Nixon & Kissinger on Vietnam War and Foreign Policy

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Mr. President, if you could call these two ladies within the next half hour.

They seem to be quite impressed.

You know, he'd get around, and that was probably a good idea, to get around the meeting class.

Did you talk to him?

He followed me, and he then said he'd call me tomorrow.

Yeah, he told me he'd ask to see you afterwards.

All right, we'll work a line out with him.

He is very important to us because he will support us in the meeting, but we've got to really listen hard on that.

We're not giving that trip until...

I just think it's a hard case for these guys because we've got to put the monkey on their back.

I think we have to bid on the defendant and on the agent.

Yeah, you noticed Albert came around to the end and said anything.

Because they're all, it's an unconscionable thing, Harry, as far as

The people that should be for aid, the commentators, the comms, what you call the senior journalists, except for Howard Smith, the way those bastards act, and the ones that should be applauding the louse of the usual thing.

And the commies, the actors, and all the rest.

But, thank God, I had the Boston Globe, which is practically a radical paper.

Yesterday they had a cartoon showing you that Superman with the big dollar sign.

And then they had another cartoon showing a North Vietnamese coloring, and then instead of a bomb, dollars are falling all over him.

I think these people cannot permit anything in Vietnam to succeed.

Anything.

It's got to be a failure.

You didn't anticipate it was going to be like that.

Because I felt that there was more decency in it.

That's right.

I'm raising the question as to our judgment here.

But I was told they were going to do this because I think that there is no decency in the people.

Well, but on the other hand, Mr. President, basically, what they are reacting to is that they are becoming irrelevant.

I mean, after all, Mr. President, here it is.

The man they've hated for 20 years is doing all the things that they dreamed about and never got themselves to do.

I mean, what Kennedy was writing about, you've done.

They're losing their constituency because, you see, I have the sense now that the college generation, you have to vote.

These guys have just talked.

So they've got to keep going.

These are leaders now with less and less followers.

You know, the thing that this march with China, what you said, that was great, though.

You take these leaders out of the rural city and out of what's happening in China and so forth.

But I thought the meal was pretty bug-eyed.

Oh, he is bug-eyed.

Wait a second.

Yeah.

Oh, I want to tell you that I found that, too.

I looked at those pictures this morning, you know, and I got delighted.

I wonder if, I think, you know, there's such interesting things that maybe you could put them, you know, put a couple on one wall, one on another, because they are really fascinating pictures.

Yeah, in other words, if you could put them, you know, around in the bedroom, you know, take down all of them, as a matter of fact, that are in there, or maybe except the one over the desk.

But even that becomes a beast.

And then you could have a group of four around because it's so fascinating that sometimes I'm sure somebody could take that children home because they're really a fascinating group.

And also there's more color in them.

See at night you couldn't see the color, but they have nice color.

And then somebody goes forward and tells Tom around that thing tonight, Irene, right?

Fine, they did that and whatever it is.

Okay, fine, fine.

I have one thing on which I have to make a decision.

If I was going to do that Barbara Walters thing this Sunday, I have to let her film in tomorrow afternoon.

Oh, yeah.

I wanted to let you in mind if I came back from Camp David around 7, 6.30 or 7.

What time do you have to come?

Tomorrow?

Tomorrow.

Anytime tomorrow.

Late afternoon, evening.

Or I could go up later and film in service.

You know, I'll tell you what we could do is...

Why don't you just do this?

Let's make the campaign a meeting, just a working meeting, and we'll finish.

In other words, we'll get up there and we'll meet from approximately, I think I'll just sit in it from the beginning.

I might as well.

We'll meet from about 1.30 or so until, for three hours, about 5.30, and then you come back.

If I can do that, that would be good.

But that isn't going to put you in too much trouble.

You can do that on the factory.

That would be good.

You're giving her a half hour?

That's for Sunday night.

Yes.

And I'm sure she has something about you working at it.

Well, that's right.

She's smart.

Well, he'll do it better than Cal.

She'll like to.

She may do that, but she's smart.

She may just want to.

The trouble is that they always try to get in the hot news, and they don't realize that the little pinyas like you gave the leaders this morning.

It's what folks are getting into.

That's what makes us buggered.

They want to hear the little things, you know.

Mr. Elling, that was a gift.

That's silver and gold.

So upon the anniversary of the Chinese, somebody sent it to me.

That's all.

But you know, Mr. Benjamin, of course, you should see that .

Yeah.

You know, they were trying to hold us up.

Maybe there could be no summit this year, and we had to get to the nuclear treaty.

Maybe not before that.

Now he's slaughtering all over you, and then it will be in June, be a great success.

You'll have to work like dogs to get these agreements ready, but we've got much less time.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Anything later this morning is really funny things.

No, that's, that's, I, I, that's not right.

What is it?

Roger, the things I shouldn't sit in, it is my own.

So I'll just co-craft it so that it doesn't look...

I don't care.

Then how do you want to get rid of him?

Get rid of him?

No.

I just said he was gone.

You have to see.

You have to see the appeals for you.

Yeah, sure.

I might just drop in so that I'm meeting, because no one will understand why I'm not there.

Sure.

You say you're sorry, you better go to something else, and I'll sit and talk to him.

That's fine.

I'll let him go through with it.

Did Rodney do racism to you?

Well, we could just overrule it.

Well, I'm not going to say anything, Tom.

I'll handle it.

You come in and say hello and so forth.

If you just say to him that you'll be .

Don't worry.

I'll get that across.

In regard to the .

But we, I think you're right in the evening.

I take the offense.

Obviously, you want to get that question.

I would say we achieved, as far as the Americans, we achieved what we wanted.

I mean, our goal is to cease fire there, and the right of the Laotians, in terms of the withdrawal of all forces, to prevent the Laotians from working on their own future.

That's what it is.

This is theirs, not ours.

You'll handle that, I'm sure.

But I can handle it the way I handle it.

But Megan, don't back off of that.

What in the name of God are they talking about?

Mr. President, I do this no matter what we achieve.

Everything is gendered.

If you had said last year, at this time, by this time, I see that the agreement calling for the withdrawals, not even before this allows, it would have called you irresponsible, making promises you can't fulfill.

It takes a man to do it.

I would suck it to a man as well as you.

We don't like this kind of agreement.

We've started a war with them.

Well, that really hit pretty well.

Sure, what I mean.

That's why it hits on them.

But these people that are criticizing this agreement, the ones that took word about this, for what we were doing to Laos, they wanted a Congress to take over.

If we hadn't been hoping to survive, the Congress would have taken it all.

And they were the people who wanted us to pull out the United States.

They were the people who put sealants on our military packages.

Right.

But I had to call on us to take this on.

The columnist would give you that about every bombing raid.

That's right.

Now, so they say there's a settlement breach.

There's a sea spy who were stopping the bombing.

It's unbelievable.

Unbelievable.

That's our...

They can't stand your success, Mr. President.

Well, the columnist said the same thing to me.

He said he just can't tell you how much.

He said we applaud what's happened on the field and everything.

See, they're getting that from home.

Don't worry.

There's no question.

OK.

I'll come in afterwards.

Nixon & Kissinger on Vietnam War and Foreign Policy

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on February 22, 1973

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