 Oval Office, White House, Washington, June 2, 1972, 327-355 p.m., Inattendance, Richard Nixon, POTUS, Henry Kissinger, Assistant for National Security Affairs, General Alexander Hague, Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs, Agent Gregory Sacks, GOC, Admiral Thomas Muir, Chairman, JCS, General John C. Meyer, Commander, S.A.C. Nixon, Palme, John, thank you both for coming over. Muir, thank you Mr. President, welcome back and congratulations on the summit. Meyer, Mr. President, I want to add my congratulations, frankly sir, the ABM and Salt Treaties aren't going to make my life easier. Nixon, it's kind of funny you would say that John, because if the goddamn peace nicks at the New York Times had that their way, we would have told the Russians that we were ready to get rid of all of your bombers and all of your missiles. And then there wouldn't be anything left for you to do but play golf every day. But the reason I asked you gentlemen to see me here, Al, where's the binder? Hague, here sir, Nixon. Gentlemen, based on some information that came to Lightstar before and during my trip to Moscow, we have a supplement to the targeting priority list for our bombers and ICBMs. Muir, a minute if you'll forgive me Mr. President, who is that guy? Sacks, Admiral, I'm unintelligible. Nixon, don't worry about it Tom, he's okay. Muir, Mr. President, with respect sir, the Pentagon just usually cables Kissinger. Unintelligible, only a contingency. Muir, unintelligible, orders over. Nixon, I realize that this is a departure from your regular protocol. But I wanted to go over this with you in person because this is an unusual case. And I wanted to make sure that there is no mistake. To make sure that you didn't think there was a transcription error or something. Hank, can you start? Kissinger, Case Cold Harper. How you people come up with these names, I don't know. These are the instructions to SAC if the balloon goes up on Case Cold Harper. Here is the list of the bomber wings and the ICBM sites in the usual format. And here are the coordinates of the target. You will? Muir, I don't understand. It's the same coordinates all the way down the list. Muir, some of these assets sir, Anderson, AFB, that's in Guam. And Clark is in the Philippines. How can they even reach? Muir, hold it, yeah, you're right. Tom, what is this? Hague, not intelligible. If Case Cold Harper goes hunt, Nixon. See Hank, this is why I wanted them here in person. Admiral, General, this is not a mistake. If we have to call Cold Harper then this location here is the target. Muir, not intelligible. Somewhere in the Arctic Ocean. Muir, 73 points such and such north by 54 points such and such east. Let me check the map. It's not in the ocean, it's the big Russian island here, Novaya Zemlya. Muir, that 50 megaton job that Khrushchev dropped back in 61? Sarbom 1, I think they called it? I think that was where they dropped it. Hague, show you some YouTube photographs of the location. Muir, so we would be bombing a test range? I don't... Kissinger, not intelligible. Not exactly a testing facility. Muir, I'm sorry? Kissinger, I said that it's not a testing facility. A garbage incinerator would be a better analogy. If you want to be technical, it's not even a Soviet facility, strictly speaking. Sax. Dr. Kissinger, I don't think... Hague, Mr. President, I should point out that General Muir isn't on the list and Admiral Muir, Nixon, Al, they have to know enough to be able to do their jobs. Hague, sir, I agree, of course, but unintelligible. What list? Forgive me for not being in on the news that there's a clearance level that is higher than the commander of strategic air command, but that guy next to Dr. Kissinger, who I don't even recognize, Nixon. I'm going to tell them. Hague, Mr. President, I really am not intelligible. Nixon, no, not everything, just what they need. Muir, unintelligible. Little out of the loop, Nixon. Admiral, General, it will have to suffice for me to say that there is a... There is an object, let's say, at this place on that island. These are contingency targeting instructions. If I, if the commander-in-chief gives the command to activate Cold Harper, which would only be done if Christ help us, the trigger condition had been satisfied, then... Muir, then that site becomes the priority target. Nixon, they only target. It is not just the priority target, it's the only target. Muir, sir, you have ascending three, four... Wait, all of our bomber wings and all of our intercontinental missiles? Kissinger, that's correct, Admiral. Muir, targeting just this one location? Muir, sir, the way we run our bombers, when we hit something once with these payloads, the target is gone. So I don't see Muir. Not even LeMay would have an intelligible. Muir, unintelligible, would have to be a one-way trip for a lot of these boys at this range. Nixon, look, Tom, John, I'm satisfied that it's necessary. Muir, whoever is there, you must really want us to get up there in a hell of a hurry and kill it. Hey, if it comes to that, I sure as hell hope not, since a lot of the guys up there are ours. Well, his at any rate. Muir, so who the hell are you guys then? Sacks, we're keeping an eye on the object as the president put it until we can come up with a satisfactory way to get rid of it. More. So this is your plan for disposing of the whatever it is? Nixon, this is plan B. Plan A is just holding the line, so to speak, for as long as they can in the way that they're doing it now. Muir, with respect, sir, I don't see how we can drill this. Well, everything has to be put in place for linebacker Kissinger. In general, first of all, it has been determined for the sake of operational security that the existence of Cold Harbor itself is Foxtrot level, from which it follows that there can be no drills, nobody, not even SAC command staff who have not been designated Foxtrot level are clear for this. If the balloon goes up, you just do what you have to do to aim your planes and target your missiles in accordance with these