Nixon, Ziegler & Kissinger on Nguyen Van Thieu

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rather than comics.

I don't want that to spread a story.

I wanted to tell them, tell them that that's your feeling, or you think it's a musical energy.

Did you know that that's what I, for any kind of musical energy, I don't care what it is, I mean, black, white, whatever it is.

And then I would come to them.

It's the best way to get both of those energies to come just before the entertainment, after they come through all their wars, and then say, okay.

Now, a couple other new items here.

I already said here, just, sure, don't mean to do a peace deal.

No, I'm sorry, I didn't say that.

I talked to Martin Clark.

The radio and TV correspondence on the auction dates, he said he had worked on this this morning and they couldn't get the, in March, in April, because of hotels and Congress, so they moved it now to June.

So that's something that we, that's not in the media's direction.

The White House, we're checking on the, they have hotel stuff committed from the 7th.

And so whether or not, I told them not to do anything yet until I talked to them further.

So we're still working on the White House Correspondents Association.

Well, whether they can move it to the 30 version.

That's right.

So the radio TV Correspondents Association.

Well, then you can't get the White House Correspondents Association.

I did not accept it.

If you don't go to the grid, I don't know why I asked for a time to accept it before.

Is the team meeting set for the first of April or the latter part of March?

Well, I can't give the latter part.

Say, Henry, I'm sitting around talking about the statement that you made that involves the correspondence that you got him interested in.

Well, I'll tell Clark that the 7th

We will tentatively accept June the 7th.

Yeah, yeah, that's true.

But, uh, come in to comment us again on 30 days before, right?

We'll, we'll, because we, we have a statement.

I am sure that dates are...

There you go.

So in other words, if you could do April 7th, that would be better for the White House Correspondents?

Well, not necessarily.

March 21st would be all right.

It depends on whether or not they can get a room or what.

They have a room on the 7th, right?

They have locked it on the 7th.

Well, we'll see here.

Clark told me, he said he was really not anything related to the option date.

He said, for example, Congress is recessing in eight polices.

And all through May, our networks have now established their affiliate meetings.

He said he just had to move it up into June and has a letter on his way to me.

Well, he's pretty effective.

Oh, sure.

I'm coming back to the other end of the center.

But we'd like for him to check us about 30 days before.

Sure.

There's no more of travel.

Well, I don't just, you know, just do it.

But, you know, just keep it a little bit less difficult.

So, you agree with that?

That we shouldn't have it before that?

What about...

Here's a choice.

As he indicated, it probably won't be as good as possible, of course, but... Well, if we were to play with the 28, it would take two days.

Which we have not given today, but in the end, we do not sleep at night.

Well, frankly, Peter, you've got to make it fairer.

We say the preferred date for the last response is the 7th.

I'd like to say they have the, I don't know.

Yes, sir.

I know all these controls and so forth.

Well, what we could do would be to have the 28th and so forth and that.

And visit me.

I think it won't get easier doing it later.

It's a good day, around the 28th or 29th.

I think we'll be able to get it.

We'd like to visit you.

I'll probably have to do some kind of a...

Well, if we get it, you see, you've got to get the word out there.

We all know that.

It doesn't have to be.

If you were to do the visit in California, Mr. President, you want to do a press conference before he did it.

There's a lot to be said for it because we do it afterwards.

Well, if you do it before he comes, you could just sum up all of the new things you're discussing and discuss the new things with you.

It almost might be better if he brought me to the press conference here.

Right after the, on the day they all return.

You see, I mean, that's a symbolic day.

In fact, most Americans will be the day that the war ends and everybody takes home.

Do you mean to do it here in Washington and then go to California?

I don't know.

I don't think it matters where you do the press conference from.

Are they not going to go out there and do it?

Well, hey, that gives us that weekend.

He's having, say, the 2nd or 3rd of April or something like that.

He had a good one on that one.

So that would knock out totally the deed for the March 31st.

But if they could move it to the 11th of April, that would give you more flexibility.

Well, it doesn't really make a lot of sense

The 11th of April.

No, no, excuse me.

The 14th of April.

Well, the 14th of April will be, give you more time.

The 14th of April is a better date than it should have been.

But my days haven't come yet, and today you can't.

