Nixon, Haig & Price on Vietnam Peace Settlement and Presidential Speeches

I have two or three points here that I think are worth considering.
Here's what I would like to do.
I wonder even if it's on television, even if it's in the Oval Office, we will already read them.
Now, I will take away the two bottom paragraphs on page three.
And I will stick them in the place that you have scratched out on page four.
In terms of the way of reading, the bold has to agree with us.
The bold has to agree with us.
And here, I think we can cut that down.
I don't want to build up too much.
Unless there's some reason for it.
I was just going to say a few of the facts.
I think if you think first, let me start.
Would it be all right just to say that?
What do you want to say, councilor?
The other way to do this is in reaching this summit.
We have been, we have been, we have had, we have been the closest councilor to the president, you and other representatives of the government.
Thank you.
I don't get a strong name on it, because you have to put it in.
I shouldn't have done it.
Oh, you think he hated him?
My God.
Well, he doesn't leave it.
Well, he doesn't leave it for another.
What is the name of God that we need to do again?
I don't think there ought to be an end to this.
And I think in view of what the Jew has said in reaching this settlement, we have been in the closest consultation.
If you think you need that sentence, Bill, we have been in the closest consultation with the President, with you, with other representatives, throughout the negotiations, which we can all be sure of, which has not happened.
Throughout these negotiations,
and other representatives of the government of the Republic of Vietnam.
This settlement meets the goals and full support of the government of the Republic of Vietnam, as well as our brothers and sisters.
Then you see those other two paragraphs down there.
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So that's the thing.
If you understand the grapevine, that is basically when we realize that we have said we have brought a hell of a lot of information, and we've gone through that.
It's going to be something a little bit more than fundamental.
Do you think we'll win?
I don't know.
I don't know.
Well, this is a right that's been here since then.
Yeah.
It's a right that they shouldn't have to wait.
You're in a general vote.
You're in a general vote.
Friends, it means a little more to me than fundamental because of God.
At the bottom of page six, the word clamor follows.
And I accept that your state has supported our existence on peace.
It's an honor.
Despite great, great, all those pressures that go on, whether you're
I know.
It's got great pressures, just without them.
Great frames.
Great...
I can't think of another way to put it.
Climber.
Climber seems to me to be, frankly, not quite strong enough, and yet a little bit.
There's a lot of work that we just sort of want to do, which is not very good, but
I don't want to be either.
Instead of a grave crisis, I was a grave disaster.
So I'm grateful for that.
Okay.
I agree.
I agree.
That's a disaster.
I would have another change of order in the top page seven.
I'd go period after the word jeopardize as part of an action sentence.
I would put in the word can now understand and appreciate why.
Take that sentence and move it down after the word peace.
In other words, after the word peace, I would read that
I know you would not want that, not a lot of that fees jeopardized.
We're discussing.
You have to change tackles.
To discuss our negotiations.
Let me see.
I thought I realized I've got to change this on you guys as well.
What I'm trying to say here is to discuss the backwards we were making to secure fees in college.
I think it strengthens it.
Rather than say ..
So if you deal with that
But even that one word now, really, it gives everybody a chance to get a little off the hook.
So I think you can now understand and appreciate why the special rules are not made any other way.
But we're saying now that we have succeeded.
You can appreciate why in our efforts.
Thank you.
We were on the table with two deputies, probably with secret negotiations and a sense of security.
I don't think anybody else had one.
around us.
I'd rather have them up here than down here.
Now there's another very, I think, very important point that we need to make.
It really gets us on the heart of the peace.
It isn't just the fact that we need civil peace or a peace that we trade around.
Most people don't think about that.
That's an interesting point.
Prisoners from withdrawal means peace in the U.S. and continuing war and arrest.
And that issue has to be stated in my name.
You realize, I agree with you also, that we can take that out and substitute war with a rough peace with us, you see.
And it also gets away from the idea that it would have left endless war.
Left only the prospect of endless war.
Or you could say it would have ended the war for us.
But it would have had the war in the future.
But it would have left the war in the future.
or the 25 million people of Indochina.
I think, if you put it that way, it really is a substance to the peace people, right, in a sense, because about then, they're sure these were people that somebody has said, well, Calvary is a great humanitarian.
These people are far away, and we know a little about them.
The same thing was said about the Czechs.
