Conversation 398-003

TapeTape 398StartFriday, January 19, 1973 at 4:12 PMEndFriday, January 19, 1973 at 4:29 PMParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Kissinger, Henry A.;  Ziegler, Ronald L.;  Nixon, Richard M. (President);  Kissinger, Henry A.;  Ziegler, Ronald L.Recording deviceOld Executive Office Building

On January 19, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 4:12 pm to 4:29 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 398-003 of the White House Tapes.

Conversation No. 398-3

Date: January 19, 1973
Time: Unknown between 4:12 pm and 4:29 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with Henry A. Kissinger.

[Conversation No. 398-3A]

       Vietnam settlement
            -Current situation
                                               -3-

                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                          (rev. Jan.-09)

                                                           Conversation No. 398-3 (cont’d)

       President's Inaugural speech
             -Peace reference
                    -Broader context
             -US allies
                    -Compared to friendships
                         -Israel
                         -Europe
                         -Latin America
             -Peking and Moscow references
             -Length

       Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
            -Report from Bangkok

Ronald L. Ziegler entered at 4:15 pm.

       Vietnam settlement
            -Nguyen Van Thieu
            -Gen. Creighton W. Abrams, Jr.
            -Timing
                  -Consequences
                       -Barry M. Goldwater

[End of telephone conversation]

       President's Inaugural speech
             -Final draft
                    -Release
                    -Preliminary notes and outline
                    -Timing
             -William E. Timmons
             -Raymond K. Price, Jr.
             -Hugh Scott
             -Gerald R. Ford
                    -Character
             -Price
             -Final draft
                    -Release
                          -Embargo
                                                -4-

                    NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                          (rev. Jan.-09)

                                                                 Conversation No. 398-3 (cont’d)

                           -Timmons
                           -Press relations
                           -Scott and Ford
                                 -Timmons
                                 -Copies
                           -Ziegler's time commitment to wire services

       Vietnam settlement
            -Announcement
            -Historical significance
                  -Library
            -Haig’s report

       Press relations
             -Press questions
             -Press conference
                    -Date
                    -Signing

       1973 Inauguration events
            -Announcement
            -Concerts
                  -Ziegler’s wife
                  -Frank Sinatra
            -Christmas

       President's schedule
             -H.R. (“Bob”) Haldeman

Ziegler left at 4:29 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.

In the, uh, development site, uh, last month, this morning, about the same amount.
All right.
Okay.
It's not a lot of money.
It adds a lot.
That is a lot of solid stuff there.
And there's no crap.
No good luck.
Anyway, we're crossing the line.
But I guess you realize when I get to that turn, we stand on the verge of a peace process.
That's really interesting.
I'm not going to say a peace.
I said a period of peace.
So I don't have to say a period of peace.
for other contentions.
Your suggestion, incidentally, regarding the allies, I had, as a matter of fact, a very good one.
You can talk about friendship, but an ally is a great ally.
Israel is not an ally.
That's the point.
Yeah, yeah, and also that covers not only the damn Europeans, but the Latin Americans, and the Congolese.
But the fight I was going to make is that I was going to need to strike out Beijing and Moscow, and put that in, and not the other thing we talked about earlier.
And it only added four words.
I say the problem is, in all those dimensions, it was just length.
It's about the same length.
Hello, Kay.
You haven't heard from Hayden.
I'm saying talk to him.
I don't know what they said.
Come in, come in, sorry.
You can get loose.
But of course we are.
I see.
Why are they worried about their... What did they say?
How would they do it then?
that's a quite excellent answer I agree with you
They may pray, they may drag the dam into it, but we just want to do it.
My guess is it will screw us around until after it's omission.
That, of course, people have got to let him know that it's gone.
It's got to come at any time.
It's going to be that long.
It's going to be very, very long.
Not on my part, but if he was gone, it's still longer than the rest of the city.
That's the point.
It's got to come along sometime.
We are regarding the speech.
We'll have it ready.
There's 11 type notes, and that's an addition.
All my cell notes are preliminary notes.
Preliminary outline, preliminary notes, and so on and so forth.
That's the 11th track.
Thank you.
Now, let me ask you a little bit about, again, what you would like to do, what you would like to do, what you want, how much you would like to have, what you would like to do.
I'd like to pay to the wires on the basis of making it work.
Right.
I'd like to make it work in the White House for about nine o'clock in the morning.
Okay.
But we have a little problem that I want to mention to you.
The difference between the price and the ideal is that we always say that the interest is still free.
They forget that they've never been better than the interest.
They're not going to always be the same.
So we want to control those prices.
I mean, it's done before.
There's a photograph, such a hell of a man, I can't believe it.
I can't believe it's God.
I can't believe it.
I can't believe it.
I can't believe it.
I had a lot of fun with that one.
See, they were talking at the end of the day, where I said, you know, you're trying to open this, but you are going to have a lot of fun with this.
You're going to have a lot of fun with this.
You're going to have a lot of fun with this.
You're going to have a lot of fun with this.
You're going to have a lot of fun with this.
You're going to have a lot of fun with this.
You're going to have a lot of fun with this.
... ... ... ... ... ... ...
But if they get it from Scott, then they won't see what I mean.
That's bad.
So therefore, you can't do it.
You tell them, don't tell them.
You're going to tell them, I just won't have you ready for that.
You tell them, you're going to give it to the person you want.
Fair enough.
You're going to give them a copy.
And if you look it up, you're going to have two copies of what you're giving them.
I'm not going to give them what you're giving them.
Probably won't have to do it.
It's not that.
I don't care about the people, but I think it's very important that Scott's board, which is a matter of person, I don't know who they are, give it to them, let them know that there's a lot of people who aren't available to provide, but there's a lot of people who don't have the potential, and they will have to talk to a person in the morning.
whatever that it was, make sure they were on time.
A lot of people get depressed when they have to go to work or they get called in.
I've got a complaint with my wife that when they go out in the morning at the same time that the DM's here, my wife's customer comes on the office, the same wire, and they don't look at all the wires going to the cap on their office.
It's all the same type of wire.
Well, there's a historical fact here.
The publications of the record across the country
Just like they had it in the libraries and elsewhere.
Now with the papers and all of these, it's all going to be done.
On the day that our issue is done.
Yeah.
Can we do another problem?
No, we're good.
They ask me all the time.
They say, what money are you going to have?
I think the moment is the same.
If we come to a period where the president is not based on some sort of negotiation, like the president said, we will sit with him.
We will sit with him.
And then one of Bill Tice's kind of other questions, I said, the question I was going to ask you is, what is the quality of my own decision?
And I said, your assessment of two-way communications is so important, right?
You know, that kind of online.
The questions that I'm asking the question is, what is the quality of the two-way communication?
It's impressive.
It's a good answer.
I mean, I don't see that.
I don't get what Tice said.
Well, they were people satisfied.
And I said goodbye.
What's with them?
Did you indicate to them that there was a cycle?
I said, first of all, for me, it was a turn.
That's what I said.
I said, first of all, for me, it was a turn.
I said, first of all, for me, it was a turn.
I said, first of all, for me, it was a turn.
How old were you when you first started?
I can't do it next week, to be honest with you.
I can't open my app until I get a sign that says I'm in Paris.
I can't be out there at all.
I can't breathe.
I can't smile.
I can't cry.
I can't press to the press.
I can't follow it.
I can't do it out there.
I'll try to find someone to pray to.
When the person goes, I'm not going to be the one that's going to have to cry in the church.
Yeah, that's what the average person is going to care a lot about.
He's in the shower or something.