332–22

Conversation No. 332-22

Date: April 25, 1972
Time: 8:53 am - 10:05 am
Location: Old Executive Office Building

The President met with Henry A. Kissinger, Alexander M. Haig, Jr. and Alexander P.
Butterfield. The recording appears to have begun while the meeting was in progress.

The President's schedule
-Dinner for retiring Senators and Congressmen
-Guest list
-Release to press
-Fred R. Harris
-Toast
-Senior Republicans
-Clark MacGregor
-Selection
-John Sherman Cooper
-Carl T. Curtis
-John W. Byrnes
-William M. Colmer
-Cooper
-Remarks
-Marine Corps Band
-Col. Albert Shoepper, leader
-Tribute
-The President's recognition
-Army Chorus
-Coffee
-Starting time
-Attire
-Number
-Tables
-Shape
-Seating
-Seniority
-Cooper
-Colmer
-Retirees
-The President's table
-George H. Mahon
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Butterfield left at 8:59 am.

Pentagon Papers
-Leaks
-Daniel Ellsberg
-Preparation
-Departments of State and Defense
-Conclusions

Vietnam
-Situation in 1969

The President talked with H. R. Haldeman at an unknown time between 8:59 and 9:01 am.

[Conversation No. 332-22A]

Meeting in Old Executive Office Building [EOB] office

[End of telephone conversation]

Vietnam
-Winston Lord
-Creighton W. Abrams, Jr.
-The President's remarks
-John K. Andrews, Jr.
-William L. Safire
-Strengths
-Work with Kissinger
-Andrews
-Lord
-Miller [first name unknown]
-Work with Kissinger

Speeches and speechwriters
-Safire

The President talked with an unknown person at an unknown time between 8:59 and 9:01 am.

[Conversation No. 332-22B]

Meeting in Old Executive Office Building [EOB]office
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[End of telephone conversation]

Speeches and speechwriters
-Safire
-Independence
-Andrews
-Haldeman

Pentagon Papers
-Leaks
-Ellsberg
-Secretary of Defense

Haldeman entered at an unknown time after 8:59 am.

Meeting with Andrews and Lord

Haldeman left at an unknown time before 9:02 am.

Andrews

Washington Post
-Story

Haldeman entered at an unknown time after 8:59 am.

Vietnam
-US bombing
-Effectiveness
-Post story
-Distortions
-Soviets

Rose Mary Woods entered at 9:02 am.

Taped messages and letters
-Typing
-Instructions
-Return to the President
-Format
-Instructions

Memorandum to Safire
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-Delivery to Andrews
-Rough outline
-Revisions for Andrews
-Work with Lord
-Completion

Kissinger
-Location over weekend
-Soviet Union
-Arrival
-Sergei Antonov, State Security Head
-Offers to Kissinger
-Joseph W. Alsop
-Schedule
-State security
-Masseuses

Woods left at 9:05 am.

-Antonov
-Security
-The President's forthcoming trip
-Moscow film studio
-American actresses
-Soviet women
-Meeting with First Deputy Foreign Minister,
Vasily V. Kuznetsov
-Andrei A. Gromyko's schedule

Andrews entered at an unknown time after 9:05 am.

Meeting with the President
-Lord's arrival

Andrews left at an unknown time before 9:06 am.

Soviet Union
-Kissinger's previous trip
-Kuznetsov's parting remarks
-Antonov's remarks
-KGB
-The President's forthcoming trip
-Translators
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-Leonid I. Brezhnev
-Comments to Kissinger
-Earl L. Butz

Manolo Sanchez entered at an unknown time after 9:05 am.

Andrews and Lord
-Meeting with the President

Sanchez left at an unknown time before 9:06 am.

Soviet Union
-Visit by Butz
-Butz's comments

Stephen B. Bull and Andrews entered at 9:06 am.

Greetings

Bull left at an unknown time before 9:07 am.

Speech by the President
-Work by Andrews and Lord
-Haig's assistance

US-Soviet relations
-Kissinger's trip
-Announcement

Lord entered at 9:07 am.

