Nixon, Haldeman & Ziegler on Vietnam War and Henry Kissinger

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They probably wouldn't want it alive anyway.

Yeah.

Well, anyway, this is the end of the war, and it is good.

I guess they, you know, started .

The thing is, you know, it's, when we know it's always going to make the game, of course, it's going to be different people and all that sort of thing.

But he does everything.

But it's going to be well made.

I just assumed that.

Well, that's a little different because we're talking about a briefing just on time.

Yeah.

I guess.

But they only asked questions.

He said he can't miss it, so he won't dictate it in the end.

Oh, it'll be on the phone.

Oh, that makes sense.

Oh, he's right.

He went into great detail, but it must be John Gallagher alone, and only on the one subject.

Well, he's off of that.

We can't possibly come back and not ask questions of him.

You know what the hell?

Everybody knows he went there.

They'll even say, you know, it's not the character before.

Well, they gave Lenny some groundwork, and so, you know, Seth's on, maybe it's good.

I don't know.

Did he want it?

I don't know.

By the way, Lenny, you know, just so you know exactly what you've done.

It's your property.

I'm not paying to be not.

Yeah.

All right.

Of course, I don't know what you talked about today.

I'm going to talk about it tomorrow.

I just think maybe we better have it on hallway.

I know there will be more.

There's always more here on earth.

But John, you can't summarize.

You can always summarize it alone.

Get far, then they can carry it along.

Carry what he says.

That's the point.

Try to get more time.

I think we're going to have to do it again.

I'll have to go to Camp David.

Friday.

And then they come back in.

And then I'll stay there and do the don't agree with them again.

You wouldn't say that's a good thing?

Probably, yeah.

Probably right, yeah.

She said, well, I'm afraid I can't help you out now.

Okay.

Then she launched into, she's sending me three opportunities now.

She sat with me and never, never hit it.

She hit, you know, you were right square on the nail.

She said, you know, it means you're sitting there and I can't help you.

That's it.

Going over to the front of it.

He wouldn't be wandering around trying to figure out how to put a Senate together.

I mean, I'm sure he is.

So, I told you I'd love that.

Thank you.

And you were right.

That's my guess.

I guess.

I don't know.

John just stopped by the city and he had to make a headway and he had to go downstairs so I can make a detail of what he said next.

That's all you need.

That is an answer to the question, yes, sir.

Well, everybody in the region is bad, not the person you're going to use.

How can you have that to make a California and a Donovan?

It's just a standard, nothing to destroy.

And that's it.

It doesn't have any intelligence, ability, and so forth.

That way, it's just having another client.

Yeah.

That's it.

Well, I didn't.

I'm really speaking on this one.

Caused trouble, and I think you've got this one.

That's the problem.

You want to get around to each other.

The other step is that I think you'd better call attention to that.

Okay.

Before you do that, listen.

I was talking to Bob, Ron, about the, uh...

I think on the rebudging, under no circumstances do you want to lie.

But I think it's probably too hard for them to understand if they don't try to do it.

So if they do, then let's get more of these things done.

Otherwise, you know, you know, we are going to get more of them done.

Okay, good.

You agreed to do Barbara.

Barbara.

Right.

We've got to get into the individual part.

What do you think?

He's got some pretty good stuff.

I mean, he's given a lot of good stuff, but he doesn't need to spend, you know, half an hour or something.

And, again, he's running tight now.

Yes.

Well, I would say that having him at Tennessee, he's going to New York Center.

You can see him there.

Yeah.

All right.

Are you ready to say that I want him at Tennessee?

Yes.

It's an article.

It's not that important.

It's important because we use it as a background piece on how the press put together this .

And he says, I don't want to get into all the details of the agreement, but I just want to get some stuff about how he and the president did something about it.

You might want to do that, which is where he does the details of the agreement.

Yeah, I'm sorry?

You were also telling him about the fact that he wanted to go there.

