665–8

Conversation No. 665-8

Date: February 3, 1972
Time: 2:25 pm - 4:10 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman and Ronald L. Ziegler.
[Recording begins while the conversation is in progress]

Vietnam
-Edmund S. Muskie’s speech
-William P. Rogers’s statement
-Michael J. Mansfield
-Ronald Ziegler’s conversation with Rogers
-Reaction
-State Department
-Roles of John A. Scali and Charles W. Colson
-Democrats’ possible reaction
-Possible response
-Mansfield
-Patrick J. Buchanan’s opinion
-Robert J. Dole, Barry M. Goldwater
-Ronald W. Reagan
-John Sherman Cooper, Charles H. Percy
-Edward W. Brooke
-Robert A. Taft, Jr.
-William B. Saxbe
-Toughness
-Nelson A. Rockefeller
-Walter R. Meares
-William E. Brock, III
-Democrats’
-John C. Stennis
-Rogers
-Henry M .(“Scoop”) Jackson

Public relations
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)
Conv. No. 665-8 (cont.)


-Administration counterattacks

Rogers
-Forthcoming television appearance, February 6, 1972
-Xuan Thuy
-Time allotment
-Face the Nation
-Statement, February 3, 1972
-Muskie
-Responsibility
-Vietnam negotiations
-Public reaction to Muskie statement
-Henry A. Kissinger
-Involvement
-Unknown executive at Sans Souci

Vietnam
-Negotiations
-Viet Cong proposal
-Media focus
-Gen. Nguyen Van Thieu
-Possibility of leaving office
-Prisoners of war [POWs]
-Possible exchange
-US position
-Possible withdrawal date
-Viet Cong proposal
-Strategy
-Potential for criticism
-Propaganda
-Thieu
-Cease-fire
-US-Vietnam strategy
-Possible cease-fire
-William J. Porter’s response
-Ziegler’s comments to press
-US position
-Election Commission
-Thieu
-Rogers’s comments on Muskie’s speech
 42

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)
Conv. No. 665-8 (cont.)


Elliot R. Richardson
-Statement concerning welfare reform, February 3, 1972
-Compromise
-House Resolution [HR] 1
-Pilot programs
-Abraham A. Ribicoff

Vice President Spiro T. Agnew
-Press questions
-Possible differences of opinion between Agnew and the President
-Legal services
-Ziegler’s comments
-Legislation

White House Conference on Drug Abuse
-Press coverage

Television

Leonard H. Goldenson and Elton Rule
-Conversation with Ziegler, February 3, 1972
-Previous meeting with Colson and Peter M. Flanigan
-Conversation with Ziegler
-Television news
-Daniel L .Schorr
-Claim
-Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI]

Ziegler left at 2:45 pm.

President’s schedule
-Florida
-Previous meeting with athletes
-Press coverage
-Bowie K. Kuhn, Alvin R. (“Pete”) Rozelle
-President’s comments
-Effect
-Emulation of the President
-Athletes in commercials
-Blacks
-Competition
 43

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)
Conv. No. 665-8 (cont.)


-Introduction of the President
-Possible changes suggested by the President
-Military aide
-Signal corpsman
-Trained announcer
-British system
-Example
-Professionalism
-Army Chorus
-Selection of songs


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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 1m 35s ]


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2

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White House social events
-Music
-Prayer breakfast
-America
-DeWitt Wallace dinner
-Incident
-God Bless America
-Army Chorus
-Road to Mandalay


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BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 1m 3s ]
 44

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)
Conv. No. 665-8 (cont.)



END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 3

******************************************************************************


Music
-Walter E. (“Walt”) Disney
-Churches

Prayer breakfast
-Two black girls with guitar
-Ethel Waters
-Performance

Yevgeny Yevtushenko
-Kissinger
-Background
-Babi Yar
-Theme

Jews

Peter G. Peterson
-Role with administration
-John B. Connally


******************************************************************************

BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5
[Personal Returnable]
[Duration: 1m 57s ]


END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 5

******************************************************************************

President’s previous meeting with athletes
-Importance
 45

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)
Conv. No. 665-8 (cont.)


-Briefing

Kissinger entered at 3:01 pm.

Muskie
-Rogers’s comments February 3, 1972 concerning speech on Vietnam
-Quotes
-Mansfield

Vietnam
-Negotiations
-Viet Cong proposal
-President’s conversation with Ziegler
-W[illiam] Averell Harriman
-Withdrawal
-POWs
-Thieu
-Possible resignation
-US position
-US position
-Viet Cong proposal
-Ceasefire negotiations
-US position
-Kissinger’s view
-Kissinger’s conversation with Mansfield, February 3, 1972
-Viet Cong proposal
-Possible US response
-Press
-US proposal
-October 1971

Cuba
-Ad hoc approach

Haldeman left at 3:07 pm.

