happen.
I don't want to have it on the record.
I don't want to have it on the record.
I don't want to have it on the record.
I don't want to have it on the record.
I don't want to have it on the record.