Conversation 414-013

TapeTape 414StartFriday, March 2, 1973 at 9:40 AMEndFriday, March 2, 1973 at 10:25 AMParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Kissinger, Henry A.;  Ziegler, Ronald L.;  Sanchez, ManoloRecording deviceOld Executive Office Building

On March 2, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, Ronald L. Ziegler, and Manolo Sanchez met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 9:40 am to 10:25 am. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 414-013 of the White House Tapes.

Conversation No. 414-13

Date: March 2, 1973
Time: 9:40 am-10:25 am
Location: Executive Office Building

The President met with Henry A. Kissinger.

       International Conference on Vietnam
               -Congressional delegation
                      -Kissinger’s recommendations
                             -William P. Rogers
                      -Gerald R. Ford, Hugh Scott
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                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                       (rev. Mar.-09)

               -President’s statement
                      -International recognition
               -Negotiations
                      -Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR], People’s Republic of China
[PRC], Hanoi
                              -Prearranged documents
                      -Morning, afternoon sessions
                      -Paris
                      -State Department briefings
               -Cease-fire agreement
                      -Breach
                      -Signatory’s response
                              -Reconvention of conference
                      -Compared with Geneva Conventions, United Nations [UN]
                      -US response
                              -“De-Americanize the peace”
               -Viet Cong
               -News summary
                      -Prisoners of war [POWs] release
                              -North Vietnam compared to South Vietnam
                              -Timing
                              -President’s statement

      Leaks
               -Malcolm Smith’s book on John F. Kennedy

      Kissinger
             -White House dinner
             -Farewell party
                    -Roger Macon
                            -Mrs. Roger Macon
                                    -Dwight Davis
                                    -Davis Cup
                    -Frank [Marquis?] Childs
                            -Editor of Sunday Times
                    -Opinions of President
             -Conversation with Hugh S. Sidey
                    -Article about President
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                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

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                             -Personality compared to John F. Kennedy

Manolo Sanchez entered at an unknown time after 9:40 am.

       Food

Sanchez left at an unknown time before 10:25 am.

                     -President’s foreign policy
                            -Humaneness
                            -National self-determination [?]
                            -Support

       The President
              -Joseph C. Kraft
                     -Comparison of President to George S. McGovern
                            -President’s progressive policies
                     -Domestic politics
                            -Radicals as status quo
                                   -McGovern supporters
                            -Voter participation
                                   -Shopkeepers

       World trends
              -John M. (“Jack”) Lynch
                     -Election
                     -Left politics
              -1972 election in US
              -US foreign policy
                     -Communist states
                             -Respectability
              -Willy Brandt
                     -Election victory
                             -Disaster for US
                             -US role
                                    -Statements
                     -Ostpolitik
                             -President’s opposition
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                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

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                      -1969 election
                             -Party politics
                             -Results
                             -Parliament

       Vietnam negotiations
             -Cease-fire violations
                     -President’s statement
             -Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam
                     -Kissinger’s assessment
             -Joint Economic Commission [?]

Ronald L. Ziegler entered at an unknown time after 9:40 am.

       Preparation for press briefing

       Monetary information

       L[ouis] Patrick Gray, III [?]

       Ziegler’s press briefing
              -Rowland Evans-Robert D. Novak column
                      -Office of Economic Opportunity
                              -[First name unknown] Phillips
                              -Staff
              -John B. Connally switching parties

       International Conference on Vietnam
               -Agreement
               -Paris
               -Signature
                      -Timing
                      -President’s press conference

       POWs' release
             -Press reports

       Length of President's upcoming press conference
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                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

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               -Frank Cormier

Ziegler left at an unknown time before 10:25 am.

       Preparation for press conference
              -POWs’ release
              -Sudan
                      -Blackmail
                      -Retrieving hostages
              -Middle East
                      -Arms sales
                              -Airplanes
                              -Israel
                              -Balance of power
                      -Press statement
                              -Peace
                                      -John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson
                      -Golda Meir
                              -Political ability
                              -Age
                              -Reelection
                      -Moshe Dayan
                              -Election
                              -Compared with Adm. Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr.
                              -President’s preference
                                      -Yitzak Rabin

       Social function attended by President
               -Jews [?]
               -R. Sargent Shriver [?], [First name unknown] Fischer
               -Jewelry
                      -Value
               -President’s dinner conversation with Alice Walker [?], Irving Kristol, William F.
(“Billy”) Graham
                      -Meeting with Meir
                              -Policy
                              -Joseph W. Alsop
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             NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

