White House tape recordings, April 25, 1972:
President Nixon: How many did we kill in Laos?
National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger: In the Laotian thing, we killed about ten, fifteen [thousand] …
Nixon: See, the attack in the North [Vietnam] that we have in mind … power plants, whatever’s left – POL [petroleum], the docks … And, I still think we ought to take the dikes out now. Will that drown people?
Kissinger: About two hundred thousand people.
Nixon: No, no, no … I’d rather use the nuclear bomb. Have you got that, Henry?
Kissinger: That, I think, would just be too much.
Nixon: The nuclear bomb, does that bother you? … I just want you to think
big, Henry, for Christsakes.
May 2, 1972:
Nixon: America is not defeated. We must not lose in Vietnam. … The
surgical operation theory is all right, but I want that place bombed to
smithereens. If we draw the sword, we’re gonna bomb those bastards all
over the place. Let it fly, let it fly.
Thank to author Bill Blum from the Anti-Empire Report for sharing this
transcript. 2015 will mark the 40th anniversary of the victory of the
Vietnamese people and the reunification of their country that had been
brutally divided, viciously attacked and occupied first by France, then Japan,
and then by U.S. imperialism. The criminality and barbarism of the U.S. war in
Vietnam needs to be constantly exposed. Nixon’s own words, privately spoken
to his closest advisers, show the truly depraved character of the invaders.
