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January 10, 1972

Introduction

This almanac page for Monday, January 10, 1972, 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: Sunday, January 9, 1972

Next Date: Tuesday, January 11, 1972

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.

  • 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)
      Monday, January 10th. The dominating factor today was Kissinger problems again. Starting with a call this morning to me, he said he had talked to Laird on the troop announcement, and Laird was dragging his feet, saying the President couldn't go as high a number as he had planned, but he would review it and confirm this afternoon. He also said Laird was raving about all the papers that the Joint Chiefs got from us legally, and that what a big problem we had on that.

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      DECLASSIFIED - E.O. 13526, Sect. 3.4: by MS, NARA, June 12, 2013
      Audio Cassette 17, Side B, Withdrawn Item Number 8 [AC-17(B) Sel 5]
      Duration: 22 seconds

      He also said he had had a call from Rabin, that he's been called into the State Department to discuss supplies and negotiations. And Henry says that if the President has any serious interest in going ahead with the, his plan on the Middle East, he's going to have to take the strong move with Rogers and get State under control.
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      He then got into his general basic problem again, saying that now he can't brief anymore because of terrible coverage he got in the magazines this week, and his credibility was destroyed, and so on. He abruptly at one point said he didn't choose to discuss it any further and hung up on me. He apparently immediately called the Attorney General, because I tried to, and it was busy. Then I got to him a few minutes later, he said he had been talking to Henry also.

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      DECLASSIFIED - E.O. 13526, Sect. 3.4: by MS, NARA, June 12, 2013
      Audio Cassette 17, Side B, Withdrawn Item Number 9 [AC-17(B) Sel 6]
      Duration: 13 seconds

      And he suggested to Henry that he have Rabin go ahead and have his meeting with State, then report back to Kissinger, so we'll know what was covered. Then we can use this as a case history with Bill when the Attorney General and I meet with him.
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      Mitchell also said that in discussing this whole problem, Nelson Rockefeller had suggested the tactic of firing Sisco, which would give us great pluses with Kissinger, as well as with the Israelis. It would be retribution for what he said in the WSAG meetings, and all of our problems at the moment are in Sisco's ballpark, so this could be quite a good move. I filled the President in on these problems this afternoon over at the EOB, and he picked up the phone, called Laird, on the pretext of discussing Rush, and got that pretty well locked up, and then told him he's going to have to go for the 70,000 troop withdrawal. That they'll announce it Thursday morning, and he wanted Laird to go out to the press with the President. Henry had reported this to me earlier, saying as usual we're following our policy of rewarding traitors. The President said he wanted Laird to brief on the details after the President makes the announcement. And the President then told me to call Henry and tell him Laird was locked on the 70,000, completely on salvo, no problem. Also to tell Henry I had a good talk with Rush, and that Laird was going to work out things with him tomorrow. That he would be a tower of strength in the WSAG. He's delighted, he'll work closely with us, and he's very close to Mitchell, so on.

      Then we discussed the whole Kissinger problem in considerable detail, as the President tried to untangle what can be done about it. He raised the question that really Henry's gotten past the point of basic stability to where he is no longer useful and maybe even dangerous. This is something I think we do have to seriously consider. He said that the Attorney General and I should go to Rogers, but we should make the point that we have to keep the President out of it until the State of the Union. We should put the blame on Sisco, and suggest moving him to an ambassadorial post.

      He wants to check out the idea of a State Department white paper on India-Pakistan, see if they can do it right. Then he said we should try to convince Rogers...

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      DECLASSIFIED - E.O. 13526, Sect. 3.4: by MS, NARA, June 12, 2013
      Audio Cassette 17, Side B, Withdrawn Item Number 11 [AC-17(B) Sel 8]
      Duration: 8 seconds

      ...to take the Israeli issue away from Kissinger by playing the part of being pro-Jewish, realizing that we have no choice in the matter anyway.
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      The President, in pondering the whole thing, also wondered about the question of how big an issue Kissinger is in the public mind, or whether this is just something that we're worried about internally. I talked to Kissinger a little later, and he said that the latest thing today, now, is that there are rumors all around that he's resigning, and he said the real question that they ask is why is a Presidential assistant under such attack with no word of support from his boss? He says that the leaking has provided the occasion for everybody in the State Department, etcetera, to brief the press. That Frankel, Valeriani, and Doyle all had the same story, obviously from a State Department source that was some anti-Nix--, anti-Kissinger story.

