{"conversationCode":"470-003","tapeNumber":470,"conversationNumber":3,"identifier":"37-wht-conversation-470-003","startDateTime":"1971-03-19T13:51:00.000Z","endDateTime":"1971-03-19T14:05:00.000Z","startDate":"19-Mar-1971","startTime":"8:51 AM","endDate":"19-Mar-1971","endTime":"9:05 AM","dateCertainty":"certain","timeCertainty":"certain","participants":"Nixon, Richard M. (President); Moorer, Thomas H. (Adm.);","description":"On March 19, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and Adm. Thomas H. Moorer met in the Oval Office of the White House from 8:51 am to 9:05 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 470-003 of the White House Tapes.","locationCode":"OVAL","recordingDevice":"Oval Office","latitudeEstimated":38.8974,"longitudeEstimated":-77.0374,"chronCode":1,"chronRelease":"First Chronological Release","chronReleaseDate":"5-Oct-1999","aogpRelease":null,"aogpSegment":null,"lastModified":"2015-07-27T17:04:10.235Z","findingAid":"Conversation No. 470-3\n\nDate: March 19, 1971\nTime: 8:51 am - 9:05 am\nLocation: Oval Office\n\nThe President talked with Admiral Thomas H. Moorer\n\n     Laos operation (Lam Son)\n          -Military situation\n                -Timing of withdrawal\n                -White House news summary\n                -Army of the Republic of Vietnam [ARVN] withdrawal\n                      -Media interpretation\n\n                              -Administration response\n                                  -North Vietnamese losses\n                                  -Press accounts\n                                  -Interviews with pilots","filename":["470-003.mp3"],"tapeStart":"00:05:15","tapeEnd":"00:18:53","participantsList":["Nixon, Richard M. (President)","Moorer, Thomas H. (Adm.)"],"prevCode":"470-002","nextCode":"470-004","transcript":[{"start":0.77,"end":4.46,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":7.66,"end":7.76,"text":"Okay."},{"start":13.19,"end":29.12,"text":"Good morning."},{"start":29.14,"end":29.25,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":29.27,"end":29.47,"text":"All right."},{"start":29.49,"end":29.61,"text":"Sorry."},{"start":29.63,"end":29.75,"text":"Sorry."},{"start":29.77,"end":29.89,"text":"Sorry."},{"start":104.98,"end":133.19,"text":"But he plans to, when you talk about April 5th, that he plans to be substantially out by then, or, and then just have to raise that with that, or what is the situation there?"},{"start":133.37,"end":134.11,"text":"Yeah, what about the 1st of April?"},{"start":153.31,"end":161.02,"text":"Direct assembly place enabled."},{"start":194.68,"end":203.06,"text":"I'm just looking for a new song."},{"start":203.09,"end":203.47,"text":"I need to call him."},{"start":203.49,"end":204.71,"text":"Thank you, sir."},{"start":204.73,"end":205.33,"text":"He gives us quite a bang."},{"start":205.35,"end":207.78,"text":"He does a song called The Name of Brady."},{"start":207.82,"end":207.92,"text":"Yeah."},{"start":253.21,"end":259.73,"text":"I don't know what the general thing is."},{"start":262.14,"end":269.26,"text":"Really, we know what is and what happens."},{"start":269.7,"end":272.2,"text":"At this point, the matter is figuring out how to interpret it."},{"start":272.23,"end":275.45,"text":"And, uh, I think, you know, the press expertly makes the appearance that this is a defeat or something like that."},{"start":275.47,"end":278.71,"text":"Well, actually, uh, hey, they just haven't, they just don't apply the point that we have made all along that they were going in there for this purpose."},{"start":278.73,"end":280.17,"text":"They, they emphasize the heaviness of Vietnamese losses."},{"start":280.19,"end":282.24,"text":"Can we get out anything on the North Vietnamese losses?"},{"start":292.09,"end":297.71,"text":"Yeah, of course I was in the newspaper, yeah."},{"start":297.74,"end":298.12,"text":"And they needed us."},{"start":298.14,"end":317.6,"text":"They didn't show more understanding."},{"start":317.62,"end":318.14,"text":"Well, that's what we want."},{"start":328.79,"end":335.6,"text":"Continue on some other ratings for that report."},{"start":335.62,"end":336.18,"text":"In-laws."},{"start":360.72,"end":385.53,"text":"But it's just these individual pilots, crewmen, they get an interview that make it, who's trying to put out the... Yeah, yeah, yeah."},{"start":385.55,"end":385.81,"text":"Yeah, yeah."},{"start":409.33,"end":410.98,"text":"Okay, thank you."}],"aiSummary":{"text":"President Nixon and Admiral Thomas H. Moorer discussed the ongoing withdrawal of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) forces from the Lam Son 719 operation in Laos. The President expressed frustration with media narratives framing the operation as a failure and emphasized the need to pivot public focus toward significant North Vietnamese casualties. To counter negative press accounts, the administration sought to better highlight the operation's strategic objectives and utilize eyewitness accounts from pilots to convey the military success of the mission.","topics":["Lam Son 719","Vietnam War","ARVN withdrawal","Media relations","Military intelligence","Public relations"],"generatedAt":"2026-04-06T21:25:40.367Z"},"topicSlugs":["lam-son-719","vietnam-war","arvn-withdrawal","media-relations","military-intelligence","public-relations"],"audioDurationSec":413,"audioFiles":[{"file":"470-003.mp3","bytes":9906885,"durationSec":412.72,"bitrate":192029,"missing":false}],"audioIsShared":false,"audioProbedAt":"2026-09-18T02:19:47.663Z","audio":["https://nixon.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/audio/470-003.mp3"],"url":"https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/470-003","nixonLibraryUrl":"https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/white-house-tapes/470/conversation-470-003","license":"Public domain (U.S. Government work). AI-generated fields (transcript, aiSummary) are provided as-is without warranty."}