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On April 9, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 6:34 pm to 7:47 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 425-045 of the White House Tapes. Topics include: The President met with Henry A. Kissinger. Foreign policy - Vietnam - US pressure - Prisoners of War [POWs] - President's meeting with John B. Flynn - US Status - US public - Communists - Strength - Military - Economy - Belief - President's meetings with [James B. Stockdale] and Flynn - Aid - Soviet Union - War- Making ability - Cambodia - Gen. Alexander M. Haig, Jr.'s cable - Blockade - US bombing - Demoralizing effect - President's Conversation with Michael J. ("Mike") Mansfield - People's Republic of China [PRC] - Kissinger's telephone call - Meeting on trade - Soviet Jewry - President's statement - Direct communication with Soviet Union - Ambassador [?] - Jacob K. Javits, Henry M. ("Scoop") Jackson, Abraham A. Ribicoff - President's schedule - Meeting with Congressional and Jewish leaders - Cambodia - Strategy for democracy - Effect on US - Compared with a democratic Vietnam - Supply lines - Ho Chi Minh Trail - Numbers of Khmer Rouge - Special assessment - Haig - Impact on Laos and Thailand - Laos - Situation - Observance of agreement - Withdrawal - Re- Training forces - Bombing strategy - North - Lyndon B. Johnson [?] position - US public opinion - President's opinion - Ho Chi Minh Trail - Major provocation - Flights [Previous National Security (B) withdrawal reviewed under MDR guidelines case number LPRN- T- MDR-2014-019. Segment declassified on 07/20/2023. Archivist: MAS] [National Security] [425-045- W001] [Duration: 38s] Foreign policy - Laos - SR-71 - Altitude - Response - Timing - North Korea Foreign policy - Bombing - Metropolitan areas - Hiroshima [?] - US press reaction - Potential Effects - Criticism of President - Carpet bomber US war policy - Preparedness - Communism containment - Johnson's bombing halt in 1968 - Effect - Laos - Troop numbers - B-52s bombing - Melvin R. Laird - B-52s - Indo- China - Laird BEGIN WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2 [National Security (B) withdrawal reviewed under MDR guidelines case number LPRN- T- MDR-2014-019. Segment exempt per Executive Order 13526, 3.3(b)(1) on 06/19/2019. Archivist: DR] [National Security] [425-045- W002] [Duration: 6s] B-52s END WITHDRAWN ITEM NO. 2 US war policy - B-52s - President's summit meeting with USSR, 1972 - President's orders - Flights over North Vietnam - Possible aircraft loss - B-52 target - Effects in Laos - Cambodia - Increase B-52 bombings - Bombing - President's resolve - Press reaction - Ho Chi Minh Trail - Capability of South Vietnam Laird - Ground support planes - Jets - Reports White House personnel - Gen. Alexander M. Haig, Jr.'s recommendations - Emory C. Swank - Leonard Unger - Henry A. Byroade - Thailand - Unger - Pakistan - Robert C. Hill - Elliot L. Richardson -[unintelligible name] - Inside man - Kissinger's conversation with Hill - POW - Cambodia - Charles S. Whitehouse - Laos - Samuel D. Berger? - Swank - Adm. John S. McCain, Jr.'s recommendation - Gen. Richard G. Stilwell - Thailand - President's reaction - Sophistication - Swank - Unger, Swank Cambodia - Pace - Weather Vietnam Cease- Fire Agreement - Economic Aid - Economic Commission's Recommendation Published letter from White House - North Vietnamese Expectations - Canadian membership in International Commission of Control and Supervision [ICCS] - Influence on Military Situation - Hungary - Poland - Replacement of Canada - Norway - Brazil - Tunisia - Strength of left wing parties Henry Kissinger's lunch with Armand de Borchegrave - Support for President - Anwar el- Sadat - Foreign policy views - Strong Europe Egypt - Negotiations - Kissinger's vacation - Possible settlement - Problem - Soviet Union - Alternatives - Middle East confrontation - Possible war - Oil crisis - Impact on oil pipeline - Possible agreement with US - Same agreement with Egypt and Soviet Union - Interim agreement - Prospect for direct talks - Diffusion of situation - Answer to Egypt - Timing - Avoidance of oil crisis - Promise of additional meeting President's meeting with Joseph J. Sisco - Sisco's career - Moscow - President's schedule - Meeting with Sisco and Kissinger - Message from Sadat - Ambassadorship to Soviet Union - Credit - Open post [?] Treaty for the Prevention of Nuclear War - Europe's reaction - Great Britain - North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO] - Kissinger's maneuvering - Timing of Summit - Kissinger's conversation with Anatoly F. Dobrynin - Trade legislation - Priority - Agreements - Vietnam - Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty [SALT] - Nuclear agreement [?] PRC - Chou En- Lai - Visit to US [?] - Advance team arrival - Mansfield's trip to PRC - President's meeting with Mansfield - Support for administration's policies - Responsibility for aid - Hostility - Norodom Sihanouk - Kissinger's reaction - Bipartisan Delegation - Political strategy - Delegation compared to individual leader - Edward M. ("Ted") Kennedy - Vice President Spiro T. Agnew - Nelson A. Rockefeller - Ronald W. Reagan Vietnam settlement - History of President's policy - Troop withdrawal - Cambodia - Laos - President's prediction - Election - Cambodia - Possible fate - South Vietnam - Vietnamization Withdrawal of US troops - B-52s in Laos in 1970 - National Security Council [NSC] meetings - Targets - Strike delivery - Characteristics of US bombers, fighter- Bombers - Compared to B-17s, B-19s - Design for nuclear bomb - Tactical support - Weather restrictions - Unknown man - Commander- In- Chief, Pacific [CINPAC] - Opposition to bombing in Cambodia - Withdrawal of US troops in Thailand - Parochialism [?] - Robert S. McNamara - Laird - Promise of job - Richardson - William P. Clements, Jr. President's role in history - Lonely battle - Character of US - Allies - Vindication - Content of possible speeches by President - Television [TV] - Turning point - Maintenance of patriotism - President's critics - Compared to US opponents to US membership in League of Nations - Foreign policy - Questioning of President's authority - Challenge - President's electoral victory margin - Alger Hiss case - Intellectual opposition - Wants - Communist world - Unilateral disarmament - Feelings toward President and "Middle America" - Dislike, lack of trust, uncomfortableness - Eastern liberal Establishment - President - Football - Compared to John F. Kennedy - Thoughtfulness - Domestic program - New Deal - Spending - Turmoil - Compared to President - Relations with PRC, USSR - Vietnam settlement - Undermining authority - Watergate - Vietnam settlement - Nguyen Van Thieu - Democrats - Southern compared with liberal - John C. Stennis - James E. ("Jimmy") Carter - Gale W. McGee [?] - Jackson - Republicans Watergate - Charles H. Percy - Attack on H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman - Knowledge - Lack of evidence - Haldeman's conversation with Kissinger - Meeting with Cabinet and White House Staff - Haldeman - Possible testimony before Ervin Committee - White House Staff testimony - Possible departure - Percy and Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. - Position of staff - Donald H. Segretti - Intelligence operations - Segretti - Dwight L. Chapin - Percy - Statement - Compared to Sherman Adams - Percy - John D. Ehrlichman - Possible briefing - Possible testimony before Ervin Committee - John N. Mitchell - Involvement - Jeb Stuart Magruder - Martha B. Mitchell - Possible statement - Magruder - Haldeman's involvement - Supervision by Mitchell - Knowledge - Security operation for the Committee to Re- Elect the President - Bugging - By Democrats - Prevalence - Nelson A. Rockefeller - Al Marshall's conversation with Kissinger - Magruder - Haldeman's responsibility - Compared with Kissinger's responsibility for Morton H. Halperin - Daniel Ellsberg - Halperin - Haldeman - Magruder - Mitchell - Bugging of Democratic National Committee [DNC] - Placement of Magruder - President's belief - Decision - President's opponents - Reputation - Mitchell - Possible statement - Haldeman - Effects on presidency - Mitchell - Legal advice - Richard G. Kleindienst - Ehrlichman - L. Patrick Gray, III - Raw Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] files - John W. Dean, III - Investigation - Dean's presence during interview of accused persons - Purpose White House personnel - Support for President's policies - Kissinger - Charles W. Colson - Doctrinaire tendencies - Haldeman - Loyalty - Handling of job Watergate - Senate investigation - Ervin Committee - Blair House meeting President's accomplishment -1972 election - Foreign policy - Vietnam - PRC - USSR - Europe - Japan - Middle East - Cuba - Domestic policy - Riots - Crime - Budget - Boom economy - Fluctuations in free economy - Watergate - Compared with Laos - PRC announcement - Timing - Difficulty in taking offensive - Public conscience Kissinger's plan - Cambodia - ICCS Kissinger left at 7:47 pm. Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Kissinger, Henry A.