866-004a

Conversation No. 866-4

Date: March 1, 1973
Time: 9:47 am – 10:44 am
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. May-2010)
Conversation No. 866-4 (cont’d)



Location: Oval Office

The President met with Henry A. Kissinger.

Prisoners of war [POWs]
-List
-Dates of release
-Release
-Transportation
-Starting time

President's press conference

International Conference on Vietnam
-Signing of documents
-Kissinger's handling
-William P. Rogers

Berlin Wall crises
-Malcolm E. Smith, Jr.’s book [Kennedy’s 13 Great Mistakes in the White House]
-John F. Kennedy
-Skybolt decision
-Nassau meeting
-France, Great Britain
-[Maurice] Harold Macmillan, Gen. Charles A. J. M. de Gaulle
- De Gaulle’s veto of common market entry
-Withdrawal from NATO
-Kennedy’s handling
-Kissinger's article in Reporter

Kennedy’s handling of foreign policy
-Cuban missile crisis
Italy, Turkey, Great Britain, France
-Skybolt
-Nassau meeting
-Public relations
-Compared with President
-Jordan crisis
-India-Pakistan war
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. May-2010)
Conversation No. 866-4 (cont’d)



-Cien Fuegos

National Security Council [NSC] meetings
-H. R. (“Bob”) Haldeman
-Frequency
-Subject
-George P. Shultz and Richard G. Kleindienst
-Attendance
-John N. Mitchell, John B. Connally
-European Economic Community [EEC]
-Strategic Arms Limitation Talks [SALT]
-New European policy
-Pentagon
-Elliot L. Richardson, Rogers
-Changes
-William P. Clements, Jr., [David] Kenneth Rush, Rogers
-attendance
-precedent
-Dwight D. Eisenhower
-Deputies
-Richardson
-Balance of views
-Meeting on Latin America
-Rush
-Subjects
-SALT, Europe, Latin America
-Kissinger’s report

World report
-Completion
-Kissinger’s trips

Treasury Department
-Shultz
-Under Secretary candidate
-Helmut (“Hal”) Sonnenfeldt
-Sonnenfeldt
-Alexander M. Haig, Jr.
-Intelligence
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. May-2010)
Conversation No. 866-4 (cont’d)



-Hard-line attitude
-Replacement
-Lawrence S. Eagleburger
-Desire to leave
-Promotion
-Transfer to new position
-Defense Department
-Richardson
-International Security Affairs [ISA]
-Candidate
-Chuck Cooper
-Relations with Kissinger

Treasury Department
-Shultz
-East-West trade
-William E. Simon
-Prospects
-Shultz
-Value to administration
-Toughness
-Compared to Connally
-Public relations finesse
-Thoughtfulness
-Loyalty
-Peter G. Peterson
-Departure
-Behavior since departure
-Job offer
-Comments against administration

Ronald L. Ziegler entered at 9:56 am.

POWs’ release
-Press relations
-Henry A. Kissinger’s call to President
-Governors’ dinner
-Kissinger, Haldeman, Ziegler, President's knowledge
-Relations with North Vietnam
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. May-2010)
Conversation No. 866-4 (cont’d)



-Behind the scenes action
-Rogers
-Troop withdrawals
-Messages
-Compared with Jordan crises
-State Department
-Compared to India-Pakistan negotiations
-Air craft carrier
-West Pakistan
-Press relations
-Headlines
-Washington Star
-Ziegler’s briefing
-President's call to Ziegler
-John C. Arbuckle
-Associated Press [AP]

Vietnam settlement
-Press questions on President's reaction to settlement
-Statement for press
-Implementation of agreement
-POW release
-Highest priority item
-US position
-Linkage with other issues
-Troop withdrawals, mines
-North Vietnam’s adherence
-Cease-fire
-Nguyen Van Thieu
-Rationale for war
-POWs
-Ziegler’s press briefing
-President’s reaction
-Thieu
-POWs release

Ziegler left at 10:05 am.

