On May 6, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., Stephen B. Bull, Charles S. Rhyne, Richard A. Moore, and White House photographer met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 11:00 am and 12:10 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 493-010 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 Do not cite this transcript as authoritative.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.
Now let me tell you the problem here.
First, we've got to have a significant movement by that time on the Vietnam front.
We've either got to do that or something else.
Henry Seltzer is a very remote possibility now in the draft.
That can't be pulled off.
See, if you could announce that, then I could put the other trip off until the end of June.
Because I had a little one to get with.
Assuming it's out the window, then I have to have that.
Now, Henry's arguments against doing it then, of course, related to his little Mickey Mouse game with going over to Paris and seeing those fellows and so forth and so on.
I have no illusions about it.
First of all, I assume.
It may be they may not see it.
Second, if they do, Texas is going to bail him along, and we're not going to do that this time.
This is going to be an automated meeting.
That's right.
Well, I think that's him he's thinking about.
But the point is, I mean, he says if you take two meetings and then push it past the eight, he's not going to have two meetings.
I mean, he's going to say, we're going to have an understanding.
Then he can give you three days or four days, whatever the case is.
But the idea that we will wait and have to screw around in those meetings in Paris again, it's just not going to happen again.
There's going to be two meetings.
The second meeting is for the purpose of finishing.
That's right.
There's not going to be another one for the purpose of hacking around.
Because there is really nothing in that record, the previous record, that would indicate that any progress was made on Strauch.
against doing it then, of course, related to the little Mickey Mouse thing with going over to Paris and seeing those fellows and so forth and so on.
I have no illusions about that.
First of all, I have some.
It may be they may not see.
Second, if they do, they're just going to nibble him along and we're not going to do that this time.
This is going to be an automated
That's right.
Well, I think that's who he's thinking about.
Well, but the point is, I mean, he says that if you take two meetings and then he pushes past the eight, he's not going to have two meetings.
I mean, he's going to say, we're going to have an understanding of this, and then he can take three days or four days, whatever the case is.
But the idea that we will wait and have to screw around on those meetings in Paris again, it's just not going to happen again.
There's not going to be two meetings.
The second meeting is for the purpose of finishing.
That's right.
There ain't going to be, there's not going to be another one for the purpose of hanging around.
Because there is really nothing in that record, the previous record, that will indicate that any progress was made on this topic.
There isn't.
I've read it again.
There isn't a goddamn thing.
And the way as long as he's talking and all the rest, I don't think there's a chance, really.
There's a very good chance that reveals, I know that the
because of the Chinese move, that they're worried because maybe the Russians may be coming and so forth.
That's all gobbledygook.
That's against, maybe there is, maybe there isn't.
But it's either this or kind of they've done it.
Well, we have to have a record, sir.
You have to have a record of proposing a fix, which is all they, and it being correct.
That record will be made, and then we'll go.
But every ceiling was in my car from last night that we'd make the record, and then they just turned it down, and I just announced that I'd made the offer.
that has something more than an author that we've offered to date and cease fire and arrest.
That's a nice little thing to offer, and it'll be a two-day story.
So my thinking now is that we've got to make our preliminary plans in terms of having a mind about that if anything should happen in Paris,
Transition has nothing to do with it.
Absolutely nothing to do with it.
I mean, if whatever happens on that, we'll just get hit again, or it'll not change the situation.
We're going to do the same thing for better reasons.
But I just don't want any of you to have any money.
Well, we'll...
We can hang around here this summer.
We've got the Chinese game, and we've got the Soviet game, and we've got the other games, and so forth and so on.
Because I know the domestic game at this point.
At the present time, we have got to move decisively, crisply, for domestic reasons.
We're not going to change in terms of withdrawals or anything like that.
We've got to move up on the QB.
If that's going to be our big announcement for the summer, get over it.
Get over fast.
Because that's the only way that it sucks.
See, Henry has no sense, no understanding of the situation of the Senate now.
The votes are going to start coming around the 8th, 9th, and 10th, like one in the House next week.
The appropriations over the term of the Senate votes are the ones I'm concerned about.
I've got to have some of them.
something more than simply, well, we offered the South Vietnamese or the North Vietnamese a term of a day or about a day.
