Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 841 › Conversation 841-010
Nixon, Haldeman & Ziegler on Vietnam War and Press Relations
Wednesday, January 24, 1973 · 4:25 PM–4:42 PM ET · Oval Office · 15 min
AI Summary
President Nixon met with H. R. Haldeman and Ron Ziegler to discuss the successful conclusion of the Vietnam peace negotiations and the favorable press coverage following the President's recent televised address. The participants analyzed the positive public reception and the strategic effectiveness of Henry Kissinger's recent press briefings in neutralizing critical questioning. Additionally, the group reviewed logistics for upcoming events, including a memorial for Lyndon B. Johnson, and issued directives to limit administration participation in an energy symposium.
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Did he get up here to this camera or not?
He's going directly to Texas tomorrow morning.
He didn't come here.
They wanted this thing in the burial service, so he's taking her over there.
What is the situation regarding this?
What would you like to see again, sir?
Would you like to see the book again?
That's the book.
Oh, excuse me.
Oh, good.
And we sent a plane down to get B.B.
and pick up this brother.
Oh, he's a great listener.
We'll be right back.
And it couldn't have been so beautiful, because when we were leaving the library for dedication, how the President Johnson bused over to leave you so much.
I'm sure Ronald knows that he received a letter from Johnson the day that he heard about the announcement.
I go over to his home and ask him to come and see me.
I don't know how he said it.
That was very good, the way Russ worked here.
Well, Peckles was good for Peckles.
I didn't cover the accomplishments at all.
And Russ was good.
It was a disaster, but he sure did tell crime.
It was good that we knew those things.
It was good that we let everybody think about Vietnam.
That's all.
All right.
That was Brother Pat.
Great grace.
I reached over to Edwards.
He cut him.
Oh, yeah.
He's still up to death.
Just to make sure.
Well, yeah, just briefly.
Because the dinner starts right away, so I'm sending the White House car for him at 5 o'clock.
I'm going to pick him up and just swing him by here on the way to the dinner.
It would be a nice thing for him.
Right, right.
He's one of our key friends.
Well, tell me, how did they have a reason for him?
Well, Henry talked for an hour, but it was good for him to talk for an hour, because he went through all of Chapter 1 and Article 2.
But he did it very effectively.
But he made the point that the President said the January phase consistently, that we would not...
imposed a coalition government on the people of South Vietnam, and we did not get a settlement.
The President made the point that we would give the South Vietnamese the right to determine their own future, and we have.
You know, he just ticked it off in each section.
On that militarized zone, he covered it very, very well.
The Press Yes.
He went through the agreement.
Then he went through how we got there, and then he went through the comparison of October versus December as to where we are.
And he really knocked them out of questions.
There wasn't any... No, no, thanks to seeing how many hours they just drained their... because he gave them all the information.
And they were, you know, it's pretty clear.
And he gave it his way, which really was better than having to take their shoes questions.
Sure.
And they would have to go and say that that would not be the congressional thing.
He goes, I'm afraid.
Oh, right.
Where's he going to go?
To the Senate?
Floor?
He's going on the floor.
I don't know.
He's going on the floor.
I think that's what they've set up.
He's going on the floor.
And the pro tem will preside at the Senate, and the leader and the majority minority leaders will call on the speakers to call up the questions.
And the House will say the same thing.
The House and the Speaker will preside, and the leaders will call up the speakers.
There's no television.
There's no television.
They couldn't ask a question.
I mean, they asked a couple questions.
And the tone was pretty good.
I must say, the tone was pretty good amongst the press.
I'm not sticking up for them, but I just want to give you an accurate report on it.
There is clarity.
You can see it.
They are impressed as hell.
Got to be.
But they will not let me joy show through.
That's exactly right.
Not one of them will let you get a glimmer of the fact that he's happy.
They're puzzled.
Well, I see.
Well, they're puzzled.
They are.
They're puzzled.
They're starting.
They say that if you had one of them, just somebody would say, this is a great accomplishment.
How did you do it?
Listen, I watched Wolf right there in that briefing today.
You can get a mark of the man that he just had.
He was sitting over there.
And, you know, kind of like how people get defiance, and he had this pen in his hand, and it was one of those with little clicks in it, and he was sitting there, chewing gum, clicking back and forth.
And this thing began to sit in on it.
Sit in on it.
You could see his facial expressions.
And it began to sit in on it.
And finally, at the end, and it took a great deal of, you know, he mumbled out, Mr. President, I...
I would have liked for it to come sooner, but I congratulate you.
And it was a mark of, you know, defeat of his, what he has done.