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Versailles Treaty
       -Retribution compared to reconciliation
       -Balance of power
               -Germany, Russia, Austro-Hungarian Empire
                      -German rearmament
                      -Balkanization
                      -Russian Revolution
                      -Britain’s withdrawal
                      -France
                              -Maginot Line
                      -US neutrality
                              -Kellogg-Briand Pact

Preparation for press conference
       -Vietnam negotiations
               -POWs’ release
                       -Contingencies

Van Cliburn
       -Performance March 1, 1973
              -Frederic Chopin
      -USSR visit

President’s, Kissinger’s visit to Israel [?], Cairo
       -Reception in Israel

Middle East peace negotiations
      -Egypt
              -General principles

Lynch
        -Irish elections

French elections
       -Run-off election
               -Communist Party compared to Gaulist, Socialist parties

Ambassadorial appointments
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                    NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

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               -Rogers [?]
               -Kissinger’s conversation with H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman
                      -Ambassador to Israel
                      -Kenneth B. Keating’s appointment
                              -President’s viewpoint
               -Exception
               -John Sherman Cooper
                      -Impairments
                      -Ceremonial country
               -Robert J. McCloskey
                      -Mrs. Yitzhak Rabin
               -John S. D. Eisenhower
                      -Book
                      -Compared with McCloskey and Keating

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[Previous Deed of Gift Privacy (D) rereviewed on 10/11/2019. Segment cleared for release.]
[Privacy]
[414-013-w001]
[Duration: 2s]

       Ambassadorial appointments
            -John S. D. Eisenhower
                    -Problem

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       Ambassadorial appointments
            -Israel
                    -Tolerance
            -Pakistan

Kissinger left at 10:25 am.
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                   NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

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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.

