Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 778-021 Date: Friday, September 15, 1972 at 11:50 AM Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Carr, Patrick E.; Holt, Cooper T.; Rhatican, William F.; White House photographer Recording device: Oval Office Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/778-021 This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite it as authoritative. [0:03] All right. [0:07] All right. [0:07] All right. [0:09] All right. [0:31] All right. [1:02] Oh, well, I understand. [1:33] Yeah. [1:33] I called him. [1:35] Yeah, I'll talk to him. [1:36] Yes, you can call him. [1:40] Tell me this. [1:41] This is Cooper. [1:42] He's been a good guy. [1:44] I know. [1:45] He's been a good guy. [1:49] He's been a good guy. [1:50] He's been a good guy. [1:53] He's been a good guy. [2:04] I want to say that as I go through the fall, the WWN's commanders have just been fantastic in their support of our policies and national events in Vietnam and so forth. [2:09] They were very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, [2:34] but the response [3:06] You know, our cash is now, of course, it's hard. [3:12] It's the last two weeks of one. [3:15] Right. [3:16] And that's back in 300. [3:16] I mean, the North Indian and the South Indian, these are cursed. [3:20] Now they've turned the whole tide of battle. [3:22] It's a miserable law. [3:28] It will end. [3:28] We've got to deal with it. [3:31] We're not going to make any deal. [3:33] It starts out. [3:35] And we believe you mean that. [3:37] Absolutely. [3:38] Because if you'd have that, it'd be so easy to say, well, I'll just make those videos and post it on Instagram. [3:49] And in order to do that, [4:15] We're not going to stop. [4:18] We will get them. [4:21] I have a question. [4:25] If it wouldn't have been for some of our national leadership, which I have no way of knowing, but I'm convinced in my own mind that it would have been after the [4:51] yeah yeah yeah yeah [5:21] I guess it's a big tree that they may bring along. [5:26] I mean, that would be the worst. [5:34] And they may come back with it. [5:53] Well, we just have to see it through. [6:04] You will. [6:05] It'll come out. [6:07] I mean, I respect all these wives. [6:28] People are just playing with things the other day. [6:36] Yeah, he's just playing with this. [6:41] We can't let him do that. [6:41] We'll get him back. [6:44] He'll come soon. [6:45] I'm afraid. [6:45] I'm afraid. [6:47] I'm afraid. [6:48] I'm afraid. [6:48] I'm afraid. [6:48] I'm afraid. [6:49] I'm afraid. [6:51] I'm afraid. [7:08] The reason we're playing off this screen is that they've got to look at their whole car. [7:54] which will be their evaluation. [8:32] There are shortages of food, shortages of medical supply, shortages of arms. [8:50] Yes, sir. [8:53] That's the way a blockade works. [9:13] a long time. [9:15] We met when Rainwater was in the organization by building up public opinion on trying to [9:40] it was going to be helpful. [9:40] In regular respect... Well, I'm not so sure they've turned it around now, and it seems they want to use a missed call. [9:50] Oh, excuse me, I hope. [9:51] I see what you mean. [9:52] Don't let the public know. [9:54] There you go. [9:55] I agree. [10:12] from a humanitarian standpoint, they'd be forced by [10:42] but it's my thinking that maybe we shouldn't play it out too much I wouldn't have the issue with that issue from the center because these people are not affected by moral arguments they're only affected by power that's my [11:16] I believe that there's going to be a break-in. [11:19] There's going to be a break-in. [11:20] Yeah, I was going to say, [11:46] We've got reasons now that we might want to, you know, try to be more reasonable. [11:49] But after the election, what the hell do we still need to do? [11:54] From a political standpoint, would you say, all right, you've asked for it, we'll settle this thing, and we'll settle it our way. [12:01] Now, there are lots of things that we can do in the North we haven't done yet. [12:05] I'm not referring to nuclear weapons. [12:07] You've seen the German cities, you know, put just ordinary weapons. [12:36] You can see why we're hanging on and continuing with the decisive action now. [12:45] And we'll be reasonable on negotiations. [13:39] oil oil oil oil oil oil [14:12] they want to conquer not only [14:47] Yes. [14:52] Boy. [14:59] Well, all right. [15:24] Don't worry about it. [15:29] Don't worry. [15:57] What about Amnesty? [15:58] What about Amnesty Center? [16:00] And he said, well, he said, that's sort of a sticky thing, isn't it? [16:04] And I said, yeah, it is, isn't it? [16:05] It's quite uptight about the thing that you should be discussing at all. [16:09] And he said, well, maybe it was a mistake, but I'm stuck with it. [16:12] You know, the one thing that never comes up, I know that there may be a speech on this, which gives the facts, [16:36] had read the history of the Civil War. [16:39] What Lincoln did was a very, very clever thing. [16:43] He was trying to win the war. [16:45] So he did grand amnesty, a proclamation of amnesty, for all Southerners who came over to the North. [16:54] But for all those that deserted the Northern armies, it was a prison term if they came back. [17:01] For example, there was a period [17:07] I was about one of Lincoln's days in the White House, sitting there, and he said, a guard came in and said, there's a man at the gate who deserted the U.S. Army and fled Canada. [17:18] He's here and is asking for amnesty. [17:21] And Lincoln signed a piece of paper and said, fine. [17:25] He said, you can have amnesty. [17:27] In fact, he serves in prison for the number of days. [17:44] other than it deserves this country or this country. [17:48] He isn't going to get to say all is forgiven. [17:52] You can't have that when some guys, as I say, some men die for their choice and others live with their choice. [18:00] Either that or they're going to pay a penalty. [18:03] And the penalty has got to be something other than being in the Peace Corps. [18:08] And that's going to be tough. [18:36] Yeah. [19:42] That just shows how strong they feel now. [19:44] Strong labor. [19:45] I'll try to get to you. [19:51] I hope I can get to you. [20:18] We're all for you. [20:49] Thank you.