But I told Henry before I went on the briefing, one thing with the press corps, one thing with the press corps, going back to the early days when they were advocating withdrawal for exchange of prisoners, you can sense it in these briefings now.
they would have been the first ones to turn on Henry and the administration.
And the president had just creamed with a weak degree.
They would have been the first ones to turn.
Well, they would have turned on you and said, what was the answer?
Well, the main point that Bob and I mentioned.
And don't assume that people know.
That's kind of what you said.
You know what I mean?
That's Harry's point, it's not... That's right.
No question about that.
We're not.
One of the positive talking points, it's absolutely right.
That's being nailed together with all the other terms.
That's good.
And what we did here, what we did here by going, we had demonstrated the pressure on it.
by getting them with the dollar rate first.
Same as when I was there, same as me.
Except last night you had an audience of 94 million people, which is 20 million more than you've ever had.
Was it that big?
The biggest we've had before was 74 million.
For what?
On November 3rd, and you had the same audience, basically.
73, 74 million on November 3rd, and on... No?
Yeah.
No, the one this year.
May.
No, the January one this year.
January 25th.
I think it was bigger than May 8th.
And that's because it's winter.
So you always will get a bigger audience in January.
Well, I'm sure of that.
It's because of the anticipation of what it might say.
Oh, yeah.
And last night was because it was winter.
10 o'clock was infinitely better than 9.
You may have lost the world in the 80s, right?
You don't know how long.
So the east doesn't go to bed in that area.
The west doesn't.
The west goes to bed early.
But 10 o'clock in the west, you don't lose out on that space.
And you pick up.
The difference between six and seven in the West is billions of people simply because they're not home.
I must speak with so little liberty.
If you take that viewing audience plus the radio audience, you'd have to have reached, you know, virtually everybody in that town.
It shows you the total circulation of the press.
One press man, the finest press man,
Oh, they sure was.
A couple of people come.
Yes, they did.
One of the, one of the fellas in the post, right?
I heard, I think we may have been.
NBC.
NBC pointed out that this was very definitely
a product of you, because, in other words, written by you, because it was succinctly delivered to the point, and they commented on the delivery throughout.
You know, a man who had achieved what he set out to achieve, and it was so presented.
I think it was NBC, wasn't it?
Yeah, it was.
And NBC did a, it was fascinating last night, NBC did a hell of a good and very positive, long,
Wrap up on the next.
CBS stayed on for about 10 minutes after you went off.
NBC stayed on for the whole rest of the hour, 40 minutes.
45 minutes.
ABC went right off because they were carrying a live basketball game and you interrupted it.
Yeah, but he interrupted it at a good time.
The score was 18 points spread when he interrupted it.
It came back and it was like six points spread or something like that.
It wasn't a tight game, but that's what's up.
That's right, but if I keep interrupting the blow seriously, it wouldn't matter.
9 and a half, you said 11 and a half.
No, it was 9 minutes and 25 seconds from the beginning.
I said 11 and a half.
Well, that's the total beat out of the Oval Office that the President, Ron, let me ask you to come forward and have your opinion.
I talked to him in my office just before we left for the funeral, and I said, Henry, the president needs this.
And no one's going to gain by you saying that.
And he said, no, he won't do it.
He said, no.
He said they took some pictures maybe three, four weeks ago, which they may run.
I said, well, there's nothing we can do about that.
But I said, don't talk to him because the president needs it.
And he said, I understand.
You see, the point I have here is this.
We'll change the time.
I can't.
I cannot.
The week after, I'm going to deliberately and maliciously lie to old Mitchell and Colson.
I'm not going to.
I'm not going to suck around.
Don't you agree, Bob?
Yes, sir.
It doesn't mean that much to us.
It doesn't mean that much to us.
Let them write their story.
They're going to write it, for Christ's sake.
Now, there's one thing that we can do on time.
They're having an energy symposium over in the Bahamas here coming up soon.
Are you aware of that?
Why?
An energy symposium.
You know, discuss energy.
Yes.
Now, if Schultz and Ehrlichman and those guys don't go, they're not going to go.
That's an order.
Nobody's going to go to that energy symposium.
Not a planet.
As a matter of fact, Pete canceled the dinner.
Pete was very cooperative on that.
The dinner, Henley Donovan's dinner, we're canceling people out of that.
The only guy that... You've got one guy.
Why?
Well, you said... We still can.
You said you can, but that was your shot.
We're still canceling here.
I don't want him to bail out.
He should move out anyway because he's still got a health problem.
He can't have the presidency.
He's still got to turn it back.
Taylor's been in for two and a half years.
He can retire.
Don't you think?
Checking in, I'll make sure that .