I didn't say no harm, but never checked with us whatever the name of God this is all about.
And who did he have?
Who was it?
God?
Never told us.
First thing I knew was when they asked for an answer.
Never asked us what it wanted to do.
What I meant is I didn't want to build the confidence in them.
What do you want me to say about the confidence?
Did we say it went very well or went very poorly?
uh... uh...
I would say that actually most of this had been settled.
I know it before they ever got there.
It was very little negotiated.
From what I can see, we had the basic documents worked out.
I don't know.
I wonder if they did it in Paris or South America.
I'm not sure exactly, but...
If David stated about the grievance made, it sounded as if it was an acquittal, but I can show you the documents.
Does it have anything to do with the opposition of the other countries?
Well, now, what does that mean, Mr. President?
Does that mean that if there's a breach of the ceasefire, these countries will do anything?
No, it's not a breach of the ceasefire.
In the case of the ceasefire, any six of the countries can call it.
That's better than anything you've seen.
Look, I say, you have Geneva Conflicts and so forth.
You know, you build that.
It's like building a goddamn UNF.
And also, we're creating the wrong impression.
You and I know that we are not likely to go back in for the pilot.
And they've been briefly always saying that we want to de-Americanize the team.
Who the hell got that phrase out?
I don't understand.
Plus, you've been using it in some background.
Now, that's been put in the... That's been...
how efficient they are.
If you get that word out, we don't want to say that.
No, but they are here.
I can't reject that.
No, I just have my hands with my own people.
I say, as we, as we, we will exist as people.
Yeah.
The more threatening we are, the more likely they get right.
Now, there's one problem.
Me and Tom have said to him, they're going to be staying with us for a very long time.
It's over three months.
Not that it's out of the plan.
But we have not yet a basis to speak too much about that.
But you ought to keep it in mind.
There might be a slice or two about those 34... You mean what they'll get out of it?
Yeah, but...
The human voodoo was attractive all the way up to some of it, and then I'd be over that.
Yeah.
Let me ask you, what is the finite others that in the new summer, you were here in Tennessee summer, they are not going to be released on the port of the British Columbia?
Those are the people that are going to be released in GLO.
On the March 4th, they said that they are not going to be released by March 4th.
Are they going to be?
No, they aren't going to be.
No, I'm not sure.
March 4th is my intensity.
What is today?
What day is today?
The second.
The first.
The second.
This is the second.
Oh, I see.
They are going to be released Sunday.
That's all I want to know.
We've asked for children to be released Sunday morning.
We want to cover you with everything they say.
They're just now working out if they should be released or if they need to contract.
I get it.
I get it.
I get it.
Okay.
And then do that.
Results.
Sue down.
No, there's another deadline.
Is there anything you want me to say on this?
Oh, I wouldn't say too much.
No, I think not.
I think it's better to say we're making every effort to be helpful to these people.
And the point is, everybody in this government talks through God damn options.
You know, if I read that Kennedy book,
and he's got that extra diction to read to the problem.
I had a really amazing, after the Dental Dust, I jumped in and as they were coming to announce, oh, we had Roger Macon, you know, the book edition of that.
Oh, I know his wife.
What's his name?
Davis' daughter.
Oh, is it?
Roger Macon's wife.
Dwight Davis' daughter.
Oh, yes.
Oh, yes, the tall, yeah.
She's got such an English accent.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, right.
Oh, yes, from what?
Blood done?
They were carrying on in front of us.
Bacon was?
He's a good man, of course.
He was.
The child said the same thing.
The child said the same thing.
The atmosphere was really, it was not a really ill culture.
But he was diving home yesterday, and he said that he wants to do an article.
He said the funny thing is that Kennedy meant all this, the rhetoric is subtracted, but it was very Kennedy.
I think it's the most humane thought policy in my life.
There's always a chance to fulfill itself.
You said that?
I don't know.
I don't know what you're talking about.
But I think it's the same thought.
I think it's the same thought.
I think it's the same thought.
government was the reactionary based on based on the fact he said he said who's brought about the trade change he said you what is McGovern he had a rather interesting analysis he had a blight for domestic changes to be like support well but what he says is rather interesting he was talking about the men's election yeah and he was saying what's happening now is that there are people in each country
of becoming the party of the state of the world.
The people who were talking about an old American, you know, come home, and who is for the communists in France right now?
The little shopkeepers, the people who don't want to participate in this capitalist revolution.
Really?
That's very good.
That's very good.
Is that right?
Is that what you see?
Lich loss.
Yeah.
That's another cleric from the left.
Even in this little old country like that.
Do you think maybe we're lucky if we're in the world of those adults anyway?
I wonder.
On one level, we're contributing to it by making the communists more respected.
Yes, I wonder.
I wonder if we don't do that.
We really need to have a broad coverage before that.
We were trying to do this on a good channel.
There, I must say, I've had statements, very bad comments at certain times.
You know, they did this on a good channel.
They did this on a good channel.
But you know, I'm talking about us politics.
You know, I'm trying to say that it was our idea that we were for it.
We were never for us politics.
Never.
I was against it.
You were against it a ton.
That's the way we should have insisted on it.
And I said,
they had a right-wing party and that right-wing party was just a hundred thousand dollars of getting into power.
All those right-wing votes were wasted.
They were subtracted from the CDU and they were useless in power.
And that's what killed Kiesinger.
Kiesinger actually ran better than Hartmann did in every election he's been in.
And he got his votes, got to get his votes.
The biggest vote in those votes is that one.
Right.
That has been to it every now and then.
On the ceasefire in general, I'm not going to be at all polyamorous about it.
I'm going to say, well, we expect people to fly with it, but there are violations.
We're not surprised.
We expect them to receive.
That's a monetary supplement.
Oh, yeah.
In fact, we just met one of them.
We have nothing else that's on there.
Oh, you were back here on the phone.
I just said they should address me.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
by some of the staff here, one over in Tarrantine, I learned about that.
I just want to clear your attention, you've been handling that.
