658–3

Conversation No. 658-3

Date: January 27, 1972
Time: 9:10 am - 10:05 am
Location: Oval Office

The President met with H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman.

Vietnam negotiations
-Henry A. Kissinger
-Recent press conference
-Schedule
-Opposition
-Clark M. Clifford
-Unknown person’s comment
-Ceasefire
-Terms
-Reaction by the North Vietnamese
-George S. McGovern
-Nguyen Van Thieu overthrow
-Kissinger’s recent briefing

Middle East
-Rogers view
-Airplane delivery
-Haldeman’s talk with Rogers
-Political signals
-Joseph J. Sisco
-Schedule of delivery
-Israeli view
-Kissinger’s view
-Memorandum
-Problems
-Sisco
-Bargaining chip
-Bargaining chip
-The President’s conversation with Golda Meir
-Israeli’s conferences with Arab nations
-Timing
-US participation
-Anwar El-Sadat participation
-Student uprisings
 3

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)
Conv. No. 658-3 (cont.)


-US strategy
-Use of conferences
-Soviet Union
-Kissinger’s view
-Haldeman’s briefing
-Rogers
-Overreaction
-Plane deal

Media conference by Rogers
-Kissinger
-Television
-John A. Scali’s skill
-Kissinger
-Scali
-Clark MacGregor
-View of questions

Dinner, January 26, 1972
-The President’s telephone call to Kissinger during dinner
-The President’s talk with Kissinger
-Effect
-Impression
-Tape
-News coverage
-The President’s possible presence
-John D. Ehrlichman’s view
-Gridiron-type dinners
-Women’s view
-Frank F. Church’s comments
-Kissinger’s comments
-Paul W. Keyes
-Delivery
-Accent
-Church comments
-Kissinger references
-Forthcoming People’s Republic of China [PRC] trip
-Kissinger’s comments
-Protocol

Forthcoming dinners
 4

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)
Conv. No. 658-3 (cont.)


-Gridiron
-Attendance
-Herbert G. Klein
-Edgar Allan Poe
-Barry M. Goldwater
-White House photographers
-White House correspondents
-Ronald L. Ziegler
-Gridiron
-Poe
-Loyalty
-Previous dinners
-Democrats’ behavior
-Press relations
-The President’s attendance
-Drop-in appearance
-Poe
-Show
Rogers’s briefing

Stephen B. Bull entered at an unknown time after 9:10 am.

-Timing

Bull left at an unknown time before 9:30 am.

Kissinger’s recent press conference
-Advisability
-Television appearance
-Pros and cons
-Necessity
-Rogers
-Impression of Kissinger
-Public perception
-Bryce N. Harlow’s view
-Television
-Press coverage
-John B. Connally
-Kissinger delivery
-Pros and cons of television appearances
-Direct answers
 5

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)
Conv. No. 658-3 (cont.)


-Compared to the President

Bull entered at an unknown time after 9:10 am.

Rogers
-Schedule

Bull left at an unknown time before 9:30 am.

-Kissinger
-Vietnam
-Vice President Spiro T. Agnew

Oval Office
-Position of sun

Agnew
-Ehrlichman’s view
-Criticism of administration policy
-Congressional leaders meeting
-Input to policy making
-Role with administration
-Congressional relations
-Harlow
-Agnew’s view
-Presiding over the Senate
-The President’s experience
-Vice President’s job
-Outlook
-Associates
-Patrick J. Buchanan
-John Birch Society members
-Republican Governors Dinner
-Attendance
-White House staff
-Ehrlichman
-George P. Shultz
-Cabinet
-Caspar W. (“Cap”) Weinberger
-White House staff compared to Cabinet
-Rogers
 6

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)
Conv. No. 658-3 (cont.)



Bull entered at an unknown time after 9:10 am.

Unknown request

Bull left at an unknown time before 9:30 am.

Personnel management
-Partisanship
-Unknown person
-Transfer
-Donald H. Rumsfeld

Senate action on equal opportunity bill
-The President’s memorandum to Ehrlichman
-House of Representatives
-Possible veto
-Radicals
-Rev. Theodore S. Hesburgh Commission
-Business harassment
-Black reaction
-Votes
-Leonard Garment
-William L. Safire
-Ehrlichman
-MacGregor
-Possible veto
-Compared to 18 year old vote amendment
-Liberals
-Frank L. Rizzo

The President’s schedule
-Graham A. Martin meeting
-Kissinger’s view
-Future meetings with members of Foreign Service officers, prime ministers
-Reasons for Martin meeting
-Vietnam
-Presidential elections

Kissinger entered at 9:30 am.
 7

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)
Conv. No. 658-3 (cont.)


Dinner, January 26, 1972
-Telephone call from the President
-Church comments
-PRC trip
-Herbert J. (“Jackie”) Gleason
-Keyes
-Partisanship
-Crowd reaction
-Kissinger’s theme
-Call for national unity
-Art Buchwald
-Today show
-Columbia Broadcasting System [CBS] news

Distribution of Questions and Answers [Q&A] sheet
-Completion
-Distribution
-Rogers
-Timing
-MacGregor
-Alexander M. Haig, Jr.’s telephone call to Theodore L. Elliott
-Briefing
-State Department responsibility
-Haldeman’s talk with Rogers

Kissinger’s recent press conference
-Television
-Media coverage
-Rogers briefings
-Compared to Kissinger’s

Vietnam
-Ceasefire demand
-Clifford’s proposal
-North Vietnamese position
-Point Seven
-Kissinger’s briefings
-Timing of ceasefire
-Settlement
-Accuracy of criticism
-Administration rebuttal
 8

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)
Conv. No. 658-3 (cont.)


