711–5

Conversation No. 711-5

Date: April 18, 1972
Time: 11:00 am - 11:24 am
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Henry A. Kissinger.

Vietnam
-Kissinger’s staff
-Soviets
-Strikes against Hanoi and Haiphong areas
-Kissinger’s conversation with Anatoliy F. Dobrynin
-Domestic situation
-Bombing
-Intensity
-Lyndon B. Johnson
-Orders
-Kissinger’s trip to Moscow
-Massive attacks
-Number of sorties
-Possible cutbacks
-Kissinger’s conversations with Adm. Thomas H. Moorer and [David]
Kenneth Rush
-Intensity
-Concentration of bombing
-Press stories
-Current number in north
-Melvin R. Laird
-Number in south
-Distribution
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 7/07)



-Military Region Three
-Impact
-Increases
-B-52s
-The President’s previous conversation with Moorer
-Enemy retreat
-Increases
-Naval action
-Destroyers
-Bombing
-Resumption
-North Vietnam
-Haiphong
-Soviets

Soviets
-H.R. (“Bob”) Haldeman’s previous conversation with the President
-Earl L. Butz’s meeting with Kissinger
-Scheduling
-Butz’s meeting with the President
-Trips abroad
-Haldeman
-Problems
-George W. Romney, Butz, and John A. Volpe
-Reporting
-Meeting with Leonid I. Brezhnev
-Evaluations of Jacob D. Beam and Butz
-The President’s past conduct
-The President’s view
-Brezhnev
-The President’s view
-Meeting with Butz
-Butz’s knowledge of Soviets
-Grain deal
-Relevance to US-Soviet relations
-Dobrynin
-US bombing of North Vietnam

Vietnam
-Bombing
-People’s Republic of China [PRC] reactions
-US overflights of PRC
 25

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 7/07)



-Channels of protest

PRC
-Visit by Hugh Scott and Michael J. Mansfield
-Possible Mansfield statement

Vietnam
-Bombing
-Supporters
-Henry M. (“Scoop”) Jackson
-Statement
-Significance
-The President’s previous conversation with Haldeman
-Charles W. Colson
-Timing
-Provocation
-North Vietnamese mistakes
-Impact on Kissinger’s trip to Moscow
-Soviets
-US-Soviet relationship
-Kissinger’s trip
-Possible results
-Summit
-Bombing
-Impact on North Vietnam
-Blockade
-Risks to summit
-Kissinger’s view
-Laird
-Statements
-Aggresiveness
-Statements
-J. William Fulbright
-Questioned by Laird
-US policies
-Supporters
-Barry M. Goldwater
-Soviets
-War in south
-Moorer and unknown person [?]
-Halt in action
 26

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 7/07)



Stephen B. Bull entered at an unknown time after 11:00 am.

Barber
-The President’s appointment

Bull left at an unknown time before 11:24 am.

Vietnam
-Past offensives
-Llewellyn E. (“Tommy”) Thompson, Jr.’s report [?]
-Laos and Cambodia
-North Vietnamese strength
-III Corps
-The President’s opinion
-An Loc
-Army of Republic of Vietnam [ARVN] divisions
-North Vietnamese loss of momentum
-B-52 strikes
-Sir Robert Thompson
-Impact of bombing on enemy
-The President’s experience in Bougainville
-Japanese planes
-Impact
-Latest report
-Naval action
-USS New Jersey
-Impact
-Use
-Kissinger’s previous conversation with Moorer
-USS Newport News
-Employment
-USS New Jersey
-Inadequacies
-North Vietnamese reaction
-North Vietnamese small boats
-Torpedo boats
-Military operations
-Moorer
-Previous telephone conversation with Kissinger
-Gen. John W. Vogt, Jr.
-Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
-Message to Gen. Creighton W. Abrams, Jr.
 27

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 7/07)



-Vogt
-Effectiveness
-Abrams
-US policies
-Effectiveness
-Accomplishments
-Vietnamization
-Laird’s statements
-Success
-Demilitarized Zone [DMZ]
-Dependence on US
-US policies
-Joseph C. Kraft article
-Hostility to summit
-Hostility to the President
-Soviets
-Summit
-Cancellation
-Kissinger’s note to Dobrynin
-Timing
-Negotiations
-Kissinger’s trip to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR]
-Failure
-Vulnerability of US position
-Blockade
-Message to Soviet leaders

Kissinger left at 11:24 am.