Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 540 › Conversation 540-001

Nixon, Rogers & Kissinger on Vietnam War and POWs

Tuesday, July 20, 1971 · 7:35 AM–7:53 AM ET · Oval Office · 2 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Rogers, William P.; Kissinger, Henry A.Conversation540-001 on Tape 540 (tape position 00:00:47–00:04:35)StartTuesday, July 20, 1971 at 7:35 AMEndTuesday, July 20, 1971 at 7:53 AMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 540-001 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon, Secretary of State William P. Rogers, and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger coordinated strategy regarding ongoing efforts to achieve an honorable end to the Vietnam War. The discussion centered on aligning U.S. negotiating objectives—specifically a ceasefire, POW release, and regional peace—with potential legislative maneuvers in Congress. The participants evaluated how to manage Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield’s involvement to prevent unfavorable legislative interference with the administration's diplomatic goals.

Audio

Download MP3 · 5.2 MB

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 1 minute of this recording (about 61% of it) is represented by only a few words. Listen to the audio rather than relying on the text below; a corrected transcript is queued.

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Names and numbers are often wrong; speakers are not identified. Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

Download transcript (.txt) · JSON data

· Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).
Mr. President, I agree to this.
I will not try to convince Dennis of any very major news.
Why don't we?
I don't think we are.
But they're going to.
They're acting.
They're getting together.
And we support the presence of the United States in negotiations consistent with our objectives to include it.
ceasefire, the release of POWs, and honor, and negotiate an honorable end to the war against the separatists, the ceasefire, the release of POWs, and a settlement which will respect the right of all nations in the area to live in peace, free from outside interference.
God will be moved by fantasy.
It's just basically summarizing our things in three points so that they .
Having acted in the House, not acted.
I've never known a Congress where they don't put in something, you know what I mean?
They've got to do something.
You're right, they should have not.
The great person he is, what we wanted and felt could probably get man to be able to do it.
Let's say if a dentist agrees to have nothing and you try to get him to do it, okay, fine.
You get my point.
In other words, we don't have...
I think we get the dentist to pay there and say, no, here's the situation.
It would be useful to have nothing.
Can you swing it?
And they say, we can't.
No, we can't.
Look, if they can't,
and you try to get Mansfield to take something like this, that's what I would be talking about, sir.
I think that he is the way that Mansfield may affect him a little bit, though I don't know.
You know this?
Yeah, but that's about as much as he could do.
Okay.
You guys are done.
We'll all go together.
I'm just going to do it the same way that you guys are going to do it.

NARA Description

On July 20, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, William P. Rogers, and Henry A. Kissinger met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 7:35 am and 7:53 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 540-001 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 540-1

Date: July 20, 1971
Time: Unknown between 7:35 am and 7:53 am
Location: Oval Office

The President met with William P. Rogers and Henry A. Kissinger.

     The Vietnam War
          -Kissinger
          -Present status of negotiations
               -John C. Stennis
               -Statement of position on type of settlement
                      -Cease fire
                      -Prisoners of war [POWs]
                      -Self determination
                -Congress
                      -F. Edward Herbert
                      -Michael (“Mike”) Mansfield
                      -Stennis

Rogers and Kissinger left at an unknown time before 7:53 am.

Also recorded on July 20, 1971

  • 065-001 7:35 AM — unknown person(s) met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 7:35 am and 8:05 am.
  • 065-002 7:35 AM · 2 hr 21 min — President Richard M. Nixon, William P. Rogers, and Republican Congressional leaders, including Hugh Scott, John C. Stennis, Robert P. Griffin, Margaret Chase Smith, Gordon L. Allott, Norris Ctton, Peter H. Dominick, Gerald R. Ford, Leslie C. Arends, John B. Anderson, Richard H. Poff, Barber B. Conable, Jr., John J. Rhodes, Robert C. ("Bob") Wilson, Robert T. Stafford, H. Allen Smith, Robert J. Dole, Henry A. Kissinger, Clark MacGregor, John D. Ehrlichman, George P. Shultz, William E. Timmons, Kenneth E. BeLieu, Richard K. Cook, Harry S. Dent, Herbert G. Klein, Patrick J. Buchanan, Bryce C. Harlow, and Ronald L. Ziegler, met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 7:35 am and 10:23 am.
  • 540-002 7:35 AM · 5 min — United States Secret Service agents met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 7:35 am and 7:53 am.
  • 540-003 7:35 AM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 7:35 am and 7:53 am.
  • 540-004 7:53 AM · 12 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Henry A. Kissinger, and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House from 7:53 am to 8:05 am.
  • 540-005 8:05 AM · 11 sec — United States Secret Service agents met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:05 am and 10:23 am.
  • 540-013 8:05 AM · 17 sec — unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:05 am and 10:23 am.
  • 540-014 8:05 AM · 3 min — United States Secret Service agents met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:05 am and 10:23 am.

All 39 conversations from July 20, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 540-001, July 20, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/540-001 (accessed October 11, 2026).