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      DECLASSIFIED - E.O. 13526, Sect. 3.4: by MS, NARA, June 12, 2013
      Audio Cassette 17, Side B, Withdrawn Item Number 12 [AC-17(B) Sel 9]
      Duration: 23 seconds

      He said Rabin told him they are pressing to go back into negotiations. They are giving ground on the airplanes, which is what State is supposed to be doing. But, the real problem here is that they give us no advanced notice before they set up the meeting with Rabin. Henry says his authority is so shaken now that he can't handle the bureaucracy. We've got to hit them on the basis that they cannot call in Rabin without telling us.
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      He says we may be beyond the point where anything can be done, that there's clearly a major campaign working on the combination of leaks and briefings. The whole thing is a complete disaster. He said a senior official told Craswell and one other reporter, that Kissinger refused new instructions for SALT, because he was afraid that the Chinese would be mad and it would louse up the visit. Actually, the real reason he has held up on instructions for SALT, but that's because he wants to settle it after China, so that the President can sign the SALT agreement when he's in Moscow. He obviously has been talking to a lot of reporters and reading all the magazines and really suffering as a result.

      Then the upshot later was that late this evening the Attorney General called me to say Nelson Rockefeller had just called him, and was extremely upset and very concerned, very apologetic for calling him. But said he had a traumatic call from Henry, who says now that he's quitting on the 27th. And Mitchell is wondering if he's trying to use Rockefeller for leverage or what, but thinks we ought to get Haig, or someone, to go out and hold his hand. He, Henry apparently also said something to Rockefeller about the fact that there's no defense of him by his boss. Mitchell feels the President should find some excuse to call him, and that Ziegler should find a way to put something out about the President conferring with him and tie the Haig trip out there into this so that Henry gets some publicity, which, of course, is the thing that helps him the most.

      On other subjects, we, the President got into substantial schedule changes. He's very anxious to clear his calendar, concentrating whatever he has to do into a few days and keeping a maximum amount of time open for study and preparation for his State of the Union speech, and the big Vietnam speech next week. He, we also discussed the Attorney General move. The President has been pushing for him not to move over to the campaign, but I made the point that he's really needed there, and the President agreed that we should then go ahead and get it worked out as quickly as possible. But, the problem as he saw it was that Ehrlichman says Kleindienst can't be confirmed, and Mitchell insists that Kleindienst be his successor.

      End of January 10th.
    • 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

    All National Archives Units

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. II, Organization and Management of U.S. Foreign Policy, 1969-1972

    The NSC System

    • 167. Memorandum From President Nixon to his Assistant (Haldeman), Washington, January 10, 1972

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, White House Special Files, President’s Office Files, President’s Personal Files, Box 3, Memoranda from the President, 1969–1974, Memos—January 1972. Confidential.

    Vol. VII, Vietnam, July 1970-January 1972

    Military and Diplomatic Stalemate, October 11, 1971-January 26, 1972

    Vol. XL, Germany and Berlin, 1969-1972

    Germany and Berlin, 1969-1972

    • 337. Memorandum of Conversation, Washington, January 10, 1972, 12:30 p.m.

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 1331, NSC Unfiled Materials, 1972 [6 of 8]. Secret; Nodis; XGDS. Drafted by Kennedy, based on his attached handwritten notes. The meeting was held in the Oval Office. A tape recording of the conversation is ibid., White House Tapes, Recording of Conversation Between Nixon and Rush, January 10, 1972, 12:35–1:24 p.m., Oval Office, Conversation 644–14.

    Vol. XLI, Western Europe; NATO, 1969-1972

    Malta

  • 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)