Conversation: 840-012
Prev: 840-011 Next: 840-013Start Date: Saturday, February 3, 1973 5:12 PM
End Date: Saturday, February 3, 1973 6:20 PM
Participants:
Nixon, Richard M. (President); Ziegler, Ronald L.; Woods, Rose Mary; Colson, Charles W.; Kissinger, Henry A.; Sanchez, ManoloRecording Device: Oval Office
NARA Description:
On February 3, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, Ronald L. Ziegler, Rose Mary Woods, Charles W. Colson, Henry A. Kissinger, and Manolo Sanchez met in the Oval Office of the White House from 12:12 pm to 1:20 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 840-012 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid:
Conversation No. 840-12
Date: February 3, 1973
Time: 12:12 pm - 1:20 pm
Location: Oval Office
The President met with Ronald L. Ziegler.
Henry A. Kissinger's trip to People’s Republic of China [PRC]
-Announcement
-Surprise
-Reporters’ questions
-Ziegler's answers
-June 1972 trip
-Shanghai Communique
-Vietnam
-Hanoi trip
The President’s telephone call to Rose Mary Woods
Woods’s call to Coy Stennis
-32-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. Sep.-09)
Conversation No. 840-12 (cont’d)
-Coy Stennis’s health
-John C. Stennis shooting
-Prayer breakfast
-Press conference
-Stennis’s condition
-Assailants
-Drugs
-The President’s telephone call to Coy Stennis
-Thelma C. (“Pat”) Nixon
News summaries
-Telephone calls
-Roy L. Ash
-Caspar W. (“Cap”) Weinberger
Woods left at 12:14 pm.
The President's meeting with Kissinger
Kissinger's press conference
-"Today" show
Ziegler's talk with Barbara Walters
-Columns
The President talked with Charles Colson between 12:15 and 12:16 pm.
[Conversation No. 840-12A]
[See Conversation No. 43-18]
[End of telephone conversation]
Kissinger entered at 12:16 pm.
Reports on Stennis’s health
-33-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. Sep.-09)
Conversation No. 840-12 (cont’d)
-Operation
-Age
-Gen. Walter R. Tkach
Kissinger’s trip to Hanoi
-Reasons for exclusion
-Distraction from purpose
-North Vietnam decision
-Private meeting with North Vietnamese
-Herbert G. Klein
-Rules on press coverage
-Interviews
-Photographs
-Release restrictions
-Joint agreement
-Control of American reporters
-Klein
-Role on trip
-People’s Republic of China [PRC]
-North Vietnam
-Denial of press coverage
-Announcement release procedure
-Cables
-Dealing with North Vietnamese
-Le Duc Tho
-Murrey Marger
-Foreign Information Bureau official
-Mayor of Haiphong
-Press coverage
-Reuters
-French Agency
-Winston Lord
-Compared to China trip
-Klein
Announcement
-34-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. Sep.-09)
Conversation No. 840-12 (cont’d)
-Origins of statements
-Joint statement
Prisoners of War [POWs]
-Press coverage
-Privacy
-Later reviews
-Exploitation
-Defense Department [DOD] policies
-Elliot L. Richardson
-Wives
-Releases
-Vice President Spiro T. Agnew at Clark Air Force Base
-Philippines
-Ferdinand E. Marcos
-Exploitation
-Kissinger’s role
Missing in Action [MIAs] and POWs in Laos
-Note to North Vietnamese
-North Vietnamese reply
-Difficulties in locating
-Radio signals
-Administration position
-Families
-North Vietnamese position
-Motives
-Pathet Lao
Laos
-Settlement
-Agreement
-Cambodia cease-fire
-Timing
Bombing
-35-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. Sep.-09)
Conversation No. 840-12 (cont’d)
-Cambodia
-Laos
-Reports
-Questions from press
-J. William Fulbright
-Michael J. (“Mike”) Mansfield’s position
-Laos cease-fire
Cambodia settlement
-Negotiations
-Lon Nol
-Le Duc Tho
-Unilateral statement
-Cease-fire
-Agreement with US
-Chinese influence
-Norodom Sihanouk
-Statement
-Laos
Vietnam settlement
-Quang Tri
-Cease-fire violations
-South Vietnamese [?] marines
-Losses
-Tanks
-Artillery shelling
-International monitoring groups
-Critics of the President
-Duration
-Nguyen Van Thieu
-Kissinger’s trip to Hanoi
-Importance
-Press relations
-Ziegler
-Camp David
-36-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. Sep.-09)
Conversation No. 840-12 (cont’d)
Ziegler left at 12:30 pm.