You see, they are people.
That's what our debate with Congress was about.
There's another reason for this.
There was an argument, I think it wasn't about them, but already settled for prisoners of war.
What they want, a political settlement.
That's the other reason we couldn't get that.
But beyond that, the prisoners who withdraw, they
Which do you know?
Well, just California County.
Well, why don't we just limit it to Vietnam?
What is the extension agreement?
South Vietnam.
South Vietnam.
South Vietnam.
South Vietnam.
South Vietnam.
On the next page, the wives, the children, the families.
I think it must be spelled out.
Of our prisoners of war.
I think of the Johnson thing.
I wonder if we understand Christ maybe too much.
If I say no one, I know no one would be welcome to speak to Lord Johnson.
I don't want to investigate too much.
Perhaps that's something I'm telling you.
It's like if there was nothing to care about you, there was nothing to care about you.
Now, I come to the last.
I'm afraid that
I didn't understand it.
And it helped a lot.
And I don't think a lot of people will want to have this .
I know.
I know the heat.
I agree with the idea.
Let us
That's all right.
That's all I got.
Well, why don't you put up this one?
We will...
We will make a major effort to achieve that goal.
I see.
And you have a button.
Anybody want a button?
All right, fine.
For our part, on our part, we would like a major act to help achieve that goal.
That's just a reciprocity, and the law of social distancing.
That's good.
I see.
I didn't realize you wanted the word I see.
Okay.
We have to wrap up now.
What have you heard this morning?
You better come over because we're going to end with wrong.
So we get to end and decide.
I think one reason we're going to kill this now is not that we're going to do it good.
We're going to do it goddamn good.
Because this is just right for Congress.
Just right for Congress.
Right.
But we feel now that we have to act to the Congress.
We should act to the Congress that we need the assistance of the Congress.
First, we should say, I should reap the life of our leaders and so forth.
And I should do that in other words than any member of Congress can do it.
Second, in order to achieve this, we
and to give assistance to South Vietnam and to the government of Vietnam.
And I just imagine the cooperative with Congress will be required.
And I shall be requesting that.
I think those are the only two things.
And then you get the one line, the Buchanan pipeline at the end, where we say, in addition to the American people, I think you can say it's not true.
In fact, the Bihar is mature.
You have the Spiker, and here I would say the Spiker frames, so it's got the balance of something like 12 years to stay back.
You have the
I want to express my appreciation for my father's performance.
He was an avid player.
He was a great player.
Thank you.
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He said, you should go to the Congress because it will help your relationship with Congress.
You should understand the difference.
It's not balanced there, so I would say go to the Congress, but it's not all that great.
Either way you do it, what you're saying, I don't know what you're saying.
I don't know what you're saying.
I don't know what you're saying.
The one problem that I see here, is it possible at this moment that Al or Bob could get him on the plane?
I don't think we ought to make this decision without getting this checked.
How do you think we have this checked?
He says it's up to us.
What did he say?
He wanted to do it close to the night lights.
So it was up there before he left the place.
But it doesn't make any big of a problem.
I think, I can sense from my audience, that's real long.
They were able to align with a lot of time.
They kind of linked to it.
I have another thought.
I have another one.
Go out and ask him if he was ever pleased.
What do you think?
Well,
Was it European ?
We'll see what's going on.
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Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
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At this point, I haven't done it.
I think the announcement is too good to waste.
The point is, Jan, let's face it.
You've got to remember that they can talk about isolation and all the rest, but I did the goddamn thing alone.
I did it in that little office alone.
I'm not proud of the prediction that I had to go to the great discredit of the cabinet, the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, and the congressional people for the most part, that they didn't hear support.
But that's the way it was.
Now then, I don't think of going down there and acting as if everything was just lovely, lucky, lucky moments.
And then having the camera pan, and then having, they'll hit my daughter, they'll hit Bella Hatcher,
Who are they going to ask?
Who are they going to ask?
See, they're going to ask, that's what he thinks.
Oh, no.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
But they've got a lot better opportunity down there.
They'll all be down there.
And these guys and so forth.
And also, you have this other thing.
We've had two men and three of those who have raised the question of the lateness of the hour and the lateness of the minutes.
I shouldn't be down there floating over this thing.
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Okay, we're going to now scale it.
Five leaders tonight.
That's all we're having tonight.
