Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 854-033
Date: Tuesday, February 13, 1973 at 12:55 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Rogers, William P.
Recording device: Oval Office
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/854-033

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Well, I just told Steve that, don't let that thing occur to you.
[0:08] You ought to go on, George.
[0:11] And I looked at that, yeah, immediate answer.
[0:14] I looked at the, excuse me, what is the situation, what do I, what does it decide?
[0:24] Yeah, yeah, sure.
[0:35] Thank you.
[2:00] get it into anything in terms of a normalization of the relationship.
[2:03] That's what I think would concern me, though.
[2:08] If you could cover that, you see, I don't want the Jewish community to go off on a smoke.
[2:20] Yeah, sure, sure.
[2:40] Right.
[2:40] Good.
[2:40] Good.
[2:41] I think that's fine.
[2:43] Fine.
[2:44] Fine.
[2:44] No, I saw it this morning in the morning file here, and I assumed it was all right.
[2:49] So I had a remark that it was okay, whatever it was.
[2:51] Yeah.
[2:51] Right.
[2:52] Right.
[2:52] Good.
[2:53] Good.
[3:03] Yeah.
[3:04] Yeah.
[3:15] Right, right, right, that's good.
[3:18] Well, uh, you, uh, you're gonna leave, uh, very shortly, uh, in Florida.
[3:22] Right, that's good.
[3:23] Well, the, uh, I, I, uh, I must say that, uh,
[3:30] You know, I've seen, heard, I had a rerun, and I haven't seen much about there, but that POW film, I think, is some of the most moving things that we've seen for a long time in this country.
[3:43] Don't you think?
[3:44] To think those men have, you know, I, what I heard was their courage, and how they understood, you know, for seven and a half, six and a half, five, we all think we have problems.
[3:54] And look at those guys.
[3:55] They stood there with those dirty bastards all that time.
[3:56] You know, they were extreme.
[3:58] You know, they didn't get much to eat.
[3:59] You know, they were walking.
[4:00] You know, they didn't see anybody in there.
[4:03] They weren't getting anything.
[4:04] It was just unbelievable.
[4:07] You could see their first block were pretty weak, you know.
[4:10] And the way I tell this, they all reach out and grab that rail and come down, you know.
[4:15] Yeah.
[4:15] Oh, sir.
[4:16] They all...
[4:19] And then what about the handkerchief, you know, and so forth, or the flag you made?
[4:24] God bless you.
[4:25] I talked to...
[4:26] Of course, the colonel called me, you know, who's a great colonel, I had an ace last night, yesterday, and then this morning, I called his wife, Ned's wife, and Mulligan's wife.
[4:34] Boy, those people were really great.
[4:37] Mulligan, Mulligan's wife, she's been up here a while, since 1969, and she said, you know, I just, I just talked to him, and she said, you know, he said, you know, if I could meet you,
[4:52] The other thing I was going to say to you is that
[5:20] and say, well, look, I noticed that the magazines that you were talking about, and also some of the others, like Dan Rather said that I was furious when I went to go in there.
[5:34] Help me.
[5:35] You were not talking about it.
[5:37] You were simply stating the position.
[5:39] And I said that I spoke to them about, I know this is kind of...
[5:43] Uh, he had to get it right, because I referred to the residence column that morning, which said, uh, he said, the Honorary, he said, we don't hear anymore about that, you know.
[5:51] But I'll tell you, that was one of the best things that's happened.
[5:55] You have to go to the, and God damn it, Fraser, Fraser is a son of a bitch.
[6:00] Yeah.
[6:01] Well, I'm trying.
[6:03] Yeah.
[6:04] Well, you see, the thing is, they don't expect you, you know, you've been gracious to them, you've been decent to them, but you have to get up there and, uh,
[6:11] I would imagine that you had a deadly reaction to it too.
[6:15] That scared the evening news and so on.
[6:20] All three.
[6:21] All three.
[6:23] But don't let, don't let the
[6:26] Did you?
[7:05] Try it.
[7:05] Yeah.
[7:05] Yeah.
[7:05] Yeah.
[7:06] Try it.
[7:40] I don't expect them to.
[7:44] But on the other hand, they cannot make it up and say, what are you going to do to heal the wounds?
[7:54] Hell, I've been trying to keep the wounds alive.
[7:57] Who the hell is keeping fighting the city?
[8:00] You see, who's doing it?
[8:01] They don't want to say peace with honor.
[8:03] Well, I've got a right to say it, don't I?
[8:05] And they want to say they want peace with dishonor.
[8:07] Fine.
[8:08] You know?
[8:09] Well, I just want you to know, don't let it get on your skin.
[8:13] I have seen today, I've seen him off.
[8:16] I've seen him off and so forth.
[8:18] Just so the publicity gets on your skin.
[8:22] But don't let it irritate you.
[8:24] Yeah.
[8:26] Yeah.
[8:27] Stick with it.