330–7

Conversation No. 330-7

Date: April 5, 1972
Time: 9:16 am - 9:55 am
Location: Executive Office Building

The President met with Henry A. Kissinger.

Vietnam
-Morning report
-Weather conditions
-Destroyers
-Melvin R. Laird
-Report on air attacks
-Veracity
-Dong Hoi and Hue
-Reports
-Robert E. Pursley
-Reports to Laird
-Positioning of destroyers
-Destroyers
-Use
-Origin of instructions
-The President's orders
-Losses
-Air attacks
-Plane losses
-Number
-North Vietnamese offensive
-Crossing of river
-Tanks
-Latest reports
-Quang Tri
-Counterattack
-US response
-Unknown Air Force commander
-Replacement
-Promotion
-Air strikes
-General Lucius Dub. Clay Jr.'s report
-Cloud cover
-Effect on instruments
 6

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)
Conv. No. 330-7 (cont.)

-Air Force reluctance
-Weather
-Compared with the Battle of the Bulge
-George S. Patton
-Lack of imagination

The President talked with the White House operator at an unknown time between 9:16 and 9:27
am.

[Conversation No. 330-7A]

[See Conversation No. 22-79]

[End of telephone conversation]

Vietnam
-Administration’s opponents
-Michael J. Mansfield
-Barry M. Goldwater
-Hubert H. Humphrey
-Henry M. (“Scoop”) Jackson
-Mansfield
-Edmund S. Muskie
-Air strikes
-Necessity
-B-52s
-Tactical aircraft
-Number
-III Corps
-Benefit
-Thomas H. Moorer's return call
-Kissinger
-Air commander
-Replacement
-Clay
-Experience
-Air strikes
-Moorer’s reluctance
-Creighton W. Abrams
-Handling of Laos operation
-The President's comments to Moorer
-Joint Chiefs of Staff [JCS] Chairman
 7

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)
Conv. No. 330-7 (cont.)

-Moorer’s comments to D. Kenneth Rush
-Moorer’s recommendation
-Abrams’s capabilities

Henry A. Kissinger talked with Moorer between 9:27 and 9:32 am.

[Conversation No. 330-7B]

[See Conversation No. 22-80]

The President conferred with Kissinger during the conversation.

The President joined the conversation at an unknown time.

[End of telephone conversation]

Vietnam
-B-52 strikes
-Targets
-B-3 area
-Number of sorties
-Air commander
-Compared with a doctor operating
-Destroyers
-Route one
-Effectiveness
-Briefing given by Kissinger on April 5
-Weather
-Clearing
-Naval gunfire
-Range
-Route One to Da Nang
-Army of the Republic of Vietnam [ARVN] morale
-Reports
-Verification
-Effectiveness of fighting
-News stories
-Laos
-Civil war
-Mansfield
-Trip to People's Republic of China [PRC]
-Possible conversation with the President
 8

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)
Conv. No. 330-7 (cont.)

-The President's response
-North Vietnamese offensive
-US response
-Air strikes
-Weather
-Break
-Aircrafts’ vulnerability
-Weather
-Predictions
-Air Force command
-Shake-up
-Abrams
-Laird
-Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
-Commander
-Unknown person's suggestion
-Ability
-Army Commander
-Kissinger’s recommendation
-[Forename unknown] Davidson
-US offensive
-Moorer’s role
-Destroyers
-New ideas
-The President's and Kissinger’s role
-F-4s
-Destroyers
-B-52s
-Carriers
-Moorer’s call to Abrams
-Abrams’s role
-North Vietnamese offensive
-Countermeasures
-Haiphong
-Determination
-Soviet Union's role
-Hanoi
-PRC
-Risk for Soviets
-Gains
-Impact of a US defeat
-US-Soviet Union summit
 9

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)
Conv. No. 330-7 (cont.)

-Air strikes
-B-52s
-Moorer’s report
-Number
-Cambodia
-Laos
-Flying ceiling
-US air command
-John W. Vogt
-Clay
-Abrams
-Replacement
-Effect
-JCS appointment
-Moorer
-North Vietnamese offensive
-Hue
-Moorer
-Gain of territory
-Negotiations
-Laos
-North Vietnamese request
-US refusal
-William J. Porter
-Abilities
-Decision regarding a walk-out
-U. Alexis Johnson
-US command
-Loyalty to the President
-Secretary of Defense
-Loyalty to the President
-Control of military
-Undersecretary
-Porter
-Kissinger’s recommendation

Soviet summit
-William P. Rogers
-Letter from the President
-Approach to summit
-Report on PRC
-Request for Rogers’s views
 10

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)
Conv. No. 330-7 (cont.)

-Recommendations
-Subjects to be discussed
-Possible call from Haig

Blackmail of unknown person
-Private army [?]

Vietnam
-Guerillas
-Air commander
-Loyalty

Soviet summit
-Timing
-The president's schedule
-National Security Council [NSC]

Vietnam
-Air strikes
-Break in weather
-Cambodia
-Bombing
-Haiphong area
-Alternatives
-Weather
-Bombing
-Haiphong
-Weather
-Cloud cover
-Optimism on outcome

Kissinger left at 9:55 am.