You can't say, all right, I'll go with the 14th of April.

It's not necessary, right?

Fair enough.

Okay.

If you want to get that out of the way.

Okay.

Well, yeah.

I would say in the second or third page, that's what I did.

Well, let's keep that open, shall we?

Are you going to have to tell us?

You've announced your decision.

You still lead the San Clemente.

I lead slightly the San Clemente, which helped him more in Washington.

It would annoy him more if it went to Washington, but none of that is decisive.

Of course, he could come to Washington.

He could go to San Clemente.

We met through UB, then he goes to Washington.

He met by the vice president.

And that way you...

The trouble is, he might touch the last of you at some point.

There's no one quite ready for that.

I don't know if there's a state visit out here.

That's right.

That's what orders me.

You'd have to get him.

There's no way you can avoid a state visit.

Why not?

I'll tell you what I mean.

You can have him in your house right after it's out there, or you could give a small dinner.

Well, you can get a few of the other people out there to have a dinner.

Well, it might be best to do it in, you know, I think it's a small dinner here.

I think we should do it in a small dinner.

And that's very strong.

It's a working vision.

Yeah.

But that's, that's very smart.

I think, I think, all right, let me decide then so that we can get going.

We'll do a few in San Fernando.

I think you offer dates of the, one of the best dates for us to say.

I, I, so that we got to the running home over there, let's say the third, well, basically the second or third event.

All right.

It's, it's no advantage to the second event.

We're no use to the first.

All right.

Oh, I see.

He came.

He deserves it, and we have it back here.

The problem with the flags, too, is that there's likely to be some very significant demonstration.

That's why I want to have a bunch of young men next year.

It'd be rough.

It'd be rough, man.

It'd be hard to control.

I think we should do this on a controlled basis.

I mean, the White House dinner goes too far.

Bill's, you know, you know, I mean, it's, uh, okay.

I mean, I think it's, hey, let's let him go.

He wants, it's his idea anyway.

Let him, host him around.

That's a good problem.

I think that's, uh, that I'm getting back.

It was good.

I have a press conference the day the troops come out on the 28th.

We can do it the 27th.

If you want the troops out, we can have them out.

And since that's the issue, whenever the day you want, I prefer to have a couple days earlier.

The 27th would be good.

And then I can do the press conference on the...

I'd like to do a press conference on the day after they come out on the 28th.

about three, four, four televised a year.

This is a good time to do one.

Then we go to California.

And we had a long weekend and all the time out there.

And I had to be back here at seven for my house correspondence.

Fair enough.

You said you don't have to come back for correspondence.

That's just, if we don't shift to the 14th, I don't care.

I talked to Bill this morning, and I called him right after, or before he called the doctor, and I called him, and I found the multilateral thing, and I said, now, are you sure you understand multilateral?

What we've gotten before is for multi-participation, but let's leave it open to how we do it.

He got the message, and he was in good shape.

I said it on China.

I said, point out that we have some progress on our phones in China and so forth and so on.

How are you going to...

Tell him about the intercept.

I've told him.

I haven't told him the title.

I said, we're still working on the title.

And then all of a sudden, she said, oh, the intercept.

He said, so and so.

He didn't buy it.

It's good that he knows.

You told him this morning.

No, I didn't talk about the intercept.

Yeah, I told him about the multilateral thing.

Yes, I do.

I'm really sorry that he's going to get hit like hell on that today.

I don't want him to go in there and say, well, the latter lady's fine.

So that's why I called him up.

But he was in good shape.

He said, you agree with me.

And I told her I was going to put up.

And I told her I'd do it.

I was going to talk to her the second day.

And I said, yeah, we haven't talked last night.

But he didn't seem to.

I mean, he was a...

He would say that he's inquisitive about the Chinese.

He doesn't know the full extent of it yet, but that's the present.

If anyone had predicted that even on the 4th, we were going to have an exchange of arms, I think that would be a no-brainer.

But in addition, of course, all of you and I know that this agriculture is working very well.

All the economic decisions to deal with the Soviets, we have had to live with.

So I'm sure those of you who have been in the back, I've already told you three of them.

I know, again, how much we've lost, and how much we've lost to each other.