-Time

Vietnam
-The President's speech
-Time
-Current appraisal of situation
-The President's outline/rough draft
-Revisions by Andrews and Lord
-The President's guidelines
-Rhythm
-Phrases
-Order
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Tape Subject Log
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-Suggestions
-Considerations
-Vignettes
-Lord's suggestions
-Andrews's suggestions

US-Soviet Relations
-Kissinger's trip
-Accommodations

Vietnam
-The President's speech
-US military role
-Conclusion
-Situations in 1969 and present
-Conciseness
-Losses
-Helicopter
-The President's speech
-Peace offers
-Generalities
-Cease fire
-Prisoners of War [POWs]
-The President's guidelines
-North Vietnamese build-up
-US restraints
-North Vietnamese invasion
-Figures
-Number of troops
-US response
-The President's report
-South Vietnamese performance
-Report from Abrams
-Casualties
-US air strikes
-Necessity
-Future trials and eventual victory
-Wording
-Caution
-The President's morning report
-An Loc
-Washington Post
-Abrams's report
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-Advice from Ellsworth F. Bunker, William J. Porter and senior advisors
-Future actions
-Reduction of troops
-Number
-Nguyen Van Thieu
-Negotiations
-Porter
-Air and naval strikes
-Prevention of takeover
-Length
-Phrasing
-Soviet interpretations
-Conclusions
-Wording
-Completion of draft
-Speed
-Woods
-Andrews's and Lord's review
-Kissinger and Haig
-Deadline for the President
-Woods
-Drafts
-North Vietnamese invasion
-Laos and Cambodia
-Figures
-US bombing
-Continuation
-Conditions for cessation
-North Vietnamese invasion
-Wording
-Simplification
-Directness
-Revisions
-Importance
-The President's style
-Time limit
-Deletions from draft
-An Loc
-Sanctuaries
-Wording
-Description of North Vietnam
-Revisions
-Time element
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
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Andrews and Lord left at 9:25 am.

Pentagon Papers
-Tactics
-Public opinion
-Indifference
-Ronald L. Ziegler's statements
-Washington Post

Vietnam
-Abrams
-Defense Information Office [DIO]
-Report to the President
-Laos operations
-Problems
-Benefits
-North Vietnamese invasion
-Reaction of American public
-George H. Gallup poll
-US bombing
-Poll results
-Deployment of forces
-Initial successes
-Instructions to Haig
-World War I
-German victories over Russians
-South Vietnamese failures
-Abrams
-Coordinations of strategy
-An Loc
-South Vietnamese retreats
-B-52 strikes
-Mistakes
-South Vietnamese defensive line
-Kontum
-Initial losses
-News reports
-Kissinger's briefing
-Highlands
-Lon Tien [Sp?]
-Initial successes
-III Corps
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-Kontum
-Pleiku
-Hue
-Pessimism
-South Vietnamese withdrawals
-South Vietnamese refusal
-Kissinger's conversations with Moorer
-US military
-William C. Westmoreland
-Abrams
-Advice to South Vietnam
-Thieu
-Political problems
-Defensive line
-US air strikes
-Location
-II Corps
-North Vietnamese armor
-Bridge
-Destruction
-Reports
-News reports
-Henry Bradsher
-Retaliation
-Military Press Information Officers [PIOs]
-Abrams
-Handling of press
-Reporters
-Abrams, Bunker, and Melvin R. Laird
-Thieu's stance
-Hostility to administration
-Photograph
-Caption
-North Vietnamese invasion
-South Vietnamese strength
-Capabilities
-Reports
-Horror stories
-Haldeman's efforts
-John A. Scali and Herbert G. Klein
-North Vietnamese atrocities
-Need for publicity
-Publicity for US side
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)



-Pentagon
-State Department press office
-Pentagon
-Size of Public Information Office
-Mobilization

