Conversation 399-011

TapeTape 399StartMonday, January 22, 1973 at 10:14 AMEndMonday, January 22, 1973 at 10:48 AMParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Price, Raymond K., Jr.;  Sanchez, Manolo;  White House operator;  Ziegler, Ronald L.Recording deviceOld Executive Office Building

On January 22, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, Raymond K. Price, Jr., Manolo Sanchez, White House operator, and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 10:14 am and 10:48 am. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 399-011 of the White House Tapes.

Conversation No. 399-11

Date: January 22, 1973
Time: Unknown between 10:14 am and 10:48 am
Location: Executive Office Building

The President met with Raymond K. Price.
                                            -10-

                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                        (rev. Apr.-09)

                                                            Conversation No. 399-11 (cont’d)

       The President’s speech on Vietnam settlement
            -Drafts
            -Review
                  -Deadline
                  -John D. Ehrlichman

Manolo Sanchez entered at an unknown time after 10:14 am.

       The President's dictation machine
            -Malfunction
            -Battery

       Refreshments

Sanchez left at an unknown time before 10:26 am.

       Ronald L. Ziegler
            -Talk with the President
            -Revisions
                  -The President’s speech on Vietnam settlement [?]

       Today's work
            -National Security Council [NSC] settlement meeting

       The President's speech on Vietnam
            -Draft
                  -Substance
            -The President’s Wishes
                  -Announcement
                  -Introduction
            -Date of delivery
            -Requirements
                  -Length
                         -Simplicity
            -Draft

       [Pause]

            -Content and wording
                                            -11-

                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                       (rev. Apr.-09)

                                                            Conversation No. 399-11 (cont’d)

The President talked with the White House operator at an unknown time between 10:14 am and
10:26 am.

[Conversation No. 399-11A]

       Call to Ziegler

[End of telephone conversation]

       The President's speech on Vietnam settlement
            -Purpose
                  -"Peace with honor"

The President talked with Ziegler between 10:26 and 10:27 am.

[Conversation No. 399-11B]

[See Conversation No. 36-39]

[End of telephone conversation]

       The President's speech on Vietnam settlement
            -Content and wording
                  -The President’s previous statements
                         -May 8, 1972 statement
                  -Provisions of agreement
                  -US allies
                  -The President’s consultation with Nguyen Van Thieu
                  -South Vietnamese people
                  -Soviet Union, People's Republic of China [PRC]
                  -Maintenance of peace
                  -US public opinion
                         -Opponents of the war
                  -US servicemen and families
            -Another draft
                  -Time of delivery
            -Tone
            -Content and wording
                  -Compared to PRC trip announcement
                                                 -12-

                      NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                           (rev. Apr.-09)

                                                              Conversation No. 399-11 (cont’d)

                      -US foreign policy goals
              -Tone
                   -"Peace with honor"
              -Content and wording
                   -The President's decisions on war and negotiations
                         -Progress reports
                         -Cambodia
                         -May 8, 1972 decision
                         -Purpose
                               -The President’s critics
                         -Bombing
                         -Public statements
                   -Tone
                   -Opponents of President's policy
                   -Negotiations
                         -Importance of public statements

       Vietnam settlement
            -Thieu [?]
                  -Acceptance
                  -Objections
                        -Protocols
                  -Cooperation
                        -Pressure
                  -Signing

       The President's speech on Vietnam settlement
            -Time of delivery
                  -The President’s schedule
                  -H.R. (“Bob”) Haldeman

Price left at 10:48 am.

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.

