Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 890 › Conversation 890-003
Nixon & Brennan on Speechwriting and Vietnam War
Friday, March 30, 1973 · 8:42 AM–8:50 AM ET · Oval Office · 9 min
AI Summary
President Nixon consults with Patrick J. Buchanan regarding a recent speech he personally drafted to address public divisions, military policy, and the administration's legislative agenda. Nixon expresses frustration with political opponents and emphasizes the necessity of taking a firm, combative stance against critics of his defense budget and military actions in Southeast Asia. The discussion also touches on the President's internal debate over how to publicly address the Watergate controversy and whether he should rely on staff affidavits to defend his administration's integrity.
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Transcript (AI-generated)
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said that you would give me a call last night.
I thought I'd better give you a call first.
Yeah.
Well, you went out.
Well, you're getting a hell of a sophomore here.
Well, I think we
As you probably know, this was one of those rare events where I've been a little busy lately, but I did wrote the whole thing myself.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, I had to do it myself because, you see, to say, I felt that to say what I had to say in 20 minutes, I just kind of get all excited.
Everybody's coming home, and it's because they did it.
You know, one thing that I suppose that some of our friends, and I did, I thought I was very kind in the last where I said, let's put it aside the divisions of war and the virus and so forth.
But I didn't think that it was basically the two of us.
What did you think?
But you've got to divide them up some.
I got that.
Hell, they are against us.
And they're against us on that.
They're against us on the budget.
They're against us on everything else.
I don't know.
What do you think?
Yeah.
Well, that's a great quote.
Oh, aren't they dope?
Yeah, they're quotes that I read.
Just slap it to them, they're just people of their own.
But, you know, you just can't.
The other thing to see, of course, the only news of it is the, except for the warning that I'm not, the only news that anybody picked up was the price of it.
But, of course, as far as the folks are concerned, while they don't be very interested in the price, a whole hell of a lot of them are interested in these other things.
As a matter of fact, the one thing
but the records I made in the last conversation I had in the office here, that was what Rice heard.
But that had quite an impact on me, because it made me feel how these guys are.
You've got to bring a little of that influence.
We tend sometimes to be so matter-of-fact
But I just wonder anyway that the way other liberal points are acting, we don't have to draw the sword a bit more right now.
But I don't know, what do you think?
And some, because you know, we've gone back and forth.
When I say draw the sword, I mean, I don't mean it in a vicious way, but as you said, a war issue, they practically let it be gone.
They just don't want to talk about it.
And also put in perspective another thing, when I sit out there and want to give credit to you, the millions that stood by us whenever others didn't.
That associated, I felt that was important.
That's allowed everybody out there, even though you might have protested at times, to think he was one of the guys that stood by.
But I felt that was very important.
Now I deliberately wrote all that in because I knew I'd never get it from the speechwriters.
Because basically, there's always the tendency to sort of slung everything off and say, isn't everything hunky-dory?
Well, God damn it, everything is hunky-dory.
I mean, these people, the same people that tried to sabotage the ending of the war, not trying to sabotage the peace, they don't want us to bomb Cambodia, for example.
They don't want us to bomb the trail coming down from the north.
And also, they want us to cut the budget.
We can't have defense budget for 10 patients.
You see, I think as long as we keep the ground forces out and so forth, I think we can get away with the bombing in a while.
I mean, I'm not referring to the dark.
That won't be necessary.
We're going to hit that damn trail again in Laos.
Also, another thing, in fact, we were able to, you know, this is the first time I've ever publicly mentioned December 18 bombing.
And, you know, I said, I said, I said it was my hardest decision.
Because, you know, there, even our friends, you know, but it was just as well to put it out there.
That was a hard decision.
And that's what brought it back.
Because all the pilots say that, you know.
I think I put the budget thing in a very simple way that people can understand it, you know, that is the buck stops here and so forth.
And the other thing I think we've got to do is on the defense function, which is the next big battle, my God, let's see if that second strongest country, people don't want to be second.
They may want to touch it, they don't want to be sick.
One thing of course we have here, well if they wouldn't have none of these things would have happened.
one thing that's important is that we gotta not get ourselves all just
You know, a lot of people wanted me to talk about Watergate at the event during his speech or something.
Well, there isn't.
The point is, you know that this is an embarrassing goddamn thing.
What do I get up and say?
Which is the truth.
Every member of the White House staff whose name was given a sworn statement that he was not involved.
Do I get up and say that?
I don't know.
Maybe somebody else has got to say it.
But don't you agree to put in Watergate?
Okay.
Okay.
NARA Description
On March 30, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon and Peter J. Brennan met in the Oval Office of the White House from 8:42 am to 8:50 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 890-003 of the White House Tapes.
Nixon Library Finding Aid
Conversation No. 890-3
Date: March 30, 1973
Time: 8:42 am - 8:50 am
Location: Oval Office
The President talked with Patrick J. Buchanan.
-2-
NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
Conversation No. 890-3 (cont’d)
[See Conversation No. 44-97]Also recorded on March 30, 1973
- 044-096 8:32 AM · 6 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 8:32 am and 8:42 am.
- 044-097 8:42 AM · 8 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Peter J. Brennan talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 8:42 am and 8:50 am.
- 890-004 8:50 AM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:50 am and 9:07 am.
- 890-005 8:50 AM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:50 am and 9:07 am.
- 890-006 8:50 AM · 10 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:50 am and 9:07 am.
- 890-007 8:50 AM · 20 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Stephen B. Bull met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:50 am and 9:07 am.
- 890-008 8:50 AM · 1 hr 11 min — President Richard M. Nixon, Stephen B. Bull, George P. Shultz, Helmut ("Hal") Sonnenfeldt, John D. Ehrlichman, and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:50 am and 11:18 am.
- 890-036 8:50 AM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and unknown person(s) met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 8:50 am and 9:07 am.
Cite this conversation
Conversation 890-003, March 30, 1973. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/890-003 (accessed October 5, 2026).