Connolly, another question about Connolly in light of the speculation of last week.
has been signed when he goes out there to let them know.
I think he has been signed.
He has been signed.
He will have been signed.
But I'm sure he's got a problem.
And I do it for a half hour, but you're going to have to cut it off.
They want it cut off in a half hour.
They want it cut off in a half hour.
on this and go on the field.
I think we'll separate it.
I would say if you could take the position that they have with me, I would say that he has been with us.
If they don't come out, if you couldn't say it today, if you and I today couldn't say it, then they can do it next week.
We have a lot of benefits.
Good, good.
Sudan, nothing, as you said, except that we aren't going to comment on the situation.
Will we pay black men or not?
I said, no.
Sudan should know that.
So what are we going to do?
We're going to comment on the situation.
... ... ... ... ... ... ...
What I was trying to do was to say something about peace without making it, without, you know, otherwise deceiving people's imagination.
And what they would have done.
We'll stand by you.
You're our best friend.
We're proud of you.
We know all that.
We can fight with us.
Just do that.
But I thought the idea of sort of working all around that Fraser and some of the leadership got into that.
And that's where the leadership was.
And that did it.
Two impossible goals for that same team.
Now, I thought this was very tough.
She might have thought I was pushing her a little hard, but I had to do it.
I don't think they'll find anybody better.
They'll probably be elected.
The question is, if she's 75, she should do it.
If she's elected, I don't like that.
I had the same feeling, he said he's his own mom.
I'd rather have her be in Korea.
After that, I was glad that they had, you know, I think they appreciated the audience there.
But I mean, did you ever see a more magnificent display of you and so forth?
well.
But I looked at a couple of those necklaces and I saw one Edelman necklace that had to be at least 300,000 pounds.
It was beautiful.
And the scribe in the back of it said, you know, they said there was a letter
That's all we're trying to do.
The curve is going to get us out of it.
I don't get that.
I think we could... Alice Walker.
I'll bet you she had them already.
But that was very clever.
You know, our discussion of Versailles was very interesting to me.
And you were exactly right.
You know, you could have guessed every kind of agreement.
But Versailles was a fatal error.
It was not strong enough to destroy.
And yet it was too weak in terms of building up.
And what I mean is that it was too tough.
It was too tough for reconciliation and too weak to destroy.
And that is a terrible mistake one must either have or do one or the other.
That was the second mistake.
But the other thing was .
that by creating an out-Jewish, a belt of weak state peace, he actually achieved what it is to improve the German situation.
In 1914, Germany faced a strong Russia and a strong Austria-Hungarian Empire.
It couldn't expand without starting a major war.
By 1918, it was only a question of time until the Germans had an army.
Once they had an army, they had it made.
So it was
They totally dismissed it.
They balkanized central Europe.
They balkanized Europe, eastern and central Europe.
In the face of a very strong country, then Russia becomes communist to get out of the picture.
So the defeat in Europe had to be preserved, but the domestic defeat in this country had to be banned.
The British withdrew.
The French, and you had the absurd situation that France, which in order to contain Europe, they had to pursue a strategy of attack
The United States sat by the Dubai talking about a come on, free on.
I heard that.
I would say, I would say, I would say that we do it, we do it, that the Christmas will be the reason why people place or where they will be the reason no matter if you don't want to
Everything, it was said during the meeting, but well, I would even say at the end, yeah.
POWs will be released on March 4th.
We expect that to be completed, yes.
What it is, what it is, we did, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.
Well, you've got to say one thing.
I know you don't care, but you've got to say it in the night.
I must say, I have a lack in my music when I got to piano then.
But anyway.
I thought it was a good idea.
Someday I do hope for these four years.
I do think that I ought to make, I ought to do it.
We can't do it.
We can't do it.
But I think you should have that in your own, back in your mind.
In my mind, in the back of my mind, you should have it.
You should have it.
And you would throw that in your whole life.
Because I should have done it.
Well, I think if we can get the Egyptians into a, if we can, if we can fuzz up the language of general principle, then we can get into it.
Incidentally, after the Irish election settles down, some of the glitches lost.
I think you ought to send a note.
Oh yeah, but I want to be sure that Luther gets
They're going to run it through.
You won't be able to tell much on Sunday because the only people who get in on Sunday are those who get a majority.
Then they have another election.
Oh, the round.
Then they have a run-off.
Actually, only the party's going to have a 5% run-off.
But the other stuff makes a deal.
Yeah.
We're in a funny position so close to the communists as we run each other in a run-off.
We didn't fight because we didn't think the communists would let us do it.
But the communists said, I think we would let the dissenters do it, because then we'd have a good conversation with the communists.
So, they had a better more likely vote for the communists if the communists were left.
Then, if so, then they let the communists vote.
But they voted for socialists, not communists.
That's really not the only thing to do.
One of the things I wanted to do, but I often didn't do enough, and it's probably because I thought we'd be able to help others.
Oh, incidentally, I heard a rather interesting statement about that, really.
He's an optimized God.
They love him.
They love him.
They love him.
You can't, you know, I'm trying to know if there's a practical way to guide on, you know, I don't know.
You can't hear.
You know, you can't hear what you do.
I almost like to do it all the time for a ceremony.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I'd rather not send an old guy home than to do it.
We may be a big program.
You know, another guy that wants to go is John.
He's not security, but he's very, very, very good.
but I'm going to general military tactics and so forth.
And he would take program.
He would take program.
He didn't know he had no subtle or anything like that, but he would decode his oil.
And he had all this symbolism for that.
They had an ice mine.
But I mean, I don't think that the personal habits of an investor would be the greatest.
They're more tolerant than others.
You know what I mean?
Some people would be concerned with this.
They wouldn't.
They wouldn't.
They don't care.
But on the other hand, they're very worldly people.
Some countries would step back and be more tolerant.
They're not beautiful.
We have to get one there.
We have to get one to Pakistan.