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January 25, 1972

Introduction

This almanac page for Tuesday, January 25, 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: Monday, January 24, 1972

Next Date: Wednesday, January 26, 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 The White House - Washington, D. C.

  • 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.

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  • Each Public Papers of the Presidents volume contains the papers and speeches of the President of the United States that were issued by the White House Office of the Press Secretary during the time period specified by the volume. The material is presented in chronological order, and the dates shown in the headings are the dates of the documents or events. In instances when the release date differs from the date of the document itself, that fact is shown in the text note.

    To ensure accuracy, remarks have been checked against audio recordings (when available) and signed documents have been checked against the original, unless otherwise noted. Editors have provided text notes and cross references for purposes of identification or clarity.

  • 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.

  • The Congressional Record is the official daily record of the debates and proceedings of the U.S. Congress.

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.

    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)
      Tuesday, January 25.

      President was in the office this morning, spent quite a little time in just general conversation, since he had the speech pretty well wrapped up for tonight. He was concerned about a news summary report about a Sidey column saying that the President had too much access to television and other facilities, which made it hard for the other candidates. President's reaction was that we ought to explore the question of whether Sidey ever deplored Nixon's problem for eight years while he was out of office, when he traveled around the world alone with his briefcase, got no coverage, a lot less than even Scoop Jackson gets now, and did Sidey at that time complain about Kennedy dominating news? Did he argue for equal time for the Republicans? It's kind of curious to explore the double standard.

      Kissinger was in for quite a while. We talked about the speech for tonight, making the point that we've got to realize that the press is going to kick us on Vietnam, not because they think we're wrong on what we're doing on this, but because they know we're right, and are furious because we're the ones who are doing it, the same way they did on Cambodia, and to an extent on China.

      We reviewed also the question of possibility that-- or probability, really, that North Vietnam will create a real crisis in process of this. One of the reports said that while the President's in China, they might very well move to cut Vietnam in half and create a super crisis that we would have trouble dealing with. Henry made the point that this was quite possible and we had to figure that that could happen. Also, we've got to prepare a plan for our approach if the VC, or North Vietnam, turn down our peace offer, and we've got to go on the basis that we stick solidly with the position and don't waver at all. Attack our opponents and keep the heat on for consideration of our proposal. We have to establish the point that the President has done exactly what he said he would, and try to get this across somehow.

      We had quite a thing with Laird regarding a Washington Post story this morning that quoted Pentagon officials and officers, in quite vehement criticism of the President's-- or the White House's orders on the bombing raids on North Vietnam. President told me to hit Laird on this, saying we want to know who put it out, and establish the facts that the Joint Chiefs are the ones who wanted the three-- the five days, while the President originally ordered a three day bombing thing. The article said the White House insisted on five, which was not true, the Joint Chiefs did. Also, it said that White House has screwed up the target selection, whereas the White House had approved all of the targets from the Joint Chiefs. He also told me to call Moorer and make the point that the President has been standing up for the Chiefs and it's up to Tom to find out who did this, or we'll have to skewer the Chiefs from the White House.

      I made both calls, got Laird mid-day, and Moorer this evening after he got back from a trip. Laird immediately joined me in complete indignation about the whole thing, said it was just terrible, and they'd checked it out, and that the Post reporter had gotten his stuff from military offices on the Joint Staff. And that he's just going to try and work something out. Then when I got to Moorer, he said that they had checked it very carefully and it was nobody on the Joint Chiefs, must have been somewhere else, so as usual they're all denying it and we get nowhere.

      Haig reported, though, that he had a meeting with Laird shortly after that to review the speech with him, and apparently my phone call had shook Laird up quite a bit, and so it may have some value anyway. He also reported a rather alarming series of items that Laird dropped on him, saying that he had known about the secret meetings for some time, ever since we told Bill Rogers, because Bill had come right over and told him. And also he knew about the speech, because Bill had reviewed that with him, and had told him Saturday that he was going to do everything he could to kill the speech. Obviously, he didn't do anything, so there's some question as to whether the report's true, but it's one more item in the running battle.

      We set up a series of Kissinger briefings this afternoon. Fortunately the first one was a staff meeting, and it didn't go well at all, because Henry started out with a long reiteration of all his negotiations and made the thing sound like a dismal defeat rather than a strong, positive move. It was lucky it was the staff, because he got considerable questions and criticism, as a result of which we regrouped for an hour afterwards and worked out a totally different approach, which he then used with a State and Defense group, and hopefully with the press. The speech itself went very well, and the President did an excellent job in his method as well as content of presentation. The phone reaction stuff afterwards was as good as any we've ever had, and I think we've probably scored at least a minor coup—maybe even a major one—in terms of public opinion and reaction.

      End of January 25.
    • 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. 

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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. VIII, Vietnam, January-October 1972

    Before the Easter Offensive, January 20-March 29, 1972

    Vol. XIV, Soviet Union, October 1971-May 1972

    Preparing for Moscow and Nixon's Trip to China, January 1-March 29, 1972

    • 40. Letter From President Nixon to Soviet General Secretary Brezhnev, Washington, January 25, 1972

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 493, President’s Trip Files, Dobrynin/Kissinger, 1972, Vol. 9 [Pt. 2]. No classification marking. Kissinger gave this letter to Dobrynin on January 28. (Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Kissinger Papers, Box 438, Miscellany, 1968–1976, Record of Schedule) A similar message also was passed to the People’s Republic of China on January 26.

    Vol. XX, Southeast Asia, 1969-1972

    Indonesia

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

    U.S. Relations with India and Pakistan, 1972

    • 215. Memorandum From the Executive Secretary of the Department of State (Eliot) to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger), Washington, January 25, 1972

      The memorandum transmitted the joint State-AID recommendations for economic policy for Pakistan and India, put forward in response to a tasking from the Senior Review Group, which included PL–480 agreements with both countries and debt deferral for Pakistan. From the perspective of State and AID, the resumption of economic assistance to India should depend upon “Indian intentions.”

      Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Files 1970–73, AID (US) INDIA. Secret. Drafted by Tiger and Francis H. Thomas (NEA/PAF); revised by Irwin; cleared by Laingen, Schneider, Van Hollen, and Sisco, and by Rees and Williams. Deputy Executive Secretary Robert T. Curran signed for Eliot.

    Vol. E-13, Documents on China, 1969-1972

  • 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)