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May 13, 1971

Introduction

This almanac page for Thursday, May 13, 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: Wednesday, May 12, 1971

Next Date: Friday, May 14, 1971

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.

    Digitized versions can be found at HathiTrust.

  • 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)
      Thursday, May 13.

      Kissinger and I were in for a fairly long session first thing this morning, since the day had been kept clear for a possible press conference. The President got into a review of Laos, and the fact that casualties were way down now since Laos, just as they were after Cambodia. That there's been no spring offensive, despite the largest materiel input ever in Vietnam, including at Tet; and that it's really remarkable proof of the effectiveness of the operation, but doesn't give us any credit. We also got to talking about China and the whole plan for possible follow-up on the initiative. Henry's ecstatic because he's heard back from the North Vietnamese, and they want to meet with him in Paris on the 30th; so he's going ahead with that plan. He still thinks the Chinese thing's going to work out, but there's been no word, of course, from them and won't be for a couple of weeks.

      Then we got into the problem of Rogers and the SALT agreement, since that's now set and will be announced next Thursday. The problem is how to fill Rogers in ahead of time without his feeling that it's been maneuvered behind his back, which of course, it has. The President's very sensitive to this, but doesn't seem to have any fixed ideas on how to deal with it.

      Later the President got into his concern on welfare. He wants to be sure that anything Ron and any of our staff says on it makes the point that we're going for welfare reform and for harder work requirements, etcetera, not for the expansion of welfare, which is what it looks like now. We should make the point that this is a substantial improvement, because it has the reform element. He wants to emphasize the hard side from here on out, not the family assistance idea, and he's concerned that everybody make that point strongly in all their references to welfare.

      He got into the-- a discussion with Ehrlichman later in the morning on the need to think regarding goals, rather than programs, and got into quite a session with John covering the same ground that I'd been pushing on, trying to shift the emphasis of the Domestic Council's approach. The President pointed out that we've got to personalize and conceptualize in broad visionary terms regarding goals, instead of just developing programs and legislation. He told Ehrlichman to pull himself and Shultz away from operations and start thinking of PR opportunities and new ideas, in terms of new ways to present what we now have. He says all our programs are based on "how do you run it". None of them gets to the question of "what's in it for me", in terms of the ordinary guy. So now he wants to go for goals, great goals, even though we can't achieve them, like: 100 million jobs; or increasing family income by $10,000; or 2 bathrooms in every house; or whatever. He said, politically the "New American Revolution" is a dud. The people don't care how you run the government; they only want it to cost a little less. He wants to go for water, education, narcotics, street crime, and whatever positive issues we can develop on what the country is going to be like.

      He then got back into his description that he covered with me the day before, on the television show that glorified the homosexuals, and covered that with John, making the point that homosexuality, dope, and immorality are the basic enemies of a strong society, and that's why the Russians are pushing it here, in order to destroy us. He wants everybody here now to start thinking politically, instead of worrying about running things well. He said we have a problem in that we have a lot of PR people, but no PR ideas or phrases, and those have to come from the people who are immersed in the problem. In other words, the man working on the program has to develop the idea, not an outsider. He has to think more of how to sell it, then bring the PR types in with him to work on it. He says more important than the program is how you sell it, and this won't come from the outsider.

      He told John the State of the Union should be a brief, high-level goal statement, and use the budget as the effective platform. He doesn't want to worry about new initiatives except maybe tax reform. He does want to try and move some targets before the first of the year. Ehrlichman raised the point that he has a dilemma of running as President and still not looking-- looking political, which is why the President says he wants highfalutin things rather than specific legislation. The President told John to bring in Safire, Price, Scali, and Moore for their creative sense.

      Later in the day he got into the question of the SST and concern about who's in charge of it, with Magruder off in the Virgin Islands. He feels that we've got to hit the Senate hard on it now, before they make up their minds, and not just let the thing wallow around, with people becoming committed against us on invalid reasons. He then went through some specifics of what ought to be done to carry that fight.

      John Mitchell called and wanted to come over to talk to Ehrlichman and me. It turns out that he's uncovered some payoffs to Bob Brown and other government people from the Watts Manufacturing Company, and wanted to let us know and to determine how to go about investigating it. We all agreed that the FBI should move fast on it and get a report back to us as quickly as they could.