But if we just let it go now, it shows we have gotten so busy with so many other things.

I think what you can do is just tell him that Dan is going to be in charge.

I mean, he's got to be the man that Schultz called the signals to the highest level.

That's really the better way to do it.

I mean, basically, I don't want to...

If you put Schultz in the...

He's going to have one hell of a bad attack on the...

I don't know whether...

I mean, that's the one thing that should be the...

and shows to do it well.

He takes programs, colleges, comes at this, uh...

I mean, Dan can do a lot of the work, but, uh...

I've practiced, and it looks like I have a lot better at shows.

Well, we're kind of so loaded now.

Let me see what is your.

I'm getting it.

I've got that one in.

There's only one girl I trust, but it has to be disabled, too.

That is so.

It's awesome.

Thank you.

But I would say, Mr. President, you don't, when you write your biography, that has to be.

And I want to run a secret that's softened my mind a little better.

That's what I've been discovering.

And incidentally, I do think it's very important for you not to tell anybody about this.

And the only one that I would say, I would have been on the line in your department.

Even there.

I think the only one that you could talk to about it would be, I think you could tell him, but I wouldn't.

If you really had to tell him.

No, you can't tell him.

He can't do anything about it.

But I would, for example, tell Schultz about it.

I wouldn't tell all of them.

I wouldn't tell her.

You see, much as you trust them, they just shouldn't know such things.

You know, because look, when Scott and the other all came out, they make, they don't realize how important it is.

You and I have been doing it long before they ever went there.

They thought it was new that the Chinese were strengthening NATO and the U.S. keeping its bonds with Japan.

We do that.

But I didn't come out and say that to anybody in public.

I've never been to it.

And the problem is they don't realize how important it is not to say that.

It's like that asshole.

And months after I agreed with the Congressman that morning, Senators, I said, we are either optimistic or pessimistic about the talks.

He goes, no, it's just the President's not optimistic about the talks.

You know what happened?

Raised all of the North and the East, raised all of the South and the East, because he didn't realize that putting it exactly that way was a form of argument.

But of course, you, at this time, you saw me on that, because of the cooperation.

So it was an alliance.

Division of Labor.

Let me ask one other thing, because it involves something I've got to talk about here today.

I think the administration should go, but I don't think I should go.

Would you think I should go?

I mean, I'm saying it's not a unique story, I guess, but obviously, uh, if I go there, they're not gonna goody-goody it out and shake hands and all that.

Well, I don't know why you should invite any competitors to the center of the pitch, let him get... Well, let him, yeah.

You can...

Otherwise, I'll go there and have the thing to talk afterwards, who got the most applause, and who has made the best jokes.

Guys aren't gonna make jokes.

I mean, you let him get, well, you can almost do the counterattack, and he's gonna screw it up, but still...

But the brass teeth that screw it up totally, they say he did better.

You know?

I wouldn't let him get well in Zurich.

I wouldn't.

See, that's why I do wonder if the White House will respond to that.

You have nothing to say.

It would not be a bad idea to do the grid line.

I know.

I was attending to it.

You say that country is a democratic government.

Well, you must be.

I'm happy to try it.

But for you to never read on the election for a man.

The first time in perhaps a hundred years that he's a candidate to not attend an inauguration.

It's always done first.

Do we admit it?

And my equal opponents mention the fact that you had tenderly attended Kennedy's inauguration.

Who did?

I had read it in some respect, but since you're not president...

And not only that, but the very weekend of your inauguration, he gave that so-and-so speech.

He has said one generous thing about you.

You are lying, opposed.

I think it goes too far.

If you would advise not to go, I might go, though.

Let me say you're going to.

I'll go, but I'd advise that you don't go.

Okay.

I don't think he...

No, but he didn't appear on the program, but you can only do whatever he does.

If he does it badly, he'll keep on doing it.

I asked, uh, I asked Rogers if he was going on one of Herb's papers on my call.

Curiously, I didn't ask him.

He said he didn't want to go.

Usually he says go to the next time.

Well, I don't think it's the same as yours.

Well, I don't think it's the same as mine.

I'm sorry I held it.

Okay.

Nixon, Ziegler & Kissinger on Nguyen Van Thieu

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on February 21, 1973

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