Nixon, Kim & Chong-pil on US-South Korea Relations and Vietnam War

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Mr. President, Prime Minister Kim, Korea.

How do you do?

Mr. Obama.

Mr. Obama and his MSREA partners, the Anti-Mask Project, and the U.S. Embassy.

Thank you.

Mr. Obama, Mr. President, and Mr. Sullivan.

Thank you.

We'll sit over here.

Mr. Warren, Mr. Romano, Senator, thank you.

Anywhere you like.

Thank you.

First of all, I wish to extend our congratulations on the landslide victory in the recent election.

I wish to add my personal congratulations.

Thank you.

Originally, our president planned to attend the services himself on the passing of President Truman, but due to the changes in schedule, I was in charge of the re-election, and I was the head of the piece, which was the acknowledgment of the passing of the new president.

Mr. Franklin, we know it's been a very long journey for you.

And we appreciate the gesture of sympathy to

of the Truman family to the nation on the death of our 33rd President.

He of course made a very difficult decision.

to commit American forces to the defense of South Vietnam.

And I remember at the time I was a member of the United States Congress.

I'm very happy to be able to talk to you and to be able to talk to you.

There were many who wondered whether the Republic of Korea would survive.

And you have proved to be one of the strongest countries militarily and economically in Asia.

And you can count on the continued support of the United States and our alliance.

We know at the present time you have these difficult

negotiations with, uh, with, uh, the North, uh, Korea.

The world would welcome, uh, some, uh, less tension in that area.

On the other hand, we realize that you must be cautious.

And we will continue to watch you closely, trying to get as close as we can, but always having in mind

partners of the Republican career in a strong, independent, non-profit sector.

I wish you would tell President Park that I recall our meeting in San Francisco.

And now that our election is over at some time,

In the course of my term, I hope we can meet again.

Let me remind you of being in the closest touch with your very good representative, Martha Bassett.

And in addition to our ambassador to your country, when we have the conference, there are, of course, many people from the administration who will visit, so .

Of course, I go to the department to start with people and business people.

I say, once you go to Japan, you must go to Korea.

I don't know what my plans in the next four years will be, but I will clearly make one promise.

If I go to Japan, I will go to Korea.

Because I have great respect for the courage of your people.

And we want you.

Everybody, we are aligned as a group.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for your kind remarks.

And we are doing our best under our president's recommendation to do our best.

If we have made any progress in development, that is also great to you, Excellencies, and to your support.

And I wish to take this opportunity to express our most sincere appreciation to you all.

When we think about it, the fact that we are able to move forward with a clear vision is something that many Korean people have in mind.

I think it's a great honor to be able to do this.

As you are aware, we are having an internal formation in our country, and I know it wasn't taken by surprise.

However, in short, I wish you to understand that we are dealing with the communists.

And in order to cope with the situation most effectively, we had to solidify our positions at home and so that we shall be able to maximize our efficiency.

And therefore, we wanted to amend the Constitution and provide some assistance.

We feel that by doing so, we will be able to best accomplish our missions in the part of the Northeast Asia, and we have a good belief that this will, in a way, enable us to better repay the debt that we owe to the United States.

When I first met you, you were so strong.

I didn't want to be a burden to you.

Korea can't stand no way if it is separated from the United States.

And what we are trying to do is we can be of any contribution, some contribution to the efforts you are pursuing, and try to become less limited to the United States.

And I'm sure you'll understand our true intentions behind it.

The South Korean president is on the move, but there is no such thing as an instinctive story.

There is no such thing as an instinctive story.

Thank you.

And also, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

We have been doing our dialogue with the people in the North Korea, yet no substantial discussions have been made so far, and there is no one who has entertained such an easy conversation.

And we hope that, at least while we are maintaining this style of political freedom, they would not provoke the armed repression.

And in this hope, we will pursue this type of dialogue with you all sincerely.

Through this dialogue, we don't think that we can solve the problems or peace, because since we began the dialogue, there has been no changes on the part of North Korea that has changed.