We're doing the briefing.

And then they typed up a letter that they were going to send out.

They worded it well.

And they sent the invitation.

schedule, possible potential schedule progress on the 7th.

And therefore, the officers of the White House correspondents suggested the date of August the 14th.

And the president said he would accept and will come on the 14th, which made it clear that they asked on the 14th.

When Pierpont came in, he said, you know, I wasn't going to go, but I'm going to go now.

help harder, get the right kind, you know.

When we're talking about something in here, if we can get them to be very good supporters, it is bottom sense, because everybody at the Correspondence Group, and I will think every other piece of people, and they are.

Well, no, they're probably more important, but nobody knows.

They're big.

Why are you impressed with them?

Because they're big.

Thank you.

They're a way out of time.

Yeah.

They're like a carpenter.

Carpenters.

I believe so, too.

I think it would be a real surprise when we get Sonny and Sherry to come up with a twist about, you know, the great hunter who performed for our great president who brought peace and fun.

All right, let's do that.

Thank you.

Oh, yeah.

John kind of talked about it.

It's one that you either make the right decision now and take it a little unwise, and then like what we've done with her, we don't need fraud and things like that.

It's not going to come to a relationship.

We're going to need a little like that.

or else he's infinitely better qualified for that than for action.

It's a job that doesn't require administration.

It doesn't require being with people who are working.

But he's going to shape the hell out of action in his own way.

Yeah.

But he's going to... See, he thought we made a mistake.

This man will know we out.

He thinks he's got to go ahead and pull it aside.

And what he intends to do is politicize action.

One of the things that was raised, and it's quite correct, as he said, that's Phillips.

unnecessary flagged by the way he talks.

No question.

He should be talked to about that.

And it's the same thing.

George Shultz was over his equipment.

It's not very smart to talk about the dumb programs in the country.

They don't give up on that.

That wasn't Shultz.

That was Charlie Walker.

Charlie Walker.

Charlie Walker said that they'd get Shultz with it.

Sorry.

Anyway.

That's what it is.

A lot of sparring, you can go to the Congress and use the word irresponsible.

Responsibly irresponsible.

I can't say dumb.

But if you say dumb, like I say, the word responsible.

Responsible.

You've got to say that.

You've got to say dumb.

Well, I guess it's basically what a little more careful people need to be.

Yeah, way back when.

Police are talking with her.

I didn't get one.

On the way back, I said, oh, I forgot about this.

What'd she say?

She said, no, no, no, no, no.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

Well, how did she get the impression?

That's the, how did she get the impression that Ann was probably going to go to the staff?

Well, Ann probably came to Rose and said, you know, what should I do?

And, you know, many thoughts on how to put a staff together or something, and Rose kind of, you know, placed, she was a pretty tricky operator, and I think she probably was the speaker, and that would be a good way to

to, uh, you know, I don't need to go to the bottom.

How do you order?

I suppose we can't do it.

She wants an extra, she wants a staff person for each of them.

She's on the cost of living council, she wants a staff person for that.

And she's not Spanish speaking, she wants a staff person for that.

It's a crisis.

I mean, she's going to expect people for every one of these.

You use the people, that's what we're trying to explain to her.

The cost of living council has to use those people.

You're a member of the council.

You use that staff in that capacity, right?

Of course, that's what he did.

He built himself a staff person for every genocide we had.

Of course, he was chairman of the site, so he took over the whole staff.

No, he wanted a staff person for the NSC and a staff person for the organization.

Well, that's the way people approach things.

And Schultz does the same thing.

I couldn't believe him.

When Schultz first came to the White House, I was the lead.

It had way back to being secretary later, and then he became chairman of some committee.

which is a, well, that's a terrible decision for our kids.

They really didn't think, all right, we'll have a large job, we'll have Henry, we'll have Henry the staff.

Everybody in Henry's got one for every country in the rest of the country.

Well, it's kind of his way back.

