Hello?

Mr. President?

Yes.

First, I want to thank you for making that beautiful plane available to me to go down to Florida. My gosh, I—that was awfully nice.[note 1] Speechwriter William L. Safire recalled his surprise at this particular plane that President Johnson put at his successor’s service: “[N]ot a back-up aircraft, but Air Force One itself, the identical plane in which Lyndon Johnson had taken the oath of office that day in Dallas five years before. Nixon called his writers up front to the President’s airborne office to chew the fat and to inspect the new diggings. He swiveled around in the President’s easy chair, pushed a button that elevated the coffee table into a desk, put up his feet and grinned: ‘It sure beats losing.’” William Safire, Before the Fall: An Inside View of the Pre-Watergate White House (New York: Tower Publications, 1975), 107.

Well, you—I’m glad you enjoyed it, [Nixon attempts to interject] and you ought to have it and you—

Well, it was very—I just hope that—I just didn’t want to inconvenience you.

Oh, no, no, no, no.

You’re very kind. What I’m calling you about very briefly is, our mutual friend George [A. Smathers] [D–Florida].[note 2] George A. Smathers was a U.S. senator [D–Florida] from January 1951 to January 1969, and a member of the Finance Committee. I had a talk with you, and I wanted you to know that I . . . I feel, myself, that is, just speaking directly, that it would be very much in the interests of the country—and, naturally, I’m thinking, too, of the administration—but in the interests of the country and what we’re all working toward if the Vice President [Hubert H. Humphrey Jr.] could undertake this.[note 3] Hubert H. Humphrey Jr. was the Democratic mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota, from July 1945 to November 1948; a U.S. senator [DFL–Minnesota] from January 1949 to December 1964 and January 1971 to January 1978; Senate Majority Whip from January 1961 to December 1964; vice president of the United States from January 1965 to January 1969; and the Democratic U.S. presidential candidate in 1968. President-elect Nixon had discussed the possibility of naming his Democratic rival, Vice President Humphrey, as ambassador to the United Nations. Now, there are lots of considerations here, but frankly, I . . . I . . . it hadn’t occurred to me to mention it to you before, because I haven’t—hadn’t talked to him. It’s all—you know how it is—all indirect up to this point, although I had a chance to just chat with him briefly on the phone today for the first time.

But the . . . I feel that—I imagine that he at this point may kind of wonder how strongly I feel about it and what kind of a role he’s going to play and what it would interest. But I’m probably the expert on what a fellow has to go through when, you know, when he’s been Vice President, he loses an election, and then, what does he do? And one thing he must do, of course, is to continue to, particularly if he isn’t at the time he wants to retire, he must continue to be very, very active and not just become, you know, a college president or some darn thing. So those were just—that’s for the personal consideration.

From the standpoint of the country, I feel that if we could have this sort of a continuum in this way and then looking at these, something like this . . . this Vietnam thing. It’s a—we continue to work together, and I think that’s a good image abroad, too, apart from the other factors. But that was—I just wanted you to know that this is—when George talked to you, I—he certainly reflected my views on it.

I knew he did, and I am very anxious to always help a president get anyone in any place that he thinks he needs him, because it’s the real principal problem of getting the right kind of troops in the right place, and President [Harry S.] Truman once said, “A president has to spend too much time pleading with other people to do what they ought to do for their country.”[note 4] Harry S. Truman was a U.S. senator [D–Missouri] from January 1935 to January 1945; vice president of the United States from January 1945 to April 1945; and president of the United States from April 1945 to January 1953. God knows I know it. And—

We’re finding that out now.

So many good people have helped me and a good many from your party that have just been willing to do nearly anything. And so I want to help. I have no particular influence over him, any of his personal decisions.

Sure.

But I called him immediately. I talked to him and told him that I thought this would be good if he didn’t have any other plans. He said that he would like to talk to me about it. That, frankly, it had just been mentioned to him. It hadn’t had much appeal to him. He hadn’t thought of it, but he would talk to me. I said, “When?” He said, “Well, I’ll be back in tomorrow morning.” I didn’t hear from him. About three—two or three o’clock before I came to lunch, I told my secretary to call him, see if he was back to see when he planned to come in, to tell him I would like to see him this evening. The—I have three or four public things scheduled, meeting with little groups, and I told him it would be seven or eight [o’clock]. Now, I don’t know whether they’ve done that or not. Wait a minute. [shouting aside] Tom! [Wyatt T.] Tom Johnson![note 5] Wyatt T. “Tom” Johnson was a White House Fellow from 1965 to 1966, and an aide to Lyndon B. Johnson during and after his presidency. [speaking aside to someone in the office] Ask him if he’s talked to the Vice President. Did he—when is he coming in? [to Nixon] He’s coming in six o’clock.

Oh, I—

So that’s 10 minutes, 15 minutes. [Nixon acknowledges.] And—

Well, I think—

And I will let George know or let you know right the minute afterwards.

Oh, fine. And let me say, I’m available by phone anytime, right here.

That’s good.

The point is I just wanted you to know that this is a very strong conviction on my part, and I think also from a—just one other point I would make—from a personal standpoint, looking at him. He’s going to go through a very difficult period here. I went through it, you know what I mean, and I was a lawyer. Heck, you know, I’d go back and start a law practice, or something. But, you know, when a fellow leaves office, and the Vice President, as distinguished from the President, you know, he’s a very different position, [chuckling] a retired Vice President. When he leaves office, he’s just sort of at loose ends, and he needs something to do right away. I mean, and here’s something where he can be very active and take, like, on a thing that he’s very interested in is this Mid-East problem. Well, that’s just made to order for him up there, you know, [President Johnson acknowledges] among many others.

And it’s a very serious one. I told him, I just cleared a cable where we are coming pretty much to satisfy the South Vietnamese.

Good.

[I] told him to go over it carefully with [Robert D. “Bob”] Murphy within the last five minutes and then told the people out there that we just had to have some answers over the weekend.[note 6] Robert D. “Bob” Murphy was U.S. ambassador to Belgium from November 1949 to March 1952; U.S. ambassador to Japan from May 1952 to April 1953; U.S. assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs from July 1953 to November 1953; U.S. under secretary of state for political affairs from August 1959 to December 1959; and an adviser to the Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford administrations. And they came in, oh, I guess noon today with the South Vietnamese suggestions. Bùi Diễm and the foreign minister had met and—with our ambassador, and Bùi Diễm, the ambassador here, had been quite helpful.[note 7] Bùi Diễm was a delegate to the Geneva Conference in 1954; chief of staff to prime minister of the Republic of Vietnam Phan Huy Quát; South Vietnamese ambassador to the United States from 1967 to 1972; and South Vietnamese ambassador-at-large from 1972 to 1975. And they changed a few words that—where they have different connotations in their language. The word, “Take the principal lead,” they said that had a bad connotation [Nixon chuckles slightly] and that they’d substitute different language for it.

A couple of these fellows, they learned under the French, and the French are nitpickers when it comes to words. [Chuckles.]

Well, I think that our cable will go out, will pretty well embrace language that the two of them get together. Then we told them that we’ve really got to move, because Hanoi is—

They might leave.

Yes, they’re about to. They’re about—they put some [Nixon acknowledges] very hot heat on us this afternoon.

Sure.

So Murphy will be looking at it right away.

Good, good.

Thank you, and I’ll call you back when I hear on this.

Fine. Bye.