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January 23, 1972

Introduction

This almanac page for Sunday, January 23, 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: Saturday, January 22, 1972

Next Date: Monday, January 24, 1972

Schedule and Public Documents

  • The Daily Diary files represent a consolidated record of the President's activities. Visit the finding aid to learn more.

    The President's day began at Grand Cay, Bahama Islands

  • The Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents made available transcripts of the President's news conferences; messages to Congress; public speeches, remarks, and statements; and other Presidential materials released by the White House.

    Digitized versions can be found at HathiTrust.

  • The Federal Register is the official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other Presidential documents.

    No Federal Register published on this date

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 and Unmarked News Summaries [Note: Although there was no News Summary on this date, due to the way News Summary products were compiled, you should also consult nearby days for potentially relevant materials.]

  • 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)
      Sunday, January 23rd. President stayed over at Walkers last night. Got back today, was interested in comparing the Vietnam reports, the press reports on the Vietnam War, with the press reporting of World War II. I had made the point to him that there was nothing about Vietnam until you got to the Third Section today, because the news was good news, and so they buried it. He was thinking back to World War II, when they really played up the big, big, the good news, and played down the bad. Just the opposite of now.

      We left after dinner for a return to Washington. He had me up for a good part of the flight, going over a lot of schedule details for the next few weeks, getting everything pretty well squared away as to how he'll handle the time between now and the departure for China.

      He then got into the Rogers-Kissinger question. He had a directive that Henry wanted sent to Rogers regarding the planes to Israel and the Israel-Egypt negotiations. The President decided that I should handle the directive rather than Mitchell in order to keep it out of politics. That he wants Rogers to know that he expects him to play it politically. That we can't have the American Jews bitching regarding the plane deliveries, and we can't push Israel too hard and have a confrontation. So he's to keep Sisco slowed down. He’s to say he’s doing the plane paragraph, or I'm to say that he's doing, put the plane paragraph in the memo, for the record, so that he can tell his Jewish friends that that's been ordered. We must not let this issue hurt us politically. The President won't discuss it, because he doesn't want to be caught discussing politics, but Rogers must play politics, the President will not. Secondly, and I raised this, he said I could tell him that the way this is working...

      -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      DECLASSIFIED - E.O. 13526, Sect. 3.4: by MS, NARA, June 12, 2013
      Audio Cassette 18, Side A, Withdrawn Item Number 17 [AC-18(A) Sel 15]
      Duration: 20 seconds

      ...it could well be that we'll want the Soviets in on this to get their cooperation regarding the Egyptians at the summit. That we're not sure, but now we don't want us to give anything to the UAR beyond which the Soviets might be willing to give.
      -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

      [End of tape reel AC-18(A)]

      [Begin tape reel AC-18(B)

      Sunday, January 23rd continued.

      Continuing the point of the discussion on...

      -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      DECLASSIFIED - E.O. 13526, Sect. 3.4: by MS, NARA, June 12, 2013
      Audio Cassette 18, Side B, Withdrawn Item Number 1 [AC-18(B) Sel 1]
      Duration: 24 seconds

      ...Rogers re: Israel. He thinks that we can withhold something on the Middle East and get something from the Soviets for it. So this is one of the things that could come out of the summit. But we can't tell anyone that at this point. That's based on the President's conversation with Gromyko. So we should take our time, have movement, but not too much.
      -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

      He also raised the question that's bothering him on the Vietnam speech, which is whether he shouldn't spell in more detail the reason for having to have secret negotiations as contrasted to negotiating in the open. He's going to instruct Safire to rework that part of the speech and get more of an explanation in.

      End of January 23rd.
    • 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 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)