On March 29, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 6:32 pm and 7:35 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 426-025 of the White House Tapes.
Transcript (AI-Generated)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 Do not cite this transcript as authoritative.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.
Four years and two months ago, when I first came to this office as president, by far the most difficult problem confronting the nation was the seemingly endless war of the economy.
550,000 American troops were killed in the economy.
300,000 people were killed in the economy.
No progress was being made in the peace process.
My meeting with the initiative program ended the war and went on.
Four years and two months ago, when I first came into this office as president, by far the most difficult, by far the most difficult problem in the country of the nation was the seemingly endless war in Vietnam.
150,000 Americans were stationed in Vietnam.
As many as 300 elite were being killed in action.
Hundreds were held as prisoners.
We made the initiative, the program, to end the war in Vietnam.
Eleven times.
The 17 million people of South Vietnam have the right to choose their own future on the
Because of our program of Vietnamization, they have the strength to defend us.
And we have prevented the imposition of a communist government on the people of South Vietnam against their will.
There are still some problems.
The provisions of the agreement requiring an accounting for all missing in action in North China, the provisions regarding the lawlessness in Cambodia, and the provisions prohibiting infiltration from North Vietnam into South Vietnam have not been complied with.
We have and will continue to comply with the agreement.
We shall insist that North Vietnam also comply with the agreement.
The leaders of North Vietnam should have no doubt as to the consequences if they fail to comply with the agreement.
Despite these difficulties, we can be proud of the fact that we have achieved our goal of maintaining the agreement which provides peace and honor to Vietnam.
On this day, let us honor those who made this achievement
those who sacrificed their lives, those who were disabled, those who made every one of us proud to be an American as they returned from years of confidence in America, and every one of the two and a half million American Americans who served our country in Vietnam in our nation's longest war, never have meant to serve with greater devotion in a war in which they seem to have less support.
Never have meant to serve with greater devotion abroad
Let us provide these men with the violence benefits and the job opportunities they never earned.
Let us honor them with the respect they deserve.
And I say again to them, let us not dishonor those who serve their country by granting enmity to those who deserve their country.
I don't want to express the appreciation of the nation to others who helped to make this day possible.
I refer you, the great majority of Americans listening
who despite an unprecedented barrage of criticism from a small but total minority, stood firm for peace and honor.
I know it was not easy to reproduce them.
We've been through some difficult times together.
I recall the time in November 1969 when hundreds of thousands of protesters marched in the way.
In April of 1870, when I found it necessary to order attacks on communist bases,
And then, perhaps the hardest decision I had made as President, on December 18, 1972, when our hopes for peace were so high, and the North Vietnam aid storm rolled us into conference air, I counted necessary and ordered horseberry strikes on military targets in North Vietnam to wait for them.
On each of these occasions, the voices of opposition we heard in Washington were so loud, at times, they seemed to be a majority.
The voices of opposition we heard in Washington were so loud, at times, they seemed to be a majority.
But across America, the overwhelming majority stood firm against those who advocated peace at any time, even if the price would have been defeat and humiliation from the United States.
Because you stood firm,
Thank you for doing what was right.
I don't know what night was able to save her.
Thank you for reaching us home on our feet instead of on our knees.
Let us turn now to some of the problems we have.
Tonight I ask your support in another battle.
We can be thankful that this is a battle, not a war abroad, but a battle we must win if we are to build a new prosperity without war and without inflation.
What I referred to as the battle of the budget.
Not just the battle of the federal budget, but even more important, the battle of your budget, the family budget of every American.
One of the most terrible costs of war is inflation.
The cost of living has skyrocketed in every war.
We recognized this four years ago, and we've taken serious action to deal with it.
As a result of our policies, we have cut the rate of inflation in half since it reached its peak in 1969 and 1970.
Today, our rate of inflation is the lowest of any major industrial nation.
These positive statistics are a small comfort to a family trying to make both ends meet.
And they are no comfort at all for the housewife, who sees meat prices soaring every time she goes to the market.
The major leases in our fight against inflation
is the area .
I have taken action to increase imports from abroad and production .
This will increase the supply of meat and will help bring prices down later in the year.
But what we need is action that will stop the rise of meat prices now.
That is why I have today ordered the Coastal Living Council to impose a ceiling on prices of meat, pork, and lamb.
The ceiling will remain in effect as long as it's necessary to do the job.
Meat prices must not go high.
With the help of the housewife and the farmer, they can and should go down.
This is getting a little help in our federal industry, but it is not a permanent solution.
We must act on all fronts, and here is where the federal line comes in.
I have submitted to Congress for the next fiscal year the largest budget in our history, $250.
The amount I have requested in this budget for domestic programs in such fields as health, housing, education, and aid to the elderly and handicapped and the poor is twice as high as the amount in the first budget I submitted four years ago.
However, some members of Congress believe the budget in these areas should be even higher.
Now, if I were to approve the increases in my budget that have been proposed in the Congress, it would mean a 15% increase in your tax or higher prices.
for every home in Paris.
That is why I shall infill the bills, which would break the federal budget, which I have established.
If I do not infill these bills, increased prices or taxes would break the family budget of .
This is not a family week, Congressman, President.
It is your family.
It is your money, your prices, your taxes, if I am trying to say.
Twenty-five years ago, as a President of the Congress, I had a hand in the President's bill
I remember he had a sign that read, the box stops here.