It won't be that way in the ceasefire and so forth, but it's for coming here.
It's a good offer.
I mean, I agree that Stuart Alsop will understand it and Charles Roberts and a few others, but the guys up there will not.
So, on the other hand, the announcement
after meeting with the American combat role leaders at a certain time.
That'll have something to happen.
Right?
Sure.
That's just an offer that's turned in.
Well, no, no.
Here's the point.
I said that we have offered everything else.
I know that we all know the technical difference.
That here, we are not.
That here, we are separating out the political settlement.
We're separating out all the agenda of these Congress.
And we are safe.
We'll be out.
That's new.
And we all know that it's new.
And it's very significant.
We all know it's very significant.
But out of the average person in the country, that's just $130,000 in Google, like the one we made before.
See?
Oh, it's not going to mean anything now.
See, like my life.
We just need something now, something now.
We've got to have something.
We need something.
But that's the issue.
People here, that's why the two of them, if we don't have another one, it's got to be
No, I don't think so, sir, but I think an assault agreement would be a substantial one.
I think an assault agreement would be a substantial one.
Well, we'll have that soon.
We're going to get an assault agreement.
I agree.
We did that.
We announced it.
And we...
The point is, it'll confuse them just like China did, but it will not have the impact that it's needed.
The American people, we've bowled all this and so forth.
It's too cognitive.
The intelligent people, it'll confuse all of them.
But we must not ever confuse ourselves by thinking that that's the way folks are.
Okay, that was nice.
Thank you.
with as far as the people are concerned with the whole China thing.
And it might be the intelligent community that gives it the lips, and for the long haul, it'll make a lot of difference.
But you see, and the same on salt.
Salt will have more impact in trying to do with the fact that we'll deal with ADM and the rest.
But on the other hand, if you look over at the price numbers,
These guys out here are reflecting.
They're not dumb.
They're reflecting on folks, you see.
We all know, you and I know what's most important.
Goddamn thing is more important than whether we have a normal day to Vietnam or combat boots or anything else.
If we're going to do it, as I put it in the note today, we're going to do it.
It has to be done Wednesday or next week.
Or you have to put it off two weeks.
Now, there's a reason for that.
There's a critical role in the House on this.
And otherwise, you should let it go two weeks.
Screw it.
I mean, there's no reason to get it out any sooner.
I might as well drag along and go through all the process and inform all the embassies and talk to all the commons and all that bullshit.
But otherwise, get it off on this.
Thursday's too late.
Thursday's your Friday.
So that's what we have there.
Do us any good in Congress.
You see, I would rather have salt come out two weeks later to affect the Senate, though.
But you see, these things wash out all of a sudden.
We forgot.
So we'd have to do a Wednesday or just fart around, which we probably will do, but not do anything about it.
And let it get screwed up again.
Or it will be.
It probably will be.
Now, it could be regulated here.
Probably isn't going to be ready anyway for two weeks, so probably no question.
Now, what could have, what could have an effect, I will agree, I will agree, what could have an effect is an announcement from some of the Russians.
Perhaps could have an effect on the Soviet.
However, they aren't ready to listen, and we're not going to press them.
We've told them we're here ready to tell us.
Now, they'll tell us.
If they should come in unexpectedly and say, look, we'd like to go forward with an announcement and so forth, because we're not going to ask no more.
No more.
We can't hear anything.
That could have a very dramatic effect.
See, that's the kind of announcement we'll make.
That's the kind of announcement of a meeting with the Chinese, of a meeting, you understand, as distinguished from, well, the president will receive the table of contents when it comes to order.
And we're going to release more items for trade with China.
Here's the things that will happen.
The salt thing can have a little blood effect on the Congress for a day or two.
So if we can get it out of the way as we go, we can not hold it for two weeks.
And we'll do it then.
Thank you.
Then the summit thing, if something comes on that, it could happen.
In fact, it could be the biggest plan in early June if they were to announce it.
But if not, then let it go.
Then we finally have only one vote left at this time in the political field.
That's the meeting with the Jew and the combat with the Jew thing.
And that would be helpful.
But it would have to come June 8th.
If it comes later in the month, it could be.