Yevtushenko and Demitri Zarechnak entered at 3:07 pm.

Photograph opportunities

Cuba
 46

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)
Conv. No. 665-8 (cont.)



Seating
-Andrei A. Gromyko
-Other Heads of State
-Seating

Yevtushenko
-Visit to US
-Poetry readings
-Language
-Background

Local pride
-Yevtshenko’s hometown
-Location
-The President’s travels
-Sverdlovsk, Novosibirsk
-Comparisons to the US

President’s college experience
-Leo Tolstoy

Russian literary tradition
-Dr. Zhivago
-Description

President’s 1959 visit to Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR]
-Nikita S. Khrushechev
-President’s speech
-Sincerity
-Understanding of conditions in USSR
-Tone
-Effect

Yevtushenko’s poetry

Values of USSR people
-Yevtushenko’s view

Unite of mankind
 47

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)
Conv. No. 665-8 (cont.)


The President’s forthcoming trip to the People’s Republic of China [PRC]
-Effect

Yevtushenko’s visit to Chile in 1968
-Reception
-Accusations from left and right

Yevtushenko’s visit to Library of Congress in 1966
-Robert S. Mcnamara
-Photograph caption

The President’s forthcoming trip to the PRC
-Effect
-USSR
-Vietnam

USSR invasion of Prague
-Historical relevance

USSR relations with US
-Propoganda
-Khrushchev
-Josef V. Stalin

Anti-American propaganda
-Worldwide Leftist movement
-Yevtushenko’s previous visit to South America
-Yevtushenko’s opinion
-Socialists
-USSR relations with US
-Apparent closeness
-The President’s forthcoming trip to the PRC
-Meeting with Mao Tse-tung and Chou En-lai
-Effect

President’s meeting with Yevtushenko
 48

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)
Conv. No. 665-8 (cont.)


President’s forthcoming visit to USSR
-Kissinger
-Duration
-USSR intelligentsia
-Thelma C. (“Pat”) Nixon
-Classical ballet
-Itinerary

Theatre
-Moscow
-Receptions

Kissinger’s visit to USSR

President’s visits to Paris, London, Bonn
-Timing

President’s forthcoming visit to USSR
-Itinerary
-Meetings with leaders
-Cultural exchange
-Bureaucracies

Russia
-Abolition of serfdom
-Freedom
-October Revolution
-Tsar
-Interim government
-Maxim Gorky’s letter to Vladimir Ilich Lenin [Ulyanov]
-Censorship
-Civil War

Slavery in US
-Effect

USSR
-History
-Ideals compared to reality
-Political conditions
 49

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)
Conv. No. 665-8 (cont.)


Leonid I. Brezhnev
-Desire to visit US
-Possible timing

President’s forthcoming trip to USSR
-France [?]

Kissinger’s schedule
-Connally

Kissinger left at 3:55 pm.

President’s forthcoming trip to USSR
-Itinerary
-Kissinger’s forthcoming conversation with Anatoliy F. Dobrynin
-Recommendations
-President’s reputation

President’s 1967 visit to USSR
-Cultural exchange
-Moscow
-Samarkand
-Alma-Ata

US-USSR relations
-Common interests

President’s forthcoming visit to PRC
-Possible USSR reaction
-President’s forthcoming trip to USSR
-Possible PRC reaction
-The President’s pragmatism
-Importance
-US differences with PRC, USSR
-Intelligentsia

President’s forthcoming trip to USSR
-Brezhnev
-Khrushchev
-Aleksei N. Kosygin
-Agenda for talks
 50

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)
Conv. No. 665-8 (cont.)


-Arms limitation, trade
-Spirit of visit
-World War II

US-USSR relations
-Korea

World peace
-“Watershed”
-President’s forthcoming trips
-Possible impact on viewing PRC and USSR leaders
-Brezhnev’s possible trip

Yevtushenko’s poetry
-Suggestions from Yevtushenko

Nancy Hanks
-Role with Administration

President’s 1967 visit to USSR
-Samarkand
-Conversation with one-legged man

Presentation of gifts by President
-Cufflinks

World peace
-US, USSR, PRC

Yevtushenko’s book

Yevtushenko and Zarechnak left at 4:10 pm.
 51

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/06)