White House Telephone Conversation 17-132
January 1, 1972
2:43 PM—3:56 PM
Participants: Richard M. Nixon & Henry A. Kissinger

NIXON:

Hello.

WHITE HOUSE OPERATOR:

Mr. Kissinger.

NIXON:

Hi Henry.

KISSINGER:

Mr. President.

NIXON:

On that date, uh I've got now the information from, uh, Haldeman.

KISSINGER:

Right.

NIXON:

The, the situation is that, that see, Humphrey is going, he's going on the tenth,

KISSINGER:

Right.

NIXON:

Uh, we could do ours, ah, our own announcement thing is not a problem, we'll have that out of the way anytime we want. And we can do it even before the tenth; we might do it on the eighth, uh, just to be just to be, just to be uh, out of the way, cause we--. It's a foregone conclusion it's going to happen.

KISSINGER:

Right.

NIXON:

That would open up [COUGHS] the following week

KISSINGER:

Right.

NIXON:

To uh, catch it. We could say uh, the, uh, perhaps, as late as the fourteenth. We don't want to go as late as, as I was thinking about Sunday night, but that's the day of the Superbowl and I don't think we want to try to compete with that.

KISSINGER:

No. No.

NIXON:

You know, that's uh—

KISSINGER:

No. Mr. President, I have this idea for your consideration, uh, I've already gone ahead with Bunker and everything is moving to go on the earliest date you want to go, so—

NIXON:

Yeah.

KISSINGER:

[INAUDIBLE] —thing is blowing up whether we mightn't [sic] split the troop announcement and the peace place. In other words do the troop announcement before Congress comes back and then hit them with the peace plan right after your State of the Union.

NIXON:

Yes, you could do that.

KISSINGER:

Uh—

NIXON:

And with the troop announcement I wouldn't, then with that I wouldn't go on TV.

KISSINGER:

I think the way you did it last time was very effective.

NIXON:

Do it as a uh—

KISSINGER:

Sort of as a fifteen minute press—

NIXON:

Yeah.

KISSINGER:

Might, do it as an office press one—

NIXON:

An office thing without, uh— Well, there is something to be said for that, and uh—

KISSINGER:

—because, that gives you uh, two good shots and then everything would be on the peace plan.

NIXON:

Uh-hum, Uh-hum.

KISSINGER:

My worry now, uh, my concern Mr. President with coming with the peace plan too early [COUGHS] the foreign policy part of it we will know in a few days what problems we're going to have with Thieu, uh—

NIXON:

Yeah

KISSINGER:

—that, uhm uh, we, we will know by Monday or Tuesday when Bunker replies

NIXON:

Uh-hum

KISSINGER:

The major concern now I have is this: right now our opponents are split three or four different ways on peace initiatives. Some are uh, running after the Mansfield proposal.

NIXON:

Yeah

KISSINGER:

Some are talking about bombing. Some are talking about Thieu. Once we've got this on the table—

NIXON:

[EXHALES]

KISSINGER:

—then they can all rally on one line because then the only thing left is to go aft

NIXON:

Uh-huh.

KISSINGER:

—well, is to go after that plan.

NIXON:

Yeah.

KISSINGER:

Uh, for the first two of three weeks it's going to go like the cease-fire. For the first two or three weeks it will sweep everything.

NIXON:

Yeah, uh-hum.

KISSINGER:

And therefore, it isn't all this disadvantageous supposing they come in with the Mansfield amendment again—

NIXON:

Yeah.

KISSINGER:

—uh, we can prove we made these proposals four months before they ever did.

NIXON:

Yeah

KISSINGER:

So, and then, if we could say, make the peace plan, just for an example around the twenty-fifth.

NIXON:

Uh-hum.

KISSINGER:

Then you have two weeks of riding that.

NIXON:

Uh-hum.

KISSINGER:

Then we come out with a foreign policy report, then you are going to China, then you are, you are in the middle of March, and then its—

NIXON:

Uh-hum [PAUSE] Yeah.

KISSINGER:

That's the advantage of doing the peace plan a little later, while otherwise they might come back at you—

NIXON:

[EXHALES]

KISSINGER:

—with a full-scale attack before you go to China.

NIXON:

Uh-huh, Uh-huh.

KISSINGER:

I have no problem whatever, whatever with making the troop announcement as early as possible.

NIXON:

No, there's no problem on that.