That kind of person, the president, can't pass the buck to anyone else without decision.
also means that your law stops here.
If I deny to stop the spending increase at which Congress sends my debt, you will have to pay the bill.
I admit there's an honest difference of opinion on the matter of the federal budget.
If you're willing to pay the higher taxes or prices of the result, we increase federal spending over my budget and summon Congress to vote.
You should ask your Senators and Congressmen to override my debt.
you want to stop the rise in taxes and prices, then I have a suggestion for you.
I remember when I was a congressman senator, I always seemed to hear from those who wanted government to spend more.
And I so have heard from the people who haven't paid the bill, the taxpayers.
If your congressman senator has the courage to vote against more spending so that you won't have to pay higher taxes or prices, let him know who you support.
What do you demand of a vote on the federal budget as a senator?
We have achieved our goal of a new prosperity, prosperity without war and without invasion.
I ask tonight for your support in helping to win this vitally important battle.
Let me turn finally tonight to another great challenge.
As we have demanded as long as war, let us resolve.
We shall not lose peace.
During the past year, we have made great progress toward our goal of a generational peace for Iran.
before I be acknowledged today.
After 20 years of hostility and confrontation, we have opened and constructed new relations with the peoples of the Republic of China, a country in which one-fourth of all the peoples were united.
We negotiated last year with the Soviet Union a number of important agreements, including an agreement which takes a major step in limiting nuclear power.
There are those who take the view that if we made this progress for peace, why not cut the defense funding?
Well, let's look at the facts.
Our defense fighting today takes the lowest percentage of our gross national product in 20 years.
There is nothing I would like better than to be able to reduce it further.
But we must never forget that we would not have made the progress to our last impeach that we have made in this past year unless we had the military strength that commanded respect.
This year, we have begun new negotiations with Soviet women, preferred by the Haitians on the Tehran.
should be participating later in the year in negotiations for mutual reduction of forces in the United States.
If prior to these negotiations we unilaterally reduce our defense funding or reduce our forces in Europe, any chance for successful negotiations for a mutual reduction of forces or a limitation of arms will be destroyed.
There is one unbreakable rule in the United States of America.
You can't get something in a negotiation unless you have something to give.
If we cut our defense
Before negotiations begin, any incentive for other nations to come there will go right out the window.
If the United States reduces its defenses and others do not, it increases the danger of war.
It is only a mutual reduction of forces that will reduce the danger of war.
We must maintain our strength until we get agreements under which other nations will join us in reducing the burden of war.
What is the state?
Whether the United States shall be calm
the second strongest nation in the world.
If that nation ever comes, the chances for building a new structure of peace in the world would be irreparably damaged, and free nations everywhere would be living in moral danger.
A strong United States is not a threat to peace.
It is the free world's indispensable guardian of peace and freedom.
I ask for your support for keeping the strength which enabled us to make such great progress toward world peace in this past year, and which is indispensable
to continue our old militant views of peace, to be examined.
We will consider some of our problems tonight.
Let us never forget how fortunate we are to be living in America at this time of night.
We have ended the longest and most difficult war in our history in a way that maintains the trust of our allies and their respect for America.
We are the strongest and the most prosperous nation in the world.
Because of our strength, America has to make limits on opportunity.
by the leading role of bringing down the walls of hostility which divide the people of the world, in reducing the burden of arms, of building a structure of lasting peace in the world.
Because of our role, we have the means to move forward at home and assemble new programs for property, which will provide a better environment every day in housing and health care for everyone, and which will enable us to be more generous to the poor, the elderly, the disabled, and the disadvantaged,
than any country in history.
These are goals worthy of a great reason.
Let us, therefore, put aside those honest differences about the war, which have divided us, and dedicate ourselves to meet the great challenges of peace, which can unite us.
But as we do so, let us not overlook the burden, more important even than military might or even not at all, which is essential for greatness in the nation.
The pages of history which prove
wreckage of nations, which fell to the wayside at the height of their strength and power, because their people became soft, weak, and solvent, and lost the character and spirit which had led them to their dreams.
But I think you and I have had confidence that this will not happen in America.
My confidence has been increased by the fact that a war which cost America so much in lives, money, and to build their home, as has it ended
provided an opportunity for millions of Americans to see again the character and the spirit which made America the great nation it is.
Three days ago, in Peru, I talked to a man who had spent almost eight years in a communist prison cell in Vietnam.
For over four years, he was in solitary confinement.
During that period, he never saw a single person except his family.
He didn't have two meals a day.
A bread, a piece of bread, which was just a piece of bread and vegetable soup.
All he was given or paid was communist propaganda.
All he could hear and wait was communist propaganda.
I asked him how he was able to survive and come home, standing tall and proud, saluting the American flag.
He posed a long time before he did.
Then he said, posed a long time before he did.
Then he said, it isn't easy for me to answer you.
I'm not very good at words.
But I say very simply, it was faith.
Faith in God.
Faith in God.
He suffered so much for America.
He could have suffered.
The man who suffered so much for America could have had such faith.
Let us who have received so much from America, renew our faith.
He could have suffered so much for America.
The man who suffered so much for America could have such faith.
Let us who have received so much from God renew our faith in God, our faith in God, our faith in God, our faith in God.
We meet the great challenges of peace that lie ahead with this kind of faith.
It will one day be written that this