Manolo Sanchez entered at 12:30 pm.
Refreshments
Sanchez left at an unknown time before 1:20 pm.
Press in Hanoi
-Ziegler
-Compared to Peking trip
-Control
-Restrictions
-Marder
-Le Duc Tho
-Washington Post
-The President’s hostility
-Marder
-Tour of North Vietnam
-Mayor of Haiphong
-Information Bureau, Foreign Ministry
-Politbulo
-French press
-Tass
-Reuters
-Klein
-Role on trip
-Presence at meetings
-Presence at banquets
Edward R. G. Heath visit
-Relationship with the President
-Northern Ireland
-Rhodesia
-North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO]
-37-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. Sep.-09)
Conversation No. 840-12 (cont’d)
-British role
Great Britain
-Global standing
-Strategic thinking
-State Department
-Sir Robert Thompson
-Alastair Buchan [?]
-American-British cooperation
France
-Civil service
-Quality
-Economics
-Foreign policy
-Journalists
-Eurocentricity
-Elections
Germany
-Defense minister
-Helmut H. W. Schmidt
-Finance minister
-Shift in cabinet
-Parliamentary procedures
-Willy Brandt
-Heath
-Intelligence
-Global thinkers
The President’s conversation with Heath
-Car
-Post-war Europe
-European leaders
-Georges J. R. Pompidou
-World view
-38-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. Sep.-09)
Conversation No. 840-12 (cont’d)
******************************************************************************
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4
[National security]
[Duration: 17 s]
GREAT BRITAIN
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4
******************************************************************************
-Italians
-Bruno Krisky
-Austria
-Qualities
-World War I statesmen
-Jan Smuts
-World War II statesmen
-Dutch statesmen
-World Court
-Danish statesmen
-European leaders
-Provincial outlook
-The President’s meeting with George P. Shultz
-Heath’s world view
-1970 meeting with the President
-Global strategy
-European leaders
-Burke Trend
-Retirement
Europe
-39-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. Sep.-09)
Conversation No. 840-12 (cont’d)
-Great Britain
-European Economic Community [EEC]
-NATO
-British role
-Heath, Trend
******************************************************************************
BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5
[National security]
[Duration: 1 m 14 s]
NATO
END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5
******************************************************************************
National Security Council [NSC] meetings
-Joint Chiefs of Staff [JCS]
-Melvin R. Laird
-Richardson
-Relations with JCS
Kissinger’s schedule
-Trip to PRC
-Vacation
-Ziegler
-Barbara Walters
-Ziegler
-Taping show
-Marvin L. Kalb
-Response to program with Kissinger
-Walters’ interview with Kissinger
-Congressional reaction
-40-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. Sep.-09)
Conversation No. 840-12 (cont’d)
-Kissinger's meeting with Egyptians
-Maximum audience
-Meeting with Ziegler
-Congressional leaders
-Trip to PRC
-Senators
-Economic commitment
-Vacation
-Meeting with Egyptians
-The President’s meeting with Agnew
-Kissinger's visit to San Clemente
Middle East
-Importance
-Meeting with Egyptians
-Israelis
-Compared to South Vietnamese
-Thieu
-Elections effect on negotiations
-Settlement
-Timing
-Permanent
-Kissinger’s meeting with Egyptians
-Kissinger’s counterpart [Hafiz Ismail ?]