It would be past the votes, and I would hate my hell to go over and have a meeting with them and announce that no more combat groups are going to be there after the Senate had voted in Cameron Lake.
See my point?
I don't want to have actions taken which appear to be a reaction to what you're asking for the Senate.
That's why the team, they very well may have to be the eighth, because they've got to know the inaction.
and the rest, and some of them may start to harden up a bit, and maybe the House will do better next week than we thought.
But it's really the Senate we're worried about.
But I do know this, that now it's a cold turkey proposition.
We've got to have something solid.
The only things that will affect us are, one, the meeting with you, since you've ruled out the draft thing.
Don't even think about it now until it's before the school year begins, and you can try again.
Maybe the children can have an effect, provided it has that announcement, because that announcement I'm going to meet with.
The second thing is the announcement of the son.
I got rid of him.
I hit him with a great sock.
The other name is Saul.
I helped Saul.
Sophisticated people.
I could talk to him.
I sent our guys to the map.
He again knew the guy.
They're still a little gritty.
He's going to get it all right.
They had one hell of a time voting against ABM.
If we said we got agreement to provide that, then that's not a problem.
They couldn't do that.
Well, the main concern here, as I look at it, is that whatever is done, if the Senate does it and deprives you of what has to be done and the realities of the military situation over there and the thing unravels before November, we've got a disaster.
If they do it, it's their disaster.
But if you do it, it'll be yours.
And that's the reality of it.
We're not going to do anything.
That's why I'm like.
Now, the other thing, of course, that I thought of was this view of their turn down of our prisoners and my normal reaction was that it was that would have been a hell of a good time to hit those three passes in North Vietnam.
But on the other hand, since he has this big offer hanging out there, I want to get that over with for that reason two hours here.
You understand, with Henry bouncing back and forth with Paris on those goddamn trips, you know, they'd like to string it along because they know very well that we won't do anything unless that's going on.
We're going to hit it.
And they can't turn around an offer like that.
And they can't make some of the jackass statements they make without biggest consequences.
That's the only thing we've got left.
I said, see, that's another reason for you when you're talking to him.
He must be pressed.
We can't do a little more.
That's the whole point.
all the idea that we can't do this or that or the other thing because of the fact that it might disturb our talks with the Chinese, it might disturb our talks with the Russians, or it might disturb what talks we might have if it's up, or if it's just up.
He's saying all that really matters is the talk that's going on in that Senate at the present time.
Therefore, what we have to do, it is that we have to do, we have to now oppose our actions in a way that will not destroy any of these talks, and they don't need to.
But that don't, frankly, if you think it's going to disturb our talks, just have the goddamn Senate pass something like that.
Right?
Right.
Where's your bargaining position then?
Congress says, well, get out on the 31st of June, December, right?
Both the country might.
Will you do that?
I don't know.
I don't know.
See, this is what changed.
This is a fact that we've now got to start thinking about.
We're coming right into the wire, and we're coming in pretty good shape.
We follow along in battle, and we can win.
But right now, we've got to shoot our bullets and shoot them in good enough time, even though it presses us a little bit.
So I probably don't have to go on the 8th that he can't get.
Since he can't get the draft, I have to go on the 8th.
And, uh, I think you missed it.
What else are you going to do?
So I, uh, I think the draft thing is going to be...
It can't be done right now.
I can tell you when this comes.
But let's leave it out for a moment.
Leave the draft out.
Assuming the draft can't be done, let's base all our assumptions on that.
Do you have anything else we can do before the 8th?
See, of the eight, we can be even.
The only other thing coming up is salt.
Salt isn't enough.
I know that.
The salt is not enough because it is not, you see, too directly enough related to Vietnam.
Salt wouldn't be enough because people would think that you, the summit, you might talk about Vietnam.
See?
Summit, people understand the summit.
People don't understand salt.
Salt is way over there.
That's the slightest idea of what the salt is.
You've got it complicated.
Of course, the China thing, I think, has the greatest impact.
It has an impact.
But there, there, what it really is, is that they're creating a debt.
But the China thing, the China thing, which is China, an open meeting by a presidential emissary, or actually a presidential visit.
See, the difficulty with our whole China thing is that there, we have the Russian thing.