KISSINGER:

In fact, in that, there's even advantage on doing it—

NIXON:

[EXHALES]

KISSINGER:

—around the eleventh, twelfth -- whatever suits you

NIXON:

Well, Humphrey goes on the tenth, we uh—

KISSINGER:

Then you might wa--want to do it on the twelfth—

NIXON:

Uh

KISSINGER:

—or the eleventh, whichever you—

NIXON:

Well, I think there is some advantage as to putting it so it hits the uh, the uh weekly uh news magazines and so forth, uh, I mean--well, it's not all that big. Uh, well, we could, uh, uh, uh—

KISSINGER:

I don't have any

NIXON:

Any advantage of, any advantage of going uh, uh, earlier in the week than later we could do it?

KISSINGER:

Which, the?

NIXON:

The, the, the, troop announcement. We could do it the twelfth.

KISSINGER:

Oh, well, we could do easily do it the twelfth.

NIXON:

Twelfth. Well, what I mean is that better than doing it than doing it the thirteenth or fourteenth?

KISSINGER:

Ah.

NIXON:

We could do it one of those three days.

KISSINGER:

Our experience has been that as long as you get it before by Thursday morning, by Thursday you still get a good break,

NIXON:

Yeah

KISSINGER:

—whatever that it is Fourteenth is Friday, that's a little late.

NIXON:

Yeah. The thirteenth probably is uh, probably is a good day for it too.

KISSINGER:

The thirteenth would be better

NIXON:

The thri--thirteenth gets the uh, Friday papers carry it pretty well and that carries it into the weekend. Uh. Well, we could do it the twelfth or the thirteenth, yeah.

KISSINGER:

Either one of those dates.

NIXON:

Just—just make a routine—

KISSINGER:

And then do the State of the Union and then come right back with a big peace speech.

NIXON:

I'm not sure in this instance that I under—I'm just not quite sure that I would do a, do a Q. and A. on it. Well—uh—

KISSINGER:

Yeah, there's something to be said.

NIXON:

For not doing it?

KISSINGER:

For not doing it. Although you do these office press—

NIXON:

Yeah.

KISSINGER:

—conferences so damn well!

NIXON:

Well, I was thinking that what we might do is to, is to uh, just do the announcement and then, if we are going to do the peace thing, you know, one way you can do, is to get a double bounce out of it. And to say, uh, when they answer questions, say: "Well, I'm going to be speaking to that issue in two weeks."

KISSINGER:

That's another thing. That—

NIXON:

See what I mean?

KISSINGER:

—by the end of the month—you intend to, uh—

NIXON:

Yeah.

KISSINGER:

—give a full accounting to the Congress of Vietnam. The only uh danger is that the Vietnamese might beat you to the punch, punch, then.

NIXON:

Mm-hmm. [LONG PAUSE] The problem, of course, is still how to handle it in the State of the Union, as to—which, of course, is, um—it's, it's a, that's really what—that's my only real concern, you know, for getting it out of the way, is to—the State of the Union and when the Congress gets in. It's more the State of the Union as to what to say about it, about Vietnam.

KISSINGER:

Oh, I think we could draft two very strong paragraphs, Mr. President, very affirmative paragraphs.

NIXON:

Uh-huh. [PAUSE]

KISSINGER:

I think this time the State of the Union should have a little foreign policy in it.

NIXON:

[EXHALES] Yeah. But if it had much on Vietnam, Henry, it's not going to be much if we just, uh—[PAUSE]

KISSINGER:

My concern, Mr. President, you had thought—

NIXON:

How about this—let's see, throwing the, uh, uh, no—if you, if you delay the, if you delay the troop announcement to the State of the Union, I was thinking you could just throw it in there, so you'd get—let that be—

KISSINGER:

You could do that, too.

NIXON:

Let that be the news of the—

KISSINGER:

That's another possibility. [PAUSE] Because you could ha—say, uh "We've withdrawn this many, and tonight I can tell you another batch is coming home."

NIXON:

I'm going to do it at noon, but uh let's see uh if the—no, I tell you, it's better to have a, have a bounce each week, you know what I mean? Don't, don't—

KISSINGER:

Yeah.

NIXON:

—don't get, get major leads out of things. [PAUSE]

KISSINGER:

We can easily do the troop announcement any time it fits into your schedule—

NIXON:

Sure.

KISSINGER:

—the week of the tenth.

NIXON:

Yeah.

KISSINGER:

You can literally pick your day.

NIXON:

Well, my view would probably be the twelfth or the thirteenth. And, uh [PAUSE] let's see what the, uh [PAUSE] [EXHALES] Mitchell—

KISSINGER:

I'm going to go back to Laird on that draftees business.

NIXON:

Yeah.

KISSINGER:

'Cause that may be, maybe they just have to swallow that pill now. [PAUSE]

NIXON:

Well, in my view, if you could put the troop announcement plus the draftees in, that would be a—

KISSINGER:

Then it'd really be a waste to put in a peace plan, too.