Golda Meir's visit
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. May-2010)
Conversation No. 866-4 (cont’d)



-Crisis
-United Nations [UN] condemnation of airliner destruction
-Meir’s visit to US
-Election in Israel
-John A. Scali
-Conversation with Israel’s UN ambassador [Yosef Tekoah]
-Yitzhak Rabin
-Tekoah’s partisanship

Negotiations and weapons
-Meir’s position
-Interim agreement
-Running in election
-Interim settlement
-Private talks
-President’s request
-Anwar el-Sadat
-Egypt, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR]
-Initiative

-Airplanes
-Briefing paper
-Defense Department recommendations
-US aid
-Purchase, production
-Kissinger’s recommendations
-Number of airplanes
-F-4s and A-4s
-Meir’s political position
-President's dealings with Meir
-Airplane production, purchase
-Numbers
-State Department
-Area of discussion
-Delivery

Alliance For Progress
-Disaster
-Latin America
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. May-2010)
Conversation No. 866-4 (cont’d)



-Results
-Brazil
-Communist

Kennedy’s foreign policy
-Smith’s book
-Europe
-Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
-Konrad Adenauer, Ludwig Erhard
-De Gaulle
-Opinion of Kennedy
-Roland Evans
-Adenauer
-Jacquelline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis’s statement
-Pierre Salinger's statement
-Opinion of Kennedy
-Germany’s domestic politics
-Willy Brandt
-Chancellor
-Christian Democratic Party
-Adenauer, Erhard’s departure
-Offset agreement
-Socialist parliamentary coalition
-Brandt, Karl Schiller
-Brazil
-Joas Goulart
-Indonesia
-Achmed Sukarno
-Relations with Europe
-Eisenhower
-Compared with John Foster Dulles
-North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO]
-Adenauer, Germany
-De Gaulle

De Gaulle
-American press reports
-Kennedy
-President’s opinion
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. May-2010)
Conversation No. 866-4 (cont’d)



-Charles E. (“Chip”) Bohlen
-Reaction to France’s withdrawal from NATO
-Economics
-EEC
-Brussels


World leaders
-Edward R. G. Heath
-People’s Republic of China [PRC]
-Leonid I Brezhnev
-US relations
-Mao Tse-Tung and Chou En-lai
-President's dealings

Golda Meir’s visit to US
-President's talk with Mrs. Marvin Mandel
-Middle East
-Airliner incident

Airliner incident
-UN resolution
-Investigation
-US vote
-Condemnation of Israel
-Kissinger's opposition
-Meir’s visit to US
-Scali
-Vote in UN
-President’s knowledge
-Preoccupation with POWs
-State Department
-Israel’s action
-Meir

Golda Meir’s visit to the US
-US aid
-Airplanes
-Numbers
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. May-2010)
Conversation No. 866-4 (cont’d)



-Meir’s support
-Negotiations
-Interim agreement
-General Principles
-Private talks

Kissinger’s call to Rabin

Bay of Pigs
-Smith’s book
-Congress
-Briefing
-Cabinet meeting
-Dean Rusk
-Robert S. McNamara
-Douglas Ddillon
-Gen. Lyman L. Lemnitzer
-Allen W. Dulles
-David Bissell
-McGeorge Bundy
-Paul H. Nitze
-Thomas Mann
-Adolf Berle
-Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
-Richard Goodwin
-J. William Fulbright
-Compared to President’s meetings
-William L. Safire, Raymond K. Price, Jr., Patrick J. Buchanan
-US Air Force
-Fulbright
-Kennedy’s approach
-Compared to President’s approach
-Removal of Fidel Castro
-US involvement
-Denial
-Loss of surprise
-Rumors of US action against Castro
-Chester Bowles
-Anger
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. May-2010)
Conversation No. 866-4 (cont’d)



-Rusk
-Leaks to press
-Kennedy’s comment to New York Times publisher
-Pentagon Papers
-Damage to US government

Smith's book
-Quality
-Analysis of mistakes with Europe
-Kennedy
-NSC staff

US relations with Europe
-Arnold Bordstram [?]
-President's policies
-USSR
-NATO
-Leaders
-Quality
-US consultation
-Dwight Eisenhower
-EEC
-Domestic politics
-Criticism of US
-President's policies
-Berlin
-Modernization of NATO
-New Program
-Haig
Gen. Andrew J. Goodpaster [?]
-NATO
-Donald H. Rumsfeld
-Great Britain
-Complaints
-Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions [MBFR]
-USSR
-Build-up of forces
-Missiles
-Dr. Edward Teller
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. May-2010)
Conversation No. 866-4 (cont’d)