We can't announce it.
Well, there'll be a presidential visit to China.
First, it can't be a presidential visit to China as long as they're supporting South Vietnam, or Vietnam.
So that's, indeed, it's got to be a straight, cold, tricky deal with that.
Second, we don't want to throw the China thing until we get the Russian thing one way or the other.
Why do you do that if you've not got the Russian summit?
The Russian summit is more important.
It may be that we don't want it.
We've got to let those things play out.
There's more important substance.
It sure is more important, I don't think, in public drama in this country.
Could we get more out of China?
Well, China's thing, I think, means more in terms of the war in Southeast Asia.
Yes, sir.
On that note, you see, we've got the foundation of the war.
You see how we've got that position in the way that Henry's now sent a message, or I understand he's going to send it through the ambassador, Barclay, on Saturday, October 19th.
That's fine.
Barclay will carry it back.
So then they'll fire it off to the Chinese.
And the Chinese, they don't have Chris Barr.
And the question is, when does he go?
Yes, at the time, you know, I don't know.
My personal view is that I don't think these things are going to solve the congressional problem.
I think we have to take a handle on it.
But I personally think that the position you've taken is the right position, and the responsible ones will be afraid to take it.
It is the right position.
It is responsible.
And I don't think it will have an enormous effect on the congressional problem if you announce it to some of the Russians.
I'm an anarchist, but you could then take, you would take those bachelors of task for undercutting the president when you're about to do this.
You tell all these stories, you're going to look awful bad.
You're going to look awful bad.
You're going to look awful bad.
You're going to look awful bad.
You're going to look awful bad.
You're going to look awful bad.
You're going to look awful bad.
You're going to look awful bad.
You're going to look awful bad.
You're going to look awful bad.
You're going to look awful bad.
You're going to look awful bad.
You're going to look awful bad.
You're going to look awful bad.
You're going to look awful bad.
You're going to look awful bad.
You're going to look awful bad.
You're going to look awful bad.
You're going to look awful bad.
You're going to look awful bad.
You're going to look awful bad.
You're going to look awful bad.
You're going to look awful bad
He's a murderer.
He's a murderer.
Some are murderers, but many of them.
He'll understand it, too.
I swear I'm going to understand it.
Now, I'm not doing this.
All that I know is that the Senate has been, the House has been, the Senate particularly, is a very close proposition.
And if we, we've got to, we've got to show, we've got to show our best consciousness that they'll do the most good.
So I'm inclined to the gymnasium.
Now, we've got to do this in terms of that, too.
And as far as Henry's plans are concerned, that interferes with another trip he's going to take to Paris.
Forget it.
Let him take his trip and go back again.
It hasn't interfered.
When he used to go to Pakistan, he used to go out with a few other people.
There's no problem with that.
Nothing has to be the same.
No, I think your problems, in a sense, sir, are really your intellectual people.
And SALT does mean something to these men.
These are the leaders that are impressed by that.
I think the popular problem we're having now is dialectic, as it was last year.
The swing is a little higher, but it's going to recede the same way.
So we have to hold these real conscientious dogs that are in the Senate.
And I think the SALT would mean a hell of a lot to those people.
I really do.
We're going to play the life out of it.
I think I was encouraged by what Seminoff said yesterday.
I think what he was saying was, in effect, they won't take the Moscow package.
You can have ABM any place you want.
but you'll have a ceiling on the number of missiles.
I think they were talking about their own.
It could be either, but I think they're going to come back.
Well, I think the reasons for that are just this simple, sir.
To the degree they can keep you from getting the credit, they're going to do it.
They don't want you to be reluctant.
That's one goddamn thing.
That's right, too.
So they think what I have comes.
That's right.
No, that's the other reason why we have to move before the... Kraft is back in town.
He said that everyone he's talked to in the Soviet Union said that if you're too tough, they don't want to deal with you.
I didn't want to get another man in.
He's wrecked out of the ocean.
I got this from the cocktail circuit.
Yeah.
Of course he knows that.
Well, he's one of them.
Exactly.
Christ saves.
Of course, he knows goddamn well I'm too tough.
This last two weeks, this last month has shown him again.
This really must be right.
They're having their problems.
