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TELCON (TAPE)
The President/Mr. Kissinger
March 24, 1971
K:
Mr. President
P:
Hi, Henry, how are you?
K:
Okay, after I got through with Dobrynin I watched the rerun of your
program.
P:
Oh, yeah, yeah.
K:
I think, first from a technical point of view, this was technically
the best performance I have seen you put on. And from a substantive
point of view, the only reason I don't say it was the best because you
have had so many outstanding ones. And I think you did -- the only
thing I regret is that it wasn't on preempted time.
P:
Yeah.
K:
But I think it was absolutely superb.
P:
Well, I did get a chance to make some points but Smith was lawfully
good, he asked tough questions.
K:
And that's better for you.
P:
Oh, I want them tough. You know, it also made him more critical.
K:
But when he said, "why don't you do the easy thing and pull the
troops out' or whatever it was, the direct thing and you said that's
just it, you made it easy for me to answer this one because it is
the easy thing to do". And when you said that -- I thought that was
an eloquent speech you made at that point. And I thought the whole
tone of it was superb. I don't know whether we have any rating
reports --
P:
Well, we won't get that until --
K:
How many people watched it.
P:
Yeah, yeah. It would be only about a third of the television audience
at the most because ABC is the smallest of the networks but we will
get about a third of it, that's not bad.
K:
But it was at exactly the right psychological moment, you made
exactly the right points, it was -- well, you might consider incorporatin
some of these points in your report on Laos.
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"ocrText": "TELCON (TAPE)\nThe President/Mr. Kissinger\nMarch 24, 1971\nK:\nMr. President\nP:\nHi, Henry, how are you?\nK:\nOkay, after I got through with Dobrynin I watched the rerun of your\nprogram.\nP:\nOh, yeah, yeah.\nK:\nI think, first from a technical point of view, this was technically\nthe best performance I have seen you put on. And from a substantive\npoint of view, the only reason I don't say it was the best because you\nhave had so many outstanding ones. And I think you did -- the only\nthing I regret is that it wasn't on preempted time.\nP:\nYeah.\nK:\nBut I think it was absolutely superb.\nP:\nWell, I did get a chance to make some points but Smith was lawfully\ngood, he asked tough questions.\nK:\nAnd that's better for you.\nP:\nOh, I want them tough. You know, it also made him more critical.\nK:\nBut when he said, \"why don't you do the easy thing and pull the\ntroops out' or whatever it was, the direct thing and you said that's\njust it, you made it easy for me to answer this one because it is\nthe easy thing to do\". And when you said that -- I thought that was\nan eloquent speech you made at that point. And I thought the whole\ntone of it was superb. I don't know whether we have any rating\nreports --\nP:\nWell, we won't get that until --\nK:\nHow many people watched it.\nP:\nYeah, yeah. It would be only about a third of the television audience\nat the most because ABC is the smallest of the networks but we will\nget about a third of it, that's not bad.\nK:\nBut it was at exactly the right psychological moment, you made\nexactly the right points, it was -- well, you might consider incorporatin\nsome of these points in your report on Laos."
}