He has Harvey and he has Mount, which is damn smart, because now people come and say, oh, I'll get your people doing it.

He just says, I don't have any people.

I'll get your people doing it.

Which is, of course, the way I've done it all along.

I've never had a staff, so they can't dump stuff.

That of the organization, that was absolutely right.

The more assistance you have, the more they have to do to justify their being there.

And the reason I'd like for you to call him off bench is to say, yeah, I want to get to hear from anybody else that he had any probability of going to do this, and it's a terrible mistake.

He ought to frankly call back and tell him he's been a damn fool, shut up, take this big thing with him.

It's a peace issue.

We don't get by on a peace issue.

The reason I thought that was, this is our issue, as Bob said.

We think it should do very well.

Do you think that's something that we're talking about?

Yeah.

I really think that you're right.

When I think, though, that you have to spend all that time, you don't know how that's going to help with anything that's going to be done.

We just can't do that on an open prison ground here.

Right?

Well, the time with Balzano, I think, was worth spending the years.

Yeah.

Well, tuning in to see Balzano, it helped Balzano to see the defense that John sent.

But again, I don't think that's a constant thing.

Yeah.

On your schedule, we've got to go get at this prison tomorrow.

We've got to also, I just think that this is the whole picture here.

He doesn't love the councilors, but I don't really want to hear him.

I don't want to get in trouble.

We're going to get a benefit council meeting in New York.

And then I would not have, then I would just do, for a month, I would do subcaptive kind of thing, you know, if I, you know what I mean?

If I could make, and then I'd see, every September, every once in a while, subcaptive.

Okay, so if you look at it, I can go and talk to you about it tomorrow, okay?

Just so you know, we were talking, you were asking about the thing.

He's got a letter that at the same time you were on my desk that you hadn't seen.

On the budget, I was saying to the national committee to permit a tax increase.

So this is paying people enough taxes.

Yeah.

They set up like that committee for the new .

Yeah.

Good.

And that's a good shape, that one.

Well, it's yellow.

And how are those letters ?

Well, I don't need it now.

I'll look at it tomorrow.

They are sending hunters over the DOWs.

Yes, sir.

Ah, OK. Well, they've been going.

It's probably all right.

The man in the center looks like a pretty good letter.

And they've gotten a draft of the letters from the MIAs and the confirmed deaths.

Some will be busy for a long time.

All right.

And what about these?

They have a letter.

They haven't sent any cases up to your approval.

All right, all right.

But the other story will come.

First of all, when has that been going?

You didn't see it?

I wonder how that happened.

I wonder, sir, if you are 100, that's where I can see it, not your herbs.

Who prepared it for us?

Well, if you want to go right, I want to look at it now.

I can't change it.

What would you change?

You can't change the program.

Well, then, I don't want to hear about it.

It just isn't as they did.

Yeah, what price does it?

I mean, you see, I don't like to take this time for everything, but by the end of this important letter requiring style and beauty of the new girl, there's no one who can stand it, doesn't it?

See?

Yeah.

It didn't have to be anything.

No one had to stop him.

You have to give him the television, the press letter, and the other station.

See?

Yeah.

He's got the video.

You have a lot of problems.

I get it.

I mean, I told John.

No.

John, sorry.

I told him.

Yeah, well, it's a tough one.

And actually, John, if John said this morning he didn't think we should bother you with it, we should just go ahead and do it.

Well, I think probably the real crux of this matter is the war in India is a part of it too.

I don't know why, but, you know, I think he may be.

But the real crux of the matter is this.

I think that he doesn't want to be an assistant secretary.

He wants an old agent in action.

And that's the other thing.

He says, and our strong stance against Washington.

I suppose.

Secretary of State is another one.

I think you're saying that you're right in action.

I've never heard a seat director hear that.

Nixon, Haldeman & Ziegler on Vietnam War and Henry Kissinger

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on February 21, 1973

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