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April 7, 1971

Introduction

This almanac page for Wednesday, April 7, 1971, pulls together various records created by the federal government and links to additional resources which can provide context about the events of the day.

Previous Date: Tuesday, April 6, 1971

Next Date: Thursday, April 8, 1971

Schedule and Public Documents

Archival Holdings

Any selection of archival documents will necessarily be partial. You should use the documents and folders identified below as a starting place, but consult the linked collection finding aids and folder title lists and the collections themselves for context. Many documents to be found this way do not lend themselves to association with specific dates, but are essential to a complete understanding of the material.

  • Selective document listing

    President's Office Files

    The President's Office Files consists of materials drawn together by the Special Files Unit from several administrative subdivisions within the White House Office. It is the handwriting and sensitive papers sent to the Staff Secretary that now comprise much of the President's Office Files. Visit the finding aid to learn more.

    • Annotated News Summaries, Box 30, News Summaries - April 1971 [During this period, the Staff Secretary only removed pages from the News Summaries which contained President Nixon's handwriting, often leaving the document with no date. Although there are no specific documents with this date, you should also consult the full folder for the month.]

    President's Personal File

    The President's Personal File is essentially a President's secretary's file, kept by Rose Mary Woods, personal secretary to the President, for two purposes: (1) preserving for posterity a collection of documents particularly close to the President, whether because he dictated or annotated them, or because of the importance of the correspondent or the event concerned and (2) giving appropriate attention–letters of gratitude, invitations to White House social events, and the like–to members and important friends and supporters of the Nixon administration. This generalization does not describe all the varied materials of a file group which is essentially a miscellany, but it does identify the reason for the existence of the file group's core. Visit the finding aid to learn more.

  • The H. R. Haldeman Diaries consists of seven handwritten diaries, 36 dictated diaries recorded as sound recordings, and two handwritten audio cassette tape subject logs. The diaries and logs reflect H. R. Haldeman’s candid personal record and reflections on events, issues, and people encountered during his service in the Nixon White House. As administrative assistant to the President and Chief of Staff, Haldeman attended and participated in public events and private meetings covering the entire scope of issues in which the Nixon White House engaged in during the years 1969-1973. Visit the finding aid to learn more.

    • Transcript of diary entry (PDF)
      Wednesday, April 7.

      The day of the latest Vietnam speech. The President spent the whole day at the EOB working on the speech. He had a session with Laird and Rogers at noon and then a bipartisan leaders' meeting at 7:00 to brief them on his withdrawal announcement plans. He had me come over a couple of times for general conversation, as he had his drafts finished and was sort of relaxing.

      At one session, while Henry was there, he said he was going to let me in on the secret part of the speech, the ad-lib closing, and he then read me, from his yellow pad, his notes for the closing. As it turned out, they were almost verbatim what he used on the speech, and he obviously had been working very hard on putting them together. They related to the Medal of Honor incident when the little boy saluted him. He had asked me some weeks ago, then a little more recently, then again today, to verify the data on the incident.

      The general reaction to the speech was extremely good, especially to the closing segment because of its emotional quality. There is, of course, considerable disappointment and concern because the withdrawal rate has not stepped up far enough, nor is there any fixed terminal date. But the sincerity, conviction, and basic emotion of the President's presentation seemed to override this with most people, and I think overall, we'll end up with a very positive plus.

      In the middle of the day, I got the poll report from our interview on Monday and Tuesday, and it came out extremely well. The President's up from 41 to 54 in approval; so although he had told me he didn't want to see the poll before the speech, I decided he ought to know about it and went over and gave him the results, which of course, cheered him up considerably.

      The only real lack of enthusiasm within the staff for the speech was from MacGregor, who was very dispirited and disappointed because the withdrawals weren't high enough, and he'd been taking the heat from Congress. The President was very much attuned to this all day and also in the evening after the speech on the phone, and wanted a very cold-blooded evaluation of all the staff people, as to which ones were standing firm and which ones weren't. He feels very strongly that we've got to get rid of all those who don't really hang tight, as he went through with me yesterday.

      The Calley case popped up again this morning in the form of a release of a letter to the President from Captain Daniel, the prosecutor, which created a substantial flap. The President wanted me to call Laird and tell him that he wanted Resor's resignation by May 1, because he had another man in mind and he had some information that Resor stirred this up with the prosecutor. He feels that the prosecutor must have had higher clearance in order to have made this overt move. He was also distressed that Ehrlichman didn't go out and answer this head-on, and he called John to say he should do the briefing; but John talked him out of it on the grounds that it was a one day story, and that would only accelerate it. I'm not really sure that's the case.