-Ziegler
-Rogers’s responsibility
-Telephone call from Kissinger
-News summary
-Part in overall plan
-North Vietnamese position
-Edward M. Kennedy attack
-Prisoners of War [POW] return for withdrawal
-Rogers’s possible rebuttal
-Ceasefire
-North Vietnamese position
-US proposal of May 31, 1971
-Rogers’s possible rebuttal
-Ziegler
-US offers
-Negotiating tactics
-New York Times editorial
-Washington Post article
-Inaccuracy
-Current proposal
-Compared to October 7, 1970
-Nguyen Van Thieu
-Ceasefire
-Timing
-Electoral commission
-Deadline
-Mutual withdrawal
-Compared to unilateral withdrawal
-Possible letter to Washington Post
-Authorship
-State compared to Kissinger
-Rogers
-Marshall Green
-Kissinger’s preparation
-Content
-Administration initiative
-Washington Post
-Alternative to the Washington Post
-Washington Star editorial
-Smith Hempstone, Jr.
-New York Times
 9

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)
Conv. No. 658-3 (cont.)


-Editorials
-Benjamin C. Bradlee
-Representation on PRC trip
-Consequences of invitation

Reporters on PRC trip
-Ziegler effort
-The President’s friends
-Nicholas P. Thimmesch
-Richard (“Dick”) Wilson
-Exclusion of Washington Post
-Washington Star
-Hugh S. Sidey
-United Press International [UPI], Associated Press [AP]
-Instruction for Ziegler
-Instruction for Ziegler
-Unknown reporter
-Marquis Childs
-Washington Post’s policy
-Notification of reporters
-The President’s approval of list
-Criticism
-Fairness
-Television
-Exclusion of Washington Post
-PRC view

Vietnam
-Terms of settlement
-Rogers
-North Vietnamese reaction
-Request for surrender

PRC
-Interest at dinner, January 26, 1972
-Washington Post
-Entertainment
-Theme
-Soviet Union trip compared to PRC trip
-Substance
 10

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)
Conv. No. 658-3 (cont.)


Q&A prepared by Rogers
-Staff meeting
-News summaries
-Vietnam ceasefire
-Clifford
-Negotiating point
-Kennedy’s criticism
-North Vietnamese position
-POWs for withdrawal
-Ziegler
-History of proposal
-Military and political issues
-Linkage
-New York Times
-Kissinger’s telephone call to Rogers
-Forthcoming briefing

Bull entered at an unknown time after 9:30 am.

List of reporters on PRC trip
-Delivery
-Ziegler
-Haldeman

Bull left at an unknown time before 9:52 am.

Vietnam
-Opinion of the President’s program by news community
-January 26, 1972 dinner reception
-The President’s efforts
-Tone
-The President’s efforts
-The President’s talk with Charles W. Colson, January 26, 1972
-Colson’s view
-David Brinkley
-James Doyle of the Washington Star
-Unknown captain’s comments
-Sacrifice for POWs
-South Vietnam
-Communism
-Kennedy
 11

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)
Conv. No. 658-3 (cont.)


-Possible administration counter-attack
-Attack on Democrats
-Surrender
-Michael J. Mansfield
-Henry M. (“Scoop”) Jackson
-Robert J. Dole
-Communism in South Vietnam
-Need for initiative
-Advantages
-Audience size
-Media support
-Hubert H. Humphrey criticism
-Edmund S. Muskie criticism
-Ceasefire terms
-Negotiating point of North Vietnam
-Clifford criticism
-Overall plan
-POWs
-Administration strategy
-North Vietnam, Vietcong, Democrats
-Nancy (Hanschman) Dickerson
-Talk with Kissinger at dinner
-Press

Alexander P. Butterfield entered at 9:52 am.

-Response to Washington Post editorial
-Ziegler
-Marshall Green
-Dictation of letter
-Authorship
-State Department

Kissinger left at 9:55 am.

Press list for PRC trip
-Washington Post
-Stanley Karnow
-Review

Butterfield left at 9:55 am.
 12

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)
Conv. No. 658-3 (cont.)



Vietnam
-Kissinger
-State Department reply to Washington Post editorial
-Haldeman meetings with Colson, Ziegler, Scali
-Analysis of and responses to coverage
-PRC trip
-Foreign policy line
-Camp David
-Politics and peace
-Administration critics
-Partisanship
-POWs
-Written statement
-Buchanan
-Noel C. Koch
-Colson
-Buchanan
-Lee W. Huebner

Bull entered at an unknown time after 9:55 am.

The President’s schedule
-Signing ceremony
-Oliver F. (“Ollie”) Atkins
-Press
-Announcement
-Maurice H. Stans

Bull left at an unknown time before 10:05 am.

-Haldeman’s attention to scheduling
-Bull
-Ziegler

Bull entered at an unknown time after 9:52 am.

-Signing ceremony
-Details of photograph session
-Time limit
-Removal of photographers
 13

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)
Conv. No. 658-3 (cont.)


-January 26, 1972 event

Bull left at an unknown time before 10:05 am.

Butterfield entered at an unknown time after 9:52 am.

-Peter G. Peterson replacement
-Knowledge by Cabinet
-Notification
-Announcement
-Peter M. Flanigan

Butterfield left at an unknown time before 10:05 am.

Vietnam
-Counter to Democratic criticism
-PRC trip
-Surrender, communism, defeat
-Sustaining attack
-Washington Post
-Administration supporters
-Mailings
-Kissinger
-Public confusion

Press list for PRC trip

The President and Haldeman left at 10:05 am.