All we're having are the five leaders here in this office.
That should be, I think, at 9 o'clock.
There will be another bipartisan meeting in the morning.
We'll have a bipartisan meeting.
No, just a second.
Let me call you back in a minute.
All right.
Go ahead.
Take five.
Take five.
Deal with it.
Right.
Right.
Right.
You can't try.
You don't want to say anything about it.
Thank you.
I think it's just too obvious for us to .
We're always trying to have a broader range
I think I'll ask for that.
I think I'll have finance, Senate finance, House finance tomorrow.
It would be good to get bills.
We need it for other purposes.
We have a law.
There are other numbers.
I don't know who the only one is.
I don't know who the other one is.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
That'll just be.
You see, I don't want to give up.
Roger's the person to be here tomorrow.
So I go to the girls and change.
And then there's another group where the girls are going to come out and do research.
I go and ask them any questions they can.
I think, yes, 9 o'clock, 8 o'clock, 7 o'clock, 8 o'clock, 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock, 10 o'clock,
Right.
Right.
The difference really was divine.
The difference really was divine.
If you think about it, of the people, leaders and public leaders are not taking about it.
That's the guy that they represent in the leadership.
You know, Connell.
Connell was going to say, why the hell do they have divine and not me?
I'm a leader in divine.
You see what I mean?
I think they should pitch somebody other than divine.
You've got to go outside the leadership.
You've got to go outside the leadership.
I think there's someone else who's a non-leader from that group.
Can you explain that to me?
Go ahead.
Cancel K. Cancel K is not a leader.
It must be non-leaders.
Cancel K is not a non-leader.
All right.
All right.
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OK.
Eight.
And one.
There you go.
I think what I will do is .
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I'll tell you what I'll do.
I'll get him a copy of it somehow.
Like I said, I just make changes.
And I'll have it.
And then I will give it to him.
I think it's better to say that than to be having a coffee in the middle of the street.
Where would you be at about 9, 30, 40, 10?
No.
It's safer if there's no press.
Don't run any press copies off of it.
No press copies if you run it.
None at all.
Or somebody ejected that.
I'll take it off the air.
Let them take it off the air.
Take it off the air.
We'll take it off the air.
We'll take it off the air.
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Well, I think we've all done as much damage as we can.
Well, I'll tell you, we've done as much damage
Thank you.
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Let me tell you that I feel... Of course, my judgment is wrong.
I feel more...
But while we might hold our statement, in fact, they call it their reaction.
They'll focus on that.
They'll focus on it.
I don't want to be there.
We did this.
We're talking.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Well, let me say,
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Yes, my joint agreement with the .
My joint agreement is .
Thank you.
I was going to ask, is there a request for the .
And I think that another problem I'm seeing is some other .
I was going to say that .
Now, I think that's state for Johnson .
Not this time.
So I haven't been speaking to her over the weekend to see those guys .
Yes, sir.
The entertainment is already set up .
30 days.
Sure.
I want to raise
Are we sure we're doing the right thing?
Are we sure we're aware of it?
The question on the Johnson funeral operation, the standard protocol, the plan for a state funeral would have the president in the funeral cortege at the time they put on the caisson, what would they all like to do the rest of the night?
And the president would have to attend it and present it.
But not speaking.
But not speaking.
But placing the president in the room himself.
OK.
I'll go to the speaker.
We probably need the speaker.
And it will be a prayer from the speaker to you.
And then the present place will be.
Then I expect the church service.
Well, let me ask you what the time is.
The court date, we're doing it approximately 2 o'clock.
The ceremony is at 2.30.
No.
That was different because they did bring the body in.
That wasn't a state unit.
This is.
There is a road hall for a state unit.
This is the whole shop.
Of course, I'm going.
But everything, I'm seeing, I just haven't got the time.
I agree I should do that.
That's the only thing that does do is do it.
I just thought that we had the head of that speech.
We all knew the chance of meeting at 4 o'clock, and I don't know if they
The following day, though I'm free all day long, I'd originally get ready for 8 or 9 at night and be all right with it.
I just didn't read about that thing on the teleprompter anyway.
I think I was worried about it for a change.
A lot of other people do that.
Why do I have to worry whether it's that good?
What do you think?
I don't know.
Thank you.
Also, let me say, let me tell you something else.