      Later in the afternoon, we had a long general talk about Connally, and staff, and so on, the President's dissatisfaction with the Cabinet, primarily because of some of Henry's comments about the fact that none of them had called him up before the speech to wish him well, or anything of that sort. The reason, of course, is that he's never encouraged that kind of thing, and none of them feel they can call him up. In any event, he expressed considerable disappointment in this situation, and then got to talking about Connally and the Vice President and revealed his thought that the way out of the whole deal is to have the Vice President resign later this year, which then gives the President the opportunity to appoint a new Vice President under the new law of succession; this, subject to a majority approval of both houses of Congress. He would then appoint Connally, which would set him up for succession and probably would work out extremely well. He was up late tonight and on the phone to me even after I got home, three or four times, in the usual follow-up kind of activity. Even though he said he wouldn't take any calls, he did take a number of them and made several himself.

      End of April 7.
    • Original audio recording (MP3)

  • The National Archives Catalog is the online portal to the records held at the National Archives, and information about those records. It is the main way of describing our holdings and also provides access to electronic records and digitized versions of our holdings.

    The Catalog searches across multiple National Archives resources at once, including archival descriptions, digitized and electronic records, authority records, and web pages from Archives.gov and the Presidential Libraries. The Catalog also allows users to contribute to digitized historical records through tagging and transcription.

    Nixon Library Holdings

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National Security Documents

  • The President's Daily Brief is the primary vehicle for summarizing the day-to-day sensitive intelligence and analysis, as well as late-breaking reports, for the White House on current and future national security issues. Read "The President's Daily Brief: Delivering Intelligence to Nixon and Ford" to learn more.

  • The Foreign Relations of the United States series presents the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity. Visit the State Department website for more information.

    Vol. XXI, Chile, 1969-1973

    Cool and Correct: The U.S. Response to the Allende Administration, November 5, 1970-December 31, 1972

    Vol. E-5, Part 2, Documents on North Africa, 1969-1972

    Algeria

    • 24. Telegram 58412 From the Department of State to the Embassy in France, Washington, April 7, 1971, 1955Z

      This 5 page telegram transmitted Secretary Rogers account of the April 6 meeting between Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs David Newsom and French Ambassador Lucet at which Lucet inquired as to U.S. relations with Algeria. Lucet was particularly interested in the U.S. importation of Algerian liquefied natural gas.

      Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Files 1970–73, POL ALG-US. Secret. It was repeated to Algiers. Drafted on April 6 by Blake (AF/N); cleared by EUR/FBX, E/ORF/FSE, and AF; and approved by Blake. As a series of documents indicates, Paris, still in negotiations with Algiers over post-independence expropriations, was not eager to see the United States act on the El Paso Company’s proposed deal with SONATRACH. (Ibid., Nixon Presidential Materials Project, NSC Files, Boxes 677–678, Country Files, Europe, France) In telegram 65768, April 17, the Department sent an oral message from Nixon to President Pompidou indicating that the United States had no desire to impede France in resolving its problems with Algeria, and that there was time for French-Algerian negotiations to be completed before the natural gas deal was finalized. The restoration of political relations with Algeria, Nixon emphasized, would benefit all in the West. (Ibid., Box 678, Country Files, Europe, France, Volume VIII, 4/71–12/71)

    Vol. E-7, Documents on South Asia, 1969-1972

    India and Pakistan: Crisis and War, March-December 1971

    • 129. Telegram 58039 From the Department of State to the Consulate General in Dacca, Washington, April 7, 1971, 0014Z

      This telegram, drafted by Assistant Secretary of State Sisco and cleared by the senior leadership of the Department of State, USIA, and AID, responded to the charge made by the staff of the Consulate General that the U.S. had failed to condemn what it viewed as atrocities in East Pakistan.

      Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Files 1970–73, POL 27 INDIA–PAK. Secret; Immediate; Nodis. Drafted on April 6 by Sisco; cleared by Irwin, U. Alexis Johnson, Eliot, Macomber, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Press Relations Robert J. McCloskey, Deputy Director Henry Loomis (USIA), and Maurice Williams (AID); and approved by Rogers. Repeated to Islamabad, Karachi, and Lahore.

  • The Kissinger telephone conversation transcripts consist of approximately 20,000 pages of transcripts of Kissinger’s telephone conversations during his tenure as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (1969-1974) and Secretary of State (1973-1974) during the administration of President Richard Nixon. Visit the finding aid for more information.

    Digitized versions can be found in the National Archives Catalog.

Audiovisual Holdings

Context (External Sources)