518–3

Conversation No. 518-3

Date: June 12, 1971
Time: 10:32 am - 11:11 am
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Henry A. Kissinger

Le Duc Tho travels
-Peking
-Moscow
-East German Party Congress
-Peking and Moscow visit

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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
[National Security]
[Duration: 9s ]

FOREIGN RELATIONS

END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 1
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)



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-Reason for travel
-Agenda
-Tho responsibilities
-Decisionmaking power
-Reason for travel
-Previous travels Conv. No. 518-2 (cont.)
-Norodom Sihanouk
-Negotiating skill

Vietnam
-Lyndon B. Johnson’s effort to end war
-Handicaps
-Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare [HEW]
-President’s effort to end war
-Handicaps
-Clark M. Clifford effort
-Significance of Tho movement
-Negotiating style of North Vietnamese
-Third party involvement
-US position
-Rebuttal of North Vietnamese changes
-Clifford role
-Hanoi
-Press
-Kissinger’s meeting with Henry Hubbard and Jerrold L.
Schecter, June 11
-History of negotiations
-US desire to negotiate
-Washington Post article
-Content
-Clifford error
-Administration error
-North Vietnamese answer to May 31 proposal
-Xuan Thuy
-Opportunity for negotiations
-Significance of Tho travels
-Initiation of negotiations
-Problems
-Dr. David K. E. Bruce
-Kissinger travel
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)




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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4
[National Security]
[Duration: 19s ]
Conv. No. 518-3 (cont.)

LOGISTICS


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 4

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-Return to Paris
-Bruce role
-President’s role
-General Nguyen Van Thieu
-Letter
-Melvin R. Laird
-President’s role
-Breaking of deadlock
-Benefits
-Timing of agreement
-Effect of South Vietnam elections
-Reports of Lieutenant General Duong Van (“Big Minh”) Minh-Nguyen Cao
Ky deal
-Effect on Thieu
-Ky Role
-Minh role
-US action
-Cambodian problem
-Military operations
-General Do Cao Tri death
-Lam Son
-Problems
-US gains
-North Vietnam strategy
-Thieu strategy
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)



-Casualties
-US dead and Missing in Action [MIA]
-Period of statistics
-Prospects
-News coverage
-Protestors
-General Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
-West Pointer in Sweden Conv. No. 518-3 (cont.)

Middle East
-Volatility
-Department of State
-US military aid to Israel
-Reaction of Jewish community
-Objectives
-Strategy
-Suez Canal


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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2
[National Security]
[Duration: 13s ]


ISRAEL


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2

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-State Department interference
-Contact with Egyptians
-Donald Bergus role
-Effect
-Need for quiet
-Soviet involvement
-Need for objectives
-Prospects
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)



-Effect of other initiatives

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR]
-Summit negotiations
-Possible courses of action
-State Department role
-William P. Rogers’ role
Conv. No. 518-3 (cont.)
People’s Republic of China [PRC]


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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5
[National Security]
[Duration: 13s ]


FOREIGN POLICY


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5

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-Soviet summit
-Announcement of PRC summit
-Chou En-Lai role


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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 6
[National Security]
[Duration: 29s ]


FOREIGN POLICY


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 6
 7

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)




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-Bruce mission announcement
-Effect of Soviet summit on PRC announcement
-Bruce role

Conv. No. 518-3 (cont.)
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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 7
[National Security]
[Duration: 12s ]


FOREIGN POLICY


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 7

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-En-lai role
-Dealing with Soviets
-Benefits of low-key approach
-Bruce role
-Soviet awareness
-Magnitude of Sino-American contacts
-Anatoliy F. Dobrynin comment
-Sino-Soviet contacts
-En-lai
-Aleksei N. Kosygin
-Nicolae Ceausescu role
-Message from Kissinger
-PRC support for Romania, Yugoslavia
-Soviet strategy
-Pre-election harassment of US
-US reaction on “arms” policy
-Soviet fear of Sino-American cooperation
-USSR
-Middle East
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)



-Necessity for quiet
-Leonid I. Brezhnev-President contact
-Possible results
-Kosygin speech
-Nikolai V. Podgorny speech
-Brezhnev speech
-Content of speeches
-Strategic Arms Limitations Talks [SALT] Conv. No. 518-3 (cont.)
-Kosygin political position
-Podgorny
-Brezhnev

Vietnam
-Clifford and John W. Gardner
-Kissinger contact with press
-US withdrawal efforts
-President’s contact with John Sherman Cooper
-Withdrawal efforts
-North Vietnamese strategy
-Lack of attendance at Paris meeting
-Reason
-Thuy conference with Tho
-Cambodia problem
-Laird role
-Military Assistance Command, Vietnam [MACV] role
-General Creighton W. Abrams, Jr.’s role
-Effort of Abrams
-Thuy
-Possibility of agreement
-Prospects
-Clifford
-Effect on President’s critics
-Past mistakes
-Treatment of President’s critics
-Comparison of past Situations
-Effect on President’s Critics
-PRC
-SALT
-Press
-Media
-President’s meeting with National Broadcasting Company [NBC] executives
-Charles W. Colson
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)



-Bias reporting
-Administration reaction
-Press concern with national good
-Press concern with President’s achievements
-President’s achievements
-Frank F. Church
-Letter from McGeorge Bundy to Kissinger
-President’s achievements Conv. No. 518-3 (cont.)
-Frederic V. Malek
-Strategy for “New Establishment”
-W. Averell Harriman testimony before House of Representatives
-President’s policy
-Berlin negotiations
-Amunition for critics
-Middle East
-Goal of critics
-Effect of PRC policy
-President’s achievement compared with John F. Kennedy’s achievement
-Play in media
-Weather

The President and Kissinger left at 11:11 am