instructions. Secondly, if Nixon, where Henry is going with this, is that if we're in Cold Harbor, then linebacker South Vietnam. It isn't quite a matter. Muir, but we would no longer have our nuclear deterrence against the Soviets. Hey, doesn't matter because they will have already Nixon. I should have told Al not to bother showing you those photos because if we do Cold Harbor, then the location isn't going to look like this by the time your boys get there, John. It will already be hot because the Russians, who are closer obviously, would have already hit the location with everything that they've got. Muir, the Soviets would bomb themselves? Kissinger, well it was their own idea. SACs, technically they'd be bombing my people, but under the circumstances, that would hardly matter. Muir, I have to ask because I really don't know the answer. You're on our side, right? I mean, you're not a Russian or... SACs, Athens, Georgia, sir. Go Bulldogs, Muir. This whole thing doesn't make any damn sense. Muir, we would hit this thing with our whole nuclear triad after it's already nothing but a smoking irradiated crater from what the Soviets have? Kissinger, not the whole triad admiral, just the missiles and boomers. The subs, Nixon. The boomers we will need for NOAA, which I'll do over with you and Almos and Wildt in another briefing in a few days. Muir, NOAA as in the weather forecasting people? Kissinger, NOAA as in Ark. Don't you remember from Sunday school? The anim was marching two by two. Hague, unintelligible, seeds and frozen embryos for the most part. Unintelligible, offload the missiles to make room. Nixon, we are not ready to talk about NOAA yet. I want to get this targeting thing settled. Admiral Muir, General Muir, I assure you that I have thought this through. General, you have the order. Thank you both for coming. Muir, thank you, Mr. President. Admiral Muir and General Muir leave the meeting. Nixon, that settles that bit. Satisfied, Agent Sacks? Sacks, yes, Mr. President. I'll report back to the unintelligible. Nixon, yes, thank you for coming. Please tell your people, tell them that I appreciate the fine work they're doing. Sacks, of course, sir. Thank you, Mr. President. Agent Sacks leave the meeting. Nixon, thanks Al. Can Henry and I have the room? Hague, yes sir, Mr. President. General Hague leave the meeting. Nixon, should we get Ambassador Dobrinan over here to tell him? Or do you want to talk to Grameco directly? Kissinger, I'll call Grameco. I'll call him as soon as I get back over to the executive office building. Nixon, our boys here, Henry, it wears on you how they don't see the big picture. Kissinger, to be fair, Mr. President, apart from the GOC and Foxtrot and whatever the Soviets call their version of Foxtrot, they don't know. Nixon, they don't know. How it makes you kind of jealous. Kissinger, when you had told me I didn't really appreciate it. I didn't until Sacks and Marshall Jakovsky took me up there last week and showed me. Nixon, I'm afraid that it will stay with you. Kissinger, unintelligible, not believe it, even after the number of times they've dropped bombs on it. Even the SAR bomb, barely unintelligible. Nixon, including those times in 64 and 65, when Johnson had to give them some of our bombs to use because they had run out of their own. Kissinger, unintelligible, still see it every time I close my eyes. Nixon, they brought me up there and showed it to me when I went to Russia under Ike in 1959. This was a couple of days after the kitchen debate. Ike knew I'm certain of it. He asked me to go over there. I guess he wanted to see whether I was ready. Hand me the whiskey. Kissinger, let me force each one. Nixon, I'm going to need a taller one than that. Just give me the bottle back. You know, I didn't even use to drink very much before that trip, but you do what it takes and you soldier on. Kissinger, those men at the site, they have to be there every day. Nixon, unintelligible, the goddamn bravest bastards in the whole world, especially that guy, Vasily with the eye patch, was he still there? Kissinger, you had told me and I asked about him. They told me that he's still in the books as being assigned there, but they keep him sedated most of the time. Nixon, that's a shame. They told me that he had been through Stalingrad and Berlin, but I can't, I don't think I'm surprised. Kissinger, unintelligible, Nixon. You know, knowing that things like that, unintelligible, puts the rest of it into perspective, China and Vietnam and all of that. Kissinger, unintelligible, what's important in the big picture? Nixon, the big picture exactly. And that's why it's so goddamn frustrating. Those fuckers on the hill and those fucking screaming college kids. If they knew the kinds of things that we, what did you see and our other boys were doing? They'd have a goddamn parade every day. They'd build a goddamn statue. They'd say, thank you. They are unintelligible. Kissinger, at least Brezhnev and Gromyko will have something that they can be grateful to you for, for a change. The Russians did admit that they needed our help. Nixon, speaking of gratitude, I'll tell you again, whatever you might say about the Russians, at least they, they and the GOC are keeping that thing in its box. Unintelligible, you think that Gold Harbor will be enough to deal with it if it gets out? Kissinger, sacks, I told me that it, these people think, unintelligible. Least bad alternatives, so to speak. Now, as far as what those other bad alternatives were, you remember that I told you about that cable from Dr. Unintelligible? Who said they thought they had a way to contain unintelligible? Nixon. I almost can't think of a worse approach than to let those egghead f***ers get their hands on. Kissinger, if Gold Harbor isn't enough, well, it wouldn't matter to you and me. It's not like we're going to be on Nozark. Nixon, what is it with you, Jews and the Gallows humor? Kissinger, Mr. President, there have been too many times when it's all that we have left. Nixon. Yeah, well, we're all in that boat-hank.