425–45

Conversation No. 425-45

Date: April 9, 1973
Time: 6:43 pm - 7:47 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President met with Henry A. Kissinger.

Foreign policy
-Vietnam
-US pressure
-Prisoners of War [POWs]
 -33-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Sep.-2010)
Conversation No. 425-45 (cont’d)



-President's meeting with John B. Flynn
-US Status
-US public
-Communists
-Strength
-Military
-Economy
-Belief
-President's meetings with [James B. Stockdale] and Flynn
-Aid
-Soviet Union
-War-making ability
-Cambodia
-Gen. Alexander M. Haig, Jr.’s cable
-Blockade
-US bombing
-Demoralizing effect
-President's Conversation with Michael J. (“Mike”) Mansfield
- People's Republic of China [PRC]
-Kissinger’s telephone call
-Meeting on trade
-Soviet Jewry
-President’s statement
-Direct communication with Soviet Union
-Ambassador [?]
-Jacob K. Javits, Henry M. (\"Scoop\") Jackson, Abraham A. Ribicoff
-President's schedule
-Meeting with Congressional and Jewish leaders
-Cambodia
-Strategy for democracy
-Effect on US
-Compared with a democratic Vietnam
-Supply lines
-Ho Chi Minh Trail
-Numbers of Khmer Rouge
-Special assessment
-Haig
-Impact on Laos and Thailand
 -34-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Sep.-2010)
Conversation No. 425-45 (cont’d)



-Laos
-Situation
-Observance of agreement
-Withdrawal
-Re-training forces
-Bombing strategy
-North
-Lyndon B. Johnson [?] position
-US public opinion
-President’s opinion
-Ho Chi Minh Trail
-Major provocation
-Flights


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

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[National Security]
[Duration: 38s]

AIR OPERATIONS

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1

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


-Bombing
-Metropolitan areas
-Hiroshima [?]
-US press reaction
-Potential Effects
-Criticism of President
-Carpet bomber

US war policy
-Preparedness
 -35-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Sep.-2010)
Conversation No. 425-45 (cont’d)



-Communism containment
-Johnson's bombing halt in 1968
-Effect
-Laos
-Troop numbers
-B-52s bombing
-Melvin R. Laird
-B-52s
-Indo-China
-Laird


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

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2
[National Security]
[Duration: 6s]

B-52s

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2

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


-President's summit meeting with USSR, 1972
-President’s orders
-Flights over North Vietnam
-Possible aircraft loss
-B-52 target
-Effects in Laos
-Cambodia
-Increase B-52 bombings
-Bombing
-President’s resolve
-Press reaction
-Ho Chi Minh Trail
-Capability of South Vietnam
 -36-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Sep.-2010)
Conversation No. 425-45 (cont’d)



Laird
-Ground support planes
-Jets
-Reports

White House personnel
-Gen. Alexander M. Haig, Jr.'s recommendations
-Emory C. Swank
-Leonard Unger
-Henry A. Byroade
-Thailand
-Unger
-Pakistan
-Robert C. Hill
-Elliot L. Richardson
-[unintelligible name]
-Inside man
-Kissinger’s conversation with Hill
-POW
-Cambodia
-Charles S. Whitehouse
-Laos
-Samuel D. Berger?
-Swank
-Adm. John S. McCain, Jr.’s recommendation
-Gen. Richard G. Stilwell
-Thailand
-President’s reaction
-Sophistication
-Swank
-Unger, Swank

Cambodia
-Pace
-Weather

Vietnam Cease-fire Agreement
-Economic Aid
 -37-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Sep.-2010)
Conversation No. 425-45 (cont’d)



-Economic Commission's Recommendation
Published letter from White House
-North Vietnamese Expectations
-Canadian membership in International Commission of Control and Supervision
[ICCS]
-Influence on Military Situation
-Hungary
-Poland
-Replacement of Canada
-Norway
-Brazil
-Tunisia
-Strength of left wing parties

Henry Kissinger's lunch with Armand de Borchegrave
-Support for President
-Anwar el-Sadat
-Foreign policy views
-Strong Europe

Egypt
-Negotiations
-Kissinger’s vacation
-Possible settlement
-Problem
-Soviet Union
-Alternatives
-Middle East confrontation
-Possible war
-Oil crisis
-Impact on oil pipeline
-Possible agreement with US
-Same agreement with Egypt and Soviet Union
-Interim agreement
-Prospect for direct talks
-Diffusion of situation
-Answer to Egypt
-Timing
 -38-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Sep.-2010)
Conversation No. 425-45 (cont’d)



-Avoidance of oil crisis
-Promise of additional meeting

President's meeting with Joseph J. Sisco
-Sisco's career
-Moscow
-President's schedule
-Meeting with Sisco and Kissinger
-Message from Sadat
-Ambassadorship to Soviet Union
-Credit
-Open post [?]

Treaty for the Prevention of Nuclear War
-Europe’s reaction
-Great Britain
-North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO]
-Kissinger’s maneuvering
-Timing of Summit
-Kissinger's conversation with Anatoly F. Dobrynin
-Trade legislation
-Priority
-Agreements
-Vietnam
-Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty [SALT]
-Nuclear agreement [?]