NARA Description
On January 24, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, Stephen B. Bull, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the Oval Office of the White House from 4:25 pm to 4:42 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 841-010 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 841-10
Date: January 24, 1973
Time: Between 4:25 pm and 4:42 pm
Location: Oval Office
The President met with Stephen B. Bull and H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman.
Charles G. ("Bebe") Rebozo
-Lyndon B. Johnson funeral
-Anita Bryant
-Memento for Claudia A. (Taylor) (“Lady Bird”) Johnson
-Bryant
Bull left at an unknown time before 4:27 pm.
Rebozo
-Dedication of Johnson Library
Donald H. Rumsfeld
-Johnson
Ronald L. Ziegler entered at 4:27 pm.
Service for Johnson
-Dean Rusk
-J. J. ("Jake") Pickle
Willard Edwards
-Dinner
Vietnam settlement
-Briefing by Henry A. Kissinger
-Future of South Vietnamese government
-Recent history of negotiations
-Visits to Senate and House
-Press relations
-Questions
-Tone
-13-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Conversation No. 841-10 (cont’d)
-J. William Fulbright
-Ziegler’s remarks to Kissinger
-The President's conversation with Charles W. Colson
-The President's speech
-Television audience
-Size
-Media coverage
-National Broadcasting Company [NBC]
-Columbia Broadcasting System [CBS]
-American Broadcasting Company [ABC]
-Length
-Ziegler's conversation with Kissinger
-Press relations
-Jerrold L. Schecter
-Hugh S. Sidey
-John N. Mitchell
-Colson
-William P. Rogers
Energy symposium
-George P. Shultz
-John D. Ehrlichman
-Peter M. Flanigan
-Hedley W. Donovan
Bull entered at an unknown time after 4:27 pm.
The President's schedule
-Cabinet
Question of intervention in Prince George’s case
-Ehrlichman
Photographs
-Oliver F. (“Ollie”) Atkins
Bull left at an unknown time before 4:40 pm.
Robert H. (“Bob”) Taylor
-William L. Duncan
-14-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Conversation No. 841-10 (cont’d)
-Health
The President, Haldeman and Ziegler left at 4:42 pm.Also recorded on January 24, 1973
- 403-009 1:50 PM · 6 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 1:50 pm to 1:55 pm.
- 403-010 1:55 PM · 31 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 1:55 pm to 1:59 pm.
- 111-004 4:42 PM · 56 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, and Cabinet officers and staffers, including William P. Rogers, George P. Shultz, Elliot L. Richardson, Richard G. Kleindienst, Rogers C. B. Morton, Earl L. Butz, Frederick B. Dent, Peter J. Brennan, Caspar W. ("Cap") Weinberger, James T. Lynn, Claude S. Brinegar, Roy L. Ash, John A. Scali, Anne L. Armstrong, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, John D. Ehrlichman, Henry A. Kissinger, Peter M. Flanigan, William E. Timmons, Ronald L. Ziegler, Raymond K. Price, Jr., Herbert Stein, Kenneth R. Cole, Jr., George H. W. Bush, and the White House photographer, met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 4:42 pm and 6:10 pm.
- 113-001 4:42 PM · 31 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, and Cabinet officers and staffers, including William P. Rogers, George P. Shultz, Elliot L. Richardson, Richard G. Kleindienst, Rogers C. B. Morton, Earl L. Butz, Frederick B. Dent, Peter J. Brennan, Caspar W. ("Cap") Weinberger, James T. Lynn, Claude S. Brinegar, Roy L. Ash, John A. Scali, Anne L. Armstrong, H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman, John D. Ehrlichman, Henry A. Kissinger, Peter M. Flanigan, William E. Timmons, Ronald L. Ziegler, Raymond K. Price, Jr., Herbert Stein, Kenneth R. Cole, Jr., and George H. W. Bush, met in the Cabinet Room of the White House at an unknown time between 4:42 pm and 6:10 pm.
- 841-011 6:10 PM · 9 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 6:10 pm and 6:13 pm.
- 841-012 6:10 PM · 39 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 6:10 pm and 6:13 pm.
- 841-013 6:13 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Ronald L. Ziegler, Willard Edwards, Mrs. Willard Edwards, and Oliver F. ("Ollie") Atkins met in the Oval Office of the White House from 6:13 pm to 6:15 pm.
- 841-014 6:16 PM · 52 sec — President Richard M. Nixon, Stephen B. Bull, Manolo Sanchez, and Ronald L. Ziegler met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 6:16 pm and 6:18 pm.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 841-010, January 24, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/841-010 (accessed October 6, 2026).