US foreign policy
-Execution
-Kissinger and Rogers
-Lack of public relations
-Dwight D. Eisenhower
-\"Open Skies\" proposal
-Charles D. Jackson
-Public relations efforts
-Success
-Public relations efforts
-Safire
-Richard A. Moore
-Scali
-Press corps
-Hostility
-Bias for John F. Kennedy
-Strategic Arms Limitation Talks [SALT]
-Significance
-Press black-out
-Public relations efforts
-Lack of effort
-Kissinger's briefing
-Arrangements
-Rogers
-Announcement
-Rogers
-Public relations efforts
-Meeting with unknown Ambassador
-Kissinger's briefing
-Ziegler's statement
-Timing
-Briefing of Congress
-Notification
-Kissinger
-Rogers and Laird
-Role
-Formality of briefing
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-J. William Fulbright
-George D. Aiken
-Congressional opposition
-Supporters
-Leslie C. Arends
-Gerald R. Ford
-Mahon
-F. Edward Hebert
-Charles M. Teague
-Barry M. Goldwater
-John G. Tower
-John C. Stennis
-MacGregor
-Edward J. Gurney
-Aiken
-Encouragement
-Opponents
-Fulbright
-Rogers's briefing
-Hiram L. Fong
-Time
-Television news
-Kissinger’s announcement
-Rogers's briefing
-Foreign Relations Committee
-Bob Morgan
-Attendees
-Fulbright
-Exclusion
-Supporters
-Leaks
-Briefing of Laird, the Vice President, John B. Connally,
-Ronald W. Reagan and Nelson A. Rockefeller

Vietnam
-Peace talks
-Negotiations
-Aleksei N. Kosygin
-Conditions
-End of North Vietnamese invasion
-US bombing
-Conditions for cessation
-Ziegler's briefing
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

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-Kissinger's views
-Time
-Call to the President
-The President's speech
-Announcement
-News programs
-Timing

Haldeman and Haig left at 9:50 am.

-Public relations efforts
-Intensification of efforts
-Cambodia
-Haldeman, Haig and Scali
-SALT agreement
-Deficiencies
-Secretary of State
-Attack on Edmund S. Muskie
-D. Kenneth Rush's [?] statement
-US bombing
-Gallup poll
-Support
-The President's speech
-Increase in support

-Soviet response
-The President's speech
-Rough Draft
-Kissinger's meeting with Brezhnev

US-Soviet relations
-Summit
-Brezhnev
-US value
-Vietnam
-Results of US defeat
-Left-wing contrasted to right-wing factions
-Necessity of victory
-Kontum

Rose Mary Woods entered at 9:52 am.

Typed document
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
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-Completion
-Time

Woods left at 9:54 am.

Vietnam
-US strategy
-All-out attack
-Conditions for cessation
-Targets
-Dikes
-Railroads
-Docks
-Use of massive force
-Soviet Summit
-Need for credibility
-Brezhnev
-US conditions
-Anatoliy F. Dobrynin
-Conversation with Kissinger
-North Vietnamese assessments
-Chance of breakthrough
-Negotiations
-Conditions for resumption
-Cease-fire
-US responses
-Gromyko
-Comments to Kissinger
-Soviet Summit
-Compared with People's Republic of China [PRC] Trip
-North Vietnamese invasion
-US retaliation
-Power plant
-Dock area
-Dobrynin
-Brezhnev
-Report to Kissinger
-Kissinger's response
-Kissinger's forthcoming conversation with Yuli M. Vorontsov
-Hanoi and Haiphong

US-Soviet relations
-Kissinger's meeting with Brezhnev
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
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-Soviet Summit
-Conditions
-Cessation of North Vietnamese offensive
-US ships in Vietnam
-Blockade
-Soviet Summit
-Cancellation
-Dobrynin and Brezhnev
-Influence in Central Committee
-Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missiles [SLBMs]
-Announcement
-Kissinger's conversation with Gromyko
-Dobrynin's role
-US air strikes
-Impact
-Possible cancellation
-Laird

Vietnam
-Laird's statement
-Troop levels
-US successes
-Necessity
-The President's trip to Moscow
-Risks
-Chou En-Lai
-US determination
-1972 election
-Negotiations
-Cease-fire
-William J. Porter's line
-Porter
-Abilities as negotiator
-Soviets

Kissinger left at 10:05 am.