PRC
-Chou En-Lai
-Visit to US [?]
-Advance team arrival
-Mansfield's trip to PRC
-President's meeting with Mansfield
-Support for administration’s policies
-Responsibility for aid
-Hostility
-Norodom Sihanouk
-Kissinger’s reaction
 -39-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Sep.-2010)
Conversation No. 425-45 (cont’d)



-Bipartisan Delegation
-Political strategy
-Delegation compared to individual leader
-Edward M. (“Ted”) Kennedy
-Vice President Spiro T. Agnew
-Nelson A. Rockefeller
-Ronald W. Reagan

Vietnam settlement
-History of President's policy
-Troop withdrawal
-Cambodia
-Laos
-President’s prediction
-Election
-Cambodia
-Possible fate
-South Vietnam
-Vietnamization
Withdrawal of US troops
-B-52s in Laos in 1970
-National Security Council [NSC] meetings
-Targets
-Strike delivery
-Characteristics of US bombers, fighter-bombers
-Compared to B-17s, B-19s
-Design for nuclear bomb
-Tactical support
-Weather restrictions
-Unknown man
-Commander-in-Chief, Pacific [CINPAC]
-Opposition to bombing in Cambodia
-Withdrawal of US troops in Thailand
-Parochialism [?]
-Robert S. McNamara
-Laird
-Promise of job
-Richardson
 -40-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Sep.-2010)
Conversation No. 425-45 (cont’d)



-William P. Clements, Jr.

President's role in history
-Lonely battle
-Character of US
-Allies
-Vindication
-Content of possible speeches by President
-Television [TV]
-Turning point
-Maintenance of patriotism
-President's critics
-Compared to US opponents to US membership in League of Nations
-Foreign policy
-Questioning of President’s authority
-Challenge
-President’s electoral victory margin
-Alger Hiss case
-Intellectual opposition
-Wants
-Communist world
-Unilateral disarmament
-Feelings toward President and \"Middle America\"
-Dislike, lack of trust, uncomfortableness
-Eastern liberal Establishment
-President
-Football
-Compared to John F. Kennedy
-Thoughtfulness
-Domestic program
-New Deal
-Spending
-Turmoil
-Compared to President
-Relations with PRC, USSR
-Vietnam settlement
-Undermining authority
-Watergate
 -41-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Sep.-2010)
Conversation No. 425-45 (cont’d)



-Vietnam settlement
-Nguyen Van Thieu
-Democrats
-Southern compared with liberal
-John C. Stennis
-James E. (“Jimmy”) Carter
-Gale W. McGee [?]
-Jackson
-Republicans

Watergate
-Charles H. Percy
-Attack on H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman
-Knowledge
-Lack of evidence
-Haldeman's conversation with Kissinger
-Meeting with Cabinet and White House Staff
-Haldeman
-Possible testimony before Ervin Committee
-White House Staff testimony
-Possible departure
-Percy and Lowell P. Weicker, Jr.
-Position of staff
-Donald H. Segretti
-Intelligence operations
-Segretti
-Dwight L. Chapin
-Percy
-Statement
-Compared to Sherman Adams
-Percy
-John D. Ehrlichman
-Possible briefing
-Possible testimony before Ervin Committee
-John N. Mitchell
-Involvement
-Jeb Stuart Magruder
-Martha B. Mitchell
 -42-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Sep.-2010)
Conversation No. 425-45 (cont’d)



-Possible statement
-Magruder
-Haldeman's involvement
-Supervision by Mitchell
-Knowledge
-Security operation for the Committee to Re-elect the President
-Bugging
-By Democrats
-Prevalence
-Nelson A. Rockefeller
-Al Marshall's conversation with Kissinger
-Magruder
-Haldeman's responsibility
-Compared with Kissinger's responsibility for Morton H. Halperin
-Daniel Ellsberg
-Halperin
-Haldeman
-Magruder
-Mitchell
-Bugging of Democratic National Committee [DNC]
-Placement of Magruder
-President's belief
-Decision
-President's opponents
-Reputation
-Mitchell
-Possible statement
-Haldeman
-Effects on presidency
-Mitchell
-Legal advice
-Richard G. Kleindienst
-Ehrlichman
-L. Patrick Gray, III
-Raw Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] files
-John W. Dean, III
-Investigation
-Dean's presence during interview of accused persons
 -43-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Sep.-2010)
Conversation No. 425-45 (cont’d)



-Purpose

White House personnel
-Support for President's policies
-Kissinger
-Charles W. Colson
-Doctrinaire tendencies
-Haldeman
-Loyalty
-Handling of job

Watergate
-Senate investigation
-Ervin Committee
-Blair House meeting

President's accomplishment
-1972 election
-Foreign policy
-Vietnam
-PRC
-USSR
-Europe
-Japan
-Middle East
-Cuba
-Domestic policy
-Riots
-Crime
-Budget
-Boom economy
-Fluctuations in free economy
-Watergate
-Compared with Laos
-PRC announcement
-Timing
-Difficulty in taking offensive
-Public conscience
 -44-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. Sep.-2010)
Conversation No. 425-45 (cont’d)




Kissinger’s plan
-Cambodia
-ICCS

Kissinger left at 7:47 pm.