Did you find out what happened to that thing?
Yes, sir.
They say they're working, but they give it to me.
This is.
Stop.
Stop.
Please stay there for a second.
Yes sir.
Yes, sir.
I don't want to.
Just about a second.
Well, anyway, about the section that we had, I said that there wasn't an actual weekend there.
what we are going to work on today.
I'm also going to be better for that draft, and I'll tell you some of the things I'm going to want to try and all that.
The dynamite substance in the draft is all right.
to give you an idea of how I want to approach it.
I want to make the announcement.
I don't want to go in under, for example,
Now this is paying me for probably going to be for a while now.
There will be no advance in the text because the press will not be put on the press at all.
And I may at the last couple minutes and things to not read it all.
So I have to read the first
the whole secret of this.
Ignore all distractions.
Read the graph late and period.
Here's the way I want to do it.
I want to start right off with I've asked for this.
I've asked for this call.
Has nothing else to do with that before or not before?
I've asked for this call.
Yeah, just one thing.
Tomorrow.
All right.
In this settlement, it's very well, but the most important part is actually the sexual abuse that our allies, that our allies participated in the war against themselves.
I worked before the war against them, but I personally have been in the closest confrontation with the president as well.
And the president, too, had part-timers in his government as well.
In the next section, you'll be planning a war on some of the first-generation things that we have.
Now, what we have to do is to keep this in mind.
We must build on it.
As you pick up what I call C-3, C-1, C-3, and C-4 on your outline.
And then, as we bring this law forward, the people's self-discipline, their courage, and self-reflection will be the right thing to do.
to other power systems and try something for Russia and China.
That's what we said very often.
It is very well-earned.
But it is to our interests, to the interests of all nations, particularly the great powers, to use the strength, our strength, to keep the peace that's going on in the United States of America.
And what do the American people do to fit around with that next to the West?
They give absolutely no attention to those who oppose the North.
They don't call for action.
Those who have lost faith, wanted to bug out, etc.
have always stood firmly in peace of mind.
Without your steadfastness, you would not have achieved this victory.
And I pray for those who have sacrificed their lives, for those who have served.
The wives, the mothers, the children of those who went after those.
My other classmates, my mother's community, my mother's wife, my mother's neighbor, they were celebrating.
She was one of them.
That's all.
That's what we said.
Now that can't be said.
That won't happen.
Probably not as much as we had here.
Certainly not more than 60%.
So if you just take it for a head back and get me off the rough cut by, I would say, 3 o'clock in the afternoon.
Then we can take a break.
I don't want any .
I don't mind .
I do not, for example, want anything to be done in a space like the sounds of peace prevails.
Uh-huh.
That could be in another space, but not this one.
It's like in China, you know, you don't have to guess it up.
It's not like the space for itself.
At least that's what I thought.
Uh, I don't know if you can talk the terms of it.
I want to be clear.
Clear.
We don't want to get the vote all out of school and say we're not doing that.
We've got to leave that hanging over there in order to keep others from breaking.
So I'm very honored to be part of it.
We expect other parties to do likewise.
I don't mind if it's the last piece.
It's not going to go that far.
What I do not want is that now is the time for them to restrain sort of the blame to the warden.
I'm very glad that we don't see that.
The warden is very glad to get that issue resolved.
I want to send a simple prayer just without messing up, except for what I would do at the end.
It's regarding the American peace with honor.
As we said, it wasn't in the schedule.
It should have been all the way through.
Don't worry too much about the length.
That's about it.
That's it.
I, uh, like you said, I, I, I, I, uh, realized that I had not been able to report the progress.
For every part of the, uh, the, uh, the differences we were having,
Thank you.
I would say that what we're getting at across, I guess, is the number of negotiations going on that there are times
It would be horrible to be at the site.
I have made decisions throughout this period.
I didn't make any decisions.
You can't go into too much detail about it for the reason that you can't go into too much detail about it for the reason that you can't go into too much detail about it for the reason that you can't go into too much detail about it for the reason that you can't go into too much detail about it.
That's right.
Like I said, I have.
It would have been very tempting this time.
It would have been very, very tempting to have the vote.
To have the vote.
Disappointments.
Disappointments.
To vote a great conference.
To discuss every step of the way.
But in any case, I have to make a decision as to whether putting this in a public arena, in a public arena, would serve our ultimate goal, and again, it is for a very responsible effort.
I have made this decision.
And now, we have no one.
That's what I've been trying to prove to you.
Because the critics, the assholes, the person with the whole buck out, or at least they're still talking about it.
But I just want you to remember, I think that's what we do.
And we feel that that's what we're doing.
Well, you can say that, but you can't say that that doesn't explain the thing about the bombing and so forth.
Because that shows that all we want is to get rid of the bombing.
Yes, we throughout, we had an understanding that we would not devote either the content of negotiations or the status of our related partners to non-competent partners.
And we as a group have held to that.
Yeah, I can say that.
That's easy.
I don't think I can say that you cannot.
I think the water...
They cannot be, they cannot be, they have to be negotiated with mutual confidence on both sides.
So that either side gets the position publicly, which will make peace impossible, which they can't get out of, which will make peace impossible for as long as they might be able to hold on.
So it's too long and defensive.
And this must not be defensive.
So I've been defensive this entire time.
And I told them, you know, basically, we've got to say there's a war.
What's happened?
I was hurt.
I said, you know, the whole war must be shown to no one else.
And I don't think I'm going to say now, you know, there's a lot of laws to disagree with.
Here you've got a couple of those.
It must not be necessary.
We were able to achieve what we were able to achieve.
Even though
It would have been from a public relations standpoint desirable to boast about the progress we've made or complain about the obscenity of our opponents.
Boasting about progress we've made or complaining about the obscenity of the others would have made a good headline for a minute.
delay in the accomplishment of our real goal, which was peace, which we acknowledge, which we acknowledge.
Tell us something about the real future, which is possibly productive in both sides, and give and take, so that neither gets dug in publicly in the positions where that's impossible for them to later treat and reach their dreams.
So, I'm sorry.
where that would come in.
So, we put it in before we talk to the American people in the American community.
So, at the very last, what we find is that it's there, but it's basically in the bank of the American people.
So, we should have that in the first place.
I know that many of it is not known to the company, so I don't want to take it wide.
... ... ... ...
Thank you.
Thank you.
So bring it over four o'clock.
I'm sure I want you to bring it over at four.
Eric, I'll give you this report.