NIXON:

That's right. I would like if we could do the troop announcement and the draftees, uh, uh, then it should be done separately from the State of the Union, I think. Uh, I mean, I think the St—might let the—I'd like to have the State of the Union—we're going to get so much foreign policy—

KISSINGER:

That's right.

NIXON:

—benefit from other things that I think we'd better—

KISSINGER:

I think if you have the troop announcements before—

NIXON:

Yeah.

KISSINGER:

—then the State of the Union domestic, then the peace plan right after the foreign policy after the State of the Union, say the week after—

NIXON:

See, I will just say in the State of the Union that I am going to make a major report, "I'm going to make a report to the Congress on foreign policy on blank, and I will not cover it in this speech,

KISSINGER:

Yeah

NIXON:

--and just as I have before."

KISSINGER:

Yeah. Right, and we will have it ready this time on the eighth.

NIXON:

Yeah.

KISSINGER:

I mean, that's—I hope so.

NIXON:

"And we will announce it at this time." And then, uh—

KISSINGER:

But my—

NIXON:

But let me see, go back to Laird and see if we can get the, the no-more-draftees thing. He—

KISSINGER:

And my recommendation would be to do the peace plan separate from the foreign policy report.

NIXON:

Oh, yes, it should come before.

KISSINGER:

Say around the twenty-fifth.

NIXON:

Yeah.

KISSINGER:

And then we would have a tremendous series of things every week.

NIXON:

Could actually do the, uh—what I would think would be to do the, uh, Vietnam announcement on the thirteenth, maybe. That's Thursday.

KISSINGER:

That's a Thursday; it'd be good.

NIXON:

And then go on to the State of the Union the following Thursday.

KISSINGER:

Right.

NIXON:

And then go on to the peace plan.

KISSINGER:

Peace thing the following Tuesday or Wednesday.

NIXON:

Well, I, I'd make it uh—yeah. We could even, yeah, we could do it either—after your Wednesday, uh-huh.

KISSINGER:

I'd do it before Thursday so that we can table it then on that Thursday.

NIXON:

That's good, right. Then we can come on there. And then—

KISSINGER:

So you could do it either Tuesday or Wednesday.

NIXON:

[INAUDIBLE] we plan has to be, that'd have to be a broadcast, wouldn't it?

KISSINGER:

Yeah.

NIXON:

Peace plan, yeah. [LONG PAUSE] If I could, on the twelfth or thirteenth, if we could get the no-draftee thing in, it would give it a little bit more of a, of a lift out of the—uh, because I think that is going to be a damn good, good lift to have, you know, prior to the Congress coming in.

KISSINGER:

Yeah.

NIXON:

And uh, it's a good substitute, the peace plan.

KISSINGER:

I'm going to try to go for that.

NIXON:

I just, I just think we ought to do it. I mean, you know goddamned well it isn't going to make all that much difference, anyway.

KISSINGER:

Well, what we may have to do, Mr.—

NIXON:

When you're announcing, basically, is 70,000 more out of Vietnam, you sure as hell don't have to say you're going to have more draftees! [EXHALES]

KISSINGER:

Ah, ah, Mr. President, I have almost reached the point where you may have to do this without telling Laird beforehand.

NIXON:

Whoa! Couldn't do that, Henry, he'd go up, he'd just—

KISSINGER:

He'd go up the wall.

NIXON:

Yeah.

KISSINGER:

But, uh—

NIXON:

But you're afraid he's going to leak it out, huh?

KISSINGER:

But I'm afraid he's going to come back with so many caveats. Let me talk to Moorer, he owes us one.

NIXON:

He sure does.

KISSINGER:

And let me sit—tell him—

NIXON:

And keep it in [the] greatest of confidence.

KISSINGER:

—what the problem is and whether he could let the staff, on the absolute Q.T., work on that.

NIXON:

Yeah, all right. Do that.

KISSINGER:

I'll do that tomorrow.

NIXON:

And tell him that this time we want it done in terms of how it can be done, and not, not why it cannot be done.

KISSINGER:

Right.

NIXON:

This is going to buy us some time, which we desperately need now.

KISSINGER:

Right.

NIXON:

And something before the Congress, so that we don't give away on other things.

KISSINGER:

Right, Mr. President. I will do that first thing Monday morning.

NIXON:

All right. All right, we'll try to figure the peace plan, then, around the twenty-sixth. Okay!

KISSINGER:

That's right.

NIXON:

Bye.

KISSINGER:

Good.

NIXON:

Bye.

KISSINGER:

Bye Mr. President.