We're making more history.
It will be written 10 years from now, but it's not now.
It's 100 years from now.
But there was more history made with that inauguration.
Because the inauguration said it all out.
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I don't care about sitting through the meetings.
I'm just caring about .
I have a little credit for that.
John, I told you that it's one thing you've got to watch out for.
But you have to realize there are no forms of credit to deliver.
You have to realize the audience is now 60 years of age.
I know you've tried it, but there are just times when you just shouldn't put a little bit more on the plate.
I just want you to do that.
Now, let me explain.
It doesn't, it isn't putting on the plate.
It doesn't put it on the plate.
I can do all that.
But this is something that wasn't on the plate.
It went on the day after the inaugural.
You have to shake hands.
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Then I have to put the most bright chipper in the vest and go through that.
And I've got to go through a press conference.
And John just makes you go through all that you see.
He judges it.
I don't use him as an example.
He doesn't.
When he goes out there, he goes out like I used to go out by his residency.
I forgot to have that kind of infection, so I said, well, they ended up, and I couldn't make it well in that state.
But when I have to go out, and they watch every word, and every expression,
How did he live?
All sorts of things.
Was he very tired?
Was he showering?
John also is going to realize that all of that added up creates a great amount of tension.
And then, when we do try to get up to it, it's not possible.
The point is that we have not been quite well.
We've had enormous pressure.
John was going to be obsessed.
There's a certain rate of money that you must not break the amount.
They just add that one thing and then take off.
It's like the thing that we've done quite often.
When I take off for a trip to Florida or California, you know, Alice, we put in 18,000 hours to get it done.
And then I would crank it off and plan it.
It would be two days or the other.
I think that's quite true.
It's like when you over-study for an exam.
It's like when you over-exert any time.
recovery period is much longer than that.
It's much longer than even a century.
But John doesn't realize it.
I don't know if I'm sure I can do this.
I don't know if I can do this.
Why don't you have a talk with him?
Or do they understand?
Do they understand?
Do they know who did that?
What is their answer?
Don't do other things.
Who are they?
Yeah.
Like what?
What were they not supposed to do?
Yes.
But I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I want to build it for me.
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because they did not get to get all of that .
And that means also .
We've already talked about that now, because they haven't .
The way to do it is to do the same reports with three or four of us .
annualized and stuff and all that.
It goes in with the general list, and then it's got a discretionary report.
It's not really you.
You don't read it, but they go to your child.
That's right.
If I read it, I'll read it sometime.
I guess you should.
I mean, there's no reason.
The reason you think they're going to .
The general tone is this.
Let me say this.
It makes sense for the TV, which they've got to put together.
But the general tone of the written press box has got to be to provide balance for the very negative tone of the Washington Post and the New York Times and the Washington Star.
In other words, they have got to search for the Phoenix
You know, I think John is right, personally.
The other thing, John, I wanted to see you raise the question, is once your advice is out in the public eye, what are you going to do?
I don't want to operate in a system where you're going to go to war.
So what strategy do you want to handle on?
Do you want to give a little, do you want to do it in order?
Do you want to do it in order?
The state law is really important here.
You're going to require a non-profit center confirmation of a clinic in Earl and Kissinger, Ash, and .
On the basis that there are prejudices, so you're confirming that there is a domestic company, NSC, who is going to be able to see that in the paper.
And Percy is apparently going to do a deal where, if he did,
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I think I should.
Let John handle it.
Tell John to make the best use of the camera.
As far as I'm concerned, the department will take your note.
I don't care.
You can't go off the course.
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Thank you.
I'm not going to have that.
I want to be sure to do that.
I had promised you that I was going to come.
Yes.
I was going to come.
It doesn't mean anything to me.
Okay.
And my view is that after we finish, if I do go to bed, I might.
Perfect.
I just had to come up with a plan to get off for a little bit of time.
I decided to look for a time to go away for a little bit of time to read after the session, which is what I had to do on Tuesday.
But I had a recess on Thursday, so I gave it.
I think that does, that does in January, that does in February, that does when I come back later on.
Oh, I don't know.
I'm sort of debating whether to go to Florida or California.
California would be better.
I think the rate is certainly good.
Thank you.

Nixon, Haig & Price on Vietnam Peace Settlement and Presidential Speeches

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on January 23, 1973

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