-Egyptian Foreign Ministry
-Possible meeting place
-Moscow
-London
-Compared to Le Duc Tho meeting
-Cairo
-Oil
-Arabs
-Settlement
-Egypt
-Separation of issues
-Sovereignty
-41-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. Sep.-09)
Conversation No. 840-12 (cont’d)
-Possession of territories
Kissinger’s meeting with Soviets
-Middle East position
-Nuclear treaty
-British goals
-Poseidon sale
-Soviet Union’s reaction
Great Britain
-Heath
-Military power
-Fleet
-Poseidon
-Skybolt
-Reasons for cancellation
-Robert S. McNamara
-John F. Kennedy
-Meeting with Harold MacMillan
-Polaris Sale
-Royal Air Force
-Skybolt
-Suez Canal
-1956 invasion
-American policy
-World War II
-Adolf Hitler
-Sacrifices
World War II
-Hugh R. Trevor-Roper
-Allies surrender policy
-Unconditional surrender policy
-Error of policy
-Germany as barrier to Soviet Union
-Threat of Soviet Union
-42-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. Sep.-09)
Conversation No. 840-12 (cont’d)
-US military superiority
-Franklin D. Roosevelt
-Illness
-Concessions
Soviet-US relations
-Arms parity
-European will
-American will
-Soviet Union
-Problems
-Motives
-Bureaucracy
Strategic Arms Limitations Talks [SALT]
-Richardson
-Paul H. Nitze
-Military Representative
-Gordon L. Allott
-Henry M. (“Scoop”) Jackson
-Gen. Edward Rowny
-Kissinger’s telephone call
-Nitze
-Antiballistic missile [ABM] position
-U. Alexis Johnson [?]
-Compared to Gerard C. Smith
-Arms Control Disarmament Agency [ACDA]
-Appointment of director
-Budget
-Nitze
-Philip J. Farley
-Jackson
-Johnson as negotiator
-Farley
ACDA
-43-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. Sep.-09)
Conversation No. 840-12 (cont’d)
-Budget
-Compared to White House staff
-Personnel
-Hiring policy
-Spurgeon M. Keeny, Jr.
-Farley
-Director traits
-Farley
-Keeny
-Need for new people
-General Advisory Committee
-John J. McCloy
-NATO
-Vietnam
Vietnam settlement
-Kissinger’s TV appearance
-Explanation of foreign policy
-The President’s meeting with Republican Congressional Leaders
-Heath dinner
-McCloy
-Press coverage
-Failure to explain to American public
-Effect on North Vietnamese
ACDA
-General advisory committee
-Replacement for McCloy
-Harold M. Agnew
-Los Alamos Laboratory
-Support for the President
-Staffing
-William W. Scranton
-William C. Foster
-J. P. Ruina
-Massachusetts Institute of Technology [MIT]
-44-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. Sep.-09)
Conversation No. 840-12 (cont’d)
-Reaction to SALT
-Test ban
-Gen. Lauris Norstad
-Alvin Weinberg
-Claudia A. (“Lady Bird”) Johnson
-Interest
Appointments
-Clare Booth Luce
-The President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board [PFIAB]
-Dr. Edward Teller
-Claudia Johnson
-United Nations [UN] office
-Shirley Temple Black
-John A. Scali
UN
-Dinner with Heath
-Racial problems
-Africans
-Suez Canal
-Treatment of the President
-Scali
-George H. W. Bush
-Secretary of State
-Secretariat
-U Thant
-Pakistan ambassador
-Haile Selassie
-The President of the UN
-Twenty-fifth anniversary
-Scali meeting with Kissinger
-Briefing
-Kurt Waldheim
-American public’s attitude toward UN
-Hijacking
-45-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Tape Subject Log
(rev. Sep.-09)
Conversation No. 840-12 (cont’d)
-Right of liberation
-Vietnam
-Eviction of Republic of China, Taiwan
Kissinger’s trip to New York
-Timing
-Theater
-Hockey game
Kissinger left at 1:20 pm.