I think actually, sir, we've got everything postured beautifully and timely, with the exception of this Senate problem, which is where we're short to you, John.
But the other things are ideal.
I think they want us to move with the Chinese.
That's the other reason why we can't move too quickly with the Chinese.
Oh, now that I understand.
I'm not saying we're going to move to the Chinese or the Russians.
And I'll lay that goddamn thing to the countries as over as necessary.
But I do say that we have to do something to capture more on Vietnam.
And since we don't have a, we can't go to regard to draft anything, then we'll have to move to Chile.
That would be, that would, that's going to be the best we've got.
A little bit of a mixed.
Packy's a fugitive.
The guns will say that you're propping up his election, too.
That's one of the criticisms we'll get.
I guess you will.
So we will.
But he wants to come over.
I'll tell you, if he's after that, he will assume the full combat responsibility at a certain time.
That's pretty goddamn good news.
I think it's very good.
I think it will help him.
I just think we just do it and do it well.
That's the point.
Good God, I thought we were probably...
and get the salt thing, that will set a warmer climate for the Jews and everything else that comes among the intellectuals.
I agree with that.
Then, don't let the rule of the giants of Paris, I mean, that's one thing I am opposed to.
Look out.
Everything has been too bogey.
You know, as he said, because of the Chinese thing, right, the Chinese thing, he thinks there's a 50% chance now that maybe they'll talk.
They are going to talk.
Why the hell should they?
We're going to get out anyway.
You see my point?
They regard problems here.
Yeah.
He talks about them.
You can set up the dollar problems due to the problems we're having.
And they don't agree with them.
And they just certainly, maybe the Washington Post,
the U.S. last night took Hanoi's line.
They said that the war in Southeast Asia has caused the problem on the valley of New York, and it's a sheer poppycock.
I heard it on the news.
I heard it on, no, they said, I heard it on the news.
That's the way they interpreted it.
As long as we're maintaining work, then we have no way to maintain our balance of payment.
Oh, yeah.
Jesus Christ.
That's the best way to go about it.
People are not going to get too dead if you're trying to go about that with balance of payments and all that crap.
Everybody around here would be chomping on their tongue.
But understanding that they can understand that there may be some problem with something shifting.
That's right.
I'm just talking about it.
We're going to get our introduction and roll-downs through.
First, he gets the message out on the second.
On Solve, we can't do it Wednesday.
And I don't care.
There's no problem on Solve.
We can do it tomorrow and deliver it at the end of the time.
And this is our purpose to wait two weeks, wait two weeks.
There's not an end for us to go in the balance of that week that I can see.
If that doesn't turn, then that influences your timing and your degree on chunking.
Sure.
Absolutely.
We do have another car, but that's the beauty of our situation today, which we haven't had before, and the Russians don't know this.
I'm assuming the Chinese mean what they say.
We've just got to accept the goddamn people.
I wish the gold would rise.
Well, you see our problems, we know they're going.
moving in a way so that we think that we do make all the plays.
The idea of, I much prefer myself, I prefer to have the two visit later in June.
Listen and solve the, don't listen and solve the bias of time you need to go down.
Solve all hell if it comes, but you at least have to have
I think if you end up with salt and you end up with the two meaning it's going to be tight and it's going to be tough, but you're going to have right on your side.
Then when you follow that with a summoner and a high-level Chinese meaning one or the other or perhaps both if we do it very well,
I think you just can't.
Your foreign policy would have been absolutely revolutionary.
You've got to.
The only trouble is, though, that you have both Chinese and Russians.
Well, I say some of them are in a high-level delegation with the government.
Oh, he has a different view, of course, than that.
I'll be ready.
I'll bring 12 of them.
Sure.
Yeah.
second view of Paris that Henry had.
And I don't think he ever has.
He's played along with it, you know, put it together.
But I've read these damn reports, and Henry's known to go on and on about it.
Henry has three, four hour meetings.
They met for lunch, and they met again, and so forth.
And curious dialectical stuff.
We're going to be talking in those meetings also about it, because you can't have to get your own...
Sure, it's up.
I'm sure.
And you want to find something good out of it.
You want to think you've succeeded.
You want to think you've made a sale.
