Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 467-011
Date: Friday, March 12, 1971 at 8:51 AM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Kissinger, Henry A.; Butterfield, Alexander P.
Recording device: Oval Office
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/467-011

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:01] Oh, yeah.
[0:07] He brought me a reply, a draft letter which they would send you.
[0:13] And now there's a bit of a negotiation.
[0:18] I don't want to, unless they want to hear the details.
[0:22] They want to show the letters from you.
[0:25] There was a lot of detail happened by the previous day.
[0:29] Well, at least he replied.
[0:31] Oh, they're dying, they're real soon, they're suddenly bleeding.
[0:39] All right.
[0:39] And they're saying... Do you want that announced now?
[0:48] No.
[0:48] You don't want it announced?
[0:49] No, no, no.
[0:49] What do you think, Mr. President?
[0:52] I don't know, I just can't deal with it.
[0:53] All right, but on this, do they want this exchange of letters to occur now?
[0:55] Well, uh, yeah, oh yeah.
[0:55] If you think you can, why don't you just summarize it for us?
[0:58] Well, the exchange of letters is that I have proposed to him...
[1:00] in the draft of your letter, a very detailed agreement of freezing.
[1:06] They don't want to do that.
[1:08] They, uh, to bring him in, frankly, they don't want to do it because he thinks
[1:13] With the preparation for the party congress, they can't all get married.
[1:19] So they gave us a much shorter reply, and they recommended we give them a much shorter letter that just talks about the principles rather than the technical details.
[1:30] But does it mention offensive and defensive?
[1:31] Yes.
[1:32] There we have one point which we have to settle with them.
[1:37] They, of course, are driving their usual half-barking.
[1:40] They say, let's go get the defensive first, and then we will discuss the freezing.
[1:50] I told him that I didn't know what he was thinking.
[1:54] But that that was too vague.
[1:56] I think what we have to ask them is this, Mr. President, that they agree to the principles of the freezing of the organs.
[2:07] Then we will authorize them to discuss A.D. England.
[2:08] And then before the whole thing gets wrapped up, we will agree to the specifics of the freezing.
[2:14] I don't think that they can do something with the bill that we can afford to sign at the end of the agreement.
[2:29] No, that isn't what I'm saying.
[2:29] What is this?
[2:30] This is not what I'm saying.
[2:30] This is not what she's saying.
[2:31] This is not what I'm saying.
[2:32] This is what I'm saying.
[2:50] The money made at the end of the day is going to be spent on more and more things.
[3:09] And that's what I'm going to do.
[3:09] I don't know.
[3:10] I don't know.
[3:10] I don't know.
[3:10] I don't know.
[3:10] I don't know.
[3:15] I think the significance of this is, it takes out this, this is Senator's position on the intersectionality that I'm trying to get the best possible feeling about.
[3:40] I don't believe the need to think of the amendment to be a dissent this fast.
[3:41] Yeah.
[3:56] Uh, so you've got to work it out.
[3:57] You've got to, uh, you've got to be ready.
[3:58] You've got to be ready.
[3:59] You've got to be ready.
[3:59] Why don't you get it?
[4:21] I've got to get it.
[4:21] Oh, you've got to get something.
[4:22] You've got to get it.
[4:22] You've got to get it.
[4:23] You've got to get it.
[4:23] You've got to get it.
[4:24] You've got to get something.
[4:24] You've got to get something.
[4:25] You've got to get something.
[4:25] You've got to get something.
[4:26] You've got to get something.
[4:26] You've got to get something.
[4:27] I think the Japanese will turn out well.
[4:56] The other thing is that I talked to, I tried to reach him this morning.
[5:21] He said they had a meeting in the center of the state.
[5:22] He said in the center of the state and rotating groups and so forth and so on.
[5:24] I'll show you how it's done in 10 minutes.
[5:39] You're watching a post-mortem monitor and you see both hands, both serves.
[5:41] In fact, they were pulling me off.
[5:41] All right.
[5:42] I just want to thank you for hearing that.
[5:42] Hey, you see that?
[5:43] Sir, I put both of my hands on the mark.
[5:44] I really love it.
[5:44] I'm sure people around this time are going to do it.
[5:45] I'm trying to knock down a truck truck truck truck truck truck truck truck truck truck
[6:00] The other thing is that they have now interdicted the field back toward 914.
[6:15] Absolutely.
[6:15] They took nine of our other vehicles and interdicted nine as interdicted.
[6:16] Goddamn, this thing may be going down in the meantime.
[6:17] I said, General, how's this going?
[6:18] He said, he said, I don't want to be overrun.
[6:19] He said, you don't even want to be overrun.
[6:20] But he said, this is the best.
[6:32] This is the most effective example of his force.
[6:33] This is how I felt.
[6:34] He really believes me.
[6:34] He may be right.
[6:35] He may be worse than me.
[6:35] This is why I, why I'm so, I think we have a good side of the movie.
[6:36] Really, it's a major victory.
[6:48] We already have a significant number.
[6:48] But I'm watching the front traffic.
[6:49] For example, these little boys who put out these boats there, there's less than 50%.
[6:51] I thought they were going to do something.
[6:52] They're counting all the traffic from the path to the town.
[7:13] They do not take into account what we did.
[7:14] I said below, below the operation.
[7:14] And there you were actually very conservative because below the operation, never I asked you to give me an exact number.
[7:17] You said 55% would be conservative.
[7:17] I think you ought to get on with it.
[7:18] Oh, I'm saying you didn't see what he said.
[7:19] That's right.
[7:19] Did you do that personally?
[7:20] I think, oh, I called Smith or Darrow or somebody and I said, you're on bad with it.
[7:22] If you take the total traffic, then it was likely overslept.
[7:41] If you take the significant traffic that is south of St. Paul, south of the point, 25 south of St. Paul, 55 is very, very...
[7:44] You notice how several of the active and the, uh, and the, uh, and the, uh, the isolationists and the, uh, I think it's kind of a deep, but I believe it's not, I think it's, and that is another group that's, uh, uh, they all, you know, they were all for intervention, right after World War II.
[8:02] They were all for the marching plan.
[8:03] Well, now we're not so sure.
[8:22] They said, you know, even some of us are probably bogged down in trying everything.
[8:24] But, you know, what the hell?
[8:24] They started a little bit of a change there.
[8:25] I think, John, I think one good thing about Gov is being that it's been used in business.
[8:27] He and Talia, who's been in the company, that's the thing.
[8:28] We've got to stay for a chance, but I think running this thing now, but having nerves of that weed, something like this about now, is that this just ain't the kind of thing that needs to go on.
[8:50] We've got to bring this thing to life.
[8:51] His drive is the hardest thing to do.
[9:08] There's two drives on the right and the left.
[9:09] Oh, yes.
[9:09] What we can do is not only have to give them, they have to give them a lot of stuff.
[9:11] What about the scoop catch?
[9:12] Oh, that's what I was going to say.
[9:12] But you have to get some sort of thing in there to make it work.