1 President Nixon and Henry Kissinger Lincoln Sitting Room Telephone call April 17 1973 Tape 038-092 Nixon Hello Kissinger Hello Mr President Nixon Did you stay for the entertainment Kissinger Yes that was moving One of the most moving things I've heard Nixon You know Frank's Sinatra voice has gone as he told me before he came but by gosh the emotion in the room was just unbelievable I think some of the people were crying Kissinger Unbelievable Nixon Did you feel that way Kissinger Oh yes And also the tremendous dignity with which he did it The way he spoke of you and of the presidency It was really a great evening You said it very well that it is unintelligible that you can have such an evening Nixon Right Kissinger Louisiana Congressman Edward Hébert was sitting in front of me and he was in fact crying at the end Nixon Who Kissinger Hébert Yeah And Rhode Island Senator John Pastore was sitting next to me He's just beside himself Nixon Was he Kissinger Yeah Nixon Well rather a hard day wasn't it Kissinger Well it was hard for you I didn't know that you had made the statement about Watergate When I think of the discipline with which you conducted the meeting in the morning Nixon And then going through the evening 2 Kissinger And then going through the evening Nixon The problem I have is that I can't look at it in the detached way I really should These people Goddamnit they're guilty throw them out and go on Just the personal things are Goddamn I think of these good men Kissinger Who wanted to do the right thing Nixon Yeah it's going to splash on a lot of them Kissinger Well the major thing now Mr President if I may say so is to protect the presidency and your authority Nixon That will be hard because Kissinger That is absolutely essential Nixon Some of these people will even piss on the president if they think it will help them It's pretty hard I'm the only one frankly of the whole bunch who really didn't know a goddamn thing about it until March when finally Dean came in and said here's where it is which he should have done months ago Kissinger Well they were in over their heads and they tried to instead of stepping back and assessing where they were got in deeper and deeper Nixon That's right Kissinger But I think the absolute I mean to protect Nixon Well if we can If we can we will and if we don't what the hell Kissinger We can Mr President Nixon Maybe I've even considered the possibility of frankly just throwing myself on the sword and Kissinger No Nixon And letting Agnew take over What the hell Kissinger That is out of the question with all due respect Mr President That cannot be considered The personality what it would do to the presidency And the historical injustice of it Why should you do it And what good would it do Whom would it help It wouldn't 3 help the country It wouldn't help any individual involved With all respect I don't think the president has the right to sacrifice himself for an individual And it would of course be personally unjust Nixon Well don't you get discouraged Kissinger Mr President I'm not discouraged Nixon You do your job Two or three of us have got to stick around to try to hold the goddamn fort Kissinger You have saved this country Mr President The history books will show that when no one will know what Watergate means Nixon Well you know nobody will really know what they put a president through on a thing like this Kissinger Well it's inhuman Mr President These bastards know damn well that you couldn't have known about it If one considers all the things you had to go through you couldn't be a police judge too You're running the government you're doing all the negotiating you're carrying a bigger load than any president has On top of it they want you to Nixon Good God we were going to Russia and China and ending the war and negotiating I wasn't even thinking about the goddamn campaign you know I had nothing to do with the damn campaign as you know Kissinger Of course Nixon That's the tragedy I wish to Christ maybe I had but if I'd been spending time on the campaign maybe we wouldn't have pulled off Vietnam Kissinger If you can't rely on your own people to tell you the facts Nixon Well it'll be a great day on the other side for all of our enemies won't it The Times the Post the rest Shit Kissinger That's right Mr President You have to gather the wagons and pull it through as you've done so often 4 Nixon Well what's really disturbing is comparing this goddamn thing to Teapot Dome for Christ's sake which was thievery on a massive basis That isn't what this is all about Kissinger That's right Mr President and in a year that will be clear Nixon It will take that long I'm afraid Kissinger Maybe less I think the major thing now is to get the pus out of the system Let it be squeezed out a little at a time Nixon That's right Transcribed from Nixon Library White House Tape 038-092 by Michael Dobbs for King Richard 2021