Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 884 › Conversation 884-020

Nixon & Haig on Vietnam War and Paris Peace Accords

Tuesday, March 20, 1973 · 3:16 PM–3:19 PM ET · Oval Office · 9 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Haig, Alexander M., Jr.Conversation884-020 on Tape 884StartTuesday, March 20, 1973 at 3:16 PMEndTuesday, March 20, 1973 at 3:19 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 884-020 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and Alexander Haig discuss the administration's strategic response to potential North Vietnamese ceasefire violations following the withdrawal of U.S. troops and prisoners. Nixon expresses skepticism regarding the necessity of immediate military action, noting that the absence of American personnel makes it politically difficult to justify intervention without congressional support. They evaluate whether current ceasefire breaches, specifically equipment infiltration, warrant a response or if such actions are primarily performative.

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Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Names and numbers are often wrong; speakers are not identified. Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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Hi.
I wondered if you had any further intelligence on things.
From what I see, I don't see any change from what you told me.
I don't see any impact on anything that seems to be paper or all concerned.
I don't know.
Maybe you're correct or you're wrong.
Maybe it's second or wrong.
What's your view?
The problem I have is that it actually exists.
I don't know whether the action at this point, or the provocation that I'm going to... You see what I mean?
I don't know if I heard or have any information about an action, but I just can't just get up and do something.
I don't know when, or what appears to be going on.
What is that?
I've got a brother here.
He's a Mexican.
I see.
The problem I have, Al, actually, is that it gets down to the point that I don't want to be influenced.
And this, by the... sort of, revival type... thing, which is, you know, uh... Psychosis will generally go through the time, you know, uh... remapping, you know, the... the idea that, well, we've said we might do something, now we gotta do something, but we don't have to do a goddamn thing, and I appreciate that.
So we mustn't do it simply because of any other group of what he has told her and others who have demonstrated.
You see, on the other hand, there is an action.
I mean, there's just got to happen some pretty solid stuff.
And actually, I don't know, from his sitting down there,
Yep.
There's nothing certain that will wait 24 hours.
Yeah, the whole point is that, yeah, .
I agree, but here's the other part that we have to have in mind.
So we say we do this in order to indicate that maybe we can do something later.
Now, there's been an outbreak, and it's quite remarkable.
You know, our friends have been outside for years.
After we get everybody out and after we've withdrawn everything, then we then have to get a congressional group to do something.
Do you see that, don't you?
You see, because we have a ceasefire, right?
And for them just to up and say, no, because of this and that, you say, for what purpose are you doing it?
What are your purposes?
You see, I think we have a problem there.
It's always occurred to me.
And of course, we do know we should do stuff.
Do you have any serious doubts in your own mind that we really, we would really have to, in this case, let's face it, one of the reasons we were able to look for it was because they had prisoners and we had some troops there.
They're all out, all the prisoners are out.
They're going to have a long, hella time without going to Congress, right?
In the event
And that there's a massive re-institution and so forth of military actions.
That's something else.
But I'm thinking on the idea that, well, by doing something now, that education might be greater and later.
I don't think that argument is quite as strong as Henry is.
He's thinking as to how it used to be and not just how it will be, I think.
I don't think we do sometimes, but my point is it was more believable before because we had people there.
But at a time when we don't have anybody there, it's going to be .
That's the point.
I mean, they're smart enough to know that we will have to get some sort of .
Well, at any rate, I decided that they will get it.
But isn't that putting a difference between those two?
Well, brutal violations of police, basically, you know, in present times, the infiltration of equipment, correct?
Now, that...
I don't even allow that in there somewhere, do I?
Yeah.
It doesn't please the credit.
All right.
No, it is.
It is.
It is.
It is.
It is.
It is.
It is.
It is.
It is.
It is.
It is.
It is.
But you're not convinced that it's what we're looking at?
Yeah, I mean, and it was last week.
And one other problem, of course, was the same one with the message reunification here.
Because none of them have been guessing what the hell we were going to be getting into in the farm.
the so-called fatal threat.
I mean, that's the reaction here.
They've been writing this week, and all the week they've been writing, and that's very intelligent.
There just isn't all that search, you know?
Curiously.
Because of the thoughts.
Okay, we'll talk to you tomorrow.

NARA Description

On March 20, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 3:16 pm and 3:19 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 884-020 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 884-20

Date: March 20, 1973
Time: Unknown between 3:16 pm and 3:19 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President talked with Gen. Alexander M. Haig, Jr.

[See Conversation No. 37-170]

Also recorded on March 20, 1973

  • 037-169 2:31 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 2:31 pm and 3:10 pm.
  • 884-018 2:31 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 2:31 pm and 3:11 pm.
  • 884-025 2:31 PM · 14 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 2:31 pm and 3:11 pm.
  • 037-170 3:10 PM · 9 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Alexander M. Haig, Jr. talked on the telephone from 3:10 pm to 3:19 pm.
  • 884-019 3:11 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 3:11 pm and 3:16 pm.
  • 884-021 3:19 PM · 3 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 3:19 pm and 3:26 pm.
  • 884-022 3:19 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Kenneth R. Cole, Jr., and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 3:19 pm and 3:26 pm.
  • 884-023 3:26 PM · 59 min — President Richard M. Nixon, George H. W. Bush, Linwood Holton, William T. Cahill, Kenneth R. Cole, Jr., unknown person(s), John D. Ehrlichman, and Rose Mary Woods met in the Oval Office of the White House from 3:26 pm to 4:26 pm.

All 46 conversations from March 20, 1973 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 884-020, March 20, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/884-020 (accessed October 2, 2026).