While we continue this dialogue, we will be able to gain time for our understanding

And during this continuation of dialogue, the communists will provoke armed aggression.

So, as we continue this dialogue, we will keep U.S. states informed of the progress, and we shall exchange mutual opinions on how we best cope with the development.

I don't know if you know this, but in the beginning of the Korean War, the Korean War was a war.

The Korean War was a war.

Because of this, we have to continue to maintain the strength of our country, the country where we can go to, and the country where we can go to.

In order to do that, we have to maintain the best condition of the soldiers in our country.

As expected, each country has its own characteristics.

At the New Year, Kim Jong-Sung declares again that he will maintain the already declared four major national objectives, and he is revolutionarily bold.

And this, once again, proves that dialogue is one thing and ambition is another.

And with your excellence, continue to support and insist that we should prepare ourselves strong enough to be able to cope with this pressure in the north.

And, uh, we hope that the U.S. will have a special situation in the U.S. We now have to, uh, modernize our ways to the best that us we can do.

We ask the Excellency what we should do with our forces in Vietnam.

In other words, how we would best be of assistance to you, Excellency, in your detailing of our forces in this region.

At this time, it is best to delay and reply to that while the negotiations are beginning again.

After this next round of negotiations, we'll appraise the situation and we'll be in touch with your government.

Obviously, you're an ambassador in that trade and your soul as well.

As you know, we are in the past.

uh constantly consulted with your garden on every step of the way and we will continue to do so in the future of the negotiations until we say well kind of uh

of a song can be reached in, but until we see what can be reached, we cannot say what role the ROK should play in the future.

But we will have your thoughts in mind, and we'll, just as soon as any development occurs, we'll be in touch.

The main goal there is to achieve an honorable end to that war as soon as possible.

Because as long as it goes on, Mr. Prime Minister, the, uh, the, uh, willingness of our Congress to appropriate the necessary funds

for assistance to our forces in Korea and other areas, it is reduced.

So, Congressman, we would appreciate your support of a reasonable

One which maintains the...

It's the right of the people of the South to determine their own future.

But it must be a reason for the South.

You, having dealt with the communists, know that there's really no satisfaction in itself unless every communist is gone.

But this cannot be achieved.

In Vietnam, it just as it cannot be achieved if it wasn't achieved in Korea.

But I emphasize again that

While we oppose the attempts of some of our senators and congressmen to what we call bug out Vietnam and let South Vietnam not collapse or lack of support, while we oppose that, we on the other hand are continuing to work for a settlement which will bring an early end to the war, because unless we do,

American foreign policy in all parts of the world is seriously jeopardized.

I think you're quite candid because you have an interest in this kind of stuff as well as me.

You didn't ask me to do it.

Our friends in the cities are willing and prepared to render whatever support they can possibly offer in Europe to help you with that issue.

And so we are able to obtain satisfactory results.

We shall be at your service for any necessary assistance.

Well, I regret our meeting has to be so short, but I find that we have so many distinguished visitors that I couldn't get to spend as much time as I would like with each other.

The only measure that has been left in our recent reform measures is to restore the national assembly.

We shall have the election in March and the national assembly will be restored within March this year.

Let me say that I am not going to do what is usually done by Americans last year, you know, during General Affairs.

I will only say that obviously there are people in this country who were troubled by the strong measures that the President took.

And I think that your action of real estate and assembly will be very helpful.

But that's, let me say, that's your decision.

I understand your problems.

Thank you.

Oh, I'm going to end now.

Thank you.

This is one of our presidential extras.

I don't like to read.

Now I have something to do.

Goodbye.

Have a good journey.

Goodbye.

And we'll see you around.

Thank you.

This is my job.

You'd better get 20, 25 minutes for lunch.

20 minutes.

We'd better get to the end of the class.

All right, sir.

I'll be right back.

Peter Bunny will be here.

I'll be right back.

Nixon, Kim & Chong-pil on US-South Korea Relations and Vietnam War

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on January 5, 1973

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