Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 407-007
Date: Tuesday, January 23, 1973 at 4:14 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Haig, Alexander M., Jr.; Price, Raymond K., Jr.
Recording device: Old Executive Office Building
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/407-007

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:26] I actually want to take a picture of that, but I'm not so sure about it.
[0:53] I can't say why I don't want to take a picture.
[0:54] I don't know.
[0:54] I don't know.
[0:54] I don't know.
[0:55] I don't know.
[0:55] I don't know.
[0:55] I don't know.
[0:55] I don't know.
[1:04] I know what
[1:35] I would say that would have
[2:33] to have continued the war .
[2:49] Maybe that's the way it is.
[2:50] But he said it's really, you don't get the peace thing in that way.
[2:55] That's really what it is.
[2:55] What would have ended the war was a promise.
[3:00] What would have continued the war.
[3:00] What would not have ended the war.
[3:01] No, it would have brought peace.
[3:02] What would have not brought peace.
[3:02] Maybe it's that way.
[3:04] What do you think, though?
[3:43] That's not quite true.
[3:45] But it really happened.
[3:47] We had to work for ourselves.
[3:52] And then things just go on.
[3:52] We don't perpetuate it by bugging out.
[3:55] We just bug out.
[3:56] The word goes off.
[3:58] By the way we did, we'd get out, but we insisted
[4:15] I was just looking at it just this week.
[4:26] Do you know how many kilos that is?
[4:27] It's about 350.
[4:27] That's amazing.
[4:52] I read the word for that.
[5:46] Christ, the history of nations, is one of the most really important people to serve honor and distinction, and one of the most selfless men of all.
[6:23] and one of the most solid in our country.
[6:49] On page nine, where this generation, or a third generation of the world,
[6:55] .
[7:08] .
[7:15] .
[7:16] .
[7:16] .
[7:16] .
[7:16] .
[7:42] All right, let's face it.
[8:06] Here are the four of us.
[8:07] Shall we say the break?
[8:18] What the hell are they fighting for?
[8:32] What are they fighting for?
[8:34] Not to give it away, but to keep it.
[8:38] The point is, what the hell are we fighting for?
[8:44] Why are we fighting for it?
[8:45] Not to get it.
[8:46] We're fighting to stop something over there, which might, in the end, Korea's been lost.
[8:47] And then we just pile on the rest.
[8:49] He didn't fight for anything except for us.
[9:03] So then, all of a sudden, we were winning down on people.
[9:15] And we were actually winning.
[9:16] We were winning.
[9:16] We were winning.
[9:16] We were winning.
[9:17] We were winning.
[10:19] Don't bother me.
[10:56] And it's only a very few, very, very great men who ever can say, my God.
[11:34] We're gonna change the line That's it
[12:46] Howard, don't get discouraged because I talk so bitterly about you.
[12:52] I'm not bitter at all.
[12:56] I just want you to follow up on me.
[12:59] You know, you have a tendency to be sort of an idealist.
[13:04] You follow up on everything I say.
[13:05] You've got that house out there with the port guards and all those black servants, those white servants, those Filipino, huh?
[13:12] Yes, sir.
[13:12] You've got to solve it up.
[13:13] And you begin to think that everybody's a nice guy.
[13:14] All you've got to do is just be real nice
[13:17] very bold on that.
[13:19] Talk to them a little more.
[13:28] And they really, you know, it's only a question of understanding.
[13:35] It's really a question of not communicating.
[13:36] That's the real problem.
[13:37] Oh, it isn't that they, you know, they really didn't quite get it.
[13:40] But that's an insult to their intelligence.
[13:41] They wouldn't consider it that.
[13:42] But it's an insult
[13:54] reason that is totally irrelevant to the whole body.
[14:04] They said, oh, it's because we didn't explain it.
[14:06] Like they did in Cambodia.
[14:06] In Cambodia, they said, we explained too much.
[14:07] Now here they explain, we explain too little.
[14:11] But what was the real problem?
[14:15] Both worked.
[14:15] And then he killed someone.
[14:16] Then they had failed.
[14:16] That's the difference.
[14:17] Now they're, they're, you know, not those goddamn Pentagon
[14:31] That's right.
[14:54] Yeah, I can't say so because it would be divisive right now.
[14:55] Okay.
[14:55] That's great.
[14:56] I'll take a rest.
[15:01] Congratulations.
[15:04] Thank you.