      End of March-- May 13.
    • 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. IV, Foreign Assistance, International Development, Trade Policies, 1969-1972

    East-West Trade, 1969-1972

    Coordinating Committee on Export Controls, 1969-1972

    Vol. V, United Nations, 1969-1972

    High-Level Meetings; Miscellaneous Issues

    UN Finances and Reduction of the U.S. Assessment

    Chinese Representation in the United Nations

    • 353. Letter From Australian Prime Minister McMahon to President Nixon, Canberra, May 13, 1971

      Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Files 1970–73, UN 6 CHICOM. Secret. An attached memorandum indicates that this letter, which was delivered by the Australian Embassy to the State Department, was forwarded under cover of a memorandum from Executive Secretary Eliot to Kissinger on May 14.

    Vol. VII, Vietnam, July 1970-January 1972

    The Consequences of Operation Lan Som 719 and the Search for a Settlement, April 8-October 6, 1971

    Vol. XI, South Asia Crisis, 1971

    South Asia Crisis, 1971

    Vol. XIII, Soviet Union, October 1970-October 1971

    "One of Two Routes": Soviet-American Relations and Kissinger's Secret Trip to China, April 23-July 18, 1971

    • 214. Memorandum of Conversation, Washington, May 13, 1971, 11 a.m.

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 491, President’s Trip Files, Dobrynin/Kissinger, 1971, Vol. 6 [part 2]. Top Secret; Sensitive; Eyes Only. David Young and Winston Lord prepared the memorandum of conversation from Kissinger’s “somewhat cryptic” dictated notes; they also drafted a memorandum to the President summarizing the “highlights” of the meetings between Kissinger and Dobrynin on May 12 and 13. Kissinger, however, decided on May 20 not to forward the memorandum to the President. (Memorandum from Young to Kissinger, May 18; ibid.) The meeting was held in the Map Room at the White House. According to Kissinger’s Record of Schedule, the meeting began at 10:08 and lasted until 11:45 am. (Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Kissinger Papers, Box 438, Miscellany, 1968–76)

    • 215. Conversation Between President Nixon and the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger), Washington, May 13, 1971

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, White House Tapes, Conversation 498–11. No classification marking. The editors transcribed the portion of the tape recording printed here specifically for this volume. According to the President’s Daily Diary, Nixon met Kissinger in the Oval Office from 2:15 to 2:34 p.m. (Ibid., White House Central Files)

    • 216. Conversation Between President Nixon and the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger), Washington, May 13, 1971

      Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, White House Tapes, Conversation 498–18. No classification marking. The editors transcribed the portion of the tape recording printed here specifically for this volume. According to the President’s Daily Diary, Nixon met Kissinger in the Oval Office from 6:05 to 6:28 p.m. (Ibid., White House Central Files)

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

    Western Europe Region and NATO

    • 63. Memorandum for the Record, Washington, May 13, 1971, 4:35 p.m.

      Source: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Kissinger Papers, Box CL 278, Presidential File. Secret. Sent for information. Sonnenfeldt drafted the memorandum on May 24. According to the President’s Daily Diary, Nixon and Haig left the Oval Office at 4:31 p.m. for the meeting in the Cabinet Room. The following people also attended: Kissinger, Rogers, McCloy, George Ball, Dean Acheson (former Secretary of State), Henry Cabot Lodge (former Ambassador to the U.N. and South Vietnam), Nicholas Katzenbach (former Attorney General), General Alfred Gruenther, General Lauris Norstad, Goodpaster, Lemnitzer, General Lucius Clay (former High Commissioner for Germany), Cyrus Vance (former Deputy Defense Secretary), Laird, Moorer, and James Roche (Chairman, General Motors Corporation). The President returned to the Oval Office at 6:03 p.m. (National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, White House Central Files) Kissinger made numerous telephone calls on May 12 to many of the participants in this meeting, trying to enlist support for defeat of the Mansfield Resolution. (Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Kissinger Papers, Box 368, Telephone Conversations, Chronological File)

    Vol. E-2, Documents on Arms Control and Nonproliferation, 1969-1972

    Chemical and Biological Warfare; Geneva Protocol; Biological Weapons Convention

    • 229. Memorandum From Secretary of Defense Laird to President Nixon, Washington, May 13, 1971

      Laird requested the President’s approval to continue a limited herbicide program in Vietnam.

      Source: Ford Library, Melvin Laird Papers, Box 39, Chemical Warfare & Biological Research, Vol. III Jan. 1971–July 1972, Calendar (5). Secret; Sensitive.

  • 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)