-MBFR
-SALT meeting
-Richardson
-Clements
-Negotiations
-Anti-ballistic Missile [ABM]
-Multiple Independently-Targeted Reentry Vehicle [MIRV]
-US domestic support
-Areas of discussion

Kissinger’s call to Rabin

Kissinger talked with the White House operator at an unknown time between 10:05 am and
10:36 am.

[Conversation No. 866-4A]

[See Conversation No. 37-13]

[End of telephone conversation]

Bay of Pigs
-Smith’s book
-Leaks
-Kennedy’s press conference
-Policy planning meeting
-Goodwin
-Confidentiality
-Air cover
-Naval cover
-Air strikes
-Effects on Cuban air force, shipping
-Amphibious landing
-Anti-Castro Cubans
-Demoralization

Kissinger talked with Rabin at an unknown time between 10:05 am and 10:36 am.

[Conversation No. 4B]
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. May-2010)
Conversation No. 866-4 (cont’d)




[See Conversation No. 37-14]

[End of telephone conversation]

President’s press conference
-Ziegler
-Kissinger's opinion
-Timing
-POW issue

-East-West trade
-Announcement
-Ziegler
-Shultz, Frederick B Dent
-Questions
-Vietnam cease-fire
-Violations
-Meeting with Meir
-US military restraint
-Infiltration
-Civil war
-Evolutionary process
-Nguyen Van Thieu government
-International Commission of Control and Supervision [ICCS]
-Joint Military Commission
-Cease-fire violation
-US helicopter
-ICCS
-Laos
-Bombing strikes
-Cease-fire
-US position
-Cambodia and Laos
-Cease-fire agreement
-Withdrawal of North Vietnam’s forces
-Timing
-Bombing
-Comments on military activities
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. May-2010)
Conversation No. 866-4 (cont’d)



-B-52 strikes
-Cambodia
-News reports
US observers

NATO
-Haig as commander
-Possible appointment
-Promotion
-Joint Chiefs of Staff [JCS] chairman
-Navy, Air Force
-Strategic thinkers

Adm. Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr.
-Retirement
-Opportunism
-McNamara, Nitze
-Performance in office
-Chile
-Navy morale
Adm. Thomas H. Moorer's and Clements's opinion
-Handling of racial problems
-Compared with marines

Unknown person entered at an unknown time after 10:05 am.

John W. Dean, III

Unknown person left at an unknown time before 10:35 am.

Meeting with Meir
-Conclusion
-Israel’s ambassador to us [Yitzhak Rabin]

John W. Dean, III entered at 10:36 am.

Richard G. Kleindienst

Kissinger left at 10:37 am.
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. May-2010)
Conversation No. 866-4 (cont’d)




End of meeting

Kleindienst
-Conversation with Dean
-Talk with L[ouis] Patrick Gray, III
-Change in Gray's position
-Fedearl Bureau of Investigation [FBI] files
-Gray's offer to Congress
-Attorney General's approval
-Attorney General's criteria for turning over to
Congress
-Hiss case
-No cooperation from F.B.I.
-Six Crises
-Executive privilege
-Clark Mollenhoff questions
-Cooperation of FBI and Justice Department
-Ziegler

An unknown person entered at an unknown time before 10:37 am.

Copy of Six Crises
-Delivery

The unknown person left at an unknown time before 10:44 am.

FBI
-Smith’s book Kennedy
-Harassment of newsmen during steel crisis
-Material for publicity
-Robert F. Kennedy misuse of authority

Amnesty issue
-Carl Sandburg on Abraham Lincoln
-Lincoln's position
-Amnesty for South
-No amnesty for number of deserters
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. May-2010)
Conversation No. 866-4 (cont’d)




An unknown man entered at an unknown time after 10:36 am

Hiss case
-President's 1950 or 1951 speech

The unknown man left at 10:44 am.

Hiss case

Dean left at 10:44 am.