Nixon, Stennis & Hébert on Vietnam War and Draft Legislation

0:41Thank you.
1:04Who feels stronger than I do, than I do, on POWs, on ceasefire, on end of the war?
1:10Carlos says we might even get on tomorrow.
1:13I might even get on five years ago.
1:17Three years ago.
1:19You see my mind?
1:20That's the problem we've got.
1:22Now, I don't question it.
1:22You'd rather have nothing.
1:24You mean you'd rather have no bill?
1:25No matter.
1:26I mean, I'm going to do it.
1:29And this is the point you put in.
1:33By spirit, you see, to get any bill, you're going to have to vote Trojans in.
1:39I don't think you can get it done without.
1:45And I voted for Trojans myself.
1:48And I told all my colleagues, some of my colleagues and others,
1:58but you can't get those people out of Mansfield that need his passive assistance.
2:07You cannot get over his opposition.
2:10It just can't be done.
2:13So I think you come to the question, what's the minimum you can yield?
2:18I'm not saying the Senate bill has a limit.
2:21What is the least that you could possibly live with?
2:27and at least avoid man-stealed opposition and get a bill.
2:34So ultimately, the question is, how many of these need a bill?
2:37A draft bill?
2:39And I think we've got to have it ourselves for two years anyway.
2:47We can get just this treatment cost.
2:50We can get that nine-month treatment.
2:55We have two things we don't care about.
2:57There's only one thing we have to hang up on.
3:00And that is the word, the final date.
3:04I've been hanging up on that, John.
3:08I don't know what exactly he said.
3:11That is not useful.
3:12That is not useful at all.
3:13Well, I think the word is, let me push it.
3:16The second thing we...
3:18Mr. President, there are really two serious objections at the moment, even with those two things out.
3:30One, the resolution makes it look as if our objective in Indochina is the release of the prisoners of war.
3:40In other words, it looks as if we've been fighting all these years and killed, had 50,000 Americans killed in order to get the return of 500.
3:47Now, that's not our objective.
3:50We've almost achieved our objective.
3:52This last week, I can tell Senator Petty about this.
3:58Last week, we had the lowest number of casualties.
4:00We've had six years.
4:02We had 11.
4:04It went down from 300 and some odd when it first took office to about 11.
4:08So, and I just heard the radio report this morning, there's no fighting going on in Vietnam.
4:14So we don't want to give up everything that we stood for all these years to just get the prisoners of war back.
4:20We don't want that to appear to be what our objective is.
4:23The second thing that's troubling us now is that anything that Congress does at this juncture,
4:29which indicates a lack of confidence in the president, could have a very serious adverse effect, not only on the vision, but on the possibility of a negotiated peace.
4:38You know, make some jammies right now.
4:42You, if you get a man to deal with this, talk to him.
4:47I think he'll change.
4:49Well, let me put this in here.
4:51Well, let me say something to him.
4:52Don't say anything to him.
4:53I'm done with this.
4:55Yes, sir.
5:00I did, when they threw the voting in the House, I opposed it.
5:09And one's a right to go in a conference on Chattanooga, I'm not free to go in.
5:19But the Senate and the House are against it until they climb it and climb it down.
5:30What I did when I went in there, I was a little convict, a little legend.
5:38I said, I'll give it.
5:40I said, I'll give it.
5:42I'll buy a man's suit.
5:44I'll take it with the men.
5:49Now, we've got that date out.
5:51But if we hang on that one, those two words, they go to date.
5:58We finally, finally, finally, finally, we tried to do a sort of small thing and call it, uh, a special housing with something we could have specified.
6:09Finally, period.
6:09D-A-T-E is the name.
6:10I don't want to see that at all.
6:12And now we ain't got no name.
6:13And that's the way, this is, I don't talk about the house side.
6:17This is the position, the definite position of the house, and it's not going to change.
6:27unless one man tells him to change it, and that's you.
6:34And John knows this.
6:34Mr. President, I would like to suggest we've had some discussions with Senator Mansfield just recently.
6:38In view of this trip and so forth, the situation may have changed, so let us take another look at it, and we'll be back in touch with you.
6:44And I'm not even asking me.
6:46I'm not talking to him.
6:48I'm not suggesting that you fucking bring him to Mansfield, man.
6:51Wait a minute.
6:51Sure.
6:53All right.
6:54If you're going to redo this,
6:57We'll see what the situation is, but the situation has changed drastically.
7:07Nobody wants to screw up this kind of thing.
7:11All of us can do that.
7:13Well, Henry, in that comment that your friend chose, if you were to read it, well, right after this,
7:21Also, let me say this, can I put it quite interestingly enough?
7:25You've also versed against strong figures and so forth.
7:31Those that would like to get out, do you realize that the impact of this president
7:49Congress takes a stronger line with regard to not tying the President's hands.
7:56It could have the public enormously agnostic.
7:59That's the question.
8:04Remember this, that the House will pass anything I bring back.
8:08That's a deal-fix.
8:09Right.
8:09Yes, John's got a big problem.
8:11He's got to have some help.
8:13I'll tell you, he just got two soldiers like you.
8:17You keep on being dumb.
8:18The hell with you.
8:37Now listen up.
9:06I can't thank you enough.

Nixon, Stennis & Hébert on Vietnam War and Draft Legislation

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Also recorded on July 19, 1971

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