The National Archives has prepared the following transcript and does not guarantee its accuracy

"_______________ " refers to unintelligible portions.

[National security review portion begins on page 4]

DECLASSIFIED E.O. 12958, Sect. 3.6

NSC Letter 2-12-97

By_______ NARA, Date 3-12-97

CONVERSATION 422-22

RN: "_________ office, ah, I would like for you to, ah, get a hold of the Gergen, er, Buchanan shop over there and tell them that you're _________. I would like from the POW letters and messages -- their statements and messages pulled out, and about the ten most powerful things that were said. Not about the President. ____________, Ah ___________ country. Ah, I'm not interested, I, ah, I don't, I don't, need from them, the, ah, I don't need from them what they said about the bombing, ah, you know what I mean, ah, that is, is the bombing worth ____________ mean their, ah..."

BS: "Sort of the patriotic _____________."

RN: "Well, the peace with honor theme basically. In other words, thanks for bringing us back on our ______________ on our feet rather than on our knees. It's that kind of thing, ah, ________________ statements particularly. In other words, love their country, proud of service, ah, we did what was right, and we are proud of what we did, thank you for bringing us back. _____________________ the very best, all of them _____________ said about that, understand? I don't need, ah, I don't want, I'm not looking for things that praise the President issued by the White House. Or self-serving but I want _______________ I guess you, you could get a hold of Gergen though?"

BS: "Right, he's been, he's been collecting all the..."

RN: "Can't you say to him, now put in your best people on, Andrews, ____________ I want you to put two or three guys on it. ________________ get it by--today is Thursday and I want to have it by Saturday __________. Ok, now with regard to where we stand ... oh, hold on a minute."

[Telephone conversation -- not recorded on WHT taping system]

RN: "I forgot to ask you, are we announcing the, ah, the ah, POW party today? Or..."

RN: "Yeah, well, could I, could I suggest that, ah, Ron ________________. Be sure to inform, you know, the __________. Alright. Fine, fine. Have it announced later with the number of names that are coming. You'll say that __________ and so forth. Yeah... yeah ... White House dinner ... White House dinner ... served for everybody. Ah, make it for ________________________. I, I don't want to, I don't, I don't feel ____________ myself that we ought to invite the Cabinet officers. I think it should just be the Secretary of State ... right ... Secretary of Defense, and the, ah, the ah, the Chiefs, the Chiefs of the Armed Services. ___________ will be honored. And then you'll have the Congressional ___________________ okay? Fine. So you'll follow through on that. _____________________ good."

[End of telephone conversation]

[Begin declassified national security withdrawal]

RN: "Well, with regard ... to our, ah, Laotian situation, is there anything new in terms of those nine POWs?"

BS: "Ah, no there isn't. There's a little flurry apparently in Saigon this morning that, ah, we didn't accept, ah, withdrawal, by the 25th in terms of a ___________ prisoners of war. _______________________ not come out."

RN: "We've put it on the basis that we want all of them."

BS: "That's right. That's right."

RN: "Ah, I want to be sure we aren't, ah-- It would leave me in a very bad wicket. We'll just have to continue to work _______ to do it _________. We said we will not leave until all prisoners are released _________________ including the nine in Laos."

BS: "That's right, that's right."

RN: "Is that the basis we put it on?"

BS: "That's right."

RN: "So, what's __________ talking about? The press is getting after him _____________."

BS: "Well ... well, they, they are complaining now that we..."

RN: "_____________"

BS: "That's right, that's right."

RN: "Well, how do we, how to ________________."

BS: "Well, I think what needs ____________. You see, the specific agreement on the release of the Laotian ones is, is more of our understanding and..."

RN: "I know. It's not in the agreement."

BS: "That's right." RN: "Alright."

BS: "But, ah, ah..."

RN: "Not even a written _____? I think it's a protocol."

BS: "Yes, yes, yes it is a..."

RN: "It's a protocol"

BS: "It is. Well it's not a not a protocol but it's a written understanding..."

RN: "It is a written..."

BS: "____________ to understand..."

RN: "That's right. I _______________."

BS: "But, ah, I'm going through ... ah, Henry, I'm sure in his press conference said that we have assurances on this and that this is one of the, ah, preconditions for the whole thing."

RN: 'Right."

BS: "I think that we can use that."

RN: "Be sure you get that, get that out."

BS: "That's right __________."

RN: "Because, anyway, they wouldn't be out by the 27th. But they are not necessarily going to return the prisoners _______________."

BS: "No, they haven't. They have not set a time and a date yet. ______________."

RN: "______________ offer..."

BS: "That's right, that was an offer contingent upon our complete withdrawal."

RN: "____________________________."

BS: "We, we said we'd withdraw in terms of the agreement and that all U.S. prisoners in Indochina."

RN: "_____________ right. We'll stick to that for all the reasons I've mentioned ___________ we've got to do that ___________________."

BS: "That's right. Unless they -- we'll have to word it some way so we don't disclose the understanding as such, but I'm sure Henry covered that in pretty good detail."

RN: "Yes, we have _______________."

BS: "_________________"

RN: "You better get it from Ziegler."

BS: "I, I will. They are getting it out right now as a matter of fact."

RN: "And that's all there is to it _____________________."

BS: "And, I wouldn't, I wouldn't plan -- we would say publicly that, in fact, our men will all be out by _________________ the 27th at 9:00 pm. We'll just say they'll be out."

RN: "Well, _____________________."

BS: "Yes."

RN: "You see here is the problem that I have. What I would like to do, that I, I had tentatively planned is that I want a statement at, at the, the magic hour that all Americans are withdrawn, all prisoners are returned. I want to say something. I would like to say that nine o'clock we've confidential ____________ ambassador's telephone call ____________ staff." _________________________ So that's what are goal is. Now, if we can't work that out, if they screw around, make ________________. The statement cannot be made until all POWs are out and troops are withdrawn."

BS: "Right."

RN: "Ah, and as far as the Laotians are concerned _________________ the Pathet Lao, they're just, they're just playing tough _____________."

BS: "They're just ... yes, as a matter of fact they, the Pathet Lao negotiators have gone back to [San ___________]. Ah, and apparently, they are not going to resume discussions ____________ that's just the way it's ______________________ that said that _________________________"

RN: "Uh huh."

BS: "_____________."

RN: "Would this indicate we would, we want to reconsider, or __________________."

BS: "Uh, I think it's __________. It really wasn't based on internal, uh, Lao developments, uh..."

RN: "Right. Although we were saying there is the possibility ______________ July 3rd __________ that day."

BS: "That's right."

RN: "____________ on that _______________."

BS: "That's right."

RN: "_____________ that seems reasonable, wouldn't you say?"

BS: "______________ that's ah, _____________ factor in the decision ______________."

RN: "My major problem on _________________ not the _______________ on this horrible _____________ or something ______________ [machine malfunctions]."