You want to think that your trip was not worth while.
That's what it is.
I understand that you can't really accept it.
I'm an evaluator.
I evaluate those goddamn things.
They don't value anything.
They were different in the long run.
And you've got to want to be cruel to it and tell him that the week I've had an illusionist.
Now they're looking the same about that thing.
Now they know that it was all they did with the law.
And you see, 5% of the bottom of the house would fall apart after they did it.
If we hadn't had that meeting, the moment they turned down that prison for Sweden, we would have hit those three choke points in our name, huh?
That's what I'm saying.
That's what I'm saying.
That's exactly what we were doing.
Now, we've seen as a result, they did that with such interest in the people.
What if it was not a goddamn thing?
I don't share anybody's earnest desire to hope that we can come up with a peace-saving project.
It would be a peace-saving, it would be a peace-saving, it would be a peace-saving.
Nobody wants anybody else to get any credit on that motion, but we all want that.
in terms of how that really is happening, not any illusions, you know, the kid is solved.
First he has to have something, you know, at least he's on the schedule for Monday.
The other day, I had a reporter.
He ain't alone, too.
He calls over about two of them, and he calls them, and he, you know, generally he's directing, guiding, so that every other high school class
He said, our position is right.
These guys are wrong.
He's got to stick to what's right.
But that ain't enough.
It's much tighter situation now.
I think we can do it.
I mean, if I suppose
speak to this and hardly have to tell anybody, but I would sort of try to keep the senators and congressmen lucky with their goddamn courage.
I have a hell of a lot of character in so many.
I have some disagreements of mine with Baker.
You're in speech mode.
I'm going out of office.
See, that was supposed to be a slob.
That didn't happen.
I never heard of him.
Here.
Let's just... Yeah.
Senator, you're probably here about 12 to 15 minutes, sir.
Well, well, then you've got these two guys in the staff.
They're all wild.
Brian did a lot of that stuff.
Thanks for having me, sir.
He's the entertainer for the Correspondence Center Saturday night.
He's got a very sexy looking wife, I think.
All right, we've got some time.
David, we've got that, did you go watch that?
No, he said, I think he said,
You know, it's everything that happens, they've always fed him, he's his family, and, uh, he's dressed like a hero to show the soldier.
Take off.
Just if you're all in there.
They got a book here.
so this is the best competition
I would really propose, and I mentioned this to Dick out there, for you, is this.
Start a new initiative to make international law more important.
You can put yourself together a group of experts, and I say that to quote him, Justin, and
Never been in the name of a chief state associate of the National Guard.
Ladies and gentlemen, the state of the world, the courts, the next in line, and I mean your comments, you know that you don't know who you are.
Now, this would ring a bell.
Even though I'm supposed to be here today, I'm going to miss it today.
I'm not saying this is not a private for you, but you're the only guy who can do this.
If you call in the different professors, you don't want to go along with saying something to the GM.
Call in, say, Ken and GM.
Yeah.
But I sat aside in the last year.
I hired Andrew Lee over on the time of day and worked with the Yugoslavians.
So I think it's a, I'm very proud of it.
I think it's the best thing I've ever done.
Whether it's published, made one, I just, I just, I just have it.
I don't know how they publish these songs, but you won't get paid for it.
There you are.
Now, here we go.
This is good.
All right.
Everywhere.
But I do think, I do think that, really, I'd like to see your name associated with international law in all these years.
And this, you know, I don't think you have to study it, but what I'm suggesting really is that if you make some kind of announcement that you're going to take a new initiative for peace by strengthening international law, that this is something that all the little nations and the big nations can work on.
We belong to 4,000 treaties.
Some of the African countries belong to that group, you see.
They have an extensive system.
There's the Antarctic Treaty, the CFED, the outer space.
And you can take just a few of these and begin to put them into some kind of a code, you could call it.
You can code things like that.
And so that expert's disciple goes in and challenges the other nations to join you in putting more parts in there.
And you're going to have to have some alternative.
Of course, I'm not British-Armenian.
Well, I actually am.
I actually am.
Right.
I really think this is a natural thing.
For you to do it, right now, would be something that, throughout the world, everybody would rise up and say, well, that's an instrument.