424–26

Conversation No. 424-26

Date: March 29, 1973
Time: 10:50 am
Location: Executive Office Building

The President met with Ronald L. Ziegler and Henry A. Kissinger.

President’s address
-Announcement
-Release of prisoners of war [POWs]
-Foreign policy and domestic issues
-Briefing of press by George P. Shultz
-Press reaction
-Ziegler's comments

Ronald Ziegler left at 10:55 am.

House Foreign Affairs Committee
-Meeting with Kissinger


*****************************************************************

-Cambodia bombing
-Questions for Kissinger
-Donald M. Fraser [?]
-War powers
 -23-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Aug.-2010)
Conversation No. 424-26 (cont’d)


-Kissinger’s answers
-Authority
-Peace agreement
-Article 20
-North Vietnam
-Aid
-H. Ross Perot’s position
-Cambodia
-Questions
-President’s opponents
-Charles C. Diggs
-Fraser
-Jonathan B. Bingham

President’s address
-Text of speech
-US troop withdrawal
-Peace agreement
-Missing in action [MIA]
-Laos, Cambodia
-Infiltration
-Compliance
-North Vietnam

Laos
-Bombing

President’s address
-Support for President

Watergate
-Impact on administration
-John N. Mitchell
-Loyalty
-Martha (Bealle) Mitchell [?]
-Involvement with break-in [?]
-Culpability
-Incarceration
-President’s speech
-Public acceptance
 -24-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Aug.-2010)
Conversation No. 424-26 (cont’d)


-President’s response
-Morality [?]
-Comparison with divorces
-Divorce lawyers
-Kissinger’s recommendation
-Removal of John W. Dean, III [?]
-Dean
-Involvement with break-in
-Role in defense of burglars
-Role as lawyer
-White House Counsel
-Access to Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] reports
-Inappropriateness [?]
-Bugging
-Daniel Ellsburg break-in [?]
-National security justification
-Public reactions
-President’s speech
-President’s stature
-Lyndon B. Johnson scandals
-Robert D. (“Bobby”) Baker
-Walter Jenkins
-1964 election
-Margin of victory
-Press exaggeration
-Comparison with Truman and Johnson cases
- Committee to Re-elect the President [CRP]
-Lack of control
-President’s responsibilities
-May 8, 1972 decision
-1972 Moscow summit
-Lack of contact with Mitchell
-Break-in
-Intentions
-Results
-Dean’s involvement
-Handling of investigation [?]

Vietnam settlement
-Cambodia bombing
 -25-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Aug.-2010)
Conversation No. 424-26 (cont’d)


-Congressional reaction
-President’s powers
-Cut off of funding
-Survival of Cambodia
-Blaming Congress
-Unlikelihood
-Negotiations
-Trip by Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
-President’s opponents
-Bureaucracy
-India-Pakistan War of 1971
-US withdrawal
-Peace with honor
-Bugging out
-George S. McGovern
-Duration
-1974 election

Soviet Union
-Supplies to North Vietnam
-Leonid I. Brezhnev’s veracity
-Future summit
-Timms
-Agreement on the Prevention of Nuclear War
-New version
-Kissinger’s talk with President
-Infiltration from North Vietnam
-Cessation

People’s Republic of China [PRC]
-Visit by Kissinger
-Visit by Chou En-Lai
-Arrangements
-Visit by President

France
-Meeting with President
-Montenegro
-President’s knowledge of geography
-Martinique
 -26-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Aug.-2010)
Conversation No. 424-26 (cont’d)


-Caribbean Sea

Joint statement with Great Britain
-State visit by [Elizabeth, Queen of England] Elizabeth II
-Discussion with Edward M. Heath
-1976 Bicentennial
-Protocol
-Ceremony

President’s schedule
-Meetings with Great Britain, France
-International economic policy
-Charter
-Atlantic countries
-Japan
-Possible progress

Cambodia
-Support for President
-House Foreign Affairs Committee
-Compared with Vietnam negotiations

Kissinger left at 11:10 am.